using dream control to deal with bad experiences
When I was ages 7 to 10, my family went through a violent time. I didn’t realize then that I developed the skill of controlling my dreams, I think I just did it by instinct. When I was about 17, I realized that I had no memories of my childhood before the age of 8. It was also then I learned that some cultures teach their kids to control their dreams. I thought - I do that. I wondered if there was a connection between my dream controlling and my lack of memories. I began to give up control and in about a year or two I began to have vague small images of my early childhood. In the last 20 years, I have slowly gained more.
This skill came to me by instinct and by a conscious choice before sleep that I would “watch” my dreams. For example, if I was falling off a cliff, I would make myself land gently in a pine tree, then I would easily climb down and I was happily safe and away from whatever got me to the point of going over the cliff in the first place. I find even now that if I am going through a time of stress and busyness that my dreams will become vivid and sometimes disturbing so I will go back to this “watching” my dreams and I can then make it turn out the way I want. Sometimes I make the dream replay and then make the changes until it turns out the way I want it. I don't wake up usually from these dreams right away.
I also believe dreams are like a filing clerk. When our brains need to process information, dreams help us do something with all the input we receive both in our daily lives and from our various past experiences. Dream control for me was a way to survive and to deal with stress and pain.
