Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Lucid dreaming

"All your time is spent in dreaming. Your sleeping and your waking dreams have different forms, and that is all. Their content is the same."
T-18.II.5:12-14

I had an amazing experience the other night. I'm not sure if it will seem extraordinary to anybody else, but to me it really was.

I was dreaming in the night, and it was just about walking around in my old home town with some friends and having various experiences. But it was parts of the town I had not seen before, and since I know every inch of it, I knew it was not real.

Whether for that reason for inspiration, I became aware that I was dreaming. And I became aware that I might wake up, but not necessarily immediately, and it did not matter.

The really amazing thing, though, was that the dream and everything in it was astoundingly detailed. It was every bit as detailed as what I see in "reality" every day. Perhaps even more, I think my eyesight was better in the dream.

It was a fantastic experience to walk around in this world which I knew was a dream, and yet it continued, and yet it was fully as detailed and real-looking as anything I'd ever seen.

It might not be proof that "reality" is actually a dream. I don't know if that can be "proved". But it can't be proved that it's real either. Any proof you need to prove that it's real, you can also dream up!

But it did prove to my personal satisfaction that a dream can seem at least as real and detailed as what we call reality, and therefore there's no reason, apart from emotional necessity, to assume that reality is not a dream.

4 comments:

Monsieur Beep! said...

I also have and enjoy such perceptions in my dreams - so clear, so real, and (luckily) so good.
With "luckily" I mean I don't have unpleasant experiences in my dreams. And I really look forward to my next dreaming sessions.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Good for you, dude.

Anonymous said...

Going through your archives as I have been is really interesting in that we seem to have parallel themes going off and on.

Go through my archives when you have some time to burn--you'll see.

At any rate, as I mentioned in my own lucid dreaming posts, I have had the same experience.

I realized that the dream world stops shifting in the way it usually does and becomes "real" when we can bring a certain quality of attention to it and hold it there. Mindful attention makes everything stop shifting. And then you find yourself in another complete, solid, consensus reality.

It's a little like the whole thing Casteneda talks about with regard to the assemblage point--a can of worms I have elected to avoid pondering overly much because it leads down a path that to me has sidetrack written all over it.

Utterly fascinating sidetrack, but sidetrack nonetheless. For me.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, the Universe is brimming with side paths. UFOs, ghosts, energy...

I've never managed yet to read archives of a blog (addiction to The New), but I'll make an effort in your case for sure.