Lucid Dreams
* Awesome/Freaky alert *
Recently I've been making a conscious effort to learn how to lucid dream (after watching the movie 'waking life'). Lucid dreams are dreams where you are aware of the fact that it's only a dream, trained lucid dreamers are even capable of controlling themselves in their dreams, though their surroundings are usually still out of their control. The technique to learning this is to recognize you are in a dream by noticing the things that are different from waking life.
One way to do this is to throughout the day occasionally ask yourself if the world you're experiencing is normal. If you make a habit out of asking yourself this whenever you notice pretty much anything, you will also start asking this question in your dreams, and once you realize that whatever happening is unlikely, impossible, or simply insane you will also realize that you are dreaming. Apparently, according to the movie Waking Life another technique is to occasionally flick a light switch when you're awake to see if the light goes on or off. Apparently it's not possible to change light intensity in your dreams in any way. I made a habit out of doing this as well (even at work, where I would then excuse myself without explanation
)
Yesterday I was talking about this with a friend, and he told me the technique of pinching myself. Because you can't feel anything in your dreams, if you can't feel you pinch yourself, you must be dreaming. This makes sense since I jumped of skyscrapers etc billions of times in my dream and just got up without a scratch (this is dream stuff only, do not try this at home).
So, last night I was walking through the park and I accidentally dropped my glasses after wiping them clean when a monster truck driven by an alligator came by and ran over them. I asked myself the question: "Is this real?" and realized it was highly unlikely. To be sure I pinched myself. Nothing. I immediately realised I was dreaming and something changed, the scene continued and I was still seeing the park, but I was also very much aware of the fact that I was in my bed, I felt my body in the position I was lying in, my brain still blocking all conscious movement (as it fortunately does during dreams). I had my real sense of proprioception, my dream senses of seeing and hearing, and still not a real sense of feeling at all. One thing was weird though. I couldn't make out whether the broken glasses I still had in my hand were in my real or waking state. Had I gone to bed with my glasses still on? I do that occasionally if I want to watch a bit of television from my bed, but I had never fallen asleep with them on before. Yet the sense was so real, much more than the park, which I knew to be fake. I figured there was only one way to know for sure and forced my brain and body into the waking life. A second later, after realizing I was lying in my bed exactly as I'd imagined, I noticed my glasses on my desk, safely and in one piece.
Tell me your lucid dreams. My most freaky dream was a lucid dream as well, I'll post it later.
I've had dreams like this so many times! Supposedly a dream of waking up signifies some kind of enlightenment... still waiting!
