The Conscious and Unconscious Duality

The other night before I went to sleep I was just thinking in my head as usual about my own personal dreams and fantasies when something kind of peculiar happened (at least for me.) At some random point in my fantasizing I noticed (consciously) that I had fully slipped into my unconscious state (i.e sleeping) while still remaining in the driver's seat. At some random moment everything in my mind became vivid and real but I was keenly aware that I was in my own head. But just as soon as I had realized it I had lost it. I have had lucid dreams in the past but never right as I started dreaming.

For me there is a fine line that allows you to switch between the two realities but after this experience I'm positive it is a skill that can be perfected.

So I was wondering. Has anyone here perfected this skill (which I would say is remaining conscious and possibly manipulating things from the moment you go to sleep to the moment you wake up) and if so; how did you come about it? Are there ways to practice it?

I thought doing this was normal. One day i just started thinking about my dreams then i focused on it and started to do anything i wanted and if i got bored i just switched my thinking to something else, its quite fun when you can go from flying to going splat on the ground and you feel everything but then you think hmm. I want to be fine i cant die. Then i appear and walk off and do something else. Some times i will be walking around my house (in my dreams) then i hear my dad tell me to wake up and i get sucked back into my sleeping body and i go through the day.. Just think about what you want to do, dont let your mind float away just have fun.

Not quite sure which of my experiences to share here. I have had some pretty scary dreams where in my dream I have woken up (thinking I am awakw) but actually still in my dream I have got up, gone to the toilet, checked the kids in their beds, had something to eat and then woken up (or thought I had woken up) but still dreaming gone through the same ritual, a little disoriented this time because I am not sure if I am awake or asleep. On one occasion I went through a whole day's activities only to realise when I woke up that the whole thing had been a dream, but, it was on about the fourth time waking and pinching myself and all sorts of tests on the reality of the situation that I eventually realised that this time I really was awake. I can tell you it shook me up for months actually because they happened a lot!

To this day I wonder whether my life is real or just a bloody long dream???

One thing I have discovered though, if I become lucid in a dream like that wondering (in my dream) whether I am asllep or awake, I have found that if I try to turn on anything electrical like a light switch onr television, this often wakes me up (it appears in my dream electricity doesn't work for some reason!?

Doesn't most of the world wake up, go to work and live most of thier lives asleep?

Just joking. Though sometimes I want to yell "WAKE UP!" to all the sleepwalkers out there.

As for lucid dreaming. All the experiences described sound familiar. But I cant really say I have had exact same situations because I dont have enough detail to go on.

Chris D, I think that when there are times when I am not supposed to be asleep, if I fall asleep my mind tries to stay awake- and somehow this makes my dreams more lucid. And similar to the situation you described.

I think your mind is trying to keep thinking, and therefore the urge and the pull of the conscious side of your mind is keeping you in that "half" state.

Most people when they go to sleep just relax and let it go. Let themselves fall away. Id stay that to enter that state you described, you need to TRY and stay awake and try and be aware when you are first falling away. And if you have strong will power you may find your mind still functioning to some degree while the rest of you is off hang gliding.

I can say that there have been times when I have been asleep and still in the real world and functioning. One morning I caught the bus home after a late night out, and though I fell asleep I was able to keep my mind on where I was somehow.

I woke up right before my stop, exactly where I wanted to press the stop button. I dont know how I did that asleep, but its a good example of being able to sleep and still be aware of your surroundings and sort of "mixing" the world of dreams with the real world. Keeping your consciousness on a slow hum, even though youre happily dreaming.

And I can also move from one dream to another. If Im lucid dreaming I can tell myself I dont like the dream then I go have another one. I hop between dreams.

If anyone has read the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, there is a sort of virtual dimension in that world where you can escape into the world of dreams. And whatever happens in them affects the real world. People can physically jump into people's dreams, or just be so aware in thier dreams they can move about in them and enter this virtual dream world and travel in it, or enter someone elses dreams and spy on them.

Some dreams seem so real that yeah, I wonder what is real and what is a dream sometimes.

I mean, our minds are always on- they just have the screensaver on when we defrag our hardrive. But move the mouse, and you will instantly get your screen back.

Hmmm.
I have done the dream thing were you believe you go through an entire day then wake up (Or so you think) and it happens again. It has actually happened were i dreamed about the day then I woke up and did the exact same thing.

I do sometimes kind of like to jump from one dream to the other. It is kind of enteresting when you dream about vampires then you dream about your house. And your family gets sucked dry! Oh sorry dreams. Its not that hard, least to me.

I've talked to a few of my friends about lucid dreaming and they all seem to think that they have full control over their dreams all the time. I don't know whether to believe them or think there is something wrong with the way I dream. I find I have very little control over what I dream and have trouble remaining conscious while sleeping. Am I the minority or are people lying to me?

What would be the point in lying?
I do have some friends that say they have absolutely no control of their dreams. Odd.

