How many times have you dreamt only to awake and wonder why you wouldn't have known it was a dream? Consider that when you dream, you can take flight, and defy laws of physics without really thinking twice about it. So why is it that when you're dreaming, it's often that you don't question your state of reality when what is actually taking place is otherwise pretty damn absurd?
Lucid dreaming is an age-old thing. Dreaming, let alone lucid dreaming, has been a mystery for our ancestors, though scientists believe that dreaming actually plays an evolutionary role in "enabl[ing] early humans to rehearse responses to the many dangerous events they faced in real life." [via] Lucid dreaming has also been researched scientifically though the average person doesn't experience this type of dream so often.
Some time last year, I awoke from a lucid dream and I excitedly scoured the internet for ways to achieve these dreams more easily. There are people that systematically attempt to have as many lucid dreams as possible. This site has a rundown of some good tips, btw.
Lucid dreaming is not to be confused with dream control, which is exactly what it sounds like, but achieving an awareness during your dreams (lucidity) is likely to increase the extent to which you can deliberately influence the course of events; hence dream control.
Without getting into the more technical reasons about why we dream (which I actually began to write about-- not so ironically lulling myself into a comatose slumber), I'll just explain to you my experiences of dream control.
I have lucid dreams pretty often and have actually controlled my dreams like a video game. The down-side to this is that I actually told my friends about a few of the dreams that I had, and they looked at me like I was crazy. In my defense, I was certain I was dreaming and was the only reason I decided to experiment.
To start, there are certain exercises you can do throughout the day to ready yourself for awareness of your dreams when they occur, and hopefully leading you to control them when you know they're occurring. This might mean doing otherwise trivial actions such as turning off the light-switch to see if it actually turns off the light, or looking at a block of text in a book, looking away, and then looking at that very same block of text to see if the words have changed. Another thing you can do is to look at a digital clock and see if the bars that make up the numers are static or if they dance around. You may be wondering what all of this has to do with dreaming. To explain one, it is said that turning off a lightswitch is impossible in a dream because it's nearly impossible for your brain to construct a scene in which it's totally dark.
The thinking goes that if you practice these exercises during the day then you're more likely to question your state of reality in dreams. So I did just that. I woke up and documented some of these dreams, often times right after I woke up; be it 1 AM, 4 AM, etc. I did not want to forget the details. My lucidity sometimes waned from complete confidence in my dreaming state to questioning whether or not I was actually dreaming. When I realized I was dreaming, I tried not to excite myself so much as to wake myself up. When it worked, it worked well. Needless to say, I seemed to be on an endless conquest for virtual ass.
For your reading entertainment (and my utter embarrassment) I'm giving you the exact notes of my dreams that I quickly jotted down in the wee hours of the morning on Notepad, so I apologize in advance for the horrible formatting. You'll notice I repeat some of the things I've already mentioned in this blog because I wrote my notes in preparation to share with some friends via e-mail last June. Enjoy:
Dream (Night of 6/8, morning of 6/9)
2 Woke up. Heard Christian singing in apt in middle of night. Woke up and sang L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole.
I didn't realize it at first, but I noticed that my radio was playing the song as well.
3. I looked at my radio after I wondered why it spontaneously came on as this hadn't ever occured on any
nights before. I looked at the alarm settings and saw that it had two settings: an alarm for Tuesday morning
alone, and a separate alarm for Weds-Monday.
4. Isaac spent the night and got up and asked if I was scared of being alone and left to go upstairs.
5. Strangers walked into my apt to use my restroom. It appears they just came back from a night of
clubbing and they spoke of electricity being out throughout the city.
6. A girl I didn't know embraced me from behind and was hinting at having sex. I was not attracted to her
and passed her off to someone else.
7. I was reading my blog on Myspace and saw that I blogged about some band very recently that I was apparently
very fond of although I had never heard of this band before.
I knew I was dreaming - however it was a low-level lucidity state. I woke up and wrote the aforementioned details with an intent to have another
chance at lucidity. I browsed the web for techniques I had read before on how to do so. I've always achieved lucidity without much effort,
but I wanted to try all I could to do it again. I placed the link at the bottom of this e-mail.
dream #2
1 Got out of bed. Saw person next to me that wasn't Christian. Instantly was aware I was dreaming.
Grabbed their face and smashed it to the ground. Got up with the intent to get laid. Walked out of my room and realized I lived in a palace.
