Just one dream to journal from last night...
The dream: I don't remember much of the events leading up to this part of the dream, but where it became clear is when I was at a church with a large group of people. For some reason I was livid, lashing out at everyone and acting extremely hostile and angry. It became evident that I was part of a production of a play, but I wasn't suited to the role to which I was cast. So I decided to leave. My cousin was there, so I said goodbye, and walked outside into the church parking lot. Once outside, I decided that I needed to fly to New York - and "fly" in my dreams rarely means via airplane, as this dream would prove. My means of flight in this dream? Two liter-sized water bottles. Yes, by putting one half-filled water bottle under each arm, I was somehow able to fly (the water bottles providing buoyancy on the air, apparently?).
So off I went, flying up out of the church parking lot into the evening sky. I looked around me to get my bearings, and started heading west - "toward Seattle," I thought to myself (the completely wrong way, I apparently didn't think to myself). From here on out, the dream was a rather long flight over hills, fields, and towns. After a while, I realized that I was dreaming (how I didn't realize beforehand is beyond me), and so I got bored of flying and decided to land and explore a small town I had flown over. Outside of a house, I saw some writing on the wall... but I can't quite remember what it said, and I woke up.
My thoughts: I'd like to say that this is the weirdest method of travel I've experienced in a dream, but no: I'd say that honor goes to the dream wherein I was driving on a freeway by sitting length-wise in a large duffel bag -- feet pushing against one end, back up against the other -- and holding on to the straps to "steer" my "vehicle." Somehow the duffel bag could just... go... down the road at highway speeds as I wove in and out of traffic: no means of propulsion, no means of avoiding friction from the asphalt - no, just the thin canvas between my rear end and the road at 75 miles per hour. Makes perfect sense.
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
August 31: Teaching Lucid Dreaming in a Lucid Dream
The dream: In the first dream, I remember being in a classroom with a dozen or so younger students, many of them my cousins and other relatives. After a while I realized that I was dreaming, so I used the opportunity to explain to the students in attendance that this was a dream and what lucid dreaming entailed. I proceeded to demonstrate by walking through a nearby wall and back, showing that waking rules could be bent or broken in the dream. After a while of this "training," we all departed the classroom and began to explore a large abandoned building, for what I don't recall. The dream ended soon after that.
In the second dream, I was staying the night in a toy store with a boy and girl in their late teens (sleeping bags and everything). We were staying in an aisle full of action figures, including Star Wars toys, etc. After a few minutes of dialogue that I don't quite remember, I pointed out that one of the action figures resembled the girl in an attempt at humor. She didn't see the resemblance; I looked down at the toy in my hand and realized that it was a chrome-colored robot that didn't look remotely human, let alone like the girl. My remedy for this solution was to bend the figure's arms slightly; I then showed the girl that now the figure resembled her. She realized that I was teasing her and laughed as she walked off. I woke up shortly thereafter.
My thoughts: I don't know why I find it necessary to explain lucid dreaming or the fact that we're all in a dream to constructs of my subconscious. It's like I think that my friends or family are sharing a communal dream with me, and I'm the only one who realizes it.
Don't know what to make of the second one, although I do often have dreams about sleeping in strange places such as stores.
In the second dream, I was staying the night in a toy store with a boy and girl in their late teens (sleeping bags and everything). We were staying in an aisle full of action figures, including Star Wars toys, etc. After a few minutes of dialogue that I don't quite remember, I pointed out that one of the action figures resembled the girl in an attempt at humor. She didn't see the resemblance; I looked down at the toy in my hand and realized that it was a chrome-colored robot that didn't look remotely human, let alone like the girl. My remedy for this solution was to bend the figure's arms slightly; I then showed the girl that now the figure resembled her. She realized that I was teasing her and laughed as she walked off. I woke up shortly thereafter.
My thoughts: I don't know why I find it necessary to explain lucid dreaming or the fact that we're all in a dream to constructs of my subconscious. It's like I think that my friends or family are sharing a communal dream with me, and I'm the only one who realizes it.
Don't know what to make of the second one, although I do often have dreams about sleeping in strange places such as stores.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
April 25, 2009: School Dreams
In last night's dream, I was again in a classroom, though the course was taught by someone who instructs at the school I work at as opposed to the school I attend. There was a rather small group of students in attendance, most of them girls from the Textiles class that the aforementioned instructor teaches, and we were all seated in a semi-circle with the focus toward the front of the class.
