PRACTICES FOR PERCEPTION
Practice Library & Field Tools
Practices are grouped into three families—Awareness Shifts, Compass Practices, and Relational Undoing.
If consciousness is the source and the world its appearance, then daily life becomes the lab. These practices are not teachings or rules—they're portable tools for shifting perception. Each one is a small experiment in seeing differently.
Start with “I’m/We’re The Dreamer,” the core practice of this experiment.
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Simple thought-tools that soften judgment, fear, and identification with form. Use them in everyday moments to let perception lean gently back toward awareness. Starts below.
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Inner navigation tools for tracking your state and interrupting the dream’s pull. Use them to regain clarity, pause reactivity, and shift your place on the Dreamer’s Compass. Jump to section →
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Practices for seeing through roles, stories, and conflict into shared mind. When love feels blocked or self-protection kicks in, these return you to connection. Jump to section →
PRACTICES FOR PERCEPTION
1. Awareness Shifts
Simple tools to reorient perception—away from form, toward awareness.
[Tuning:] I’m/We’re The Dreamer (core practice)
Social–Visual Practice for Identity Reversal
A foundational perceptual experiment: recognize One Mind looking through every face—your own included—not as metaphor, but as direct perception. In every encounter, you visualize the Dreamer—One Mind—looking back at itself through another form. This simple act of recognition dissolves the illusion of otherness, transforming everyday interactions into opportunities for healing, wholeness, and lucid seeing. It’s not a belief, but a lens. Not a teaching, but a perceptual experiment. A portable doorway to nonduality hidden in the eyes of the world. Practice alone, then try eye-to-eye with a partner.
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 4 — Identity Is Personal → Identity Is Universal
[Catalogue:] Dreamer Action Catalogue
Library of portable “dream cues” for daily perception flips
A living compendium of perception-shift prompts. Each entry flips an everyday illusion into a possibility worth testing—tools for tuning, visualizing, releasing, or reframing in real time. Use it as a field manual: dip in, take one cue, and notice what dissolves. Not a doctrine but a working library, where every prompt is provisional, portable, and open-ended. Open the Catalogue →
This practice explores:
Principles 1–10 — The full range of shifts, from World as Cause → Mind as Cause to We Are Lost → We Are Dreaming.
[Tuning:] Attune
A quiet reset to place consciousness before the world
To attune is to adjust the dial of perception—from identifying as a subject inside the world, to recognizing yourself as the awareness dreaming it. In the consciousness-first experiment, attunement isn’t an escape but a subtle reversal: placing One Mind before form, peace before problem, love before defense. The body still moves, the world still spins—but awareness leans back, softens, and sees. This isn’t about belief. It’s a posture of trust. A return to the gentle observer, who dreams without judgment, and walks without fear.
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 10 — We Are Lost → We Are Dreaming
[Tuning:] Name the Mask, Slip Out
Quick identity reset for any scene
We slip into characters without noticing; this micro-practice catches the switch and returns you to awareness of a possible consciousness-first reality or oneness of the Mind behind reality as we know it. The exercise calls for naming the mask (“manager/pleaser/fixer”) as you see it, ask Who’s aware of this mask? and rest as the watcher, then re-enter lightly—silently I’m The Dreamer—so the role serves rather than steers. Use it anywhere masks flare: work rooms, family tables, customer counters, rehearsals, online avatars, or language shifts. Roles morph; awareness doesn’t. If a character can appear and fade this easily, notice what remains through all of them—that question is the doorway into the experiment. Open the exercise page →
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 4 — Identity Is Personal → Identity Is Universal
[Visualization:] Keep It Light
Emotional decluttering and lightness-cue during charged moments
A somatic reset and perceptual lightening for moments of stress or stuckness. It is a visualization practice and perceptual cue for dissolving weight—emotional, cognitive, even physical. To “keep it light” is to see the world not as heavy and fixed, but as appearance only: a flicker, a form, a flicked-on scene in the dream. This phrase works on every level: a reminder not to take things personally, a tool for staying emotionally open, and a way to glimpse the radiant nature behind what seems dark or dense. Whisper it when things feel charged—internally or externally—and imagine lightness flooding the moment, lifting the spell of gravity from whatever felt too real to bear. It’s not detachment—it’s clarity, revealing that nothing true was ever heavy.
