"The first step in dream practice is quite simple: one must recognize the great potential that dream holds for the spiritual journey. Normally the dream is thought to be ‘unreal,' as opposed to ‘real' waking life. But there is nothing more real than dream. This statement only makes sense once it is understood that normal waking life is as unreal as dream, and in exactly the same way. Then it can be understood that dream yoga applies to all experience, to the dreams of the day as well as the dreams of the night." -Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, Snow Lion Publications, 1998

I've been making Singing Masks for 45 years now (began in 1979). They have been real teachers and spiritual guides for me. Their teachings have centered on dreamtime, animism, connection, and the reality of infinite dimensions.

The masks function as "vehicles of transformation." Their voices and imagery speak to our ancient and primal "one-ness." They may stimulate experiences of (real) alternate imaginal/dream realms. This is what In Parallel explores.

The sonic "ground" accompanying In Parallel consists of three independent ingredients:
1) Recordings I've made over the years of a wide variety of things ranging from frogs in New Mexico to a sound installation at the corner of 46th and Broadway in New York, and including recordings from prior Singing Mask ceremony/performances (list at end).
2) Recording of 64 selected passages from Parallel Universes by theoretical physicist Fred Alan Wolf. (Simon & Schuster, 1988)
3) Electronic bell sounds triggered by a computer-driven random note generator I created for the occasion.
And in live presentation, there are of course the voices of the masks.

The recorded material is on separate CDs interspersed with tracks of random length silences. They are played back in random shuffle mode. Yet another aspect of the masks' teaching has been about abandoning my false notions about control and allowing for the unpredictable.

There are a few consequences of this tactic. One is that there is no guarantee that all the tracks will get played. Another is that there may be repetition of tracks. And yet another is that the two may combine in ways that render the text unintelligible.

There’s a lot going on! A consequence of having so much going on at once is that we are challenged into multitasking (or maybe better present-day jargon: parallel processing). + Words to "tickle the little gray cells," as Hercule Poirot would say. + There are the voices and imagery of the masks to take in. + Invitation to sound and move. Parallel universes, indeed! Well, it's an exploration...

Just as William Blake suggested that we could "See a World in a Grain of Sand," so too it is possible to hear a universe in each instance of sound, though of course different from observing a stationary object. With this in mind, listen to all sounds and select any one in any given instant to follow into its parallel universe. Sound and/or move with your own sense of that universe. Stay within that universe as long as you wish, via memory, imagination, or any other body/dream/cognitive modality. Remain open to simultaneously occurring universes. Transporting yourself into sounds in this way, go to as many universes as you wish. Or none at all. "Just" listening is ok. The Singing Mask Spirits are guides along your journey. Have fun and bon voyage!