For some reason I had brought my computer to school; it was plugged into the projector and displaying everything up on the screen in front of the class. I was playing a computer game, and a few students were annoyed that I was projecting this game up onto the screen instead of doing something productive. So I quit the game and shut down the projector to free up the blackboard.
Suddenly my sister came in to provide a guest lecture of some sort. She was wearing a giant backpack that she never removed. She stood in front of the class, speaking to us and writing on the blackboard; however, we couldn't understand what she was saying, nor could we read her illegible handwriting in chalk. After a while I heard a baby crying, and I realized that the backpack my sister was wearing had a baby in it. I deduced that she was keeping the baby in there as to not be a distraction to the class, but I though that it was extremely inappropriate to keep a baby in a closed backpack. The dream ended shortly thereafter.
*****
Yay for school dreams. I'm sure they will be an almost nightly occurrence until graduation in a few weeks. I love how I give my sister no credit by assuming not only that she can't be understood, but that she'd be so negligent as to keep a baby in a zipped-up backpack.
There were a few other dreams last night, but I can't recall them.
-Matthew
For some reason I had brought my computer to school; it was plugged into the projector and displaying everything up on the screen in front of the class. I was playing a computer game, and a few students were annoyed that I was projecting this game up onto the screen instead of doing something productive. So I quit the game and shut down the projector to free up the blackboard.
Suddenly my sister came in to provide a guest lecture of some sort. She was wearing a giant backpack that she never removed. She stood in front of the class, speaking to us and writing on the blackboard; however, we couldn't understand what she was saying, nor could we read her illegible handwriting in chalk. After a while I heard a baby crying, and I realized that the backpack my sister was wearing had a baby in it. I deduced that she was keeping the baby in there as to not be a distraction to the class, but I though that it was extremely inappropriate to keep a baby in a closed backpack. The dream ended shortly thereafter.
*****
Yay for school dreams. I'm sure they will be an almost nightly occurrence until graduation in a few weeks. I love how I give my sister no credit by assuming not only that she can't be understood, but that she'd be so negligent as to keep a baby in a zipped-up backpack.
There were a few other dreams last night, but I can't recall them.
-Matthew
Friday, April 24, 2009
April 24, 2009: First Lucid Dream for the Journal
I was wondering when my next lucid dream would occur; they are usually more frequent.
Allow me to provide a quick note (and warning) about my lucid dreams. As soon as I realize I'm dreaming, I will try to take control it in any number of ways: I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride if it's an interesting dream; if not, I'll attempt to completely change the dream, its environment, the people, etc; I'll try to do impossible things, such as flying, walking through walls, etc; I'll respond with extreme violence to dreams about being chased or attacked; or, depending on who is in it, the dream can become sexual. So, read with caution, I guess - a lot of my lucid dreams are either violent or sexy. With that awkward caveat in place, let's proceed:
*****
I was in some sort of office building of unknown origin, peopled by unfamiliar faces. I was talking to a woman, about what I don't recall, but I quickly realized it was a lucid dream, and, well... Whatever we were talking about became even less important, as we dashed quickly into a nearby office and locked the door. This dream ended... later.
In the next dream I had, which was not so... lucid... I was walking around in a mall by myself. I received a cell phone call from my sister, who told me that mom's house was on fire and she had ran to a neighbor's house to call the fire department. I was irate that my mother would leave the house and all of my stuff to burn; I told my sister angrily that I would sue her and mom if any of my stuff was damaged.
Later, I was walking around in a large video game arcade in the mall, and now my sister was there with me. For some reason she had brought a cat with her, and the jittery feline was dashing all around the arcade and managed to get inside one of the game cabinets - a mini skee ball machine, to be precise. Luckily, since I used to work in an arcade, I knew how to open the cabinet (even though I didn't have a key), and though the customer playing it was upset that I had interrupted his game, I got the cat out. I made sure to hold on to the cat for the remainder of the dream, which shorty thereafter ended.
*****
One thing I've discovered about lucid dreams is that they tend to end soon after I become cognizant of the fact that I'm dreaming. I've also found that the more I try to focus on changing or controlling a dream, the more likely I am to wake up - I guess because by that point I've just become too aware, too mentally awake. It's an interesting phenomenon, the lucid dream: being conscious in my subconscious's world, as if these two parts of the same mind are indeed separate entities. In my case, I find that it is often a struggle to change dreams too dramatically, as if my subconscious has developed certain rules, laws, and boundaries, which in many ways reflect reality, yet in others are very strange. For instance, I often find that in lucid dreams where I start to fly, if I fly too high I hit a kind of ceiling, as if I've reached the limit of what my subconscious has created. Actually, the very act of flying, or walking through walls, is often challenging to do in the first place - it takes a few running starts, or requires intense focus - as if my brain is trying to obey laws of physics in its imaginary world.
