Sol Luckman
A Book That Pushes the Boundaries of the Possible
According to many readers, my beloved novel SNOOZE: A STORY OF AWAKENING does the seemingly impossible: it integrates metaphysical, paranormal, spiritual, sci-fi and cryptozoological themes in an uplifting and enlightening coming-of-age journey that—amazingly—has helped many process and move beyond their own grief.
“Anything but a yawn,” according to Readers’ Favorite, this novel in 84 fast-paced chapters establishes the visionary dreams of my young protagonist Max Diver (“Snooze” of the title) as the primary mechanism and starting point for his awakening—blurring the line between the physical and spiritual worlds.
“Highly original fiction with more than a dash of the otherworld; well-developed characters, both male and female; excellent adventures; heartwarming conclusion and lots of wonderful ideas—what is there not to like? Highly recommended, a must-read.”—INDIE SHAMAN Magazine
Lucid dreaming is Max’s birthright. Literally. His energy field was forever transformed by natal trauma, as he discovers while learning not just to fly in his dreams, but to bring back actual physical souvenirs from them!
Max proves the reality of his dreamscapes by retrieving “out-of-context objects” such as an obsidian arrowhead, a tattered prayer flag, and an antique Celtic bracelet. This tangible proof compels him to reject the “fashionable stupidity,” to cite Carl Jung, of denying unexplained phenomena that are nevertheless undeniably real.
Down the Metaphysical Rabbit Hole
The narrative details Max’s growing ability to operate out of body. In classic esoteric fashion, his physical self is connected to his dreaming self by a “silver cord.”
He learns that his actions in the dream world utilize a “Dreambody” (astral body), which he employs to fight a bully in real life and later uses to actualize the Hindu siddhis (spiritual powers) of telekinesis and levitation.
Max’s unique biology and external guidance introduce profound metaphysical concepts that provide context for his literally uncanny dream abilities.
Like many with alleged psychic powers, he was born with the caul, which may serve as a “computer disk” for transferring the necessary “operating manual” permitting seamless functioning in the inverse reality of time-space.
As a student at an Ivy League university, Max is exposed to Dewey Larson’s Reciprocal Theory, which posits that our reality (space-time) constantly interacts with a mirror reality (time-space).
His teacher in this case, Professor Icarus, explains that Max’s birth trauma may have “blasted a hole” between these realities, making Max’s abilities possible. Max learns that his twin, Maxwallah, the “Blue Max” of his early Tarot-inspired visions, exists in time-space, and they collectively form a holistic, unified “life unit.”
Max’s riveting journey is framed by a plethora of additional esoteric insights. Maizy, his best friend Tuesday’s mother, introduces Max to his remarkable double aura and pineal gland (the “third eye,” seat of mystical power), which following yet another tragedy involving his father, he must “decalcify” to enhance his psychic abilities.
Maizy’s reading of Max’s Tarot card pull of the Hanged Man Tarot confirms his path as a “visionary, a shaman, a mystic” who must undergo a sacrifice and reversal of perspective in order to fulfill his destiny—eventually revealed as following the “Way of All Things” to complete the “Circle of Life,” which means unifying the physical (Max) and spiritual (Maxwallah) halves of his soul dyad.
This merging leads to the literal transformation of his perspective and identity, enabling him to fly corporeally for the first time in the waking world.
Cryptozoological Themes
Cryptozoology is integrated by connecting seemingly mythical creatures that exist in the parallel dimension. Max’s mother, Dr. Cythia Holden-Diver, a researcher of the paranormal, wrote an article titled “Cryptids Explained: A Novel Interdimensional Theory” theorizing that cryptids are interdimensional beings living in time-space.
This theory, we’re asked to consider, might explain that vortex points such as the Bermuda Triangle create wormholes of sorts that allow cryptids to visit space-time and return to their own domain.
In time-space Max does, in fact, encounter the Almasty (Bigfoots/Sasquatches). These creatures are revealed as highly telepathic “people” and loyal friends to the Heywah (Maxwallah’s clan). Zana, a lovable and at times hilarious Sasquatch, becomes Max’s brave guide, teaching him trust, aiding his travel through temporal landscapes, and even risking her life to save his.
The real danger in time-space comes from other cryptids attracted to Max’s extremely powerful energy. Upon arriving in the parallel dimension, Max is immediately set upon by a pterosaur (a thunderbird or jork) that lays rare eggs used for initiatory blue dye.
Later, attempting to complete his dangerous rescue mission of a loved one, he battles a plesiosaurus (a water dragon or jander) and almost dies.
Initiation into Adulthood
Max’s formal initiation into adulthood in time-space involves eating toh-pey, a theoretically hallucinogenic paste made of charred jube (glowworm) and powdered jork eggshell symbolizing Great Spirit’s Tears expertly used by a medicine woman named Artemisia to guide him toward self-awareness.
Ultimately, Max’s awakening is the culmination of: his dreams revealing his spiritual path and initial abilities; his study of metaphysics providing a sense of purpose (unifying consciousness and completing the Circle of Life); and both challenging and at times wise cryptids populating the inverse world he must navigate.
