Not So Lucid Dreaming

Having recently re-watched Inception, and afterwards reading an interesting piece on the multiple ways of looking at the storyline by the people over at Slate Magazine, it got me thinking about lucid dreams. In particular how to go about purposefully inducing them.

I have had lucid dreams before, where it becomes apparent that I am dreaming and I can suddenly manipulate the dreamworld around me. However this realisation usually doesn’t last long, as it triggers me to wake out of this fake reality almost straight away, just as I magically start flying into the air, or some otherwise equally implausible occurance.

Eager to try this again I found this site giving some tips on how to induce lucid dreams, and thought I might give some of it a go (well the easy parts at least).

Tip #1 – Dream Recall

It is apparently useful to be able to remember ones dreams. This has never really been a problem for me, provided I think about my dreams early in the morning, as the memory fades quickly as the day rolls on.

Tip #2 – Reality Checks

Dreams feel real when you are in them, but often something just doesn’t feel right. If you push yourself a bit further and test your reality, often you can distinguish between what is really happening, and what is a dream. This is why it is suggested that if you get yourself into a habit of doing simple ‘reality checks’, you will find yourself doing this in dreams.

No not this sort of reality check.

One of the things suggested was to read some writing in your dream, and then re-read it. Apparently around 80% of the time, upon the second reading, the text has changed, and this is a cue for you to realise you are dreaming (Hey, if Batman did it, it has to mean something).

I love the internet, where I am able to find still images of scenes from shows years passed, exactly as I remembered them

They suggest you creating a habit of remembering to look at your watch, or something else constantly on your person and reading whatever text it contains. I didn’t give it too much thought, especially as I don’t have a watch at the moment.

However the next morning when I was being diligent in my goal of lucid dreaming and purposefully thinking back about the nights dream, I remembered something odd. Though I don’t have a watch in real life, I did in my dream, and people kept pointing out my new watch to me. I remember being nonplussed by their remarks, and looking at my wrist thinking ‘Yeah; so what?’.

It is strange to think back at this now and wonder if this was a result of my subconscious trying to let me know I was in a dream. If it was, then it seems pretty amazing for an element of my dream to actually have a purpose for once, and not just be a random bunch of occurances, as usually seems the case.

Though silly me, I just brushed it off, and kept on dreaming.....

[Side note here: lucid dreams, totems, batman; is my subconscious getting excited about Christopher Nolan's new film?]