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 2 — Separation Exists → Only Appearances of Separation
[Release:] Release (or Transcendental Release)
Undo the scene and return to the Dreamer
To release is not to forgive a person, correct a mistake, or make peace with the past. It is to let the entire scene—storyline, emotions, identities, and self-concept—dissolve into the wider field of awareness. In the consciousness-first experiment, release means nothing real can be harmed and nothing false need be held. You don’t need to fix the dream—you just stop believing it. When a moment tightens, when roles harden or reactions rise, pause. Say quietly: “I release this scene.” Then imagine it dropping away—like mist receding from the mountain of awareness. This is how the Dreamer reclaims vision: by letting go of what never truly was.
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 10 — We Are Lost → We Are Dreaming
[Mantra:] It’s All Piece of Mind
All-day vision exercise to reframe the world as thought, not thing
Silently label anything—object, person, place—as “It’s all piece of mind.” The phrase reframes what you’re seeing as an expression within consciousness, rather than something separate and “out there.” It’s not a mantra to repeat for comfort, but a quick lens shift to test the possibility that reality is happening in you, not to you. Born from Martin Lenclos’ spiritual design experiments, it works as a micro-interruption in the “dream” of separation—slowing the reflex to judge, softening reactions, and opening a sense of wholeness. You can also play with the double meaning: piece of mind becomes peace of mind, inviting a subtler emotional shift. Try It's All Piece of Mind →
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 3 — The Many Are Real → Multiplicity Is Dreamt
[Mantra:] What’s Mine Is Mind
Reframing loss or comparison as perception, not possession
Use this in moments of loss, envy, or doubt. You think you’ve lost something—a job, a friend, a chance, your place. But the Dreamer’s lens flips the equation: what’s real can’t be lost; what’s lost was never real. Whispering “What’s mine is Mind” reminds you that only perception belongs to you—everything else is a passing prop in the dream. Then turn it around: “What’s mind is mine.” Whatever appears is yours to reclaim as experience, not possession. No blame, no punishment—just ownership without grasping. Loss softens into recognition. Envy into equality. Doubt into presence.
This practice explores:
Principle 3 — The Many Are Real → Multiplicity Is Dreamt
Principle 4 — Identity Is Personal → Identity Is Universal
[Mantra:] By Design / My Design
Mantra to dissolve blame or resistance
A perceptual reframe: nothing’s gone wrong. The world appears by mind’s design. What appears has not gone wrong—it is by design—and that perception itself arises from the mind hosting it—my design. This soft sequence disarms resistance before gently restoring responsibility, without guilt or blame. The world is not evidence of external cause but a mirror of thought. Saying it aloud repositions you as dreamer rather than character: if it is your design, it can be undone.
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 8 — Others Need Fixing → All Healing Is Internal
[Mantra:] Only Love Commands
Filter for false authority, guilt-based obedience, or self-abandonment
This phrase refuses anything unloving—not through rebellion, but refusal to obey. When authority—outer or inner—pressures you to obey at the cost of peace, this reminder breaks the spell: “Only love commands.” Use it when a role, voice, or demand asks you to harm, shame, divide, or perform against essence. The phrase interrupts unconscious obedience and re-centers authority in awareness, not fear. It doesn’t fight, argue, or rebel; it simply refuses to obey what isn’t love. In that refusal, guilt dissolves and clarity returns. A quiet shield, a lucid mantra: only love holds real command—everything else is just the script.
This practice explores:
Principle 6 — Love Is Between → Love Is Recognition
Principle 7 — Conflict Is Real → Peace Is What Is
[Thought:] The Aware in Awareness is the Real in Reality
Anchor phrase for returning to the undeniable observer
Awareness itself cannot be illusion. Use this phrase to return to that baseline... Everything else—the self, the body, the world, even the universe—may be treated as dreamlike, but awareness itself remains the one undeniable ground. To stay aware of awareness is to test life from this baseline: watching how scenes dissolve back into it, and noticing when EGOS feeds attempt to hijack it. The experiment is not about belief, but about seeing what shifts when you hold awareness as the only real thing. It can also be used at any moment as a mantra—“the aware in awareness is the real in reality”—to return to the observer, the Dreamer, and release the scene back to itself.
