Thread: Understanding Dream Characters

Ok, I feel bad for using your thread to do a monologue about Jung! I'll say something more helpful now.

Originally Posted by lenscaper

I have read the advice to be wary of them in general as they can detract from lucidity.....do I have that right?

Not always true. I know, I'm one of the people who said that, and it's largely true, but sometimes certain DCs can actually help you toward lucidity. You might run across what's known as a Dream Guide or Spirit Guide, and they will actually be helpful and their main purpose does seem to be to help you achieve lucidity (dream guides anyway, not sure about spirit guides). If you do encounter a DG they'll be somehow mysterious and wise, and seem to have a special aura about them, they're more intelligent and independent-minded than the usual DCs.

I was helped toward lucidity by monkeys and by my 2 old dogs (who are no longer alive in waking reality). In fact, in one dream I was walking through a huge empty warehouse when I saw a bear laying in the corner of a room (bears used to be nightmare creatures for me, this is when that changed). I had learned the trick of flying toward scary creatures in dreams with arms spread wide for a big hug and telling them you love them. Well, I decided to try it (I became lucid as soon as I saw the bear, probably because I wanted to try this).

As i approached I saw that it wasn't actually a bear, it was 2 dogs laying by each other that had just looked like a bear. This is what's supposed to happen when you show love to dream enemies, they become helpers instead and lose their aggressiveness. It tuned out to be my 2 old dogs Dusty and Star, who looked very similar, both mid-sized grey sheepdogs. I always have a hard time telling them apart in dreams.

After this, whenever I see a bear in a dream it always makes me lucid now. Well usually - one time it didn't, but that was a different kind of dream and served a very different purpose, about self-development rather than lucidity.

Let me back up a bit - before these dreams was one with an army of monkeys helping me toward lucidity (at least I believe they were, I didn't achieve it in the dream though). And I was with my dogs in that one I think. Let me see if I can find it - the details are hazy now.

Bingo! Here it is: Monkeys on the water -- and water in the sky

Ok yeah, the monkeys turned into dogs that were grey, which linked them to my sheepdogs. Complicated - no wonder I was having trouble remembering it!! So, first monkeys were sort of dream guides for me, then my dogs, and now bears. It's some sort of crazy dream evolution going on here.

Here's another one, where monkeys actually made me lucid: Monkeys!!! - my 3rd lucid since joining DV!

... Aaaand here's the one with the bear that became my dogs: Finally found the 8th lucid in my journals - Bear Sparked Lucidity (from 7-10-10) (now you get to see how badly I misremembered it! )

Ok, I guess I made up for it. See, once I get off my Jung kick I can actually be helpful!

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What the heck, I'll throw in a bonus. Another dream where a bear (and a man in a bedraggled bear suit) made me lucid: LUCID - "BOOM!" Said the man in the bedraggled bear suit.. And "Y U got a headache?"