Monday 24 November 2008

Lucid Dreams, And My First Lucid Dream. (but not last)

I'd heard about lucid dreams ages ago, and the concept never really caught my complete attention, but since I've been in college, Darren in my course has been telling me about his regular lucid dreams and so i was officially, quite interested.
A Lucid Dream is when one reaches a state of semi-consciousness during R.E.M sleep (which kicks in after about 90 minutes). The state of semi-consciousness means that, although still sleeping, one is in control of, not just his/her actions and movements in the dream, but in complete control of everything/everyone that surrounds them. Imagine it like the scene in the matrix where neo and Morpheus are in a big white space and can call up any situation or object or person to surround them, well that's basically what you have to work with in lucid dreams.
There where many ways i looked at to make lucid dreams happen, a common one was to get into the habit of checking the time, because clocks don't work properly in dreams so if you look at it one time and it's half 3, and then you look at it again and it's a picture of 2 radiators then you know your dreaming. Once you've reminded yourself your dreaming the trick is to make sure you slowly become conscious of it, but not too quickly that you wake yourself up.
Lots of places i researched said you should keep a log book for your dreams that you fill in every time you wake up so that you notice reoccurring dreams, so you then notice them when your dreaming and hence become aware of it.
I didn't have the motivation for that so I've just been reminding myself about lucid dreams the past few days in hope I'd work out a situation in my dream where i try and make one happen.
Last night, i had my first lucid dream.
I was running to my work at tesco, and when i got into the car park, instead of the fat man in the yellow jacket who organizes how many taxi's are in the rank, it was in fact, Jackie Onassis. The widow of tragically assassinated president John F Kennedy. She was wearing her jacket and hat that she always wears, and i remember thinking "hmm, Jackie Onassis shouldn't be controlling how many taxi's get into the tesco car park in Greenock. I understand her life was slightly tore apart with the death of her husband, but surely she's moved onto something a little bit more dignified than this," My conclusion was, i was dreaming, and my second thought was 'lucid dream lucid dream lucid dream lucid dream,"
To test my theory i went up to Jackie Onassis and questioned her on her motive for being here, because somewhere in my head i had a thought that made no sense, that said 'if i start going and summoning everything i want in my surroundings, it'll be a bit rude if it isn't a dream because these people just want to get on with things, i best make sure it really is a dream before i ride unicorns to Alton towers," (can you really be too polite to have a lucid dream?)
So i approached Jackie Onassis and asked if this was a dream, she said no, and i started changing the colour of her jacket, i changed it from turquoise to purple to eventually a moving rainbow colour, all at my will. This confirmed for me i was dreaming, and lucid dreaming. So now i had to go and do the matrix empty space thing where i start imagining everything i want.
This is the part that I've been reading is apparently the tricky part, because you have to stay on the right thought level that keeps you sleeping but completely conscious in your dream to make everything you want happen.
So, for a while i just stayed concentrated, to make sure i was still sleeping, then i jumped up, really high until tesco car park was gone, but where i ended up was the top floor of the new car park... at least it was empty. I started trying to imagine Alexa Chung with no clothes on, and i think this is where i went wrong, because i woke up. Reading about lucid dreams, I've learned you can't master them over night, and i think me starting off with the object of my desires was something that required too much exciting thought, so i woke up.
So I'm going to keep trying, and I'll remember next time to start off with something, although still desired, not as exciting as Alexa Chung without any clothes on.. maybe a choc-ice perhaps.

I'll get back to you all once i have a successful lucid dream with choc-ices AND Alexa Chung with no clothes on, I'll possibly have her eat a choc-ice as well.


I hope I've inspired some of you to try to have lucid dreams, i would suggest it. Some Psychiatrists try to prescribe them to there patients therapeutically because you can technically change your life in them. Conquer fears, manage and realise truths, work out social situations, see Alexa Chung with no clothes on etc.. technically the only difference between dreams and 'reality' is that the consequences of one dream doesn't carry on to the next, but i don't think that means that the consequences and conclusions worked out in dreams can't be carried onto reality.

If any of you end up having a lucid dream, or if you've had one before, tell me about it, i love listening the storys of them, some are hilarious.

But on that, I'm leaving you. good luck with the dreaming. peace and love x

oh, here's something to motivate you. Yes, Alexa Chung shall be the motivation behind our lucid dream movement, viva la Chung!

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1 comment:

Holyrood Patter said...

I understand it is a tricky balance.
I have had great dreams, but as soon as I acknowledge they are dreams, they cease to happen