Another intensely difficult thing to do is to completely change the dream. For example, if I realize I'm dreaming and I want to change the setting to somewhere else, I'll close my eyes in the dream and concentrate, and when I open them - more often than not I'm still where I was; nothing has changed. Sometimes I have to be content with smaller manipulations of the people, places, and things already present.
The second dream confuses me. I don't know why I would threaten to sue my mother and sister because they left a burning house to call emergency services and refused to stay and watch over my supposed belongings. However, the later part with the cat is reminiscent of most of my dreams that involve either small animals or babies. I always worry about them running away or getting hurt, so I feel the need to hold them, or put them in a cage, or make sure all of the doors in the room are shut so they can't get out. No, not put the babies in the cage... never mind.
-Matthew
Allow me to provide a quick note (and warning) about my lucid dreams. As soon as I realize I'm dreaming, I will try to take control it in any number of ways: I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride if it's an interesting dream; if not, I'll attempt to completely change the dream, its environment, the people, etc; I'll try to do impossible things, such as flying, walking through walls, etc; I'll respond with extreme violence to dreams about being chased or attacked; or, depending on who is in it, the dream can become sexual. So, read with caution, I guess - a lot of my lucid dreams are either violent or sexy. With that awkward caveat in place, let's proceed:
*****
I was in some sort of office building of unknown origin, peopled by unfamiliar faces. I was talking to a woman, about what I don't recall, but I quickly realized it was a lucid dream, and, well... Whatever we were talking about became even less important, as we dashed quickly into a nearby office and locked the door. This dream ended... later.
In the next dream I had, which was not so... lucid... I was walking around in a mall by myself. I received a cell phone call from my sister, who told me that mom's house was on fire and she had ran to a neighbor's house to call the fire department. I was irate that my mother would leave the house and all of my stuff to burn; I told my sister angrily that I would sue her and mom if any of my stuff was damaged.
Later, I was walking around in a large video game arcade in the mall, and now my sister was there with me. For some reason she had brought a cat with her, and the jittery feline was dashing all around the arcade and managed to get inside one of the game cabinets - a mini skee ball machine, to be precise. Luckily, since I used to work in an arcade, I knew how to open the cabinet (even though I didn't have a key), and though the customer playing it was upset that I had interrupted his game, I got the cat out. I made sure to hold on to the cat for the remainder of the dream, which shorty thereafter ended.
*****
One thing I've discovered about lucid dreams is that they tend to end soon after I become cognizant of the fact that I'm dreaming. I've also found that the more I try to focus on changing or controlling a dream, the more likely I am to wake up - I guess because by that point I've just become too aware, too mentally awake. It's an interesting phenomenon, the lucid dream: being conscious in my subconscious's world, as if these two parts of the same mind are indeed separate entities. In my case, I find that it is often a struggle to change dreams too dramatically, as if my subconscious has developed certain rules, laws, and boundaries, which in many ways reflect reality, yet in others are very strange. For instance, I often find that in lucid dreams where I start to fly, if I fly too high I hit a kind of ceiling, as if I've reached the limit of what my subconscious has created. Actually, the very act of flying, or walking through walls, is often challenging to do in the first place - it takes a few running starts, or requires intense focus - as if my brain is trying to obey laws of physics in its imaginary world.
Another intensely difficult thing to do is to completely change the dream. For example, if I realize I'm dreaming and I want to change the setting to somewhere else, I'll close my eyes in the dream and concentrate, and when I open them - more often than not I'm still where I was; nothing has changed. Sometimes I have to be content with smaller manipulations of the people, places, and things already present.
The second dream confuses me. I don't know why I would threaten to sue my mother and sister because they left a burning house to call emergency services and refused to stay and watch over my supposed belongings. However, the later part with the cat is reminiscent of most of my dreams that involve either small animals or babies. I always worry about them running away or getting hurt, so I feel the need to hold them, or put them in a cage, or make sure all of the doors in the room are shut so they can't get out. No, not put the babies in the cage... never mind.
