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.
