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    Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream

    Morning - Non-lucid

    2 Comments
    by
    atramentis
    , 12-03-2016 at 06:12 PM (535 Views)
    So I'm reading Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D. and Howard Rheingold, and now my interest in lucid dreaming is somewhat renewed. The issue is that currently (and for a long time) I've been lacking awareness of my surroundings in some odd sense that makes it very hard to notice when I'm lucid, even though my dreams are generally completely unrealistic and, on top of that, have a constant "dreamlike" feel. This means that if I happen to wonder if I'm dreaming, just that is enough for me to go "Oh yes, duh, of course I am," and start doing lucid things... but it's rare for me to have enough awareness even for that.

    I was thinking that my dreamsigns could be things like "a change in context," since that happens almost every time in my dreams, but on the other hand I think my mind simply accepts changes in context without thinking about them at all, and maybe I should pick something a bit more specific that I tend to notice more, such as my dead grandmother, having fully recovered from dementia, making an appearance.

    Dream: Castle Shenanigans

    So at first it was me, my dad, and my sister, all exploring some sort of enormous castle. And I was trying to get away from my dad (because I hate even being in the same room as him), which turned into me sprinting through the castle at night, down long hallways and up stairs, hoping to eventually lose him. But I don't think I ever did. I distinctly remember turning a corner and sprinting down a long hallway, trying to put the full length of the enormous castle between us, and trying to make it to the end and turn the corner before he could see me. I failed.

    A bit later in the dream, I was exploring the castle with him (and it was daytime). It had the feel of him showing me a university that he wanted me to attend, and trying to point out to me what a cool place it was. We visited the castle library (complete with studying students), which had stacks of books against one wall, comprising about three levels of balconies that overlooked the main study space, and with an elevator that somewhat dwarfed its surroundings. I think it may have been for wheelchair accessibility. I think I explored the stacks a bit.

    Then the dream changed. Still castle-themed, but now it had the feel of a movie. There was some sort of plucky main character (me) who wanted to get into the castle and join the ranks of the powerful servants of the king, but his approach was to climb in through one of the upper-level windows and try to avoid the wrath of the servants until he'd proved himself enough to be accepted. Or something like that.

    Before that, there was a segment where a similarly plucky group was trying not to get killed by lackey-type knights in red who were hunting them with all the personality of machines. One of their solutions was to escape to a church, where, surely, the knights would not be able to perform violent acts. However, upon arrival in the church, they found the pews draped with the bloodstained bodies of several lackey-type knights in white, and through the window spotted the knights in red marching towards the church entrance. So, we all ran down the stairs to the basement, guided by one of us who knew this particular secret, and then crawled through a rather tight, upwards-sloping tunnel in the wall that made an uncomfortable right turn. I hated crawling through this thing because it was such a tight fit, but we made it, and on the other side was a better, safer church. And for whatever reason, my dream repeated this same scenario another few times.

    Then, back to the story of the person (lizard?) trying to join the ranks of the castle servants. This time, he was exploring a tower placed just outside the castle, which he hoped to use to jump through into the castle through a window. And this is where things get confusing, because the dream just kind of made up concepts and they made sense to me at the time, and now that I'm awake I'm not sure what was going on. First of all, the main character was a sort of humanoid lizard. And the servants were also animal-themed, I believe, and quite powerful. The lizardman (me) met some of them in the tower and might have been captured by them? And then they might have started putting him through the various tasks that one must pass in order to be one of the castle servants. I'M NOT SURE. IT'S ALL SO HARD TO EXPLAIN. WHATEVER.

    --

    None of this gave my brain any kind of pause or made me think, "Hey now, all this is sort of unrealistic." And I know this is normal for dreams, but if I were to just have that thought for even a moment, I would realize that I was dreaming.

    Instead it feels like my brain locks into some kind of "tell me a story" mode and rolls with whatever the dream does. It kind of has an automatic feel to it. Also, my dreams haven't been that vivid lately. Or it feels like even if they were vivid, I wouldn't be aware enough to notice. Uuuuugghhhhh.
    JadeGreen likes this.

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    Tags: castle
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    non-lucid

    Comments

    1. JadeGreen's Avatar
      This means that if I happen to wonder if I'm dreaming, just that is enough for me to go "Oh yes, duh, of course I am," and start doing lucid things... but it's rare for me to have enough awareness even for that.
      I often find this to be the problem with my dreams. I often find I have this sort of lack of investment in situations that would otherwise be emotionally difficult to deal with. Like I dream that a close relative or friend dies and I'm like "That sucks... oh well..." It's really because of lower level lucidity working its way into your mind. You somehow know that there are no long term consequences or whatever happened doesn't really matter, but you can't figure out why.

