Afternoon of May 4, 2018. Friday. Writing an entry such as this is very challenging in a world where almost everything believed and propagated about dreams by the public is fallacious (in respect to my own personal experience since earliest memory). This is mainly due to liminal space blindness, which is the inability of someone to understand the meaning of his or her own dream even in what would otherwise be the hypnopompic disclosure stage, especially when threads of the subliminal conscious self are responsible for much of a non-lucid dream’s content (though this excludes prescience and transpersonal mediation). In this entry, I will attempt to address the widespread misinformation about lucid dreaming at a simple enough level for the average person to grasp. Ultimately, I can only write about what I know to be true and of which I have directly experienced continuously for over fifty years. It is not, and never shall be, a target of debate by the unknowing. An unfortunate term I coined years ago has apparently confused a number of people even though I often describe it as clearly as I can each time. “Subliminal lucidity” is an ambiguous term, problematic for most people (especially those who have not had the experience), and needs rewording as “liminal dream control”. This will be a more consistent and technically correct term within the totality of my lifelong work. Realistically however, it is infeasible to describe the dynamics of a condition that people cannot even perceive foundationally, but it does provide a more logical term for the condition. “Subliminal lucidity” is a misnomer, as it was meant to mean control of the dream state in non-lucidity, where the dream self identity has non-lucid ties to the conscious self identify. Of course, dream control itself is not evidence of viable lucidity either, which requires extant current conscious self identity, not just vividness. Some people confuse “vivid” with “lucid”. “Vivid” means the dream seems very realistic, while in contrast, “lucid” means being concurrently aware that it is a dream. Ultimately, “subliminal” should not even be used as a descriptive factor of the dream self’s mode, as the subconscious self is already a subliminal persona. A perceived need to use the word to relate the dream self to the dream in contrast to the conscious self identity is probably also a factor of ambiguity that the average person would likely not grasp, as most people seem to misperceive the “I am“ of the dream self as being analogous to the conscious self’s “I am”. I have tried to come up with a better term, but all are taken, for example, supraliminal, as even though it can be used to contrast the conscious self in respect to the dream self, it is only valid while within the dream state, as it otherwise is a reference to being above the threshold of waking life conscious awareness. So far, there does not seem to be a feasible word to describe the synaptic gating of liminal dream control, by which the dream self is non-lucid but the conscious will (not conscious in-dream awareness) is extant. I will explain here why this change is forthcoming (with all references to “subliminal lucidity” to be removed and tagged with different keywords depending on the dream). Lucid dreaming does not inherently correlate with controlling a dream. Controlling a dream does not inherently correlate with being lucid. Therefore, the term “subliminal lucidity” is of no use to those who do not have a basic grasp of the difference between being lucid and being in control of the dream state. I have had as many dreams of which I have modulated by way of subliminal threads of my conscious self’s will (not necessarily current, for example in fully controlling a dream without even having any viable memory of the last twenty years of my life), by way of my subconscious self, as I have in various states of lucidity. Here I must still clarify the obvious according to current consensus. Being lucid, in consensus terminology, means that the subconscious self is aware that it is in the dream state to where many more viable threads of the current conscious self’s identity, desire, and will are extant than in non-lucidity, but in stark contrast, controlling a dream means influencing features and content, including by the summoning factor (both subliminally and non-subliminally). One does not depend on the other. I emphasize this because many people propagate the mistaken belief that dream control only occurs with being lucid. In fact, a person’s dream self can be lucid without having any control of the dream state at all (for example, lucid nightmares). A person’s dream self can modulate the dream features and content over that of the preconscious factor or RAS precursors without having any awareness of being in the dream state, and typically for me, without even having any memory of what a dream is. A full understanding of this is required for coherent thinking about dreams in general. The falsehood of lucidity equating control must be dissolved for one to develop a full understanding of the dream state. Dream control in non-lucidity has been continuous for me since early childhood and over time, has developed by way of the virtuous circle effect. Additionally, the conscious self identity’s expectation is a major part of a dream’s autosymbolism, of which I have understood the meanings of for over fifty years. This is important because there are a number of people, including a number of religious zealots, who believe that a dream can never be controlled or influenced at all even in lucidity. What they express provides proof that they have zero understanding of either lucidity, dream control, or even hold a basic understanding of dreams. Neither the truth nor even a thread of truth is even visible to them. All they could do is deny what they could not even comprehend (liminal space blindness). In part two, I will try to simplify the information in this entry with a more concise approach of certain concepts and a list of possible dream self modes, of which are otherwise inherently transient through the different stages of sleeping and dreaming.
