Theatre of your dreams
Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of the week.
Dreams have always been a bit of a grey area. Sometimes you have dreams that reveal some deep dark thing to you that you never really knew you wanted but suddenly is astonishingly obvious that you do, and sometimes you dream about something and it seems to be related to absolutely nothing in your life, and completely irrelevant to anything.
Apparently, after some time and cleverly honed skill you can control what you dream about. So if there is something in your life you have been wishing you had the guts to do, but haven't quite muster up the courage this could be your perfect opportunity to let off some steam.
Whether it's telling your mother-in-law what you really think of her cooking, telling your boss where they can stick their extra hours, or flirting with that bloke you desperately fancy, controlling your dreams could be the way for you to realise what that would really feel like.
Who knows, it might give you so much of a rush that it inspires you to do the thing for real. That, or it could make you feel dreadful the next time you see them, and riddled with guilt for dream-abusing them!
It's called lucid dreaming, and essentially all you have to do, is be able to unconsciously realise when you are dreaming and when you are not, and once you have mastered that you should be able to control the actions of your dreams.
If you thought Inception was complicated, this isn't far off to be honest, but for some people who have the energy to keep going with it, they could have some good stories to tell!
Also, you don't have to understand the science of how this works to make it work, if you just follow the simple steps, you should be able to control what you do.
It takes on average between 3-27 days to be able to lucid dream, so it's not an easy task. You have to follow quite a strict regime so that you really embed the method in your mind, and run freely with it once you get there.
The steps are reasonably easy to follow, and if do exactly as they say for a few weeks you should soon find yourself being able to fly, go to the moon, or do the things you wish you could in reality.
Step 1:
Keep a dream diary.
You have to write down every single dream you have, even if it is only popping down to your local supermarket because you forgot to buy cheese, you have to write it down.
It's a good idea to keep the book by your bed so that you can write the dreams down as soon as you wake up so that you don't forget them.
This first step just initiates you into recognising elements of your dreams that often crop up, this is the start to recognising your dream state so that you know when you are dreaming!
Step 2:
Have a reality check ready.
Just like how in Inception they each had their item that let them know whether they were in the dream world or the real world, you should set yourself a reality check, so that you will recognise when you are dreaming.
When you dream normally, you automatically assume it is reality, until you wake up and suddenly everything that occurred suddenly seemed obscure for one reason or another. By carrying out these reality checks, you might start lucid dreaming because you will be aware of the fact you are dreaming.
Start applying the reality checks in daily life, and in doing this, soon you will start integrating them into your dream life, and hopefully realise that you are in fact dreaming.
The reality checks tend to be things that you know are doable in dream world but impossible in the real world or vice versa.
A common few tests are pushing your fingers on your right hand through your left hand, this is obviously impossible in reality, but in your dream, the likelihood is your fingers will pass through your hand, or at least feel very
different to reality; holding your breath but still breathing, if you cover your mouth and nose in reality you can't breath, but in your dream you will probably still be able to; reading the time, in dreams time doesn't really exist, so
checking an analogue or digital clock will be very confusing in a dream.
There are a lot of different reality checks you could do, search the web for some more if these don't suit you.
Each time you do a reality check in reality you have to really think and consider the outcome of the check, otherwise it won't have a strong enough presence in your mind to work in your dream.
Step 3:
Plan you dreams.
Normal dreams seem normal because they are based on normal occurrences.
If you start planning your dreams, for example if you wanted to dream that you could walk on water, you have to write down in detail the dream you would like to have, and then re-read it a couple of times during the day and before you go to bed. This will plant the idea in your head. Imagine it as you read it, so that your subconscious really takes on board what you want to happen.
Also, make sure reading the dream plan is the very last thing you do before you go to bed. Don't listen to music or watch TV in between, because it will disturb the mind at work.
Step 4:
Unique item placement.
Similar to the reality check, if you put something in your bedroom, in your line of sight from your bed, that is totally unique - the example I found online was a fighter plane with nunchucks attached to it - it should then be the last
thing you see before you go to sleep, and therefore might at some stage infiltrate its way into your dream.
As soon as you recognise it as something that exists ONLY in your bedroom, you know you are dreaming. For example, if you had drawn a picture of a fish with bat wings and you saw this image in your dream, you know it couldn't possibly be anywhere else in the world, and as soon as you recognise the image, you will know you are dreaming.
Step 5:
Go to sleep!
Obviously you have to be asleep to dream, so this is a very important step. Don't overthink about controlling your dreams as you are trying to get to sleep because chances are, you then won't get to sleep. The pre-thinking you have to do to prepare for lucid dreams has to be done on a sub-conscious level. If you think about it too much and put pressure on yourself to do it, the less likely you will be to complete the task successfully.
So, don't forget to write everything down, from the dreams you are having to the dreams you want to have. Any experiences you would like to incorporate into your dreams, write them down. If you want certain people to be in your dreams,
include them in your dream diary too. As soon as you know you are dreaming you can control what you do.
The problem is, once you know you are dreaming, in an Inception kind of style, as a beginner you only have a limited amount of time to do control what you're doing, because you will wake up shortly after you know you are in a
dream-state, out of pure excitement of reaching that lucid level.
If you do manage to reach the lucid dreaming point, take it slowly, if you manage it once, chances are you'll manage it again, and the calmer you can stay, the longer you can hold onto the dream. The first few times you do it, just walk
around and check out your surroundings, don't push yourself too far.
If you can keep it up long enough to make it work, or have tried it in the past, how easy did you find it, and what did you do with your dream super powers?
Ellen Smith
Tagged in Inception