I am a Lucid Dreamer!

Pat (a colleague of mine) is drawing a sketch at her desk.

I have a look at what’s on the sketch. It looks like the twin tower in New York.

“I had a dream last night. I dreamed that the twin tower is still there and this is what it looks like.” Pat says.

“What a coincidence, Pat! I have had at least two dreams recently of the twin tower. Just like yours. The twin tower hasn't gone at all.”
(My dream journal dated 12 December 2004)

..........

Do you know what a lucid dream is?

According to a source: “During a lucid dream, we know that we are dreaming while it is occurring. While the body sleeps, we feel ‘awake’ in a world which has the qualities of a regular dream, and we are able to think clearly, act willfully, and change the course of the dream around us.” The source further listed the following characters in a lucid dream:

1. Our alertness. At our best, our mental skills are comparable to (or better than) those of wakefulness in such areas as concentration, reasoning, memory, and control of our actions.

2. Our senses. The senses are functioning during a lucid dream. While our physical body is asleep, we experience the dream in a dream-body which usually resembles our physical form (as in a non-lucid dream). This dream-body has senses which are similar to those of the physical body, so we can see, hear, taste, smell, and feel. In a lucid dream, these senses seem absolutely authentic; for example, if we touch someone, the person's skin feels warm and soft. Sometimes this "virtual reality" is more real than "real life" (and certainly more real than non-lucid dreams); the colors have a greater vividness and the sensations a deeper intensity -- from the sound of celestial music to the explosiveness of a lucid-dream orgasm.

3. Our emotions. A lucid dream brims with emotion and feeling. During the dream, we might feel any emotion, including ecstasy (perhaps during a visit to a heavenly dreamscape) -- or fear (although nightmare creatures can be confronted and even befriended, in contrast to our helplessness during non-lucidity). Lucid dreams give us a chance to know freedom; we can fly, walk through walls, live out any fantasy, and even change ourselves into another person. And when we awaken from a lucid dream, we are not tired from the adventures; our body feels as rested as it would feel from regular sleep, and our mind feels stimulated and refreshed (if we took the responsibility of creating a pleasant experience while lucid).

4. Our control. We can control a lucid dream. We can create any scenario, assume any identity, and invoke characters to play any role. The range of possibilities is almost incomprehensible. Among the limitless selections (which would be experienced with utter realism): We can visit a dreamscape which resembles the Mardi Gras, or the moon, or the Egyptian pyramids, or the crucifixion, or our childhood home. We can meet characters who speak and interact in a lifelike manner -- and we can create vivid images of specific people such as our first girlfriend or boyfriend, or a movie star, or Carl Jung, or Cleopatra. Our own identity can be that of our wakeful self, or a person of the opposite sex, or an animal, or a centaur. We can swim with dolphins (and "breathe" the dream-water), or jam with Jimi Hendrix, or star in a scene from our favorite movie, or fly to another planet, or enact any social or sexual fantasy with any partner. There are no restrictions on the time, place, or activities; anything which we can imagine can be accomplished with the same visual detail, emotions, and tactile sensations which we would expect from wakeful life.

I have been commented by a few people who read my dream journals that my dreams are too ‘real’ to be true. If you have read the above about lucid dreams, you should now know the answer - a lot of my dreams are lucid dreams. While in most people’s dreams their personality becomes that of a total stranger (weird, bizarre, mad, insane…); In most of my dreams, my personality in the dream is like my awake self. I have had ecstasy in my dream only to wake up to find that I have just orgasmed(http://thedreamweaver.blogspot.com/2005/08/climax-in-kiss.html); I have cried myself awake because I missed my mom so much (http://thedreamweaver.blogspot.com/2005/07/i-miss-you-mom.html); I have vividly seen the splendidness of a mirage and woke myself up laughing and felt blissful (http://passioncity.blogspot.com/2005/08/miracle-iii.html); I have had intellectual yet emotional and subtle conversations with my friend (http://thedreamweaver.blogspot.com/2005/08/my-friend-hou.html); I have received wisdom as to why adults are more defeatable than children (http://thedreamweaver.blogspot.com/2005/08/childrens-play-fight.html) etc.

There should be no more mystery. I am a lucid dreamer! The dream quoted at the beginning may not strictly fit into the definition of a lucid dream, but it’s close enough.

The source further listed the benefits from our lucid dreams:

Dreams provide us with a vast arena for self-improvement, adventure, creativity, problem-solving, pleasure, psychological growth -- and increased understanding of the unconscious mind and our underlying spiritual realities. The delight which is experienced during lucidity often carries over into wakefulness; the elation lingers, and we feel better also because lucidity allowed us to resolve emotional conflicts (by directly communicating with the unconscious mind).

In other words, my dreams are helping me to grow and improve!