Learning to dream lucidly
Jul. 16th, 2003 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuEver since we were kids my brothers have always claimed that they could end a nightmare by waking themselves up. Whether they were otherwise lucid, I don't know. I never could. My imagination was too vivid for that; I was there for the duration. Over the years I read about lucid dreaming and practiced some of the techniques I learned and I've learned to dream lucidly.
I don't always have lucid dreams, but when I do they're fun. The lucidity has taken some very strange forms over the years. The most bizarre form (and only once) was when the lower half of my field of vision took the form of a black matte like you see when watching a letterboxed movie. A script describing the events going on in my dream scrolled up that black background in white letters, complete with stage directions and quoted dialogue. I knew I was dreaming, and I could change the script at will, thereby changing what was happening.
More commonly I am simply aware that I'm dreaming and that therefore I have control over the events around me. It's rather like being a mage in the RPG "Mage: The Ascension" in that while everyone else in the dream is forced to deal with the dreamworld as it exists, I have a clearer understanding of reality and therefore I can--and know I can--alter that reality to suit myself. Also, like the RPG, my awareness is incomplete; there are things I cannot change, though sometimes I don't know til I try whether any particular change will work.
I also am always me in my lucid dreams. I have no "Philosopher" form, unlike, uhm, someone who posts here. But then, I haven't ever tried to change that way. I remain myself, but with the godlike power to reshape the dreamworld around me with a thought. It might be interesting to try that sometime, though.
I don't always have lucid dreams, but when I do they're fun. The lucidity has taken some very strange forms over the years. The most bizarre form (and only once) was when the lower half of my field of vision took the form of a black matte like you see when watching a letterboxed movie. A script describing the events going on in my dream scrolled up that black background in white letters, complete with stage directions and quoted dialogue. I knew I was dreaming, and I could change the script at will, thereby changing what was happening.
More commonly I am simply aware that I'm dreaming and that therefore I have control over the events around me. It's rather like being a mage in the RPG "Mage: The Ascension" in that while everyone else in the dream is forced to deal with the dreamworld as it exists, I have a clearer understanding of reality and therefore I can--and know I can--alter that reality to suit myself. Also, like the RPG, my awareness is incomplete; there are things I cannot change, though sometimes I don't know til I try whether any particular change will work.
I also am always me in my lucid dreams. I have no "Philosopher" form, unlike, uhm, someone who posts here. But then, I haven't ever tried to change that way. I remain myself, but with the godlike power to reshape the dreamworld around me with a thought. It might be interesting to try that sometime, though.
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Date: 2003-07-16 04:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-16 05:36 pm (UTC)