Thread: looking into a mirror

About a week ago (before reading this), I had a lucid dream experience that got me back on track with lucid dreaming in general. I managed to WILD (inadvertently while sleeping in the middle of the day) after a WBTB (again inadvertently as I woke up to look at email real quick). This was after staying all up night until sunrise the day before, so I just slept the entire day.

I checked my email, then I went back to bed to go to sleep. After a few minutes of lying down, I was still not unconscious. It wasn't long until I started to feel something else in the room. Another presence was there. I was not alone and it was not benevolent. I remembered about sleep paralysis and the old hag and all that, so I just ignored it and kept trying to fall unconscious. Then I heard several roars and growls as I felt this thing climbing around the walls and ceiling of my room. Again, I ignored it because I knew it wasn't real.

Afterwards, I felt like I was being pushed down through my bed while spinning like a top. At this point, I knew that I was experiencing the effects of a WILD or sleep paralysis, so I decided to get out of my bed and move to end the experience. I couldn't move. It was already happening. I was paralyzed. So I tried again and felt like I was moving through clay. I was very sluggish. I managed to get out of my bed and stand up. I looked around. I wasn't in my bedroom anymore! At least, not the one where I live now. It was back at my home when I still lived in Philly with my parents, before college during high school.

I knew I was dreaming, so I walked out of my room and into the hall. Directly across the hall is a mirror (just like the one in my parents' home). Something about it makes me curious. I want to see what happens if I look into it. I didn't stabilize the dream or anything, as it had been a while since I had intentionally tried to induce a lucid dream. I forgot a lot about what one should do to make it last as long as possible. Anyway, the dream feels sluggish, and I feel like I could "faint" at any point. But I pushed through this tired feeling and walked up to the mirror.

Looking into it, I saw myself exactly as I thought I should look in the dream. I touched the mirror and it behaved just like a mirror. But looking into my reflection's eyes, it didn't FEEL like it was me. It felt like it had an awareness of its own. I remember trying to talk to him or it to see what would happen. At first, he just moved his mouth the way I did, just like a reflection would. But then I stopped trying to talk. I tried to go into the mirror itself to see what would happen. I pushed my hand through and while it did liquify around my hand, the mirror resisted and pushed back. I could not get through!

Then the reflection looked at me and started to talk. It was moving its mouth, but I couldn't hear what it was saying, as if the mirror itself was a barrier. I was scared! Sure, I've had lucid dreams before and know that things are malleable and reality will not follow the rules it does in the waking world, but seeing MY reflection behaving of its own accord while I was face to face with it freaked me out! I shook that feeling of fear off as I just stood amazed at what I was seeing. I kept trying to push through the mirror, and it pushed back. I really wanted to see what was on the other side, so I decided to try flying into it. I tried to fly into it, and while I succeeded in gaining more momentum, I woke up before actually crossing through the mirror.

Mirrors in dreams are fascinating. Maybe it's a more direct version of your subconscious interpretation of yourself. If that is the case, then we could probably learn a lot about ourselves that way.