From: bdsm@fermat.WPI.EDU (Billy Don McConnell)
Newsgroups: alt.dreams
Subject: Re: semi-concious dreaming ...
Date: 27 Sep 1992 02:51:46 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: fermat.wpi.edu
Originator: bdsm@fermat.WPI.EDU


In article <1992Sep24.193201.1@cc.curtin.edu.au>, sphillip01@cc.curtin.edu.au writes:
|> Occasionally I get these dreams when I'm semi concious (or so it feels), and 
|> these I can remember long after I wake up. I can usually control what I do in 
|> them to a moderate degree as well. An interesting one the other night had an 
|> added twist, I was happily dreaming along, when I realised something was 
|> impractical (I was given a one way plane ticket, how was I to return ?), & thus 
|> I woke up (or so it felt like), only to find a return ticket in my pocket, which 
|> was confirmed to be a proper ticket by some people I knew at the bus stop ... 
|> Then I realised I don't sleep fully clothed in a bus stop, & "Where the hell did 
|> these tickets come from?", & I woke up again, this time properly ...
|> 
|> Any comments ? On semi-concious dreaming ? I could almost swear I was awake the 
|> second time, until I woke up .... Any way to force this type of dream, rather 
|> than wait for chance/sub-concious ?
|> 
|> Trevor Phillips
|> 
|> 
|> +-------------------------------------------------------+----------------------+
|> | Internet: SPHILLIPS10@cc.curtin.edu.au                | Curtin University of |
|> |           SPHILLIP01@cc.curtin.edu.au                 |      Technology      |
|> | Bitnet: SPHILLIPS10%cc.curtin.edu.au@cunyvm.bitnet    |                      |
|> | UUCP  : uunet!munnari.oz!cc.curtin.edu.au!SPHILLIPS10 |    Trevor Phillips   |
|> +-------------------------------------------------------+----------------------+
|> | "... and thank you for bringing up such a painful subject. While you're at   |
|> | it, why don't you give me a paper cut and pour lemon juice on it ..."        |
|> |                             - Miracle Max, from The Princess Bride           |
|> +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|> 


Pardon me if I write things of which the net is already aware, I'm new to
newsgroups in general and the alt.dreams group in particular.  But I just
thought I'd comment on "semi-conscious dreaming", although I've heard it
called "lucid dreaming".  Just so we understand terms, Lucid Dreaming is
pretty much defined to be the experience you had, but with an added dimension of
dream control (at least as an option);  I think your experience might be 
considered Semi-Lucid...with a "False Awakening", no less (I love those!).  
I would like to suggest a reference, but I want to put it in perspective:

Many years ago, I had what could probably be termed a Semi-Lucid dream, although
I really can't be sure.  I was dreaming really of nothing, of just floating in a
big black void.  The interesting thing, though, was that I was fully aware of my
state:  I knew I was dreaming...even more, I knew (or at least thought) that my
perceptions in this dream state were somehow magnified.  I was thinking very,
very clearly about all sorts of things.  I didn't take actions, I just floated,
enjoying the ride.  It didn't last too long, but the memory stays with me.

Sometime later, when I entered college, a friend of mine (who had heard my story)
sent me a book _Lucid Dreaming_ by Stephen Le Berge.  He wasn't sure if my
experience really fell into the Lucid Dreaming category, but he thought I might be
interested.  I was.  I read through the book, learning all sort of things about
what Lucid Dreaming was...including tips on how to ensure having such dreams. I
got about half-way through before I fell asleep.  That night, to my complete
surprise, I had a genuine Lucid Dream.

In the dream, I was standing in a sort of void again, but on a infinitely
expansive gridded floor.  A short distance ahead, a woman stood with her back to
me.  I said "Hello.".

"I can't turn around," she responded.

"Why not?"

"Because if I do, you'll wake up."  The book had explained that sometimes
hearing your name...or trying to write it...will wake a sleeper up.  But I
thought she was being just a little overly cautious by not even wanting to turn
around.  I was sure THAT wouldn't be a problem;  what good would Lucid Dreams be 
if people kept their backs to you all the time?  

"I won't wake up," I insisted, taking a step or two closer.

"Yes you will," she insisted back.

I reached out for her shoulder.  She was wearing a red dress, and to this day I
have the recollection of actually FEELING the material under my hand as I turned
the woman around.  At the time, I was simply amazed at the reality of my dream.

Well, the woman was facing me, and I was still dreaming, so

"See, I told you I wouldn't wake up."  The woman seemed satisfied, and I just
stood there for a split second, until the whole dream image became fuzzy and
started to disappear into a distant point of light...as though I were being
quickly pulled away from the scene by some strange force.  I fought that force
for a while, but only managed to delay my departure;  I could regain the scene. 
Of course the force won out, and I was pulled completely out of the scene...and 
out of my dream:  I woke up laughing...the woman had been right!  

Anyway, boring as that dream my seem to you folks, it was quite an exciting
turning point for me.  I never finished reading the book, because I continued 
to have spontaneous lucid dreams often enough.  Sometimes I wish I could have 
them more often (like I said, the book tells you how), but I just don't have the
stick-to-it-iveness to learn and develop the techniques Le Berge writes of.  My
sense of things, which is borne out by the woman-in-the-red-dress experience, is
this:  If you think hard enough about having a Lucid Dream (remember I had fallen
asleep while reading about it), then your brain might get the message and allow
one.  I think the more formal techniques run along the lines of "training" your
brain to allow them, as well as training your mind to recognize a dream when it
sees one.

Remind me sometime to write about my two other favourite Lucid Dreams.  There's
the one where I joined the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man on a 
trip down a different Yellow Brick Road (I wasn't Dorothy, I was ME...and Toto
was replaced by a large Irish Setter named Rusty don't ask me why);  I had a
false awakening in that one (and Rusty was there, too).  And then there's the 
Lucid Nightmare, where although I had learned over time how to control these 
dreams, I couldn't control this one;  in general I don't try, because it's just 
fun to watch and interact, but in this one I really did try, because my head was 
expanding like a balloon and I was desperate to stop it.

But enough of this.  I suggest reading _Lucid Dreaming_ by Stephen Le Berge (or
is it De Berge...now I'm not sure).  I don't know if it's still out there.  My
friend showed me the second book by the guy, entitled something like _The World
of Lucid Dreaming_, which I started to read, but didn't get very far in (because
I already knew pretty much everything he had to tell me).  At one point I saw a
book entitled _Lucid Dreaming in 30 Days_, which my friend was reading for a
while.  It has a day-to-day regimen to follow...but some of the exercises are
pretty goofy;  my friend didn't last very long with it.  (He, by the way, has yet
to have a Lucid Dream;  and his envy of my talent is considerable.)

One last note.  I think this is a tip from the first book:  If you are in a 
Lucid Dream, and you feel that you are "losing contact" and about to fade into 
Regular Dream-mode  LOOK AT YOUR HANDS!  I know it sounds weird, but it works.
Even wierder, try this:  SPIN AROUND!  That works too.  (I think the book
mentions that spinning one way is more effective than spinning another way, but
who really knows?)

And a request, as long as I've got you all here:  If you come across any
rule-of-thumb methods of inducing or maintaining a Lucid Dream, please let me
know.

Pleasant Dreams, all.

bdsm  




Newsgroups: alt.dreams