Max moves from intellectual curiosity to lived experience, realizing that the miraculous powers (kali-kalu) he gains are merely applications of love and energy control.
In the end his journey proves to be a high-stakes scavenger hunt across two realities, where every found “object” (dream thing, psychic ability, mythical creature, or philosophical concept) is a piece of the map leading him back to himself and his purpose.
A Story about Resolving Grief
According to numerous readers, SNOOZE can greatly help with grief by offering a detailed roadmap for processing loss as the story presents a comprehensive, heartfelt framework for spiritual continuity and acceptance in the face of tragedy.
Here are the ways the novel addresses and helps readers deal with grief, drawing on Max Diver’s intense coming-of-age experiences:
1. Providing a Psychological & Emotional Context for Loss
The novel explicitly situates Max’s journey within the recognized psychological stages of grief, offering readers a lens through which to innerstand their own emotional turmoil:
• Mapping the Five Stages of Grief: After his father disappears, Max unconsciously corkscrews through the first three of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s “five stages of grief”: denial (insisting for months that his father would return), anger (marked by solitary, raging walks and screaming at God), and bargaining (characterized by illogical “deals” with the universe, such as promising to devote his life to medicine if his father were allowed to return).
• Defining Intense Heartache: When Max finally collapses under the weight of his father’s loss, his friend Raul introduces the Portuguese word saudade, defined as “intense, crippling heartache.” Tuesday elaborates that depression, medically, is when things are meaningless, while saudade is when “things are too meaningful.”
This distinction provides readers with terminology to identify profound, meaning-laden suffering, offering validation beyond standard depression diagnoses.
• Addressing Guilt and Shame: A crucial element of Max’s grief is the intense guilt and shame he carries, specifically stemming from his inability to save his father after foreseeing his disappearance in a dream.
Tuesday insists that guilt is the “biggest monkey on your back” and is the one thing they must discuss. By addressing the link between trauma, guilt/shame and the subsequent suppression of one’s true self, the novel encourages readers to process these typically suppressed emotions.
• Achieving Acceptance: Max eventually reaches the fifth and final stage of grief: acceptance.
This state is achieved not by forgetting, but by finally remembering his father without sinking into “gut-wrenching sadness.”
“I loved SNOOZE and its alternate world! I read it straight through. SNOOZE also has themes of grief that resonated deeply with me. I am one of the ‘young-at-heart’ adult readers of this book, and I highly recommend it!” —Julie Neches
The realization that his mother had been communicating with him posthumously, leading to the dissolution of his lifelong guilt, finally allows forgiveness to infuse him. This moment of self-forgiveness and -acceptance is presented as a catharsis that cleanses him “emotionally from the inside out.”
2. Offering a Spiritual and Metaphysical Explanation for Loss (Continuity of Consciousness)
The novel uses its metaphysical framework to redefine death, transforming loss from an absolute ending into a phase of spiritual continuity and reunion:
• The Great Crossing and Dyads: The novel introduces the concept of dyads, or twin souls (a body “here” in space and a spirit/soul “there” in time), which cluster in familial groups.
The process of dying is defined as the Great Crossing, where the life essence of the deceased twin leaves their world and is reabsorbed by their living twin in the other reality.
• The Ultimate Reunion: Max learns that his father (Captain Diver) reabsorbed the consciousness of Maxwallah’s father (Jonah Ily-bintu) and, most profoundly, Maxwallah’s teacher, Artemisia, reabsorbed the consciousness, tastes and memories of Max’s deceased mother.
This reveals that Max’s mother “never really left” and her essence still exists. This concept provides a powerful metaphor for the enduring presence of loved ones after death.
• Love as the Universal Energy: Max realizes that the miraculous power he accesses (siddhis or kali-kalu) stems, at the most basic level, from love.
The most loving the emotion, the more powerful it is, and the more capable Max is of accessing the energy safely.
Max learns that “Love is the energy of creation” and “Great Spirit himself is love in its purest form.” This awareness recontextualizes grief as a difficult but sometimes necessary energetic process, suggesting that love itself guarantees eternal existence.
3. Emphasizing the Therapeutic Value of Self-Discovery and Articulation
Max’s recovery is intrinsically linked to ceasing the suppression of his experiences and confronting the reality of his past.
• The Catharsis of Sharing: Max finally recounts the full history of his paranormal experiences to Professor Icarus for the first time.
This profound sharing is described as cleansing him emotionally and making him feel “less heavy, more limber, and deeply relaxed.” This suggests that articulating deep trauma and extraordinary experiences is vital for healing.
• Finding Meaning in the Madness: The novel illustrates how nonlinear thinking and embracing the unexplainable can resolve emotional deadlocks.
Max learns to accept life’s mysteries, refusing to commit the “fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud,” a philosophy Max shares with his deceased mother. Engaging with Hindu mysticism, lucid dreaming and paranormal experiences, Max converts his frightening “mental disorder” into a heroic calling
By validating Max’s suffering as a natural, if challenging, part of his destiny (the Hero’s Journey), the novel provides readers with an inspiring narrative structure for navigating their own periods of “trial by fire,” suggesting that opportunities to find deeper power come when life is most challenging.
Copyright © Sol Luckman. All Rights Reserved.
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