By Kate Tweddle © 2016

I met Maxwell during a dream around 7 years ago when I first began lucid dreaming. I was 21 and had been reading Carlos Castaneda, with some success – lucid dreaming a couple of times a week. At that time I had been talking to a friend about the scout who appeared to Castaneda – who tried to lure him away to the realm of the inorganic beings. Apparently once there in a dream you could never return to your sleeping body, so naturally we were very wary of meeting them. I had been flying along in a lucid dream when I saw a suited gentleman standing in a large blossom tree. We had conversed; he asked if I‘d like him to show me somewhere amazing in the dream world and I had refused. When he left, his business card turned into a bird and flew away; this has always intrigued me.

Now some years later, after some time not practising lucidity and then getting into it again more recently, I found myself flying high, soaring above beautiful blue seas and tiny islands covered with interesting looking buildings and sculptures, something I often find myself doing in dreams:

I shout loudly a few times, ‘Increase lucidity!‘ and fly down to land on some decking beside a lake house. I call out loudly and set my intent – ‘I want to see Maxwell‘. Immediately a door opens to my left and he walks through. He looks visually different from the man I remember standing in the tree all those years ago but instinctively I know this is the same person. I also sense there is no need to explain anything to him; he is aware I am lucid dreaming, that we have met before and that I would like his help.

We sit with our legs hanging over the decking, looking at the beautiful sea view in front of us, and I explain to him that I have been trying to heal myself in lucid dreams recently and it‘s not working. He says that I mustn‘t worry, that I have to build up my strength first. He is a funny character – very chilled out and relaxed but I can tell that he is hugely knowledgeable. He makes me smile and puts me at my ease, and I can feel that my strength to maintain lucidity is increased around him.

As we sit chatting, a group of children crowds around him, they seem to know him and love him. It gets too noisy and confusing to concentrate so we motion to each other and fly up and away from the children, who laugh and shout below. He flies very different to me – almost like he is walking very fast! This makes me laugh out loud. He suggests that he‘d like to test my flying ability by seeing if I can power him along as well.

We hold hands, and at first I feel the dead weight of him and we swoop downwards, but mentally I set my intention to fly and we quickly stall and then gather momentum upwards, until I‘m flying along with ease. It‘s exhilarating that this dream character knows about lucid dreaming and seems interested in my progress. We land on a ledge on a mountainside, and sit again; he picks up a piece of blue cloth and asks me can I fly inside it? I am confused and concentrate on the material trying to imagine flying inside it to see if I can make it happen but I go nowhere. I feel frustrated but he is relaxed about it and says that I will be able to do it someday.

At this point in the dream I realise I have been lucid for a long time and am worried I may forget some of the dream, so I begin writing some notes in a sketchbook beside me. Whilst I do this a man walks over to Maxwell – they seem to know each other and I automatically know that this man is another lucid dreamer like myself. They talk and the man is asking about Maxwell‘s brother. It appears Maxwell and his brother are both ‘dream guardians‘. The man asks Maxwell whether it‘s normal for brothers and sisters to be here (in the dream world) together, and Maxwell says yes, often, because of their strong connection.

The man leaves and I ask Maxwell to take me to his favourite place in the dream world, as I figure he could show me some beautiful things. Then I quickly realise maybe his favourite place is private and I am intruding and say, not his favourite place but somewhere he loves. He points upwards and takes me by the hand. I imagine we might fly into space and I get very excited, almost losing lucidity but managing to concentrate through double checking my hands and looking closely at the surface of them.

We fly away from the mountain and suddenly stop in the middle of open air, nothing around us. Maxwell says it is an elevator but I see nothing. He presses an invisible button and suddenly the walls and sliding door of an elevator appear arounds us as if by magic. He pushes another button and we begin rising, fast. I am pushed to the floor, and hold on tight. I peer through a crack in the door and I can see incredible views of planets and stars and constellations and galaxies stretching out into the vast universe. Everything looks illustrated: neon and glowing – vivid colours against an inky backdrop.

Suddenly we stop and the doors open on a small landing area, with a corridor leading to the open air. We walk out, but Maxwell motions for me to hold tight to the metal doorframe of the landing, I feel my flying strength is weaker up here and I could float off. But I know I‘m safe as he‘s with me. I look out to where we are and as I gaze upwards we are floating not in space, but amongst huge clouds – instead of planets or stars around us I am gobsmacked to see huge animals and creatures flying/swimming and flowing through giant clouds in the sky.

They are all pastel colours, and are strange hybrids of animals you would see on earth, weird and wonderful mix-matches of tails and feathers, beaks and talons and scales and fur. They some look as large as double decked buses, and they all seem to cavort and play and flow around each other happy and free. It is truly a breath-taking and beautiful sight and I feel lucky and blessed to have seen it. I thank Maxwell over and over, and as we travel down in the lift I feel my lucidity wearing off – although this was one of my longer lucid dreams.

I have met with Maxwell a number of times since this, and during one of them I asked him why he was teaching me and showing me things; he said that it was his ‘job‘ in the dream world – and that there were lots of dream guides who are assigned different lucid dreamers like me to help and support. Another later dream he seemed to imply that potentially I am going to be tested in the future… I look forward to seeing how I do!