To lucid dream, you have to find the signposts in your dreams that will let you know you are sleeping. They are indications that what you are experiencing is a dream. It could be a digital clock that changes time when you look away, or it could be a cell-phone the size of a hardback book that you’re speaking into.
But once you know you are dreaming, you can take control of the dream.
For someone who enjoys control, I am having a remarkably hard time with lucid dreams.
The problem is, I’m not the central character in most of my dreams. My dreams play out in stories.
Intricate, sometimes amusing, often slightly frightening, stories. And since I’m often not in these stories in any active sense, it is difficult to find the signs that would allow me to realize I am dreaming.
And now for some random notes that are absolutely unrelated to dreams, lucid or otherwise:
- My youngest brother has asked me to officiate his wedding next year. It appears that I will, after all, be getting ordained (not a particularly hard endeavor these days). Once it’s official, I’ll start taking confessions and passing out penance. The line forms to the left, please.
- A couple of weeks ago, I crashed my motorcycle taking a turn a little too quickly. It left me bruised and aching in parts I didn’t know existed. But mostly in one piece. I’m now deciding on what my next bike will be.
- My Europe trip looks like it will be set for late October. Amsterdam coffee shops, Paris cabaret and operas, West End shows, and Bruges chocolatiers are all on the itinerary.
I’m not sure I’d like to control my dreams: they tell such fascinating stories. I’d not like to lose that — even when they are terrifying, there is a wealth of revelation, there, if only I would look, and so I do … quietly, and patient; watching, and learning.
There is nothing more fun while dreaming than taking the dream where you wish it to go.
*Lining up for confession*
Mmm, I remember once finding control of my dream while in midflight, and for the rest of that dream sequence happily flew in accelerating circles around my house. Quite exhilerating. I don’t remember what made me realize I was dreaming, though.
Lines up behind Liras for confession, and penance