I had an incredibly vivid and rapidly-changing dream last night; unfortunately, even though I immediately woke up and began writing it down in my bedside journal, the details quickly slipped through my memory. I'll try to share what I remember:
The dream: I remember being in a parking lot and getting in a car with some of the faculty from my graduate program. As we piled in, some vagrants came up and started cleaning the car in hopes of getting some money for their unwanted attention. My advisor, who was driving, started the car up and attempted to put the car in reverse to leave, but I realized that one of the homeless fellows had a hold of our front bumper; our car backing out would result in it being torn off (apparently). I told the driver to wait; I rolled down the window and politely declined their services; the men reluctantly let go and moved away. We were free to drive away, through a small town that I didn't recognize.
Eventually, I was dropped me off just down the street from a small shopping area, and my advisor and teachers drove off. For a moment I could see myself as if looking in a mirror: I was wearing a ridiculous outfit that was a combination of traditional Japanese samurai and Hot Topic goth (complete with combat boots). I was also carrying a second pair of boots for some reason. Feeling ridiculous, I walked up the street to a small shopping plaza.
Reaching the plaza, I walked into the nearest store: a "turkey shop," which was some sort of fast food restaurant, apparently. Inside, the manager was challenging his employees -- a cadre of bored and sarcastic teenagers -- to a trivia game related to the company's history. While I don't remember the details of the quiz, I do remember something about heavy artillery, accompanied by a slideshow of pictures of different types of large artillery batteries. Needless to say, the employees were both clueless and disinterested throughout the oblivious shop owner's attempt at engaging his lackluster employees. I left shortly thereafter.
This part of the dream is where I wish I could remember the details: what I do remember is that it involved five young women (two were brunette and one was blonde if that helps!). Each of the women had to complete a specific and unique challenge. All I can recall of the challenges is that they were slapstick, frustrating, and/or humiliating to the participant and yet humorous to the observer (me) - perhaps along the lines of those Japanese punishment game shows (which have in turn spawned American equivalents). Apparently these were so funny and interesting that as I realized I was dreaming and about to wake up, I knew I needed to quickly write the details down. However, I didn't actually wake up; instead, the dream changed slightly.
In this dream, I enlisted the help of five girls (the same girls?) to reenact the hilarious antics from before so that I could record it all properly. However, I don't even remember the reenactments, other than the end. The girls ran off into the back room of a store we were in, and an extremely awkward young man got on the store intercom to announce the end of the show. The customers in the store started clapping, and soon after, I woke up.
My thoughts: It is so frustrating to remember having such a detailed dream and yet, upon waking up, feel those details float away, even though I am actively concentrating on retaining them. I'm not sure what causes that sometimes, while other times I can remember the dream clearly hours or days later.
And I don't know what artillery has to do with turkey, but they were integral to this company's history, apparently.
Showing posts with label Lucid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lucid. Show all posts
Monday, September 5, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
September 03: A Magical, Angry, Water Bottle-Powered Flight
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.
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.
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.
Monday, August 29, 2011
August 29: Lucid Dream Time Travel!
I had a few random dreams last night, including the first lucid one in a while. It's interesting that the day after I resume my dream journal, I go back to having more frequent lucid dreams.
The dream(s): The first dream I remember was rather short. I was playing some sort of space horror video game which was very similar to Dead Space, only this one was evidently so scary that I didn't want to finish it. As is often the case, it wasn't long until I was actually in some sort of space horror scenario as opposed to just seeing on a screen. I remember fending off waves of alien zombie things, their bodies mutating and swelling as they leaped out of dark corridors. And, as always in dreams where I shoot things, I remember feeling frustrated that my guns didn't seem to do much good against the creatures. After a while the dream changed.
In the next dream that I remember clearly enough, I was in the dorms of my university, talking with one of the International Peer Advisers for the same exchange program that I've been working with. Through dialogue I realized that I was somehow seven years in the past - the staff were the same for the most part, but they had no idea who I was. It wasn't long until I realized that I was dreaming, and that in my dream I had traveled back in time (for some reason). I spent the rest of the short lucid dream explaining to the IPA that this was all a dream, and that I would end up working for his program seven years later.
A while later I was aware of a new dream taking place. In this dream I was in a familiar church in my home town. After a while I began to wander around the halls and into various rooms as I usually do when I realize I'm dreaming and want to explore. Finding nothing of interest, I left the church and found my car in the parking lot. I drove off, intending to head to my old house. I remember something about Captain America, but the dream began to shift and change again.
In the final dream I was in an office building, taking a clerical test as part of a job interview process. Although in the waking world I've taken these tests before and excelled, in this dream I was struggling and making amateur mistakes, such as neglecting the use of the calculator in a timed number-crunching test and generally wasting time. After quite a while of my confused stalling and backtracking to previous problems, the supervisor came in to check and see what was taking so long. She told me there was no reason for it to take this long. She also pointed out that I had misplaced one of the nickels I was apparently supposed to use for a cash-counting test (which, up until this point of the dream, I wasn't aware of); I realized I would have to redo all of the previous arithmetic problems by adding 5 to them to account for the missing nickel. Right when I realized how that made no sense outside of the cash-counting problems, I woke up.
