Bill Montana - The Bridge 2.0

The Bridge 2.0 I had excellent results with a variation of 'The Bridge' whereby instead of having the glass and twig/stick I had them take a coin that I provided and they were to go find some stones and place them forming a circle and put this under there bed and to keep the coin on them whilst they sleep... I told them they'd come across an old well and when they do they were to drop the penny down and (in this case for fun) make a wish and they'll experience it there and then. Well it went very well, and though I did not ask them what they wished for, they said it was an awesome experience. J.A.B.

I decided to open this supplement for the bridge with an outstanding new dream contributed by one of its users. By now sometime has pasted and some of you have realized that many things are possible in the context of the Bridge. In this supplement we will discuss some of these new ideas and strengthen or foundations upon which dreams are crafted by the performer for the audience. In this supplemental volume we will reexamine many things from remembering our dreams to the sleeping prophet. Each section of this work will contain useful tips and additional information to take your performance beyond that of the common performance and in to a new realm never before explored by many. The first thing I wish to discuss is a simple and useful tool for crafting of dreams. Many of you already keep a small journal or notebook by your bedside to write down your dreams. It is within these pages one can learn the process of discovery that will reveal the hidden surrounding of our daily lives. When we dream we dream of things that our brain did not fully process during the days events. It is here that we start to open a new world and begin to explore our surroundings in a new way and to allow our minds to ask the question of why.

While this concept may be a bit had to comprehend at first it does become clear when we notice the items from our dreams were taken from our surroundings. So the adventure begins with the search for these items the next day. Reoccurring dreams are crafted from items that we are not in touch with. In my child hood I had a reoccurring dream of traveling under a canopy of trees on a road. This road when passed a small town. I would always be walking down this road.

The road leading to this town looked much like the one in this photo.

What really took place? On the weekend the family would hop in the car and we would take the back way to a shopping mall in Springfield, Ohio and drive through a small town of Yellow Springs, Ohio. This town at the time I felt was scary so I would hide hidden in the back seat of the car. It was not till I was much older that I relieved the canopy was created by me looking up at the top underside of the trees. The town was also crafted in much the same way. By attempting to block the town out I actually created a situation allowing my mind to not process the data obtained from the trip. This resulted in a reoccurring dream.

In some of these dreams I would come across a safe that was always locked. I tried to control my dream and find the key to open it. I never had any luck with this I did find a few keys but none ever worked. Years later walking in this mall I noticed that the toy store had a small safe in the corner under a display of nature toys. At once I understood where the safe came from and its connections to the canopy of trees. At this time I was interested in action figures and not nature. The above story illustrates how this concept is crafted in to our dreams. When you begin to discover the how and what in your own dreams you will find many secrets on how to craft dreams that you create for your audience. If you look around at your surroundings in waking life you will find the answers you seek to the mystery content of your own dreams.

Sound It is a known fact that when we are a sleep we hear sounds in our sleep. This sounds are often processed by our mind and are converted to the sound we hear in our dreams either in the one we are dreaming or in the dream we are about to have. Here is an unusual experiment when you see some one asleep try snapping your fingers or some other unusual sound not heard normal during the day. Keep the sound soft if it’s too loud it may wake them. Load sounds and strange noises will often awake us from the deepest sleep. This is because thousand of years ago we had to be aware of predators that would eat us. So hearing sounds and the reactions to them have been has been built into our genetic makeup for survival.

Light While our eyes are closed and we are sleeping some light still penetrates through our eye lids. It is these flashes that are sometimes transferred in to

our dreams as an overlay. Most commonly this light is seen as a glowing object or a person with some illumination about them. On rare occasion it is seen as a distant light. In one dream I had I noticed a light in the distance. In fact when I noticed that there was a street lamp in the distance across the field in my back yard I finally understood where this strange light came from. It may be worth noting that this light always stayed at the same distance in my dream even when I attempted to walk or fly to it.

Color The real question is can we introduce a color in to our dreams? A study conducted by a university year’s back had subjects wear red lens sunglasses all day long. They discovered that the subjects would dream in red. Yes it is possible to introduce a color into a dream but it not easy. The color must not be one form nature or a color commonly seen in the surroundings of your area. It must be a new color that the persons mind has not seen before. This new color may appear in the spectators dream if their mind has not processed it when they first saw it. Many people will dream in a mutated color scheme or black and white. Or at least these will be the main colors in the dream. The fact is introducing color or a color in to a dream is difficult as the mind processes many colors each day.

Suggestion If you tell some one what will happen in a dream and the take it as a suggestion they will dream it only if they follow the instructions given to you by them. This brings us to our next topic of major importance.