2. Walked into a door. Turned around. Created barriers so no one could get in. Tried to make a brick wall but couldn't. Instead Made bars
that covered the room leading into the other room of women.
I walk into the door and there are girls in this area laying in beds encased in this glass room with raised beds in rows, but each bed alternated in
height and the ones adjacent to each other were different planes, being about three feet higher and lower than the next.
I go in to pick my girl. I survey the women and realize that some of them look absolutely horrid and resembled the creature on Harry
Potter that worked at that bank with long, bumpy noses. I eventually decided on three women extremly hot women that my mind created and asked everyone else to leave the room.
For some reason there were men who I think were bodygaurds/security and they questioned my motives. "Why must we leave?"
Judging from past experiences with trying to score in my lucid dreams, I knew this guy would be trouble. I didn't hesistate to put out a gat and shoot him in the face just for questioning me. I then looked to the other side of the room on the floor and created a trap-door, and underneath
there was water. I ordered the other security guy to get rid of the body. He didn't listen to me so I ended up killing him as well.
Next Dream:
I was walking around my apartment and noticed that Ali was walking up my back staircase. I opened the door and told her I was surprised to see her
because I thought she was on tour. She said she was but remembered I told her about a day I was taking off and since she had a break too,
she figured she'd come visit. Eventually Dawn, Ashley, Luis and some other unrecognizable girl was there as well and we were all talking on the floor of my living room
and we were sleeping on the floor in sleeping-bags.
Ashley was complaining about boys and asked me how she should feel when she goes out next time we're out. I told her she should feel
exactly how she's feeling at that moment (because I thought it was pretty stupid to ask how you should
make yourself feel) but I added that she should at least try to be in great spirits. Dawn was complaining
about the curvature of her back and asked me to feel a bump that was on one side of her back. I told her it wasn't noticeable and not to worry.
Later, someone (like an authority figure) arrived home and we were all trying to get everyone to quiet down. Luis was shining a flashlight
and Ali told him to 'shut off that fucking flashlight.' Luis giggled and said 'geez.'
Not sure who that guy was.
Woke up because Christian kicked me.
Dream #3
I am walking around town searching for women again. I instantly know I'm dreaming.
This strange looking Asian girl jumps in front of me as I'm walking and starts giggling.
I grab her face and hurl her into the trees that are about 30 feet away. I walk into this little park area that has benches and a gazeebo
and I begin killing people for no reason at all other than the fact that I don't like the cut of their jibs.
I grab a guy by his face, slam his head on the ground and then step on it. As I step on his face I realize that I was barefoot.
I remember specifically thinking how real that felt for a dream. Then I pull out a glock and shoot this other guy
in the face. I never got around to finding a girl but I thought about what more I could do. I could only think of one cool thing. I wanted to
fly to the moon. I jumped up into the air and blasted off into space. A little into the flight I realized that I might want to put a space-suit
on. (Apparently this is low-level lucid dreaming - where you're aware that you're dreaming, but you don't realize that you aren't completely
in control and you forget that you cannot be harmed. I couldn't make the spacesuit appear so I just gave up on that. I am flying toward the moon at an exhilirating rate, however it doesn't
appear to be getting any closer. So I drastically change speeds. Finally I am almost to the moon but I can't get it to look like the moon.
I could only get it to look like Earth so I bypass it. Then I try again but the moon just looks way too small and doesn't ever look like the surface
of the moon but rather just a bunch of grey images and static.
I end up in a dark neighborhood and I see a car approaching. It's a car full of the women that were supposed to be the three women I picked
earlier. They were all smiles and extremely sexy. I jumped in the car to drive toward my lair to give them each a ravishing. I hear squeaking
from the 'real world' and I realize that something is attempting to wake me up and I fight it at first, but I couldn't any longer. The birds near my
window totally blocked me. That's all I remember.
I have never had that many lucid dreams in a night that I remember. The best tip given on the site is to even question reality
in your 'waking life'. You might want to try this throughout the day but especially at night. Routinely question your reality. Look at digital
clocks to see if digits can be formed. (Usually they cannot on a digital watch.) Also, in my first dream - I didn't understand why my light
didn't come off. Then I remembered this movie I watched (which you should watch if you haven't) called Waking Life. They mentioned that light
are virtually always impossible to turn off. I wondered about that but then if you think about it, if it were totally dark, than means your mind
just went blank. Another thing that was mentioned on the site below, as well as on the movie, was that if you read text you'll find that the
text changes if you read it again. Really, if you've even gotten to the point of thinking to do these things in your dream then you're already there.
