Dream Maps

Hey, well this is my first post! Hi, hello, my name's Dylan... as you can see. :P Haha alright, moving on.

I have never written down my dreams. I dream every night quite vividly and I always remember my dreams when I wake up. I usually think about them for a bit and try to play them out in my mind again, but I end up getting distracted and forgetting about them. The funny thing is, I'll remember my dreams months, even years later... and not by any particular method. They just *pop* into my head. Now, when I remember one dream another one follows, and then I remember another, and then another. I always remember the locations of the dreams, occasionally I'll stop and dig deep and try to remember what was actually happening in the dream (just like my dream locations, when i remember one event WITHIN a dream, i'll remember another, so i can usually pretty much remember most of the dream if i try hard enough) but most of the time I just "flow along" from dream to dream.

It's really exciting actually, extremely comforting at the same time (gives me chills!)... because these are "my places" you know, and they are as real as other memories of actually places. I occassionally have a hard time figuring out which memories are real and which aren't. Haha, but that's beside the fact. :P Anyway what I noticed, is that I always remember my dreams in a pattern. After one dream, I will always, or at least usually, remember the next specific one. It would have been neat if I had recorded these dreams to see if there is some kind of pattern in the connection of dreams.

Now, what I've also noticed is that not only do the dreams connect in the order which i remember them, but they also actually connect together as continuations of space, creating a sort of map. Sort of like squares. It's not simply linear though, and perhaps this explains how my dreams can connect with more than one, as a square on a map has not only 1 continuation of space, but 4. Keep in mind these dreams are years old, and now I can't remember which dreams are older or newer... they just "connect" together.

I have made several mental maps... and the strange thing is, a few of these maps very very clearly resemble various places I have grown up in. Though often extremely altered in time (ex, middle ages, 19th century, modern day, etc.), perspectives, and relative distances, the overall shape of certain dreams put together (like a puzzle perhaps) resemble these places surprisingly well.

I just thought this was neat and wanted to share it. Has/Does anyone else here done this?

Cheers,
Dylan

Hey Dylan...welcome to the boards!!! After reading you post I think you would really benefit from trying to keep a dream journl to try and more clearly document your dreams. Also, tell us about your lucid dreaming experience...I know you've already mentioned that you are a natural lucid dreamer, care to elabortate? Anyways, enjoy your stay here, there is such a plethora of information available on this site, feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. :D

- nina :wink:

Welcome to DreamViews, Dylan :D

It's very interesting how you've mapped out your dreams... If you could document it, you'd probably find even more patterns and effects going on.
Simply because of the way written information works, of course - nothing wrong with your memory. Your memory seems darn good :D
I honestly can't remember all of last weeks dreams :oops:

hey how are ya Dylan, welcome to DV mate :tongue:

Some people seem to have brilliant memories, and often this can drift into the dream world memories. As nina said if you kept a DJ then maybe every now and then you could really dig deep into al the dream places and such. It's strange how your dream environments are 'yours', they are different from anything else you see. As for thinking about dream and real life memories getting to the point where they can't be distinguished, hehe that just shows how real dreams can be and how misunderstood they are.

I didn't understand though how the dreams connected together to make maps though? Sounds really interesting though ey, keep at it imo!

Well take it easy k, ;)

I know I know... I shooould keep a dream journal. I don't know, perhaps I'll start one here on this site. It would be a lot easier, or... much quicker rather, than writing them all out by hand.

Nina - About my lucid dreaming. I've always just sort of done it, and thought "hey that was cool!", not really knowing what it was. I get them fairly often and one day I was talking to my sister about it and she told me all about lucid dreaming (she has been fairly interested in it for a while apparently). So.... I checked out some websites and read up about it, my interest increasing all the while. See, the thing is, they've always just "happened" for me. Now, knowing that I can actually induce them myself I'd definately like to sharpen this ability and work on perfecting it, or at least getting close. I'm pretty sure that's what everyone else here is working towards as well.

