Thread: Just A Thought

I was just having a thought and I'm not sure I'll be able to voice it properly but I'll try. When weird things happen in dreams, sometimes we try to rationalize it mentally, and sometimes we don't. Why?

Why does it seem odd that our dog has turned blue but not odd that our younger sister has become a beach ball? These things are equally strange.

Then I wonder, does keeping lucid dreaming at the front of our minds during the day help us in our quest to dream lucidly in an unexpected way? If we were not thinking about lucid dreaming before sleep, perhaps when we look for a reason our dog is blue, we come to the conclussion that there was an accident at the groomers . . . if we were thinking about lucid dreaming before sleeping then when we probe our LOGICAL mind for an explanation of the tint of our dog, the first thing we stumble across is the realization that we are dreaming. I'm not trying to question the HOW of lucid dreaming so much as the WHY.

The creative portion of our brain can paint a dream scene so realistic we would never think to question it. . . but when faced with logic, reasoning, words, numbers, and rational thought it becomes confused and has to bring the logical mind into play for just a moment. . . and THAT is the moment when the logical mind has the opportunity to seize control of the situation.

Perhaps that is why some people are forced into false awakenings as soon as that blinding flash of realization occurs. The logical mind balks at any illogical circumstance or situation and forces our conciousness to the place where it OUGHT to be.

So, why is it that some astonishing situations make us question the WHY, even while we're dreaming, and other equally bizarre occurances we just shrug off as though they were commonplace? But how can we condition our minds to always recognize when something is odd during a dream? Obviously that would cause more success at lucid dreaming. The more frequently our logical mind has to be consulted in the dream world, the more chances it will have to exclaim, "Hey, wait a minute! There are no voodoo practioners living in my basement! . . . and for that matter, I don't have a basement! This must be a dream!

But how?

Reality checks and dream signs and critical state testing? How many of us do these things everyday, a dozen times a day? And still when faced with pink penguins on our sofa we are unable to recognize it as a dream. People who have lucid dreams almost every night still have plenty of dreams in which they aren't lucid and don't even think to question their reality. Why? Why? Why?

I say if the human brain has the ability to SOMETIMES recognize dreams for what they really are, then it has the ability to ALWAYS recognize dreams for what they are. But only IF the only variable is that it is recognizing a dream. SO. . . since almost no one dreams lucidly EVERY time they dream, there must be additional variables. Perhaps not all REM cycles are the same. Perhaps the logical portion of our mind is not able to actively contribute to some of them. Is it biological? Or is it circumstantial? Perhaps it's easier to recognize a dream for a dream when a random illogical occurance is inserted in an otherwise logical situation, or perhaps the MORE illogical aspects there are to the dream, the more likely it is that one of them will trigger doubt in the mind of the dreamer. Perhaps it is easier to recognize a dream when we are in our own element or maybe it's the opposite and it's easier to regonize a dream when the environment is unfamiliar to us.

So many questions. It makes me want to change my major back to research psychology.