Thread: My journey into the unconscious... unlocking true potential.

As it happens, I have, and it was music too.

It must have been just less than a year ago. I suppose I'd been thinking, as I do sometimes, how do people come up with good new songs? It somehow seems as if all the great ones so far have been obvious, as if they were waiting to be discovered, so it always interests me that people can pluck new ones out of the air. Anyway, in a dream I heard a guitar riff which was pretty original and quite good. I seem to recall remembering it when I woke up, but I can't tell you how it went now.

Originally Posted by SmellyOgre

I've had an interest in lucid dreaming and dreaming in general for a couple of years. The power of the mind has always fascinated me. I've experimented with psychoactive substances, binaural beats, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, and as you already know, lucid dreaming. Occasionally I'm able to drift into a lucid dream one way or the other, sometimes unintentionally. I don't always gain complete control. And being a skeptic, it's hard for me to control my dreams in such ways that wouldn't be possible in reality. Such as summoning objects or vice versa, or changing the entire setting in which the dream takes place. Immersing myself completely into lucid dreams is also difficult for me, I often find myself drifting in and out of them. Half conscious, half asleep.

Despite these setbacks I can safely say that I enjoy lucid dreaming. What prompted my to make this post is a certain lucid dream I had previously.

But first, a brief introduction.

I love music. I find it a powerful way to express one's feelings. It's almost mystical the way music can enchant our minds and put us into such trances. I'm what you might call a "musician." I've had my try at playing music in hope to manipulate sound in ways that other musicians have before me. However, I frequently run into trouble. I get writers block, or maybe that's just a nice phrase to cover up my lack of creativity. I can't think of a next note, or an accompanying series of notes, or whatever. Maybe music composition just isn't a skill I possess or ever will. I've always thought this until a few nights ago.

I don't remember falling into this dream (A lucid dream), I recall none of the beginning of it whatsoever. I'm only able to recall the last minute or so. What's different about this dream in particular is that there were no visuals in it, it was pitch black. Then suddenly I hear some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard in my life. It flowed, it was precise, and I could feel myself composing each note, creating each and every detail as it was played. It was performed by an orchestra, each instrument had its own part. There was a piano playing sweeping arpeggios. String instruments playing their part, a brass section, the whole package. Like something you would hear from one of the classical composers. And it was all original material, this all came from my head. I soon woke up, bewildered yet amazed. It couldn't be, no way I created all of that out of thin air.

Maybe I do have potential in music after all, maybe we all do. But it seems that most of us aren't able to do it. At least not while awake. I would love to be able to have this ability while in the conscious world, many of us would. But how? How could I make this possible? I've thought about trying meditation, seeing as the brain gives off similar waves when in deep meditation as it does in deep sleep. Hopefully one day I'm able to tap into this potential I seem to have locked away somewhere in my head.

Have any of you experienced anything similar to this? And not in music in particular, maybe you've painted a painting or sculpted sculptures in your dreams before.

I am creating some music too. Not as good as most of the producers in world, but at least i am trying. Lucid dreaming as a tool is superb, becouse it opens many possibilities you know.

What you described as a lack of crativity can also be an inapropriate technique, or not as good workflow. Also this can help to improve your creativity in some way.

But the biggest key to be successful is to feel the music, when you listen to music, you should feel the tingling sensation, some kind of electricity. And this is the kind of electricity you should create in your songs.

This or that way. You really know, what you want to do, and you will get it if you really wish it

Iv been musician for many years, but only in the last couple months have i had lucid dreams involving music in them. And i have to say, their quite fantastic, some of the coolest lucid dreams i've ever had.

I compose music in real life quite often, but to me the music i've created in lucid dreams spouts out in a different, maybe more natural and idealistic kind of way. More natural as in there is no conscious/logical thinking involved of what notes are going to come next. Even when i'm super conscious in these dreams, i still don't feel like i'm considering anything about musical theory as i'm composing, especially not musical scales.

As evidence to this disconnect, this one time i was in a lucid dream playing piano, and i decided to play a song i already knew instead of composing. My choice: 'the entertainer' by scott joplin. I think that it was much harder to play a song i already knew then composing a new one, because it was harder to pay attention to hitting the right notes with my physical hands. (When im composing original music in dreams, i dont pay any attention to the notes my physical hand is pressing, only the notes that i hear). Infact, as i kept playing the song, i noticed that i had hit some wrong notes with my hands, and my brain had auto corrected the mistakes by changing the whole key i was playing the song it; i finished the song on a different scale then i had started it on. In my 10+ years of playing music in real life this has not happened to me once, so i conclude that there is a definite separation from musical theory and musical scales while in dreams.

I think this disconnect from musical theory would probably be very beneficial to someone like you who doesn't have much real life musical experience. I think everyone has the potential for great musical ideas, so you should keep it up with playing music and trying to play music whenever you have lucid dreams.