My main problem though, is that for most of the time, I don't realize that I'm dreaming. The dreams are extremely vivid nonetheless, but no matter how outrageous they are, I don't even doubt in the slightest bit the fact that they are real. I often have flying dreams... It's sort of hard to explain how I manage to do it for the most part, but it's almost like I sort of kick myself up in the air with much effort, and i sort of hover off the ground a bit, and then force myself a little higher, and then a little higher, I always improve in my dreams, to the point where I'm able to fly, but I don't even consider it to be odd.

Take one example a couple weeks ago:
I was walking along the beach and i picked up a piece of drift wood. I tossed it (with a spin) aside... though I noticed instead of falling, it hovered. I had discovered a way of flying, apparently all in the technique of how i spinned it. I hopped on the driftwood and soared over the ocean at great speeds. Occasionally i'd lose the ability to fly and i'd slowly drift back down to the beach with the driftwood. I would do it again, sometimes i'd fail, and not toss it in the right way, and sometimes i would manage to get the wood to float. I hopped on again and started flying. There was a point though in the dream that I couldn't get it to float again. No matter how hard I tried and I was so completely confused as to why it wouldn't work. I knew no other reality... I didn't even question it. I was in fact completely shocked and confused as to why on earth I couldn't fly. That's a little discouraging... I mean, yes I've dreamt lucidly before, but I'm sure there's a difference between having very very detailed colourful and lifelike dreams... and have them WHILE being aware that it's a dream.

I have way too many false awakenings as well... way too many. Haha I'm slightly paranoid about sleeping in the lounge at university in my break again, because last time I did, I dreamt that I woke up and went to class, then I suddenly woke up very quickly and my whole body jerked and I kicked a table... hahaha I awake to everyone's curious eyes peeking at me from behind their books :P. ooh well.

Yeah, there's plenty more, but I think I've already said too much about that. I've gotta cut myself off there :P I often get carried away when I talk.


Placebo - I can't remember most of last week's dreams either. I rememeber a few... but that's the strange thing: the dreams come back to me months later! And I go "holy shit I can't believe I remembered that" ... Bah, its so cool to remember dreams spontaneously... maybe I shouldn't make a dream journal just so that I can remember on my own! haha. nah I keep hearing that it's a key part in lucid dreaming... and I'd definately give up the "holy shit I can't believe I remembered that" feeling for better capabilities with lucid dreams. :wink:

Xisdence - What I meant by the "connecting to form a map" was... well, exactly that. The dream locations, the places that the dreams occur, link together... you know. think about it as a bunch of houses on a block. Each house is a different dream, the neighbourhood would be the map... they're all related to eachother in some way or another spacewise. There isn't just one "neighbourhood" or map... there are quite a few different ones ranging from big to small. It's really cool to be honest, and I'd urge you guys to at least try this to see if you encounter something similar. Just remember one dream and go from there, usually remembering one will trigger you to remember another one... see what kind of pattern they make!

Anyway, thanks for the friendly welcomes. :)

Cheers,
Dylan

Welcome, Dylan.
I'm a frequent lucid dreamer also, though I was sort of violently introduced to them about 10 years ago. I say "violently" because I started having them immediately rather than gradually and they tended to be very violent, disturbing, horrible, etc. and caused me much distress for a while. I began to turn to God in prayer and in studying and meditating on the scriptures and the violence (or at least my fear) subsided... Anyway, I often have similar experiences as you describe and even remember past techniques or ways of navigating to certain "locations" or points - kind of like reinserting myself into a past dream at a particular point. I even sometimes thought or imagined that I was experiencing some kind of dream time-travel. As you probably know, though there are various levels of lucidity in dreams. One of my goals in lucid dreaming (I've come to accept LDs as an every night experience) is to become MORE aware (lucid) so that I might overcome the illusion of being caught in these "locations" such as at a favorite childhood playground, or in my parents' home, a classroom, or some other memorable "place." One of the keys is to recognize that these ARE just memories, and thus the realization of this will hopefully lead to learning why these things, places, etc. or the memories of them continue to recur. When I've done this, I've found it very rewarding in terms of learning about my desires, my fears, etc. and also have learned to develop dream skills such as "dreamscaping" (controlling or forming the landscape by will) or even simply seeking wisdom through excavating and sifting through my memories. This is not always good, especially when it comes to any negative memories one may have, but I think at least the realization that they ARE just memories allows you to overcome their recurrence and learn a great deal from them. If you do have many negative memories, or start to have them while "sifting" through them, I would not suggest trying this, or at least, if you have enough awareness, wake up, or shift the focus. This is potentially dangerous from a psychological viewpoint, I suppose. Just my few cents... :|

