Beginning with several spontaneous events in childhood, I've had experiences that I've had great difficulty fitting into the framework of mainstream belief and practice.

Dreams, Lucid Dreams and Dreamwork

I've been fascinated by dreams all my life. I began having occasional transpersonal dreams when I was a child, and I've had spontaneous lucid dreams (dreams in which I'm aware that I'm dreaming) since adolescence.  I've been working with dreams in one form or another for decades.  They're a wonderful source of insight.  Here are a few resources that I've found to be helpful.

Dreams and Dreamwork 

Dreamwork is part of Brugh Joy's approach to teaching.  I've attended one of Brugh's workshops, and I can say from personal experience that Brugh is extremely insightful.

I'm a member of eDreams, an online dreamwork group. Members take turns submitting dreams for the other members to work with.

Electric Dreams was an online journal that published from 1994 through 2007. Archives and back issues are still available.

I facilitate two dreamwork groups here in Iowa City.  We have an online group, icdreamwork.

The International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) is a great resource for information about dreams and dreamwork.

Lucid Dreaming 

Advanced Lucid Dreaming is the web site of Thomas Yuschak, who has researched the use of supplements to induce lucid dreams.  I've just begun to work with the information in his book, Advanced Lucid Dreaming: The Power of Supplements.

The Lucid Dream Exchange is a publication devoted to information about lucid dreaming. Subscriptions to the online version are free.

The Lucidity Institute was founded by Stephen LaBerge, the researcher who first published evidence that dreamers could become aware they were dreaming while they dreamed.

I recently gave a presentation on lucid dreaming to the Quad Cities chapter of the Institute of Noetic Sciences:

Transpersonal Experiences and Altered States

Beginning with a precognitive dream in childhood, I've had several transpersonal experiences.  I've always sought a way to fit these experiences into some kind of larger context.

Shamanism

Back in the 70s, I read several books by Carlos Castenada, John Neihardt and Joseph Epes Brown, which sparked a continuing interest in shamanism, the traditional spiritual beliefs and practices of native peoples around the world.  The 70s being the 70s, my interest at the time also involved experimentation with entheogens, psychoactives.  But since my experimentation occurred outside of any traditional context, they were a dead end (thankfully, metaphorically only!).  I continue to read about shamanism.  A good shamanic resource is the journal Shaman's Drum.

Remote Viewing 

In the late 90s, I came across remote viewing, the use of other-than-normal modes of perception within a scientific protocol to perceive across time and space.  Remote viewing excited me for several reasons.  Because it was developed within the context of scientific research and was used for a time by the CIA and the U.S. military, it seemed as close to mainstream as the transpersonal could be.  It also held the promise of being able to develop the transpersonal as an ability, rather than a random spontaneous event.  I explored remote viewing for awhile and had some interesting, validating experiences.

Good resources for remote viewing include Palyne Gaenir's Firedocs Remote Viewing Collection Archives and her Ten Thousand Roads online remote viewing community.  Joseph McMoneagle is generally acknowledged to be the most talented and accomplished of the military remote viewers.  His autobiographical books Mind Trek and The Stargate Chronicles are great reading, and Remote Viewing Secrets is a must for anyone interested in the field.  Fred "Skip" Atwater's founded the Army's remove viewing unit.  His autobiography Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul sets remote viewing in a larger context.

Out-of-Body Experiences

Since my 20s, I've had a few spontaneous out-of-body experiences.  In the 1990s, I came across the book Journeys Out of the Body, by Robert Monroe.  Bob was a businessman who began to have spontaneous, uncontrolled out-of-body experiences, or OBEs.  Journeys Out of the Body and his subsequent books Far Journeys and Ultimate Journey are his account of his OBE explorations.  I became interested in trying to deliberately induce an OBE, but was never successful.

The Monroe Institute

Bob Monroe developed products for home use and residential educational programs at the Monroe Institute to allow people to explore altered states of consciousness, using the Hemi-Sync sound technology that Bob created.  In the late 90s, I began listening to the Gateway Experience series at home.  The tapes evoked some pretty amazing visionary experiences.  So, in 2000, I attended the Gateway Voyage residential program.  Since then, I've been to several other Monroe programs.  I've always come away with some experience or insight that I can take directly into my day-to-day life back home.

Brugh Joy

Meditation and Mindfulness

I've practiced meditation in one form or another since the mid-70s.  Meditation and mindfulness seem to me to be a more direct approach to aspects of self than altered states of consciousness and transpersonal experiences.

Transcendental Meditation 

In the mid-70s, I learned Transcendental Meditation, I still sometimes use the TM technique--it's simple and effective.  But I'm a fallen TMer.  I never participated in the larger TM movement after I learned how to meditate.

Yoga

Yoga is much more than than physical hatha yoga that most people seem to think of here in the West.  The Yoga Sutras lay out eight points of practice, of which hatha yoga is just one.  Several of the points involve meditation practices.  The Bhagavad Gita is an excellent treatise on karma yoga, the development of mindfulness in action in daily life.  I had two excellent yoga teachers, Andrew and Adina Leavitt, at the Classical Yoga Center in Iowa City.  Andrew and Adina were trained at the Yoga Institute of Mumbai, India.  They teach the whole of yoga.

Eknath Easwaran

Eknath Easwaran established the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, which teaches his eight-point program of meditation and mindfulness.  Easwaran's approach draws from all major spiritual paths from around the globe.  He also published several good translations of Hindu and Buddhist texts, and authored other books about spiritual practice.  I've never been to one of the Center's workshops, but I've read several of Easwaran's books and subscribe to the Center's journal.

Buddhist Practice

Buddhist mindfulness practice has had a very great, very beneficial effect on my life.  My first encounter with Buddhist practice was Pema Chodron's Start Where You Are.  I've read many of her other books, all very helpful.  The magazines Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma always contain excellent articles dealing with practice.  I've also worked with Buddhist mindfulness practice in a more secular setting, via a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program based on the program developed at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society.