Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Lucid Dreaming

Back when I was in high school in 2009, I became extremely interested and began to practice the discipline of Lucid Dreaming. A lucid dream is a dream in which you realize you are dreaming. Aside from my lucid dreams, I also kept a lengthy dream journal which I wrote in each morning. It was a powerful length of time, the repercussions being that I often confused my waking state with my dreaming state, and I slept far later than what was probably healthy in an effort to suck up more dream time. But my dreams became ever more visionary and profound and I had many powerful and even transcendental experiences. It unfortunately demands a lot of energy and attention in order to keep an active dream journal and to induce lucid dreams, so I stopped after I became tired of the practice sometime in 2009, but I would like to try to record my dreams again with some consistency for inspiration and for personal analysis.

Here is an essay I wrote for a class about lucid dreaming in 2009 (excuse the sort of Shakespearean high school writing) :

Jake Kobrin 2009
Lucid Dreaming: Doorways to the Unconscious Mind

Once this paper is in your hands, calmly proceed to levitate from your seat, through the ceiling, and begin to fly towards whatever destination you may wish... because you are dreaming.

That is a ridiculous claim, you may think, but if you were dreaming (and how can you say you currently are not?) your dream-self would likely propose an identical statement. You cannot float through the ceiling and towards your eternal paradise because you are bound by gravity, not unlike whatever forces (within your mind) you would be bound by within a dream.

The solution to these thwarting boundaries is the practice of lucid dreaming, when you become consciously aware of your dreaming state whilst maintaining physical unconsciousness. Once you have identified that you are residing within a dream, you may then control all aspects of said dream, as the dream is within your mind. You have the power to realize that the law of gravity only applies within your dreams because you expect it to and by a simple shift in thought you may soar through the air. Though the task of lucid dreaming may be a difficult one to achieve at first, it is not an impossibility nor even remotely unrealistic and due to the fact that you may venture deep within yourself and interact with your subconscious, the skill presents a vast array of benefits.

The ability to lucid dream is not, actually, as specific to your sleeping behavior as you may think. In fact, the ability to dream lucidly is simply a product of living lucidly. The goal of the entire project is to be able to distinguish between waking life and the dream state which may be achieved by retaining a more thorough state of consciousness within their lives as well as recording and further analyzing their dreams.

Another essential, though shocking, component is that one must adapt an outlook that would be found within their dreams. Essentially, one must always expect that they are dreaming. If a person would dream with the expectation that they are actually awake (as is the case with the “average” dreamer) then it would present a much greater obstacle for their goal of becoming lucid.

This prompts an important question: How can one tell if they are dreaming? The most common method is to test your reality. This entails performing or observing a task in which the outcome would present a noticeable difference within a dream than within reality. Some approaches to this are plugging your nose (if you can still breathe, and it is assumed that you do not a have a large hole in your nostril, then you must be dreaming), reading a line of text, averting your eyes from it for a moment, and then rereading the text (words change dramatically within dreams), or trying to place your hand through a solid object. These tasks should be performed on a regular basis, to the point in which it becomes a habit. The purpose of this is that you willcontinue the habit while dreaming (and perhaps spontaneously realize that you are dreaming.)

Due to the fact that you can do quite literally anything you wish to within your lucid dream, you are presented with the opportunity to create change for yourself. Many people have successfully used lucid dreaming as a means of eliminating recurring nightmares and to rehearse performances to sharpen skills and develop new ones.

Also, lucid dreaming is one of the few ways to reach transcendent states of consciousness (other methods being meditation, brainwave entrainment, and, although mostly illegal, the use of psychedelics.) These experiences are very hard to describe with words but they offer a feeling of utter divinity. I shall recite one of my transcendent lucid dreams, a “negative” though immensely significant experience:

“Sunday, August 29 2009

“I had realized that I was dreaming after having a conversation with my grandfather who, I realized, sounded and looked nothing like the one in my ‘real life.’

“The moment I became lucid I attempted to fly through the ceiling of my dining room and towards the beyond. Because of indiscernible reason, I could not fly and I fell onto my back in the attempt.

“After I recovered from the fall, I suddenly sank through the floor. I became paralyzed and fell for a seemingly infinite amount of time. I eventually managed to close my eyes.

“As I fell deeper the temperature dropped sequentially, eventually reaching a degree of absolute frigidness. As the temperature descended, I became increasingly gripped with negative emotions. I succumbed to the emotion and became overwhelmed with negativity… I had never felt such despair and hopelessness in my entire existence. Terrifying sounds and smells accompanied the dread. I dare not open my eyes for fear of what I may see.

