Getting Out of Darkness

**Pascal** · 10-11-2010 05:24 PM

So, I just achieved lucidity again this morning after an awesome dream where I decided to faith jump from the third floor onto a cement/tile floor and didn't die in the process. I think I've confirmed that the gravitational constant in my dreams is significantly less then what it is in reality, maybe even 1/2 g*, but the sensation of weightlessness remains the same. Doing this caused me to feel that if I could fall, maybe I could fly like in my dreams. The keyword knocked me into my senses...

...This was a dream...

Anyways, given that I was lucid I wanted to do the things I had previously planned. In particular (though I didn't have the state of consciousness to remember it then) I wanted to talk to my true "self", the archetype in Jungian psychology. I had a theory that we can't typically see ourselves clearly in the mirrors of our dreams because we don't truly understand ourselves (it's a metaphor of dream-language). So, in order to see clearly - I figured, why not walk through to the other side of the mirror.

This has been tried before apparently: [1] (albeit for different reasons)

Without invoking grave digging, I would like to say that I experienced the mirror a little differently. The substance was just a little thicker then water and I was easily able to climb in. But I didn't find myself on the other side. Instead, I found myself in darkness. Just darkness. I turned around and found the mirror was gone. I even tried imagining things into existence in the dream, but nothing. It was rather funny, I was in my mind's imagination experiencing a dream and I was imagining full scenery "inside of my mind". So I was imagining in my mind in my mind...

Anyways, I know other people have had similarly "stuck" experiences in their dreams when closing their eyes. Does anyone know how to get out of this "dark world" in their dreams?

-Pascal

*Seeing as it took about 2 seconds to hit the ground while falling, 3 stories are about 27 feet, gravity has an acceleration on Earth of 32 feet/sec^2 and the equation for distance traveled with constant acceleration is z_f - z_0 = 0.5 * a * t ^ 2.

**I'm also considering the possibility that the darkness was a metaphor for the idea that my true "self", the archetype is actually sleeping and that I can't meet "myself" as I'm me. Maybe if I "opened the eyes of the darkness" I would truly see as me.

**Hukif** · 10-11-2010 05:32 PM

Aha, so gravity also fails in your dream!
Anyway, when being in darkness, I try to either close my eyes and imagine a new scene, or claw my way towards where the "light" might be and then tear through it to make the place lit.
And I had no idea mirrors failing was because of that, I always see myself clearly.

**ZedCa** · 10-11-2010 06:51 PM

I've only been in that darkness once, but I escaped it by spinning long enough to say "You're dreaming" three times. I didn't have a destination in mind, but when I stopped a fuzzy light in the distance appeared and grew and eventually became a door that opened to a new dream.

**Raspberry** · 10-11-2010 07:27 PM

Hmmmm I dunno. The last few times I was in darkess (though not complete darkness like you describe) I change the weather. Guess that's not possible for you though...

**Hyu** · 10-11-2010 08:39 PM

When I WILD I sometimes start my dream in my bedroom, which is very dark, sometimes I can't see anything at all.
The light switch never works, and it's too dark to navigate out of my apartment, and I'm sure it would be dark outside as well.

I usually fix this by spinning.
Either this teleports me to a new dream scene which is properly lit, or it turns night into day.

**Raetin** · 10-11-2010 11:52 PM

If you can see your hands or anything at all, there is always light. Imagine that there's a source of light somewhere and you have to get to that light to get out of the darkness.