***
My thoughts: My "scary" dreams tend to be scarier than anything I experience in the waking world (or at least feel scarier at the time due to a heightened emotional state in the subconscious), so the first one isn't out of the ordinary. Also, whenever I watch a movie or play a game in a dream, it isn't long until I end up in said game or movie.
I may have mentioned this before, but in my dreams, guns are frustratingly worthless: firing them usually doesn't do anything to the intended target. This usually results in the realization that I'm dreaming, followed by a somewhat childish argument with my subconscious that I "shot him/her/it," and that the dream should therefore logically follow suit by at least removing the shot character from playing active roles if killing them is too much to ask. I also realize the potential for Freudians to have a field day with over-analyzing the import of impotent firearms in, as Nobokov put it, their "crankish quest for sexual symbols." Moving on....
Whenever I have dreams about time travel, I'm always going back in time to some fairly recent period and to a familiar place - never to the far-distant or exotic. Either my subconscious wants to keep it easy and familiar, or I feel the need to change something from my own recent past.
And why am I not surprised that a dream about taking a test or having a job interview goes horribly awry?
The dream(s): The first dream I remember was rather short. I was playing some sort of space horror video game which was very similar to Dead Space, only this one was evidently so scary that I didn't want to finish it. As is often the case, it wasn't long until I was actually in some sort of space horror scenario as opposed to just seeing on a screen. I remember fending off waves of alien zombie things, their bodies mutating and swelling as they leaped out of dark corridors. And, as always in dreams where I shoot things, I remember feeling frustrated that my guns didn't seem to do much good against the creatures. After a while the dream changed.
In the next dream that I remember clearly enough, I was in the dorms of my university, talking with one of the International Peer Advisers for the same exchange program that I've been working with. Through dialogue I realized that I was somehow seven years in the past - the staff were the same for the most part, but they had no idea who I was. It wasn't long until I realized that I was dreaming, and that in my dream I had traveled back in time (for some reason). I spent the rest of the short lucid dream explaining to the IPA that this was all a dream, and that I would end up working for his program seven years later.
A while later I was aware of a new dream taking place. In this dream I was in a familiar church in my home town. After a while I began to wander around the halls and into various rooms as I usually do when I realize I'm dreaming and want to explore. Finding nothing of interest, I left the church and found my car in the parking lot. I drove off, intending to head to my old house. I remember something about Captain America, but the dream began to shift and change again.
In the final dream I was in an office building, taking a clerical test as part of a job interview process. Although in the waking world I've taken these tests before and excelled, in this dream I was struggling and making amateur mistakes, such as neglecting the use of the calculator in a timed number-crunching test and generally wasting time. After quite a while of my confused stalling and backtracking to previous problems, the supervisor came in to check and see what was taking so long. She told me there was no reason for it to take this long. She also pointed out that I had misplaced one of the nickels I was apparently supposed to use for a cash-counting test (which, up until this point of the dream, I wasn't aware of); I realized I would have to redo all of the previous arithmetic problems by adding 5 to them to account for the missing nickel. Right when I realized how that made no sense outside of the cash-counting problems, I woke up.
***
My thoughts: My "scary" dreams tend to be scarier than anything I experience in the waking world (or at least feel scarier at the time due to a heightened emotional state in the subconscious), so the first one isn't out of the ordinary. Also, whenever I watch a movie or play a game in a dream, it isn't long until I end up in said game or movie.
I may have mentioned this before, but in my dreams, guns are frustratingly worthless: firing them usually doesn't do anything to the intended target. This usually results in the realization that I'm dreaming, followed by a somewhat childish argument with my subconscious that I "shot him/her/it," and that the dream should therefore logically follow suit by at least removing the shot character from playing active roles if killing them is too much to ask. I also realize the potential for Freudians to have a field day with over-analyzing the import of impotent firearms in, as Nobokov put it, their "crankish quest for sexual symbols." Moving on....
Whenever I have dreams about time travel, I'm always going back in time to some fairly recent period and to a familiar place - never to the far-distant or exotic. Either my subconscious wants to keep it easy and familiar, or I feel the need to change something from my own recent past.
And why am I not surprised that a dream about taking a test or having a job interview goes horribly awry?
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
April 28, 2009: Birthday Lucid Dreams
In last night's dream, I was at my old house in Washington. It wasn't long until I realized I was dreaming, so I went outside into the night and started flying. I looked up at the stars, picked the brightest one I saw (which was part of the little dipper for some reason), and flew towards it with the intention of traveling across interstellar space to the distant solar system. However, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't fly much faster than a car can drive, so I gave up on that endeavor; reaching a distant star at roughly 60 miles per hour was out of the question in the time span of one dream, let alone thousands of years. I set my sights lower (literally), and decided instead to fly down to a random building that was along my trajectory.
