Dream On

It all started, or should I say restarted last weekend. I had very erratic sleep patterns that time. No sleep for 36 hrs followed by 12 hours of sleep, followed by another 48 hour stretch and so on. After a couple of days it got to me. I became a kind of zombie. The upshot of the whole thing was that I had a couple of Lucid Dreams. For those who are unaware Lucid Dreams are dreams in which you are actually aware that you are dreaming. If you have been following my blog, you probably know that Phaedrus had a couple of Lucid Dreams as well. Between the two of us we now have four Lucid Dreams.
I then tried to see if there was some sort of similarity or pattern in the dreams.

Dream 1: Phaedrus is in a room. Everything is in shades of blue. Somehow (this was before Phaedrus ever became aware of Lucid Dream Induction techniques) Phaedrus suddenly realises that he is in his own dream. The next thing he thinks of is that if it is his dream, he can do anything he likes. So he walks out of the room and finds himself on a street, where he finds two beautiful women. He walks up to them and begins kissing one of them. Just as he begins to kiss her reality strikes and he is unable to hold on to his dream. It is all over.

Dream 2: Phaedrus is falling off a cliff when he suddenly realises that it’s only a dream and nothing can happen to him. He begins to enjoy the fall. Then a thought occurs what if it is not a dream. This grows into fear. The fear grows bigger and bigger blocking all other thoughts. The fear is too great and as he screams out in fright he wakes up.

It was after this that I started doing some research (googling) about Lucid Dreams. I didn’t even know till then that the dreams I had had were called Lucid Dreams. I started reading about induction techniques and reality checks.

I shall explain these things in the next two paragraphs. If you know what they mean/are not interested you can skip them.

Induction techniques are methods/ways to actually cause you to have a lucid dream. Most of them involve meditation and reinforcement techniques. More stuff about this can be found on the net/ in some Tibetan Dream Yoga texts. The orkut lucid dreaming community has some personal induction experiences. These are somewhat more practical if you want to try them out. But most of them are based on sleep denial and hence somewhat unhealthy and dangerous.

Reality Checks are “checks” that you keep performing to know whether you are really awake or just in a dream. For example touch your nose with your finger. Or ask yourself a series increasingly complicated of logical questions. My personal experience is that if you make it a habit, you will automatically do a check in your dream, and might find that your check fails and lo and behold you have your lucid dream.

Dream 3:I was on a surgeons table. He’s examining my left shoulder for some sort of tumour. I realise that it’s me and not him that is examining my shoulder. I get a very lonely feeling as I begin to realise that I am all alone. I get scared of being alone. The fear grows. I do a reality check. Thankfully Lucidity Strikes! It’s only my dream. I then decide that I might as well have fun and start flying. No wing flapping etc., just like a rocket. It felt great. As I begin to enjoy myself more and more, I loose control and the dream dissipates.

Dream 4: Pretty similar to dream 3. Except that I started of being chased by some sort of demon, and realise that I am chasing the demon and not the other way around. Then of course flying! I am actually beginning to acquire a liking for it.

So is there a pattern in all this?
If I can do a reality check for a dream, is there a reality check for reality?
Is my subconscious trying to tell me something? Or am I just justifying an escape from reality?
I have resolved to try actively to solve my confusion. I need to do more “research”. I plan to read some Freud/other psychology to get a better perspective of myself. To paraphrase one of my professors “I am my own patient”.