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 10 — We Are Lost → We Are Dreaming
[Thought:] Within Consciousness, Nothing Matters
Emotional solvent for shame, pride, praise, or guilt
A direct override of ego scorekeeping. Whisper it when the world feels weighted. Within consciousness, nothing matters is a perception experiment for dissolving the dream of scorekeeping—shame, pride, guilt, or the illusion of being “special.” When a label arrives—ugly, brilliant, rejected, admired—test what happens if you pause, breathe, and silently say the phrase. The words don’t deny the scene but loosen its grip, equalizing both insult and praise as dream-code. The experiment is not about detachment but about seeing through the arithmetic of ego, where worth is always measured. In that instant, the scoreboard dissolves, and awareness remains untouched: no ranks, no roles, no damage. Try Nothing Matters →
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 9 — Awakening Is an Attainment → Awakening Is a Return
[Reminder:] What Blinds Me Can’t Touch Me
Reframe for moments of confusion or self-judgment
This phrase creates distance between essence and experience. It is a reminder for when perception feels broken—foggy, reactive, ashamed, or judged. It draws a line between essence and experience: the story can blur your vision, but it can’t touch what you are. Whisper it in moments of distortion: “What blinds me can’t touch me.” Let the mist stay if it must—your light isn’t harmed. This isn’t self-defense; it’s self-remembrance. The phrase interrupts confusion without resistance, softens the ego’s proof of separation, and reorients you to awareness itself. Perception wavers, essence doesn’t. Use it daily as a quiet shield: not to block the world, but to stay rooted in the part of you it can’t reach.
This practice explores:
Principle 2 — Separation Exists → Only Appearances of Separation
Principle 4 — Identity Is Personal → Identity Is Universal
[Reminder:] No Then, Only Now
Time-collapse tool for anxiety, regret, or nostalgia
When the mind time-travels, whisper “No then, only now”. The ego lives in “then”—then I failed, then they hurt me, then it will change, then I’ll be safe—but the Dreamer doesn’t time travel. Awareness is only ever here. This reminder is a field test: when regret, nostalgia, or anxiety drag you into past–future loops, whisper “No then. Only now.” and watch the timeline dissolve. It interrupts suffering at the root, loosens identity traps tied to time, and re-centers perception in presence—the only real access point to the experiment.
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 5 — Life and Death Are Opposites → Being Is Continuous
[Reminder:] Just Drawn That Way
Interrupts projection, lust, or judgment about bodies or form
When attraction or repulsion grips you—a face, a curve, a gesture—it feels charged, as if the form itself holds power. This reminder cuts through the spell: “Just drawn that way.” Not to shame it or deny it, but to see it as what it is—a sketch in the dream, not an essence. The body is appearance, projection, memory; the meaning you assign isn’t in the form but in mind. Use this when desire, fantasy, or judgment starts to write a story. It loosens the overlay, disarms the illusion of form as powerful, and returns attention to shared essence. A playful phrase, a portable defense: the dream draws well, but it doesn’t make real.
This practice explores:
Principle 2 — Separation Exists → Only Appearances of Separation
Principle 4 — Identity Is Personal → Identity Is Universal
PRACTICES FOR PERCEPTION
2. Compass Practices
Navigation tools to help you spot where you are—and shift your state of mind.
