Thread: Self "Editing"

Hey everyone, I'm new here - a Google search on lucid dreaming led me here.
I have a dream to share, and a follow up question based on it.

Some background - I've been lucid dreaming for a long time (since before I knew it was called "lucid" dreaming). I've used it as a tool for a great manner of things - usually enjoyment, sometimes for insight, sometimes to practice whatever I had about to go on in my life (most notably, first kiss). About a week ago I had the idea that it might be possible to somehow 'reprogram' yourself in a lucid dream, by simply willing it. I figured that, in a lucid dream, I could somehow talk to a metaphorical manifestation of my subconscious, and tell it to make some changes - in my case, I wanted to become more assertive, more confident, and more energetic. I tried to have a lucid dream every night since that idea, and finally had one this morning/last night (whichever you want to use).

The dream basically went like this:

It started with a "normal," non lucid dream that played out until its conclusion (many of my dreams seem to follow a storyline). Once it finished, I didn't wake up; I found myself in my house in the dream.

The non lucid part of the dream finished during dream-night (started during dream-evening, but I don't want to raise any discussion of time dilation here, it's been discussed in this forum), and when I found myself in my house, it was still night. I spontaneously became lucid, and immediately remembered my goal.

I tried to think of a way to "meet" my subconscious, and at first tried to will it like I would any other person - telling myself that when I turn around, he/she will be standing there. This didn't work after a few tries, so I started thinking of other methods. I wanted to be quick about it, because I knew I wouldn't have much time. My lucid dreams always seem to last around 10 dream-minutes after becoming lucid, regardless of how long the preceding non lucid dream was.

I eventually found myself in front of a mirror, looking at my reflection. I said to it, "I want to talk to Me," willing my subconscious to somehow form there. Nothing happened at first, but then I blinked, and saw my reflection in a part of the room where it shouldn't have been (not where I was standing). It was moving its mouth to speak, but I could only hear a dull word-resembling murmur. I told it to speak louder. The murmur grew louder, but I still could not hear it. It was definitely saying something, but just below the volume threshold for understanding speech. I think it was because the realistic part of my mind simply could not accept that the reflection could generate sound, as if it were only an extension of the room separated by a thin sheet of glass.

The dream then went black momentarily.

I found myself in my room in the day time, sitting on my bed with a laptop on my lap (I still knew I was dreaming). I thought "s**t (don't know policy on swearing here), I screwed it up. I should have tried harder to listen."

I looked at this laptop (a big, clunky gray thing, nothing like the one I own or in fact any laptop I've sen before). On the screen was a bunch of blue, and it was, oddly enough, an instant chat interface, resembling MSN Messenger. At the very top, without anything like "<name> says:" were the words, "What do you want to change?"

After this things become incoherent, and I don't remember much for a couple of minutes. The next clear memory is of reading the screen. What I can remember of it said, "...memory is something that can only be exercised. I can't simply make it better. You'll need to work to make it better." Evidently in the black-out I asked about improving my memory (not even close to my goal). Here I could feel myself about to wake up (horrible feeling; I dread it when I'm lucid). I type in, "can you make this dream last longer? i think i'm about to wake up." 'He' responds, "I can't do that either. If you want your dreams to be longer, you'll have to practice remembering them. If you, for example, keep a dream journal, you could make them about <a number, but it's too fuzzy to remember> times longer." There is a bit more incoherence after this, and I finally get around to asking about becoming more assertive, confident, and energetic. 'He' responds, "That's pretty easy, I can do that right now." Nothing happens for about 5 seconds. The screen is then partially filled with a bizarre looking collection of symbols (no numbers, or anything from any alphabet I've ever seen). Then, a big list fills the screen. At this point I'm almost awake and can partially see the real sunlight against my closed eyes, and feel real bed. Just before I wake up, I can see three words from the list highlighted in yellow: Confident; Assertive; Energetic.

I then woke up, and felt a rush of energy. I almost literally jumped out of bed and into my clothes. I ran upstairs and said good morning to everyone. Normally I have to drag myself out of bed, and have a really hard time talking when I first wake up.

As for confidence and assertiveness, I didn't feel much of that. The energy I felt when I woke up disappeared after an hour or so.

I'm pretty sure the computer part of the dream wasn't lucid, because of all the incoherence and weirdness in it. I think I forgot I was dreaming and merely dreamed myself fulfilling the goal I originally set out to do. This made me feel energetic in the morning in a "I think I'm energetic so I'll feel energetic" way, which didn't last long.

I'm sure that there's some way to use your lucid dream to sort of get to the "source" of yourself and make changes. In other words the programming of the operating system that is your mind. I think I got close but lost it when I found myself in my room with the strange laptop.

What do you guys think about the idea of changing yourself through your lucid dreams? Any thoughts?