Friday, June 02, 2006

Lucid Dreams

Everyday when I wake up, it takes me quite some time to get out of my dream mood. ‎‎ The mood I wake up with usually depends on the dream I've had – and in many cases, ‎this mood is one of worry, anxiety, stress, or anticipation. The funny thing is I rarely ‎remember the details of the dream, I just live the mood and the feelings that I have as a ‎result of the dream. ‎



‎ ‎
A while back, I saw an amazing movie called Waking Life. The whole movie is a surreal ‎experience, almost like a dream. It is actually inspired by the dreaming process and it ‎uses the dream-like format of the film to explore many different issues and observations ‎that the writer/director had. There really is no plot or story – just a guy who moves from ‎one surreal scene to another, observing (and participating in) philosophical and deep ‎discussions on all sorts of topics. Anyway, what I wanted to say was that in one scene of ‎this movie, the hero realizes he's dreaming but he still continues with his dream and starts ‎manipulating the dream to make it go his own way. I got interested in this and checked ‎the website of the movie and I made an amazing discovery. This scene referred to ‎something called lucid dreaming. A lucid dream is a dream where you know that you ‎are dreaming during the actual dream itself, which usually enables you to have direct ‎control over the content of the dream. Can you believe that? Having the ability to ‎control your own dreams? Writing their script? Experimenting with your fantasies? ‎Turns out that inducing lucid dreams has almost become a science. It is scientifically ‎verified that you can do it, and there are many methods to do so. One of the methods ‎‎(which was used in Waking Life) is to try to flick on a light switch in your dream. If it ‎doesn’t work, then you’re dreaming (apparently light switches don’t work in dreams). ‎Once you realize that you’re dreaming, then you can control what happens in it.‎

Those who have experienced lucid dreams describe them as
“exciting, colourful, and ‎fantastic. Many compare it to a spiritual experience and say that it changed their lives or ‎their perception of the world. Some have even reported lucid dreams that take on a ‎hyperreality, seemingly "more real than real", where all the elements of reality are ‎amplified. Lucid dreams are prodigiously more memorable than other kinds of dreaming, ‎even nightmares, which may be why they are often prescribed as a means of ridding one's ‎self of troubling dreams.”‎




Can you imagine the possibilities?

Funny thing is, what do most people do when they ‎experience lucid dreams? They either fly or have sex.‎

9 comments:

maxxedout said...

hhmmmmm ....
but who wants to have control over their dreams anyway ?
i mean
the whole magic and appeal of the dream lies in the fact that it allows you to achieve what you have failed in real life right ?
and for that alone i'm grateful for dreams !
i believe if i start having control over my dreams i will fail whatever endeavor i was up to in them ... just like i have failed it in real life !
but intriguing ... very !

GC said...

"the whole magic and appeal of the dream lies in the fact that it allows you to achieve what you have failed in real life right ?"

That is, assuming it's a good dream. What about the negative, stressful dreams? Many people who experience lucid dreams say that one of the greatest thing to happen to them is that they start on a bad dream (people beating them up, for example), achieve lucidity, and then take control of the dream and start reversing the situation (e.g. beating up the same guys). Imagine stopping a nightmare in the middle and taking control of it!

Anonymous said...

I actually think I've had lucid dreams before, but rarely. Not about sex or flying (I think that would be the male lucid dream version), but about things going wrong in a dream like I have a flight that takes off in ten minutes and I am home still not packed, not dressed- sometimes, somehow from that point, I can dictate the dream.

I concentrate really hard at staring at the plane ticket, then I start to see a different time for take-off written, meaning I'm not late. I leave the house... I realize that I forgot my passport.. I think really hard and suddenly it will appear in my purse...

I would like to experience that in something more exciting though, somethng not involving a busines trip. :)

Leilouta said...

I had a dream once that my dream man and I were just starting to kiss when my mom woke me up. I was so upset about it that I yelled at her. I told her to let me sleep a few extra minutes when she saw me smiling as I slept.

Alluring said...

I had that flying thingy when i was a child. We had these long stairs in our house and I always dreamt that instead of going down the stairs; I fly right to the bottom.

Can't call that a lucid dream though, probably i was just lazy, or it was the begining of my stairs phobia...lol

Anonymous said...

Abre los ojos.

GC said...

"Abre los ojos"

Yes, I've seen the movie and the lucid dream references (as well as Vanilla Sky, which was copied fron Abre Los Ojos"

LouLou said...

I hardly ever remember my dreams. The ones I do remember are usually very unpleasant. I'd rather just wake up than try to take control of them though. They're usually I-don't-want-to-be-here kind of unplesant not I-want-to-be-here-doing-something-different unpleasant.

Carmen said...

Every single last one of my lucid dreams always involved sex *grin* but I have yet to fly...