Rondayview

Lucid Dreams

After twenty years, I finally had another lucid dream!!!

Twenty-plus years ago I had a dream where I became aware, in my sleep, that I was dreaming, and I was able to "rewind" the dream to change an event. Don't laugh, but the event was a fork in the road. In my dream I was in a car, and I was being chased by two girls driving a red convertible Cadillac. I came to a fork in the road and went left. A short distance later the road dead ended at a cliff and I went over. As I was falling, I realized I was dreaming. This had occured in the past, but I'd always woken up immediately. This time, somehow, I managed to stay asleep, and I made the conscious choice to go back to the fork in the road and make a right turn instead, which ended up leading to an open road and freedom.

The next day I realized that I had wasted an incredible opportunity. This was a dream and I'd had control of it. And all I chose to do was go back and make a right hand turn instead of a left? I became curious about other people who might have experienced a dream like this, and a bit of research led me to the phenomenon known as lucid dreaming: awareness that one is dreaming, but staying asleep and gaining control of the dream.

A quick google for lucid dreaming turns up nearly one hundred thousand pages on the topic, and over the past twenty years I've tried many of the suggestions---ranging from the sensible and scientific to the insane and arcane---for achieving a lucid dreaming state. Nothing has ever worked. There have been countless times that I've become aware I was in a dream, but then I'll immediately wake up; I've never been able to recapture that elusive state of a lucid dream.

Until last night.

Flying is a frequent and recurring theme in my dreams---and by flying I mean me; no airplane, no devices, just me. When these dreams come they are always wonderful---except for an issue about flying into power lines, which for some reason is also a recurring theme---and when I wake up, I feel like I've really been able to fly. It's amazing; I've dreamed this ability so many times in so many ways, that even awake now, my mind can actually feel what it's like to fly.

Well, last night, I had a flying dream. I was rising into the air, had just cleared the power lines---anyone who can help interpret that power line thing I'd love to hear from you!---and it happened: I realized I was dreaming, and I didn't wake up! I almost let go of the moment. It almost slipped away, but something in me---maybe because I've been consciously trying to achieve this for SO long---realized that this was my chance and seized it! I don't know how long it took in real time, but in my dream, I went flying for a long time, and this time, I was in control. I would have to list it as one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had, even though it didn't really happen; the beauty of it, though, is that it feels like it did! I did somersaults through the air, I flew out over the ocean, I dived under bridges, I chased birds, I went flying as fast as I could weaving through the trees of a forrest; anything I could think of. I even "flew" underwater because I wanted to know if I could.

The manner in which I lost control of the dream is also interesting. I didn't decided to stop dreaming, but after a lot of flying, which in my mind was like two hours but in reality was probably only minutes or perhaps only seconds of dreaming, I did decide that I was done flying; I remember consciously making that decicion. It's also the last thing I remember, period, about the dream. I was sort of hovering over this spot near my house, thinking about what else I might do, and I decided that I was too tired to fly anymore that day. I actually think that a non-lucid state may have already been returning at this point, because otherwise I think I would have realized that being "tired" was again just part of the dream, and maybe I should dream about something else now! But, I do remember making the conscious decision that I was done flying, that I'd had the blast of my life and that at that moment I was so completely satisfied with the experience that I was ready to "go home", and that was the last thing I remember.

I'm hoping it's not twenty years to my next lucid dream, and I'm already making a plan as to how I should use it when it comes; something that comes along once every couple decades shouldn't be wasted!

It will also be interesting to see how often I dream about flying now; I wonder if I "got it out of my system" so to speak?

Any other lucid dreamers out there willing to share your experiences?

Posted by Ron Pacheco at October 27, 2004 05:38 PM