Thread: Luring dreams to capture them seems more efficient than chasing them

Interesting choice of terms. It was my mantra for a while to "catch the dream," the metaphor is a good one.

Calmness/relaxation is a Real Thing(™) that has major implications on dreaming. Tension makes us clumsy, we must move fluidly and smoothly in order to catch those slippery dreams! "Relax and dream" is a great mantra (in addition to being the handle of an upstanding member of our DV community ).
Setting very strong intention seems to put (me at least) firmly into a "chasing" mindset, and can create a lot of tension if you're not careful.

We must trust our minds to deliver the dreams to us. It will, as it does *every night*. We just must be receptive to noticing them and "luring them in." We must be open to the dream experience. One cannot simultaneously hold themselves too far separated from the dream experience (to be "safe"), and also get close enough to catch the dream!

Naturals seem to universally come out of childhood with the connection to dreams and dreaming intact. What is different about children? They see and describe things without regards to societal inhibitions, they "call it like it is." I think this is a form of "elemental attention" and is why nightmares are so frightening for children: to them, the experience of the nightmare is real, and immediate, and they are vulnerable to experiencing its full effects. As adults we build up mental barriers to filter our experiences to protect ourselves from undesired influences or feeling emotions too strongly, adults do not like being vulnerable. IMO the natural maintains the childlike, open, vulnerable connection to experience, including dreams, and can therefore experience them to their fullest extent.

Trust, openness, joy, vulnerability, calmness, pure attention to experience: that's what lures the dream!