Did you ever have a dream that you realized was a dream? That’s a lucid dream. Did you ever have a dream where you realized you were dreaming and then you were able to manipulate what was going on in the dream? That’s a crazy, awesome lucid dream (no, that’s not a technical term, but it should be).
I’m not even talking about Inception type stuff either (I wish I could do that). It’s just a regular dream, and then Whoa! you realize I’m in a dream and I know it. The subconscious dream become conscious, but you’re still asleep. (You can go from awake directly into a lucid dream, but that’s never happened to me before.)
For me, a lucid dream usually starts when I notice some logical inconsistency. It’s like my brain can’t just let the dream world unfold before me; it has to question it. Right now I can’t even think of a concrete example (even lucid dreams are fickle to remember in a wakeful state), but I know the feeling it gives me. All of a sudden something happens in my dreams that I know can’t happen in real life, and just like that, I’m aware.
And you know what the first thing I almost always do is? Fly! I imagine that says something about my personality, like I have lofty aspirations or I feel I’m in control of my life or something, but really being able to fly is just fun. It’s never a Superman faster-than-a-bullet flying, but more of a floating, gliding flying. I tend to drift up and then down, even landing on the ground at times.
I had a lucid dream the other night, and man was it exhilarating. And not only because I, of course, went for a nice fly. The experience alone of having that kind of power in a world, where you can pretty much do anything you want and physics be damned, is unbelievable.
What kind of dreams have you been having lately?
Yup. I’ve definitely had them. When I fly, it’s either like I’m swimming and doing the breast stroke, or I’ll be standing there, and then I bend over, lift one leg backward, then the other. And voila, I’m floating. And in the dream, I can’t understand why no one else can do that.
Now, have you ever had sleep paralysis? You know, when you wake up and something’s sitting on top of you and you’re paralysed?
Oh man, Suzanne. I’ve never had sleep paralysis and I hope I never do. It sounds terrible! I did once have a dream that an intruder jumped on me. It scared me so badly I woke up, sat straight up in bed, and screamed. (I had taken cough medicine before bed, so I think that’s one of the reasons why this dream was so vivid.)
I have had some crazy dreams but most of mine I can’t get control of. I do hate it when my dreams make me cranky the rest of the day. I woke up once so mad at my husband for what he did in a dream! He dreams that I go to Home Depot and spend all our money on pipes and a new attic fan….men…LOL
LOL! I too have had dreams where I got really mad at my husband and had a hard time not being mad at him when I woke up. It’s hard to shake the emotions of a dream because even if those things didn’t really happen, the emotions you felt were still real.
Katie,
First, thanks for providing a name for these unusual occurences… Lucid dreams. Seems quite apropos. Unlike many I’ve talked to, I have great detailed recall of my dreams, but I think it’s something I’ve “trained” myself to do because I’ve always been fascinated with what the heck my subconscious is up to while I slumber. I rarely have nightmares, but my dreams seems to be filled with dead people from my past… Yep. Haven’t figured that out. Any thoughts? Sometimes when I am dreaming about something that’s too disturbing, say, Mike, my ex is lying on an operating table and the doctor is preparing to do surgery sans anethesia…I start to freak…until I realize (in the dream) that Mike’s been dead for over eight years. Pretty lucid. No lovely flying dreams however.
Interesting topic.
Joelle
Some people believe when we dream about the dead, they are somehow visiting our subconscious. I’m not sure if I think that, but I do dream about my sister, who died when she was 16. During the dream I often realize that my sister is dead and question how she can be there. Usually she (or my brain) helps me figure out that she has some kind of brief reprieve and has been allowed a little more time with us. Upon waking, I often feel like I’ve actually spent time with her, which is like a dream come true. Yet it’s also hard because those raw emotions from when she first died often surface too. Bittersweet is the word.
I’ve also been told…by whom I don’t recall…that dreaming of the dead could mean there remains unresolved business between you and the deceased. Considering the dead that pepper my dreams, that’s a possibility.
But back to your original thread, Katie, lucid dreams… Over the past “going on” twenty years now, I’ve had recurring dreams, different scenarios, of course, but all having to do with a beloved dog I had that developed an inoperable spinal disorder and after much excruciating deliberation, I had him euthanized. (To go into “his story” would be of little interest to most, but to say I grieved is vastly understated.) The dreams I have…not so many the last couple of years…would be of Hawk running ahead of me, rounding a corner, and disappearing. Again and again. Or, I would see him getting into a car just far enough away that I couldn’t catch up. Or, some stranger would be leading him off into a crowd and I’d try to chase them, but it was always the old slow motion, running through molasses… I’d wake up bawling my head off UNTIL I had that lucid dream epiphany! It’s okay. You’re dreaming. You don’t have to keep suffering his loss over and over again.
Lucid dreams are a good thing.
Yes, lucid dreams are a good thing. Maybe one day you’ll be having a dream about Hawk and you’ll become lucid and then you’ll get to catch him and spend some time with him! I always enjoy my dream time with my sister, even if it’s a bit confusing and sad after I wake up.
I have lucid dreams, I have been able to change the way a dream has been going and I have dreams where I wake myself up either talking or laughing at something going on in the dream. The dreams that I remember, and I do not remember all my dreams, I have tried, but some are gone in an instant, are a wild mix of characters that do not know each other. Apparently I talk a lot in my sleep do not always remember these conversation, the people that hear me say that I make little sense or that it is mumbled (I have sleep Apnea, so I am wearing a mask). Have no memory of flying, but do have memories of clouds, being in clouds.
I have many dreams that I do not remember, but I do dream a lot, so there are many others that stay in my mind. Often it’s the little details that get lost. Like if I tried to explain a dream to someone, I’d say, “Well we started off in my old house I grew up in, but it didn’t exactly look like my old house, yet I knew it was that house. And then we were in a car and my uncle was there.” It’s the transition from one place to another and the entering and leaving of other people that sometimes seems like it happens by magic!
Oh, I love those flying dreams. I have lots of those too! This week I’m reading Les Edgerton’s “Hooked” and last night in my dreams I was an observer of all that was going on and I was trying to differentiate between inciting incident, surface problem, and story worthy problem. I’m glad my subconscious is working on this with me. I need all the help I can get.