Last week, I blogged about several intense dreams that I had throughout the week. Because of inclement weather and my son being home, I did not get a chance to blog about the coolest set of dreams in which I experienced true lucid dreaming.
Lucid dreaming is when you are aware that you are dreaming, and you take control of the dream. Over the past several years I have become aware that I was dreaming in the moment (typically in a nightmare), and I learned to scream as loud as I could to wake myself up. I would scream and scream in the dreams, but they would be frustratingly silent screams in my dream. However, the effort of trying to scream will frequently cause me to make a noise that winds up waking me up. This has become my escape hatch.
On Thursday night, I actually experienced true lucid dreaming, and it was amazing! First, it was another variation of me trying so desperately to sleep but not being able to. I was trying to sleep in the front passenger seat of a car, but people kept watching me. An Asian woman tried to steal my purse (another reference to my “essential baggage”), but I was able to protect it. (I have no bad experiences with Asian women that I remember, so I am baffled by her ethnicity.) I awoke briefly and was surprised to discover that I was actually sleeping in my own bed because I had tried so many ways and places to sleep in the dream.
Here is where it got cool – I was in this big room surrounded by a lot of items (sort of like a toy store), and I recognized in the moment that I was dreaming. I decided that, since this was just a dream, no harm could come to me, so I would choose to be completely present and explore the dream. When I did this, some toys started singing something about me trying to heal too fast or faster than I should. I just acknowledged the message and moved on.
I wish I had written this when I first woke up because I have forgotten most of the dreams. I remember vivid colors and being amazed at how interesting it was to “be alive” and controlling my own movements in the dream. I saw a display of Christmas items, and I chose to stop and admire the beauty of it rather than push it away (which is the way I typically react in real life).
I can’t remember most of the details. I just remember the feeling of being present in the dream, the beauty of the vivid colors, and the absence of fear. I hope I have another dream like this soon!
Photo credit: Hekatekris
I am a big fan of lucid dreaming although it still mostly happens by accident for me. Yet when it does, it’s always healing, empowering and like you I get this sense of total aliveness and being in the here and now.
I’m so glad you were able to have that experience, especially on the heals of the other dreams you’re having.
Way cool.
Sometimes I dream I am reading a book and then I go wait a minute I have not read this yet.
If I could golf half as good as I dream Jack Nickolas would be a footnote. My brother dreams in golf and he skips the same hole each time.
Welcome back.
Great dream~ I aspire to lucid dreaming skills.
The Asian woman could represent “foreignness” of some kind, a strange
Peace,
mia
Good for you! You sound empowered and that’s wonderful 🙂
I started taking control of my dreams, really nightmares, when I was a child. By take control, I don’t mean that I did anything as cool as what you did, but I found a way to consciously wake myself up. I of course had never heard of lucid dreaming back then as a kid but I had to find a way to get out of my nightmares. I had bad dreams every night and I finally discovered that if the me in my dreams quickly found a private place, like a corner or under a table, and sat down, closed her eyes and then rollled them back into her head, the real me would actually open my eyes. I made an escape hatch like you.
Now as an adult, there have been many more times when I have been able to take control of a nightmare and realize I’m dreaming and then fight back. I love reading your experience, it sounds more like the movie “Inception”. Cool!
I had a dream night before last, that I was running and hiding, and it was daytime. Usually when I am being pursued, its dark, but every once in awhile its daytime. I was by myself, and I was trying to steer clear of anybody. There were fields and cliffs and rocks. I was up on a cliff, trying to stay out of site of these farmers out in the field, when on a road, far out below me I saw Darth Vader coming, and I knew there was no escaping, that he could sense where ever I was. That is all I remember. The strange things about my dream, is I do not watch movies or TV so Star Wars is not a part of my repertoire in life. It was so random. The feeling of no escape is usually the theme of dreams where I am being pursued and impending doom.
The type of dream you had is always one that you do NOT want to wake up from. I have never read about lucid dreams, but I have self-hypnotized myself and been in places (scared) where I was very much aware of what I was doing etc…
i dreamed i was in the hotel room I was in and shot myself in the head. It felt so good, relief, calm, peace.
feel free to not post this, i totally understand.
@Lisa- praying for you…
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