Lucid, 11/20/11: Depths of Lucidity

Wow, it's been a while. Well, here's a fresh dose of my dream speculation.

I had some... unusual dreams this past morning. Some parts were sexual in nature, so I won't gross you out with the details of the dream events. Those aren't important right now anyway. I've had similar dreams before and never really illuminated anything useful from them. There is an aspect of them I want to examine though.

I wonder sometimes at the depths of how completely a lucid dreaming brain can create realistic experiences. I think we've all had dreams where the crispness of what we saw tricked us into thinking it was real, but even knowing I was dreaming, I was surprised by the sensory experience, and not just visually either.

I recall someone speaking to me in the dream briefly, and was struck by how crystal clear I heard their voice, as if they were right by my ear. (I could remember what they said upon waking, but it has since faded as dream memories usually do when I don't write them down) This could possibly be explained away by somebody (parent or sibling) coming into my room while I slept, but in this case it seemed unlikely that would have happened. I should probably question the likely suspects to be sure.

Similarly, the sensation of touch will sometimes strike me in dreams like this. I can recall a dream I had a long time ago where I was being attacked by a vampire or something, and I seriously felt the sensation of being bitten on neck. It didn't hurt as much as such a thing would in real life, but it was still shocking to experience.

My point is, I don't find it surprising that there are people who believe dreams are actually our spirits having experiences in another dimension or something. I don't personally believe that, at least not to a religious extent. Either of the following are more likely explanations.

• Our brains are interpreting something that is actually happening while we are asleep (which has definitely happened before to me; I can recall at least one instance: as a kid I once had a dream in which my uncle was making odd yelping or retching noises; I awoke the next day to find out my dad had been sick that night and was in the bathroom vomiting at the time I was asleep),

• Our brains may be synthesizing experiences based on things we've felt in the past. In our waking hours, we have good enough sensory memories to identify things and people by mere sound, smell or touch, so it seems within the realm of possibility that our dreams could tap into those sense memories.

Personally, I do not frequently remember my dreams, and the ones that I do are often just too odd (or personal) to bother trying to interpret. Nonetheless, the subject still fascinates me, and I'll at least attempt to do more research. I should probably get that notebook and pencil by my bedside again, just in case.

So yeah, that's all I've got for now. I hope you found it somewhat interesting. If you've had any sensory experiences in dreams that similarly struck you, feel free to share in the comments. Until next time: sweet dreams.

Flashlights

My most recent dream I can remember. This one wasn't lucid, but I think it gives an interesting glimpse into my psyche.

First of all, I think we have proof now that eating way too much sugary crap before bed will bring on weird dreams. Second, here's the dream, or what I can remember of it: I was in my dorm room from SUNYIT, and everything was too dark to see. I was trying to find something (don't know what), and all I had was the flashlight my mom gave me for Christmas. This is an item from real life; she actually gave me a flashlight for Christmas. Let's not dwell on how weird that is.

Anyway, it doesn't have batteries; it's one of those ones where you turn a crank thing and it generates enough electricity to power the light. Well, in the dream it wouldn't work at all, no matter how hard I tried. I was just lost in the dark.

For the record, the real flashlight works fine. It's not crazy bright, but I haven't cranked it in a good month and it still turns on. To me, the fact that the dream equivalent flashlight wouldn't work means one of several things: either I don't understand electricity as well as I thought, a serial killer was after me, I seriously don't trust my mom, or maybe it's just a metaphor for my life. The last one there seems about right.

Anyway, that's just another one for the log. If you have your own interpretation of what it might mean, let me know. Sweet dreams.

UPDATE (November 2011):
Since writing this post, that flashlight actually has more or less died. It will still light up if you crank it vigorously, but it can't hold a charge for more than a matter of seconds. Funny coincidence, or sign of something bigger? I'll leave that up to you.

Lucid, 3/26 - 3/27/11: The Snakehead Incident

For the sake of remembering my dreams, as well as maybe entertaining and informing others, I've started this dream blog. Here's the dream I just had that inspired it.

It's worth noting here that the night before, I had a lot of sugar in my system. Between dinner and bed, I had a Cadbury egg, a Reese's cup sundae at Friendly's, and a brownie. Common knowledge suggests that eating certain foods before bed can give you crazy dreams. I think this is solid evidence of that, because this one is weird even for me.

I don't remember dreams often, but this one was pretty unique. The majority of it involved myself and some friends.. actually, it was one friend and one guy I don't know. In fact, I didn't recognize him, and he slipped a worm or something down the back of my shirt, so screw him.

Anyway, the group was running around trying to survive this apocalyptic scenario where the world was being attacked by giant fish. And no, they didn't swim through the air like flying sharks or anything cool like that. They just kind of flopped around on the ground. Ever seen a snakehead? It's kind of like that.

These fish didn't seem to really have teeth, though. So, when some random chick was on the ground and got attacked by one, rather than her being killed outright, I got the pleasure of watching a giant fish nom on her head for a while until she passed out. Right...

Anyway, this seemed to be a lucid dream. What I found interesting in this dream was that my dream powers from a past dream were able to make a return.

For the uninitiated, a lucid dream is where you have some element of control over the course of the dream. Some people like me can alter the very dream world around them at will. Other people never experience this at all. There is some research on how to trigger them, though, so I'll throw some links up in the sidebar.

One of the chief troubles with lucid dreams, I find, is that even if you're aware of the dream, you're not always able to make things happen at will. This is because, generally, no matter how absurd a dream may get, it follows certain universal rules drawn from your subconscious understanding of the real world. For example, I'm guessing most of you can't shoot fireballs out of your hands in real life. So, if you're lucid dreaming and attempt to do so, your subconscious is likely not to cooperate.

So, here's the handy thing I discovered last night: you can use the rules to your advantage. In my case, the power in question was some Harry Potter-esqe spellcraft. Silly, I know, but it works, and I think I know why. The spoken-word spells give an impression of structure. If you say a spell incorrectly or without a proper authoritative voice, it doesn't work. In dreams, this can create a kind of underlying rule-set; simply waving your hands and changing the world may be stopped by your subconscious, but with the spell, it feels like you're following some hidden magical rules of the universe. You don't have to know what those rules actually are; as long as you think they exist and make sense, your dream world should fill in the rest.

Now, I obviously have no idea if this will work for anyone else (though I imagine Harry Potter fans would do just fine). Nonetheless, I'd be interested to hear whether this technique of lucid control works for anybody. So, give it a try next time you're in dreamland and let me know.

My spell of choice was one I sort of came up with on the spot in a previous dream. The spell phrase is "Perishus Parabellum." Almost sounds like a real Harry Potter spell, huh? It's basically a death spell, so on the off chance the dream world is a real place, I wouldn't recommend abusing it.

For starters, I'd suggest trying the levitation spell from the first Harry Potter: "Wingardium Leviosa". I kind of did it without even meaning to last night, and oddly enough it worked on the second try. The key here is to point at whatever your target is, say the spell, and keep pointing. Once (if) it starts to float, you can move it about with your hand.

Now, before anybody starts calling me a total dork, I'm not suggesting Harry Potter magic is real in any way. I'm just saying the system may be useful for manipulating lucid dreams, provided you believe it in the dream world. Belief is a key here; if you think it's a load of crap, it won't do anything for you whether you lucid dream or not. If, however, you want to have a little fun with your dreams, you have to believe the rules apply in the dream world.

That's about it for now. If anybody tries this stuff and has success, please share your experience in the comments. If you want to learn more about lucid dreaming, check the sidebar for some additional reading. Sweet dreams, all.