Thread: The Nature of Dream Control

lol.
Neway that insomnia thing was that for real insomniacs or just people who think they are?
Coz I'm almost 100% sure it's a real condition and you would only sleep seconds or minutes every night but you don't dream so it's like just a blink.

Originally Posted by tommo

lol.
Neway that insomnia thing was that for real insomniacs or just people who think they are?
Coz I'm almost 100% sure it's a real condition and you would only sleep seconds or minutes every night but you don't dream so it's like just a blink.

Insomnia is a real condition. And these were real insomniacs who were studied in the lab. Sure they spent a good deal of time tossing and turning, but they did still sleep, even though they would tell you they didn't. These people were literally shocked to see video of themselves snoring away.

Sorry no link for that, I got it from a book.

I'd say that they are putting too much focus or attention on their inability to sleep or restlessness, and the second rule fills in the details of a restless night, be it in RL or through a FA type scenario. Too much attention on any one thing is unhealthy

The Basics: Vision

Using these rules for dream control boils down to a matter of awareness or attention. To be precise, where and how intently you have that attention or awareness focused. What awareness is exactly, no one can really say. It's an intangible process we use so often we take it for granted. For the moment, we only need concern ourselves with how awareness works.

Humans have 5 senses with which to perceive the world around them, but we rely most heavily on our sense of sight. What this means is that sight is our primary tool through which we are aware of what is going on around us. Or to put it another way, our main means of becoming aware of our surroundings. This makes vision our main weapon for deploying awareness in dreams.

Be careful what you look at...
Simply looking is probably the best and easiest method of dream control. This is both a curse and a blessing. What is so great about it is that it's such an easy thing to do. The downside is that we are almost always looking at something in our dreams.

This type of dream control doesn't just turn it's self on when we want or need it, it's always in play. And there is so much to look at, so much to see and take in. So many wondrous or terrifying sight, you awareness can hardly contain it's self. It jumps around from this to that, the whole while unaware of the consequences it's having on the dream. That is why dreams seem random.

In fact you need to look in order to interact with the dream and keep it stable. The trick is to learn to selectively choose what to look at. It's quite easy to lose control, some things you just can't help but look at. But we don't need to dwell on those things. Just a quick glance to asses and then move on until you come upon something you would like to expand on. Then you can dwell on it, examine it more closely. But if you start examining every little thing, things quickly get out of hand.

In Castaneda's books, the main technique Don Juan made him practice was just glancing at objects in dreams. I've been rereading those books for over 15 years and never understood what that was about until tonight. Just glancing is the best way to "travel" in a dream without disturbing things too much.

When you glance lingers too long, something happens, a change that you can actually feel. It almost feels like two magnets locking together. That feeling can grow in varying degrees of intensity along with your increased focus on that object.

Watch out for dream elements that ensnare you attention and almost compel you to look closer. Dreams are full of them, they lurk around every corner! Again I cite the example of a tooth dream gone horribly wrong. At first you may just want to let it happen and watch how the changes come. Once you recognize what is happening, it will be easier to avoid such snares in the future, however horrifying or beautiful they may be.

Tunnel Vision
I need to work on my glancing, but so far I've gotten really good at zooming in with my vision on a single thing, blocking out everything else. Literal tunnel vision. This is the best for extreme changes related to that element. You can keep going deeper and deeper into the detail, or pull back and see how your surroundings have changed in relation to what you were just staring at. I recommend going back and forth several times to see exactly what and how drastic the changes were.

It's really hard to explain how these changes take place, you have to experience it for your self. The changes that occur as a result of Tunnel Vision may be too drastic to qualify as control, but it sure is fun. It's more like controlling which water slide you want to throw yourself down.



I've also started working on focusing on multiple objects the last couple of weeks, hopefully glancing will help with that. I had discovered a new vision technique last night that I was experimenting with in a lucid, but I can't quite make sense of what I was doing while awake. It had a rolling feel to it, but that just makes no sense... I'll figure it out eventually.

I've found that when I become lucid and my sight moves from object to object, I will lose lucidity rather quickly. I have to look at everything very slowly and always keep something in focus for my lucidity to stabilize. But I've only got it to stabilize a few times...
This morning I tried to do that as well, but I guess my awareness was also on the DC that I was solacing by hugging her. I focused on a point in my surrounding, but after some seconds I could sense the dream blurring and then my vision started greying out.

Btw, how do you see the eyes of DCs in your dreams? do they look real? This morning was the first time that I actually saw a DC whose eyes looked real to me, there was no blankness or emptyness that had always been in their eyes.

Originally Posted by anomanderis

Btw, how do you see the eyes of DCs in your dreams? do they look real? This morning was the first time that I actually saw a DC whose eyes looked real to me, there was no blankness or emptyness that had always been in their eyes.

I've never noticed anything out of the ordinary about the eyes of my DCs. My zombies usually have a blank empty look in their eyes, but that's to be expected.

Sounds like that would be a good dream sign for you, if you can learn to recognize it.

Originally Posted by anomanderis

I've found that when I become lucid and my sight moves from object to object, I will lose lucidity rather quickly. I have to look at everything very slowly and always keep something in focus for my lucidity to stabilize. But I've only got it to stabilize a few times...
This morning I tried to do that as well, but I guess my awareness was also on the DC that I was solacing by hugging her. I focused on a point in my surrounding, but after some seconds I could sense the dream blurring and then my vision started greying out.

Sounds like you were looking at too many things before you were ready for it.

The exercise Castaneda was practicing consisted of choosing a starting anchor point. Starting from there, he would glance at a few objects, then return to the starting point and repeat the process. Every time he would try to glance at more and more objects before returning to his starting point. I don't even think it would be possible to come up with a better method to practice glancing.

Sounds like you were looking at too many things before you were ready for it.

Originally Posted by The Cusp

Sounds like you were looking at too many things before you were ready for it.

That means that the speed i look with while i am awake is much too fast for when i am lucid, i literally have to move my point of focus a centimeter at a time to not lose focus of the entire dreamscape.

Originally Posted by anomanderis

That means that the speed i look with while i am awake is much too fast for when i am lucid, i literally have to move my point of focus a centimeter at a time to not lose focus of the entire dreamscape.

Nothing wrong with focusing on the entire dreamscape. Peripheral vision works wonders for stability. It's only when focusing on individual items you have to be careful.

Originally Posted by The Cusp

In Castaneda's books, the main technique Don Juan made him practice was just glancing at objects in dreams. I've been rereading those books for over 15 years and never understood what that was about until tonight. Just glancing is the best way to "travel" in a dream without disturbing things too much.

When you glance lingers too long, something happens, a change that you can actually feel. It almost feels like two magnets locking together. That feeling can grow in varying degrees of intensity along with your increased focus on that object.

Hi Cusp,
If I remember correctly, DJ tells him to look in short glances because it fixes the scene by fixating the assemblage point.
V.