Another thing I did that the site below suggested was that I question reality in my waking life, since you can never be 100% sure, afterall.
I know it seems a bit silly to ask yourself right now if you're reading this and if your existence at this point is real, however, more often than not
you think your dreams are real and you fail to question those as well. Get in the habit of asking yourself about reality and performing several
tests throughout the day and you'll find that it will almost become second nature to do the same thing in your dreams.
It mentioned to chant something like keep telling yourself that you're dreaming as you're falling asleep. What I did instead was I kept telling
myself 'If I see someone other than Christian, I'm dreaming.' 'If I'm somewhere other than my bedroom, I'm dreaming."
I kept repeating that over and over and it got into my subconscious and I had no problem at all becoming lucid. What I also noticed
was that the dreams were like watching HD tv when you are aware that you're dreaming. When you think about it, images are basically constructed
in your mind anyway - so what can create the crispest images than the actual source? Everything seemed so real even when I knew they weren't.
I realize now that the quality of my lucidity was never a constant. Sometimes I didn't realize the full power I had even though I was aware I was dreaming. Other times I realized
I was invincible and that's when it is really fun. I can't wait to try this again tonight.
1. In apt with Christian. Light on. The light would not turn off.
Dream (Night of 6/8, morning of 6/9)
1. In apt with son. Light on. The light would not turn off.
2 Woke up. Heard son singing in apt in middle of night. Woke up and sang L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole.
I didn't realize it at first, but I noticed that my radio was playing the song as well.
3. I looked at my radio after I wondered why it spontaneously came on as this hadn't ever occurred on any nights before. I looked at the alarm settings and saw that it had two settings: an alarm for Tuesday morning alone, and a separate alarm for Weds-Monday.
4. Younger brother spent the night and got up and asked if I was scared of being alone and left to go upstairs.
5. Strangers walked into my apt to use my restroom. It appears they just came back from a night of clubbing and they spoke of electricity being out throughout the city.
6. A girl I didn't know embraced me from behind and was hinting at having sex. I was not attracted to her and passed her off to someone else.
7. I was reading my blog and saw that I blogged about some band very recently that I was apparently very fond of although I had never heard of this band before.
I knew I was dreaming - however it was a low-level lucidity state. I woke up and wrote the aforementioned details with an intent to have another
chance at lucidity. I browsed the web for techniques I had read before on how to do so. I've always achieved lucidity without much effort,
but I wanted to try all I could to do it again.
dream #2
1 Got out of bed. Saw person next to me that wasn't my son. Instantly was aware I was dreaming.
Grabbed their face and smashed it to the ground. Got up with the intent to get laid. Walked out of my room and realized I lived in a palace.
2. Walked into a door. Turned around. Created barriers so no one could get in. Tried to make a brick wall but couldn't. Instead Made bars
that covered the room leading into the other room of women.
I walk into the door and there are girls in this area laying in beds encased in this glass room with raised beds in rows, but each bed alternated in
height and the ones adjacent to each other were different planes, being about three feet higher and lower than the next.
I go in the meet my harem of women and pick my girl. I survey the women and realize that some of them look absolutely horrid and resembled the creature on Harry Potter that worked at that bank. Most of the girls had long, bumpy noses. I eventually decided on three women extremly hot women that my mind created and asked everyone else to leave the room.
For some reason there were men who I think were bodygaurds/security and they questioned my motives. "Why must we leave?" Judging from past experiences with trying to score in my lucid dreams, I knew this guy would be trouble. I didn't hesistate to put out a gat and shoot him in the face just for questioning me. I then looked to the other side of the room on the floor and created a trap-door, and underneath there was water. I ordered the other security guy to get rid of the body. He didn't listen to me so I ended up killing him as well.
Next Dream:
I was walking around my apartment and noticed that my friend was walking up my back staircase. I opened the door and told her I was surprised to see her because I thought she was on tour with her band. She said she was but she reminded me that I told her about a day-off from work I was taking and since she had a break too, she figured she'd come visit. Eventually two of my other friends and my older brother were in my apartment as well and we were all talking on the floor of my living room and sleeping on the floor in sleeping-bags.