-Matthew
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
April 22, 2009: School Dreams Again
In the first dream that I recall, I was at my dad's house for dinner. He had said something that really made me mad, so I told him off and stormed out. That's about all I remember of that dream.
While there were a few bits and pieces of other dreams that I can't quite piece together, the last dream I had before I woke up was about school. I was in lecture for a class that I'm actually taking this semester, and surprisingly most of the details were accurate: the instructor was the same woman, and the class was held in a room of identical layout; the only major difference was that there was an elevator in the classroom, directly behind my seat in the back left corner of the classroom if facing toward the blackboard.
Apparently my corner of the room was dimly lit, because I would keep reaching back and pushing the button to open the elevator door, and the light from within the elevator would better illuminate my corner.
Meanwhile, a girl in the class was complaining to the instructor that the assignments from the workbook were too difficult (again, surprisingly accurate); in this case, the instructor had given the wrong page number for an assignment so the class had all done the wrong homework. The instructor agreed that she would omit that one from the grade, but she stressed the importance of doing the workbook assignments.
About this time my corner became dim again, so I reached back and pushed the elevator button to open the doors and turn on the light. This distracted the instructor so that she called on me to give a explanation as to the importance of the workbook assignments. When I started to respond, someone else started talking at the same time; I guess we had the same name and were confused as to which Matt she called on. So this other Matt and I just started talking to each other, holding our own dialogue about the workbook.
When we finished, I looked about and realized that there were only about three students left in the class. I looked at my watch and realized that class had been over for two minutes, and everyone had been piling out. This is about where the dream ended and I woke up.
*****
I'm surprised that the dream was so accurate in depicting this particular class. Usually dreams with familiar themes such as school and work will be really off. Though the full-fledged elevator right behind my seat as a source of light kind of made up for all the other accuracies.
While there were a few bits and pieces of other dreams that I can't quite piece together, the last dream I had before I woke up was about school. I was in lecture for a class that I'm actually taking this semester, and surprisingly most of the details were accurate: the instructor was the same woman, and the class was held in a room of identical layout; the only major difference was that there was an elevator in the classroom, directly behind my seat in the back left corner of the classroom if facing toward the blackboard.
Apparently my corner of the room was dimly lit, because I would keep reaching back and pushing the button to open the elevator door, and the light from within the elevator would better illuminate my corner.
Meanwhile, a girl in the class was complaining to the instructor that the assignments from the workbook were too difficult (again, surprisingly accurate); in this case, the instructor had given the wrong page number for an assignment so the class had all done the wrong homework. The instructor agreed that she would omit that one from the grade, but she stressed the importance of doing the workbook assignments.
About this time my corner became dim again, so I reached back and pushed the elevator button to open the doors and turn on the light. This distracted the instructor so that she called on me to give a explanation as to the importance of the workbook assignments. When I started to respond, someone else started talking at the same time; I guess we had the same name and were confused as to which Matt she called on. So this other Matt and I just started talking to each other, holding our own dialogue about the workbook.
When we finished, I looked about and realized that there were only about three students left in the class. I looked at my watch and realized that class had been over for two minutes, and everyone had been piling out. This is about where the dream ended and I woke up.
*****
I'm surprised that the dream was so accurate in depicting this particular class. Usually dreams with familiar themes such as school and work will be really off. Though the full-fledged elevator right behind my seat as a source of light kind of made up for all the other accuracies.
Monday, April 20, 2009
April 20, 2009: Numerous Short Dreams
Last night and this morning I had quite a few shorter dreams, probably because I kept waking up due to someone hammering outside my window. Jerks. Anyway, here goes:
In the first dream I was watching some sort of TV crime drama, though when I "watch" things in dreams I'm usually involved at least as a passive but present observer. I only recall the tail end of this particular drama, wherein I witnessed two rather horrific events unfold. About all I recall is that the story ended tragically, and rather gruesomely, with one man being thrown in some sort of giant garbage compactor that operated, of course, by grinding and crushing with giant toothed gears rather than just flattening; and elsewhere, a woman exploded (in slow motion) due to, I'm guessing, a suicide bomb. This was about where the first dream ended.
