I had been wondering just what this “lucid dreaming” stuff was, so I went to Half Price Books on Roosevelt in Seattle and got Stephen LaBerge’s “Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming.” I read a little bit. It’s weird.
I’ve had three lucid dreams, and it is true that I have free will and can control what happens in these dreams. However, apparently the parental controls are still on in my dreams, because what I really want to happen does not occur. For example, I can open a door and will there to be the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and boom, it’s there. However, I cannot get hot women to suddenly appear with an unnatural desire to mate with me. I have not had an opportunity to fly. Nothing that the book describes as being the best experiences of lucid dreaming have occurred. I have not been able to open doors and suddenly see great vistas of astounding beauty. I have, however, been able to urinate projectily onto walls. I have been able to listen to “Gimme Some Lovin’”. Anything that is not too exciting, and boom, it happens. But really good stuff, my mind seems to say “no” to.
Has anyone else dabbled in this weird form of dreaming? Any interesting insights?
I had it happen once, completely by accident, a few years ago. It was such a bizarre and foreign experience that I really thought I had stumbled into some earth-shattering spiritual transendence.
I briefly became obsessed with it, and once I found out that it was not even that rare an experience I read up as much as I could about it - then tried many times to re-create it, but only succeeded 2 or 3 other times.
I’ve since practically forgotten about it, but now that you mention it you have rekindled my desire to make it happen again. I just remember the “buildup” being so difficult to overcome - the tingly sensation as you feel you are about to start dreaming/lifting out of your body and then the excitement becoming too much and killing it. Maybe now that much of the enthusiasm and excitement of my youth (when I first experienced lucid dreaming) has been effectively killed in other areas of my life, I will be better at overcoming this particular obstacle.
Yes, but unfortunately “real” lucid dreams over an extended period have been rare. Most of the time I wake up annoyingly soon after finding out that I am dreaming.
Waking up while you are aware of it is a weird feeling that doesn’t really correspond to anything in real life. When I realize that I am dreaming I often do ridiculously dangerous things. So far I have always been right. If one day I die after jumping out of window for no good reason, that’s what went wrong.
There have been a couple of times during nightmares that I realize that I’m only dreaming. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to transform that knowledge into the ability to stop the bad guys from chasing me. I have, however, been able to wake myself up. I wonder if I had that realization during a good dream if my desire to stay asleep would be strong enough that I would have time to have some fun.
I actually picked up that same book not too long ago when I got interested in the subject.
It outlines a lot of ways to have more success with becoming lucid in dreams. So far I have been too lazy to implement them but they seem plausible enough.
He recommends first of all keeping a dream journal (a cool thing to do regardless of lucid dreaming) so you can get an idea of what your ‘Dream Signs’ are. Basically these are things that seem totally reasonable and go unnoticed when you are dreaming, but in reality make no sense. Uncle Albert is here (uncle albert is actually dead). My glasses broke (but I can still see). Etc.
He also recommends getting in the habit of asking yourself if you are dreaming as you go through the day. When you answer you should try to verify your awake state by doing things like reading a sign, looking away, and reading it again. (Apparently its unusual to be able to keep the text the same when reading in a dream)
It makes your life very surreal for a while because you are constantly doubting your concious state. The idea is that if you get in the habit of doing it while awake, you may do it while alseep and realize you are dreaming.
Interesting stuff, and I was surprised by the lack (mostly, I am not so convinved about using dreams as a way to work through emotional trama but, then again, who knows) of new-age weirdness. There was definitely some method and some research.
I use this technique but now twice—TWICE, darn it!—I have, in somewhat unpleasant dreams, realized that the situation was a bit strange and asked myself, “Am I dreaming?” And I looked around, considered my surroundings and the situation I was in, and both times I decided, “Nope. I’m definitely awake. Life just sucks.” When I woke up, I was really bummed out.
Can’t complain, though. I’ve several times realized that I was dreaming and woke up, and had one extended semi-lucid dream where I realized I was dreaming and was able to affect my surroundings. I was able to make an object come into existence, for example. Unfortunately, I was still stuck in the dream in a sense, because I used my newfound powers to accomplish the mundane task I was doing in the dream!