Ah... well fortunately for me I haven't had a bad dream in years (or at least one that I have remembered when I woke up). I'm sorry to hear that you do though. How have they improved though? Throughout all this spiritual/mental work you've done?

Also, what did you mean by "dreamscaping"... I'm assuming you can only do this in lucid dreams? How did you develope this skill?

Take it easy,
Dylan

I think there was a previous thread or two about "dreamscaping" on this forum. You might try a word search... Anyway, my own idea of dreamscaping is that I can consciously create (or at least change/influence) the landscape within my dreams. I don't know exactly how this came about, except that when I get to a point where I realize I'm dreaming, I question the very nature of the dream content and thus am able to willfully change the direction of the dream, the "visual" content, and even create super-human/impossible abilities (through the imagination of course). This takes much concentration and repeated practice. Often because many of my dreams are negative, this "practice" or "technique" comes about out of a perceived necessity, rather than it being simple experimentation (for example if I am physically attacked in a dream, I have discovered techniques of self defense including decreasing my body density so that I "expand" to the point of overwhelming the attacker...) In other words, they have sort of developed out of reaction. I can also wake myself at will, but I've found that doing this seems to take a lot of energy and really messes up one's sleep patterns so that you wake up not feeling rested. Changing the landscape seems to be instinctual or subconscious as well (I can't explain the exact method, except to say that I mentally "draw" if you will, in multidimensions - things like trees sprout and grow instantly, ground forms beneath my feet, and perception changes from "nothing ness" or empty space to valleys, mountains, vistas, etc. Sometimes these things change from "2-dimensions" like a photo or drawing - into 3-D "reality.") This is not as common, but I wake up from these in wonder, praising God that he has given me some kind of gift or glimpse of the intricacy and depth of my mind... As far as improvement you asked about, my fear of the bad dreams has diminished, not only because I have had them so frequently that I am used to them (this is part of it), but moreso because I have surrendered to the belief and knowledge that God is in control of and purveyor of these things - even the intricacies of my thoughts, will, and imagination. In that sense, I know that I am protected (thus I have peace) even when faced with hellish hallucination type dreams/visions that obliterate my sense of what is real and true. I'm convinced that at least one of the reasons I have these experiences is God is teaching me to realize my human condition and my utter dependence on His Word and His Son. Besides this, I also can't shake the sense that they are preparation (for what exactly I don't know). Either way, I've also become convinced through these dreams that even in the most random or miniscule particle, thought, emotion, etc. there is logic and purpose. -Sorry for the rant. Ultimately, I don't or can't know the full consequnces of these dreams, except that the knowledge of Christ and his Authority and power has kept me from going insane and from delusionally elevating my ego in light of these gifts. Perhaps the negative dreams are a means of keeping me humble, that in my waking life I'm grounded and more able to be an ambassador for Christ while I am here. Sola Christo Gloria :!:

(Paragraphs x_x)

Hhm, well it's neat to hear about those dreamscape things. I get what you mean, but I haven't really tried recreating locations within lucid dreams, I don't know why not. It's more me experimenting with special abilities WITHIN the location my mind already sets up. It just never really came across my mind.

I agree with Kaniaz though :P - paragraphs would have been splendid.

Cheers,
Dylan