In the second dream, the guys from Penny Arcade were working with South Park Studios on a movie deal. They were in the recording studio, putting together the soundtrack; however, there was a bit of contention over the direction that the score was taking: the Penny Arcade guys, specifically Gabe (and of course they were portrayed as their cartoon selves), wanted the music to be dark and eerie, whereas the South Park music team kept pitching lively, bouncy music with chorus vocals parodying those campy 50s radio and TV jingles. Gabe attempted to explain the direction he wanted the music to go by describing one of the monsters in the film: a gruesome undead beast. The music director nodded as if he understood, and said "how about this?" And proceeded to play the same kind of campy jingle music. Gabe and Tycho stormed out in a huff, and suddenly I was watching Fox News, where the ticker at the bottom suddenly started bashing on Penny Arcade. Here ended the second dream.
The third dream was one of my usual "school" dreams. I was in class, working on a project with a group, only I had no idea what the class, project, or point in time in the semester was. Later, we were taking a field trip, only my dad was driving and he missed the turn we needed. This is about where the third dream ended.
There were a few other bits and pieces of dreams throughout the night and morning, though I can't recall them right now.
*****
Sometimes my brain can get really creative; sometimes it gets creative in how graphically gruesome it is. I think I've seen enough disturbing scenes of blood and guts in my dreams to desensitize me to any movie or video game violence.
I'm not sure why I would dream about Penny Arcade, let alone a Penny Arcade movie being made by South Park Studios with Fox News taking interest. I suppose I did see an ad for Penny Arcade's video game last night, and someone on Facebook had one of those stupid images with characters in the style of South Park. And everyone loves Fox News...
My school dreams are always about like this, and never lucid unfortunately. These, I'm sure, do have very real psychological significance. I'm always dreaming that I'm failing classes, or completely confused, or taking a test and have no idea what the class is about. The variant of these dreams is that class is over for the day, and for the life of me, I cannot get my stuff organized and put away, so that I can leave and go to my next class within the allocated ten minutes. It's true that school is always on my mind, especially with finals coming up, but I get no reprieve even in sleep. Hopefully after graduation those dreams will become less frequent.
--Matthew
In the first dream I was watching some sort of TV crime drama, though when I "watch" things in dreams I'm usually involved at least as a passive but present observer. I only recall the tail end of this particular drama, wherein I witnessed two rather horrific events unfold. About all I recall is that the story ended tragically, and rather gruesomely, with one man being thrown in some sort of giant garbage compactor that operated, of course, by grinding and crushing with giant toothed gears rather than just flattening; and elsewhere, a woman exploded (in slow motion) due to, I'm guessing, a suicide bomb. This was about where the first dream ended.
In the second dream, the guys from Penny Arcade were working with South Park Studios on a movie deal. They were in the recording studio, putting together the soundtrack; however, there was a bit of contention over the direction that the score was taking: the Penny Arcade guys, specifically Gabe (and of course they were portrayed as their cartoon selves), wanted the music to be dark and eerie, whereas the South Park music team kept pitching lively, bouncy music with chorus vocals parodying those campy 50s radio and TV jingles. Gabe attempted to explain the direction he wanted the music to go by describing one of the monsters in the film: a gruesome undead beast. The music director nodded as if he understood, and said "how about this?" And proceeded to play the same kind of campy jingle music. Gabe and Tycho stormed out in a huff, and suddenly I was watching Fox News, where the ticker at the bottom suddenly started bashing on Penny Arcade. Here ended the second dream.
The third dream was one of my usual "school" dreams. I was in class, working on a project with a group, only I had no idea what the class, project, or point in time in the semester was. Later, we were taking a field trip, only my dad was driving and he missed the turn we needed. This is about where the third dream ended.
There were a few other bits and pieces of dreams throughout the night and morning, though I can't recall them right now.
*****
Sometimes my brain can get really creative; sometimes it gets creative in how graphically gruesome it is. I think I've seen enough disturbing scenes of blood and guts in my dreams to desensitize me to any movie or video game violence.
I'm not sure why I would dream about Penny Arcade, let alone a Penny Arcade movie being made by South Park Studios with Fox News taking interest. I suppose I did see an ad for Penny Arcade's video game last night, and someone on Facebook had one of those stupid images with characters in the style of South Park. And everyone loves Fox News...
My school dreams are always about like this, and never lucid unfortunately. These, I'm sure, do have very real psychological significance. I'm always dreaming that I'm failing classes, or completely confused, or taking a test and have no idea what the class is about. The variant of these dreams is that class is over for the day, and for the life of me, I cannot get my stuff organized and put away, so that I can leave and go to my next class within the allocated ten minutes. It's true that school is always on my mind, especially with finals coming up, but I get no reprieve even in sleep. Hopefully after graduation those dreams will become less frequent.
--Matthew
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