To Lucid Dream or Not to Lucid Dream . . .

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Wikipedia defines a lucid dream as: “A dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. In a lucid dream, the dreamer can actively participate in and manipulate imaginary experiences in the dream environment.Lucid dreams can seem real and vivid.”

This is much different than usual dreaming. In lucid dreaming you can actually control the dream and your actions in it. If you come upon a stairway, you can decide whether to climb those stairs, or turn and walk the other way. If something is chasing you, you can keep running, or turn and face your tomentor – thereby facing your fear – knowing that whatever it is cannot actually hurt you.

I cannot lucid dream. That is to say, I haven’t yet actively tried. I bought a book that sort of trains you to do it, but after the first few pages I closed the book. You see, I realized that I’m not sure I really want to lucid dream. My dreams are fascinating and wonderful and disturbing and scary – and they are all born from my subconscious; real mind matter that flows freely. It is known that dreaming is a way for our mind to work out our problems and worries and makes us feel better in the morning. So if I were to start controlling the actions and outcomes of my dreams, would my mind be completely satisfied in the morning? Would my subconscious get out what it needed to get out?

On the flip side, knowingly facing your fears could be therapeutic (or tramatizing).

Do you lucid dream? If not, do you wish you could?

4 replies added

  1. Rosschild November 4, 2011 Reply

    I can lucid dream and its awful….I wake up a lot of times wishing that I had just stayed asleep and had not realized I was dreaming at the time because it always leaves me unfulfilled.

  2. Katie November 4, 2011 Reply

    Interesting, that's what I wondered. So you sometimes feel like the dream didn't go the way it should have?

  3. Robert November 8, 2011 Reply

    I do lucid dream from time to time. Some times it's great (like when I'm sacking a girl that I've always dreamed out), but the majority of time I lucid dream during a bad dream (like a fight) and I always take it too far and wake up sweating and feeling bad about the way it went.

  4. Capt. Ronbo January 17, 2012 Reply

    I think I do this, especially after I've woken up from an alarm and are aware both of the impending snooze alarm and of the dream.

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