As is the case in my lucid dreams, I was able to phase through the walls of the building, which was apparently some sort of upscale apartment complex. I wandered through one of the doors and met a bewildered man, who, after overcoming his shock, expressed indignation at my barging into his studio. He was apparently some sort of journalist for a noteworthy publication, though I'm not sure how exactly I knew this. For the most part I ignored his displeasure at my intrusion; I forget what exactly I said to him, but it was some sort of indication that I was a government official, which pacified the man.
Suddenly I was Optimus Prime from the Transformers, and I had to leave the man's apartment, transform into a truck, and drive down the highway to chase and battle some Decepticons. Later I met up with more Autobots, some of which had been seriously injured in the fight. For some reason in my dream version of Transformers, being Optimus Prime meant that I was invincible; any damage done to me would be immediately healed. Right before I woke up, I reasoned that the ambulance transformer would also have that ability. This is when the dream ended.
*****
As cool as flying is in my dreams, I'm finding that I have some sort of governor limiting my speed. As I mentioned before, it seems that my brain has rules that it may allow me to bend, but not break.
Time limit is always a factor in lucid dreams; as soon as I realize I'm dreaming I feel rushed to do something with it before I wake up. I usually spsend my time exploring whatever world my mind has created. It's actually amazing how I can do something unexpected, like pick a random house and walk (or fly) right in unannounced, and my mind can keep one step ahead of me and have setting and characters prepared for me to interact with; and yet, there are clear limitations, as apparently I can't leave the Earth's orbit and fly to distant stars.
-Matthew
As is the case in my lucid dreams, I was able to phase through the walls of the building, which was apparently some sort of upscale apartment complex. I wandered through one of the doors and met a bewildered man, who, after overcoming his shock, expressed indignation at my barging into his studio. He was apparently some sort of journalist for a noteworthy publication, though I'm not sure how exactly I knew this. For the most part I ignored his displeasure at my intrusion; I forget what exactly I said to him, but it was some sort of indication that I was a government official, which pacified the man.
Suddenly I was Optimus Prime from the Transformers, and I had to leave the man's apartment, transform into a truck, and drive down the highway to chase and battle some Decepticons. Later I met up with more Autobots, some of which had been seriously injured in the fight. For some reason in my dream version of Transformers, being Optimus Prime meant that I was invincible; any damage done to me would be immediately healed. Right before I woke up, I reasoned that the ambulance transformer would also have that ability. This is when the dream ended.
*****
As cool as flying is in my dreams, I'm finding that I have some sort of governor limiting my speed. As I mentioned before, it seems that my brain has rules that it may allow me to bend, but not break.
Time limit is always a factor in lucid dreams; as soon as I realize I'm dreaming I feel rushed to do something with it before I wake up. I usually spsend my time exploring whatever world my mind has created. It's actually amazing how I can do something unexpected, like pick a random house and walk (or fly) right in unannounced, and my mind can keep one step ahead of me and have setting and characters prepared for me to interact with; and yet, there are clear limitations, as apparently I can't leave the Earth's orbit and fly to distant stars.
-Matthew
Monday, April 27, 2009
April 27, 2009: Two Shorter Dreams
The first dream that I remember was rather short and simple: just my friend and I playing some sort of video game at his house, hanging out and chatting. Nothing else much happened until the dream ended shortly thereafter.
In the second dream, I was at the school where I work, walking around in the main building of the campus. I was accompanied by a girl that I don't know in the waking world, who was apparently my co-worker. We had to go down to the end of the main hallway to a seldom-used stairwell, in order to flip a circuit breaker in the basement. About the time that we finished doing that, I realized I was dreaming. The girl and I walked back up the stairs and out into the main hall, but there was a huge crowd of students impeding any traffic through nearby doors or down the hallway. The lucid dream ended abruptly, before much in the way of lucid dreaming could be done, when my alarm went off.
*****
Not much to say about this short selection of dreams. Frankly I'm surprised that I've been having dreams and remembering them every night since I started keeping a journal.
-Matthew
In the second dream, I was at the school where I work, walking around in the main building of the campus. I was accompanied by a girl that I don't know in the waking world, who was apparently my co-worker. We had to go down to the end of the main hallway to a seldom-used stairwell, in order to flip a circuit breaker in the basement. About the time that we finished doing that, I realized I was dreaming. The girl and I walked back up the stairs and out into the main hall, but there was a huge crowd of students impeding any traffic through nearby doors or down the hallway. The lucid dream ended abruptly, before much in the way of lucid dreaming could be done, when my alarm went off.
*****
Not much to say about this short selection of dreams. Frankly I'm surprised that I've been having dreams and remembering them every night since I started keeping a journal.
-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
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