Anyone whos not good at composing music will run into the mind blocks that you've been getting, and it certainly doesn't mean that you wont be good at composing music once you've gotten more experience doing it- i believe everyone has the potential to do it. Once you get more experience composing music, you gain a better ability to cut out logistical-thoughts from your brain while playing music, and let music flow from the part of your brain that is constantly shooting out emotions and other seemingly random "creative" things.

I think its funny that this thread was brought up because I have had similar experiences, both with painting and music composition. The paintings I usually can remember vaguely and several times I have attempted to sketch them in waking life, however the brilliance of the "dream art" is never equaled by my hand; mostly because I am a lousy artist. I've also had dreams of playing the piano and similarly find it effortless to create new pieces; these completely allude me in waking life though, and I am forced to simply enjoy the music once in the dream. It is truly amazing how creative we humans can be when our minds are uninhibited by the logical waking state. Hopefully we can find a way to tap into this creativity.

Although I'm a musician, I don't dream terribly much about music. This is probably because I'm a discouraged composer - all my band mates are too "busy" all the time to get together and practice, even for one measly hour. So I'm not all that enthusiastic about it anymore, although I do still try.

Sometimes I'll hear music in my dreams, but it'll usually be generic in some way... like once when I was getting chased by zombies, and there was that ever-generic horror music playing in the background.

I also dream sometimes of trying to play a song on guitar that I've never actually attempted to play IRL... like Foreclosure of a Dream or Welcome to the Jungle. I usually play them pretty well in my dreams, although I'm usually fully aware that the fingering positions are completely wrong...

Originally Posted by Lëzen

Although I'm a musician, I don't dream terribly much about music. This is probably because I'm a discouraged composer - all my band mates are too "busy" all the time to get together and practice, even for one measly hour. So I'm not all that enthusiastic about it anymore, although I do still try.

Sometimes I'll hear music in my dreams, but it'll usually be generic in some way... like once when I was getting chased by zombies, and there was that ever-generic horror music playing in the background.

I also dream sometimes of trying to play a song on guitar that I've never actually attempted to play IRL... like Foreclosure of a Dream or Welcome to the Jungle. I usually play them pretty well in my dreams, although I'm usually fully aware that the fingering positions are completely wrong...

yeah i notice that too about finger positions being wrong even thought your 'hearing' the music perfectly in your head. the one time i payed particular attention to matching the notes to my hand, i found myself making some mistakes in the pitch.

This one time (recently) i was in a LD, and i was playing a song i had written previously. When i woke up the next morning and played the song on an actual piano, i played it way better then i ever had before, including some added variations that came so mind-lessly that i have to believe they were still in my brain from the lucid dream. i also remembered one or two specific musical ideas from the lucid dream, proving that it is possible, though tough, to break the barrier between lucid/real-life creativity

Originally Posted by EclecticElectric

yeah i notice that too about finger positions being wrong even thought your 'hearing' the music perfectly in your head. the one time i payed particular attention to matching the notes to my hand, i found myself making some mistakes in the pitch.

This one time (recently) i was in a LD, and i was playing a song i had written previously. When i woke up the next morning and played the song on an actual piano, i played it way better then i ever had before, including some added variations that came so mind-lessly that i have to believe they were still in my brain from the lucid dream. i also remembered one or two specific musical ideas from the lucid dream, proving that it is possible, though tough, to break the barrier between lucid/real-life creativity

If you compose something in your dreams again, let me know what it was like and how easy it was to remember the melody after you wake up.

For me personally, I forget whatever melodies I may write unless I constantly go over them in my head for hours. If I'm that terrible remembering my own melodies IRL, I probably won't remember anything I compose in my LDs...

Great thread

From my experience, there is a “place” (or more like a state of mind) commonly known as the Void, or 3D blackness (three-dimensional). It resides in the MABA (Mind Awake/Body Asleep), and I think is just before an OBE. In this zone, one can experience all manner of weird and wacky stuff. Again, from personal experience, it is beyond HH, but quite close and I guess HH can bleed into the Void. However, my HH tend to be random. When in the Void, there is a mental clarity that is…uhmmm… Huge, for want of a better word. I also find a great sense of expectation. I have only visited the Void a dozen times or so – I tend to skip right through it without realising, but it’s a fantastic place to hang out.

To get to the point, I have heard the most beautiful music in the Void. It has been literally breathtaking. Sometimes it is music I already know, and yet it’s as if I’m hearing every single instrument separately but also at the same time. Hard to describe. As I’m listening, I’m amazed that I can create a more perfect version than I recognise from physical reality. I have also heard music that is unfamiliar to me. I wish I was a musician – I could have brought back some good tunes!

I’m not sure whether there is any truth in this statement, but I have heard that Paul McCartney heard the words to “Yesterday” whilst in a similar state and wrote them down when he awoke.

A possibility is that we are connecting with a “collective consciousness” where everything -past, present and future - is available for us to experience. Who knows - but it's a nice idea.

Cham