This happened about four years ago and has stuck with me to this day; it'll also explain my screen name. When I was about 17/18 years old I had converted from agnostic to paganism but was still hovering around the fence about it. I was doing extensive amount of research about different Gods and Goddess' and left that night ended about Hecate and Bast. As I entered my dream state I was in a small room and had the sudden urge to try to change the walls (all my lucid dreams start out this way) It took some time but finally I began to change the walls from one color to another. Next goal was to change locations. Here I was hoping from tropical beach to the center of someone's room but right as I went to leap again I felt myself fly backwards. Something was pulling me in a different direction. I was still fully aware that I was asleep and fought back until I started feeling my dream unravel. In order to prolong the dream I let myself calm down and let whatever unknown source pull me to whatever unknown location. I landed in a heavily shadowed room. The walls and floor were made out of cold grey bricks yet I didn't feel cold. Wherever I was I was high in the air for the narrow slotted widows only showed a starry laden sky. There was someone else in the room with me. I felt her rather than saw her. She laughed at the sound was like a thousand bells ringings but also held a dark edge to it. I asked her outloud who she was and in response I received the thought, 'Hecate' Suddenly she moved, just a quick glimpse of a face that seemed to change with each second. I felt so at peace with myself, not afraid at all. It was like being wrapped in love just standing there in the darkness as something unknown flitted around me. Another thought voiced itself in my head, 'What is it that you desire to know?' And I knew I could ask anything. Anything my heart desired, unfortunately that heart was still very young and in love so my thoughts turned to my current boyfriend. My dream ended shortly after that but it never left me. In all my years previously of looking and researching religions nothing like that has ever happened. Since then I have chosen to walk the pagan path with hecate as my Goddess.
This is my first DILD experience that I can recall. All my others have been through SP. I was sitting in my bed and had just opened up a book on lucid dreaming that I've had sitting on my shelf for awhile. I got maybe a page and a half into the book before I fell asleep.... I don't remember the regular dream part much, I was standing on a train platform and I realized that some facts didn't add up. Don't know what now, but it was enough for me to realize I was dreaming and I thought to myself " I COULD wake up now, but I don't really have to" So I began Lucidity and started to walk around a bit, I was in a deserted city street. It wasn't eerie or frightening in any way, just empty. I decided to get a better view and I jumped up and slowly floated above the city and into the clouds, and immediately decided I'd rather just walk around instead. On my way down through the clouds I caught a glimpse of a man walking by in the clouds below me, dressed in a black suit. I thought to myself that he might be another lucid dreamer and that we're all connected on this different plane of consciousness, and then I thought, maybe he had died and was on this level and that all consciousness is different that we normally believe it to be. But then I got closer to the ground and wasn't thinking about the man in black anymore. I was waiting to feel my feet hit the ground but they wouldn't, I was just hovering. I saw an Ipad Air next to me (hooray for random product placement in dreams) and picked it up and there was writing all over it and it turned into pages of paper and I felt them in my hands. I looked up from the pages and at my surroundings; I thought "how boring am I that I just want to stand here and read papers instead of exploring" ... Thats when my father opened by door and walked in my room. And I was so mad that he woke me from my LD , I was still half sleeping and wasn't able to open my eyes completely but as he walked over to my bed and sat next to my computer i was able to mumble "get out, i'm asleep, leave me alone".. And he got up and left. i never saw his face. And suddenly I let in a huge gulp of air and startled myself fully awake. So I go downstairs to apologize to my dad for being rude to him... and no one was home. AT ALL! needless to say I walked around the house with a knife and opened every closet while on the phone freaking out to a friend. Could it be that the mysterious stranger followed me out of my LD? I've heard of SP monsters following people from SP to LD but not the other way around! I have had other similar encounters where I've gone into SP and my hallucinations were totally boring and simply that people walked into my room to ask me a question, or came in to grab something. But I've never come OUT of a lucid dream and into Sleep Paralysis without having SP in the first place. Ive recently watched a movie about the area I live in and all the paranormal things that happen here. I think that added to my freak out. I don't know if this is the right place to post this question, but If anyone happens to see this and has knowledge about SP after lucid dreams or mysterious beings following you out of dreams please fill me in!
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