Lucid dreams, or dreams you have conscious control of, show how complicated and powerful our mind is.
I’ve written a lot of articles regarding different topics associated with dreaming. From the different reasons why dreams are so interesting, various motivations behind analyzing dreams for different people, the dangers of this analysis, and what exactly dreams might be. In this article, I intend on discussing the concept a specific type of dream. A dream state which interests everyone who studies dreams. Of which those who treasure dreams strive for. This style of dreams which I am referring to is often referred to as lucid dreams or dreams you have conscious control of.
Think about the possibilities. In a realm of your own creation, loosely reflecting the laws of physics which we are forced to abide by on a daily basis, but with us ruling over perception, perspective, occurrence, and interaction. To be conscious and acknowledge that you are in your own dream. The possibility that we can make anything happen, at will.
With this much capability, where do we start?
A lot of things come to mind immediately which would be exciting to get to experience. Flying, teleportation, living out fantasies, to name a few things to try out during your lucid dreams. But what other possibilities might exist? I’ve only ever experienced one lucid dream throughout my life, which took place in a comfortable setting, and all I wanted to do was continue “flying” over a line of trees. Though this is my only experience with lucid dreaming, a few of my friends have a lot of lucid dreams they were willing to share with me, and I was able to find some very useful websites on the topic like http://www.howtolucid.com/. From these resources, I was able to discuss a few other alternatives to lucid dreams which are in a little more mature of a mindset and very thought-provoking to consider.
1. You can meet any person that you want
Any celebrity, an old teacher, maybe a person you’ve had a crush on for a while, in any setting. What would that be like? Through deliberation and discussion with friends, I have drawn the conclusion for myself, speculatively, that they would simply be a version of themselves based on your perceptions of interactions you’ve witnessed them in. These perceptions would be far beyond conscious perceptions like “oh they’re wearing a green shirt again, so and so must like green,” but rather more insightful understandings based on small twitches and facial reactions to circumstances.
As such, the person whom you are to meet in your dream, in my opinion, would likely be very close to the same personality as they are in real life, and may even be willing to tell you a secret or two about themselves which you had “divided” during conscious interactions or observations. However, it’s probably best not to act on these interactions from your dream, as the person with whom you are meeting is, in my opinion, a representation manifested by your own mind, and not factual in all aspects of their “falsified” reality.
2. Facing your fears
It’s always been widely accepted that the best way to overcome any fear, clinical or otherwise, is to put yourself in a situation in which you have to overcome it. For instance, a fear of heights is often overcome by walking on tightropes and rock climbing (with safety considerations, of course). Or a fear of bees can be overcome by starting a beekeeping facility and surrounding yourself with them.
The same psychological advantage, with more safety associated with it, can be acquired by living out these circumstances in your own dreams. While dreaming, it has been proven that vital signs are influenced by the occurrence within the dream and that our bodies respond in some ways to what we’re witnessing.
3. Attempting to convince a person in your dreamworld that they are within a dream
Imagine the complexity associated with this. You are dreaming, and thus this world is your own creation. Through this, you have created personas of various people based on your personal observations of them and their interactions; personas associated with people whom you have interacted with, who are supposed to be “cast” in their role. As our unconscious minds are creating these characters as real people to interact with inside our dream, they are made to be versions of themselves that we understand, not dream people. However, it is our mind which is ultimately controlling them; the same mind which acknowledges it, itself, is within a dream. Definitely interesting to think about…
To think that one can have complete control of their environment and interactions within a dream, while being conscious and uninhibited. The exciting possibilities are numerous and mildly intimidating. As these worlds and interactions are created and mandated, governed, by our minds – it really goes to show how vast and complicated our mind must be to create this shape in which we dream.
This article was written by Nick Harding and originally published on www.learning-mind.com
I’m an automation engineer who started out with just a drafting degree, but didn’t want to stop learning. Ideally every day I find someone who needs help and do whatever I can to make their day. I enjoy expressing myself, whether it’s through writing, story telling, singing or playing guitar; I love to teach others, as well as myself. My strongest drive is the interest in learning everything I can know, and speculating on topics that I can’t. I know many people will react with the question, “an engineer with an open mind!?” Yes, I find it hard to disbelieve the things which we can see – since I am able to see energy, I am able to consider other potentials which are also deemed “non-scientific”.
Social Links: