Lucid Dream - Intepretations?

Hi all, glad I found this forum. Always been interested and amazed by the world of dreams and with lucid dreaming I was fortunate enough to experience at about age 12 (23 now) without consciously inducing one, so have always been furthering my research and passion of dreams since then.

I have been dream journaling for the month of July and my first lucid dream in a long time came last night as I've been willing myself to have one, now and again they come on sporadically though.


So the dream (not lucid at this point) involved me sliding down a river on a kung-fu hat, at the end of the river where it met the sea I knew this particular course had 3 cruise ships to watch out for when you came to the sea, so I stopped before and let the first one pass, at this point I was slowly becomming very aware.. I edged out of the corner and was on the open sea, this was the point where I became fully lucid, what an incredible sensation it is!!! Mind-blowing, knowing your fully conscious that your IN your dream.

So at this point I was considering what to do, I came to an island of a few rocks, I will say I felt VERY vulnerable because I was surrounded by deep waters, they were very calm waters but it was intimidating to me nevertheless, which was odd as I was totally lucid. I said to myself maybe I will ascend to the heavens above to get out of here but again I was feeling nervous, not fearful but nervous and wanted more courage I guess. So at this scene on the rocks, in the center were a bunch of brown birds, kind of like crows, I felt no connection to them whatsoever, I remember saying out loud what am I meant to be seeing here? Then a single bird, all black with a neon blue stripe going from it's head to tail started fluttering away, I knew this was some relevance to me but didn't, nor still do, know specifically what?

So I willed this bird to come steady me a bit more on the rocks and so it did. I wanted to get out of this area so I said again I want to change this scene, didn't have an idea as to what though lol, and when I decided this, the rocks were parting and more land was becomming available, in a good way, not in a im falling into the rocks or anything, so as this was happening I woke up, the whole lucidity bit lasted only about 20 seconds. Any takes on this? Any constructive criticism to improve on, any advice for what to do or discover next time?

I have a few ideas about what the scene represented to me but I would like your views on it.

Thanks, Dean.

Dean,

Congratulations on the lucid dream! Sounds like a good and interesting one.

Not sure whether you are seeking more advice on how to improve lucid dream, or how to interpret the meaning of the symbols in the dream, or both? I am thinking both, so here are some thoughts:

(1) The main thing to improve in the lucid dream like this I think is to not feel so vulnerable and intimidated, to realize that you cannot be harmed in the dream, that you can be in control of your own fate in the dream and nothing can harm you. One way of doing this would be for example to think about this dream during waking time, and especially before going to bed, and think about what this dream would be like if you had not been intimidated. You could also mantra, for example "Nothing can harm me in my dreams" or something else like that, and set your expectations and intentions on feeling more empowered in your next dream. One thing to note is that being lucid does not preclude being intimidated - you say that it was odd that you were intimidated but fully lucid. That's normal. Some lucid dreams are such that one is fully in control and has full awareness including the knowledge that there is nothing to be afraid of, but very often lucid dreamers are not fully in control and/or not fully aware of all the consequences of what being lucid means (including nothing to be afraid of), despite being fully lucid.

(2) As for interpretation, I think it is very hard to interpret such a dream without knowing something about you, what is on your mind, what issues you are struggling with and problems you are trying to solve, your fears and hopes. One thing I can say is that there is an idiomatic phrase "to be in deep water," meaning to be in a difficult situation that is hard to solve, deeper than one is comfortable with and prepared for, beyond one's abilities and familiarity. Do you think you are in deep water in some way in waking life? Is there something in waking life that makes you feel vulnerable and intimidated? I wonder whether there is any significance to it that one cruise ship out of three passed, and then one bird out of several flew away - in both cases one out of several is going ahead, breaking away from the fleet or flock. Do you feel like you are breaking away from some group? That's all I have to say about this for now. I hope this helps. If not, feel free to discard.

EDIT: Thought for you: this thread is currently posted in the lucid dreaming part of the forum, meaning that you will much more likely get advice on how to improve lucid dreaming, but less likely to get interpretations. There is a part of the forum specifically for interpretations, here: http://www.dreamviews.com/dream-interpretation/ - and unfortunately, only a few people are both into lucid dreaming and interpretations, so most people who are likely to interpret are likely to not see this thread in its current location, and you may get some replies in this location from people who do not believe dreams have meaning but who are into lucid dreaming. So if you want both lucid dream advice and dream interpretation, you may want to post two threads, for the two purposes.

JoannaB, thank you for your insight! Yes I was looking for both advice on how to improve the length of lucid dreaming and as well as interpretation.

In my previous lucid dreams they have not been in such a scenario that I would relate to uncomfortableness in waking life so it was different, that's why I probably felt intimidated. Your right I will keep that in mind I cannot be harmed in a dream/lucid dream, it all comes from within

Your interpretation was also great! In regards to the deep waters I don't feel any issues in my life are so out of control, and because the waters were very still, not stormy, I feel it wasn't representing a particular issue. About the rock island and the birds I also feel that interpretation is correct. The brown birds I had absolutely no connection with, but the black bird with the stripe I feel represented me in a way, and yes SO accurate about me feeling like I'm breaking away, in fact I think the rock island with the brown birds could have repsented limiting beliefs in my life and me wanting to be free from it (like the bird) and I felt this upon waking.

The waters could have even represented new oppourtunites and it is in my power to explore new things and not be held back by old belief sets that serve me no longer.

In regards to me knowing the 3 cruise ships had to pass, when the first one did I know I had to peer around the corner to see if the coast was clear and be brave to go forward out to the open sea on my little kung-fu hat lol, so this was actually poitive for me.

Thanks for your awesome advice!
Dean

Glad to have helped! For improving length of lucid dreams, I suggest you read these tutorials:

Dream Stabilization and Clarity Tutorial - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
And
DEILD Tutorial - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

The first one is about what one can do to stay in the dream if it is beginning to fade. The second one is about if you do wake up from a lucid dream, you can try to reenter it.