Lucid dreaming lets you make use of thedream state that comes to you every night to have a stimulating reality
Stephen LaBerge
I am a lucid dreamer, have been for as long as I remember. Lucid dreamers have certain traits that lead them toward a certain lucidity in dream state. I have a lot of those traits.
1. Frequent Nightmares: I have had night terrors since I was a little girl and the lucid dreaming arose, I believe, as a way to handle the terror in my dreams and the trauma induced fear in my waking life. The nightmares went away after I dsicovered that it was best to confront fear, rather than run from it. I began to confront it in my waking life and I began to actively confront it in my sleeping life. If the source of my night terror was hiding behind a window or a door, instead of attempting to scream for help with a voice that would not come out, or run on legs that would not move , or curl up in a ball waiting for it to come and "get me"...I began to make myself walk towards the door or window my fear was behind and open it. I told myself, in my dream, that facing fear was the only way through fear. .As soon as I opened the door or window I would find nothing there and I would stop remembering my dream from there. The night terrors diminished significantly.
2. Vivid Dream Recall: I am not saying I remember all my dreams in detail but I remember a great deal. I make it a point every morning to write what I remember from dreams down. Some recurrent themes to dream snippets are driving...and not quite knowing how to get to where I am going, dressing/changing clothes/ suitcases full of different outfits, caring for people who are sick and or dying, looking after/saving animals and teaching people about who they really are. These themes have been in my dreams for as long as I can remember in varying context. I see different characters...some I have never seen before and others are the same recurring characters in different forms? I know who they are even if they are in different bodies. I am not sure what body I am in...it seems to keep changing. I never really see myself except from a distance the odd time. I often talk to people who have passed on...usually by telephone? They call me...I know who they are even though they never talk to me...I talk to them but I know they have a message for me and I try to "guess" what it might be. They often get frustrated with me and hang up because I keep getting it wrong...even though they do not say anything, I know they are frustrated. Other times...they seem pleased that I got it and they really, really want me to remember it when I wake up. Throughout my dreams both the alive and dead people are relaying important information to me...and I say in my dream, "I am supposed to remember this when I wake up, aren't I?" I promise to remember it but when I wake up I often remember that I was supposed to remember a number or a phrase or a symbol scribbled on a piece of paper or a stanza for a poem I am supposed to write but I often cannot, at least not in detail. Sometimes the messages are so vague and cryptic and other times they are so clear. I did recall when I was told by a very familiar entity that I could not see, "Something is going on in your pelvic area...don't worry ...it is not life threatening...but it will become so if you don't make certain changes in yor approach." That was days before I started bleeding. I also remember what I was told in my dream last night by this Something or Someone I could not see...I am often given messages by this familiar female energy. I won't share it here becaause it does not make a lick of sense...yet. lol
3. Sleep paralysis. I have not had an episode of this in so very long...knock on wood...but I do at times wake up completely paralyzed. I can not move my body or make a sound...and there is this heaviness pushing me down. I know at that time...I have a choice...to fall back into the heaviness or do whatever I can, fight with all I have, to turn over on my side ( I am usually on my back) . The heavines seems so powerful pulling me back into it. In those moments it is so hard to turn over but I fear if I give into the heaviness, I will never wake up again. My survival instinct kicks in and I push through it. I can also see and experience some very "unplesant" things in those moments...what I have come to undersatnd as hallucinations because I am still partially in REM sleep. It is a very terryfying experience so I do what I can to avoid sleeping on my back.
4. Introspective personality: Well that is self evident by my writing here. :)
5. A person who meditates: I am discovering that I am becoming more and more lucid in my dreaming, the more I meditate. I woke up yesterday morning feeling that heaviness, that idea that I have to change my life somehow, that I have been carrying around over the last six months. On top of that I had the pelvic pain. I did not feel 'good'. So I said I was going to spend a lot of my day meditating. I did four guided mediations over the course of the day. I felt better in the evening, better than I felt in a long while. And last night ...my dream state was so cool. At one point ...after I recieved the messages (which still do not make sense to me though they made perfect sense in my dream) and was looking for a piece of paper and a pen (in my dream) to write it down so I wouldn't forget...I said to the characters around me, "Oh my goodness, I am doing it again. I am dreaming and I am aware I am dreaming. I am a lucid dreamer , you know? This is a dream. " They just looked at me and I had the impression they thought I was nuts. "This is so cool! " I said, "Watch me." And I decided I was going to make myself do some somersaults in the air. So I jumped up and spun around very slowly and then I did it again even more slowly before landing back on my feet. I am not sure of their reaction...not even sure if I was looking for it or cared even. I was just so thrilled that my lucid dreaming had advanced to that point. It was very freeing. I woke up this morning feeling so much betetr than I did in a long time.
Where does a lucid dreamer go from here? I can use my dream, as Carl Jung would surely recommend, as a means to relieve and resolve this heaviness/"what change do I need to make in my life" issue. I can sit down with my dream characters, add those who I trust to the circle, and discuss it with them. That female entity that cannot be seen...just might be the wise Self within me and she may just be able to provide a clear message that I will remember on waking up. Worth a try, isn't it?
Hmmm!
I share this because I have always been fascinated by the healing power of dreams. Thought, by chnace, you might be too.
Check out the articles I found on lucid dreaming
All is well in my world.
It is actually a scientific phenomena : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2737577/
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/dreams/lucid-dreams
https://vbchange.com/lucid-dreaming-spirituality/
Stephen LaBerge & Howard Rheingold (1991) Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming.Ballantine Books
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