“Eventually I felt something solid beneath my feet and I opened my eyes. I had returned to my dining room with my grandfather still in the room.

“When I awoke the next morning I reflected that what I experienced was truly significant. I felt entirely encompassed by it and it was a feeling that I never had or have since experienced. I felt truly separated from the earth.

"I had met and immersed myself within the whole of the darkness that exists within me…And by meeting it I had reached a rare level of agreement with it. I had freed myself from this burden.”

Since the late 1980's, there has been in an influx in the amount of scientific and practical research completed in the realm of lucid dreaming. Many books have been written on the subject and utilizing such documents, coupled with a proper dosage of experimentation, beginners may learn to dream lucidly.

A prominent book on the subject is Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge. For his dissertation work at Stanford University, Stephen LaBerge conducted a series of experiments and studies in an attempt to eliminate the skepticism surrounding the practice of lucid dreaming. Based on the premise that eye movements enacted in a dream would effect the dreamer’s physical eye movements, LaBerge created an experiment. He told an experienced oneironaut (an explorer of the dream realm) to execute a certain eye pattern the moment they gain lucidity. Using an eye-tracking device called a polysomnograph machine he was able to observe as the dreamer executed the exact eye pattern he had commanded.

Despite the multitude of research, there is still much skepticism about the psychological phenomenon. How can any one person dispense introspective advice towards one's dreams, a phenomenon respected for being very personal and unique for those experiencing it? For this reason studies of lucid dreaming may not apply to the specific person attempting them.

I am reminded of a conversation I had with Kayo Dot, maudlin of the Well, and Tarter Lamb composer Toby Driver in which I discussed the ideas of lucid dreaming and brainwave entrainment (which is a method of brainwave stimulation through the use of binaural audio frequencies). Driver utilized lucid dreaming and astral projection as a means of writing material for the first two maudlin of the Well albums (ensuring that all music was “found, not created”) and is therefore quite experienced with the practice. In fact, it was the discovery of his creative utilization of the skill that initially inspired me to work towards my goal of becoming an oneironaut.

During our conversation about brainwave entrainment, (of which he had never heard of beforehand) I told Driver that often the proposed effects of the particular binaural arrangement will have an entirely different effect upon me, if any at all. He found this very logical, and the idea that there would be a specific effect described absolutely appalling. “Each of our minds are far too unique,” he stated, “for anything to have the exact effect upon them.”

There are also many rumors surrounding lucid dreaming that I feel obligated to rectify. A common fear is of damage towards your health and mind. Due to the fact that you exist as a “simulated being” within a “simulated environment”, it is impossible to damage yourself mentally or physically within any dreams including those that are lucid. This being the case, all negative experiences may be seen as significant and progressive (for it is your own negativity that you are facing, as much a part of you as any fantasy.)

Another invalid rumor is that lucid dreaming will fatigue you due to the fact that your dreams are when your body stores information and completes many other useful tasks. This is a simple claim to refute, as we have hundreds of dreams each night and the maximum amount of lucid dreams I have ever discovered a person having in a night is four. Ultimately your lucid dreams will only occupy a maximum of one percent of your dream time, leaving plenty of time for your mind to recuperate as would in “normal” REM sleep.

Each of us spend a third of our life sleeping which means we spend about 25 years dormant. Lucid dreaming presents the opportunity for us to utilize that time and further progress ourselves. Whether used as a means of wish fulfillment or for reasons of more prominence, not but positivity can be wrought from the practice.

And here is a transcription of a lucid dreaming experience, also from 2009:

Lucid Dream #5 - 7/21/2009

"Precurser" to the Lucid Dream

It was late at night and I was upstairs with my standard poodle Zoe as my parents slept below. I let my dog out before going downstairs. I sat on the couch for a moment and then went to let her back in. When I looked out of the peep hole in the door, I saw the silhouette of several creatures amongst the outside of my house. As they came further into the light I could see them clearer. They looked like distorted hounds, with long tubular snouts and course mains atop their heads. Their snouts were white with pink horizontal stripes along it's length. Despite their obvious disaffiliation, I classified them as raccoons. I opened the door rapidly and screamed "Zoe!". As soon as she darted through, I slammed the door shut and locked the door (the latter being a fairly irrational defense against a vicious animal...) This was followed by the creatures leaping mouth first into the door. Through the peephole I could see their teeth gnashing. 