[Tuning:] The Dreamer’s Compass (core framework)
Mind-state spotting tool — use anytime you’re “in it”
A practical tool for field-testing perception. The four “Cs” mark distinct states of mind: Captivity (The Captive, caught in the story), Curiosity (The Flâneur, open and observing), Chemistry (The Alchemist, loosening identification), and Clarity (The Dreamer, quiet awareness beyond the story). You begin by noticing where you are, try the next C’s micro-practice, and see what shifts. The point isn’t climbing anywhere—it’s experimenting with what changes when perception leans, even slightly, toward a consciousness-first lens. Use solo or with a partner—naming your state together often accelerates the shift. Where are you now? Try the Four Cs →
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 7 — Conflict Is Real → Peace Is What Is
[Tuning:] Tune the Frequency
Mental dial practice for signal clarity and perceptual elevation
Ask: “What frequency am I on?” Then lean toward the lucid one already here. It is a quick perceptual reset, not a mood fix. You’re not picturing a calm beach or imagining escape—you’re testing whether attention can pick up a subtler signal already here. Think of perception like a dial: it can amplify static or tune into clarity. The shift isn’t emotional but orientational, like adjusting altitude until the landscape looks different. In practice, pause and ask: “What frequency am I on? Can I tune it?” Then let perception lean toward the clearer channel. No straining, no forcing—just noticing that the option is present. This isn’t about conjuring a better state, but about sampling the lucid part of mind—the Dreamer’s signal—behind the noise of the dream.
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 9 — Awakening Is an Attainment → Awakening Is a Return
[Tuning:] Premise Protocol
Morning mind-setter to define the day’s perceptual filter
A morning discipline in the consciousness-first reality experiment: setting the mental premise for the day before engaging with the dream of separation. Since sleep functions as a reset by the EGOS—returning the mind to the simulated world—this process of setting the goal and determining the outcome becomes essential. The protocol begins by recalling that the day ahead is designed to appear unlike the consciousness-first state of mind: pure, undisturbed oneness. By establishing an intentional frequency or frame of observation, the experimenter positions themselves to test how a chosen premise shapes perception, interaction, and response throughout the day. It is not about controlling events, but about defining the lens through which reality will be observed.
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 9 — Awakening Is an Attainment → Awakening Is a Return
[Visualization:] Open Mind, Open Space
Embodiment loosened through visualization and mental spaciousness
A practice in the consciousness-first experiment for loosening identification with the body and making mental space for awareness itself. Instead of treating the body as self, it is seen as a temporary device—healthy or sick, still only a channel for what mind projects. The exercise is simple: imagine opening a space within your mind, whether as a gate, a chamber, or a clear sky. Leave roles, grievances, attributes, and stories outside this space, as if stored in a locker. What remains inside is an invitation, not an effort—the mind giving way to the presence of consciousness, the Dreamer. You don’t force awareness in; you allow space for it to flow. The shift is from occupying the body to offering it up as openness. In this practice, awakening is not an achievement but an invitation: a chance to test what happens when the world’s noise is set aside and pure awareness is given the room it always had.
This practice explores:
Principle 4 — Identity Is Personal → Identity Is Universal
Principle 10 — We Are Lost → We Are Dreaming
[Reminder:] Watch the EGOS’ Channels
Observer stance for emotional reactivity or cultural hypnosis
Treat the mind’s shows like TV—step back or change the channel. It is an exercise in the consciousness-first experiment that treats EGOS like a TV network—broadcasting endless shows wherever you go. Each “channel” plays its own story: relationship tensions, health worries, body concerns, breaking news, imagined threats, personal projections, or shared cultural scripts. At any moment, you can switch the set off, watch from the back row, or step right into the plot. The practice is to remain just beyond the story—present but not claimed by it—testing what it feels like to see the scene as only a scene. From there, you can stay as the observer or create space for the Lucid Consciousness of Oneness to operate “on your behalf,” allowing you to respond with clarity and care without becoming another character in the separation drama playing on that EGOS channel.
This practice explores:
Principle 1 — World as Cause → Mind as Cause
Principle 8 — Others Need Fixing → All Healing Is Internal
PRACTICES FOR PERCEPTION
3. Relational Undoing
Our collective lab: partner and group drills that mirror perception and dissolve separation.
[Mantra:] Within Selves Interlinked
Mantra and paired practice for dissolving the illusion of “other”
A cue for seeing through separation — alone or with another. When a face brings tension or resistance, pause and repeat silently: “Within selves interlinked.” As the phrase repeats, difference softens and awareness remembers: there is no separate self here, only cells of a single dream.
