Thread: Dream Processing and Lucid Dreaming

I'm going to be discussing two different things here first of all, so I'll divide this post into two sections. The first, I'm not even sure what to call it, hence the first part of the title Dream Processing. The second will be about Lucid Dreams and some interesting things that have been happening with mine lately.

Dream Processing: The first part is a hypothesis about dreaming in general. I've been curious about the nature of dreams for many, many years. What are they, what do they mean, if anything, why do I have them, and so on. While I still lack most of the answers, I think I have a reasonable theory as to what a dream is in it's most basic form. It's the visualization of the subconscious processing information. Dreams are so odd and disjointed because the subconscious mind doesn't work the same way as the conscious. It doesn't operate with thoughts and proper sentences like we do in waking life. I don't have the slightest clue as to all the purposes it serves, but it seems to me a part the subconscious is like a massive data processor that sorts all the crap floating around in our mind. That's why dreams are so screwy, they're literally bits of one thing, pieces of another, all slammed together inside this rather nebulous mental landscape that some portion of our mind is trying to make sense out of. Does that make sense?

Lucid Dreaming: I still have zero luck intentionally inducing a lucid dream, but I did have one last night. I don't remember everything about it, but there was something strange that happened. At some point in the dream I realized that's what it was. The odd part wasn't realizing it was a dream, it's what I did in it. Even when I realize I'm dreaming, I have very limited control of what goes on around me. Last night was different. I was searching for either someone or something, all I remember is that I had this incredible drive to locate. I spent a large part of the dream trying to do that, but to no avail, and then I got mad because I couldn't find... whatever. On the rare occasions that I have a lucid dream I've never had much success with trying to manifest things myself. Last night I was warping my entire dreamscape because it was in the way. I was imposing my will onto the dream with frightening strength. Oddly I don't remember if I ever found what I was looking for. I've never been able to do that before.