LUCID DREAMING
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 A young woman is standing with a lightweight fishing pole in her hand; the nylon line is cast out in front of her. A sheer cotton blouse and bell bottom pants texturally consisting of the skeletons of dried autumn oak leaves. She is standing at the edge of a pond, hues of blue and purple line the bubble dome of the sky that merges seamlessly with the motionless water in the distance. A vividly painted 3-drawer dresser of teal and aquamarine sits exposed on the sand on her left. The top drawer is slid out an inch with only a dark shadow as its inner holdings. The environment is silent, void of sound. Her attention is on the end fishing line which now sways gently in front of her, pole tip up. There, resting comfortably in the curve of the inch-long hook is a tiny, iridescent blue dolphin; the young woman is profoundly intrigued. The dolphin stares at her with humor and curiosity as she leans closer to get a better look, and in that instant she realizes that she is dreaming. She looks at the dolphin and breaks the silence of the space with the words” I’m dreaming! Who are you?” The dolphin’s expression shifts from humor to surprise, as if its cover has been exposed. It rises up on its delicate tail fin and springs into the dreaming woman’s forehead. In a brilliant burst, light radiates out revealing the surrounding landscape to be that of her own imagination, she is acutely aware that she is dreaming. Instantaneously she deepens in the understanding that she is responsible for her own creation, both in her waking life as well as in her sleeping dream. In the next moment she is waking from her sleep, head on pillow. Her eyes open and she reaches over to her Dream Journal which rests on the headboard of her bed and she begins writing the realizations and implications of her Lucid Dreaming journey. Lucid dreaming is the ability to consciously recognize one is in a dream while dreaming. A person is able to access the beneficial insights and wisdom living within the subconscious, allowing for imaginative solutions to artistic ventures, daily problems and personal evolution.
           The dreamer, with practice, can direct the images within the dreamscape as if in their own personal theater. This allows the varied aspects and wisdom bodies based in the personal and collective unconsciousness to speak freely on their own behalf and in respect to the dynamic presented within the dream. Carl Jung coined the term “collective unconscious” to describe the universal archetypes that all cultures share in regards to their dreams, origin myths and psychic dispositions. The individual and collective insights recovered from the lucid dreaming experience are remembered as the dreamer regains consciousness into waking reality. The awareness and inspiration that follow into a wakeful state informs and guides life choices and behaviors from that point forward.
            Anyone can dream lucidly. The art of being consciously aware in one’s dream is an ancient and deeply respected ritual practiced as a spiritual act of the initiated leaders and tribal shamans. This ritual has been surfacing in modern culture in the past few decades, out of the auspices of the metaphysical culture and into science and psychology. There is little that differs between the shaman and the lucid dreamer when it comes to accessing the lucid state except faith and action. One only needs discipline and practice to engage as both participant and guide in the archeological terrain of the dreaming mind.
           One can train themselve to awaken within the landscape of their dreaming mind with full awareness and control by following a series of exercises. Recalling a dream begins with the desire to remember. Some people have a natural gift of recall, but the majority must set their intent to do so. Placing a journal and pen on a night stand next to the bed and having a soft light available to gently illuminate provides the opportunity to capture the emotions, actions and/or strange and bizarre images of one’s dream. Once an individual logs their evocations from their nighttime world into the dream journal, they can recognize the symbols and images that are the repeating themes. These themes and symbols will be the key to the secret door to their dream realm. An example of a cue could be red cars, or a particular chime. Something that emerges regularly in ones own dreamscape.
           Isolating the primary symbols within a dream allows the dreamer to set up dreamtime cues. Meditation or intentional repetition of a phrase to retain the cues are two examples of how the cues can be imprinted in the conscious mind so the cue has the chance to emerge while one is innocently unaware that they are dreaming. Curiosity is an essential quality in a dreamscape where one normally takes all phenomena at face value. An example could be each time a red car or a cat is seen in waking life the question is purposefully posed “Am I dreaming?”, then looking around the environment to assure or dissuade the dreaming ego that the dreamer is, in fact, awake. The dreamer knows their own personal anomalies and can set up the daytime training ritual for awakening in dream by continuously questioning reality, “Am I dreaming?”. Because our waking reality will always, eventually follow us into dream, the cue will become the instantaneous and remarkable key to the ancient, collective encounter of dream time.
            Lucid dreaming comes with responsibilities. Each individual chooses how they use the unique access and control of their subconscious material. Though addictions and obsessions to lucid dreaming are noted as in any mind-altering ritual, it is not common. In general, individuals that have the motivation and perseverance needed to infiltrate and relate to their personal subliminal material, ultimately use the experience to better themselves personally and creatively.            
           Some of the ways lucid dreamers heal personal issues are by using the symbolic imagery and engagement with sub-personalities (dreamed aspects of the self) to overcome fears, to practice new skills of empowered communication, overcome shyness, rise above sexual timidity and intimidation. Lucid dreamers may use their landscape to conjure up meetings with parents already dead and reconcile old wounds, or to engage deceased friends to wish them well and see them on their way. They can practice interviewing for a new job, wrestle a tiger, or experience curing themselves of cancer.
            One of the pronounced side effects of lucid dreaming is that the dreamer finds a bridge has been created between the world of dreamtime reality and the world of waking reality. The lucid dreaming experience may insinuate the fantastic transparency of the magical realm onto the waking reality, an awareness (imagined or real) where everything is alive with limitless possibility. The rules of the three-dimensional world are challenged and one finds themselves straddling both worlds. The questioning of our daily reality can be disarming and can temporarily dismantle what we know as true, but ultimately gracing the dreamer with the possibility to reinvent their personal reality. A world anew, alive, mysterious, curiously unfamiliar and teaming with latent life, consciously awake as a dream come true.
Robin Nicolaus 11/09