I glanced at my dog who was sitting undisturbed next to and I laughed at the general absurdity of the scenario. What odd behavior for raccoons! I thought. I made my way down the hall feeling humored and excited. Suddenly I noticed that the radio was on. It was a man speaking in Spanish, interspersed with moments of noise and static. I don't remember ever turning on the radio... I thought to myself. I was worried that my parents would hear the noise and would be awakened and therefore quickly saw to turning the radio off. The buttons were odd and the radio system utter chaos. I had quite a deal of trouble turning it off. Once I turned it off I said, "Wow... what a surreal night this has been! It's as if I am in a dream!" (DING DING DING DING DING!) Despite my obvious resolution I dismissed the thought, somehow... 

Lucid Dream #5

Technique for induction: DILD (Dream Induced Lucid Dream)
Amount of lucidity: 7
Vividness of dream: 8

I don't remember the beginning of this lucid dream or how I became lucid. I know that after the original dream I awoke and was bewildered at the fact that it actually was a dream (as well as scorned myself for not fully recognizing it at the time). It may have been a false awakening meaning that I was still within the dream state and the awakening was only a simulation. Either way, the implications of the awakening were enough to thoroughly install the intention of lucid dreaming. What ever it was, my memory is a black hole for those points... 

Throughout the progression of the dream I remember rubbing my hands together to try to remain within the dream. I'm fairly nervous of my dreams fading quickly... 

T told me to go to this magnificent room of which I forget the purpose. About twenty people (barely of which I can remember specifically) and myself were within what I believed to be a movie theater, although upon recollection it looked like no movie theater I had ever been within before. I asked one of the women working there (even though it was a dream and I could have just walked through the walls or something... :P ) how to find the room and she directed me to it. The room was odd, with the right side of it being entirely abolished, the broken floor boards leading to thin air. I never looked closely out of the vacant space so I am unsure as to how elevated the room was or what I could view. On the left side of the room was a couch and various shelves. It looked like a common entertainment room but lacking a television. 

Within the room were many young girls around the age of 4 and a smaller amount of young boys. The young girls were all sitting towards the opening and gazing out of it. There was a general air of depression amongst them. One of the boys was J.S. who I have actually never met in person. He was playing music from this device that looked like a skull. 

Suddenly I felt the dream fading...My dream eyes had closed and I could feel my eyes in my sleeping body. I knew that if I opened them I would be instantaneously awoken. I could still experience the other sensations within the dream. I disparately tried to grasp onto the dream and began to concentrate on the music that J was playing. Oddly, it was a song by Rage Against the Machine which is a band that I haven't listened to in over a year. (I don't remember what song for those who wish to ask.) As I continued to become immersed in the music, the dream began to slowly solidify again. Once I regained vision I concentrated on the skull-player which was vividly detailed with short spiky hairs thoroughly covering it's exterior like someone who hasn't shaved in a couple of days.

I wanted to go away from that place so I closed my eyes... *jump * 

I went away from the scene and into the house. At the other end of the house there was a line of men at the base of a gigantic stair case/ramp (it wasn't stacked like stairs but rather was a sloped board-walk with thin strips of wood along it's surface for footholds). To the right of the ramp was the house and to the left was a lake or ocean. The men were lined up to dive off of the ramp once they reached a sufficient height. I ran up part of the ramp and jumped (or tripped rather) off. I bellyflopped into the water which was surprisingly quite painful. Once I rose to the surface I said, "Well... at least it's just a dream!" 

I continued to the top of the ramp, which took only a second in dream time. Once at the top of the ramp I thought to myself (for no particular reason) Wow, it's quite exhilarating to be in a lucid dream! At the top of the ramp was an entrance to another house. There was no door, but rather a stone walkway that led through the doorway into the room. Sadly, I cannot quite remember the interior of the house. There were two (I believe... at least one if not) large security guards in blue jumpsuits on either side of the doorway. There was some kind of congregation within, which many people were attending like a party of some sort. 

Whilst in the room, one of the security guards came up to me and pointed towards one of the rocks in the entrance stairway. He started to say something to me like, "Come and have a look at this. It's entirely a secret... I learned of it when I began working here." A couple of the dream characters (people attending the party) and I began to watch closely as he removed the rock, which was shallow with three fragments like a distorted clover, from the arrangement. Underneath the rock, in it's original placement, was a trigger of sorts, like a foot moog pedal. (Only my prog geek friends will get that :P ) A man with dark hair and glasses (who, interestingly looked a bit like J.M.) who was watching the display with me grabbed the rock and ran away with it. I found him and asked him if he thought the trigger was a bomb (which was my original reaction, until I remembered that it was my dream and it could essentially be anything I wanted). He sort of shrugged and just said, "No... I just wanted it." I grabbed it from him and brought it back to the place. 

When I placed the rock back and activated the trigger several small speakers rose around the rock. They emitted a very low and pulsating music, much like Om chanting that I found incredibly stimulating as well spiritually resounding. 

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