One of my friends was complaining about boys and asked me how she should feel when she goes out next time we're out. I told her she should feel
exactly how she's feeling at that moment (because I thought it was pretty stupid to ask how you should make yourself feel) but I added that she should at least try to be in great spirits. Another chick friend was complaining
about the curvature of her back and asked me to feel a bump that was on one side of her back. I told her it wasn't noticeable and not to worry.
Later, someone (like an authority figure) arrived home and we were all trying to get everyone to quiet down. My older brother was shining a flashlight
and my chick friend (that initially showed up) told him to 'shut off that fucking flashlight.' Brother giggled and said 'geez.'
Not sure who that guy was.
Woke up because my son kicked me.
Dream #3
I am walking around town searching for women again. I instantly know I'm dreaming. (Damn, I'm getting good at this shit.)
This strange looking Asian girl jumps in front of me as I'm walking and starts giggling. I grab her face and hurl her into the trees that are about 30 feet away. I walk into this little park area that has benches and a gazeebo
and I begin killing people for no reason at all other than the fact that I don't like the cut of their jibs. I grab a guy by his face, slam his head on the ground and then step on it. As I step on his face I realize that I was barefoot.
I remember specifically thinking how real that felt for a dream. Then I pull out a glock and shoot this other guy in the face. I never got around to finding a girl but I thought about what more I could do. I could only think of one cool thing. I wanted to fly to the moon. I jumped up into the air and blasted off into space. A little into the flight I realized that I might want to put a space-suit on. (Apparently this is low-level lucid dreaming - where you're aware that you're dreaming, but you don't realize that you aren't completely
in control and you forget that you cannot be harmed. ) I couldn't make the spacesuit appear so I just gave up on that. I am flying toward the moon at an exhilarating rate, however it doesn't appear to be getting any closer. So I drastically change speeds. Finally I am almost to the moon but I can't get it to look like the moon. I could only get it to look like Earth so I bypass it. Then I try again but the moon just looks way too small and doesn't ever look like the surface of the moon but rather just a bunch of grey images and static.
I end up in a dark neighborhood and I see a car approaching. It's a car full of the women that were supposed to be the three women I picked
earlier. They were all smiles and extremely sexy. I jumped in the car to drive toward my lair to give them each a ravishing. I hear squeaking from the 'real world' and I realize that something is attempting to wake me up and I fight it at first, but I couldn't any longer. The birds near my window totally blocked me. That's all I remember.
I have never had that many lucid dreams all in one night that I remember. The best tip given on the site is to even question reality in your 'waking life'. You might want to try this throughout the day but especially at night. Routinely question your reality. Look at digital clocks to see if digits can be formed. (Usually they cannot on a digital watch.) Also, in my first dream - I didn't understand why my light didn't come off. Then I remembered this movie I watched (which you should watch if you haven't) called Waking Life. They mentioned that lights are virtually always impossible to turn off.
Another thing that was mentioned on the site below, as well as on the movie, was that if you read text you'll find that the text changes if you read it again. Really, if you've even gotten to the point of thinking to do these things in your dream then you're already there.
Another thing I did that the site below suggested was that I question reality in my waking life, since you can never be 100% sure, after all. I know it seems a bit silly to ask yourself right now if you're reading this and if your existence at this point is real, however, more often than not you think your dreams are real and you fail to question those as well. Get in the habit of asking yourself about reality and performing severaltests throughout the day and you'll find that it will almost become second nature to do the same thing in your dreams.
It mentioned to chant something like keep telling yourself that you're dreaming as you're falling asleep. What I did instead was I kept telling
myself , "If I see someone other than my son; I'm dreaming. If I'm somewhere other than my bedroom, I'm dreaming."
I kept repeating that over and over and it got into my subconscious and I had no problem at all becoming lucid. What I also noticed was that the dreams were like watching HD tv when you are aware that you're dreaming. When you think about it, images are basically constructed in your mind anyway - so what can create the crispest images than the actual source? Everything seemed so real even when I knew they weren't.
I realize now that the quality of my lucidity was never a constant. Sometimes I didn't realize the full power I had even though I was aware I was dreaming. Other times I realized I was invincible and that's when it is really fun. I can't wait to try this again tonight.
So I told some people my dreams and they jokingly (maybe) think I'm pretty fucked up in the head. Hey, I just knew I was dreaming, right?
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