Crafting a new dream from the ground up When building a new dream it must be crafted from the ground up. Within each dream action must occur. It is in this use of action that we recall parts of our past genetic makeup. Allow me to explain; for thousands of years humans have used rituals for one reason or another. It is in this context that human beings first began to explore what they did not understand. It is this concept of action that we will use since it has been built into our makeup as a race of creatures. Since we are on some form of ground each and everyday we will start the crafting of each dream by building a ground. In the Bridge we used the ground under the bed and the ground outside to accomplish this. These frameworks are used because they are seldom seen. Often when looking under the bed we are focused on finding an object and not the ground. But the ground is really there if one takes time to notice it. Generally this ground is taken for granted like the air we breathe but it’s an essential part of any dream and with out the subtle use of it the dream building process would not exist at all. The next step is to add some form of object or a collection of objects to craft the suggestion of the concept. The objects must be gathered in part by the spectator in an unusual location. While this location can be a simple as items collected in the dark from a backyard or involve a complex process of collection. In either case it will trigger the effective means to craft the result.

Smell I did not include this until now because it involves a wonderful use of smell applied to a dream. Take some dirt from a meadow or garden or wherever (except from the beach... this is SAND and I am sure the effect would be DIFFERENT!) and then put it into a glass. Then light a match (a wooden match - Not a wax match, if you know what they are) and

after having it burning for half of their length or so, extinguish it into the dirt. Paolo Cavalli A few of the experiments Paolo Cavalli reported and followed up on showed “some dream about cemetery and some fire (from a burning forest or from a mansion) they escaped from.” PC What more can I say about the use of smell than the genus of Paolo Cavalli was the first person to incorporate its use in to the world of the dream. The use of scent is now a very useful tool in our arsenal of the dream tool kit and one of the newest applications still under testing and research. When more information is collected it will be included in an upcoming supplement for the Bridge. By now you should have an idea for a new dream to unleash upon your audiences. Now I want to cover a very important aspect of this work. This comes form a post made by Jerome Finley on the magic café in this post he stated “last year Michael Weber lectured to a group of mentalists on the importance of EXTENDING the experience and effects of our magic and interactions with people, both volunteers/participants and the audience as a whole”. ”With "The Bridge" miracle workers everywhere have finally been given a really nice tool to do this. It allows us to affect and include ourselves in a person's most intimate and private thoughts...their dreams! Seriously, what could be stronger?” The importance of extending our performance even after the show is finished set us up in a unique situation. This premise when used in the context of the Bridge allows us as performers to go deep in side the mind of or audience and create a unique dream for each and every one in attendance. Often I find my self crafting dreams for a few in the conversations I have with some of its members after the show has ended. In these after the show conversations I offer something unique in the form of an experience to a few.

The extending the experience of the show is a powerful tool that should not be overlooked. For more reading on this subject look at the work of Michael Weber and Jerome Finley.

New Dreams Have the spectator gather a tea cup and a small saucer have them place it inside the tea cup. Explaining that this will take them to the Crystal Café the café that only those who are searching the either of the dream world can find. At the café the will meet some of the elders and people of great wisdom. That can help them answer there questions. This is only the entrance key more on the complete working of the crystal in the publication the Crystal Café. The only thing I can say now is this version of the Crystal Café has taken years to construct, wait until you begin exploring this one. It is an entire series of dreams contained in the same place. There is so much to do and explore new doors open all the time even after years of work in this field. For now you only jet the key and a glimpse inside. At the Crystal Café you will see a place made of solid crystal it is a place of great energy and many of those that attend wear white robe with golden sashes.

This is a truly remarkable dream world beyond the limits of imagination where all things are possible.

The Sleeping Prophet For forty-three years of his adult life, Edgar Cayce demonstrated the uncanny ability to put himself into some kind of self-induced sleep state by lying down on a couch, closing his eyes, and folding his hands over his stomach. This state of relaxation and meditation enabled him to place his mind in contact with all time and space. Well now that you understand how dreams are made and created why not try this out. You can build a dream in a relaxed state that is not a sleeping state but one of a daydream. Yes, it’s true that daydreams are also a process of the mind dealing with information in a slightly different way.

In the daydream state, either sitting comfortable or lying down as Cayce did. You can craft a daydream using every one of the five scenes of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. To do this you must craft a story and have the participant in a comfortable relaxed state. Allow this persons mind to drift you will see this drifting occur in the face and eye lids of the spectator. Now once you have noticed this state began by introducing sounds and scents into the air. Simple things like opening a bottle of rose oil or shaking a piece of paper. The participants mind will do the rest of the work for you. The key is not taking if you speak when they are daydreaming they will begin a cognitive process of listing and focusing on you and the whole daydream state will be lost and your effect ruined. Well that concludes this supplement it may a couple of grammar errors but like in the world of dreams nothing perfect. Some of the errors are deliberate to trick your mind. I hit upon this in a later supplement once the bugs have been worked out of the concept. The work on the bridge will never be fully finished in our lifetimes but a finished and complete work lack exploration into the things that make us unique and it is in this exploration that we make new discoveries and it is these things that make this work and life interesting. Happy Dreaming until next time……. Bill Montana Copyright Dayton, Ohio 2010