      In much the same way, I sometimes find these moments occur (more and more as I've gotten more advanced.) in where upon getting lucid I say or think. "I should become lucid now!", and come to the realization that I was already aware but just didn't have the drive to fully recognize that and take control of the dream.

      I wonder how many other people have this problem.

      Still the funniest one was "I know I'm dreaming, but why can't I get lucid?"

      I was thinking that my dreamsigns could be things like "a change in context," since that happens almost every time in my dreams, but on the other hand I think my mind simply accepts changes in context without thinking about them at all, and maybe I should pick something a bit more specific that I tend to notice more, such as my dead grandmother, having fully recovered from dementia, making an appearance.
      One thing I've always wondered about is moving. Changing schools or jobs can be nice lucid triggers for as soon as you quit a job, it's pretty easy to get yourself in the mode of thinking. "If I'm ever back at my old job at McDonald's I'm probably dreaming." Moving would work the same way too. If you ever dream of your old house, you can program yourself to become aware right away.

      But it is true, your mind does seem to accept some pretty absurd things. It's often funny to me how sometimes you can be having the most fantastical dream and never question your reality, but in another, much more benign dream, one small inconsistency or unusual happening can trigger lucidity. Come to think of it, almost none of my lucidity ever gets triggered in a "normal" way. I can't think of too many recent lucid dreams that were triggered via reality check or recognizing something out of place in waking life. Quite often I find that I 'discover' my ability to float or run really fast or that I look different. Other times I become lucid because I see or interact with one of my regular dream characters and become lucid through them.

      I meditated on this idea recently. Lucid dreaming seems more and more like breathing. You breathe all the time, just like you dream every night. Most people don't pay attention to their breathing. In the same way, most people aren't observant and controlling of their thoughts and dreams, and instead just allow their mind to wander wherever it pleases. You are in relative control of your mind. You can visualize whatever you want in your minds eye right now, conjure an amount of some emotion, recall a memory of your choosing. But more often than not we do not utilize this control, and allow our mind to wander freely.

      First of all, the main character was a sort of humanoid lizard. And the servants were also animal-themed, I believe, and quite powerful. The lizardman (me) met some of them in the tower and might have been captured by them? And then they might have started putting him through the various tasks that one must pass in order to be one of the castle servants. I'M NOT SURE. IT'S ALL SO HARD TO EXPLAIN. WHATEVER.
      I find it very interesting that you describe the lizard man as yourself and the main character. I often dream that I am the main character in a story and am visualizing the story. The mechanics of this are often explained away in dream that I am inside of some type of virtual reality or live TV show where the other actors are trained to play along with whatever I decide to do, henceforth I can have a dream about a zombie apocalypse or something and be able to offer up a vaguely reasonable explanation for why I might not be dreaming. I often find this 'dream that I am a character in a story' both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because often the stories and dreams it lends to are among the most interesting nonlucid dreams I have. But a curse because It hinders getting lucid in the dream.
      atramentis likes this.
    2. atramentis's Avatar
      I find it very interesting that you describe the lizard man as yourself and the main character. I often dream that I am the main character in a story and am visualizing the story. The mechanics of this are often explained away in dream that I am inside of some type of virtual reality or live TV show where the other actors are trained to play along with whatever I decide to do, henceforth I can have a dream about a zombie apocalypse or something and be able to offer up a vaguely reasonable explanation for why I might not be dreaming. I often find this 'dream that I am a character in a story' both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because often the stories and dreams it lends to are among the most interesting nonlucid dreams I have. But a curse because It hinders getting lucid in the dream.
      Wait so, you both create the story and experience it? For me the story gets created unconsciously, but a lot of the time it's something I would enjoy anyway, which is nice. Though sometimes, if I'm a little bit lucid I try to influence where the story's going, but sometimes this just breaks the whole dream.

      This is making me think that I shouldn't differentiate so strongly between the part of me that unconsciously creates the dream and the part of me that consciously experiences it. I mean, they're both me, and maybe if I recognize that I'll be able to recognize my own unconscious influence on my dreams. For instance, last night I almost recognized a dreamsign, but it seemed that as soon as the dream realized I was about to recognize it, it changed the dreamsign and gave me a plausible explanation for why it wasn't a dreamsign. So, from this I could reason that perhaps I don't fully want to become lucid, for whatever reason? I could probably make a list of "Reasons why becoming lucid is an undesired thing" and see what I come up with...