No you are not the odd one chrisD. It is very uncommon to have lucid dreams on a regular basis. I dont think people are lying to you either. I think that because is such an odd occurrence the people that do lucid dream all the time are the ones more likely to talk about their dreams.

Lucid dreams leave a very strong impression, even after the event, and someone that lucid dreams is more inclined to talk about their dreams than someone who has an average dream they cannot really remember on waking.

I never said I lucid dream all the time. I said WHEN I lucid dream. Which is probably very rarely.

I have never read anything on dreams or tried any techniques or had any great interest in delving deeper into my dreams. Though I admit I find the idea of dreams interesting and really enjoy the dreams I have.

So I have no way of making myself lucid dream. It just happens. And when it does I wake up and remember the dream for the rest of the day as a pleasant experience.

Allot of my lucid dreams seem to evolve as a result of nightmares. Whenever Im having a terrible dream and feel threatened I tell myself its just a dream and I can change it. I either become powerful enough to destroy whatever is threatening me. Or, if it persists, (which is usually the case.) I decide to jump out of that dream and go to another one.

Similar to in the Wheel of Time, which is why I remembered it and brought it up. If anyone has read the series they understand how lucid dreams feel to me.

Sometimes if I am having a nasty dream and running from dream to dream isn't working, I tell myself to wake up. This is often very hard and is a last resort as I find it a very unpleasant experience. Im unsure why, but I just dont have the power to make myself just immediately wake. This results in half waking.

The problem with this is when you are asleep, your body releases chemicals to "semi- paralyse" you so you dont go running about acting out your dreams and hurt yourself. (Obviously people that sleepwalk have some kind of disorder associated with those chemicals being released.)

But when I half wake, I find I am unable to move. I try to lift my arms and cannot. They feel like they are under a mountain. I try to open my eyes but cannot. I am totally helpless.

When this happens I either go back to sleep and try and dream something else. Conversely I may finally manage to wake myself fully and be able to move. But it is a very disturbing feeling.

I just looked up a little on lucid dreams and also the phenomena of people who dream they are awake.
This may be interesting to you Sorceress.

quote:

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A false awakening is an event in which someone dreams they have awakened from sleep. This illusion of having awakened is very convincing to the person. After a false awakening, people will usually dream of performing daily morning rituals, believing they have truly awakened. A dream in which a false awakening takes place is sometimes colloquially referred to as a "double dream".

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What was most interesting was a mention of people testing themselves to see if they are indeed dreaming or awake, and one of the things mentioned was that for some reason light switches wont work. That's really cool.

I wonder why light switches don't work in dreams? Maybe it has something to do with light itself? We never really think about the light in a dream. Its just there. It can be midnight and it is still light enough to see faces and detail. Maybe its always illuminated by some "inner mental lantern" so there isn't any contrast to the different shades in our mind?

Perhaps try this...

quote:

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The wake-initiated lucid dream "occurs when the sleeper enters REM sleep with unbroken self-awareness directly from the waking state". The key to this technique is recognising the hypnagogic stage, which is within the border of being awake and being asleep. If a person is successful in staying aware while this stage occurs, they will eventually enter the dream state while being fully aware that it is a dream. Because one does not have to recognise a cue in order to induce a lucid dream using this technique, it tends to be more reliable than other techniques. There are key times at which this technique is best used; while success at night after being awake for a long time is very difficult, it is relatively easy after being awake for 15 or so minutes and in the afternoon during a nap. Users of this technique often count, envision themselves climbing or descending stairs, chanting to themselves, exploring elaborate, passive sexual fantasies, controlling their breathing, concentrating on relaxing their body from their toes to their head, allowing images to flow through their "mind's eye" and envisioning themselves jumping into the image, or any various form of concentration to keep their mind awake, while still being calm enough to let their body sleep. During the actual transition into the dreamstate, one is likely to experience sleep paralysis, including rapid vibrations,a sequence of very loud sounds and a feeling of twirling into another state of body awareness, "to drift off into another dimension". Also there is frequently a sensation of falling rapidly or dropping through the bed as one enters the dreamstate or the sensation of entering a dark black room from which one can induce any dream scenario of one's choosing, simply by concentrating on it. The key to being successful is to not panic, especially during the transition which can be quite sudden.

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chained wings - that is extremely enlightening and helpful info for me thankyou. The paragraph explaining the paralysis and heaviness and the noises is just how I feel when I have been meditating and drift into an OBE. I get a humming, buzzing in my ears and I feel really heavy but my mind sort of feels light and floaty and then I feel like I am coming up out of my body through my head. The fact about the lights in dreams is really interesting to me and I will go away and think on it.

I have been having very lucid dreams lately and they usually involve me doing something in the dream, then when i wake up I end up doing it.

Can anyone shed some light on this?????

Can you explain the dream on here, maybe if you want some private advice i can offer you some if you go to my message box, i'm good with dreams.