Practiced in pairs, the effect deepens: hold another’s gaze as if the same field of mind is looking out through both. Imagine a thought-tube forming — a tunnel through the dream, mind-to-mind, self-to-self. And know: there is no “other.” Selves, interlinked. Try this field test →
This practice explores:
Principle 2 — Separation Exists → Only Appearances of Separation
Principle 4 — Identity Is Personal → Identity Is Universal
[Release:] Not Me vs You, But Us in One vs Separation
In-conflict perception shift to break ego battle loops
A field test for moments of conflict. When someone expresses hurt, frustration, or disappointment, the reflex is to defend, justify, or shut down — but defensiveness blocks connection, attack obscures awareness, and shame collapses agency. This practice invites a shift: instead of protecting the ego, pause and listen beneath the words for what’s really being asked for — safety, recognition, release. You don’t have to agree to acknowledge their experience. Speak softly, name the shared difficulty, offer partnership without collapsing into guilt or blame, and allow perception to shift. Notice how “the blamed” and “the blamer” are roles within one shared mind, both longing for peace, safety, and belonging. The test isn’t to win or fix; it’s to stay inside the process of growth and explore the hypothesis: what happens when you respond as if separation isn’t real — as if there is only us, meeting fear together?
This practice explores:
Principle 2 — Separation Exists → Only Appearances of Separation
Principle 7 — Conflict Is Real → Peace Is What Is
[Release:] One’s, Just Once
Guilt-interrupt for regret or reactive moments
For the moments after regret—when a habit, impulse, or reaction has already played out—this reminder offers release without shame: “One’s, just once.” It doesn’t erase the act or glorify discipline; it simply returns the moment to oneness instead of letting guilt claim it. Use it when you’ve snapped, indulged, or slipped back into an old pattern. Say the phrase softly, breathe, and let the past dissolve into the field that holds all experience. It breaks the loop between habit and self-condemnation, restoring you to awareness rather than the role of the doer. No streaks, no punishment—just the quiet fact that even once, remembered, is enough.
This practice explores:
Principle 4 — Identity Is Personal → Identity Is Universal
Principle 10 — We Are Lost → We Are Dreaming
[Release:] Let Oneness Flow
Letting go of effort and self-authorship in healing or spiritual striving
Awakening isn’t forced—it unfolds when the grip of “doing” loosens. This reminder interrupts striving and self-authorship, shifting attention from effort to allowance. When the mind pushes to control, solve, or awaken itself, say quietly: “Let oneness flow.” It names the movement already happening, beyond your steering, and restores you to openness where the current carries itself.
This practice explores:
Principle 9 — Awakening Is an Attainment → Awakening Is a Return
Principle 10 — We Are Lost → We Are Dreaming
[Thought:] Two Sides, One Flip
Polarity-canceling phrase for binary loops or debates
When the mind insists on choosing—right or wrong, win or lose, this or that—pause and say: “Two sides. One flip.” It reminds you that opposites live on the same coin, both belonging to the dream. The ego survives by making you decide; the Dreamer simply sees the coin and lets it drop. Whether it’s a debate, desire, or inner split, the phrase interrupts the compulsion to pick and reorients attention to the seer beyond the game.
This practice explores:
Principle 2 — Separation Exists → Only Appearances of Separation
Principle 7 — Conflict Is Real → Peace Is What Is
[Reminder:] No Shame in Oneness
Guilt softener and shame dissolver through identity reset
A Dreamer Reminder for loosening the weight of guilt and shame. In the consciousness-first experiment, moments of failure, disappointment, or judgment appear real—but only within the dream. Oneness has no roles to disappoint, no standards to fail, no one to shame and no one to be ashamed. The practice is to notice when shame or guilt arises and quietly say: “No shame in oneness.” This is not denial of the feeling, but a test of whether awareness can return to the Dreamer—the guiltless ground where nothing personal can touch what we are.
This practice explores:
Principle 4 — Identity Is Personal → Identity Is Universal
Principle 6 — Love Is Between → Love Is Recognition
[Design:]
Design for Nothing
An aesthetic practice for loosening grasp and making space
An applied method of artistic and design exploration within the Dreamer Project. Here, objects, layouts, and gestures are pared down to remove excess grasping—form is treated not as expression but as interruption, opening space for perception itself. This is not minimalism for style’s sake, but a practice of non-possession through form: furniture that points past use, language that thins into silence, design that erases itself. Learn the approach →