6/9/07 Saturday Morning.

Yesterday, Friday, I practiced my mantra: “I am dreaming.” I find this technique more effective than looking for specific dream symbols in my dream and hoping I will remember to awaken to lucidity.

I repeat, “I am dreaming,” every five or ten minutes. If I am walking outside I stop whatever I am thinking about (usually a lot of mental chatter) and focus on where I
am at that moment. Anyone can learn this procedure.

Focusing is very important. Look at the scenery around you. Focus your attention on whatever it is you see. See how green the lawns are. See the flowers and trees and the colors. If there are smells be aware of the aromas. Don’t let anything escape your attention. The key words here are “focus, attention,” and “Intention.” It must be your serious intent that you will have a lucid dream.

If you are drinking a cup of coffee, stop and repeat, “I am dreaming.” When you are at the computer wrapped up in typing out you’re thoughts, stop for a moment and repeat, “I am dreaming.” Focus your attention squarely on the computer, what it looks like, its color, its texture. Repeat the mantra, “I am dreaming,” and then continue on with your task. Remember to repeat this throughout the day. It is your intention to carry this over into your dream state that night. You will be dreaming and suddenly you will say, “I am dreaming.” It doesn’t do any good to put your self on automatic. Repeating this throughout the day without intention and focus will accomplish nothing. This is an arduous technique, to be sure, but if practiced with intent/sincerity, you will not fail to have a lucid dream.

Taking a 3mg tablet of melatonin an hour before bedtime will help you sleep and usually intensive your dreams.

AT 8:00pm I take two tablets of melatonin 3mgs each. By 9:00pm I am drowsy and ready for bed. I climb into bed and begin my meditation, watching my breath go in and out, and my chest raise up and down. I relax each part of my body until all the tension as melted away. My breathing as become so shallow I can even hear myself snoring. The late Robert Monroe, of the Monroe Institute, called this mental state of awareness Focus 10; your mind is awake but your body is asleep. I continue watching my breath, periodically repeating, “I am dreaming.” Soon I have fallen into an ordinary dreamscape.

I am at a public Gym. There are many small cubicles/rooms used for massage. Each cubical has its own masseuse. Immediately I notice everyone is either “buck naked,” or wearing a towel wrapped around their waist. I have a towel wrapped around me and feel uncomfortable. Some of the people are attractive; others have deformities. I see a very small man; he almost looks like a midget but not small enough. He too is deformed and looks like a female and a male combined. I realize some of the men are homosexual. I have no such inclinations.

I have come to the Gym to work out but when I enter the area where the Gym equipment should be I see that the equipment is missing. In its place is a large banquet table. Everyone is fully clothed now and gathered around the table. I pick up a paper plate but notice the main course is some kind of meatloaf. I change my mind, put the plate back,
and leave the room.

The door to the main steam bath is left open and I look inside. The light is on and people have left their valuables lying on the bench. They have left their wallets, change purses and other valuables there. An old tape loop/program from when I was a young man begins to play. I think how easy it would be for me to steal their belongings and exit the building. I quickly put the idea out of my mind.

A visitor has arrived at the Gym. He is a tall man about forty or fifty with a British accent. He says he comes to the Gym often. I am not comfortable around this person and exit the Gym. Somehow he has gotten ahead of me and makes some kind of sexual innuendo inviting me to follow him if I like. I decline the invitation.

Walking to the corner I turn down a side street. I am in an area I have never seen before.
It is a very striking area. I tell myself “I am dreaming,” and become fully aware that this is a lucid dream.

I seem to be in a rustic rural area. There are a number of different structures; there are houses but there are other buildings that have some other purpose. Everything is wooden and weather beaten. I see an older woman with blond but graying hair disappear between two buildings. She is about forty years old. Looking across the street I see what looks like uncared for farm land with out buildings. Beyond I see rolling hills and oil derricks that appear unusually large.

There are trees, big, tall like cotton woods, and old. They too seem weather beaten. The entire scene looks like something from the days of the depression. I remember to tell myself, “I want to experience the divine,” but nothing happens. I repeat this but still nothing happens. I begin to lose control of the dream and try dream spinning but I realize I am not spinning and can’t make myself do so. I awaken in my bed. It is 3:40am Saturday morning.

A brief interpretation.

Trees seem to play an important role in my dreams. There are two big Parks in my area of town that I frequent. They both have beautiful and elaborate walking trails. I imagine Heaven (if there is one) must be just like this. There are also streams running though the Parks. Something else that stands out is the episodes of being naked. There is nothing sexual about this. Instead I believe it has something to do with my being “exposed.” It may mean there are things people see about me that I am unaware and therefore am “exposed.” Or it could be telling me there are things that I need to expose to the light of day; things I need to know about myself!

The people that appear in the dream are aspects of myself. I think that is a given. The little man/midget who is deformed may represent something about myself (some characteristic?) that is deformed, and has not formed in an appropriate way. And what am I to make of the discomfort being around homosexual aspects of this dream. I have no inclinations toward this lifestyle so what am I afraid of? It may have more to do with any value judgments I have made regarding the lifestyle and any hidden inclinations.