Navigating your way around in a lucid dream can be tricky, especially if you are new to the state. With a little insight and a few proven techniques, you can be spared much of the time and frustration that inevitably accompanies learning it all on your own. It is natural for beginners to attempt to impose the ways of the waking world upon their dreams. But to the extent that you try, to the same extent will you fail. Dreams are a realm, not a planet, and different rules apply. This is why it is wise to consider the advice of those who have gone before you. There is no need to be carrying your coals to Newcastle.

If you have a specific destination in mind that is not within your current dream scene, you should rule out all forms of ground transportation. Walking or running, notwithstanding their cardiovascular benefits to your dream body, are exercises in futility. Should you elect to traverse your dream terrain on foot, you will soon discover that ruffians will accost, ladies will allure, and your emerging dream surroundings will lead you astray from where you are going long before you don't get there.

Driving when dreaming made me start drinking. Automobiles in dreams (manufactured in some alloy of anxiety) are notoriously undependable. If your car hasn't been lost, stolen or vandalized, you'll be lucky if it starts. And don't expect the instrument panel to be much help. The gauges only indicate levels and degrees of mocking. Consequently, car problems are a compulsory dreamsign, and the license plate is your registered reality check.

If you travel much in your waking life, you will also find yourself out-of-town in your dreams. Leave your Triple A map on the nightstand though. It doesn't show that New York borders Arizona, and that Mexico is just across the river from Quebec. Our clever inner cartographer pulls destinations together by association. I grew up in Binghamton, New York, but for many years lived in Nevada. Hence New York, in one of my dreams was adjacent to Arizona, presumably because it shares "the designation I call home" with Nevada. In another example, I have crossed the St. Lawrence River to get to Quebec, and I have crossed the Rio Grande to get to Mexico, Consequently, when I recently visited a "dreamed version" of Quebec City, I could see Mexico just across the river. My dream slipped up and missed a suite correlation thought. I should have been staying at the Old Quebec City L'Auberge Hotel.

Oneiric maps seem perfectly plausible in dreams and we verily accept any dreamed layout of land and sea as valid. In this respect, the phenomenon has unmistakable similarities to false remembrance (see the posting on False Remembrance). Oneiric maps are, obviously, false geography.

Next let's look at the prognosis for returning to a previous dream scene. This is important for lucid dreamers because there are times we would like to "go back" to try a different option. In one case, I was being chased by inmates in a jail, and even though their pants were still on, I sensed foul play. Becoming lucid, I flew through the ceiling to escape. As soon as my breech was safely out of reach and my panic abated, I immediately regretted that I had flown the coop. I should have turned to confront the penal colony, and perhaps have resolved my angst for their intended antics. But it was too late. Despite my best effort, I was unable to find my way back.

In waking life, we can always return to a place, but we cannot return to our past. In dreams, there is never a "physical place" to begin with, so its imagery dissolves behind us as we move forward. There is no turning back. In lucid dreams, being lucid, we should know this and consequently not waste our time trying.

All of this certainly seems a dismal foreast for navigating the sea of dreams. Perhaps I should have titled this posting, "You Can't Get There From Here," since we can only, with a reasonable probability, reach the limits of our visual surroundings. But take heart. In oneironautics, our still pre-adolescent science of lucid dreaming, if we cannot find our way, we can at least set the stage for our true will to find us.

For most lucid dreamers, flying is initially irresistible for its alpine appeal, but it also proves to be a practical technique. Dream flight provides a constantly changing landscape and many opportunities for your dreaming mind to connect with something that either captures your interest or answers your call. If you are looking for sex, scan the countryside below for pools or beaches. If you want to meet "a master," you might look for a majestic mountaintop, or maybe a temple. If you want to confront your demons, I'd look for places of darkness or an entrance into the earth, probably a cave. If brilliant sunlight breaks through your overcast or a rainbow appears, the divine is trying to get your attention. In this specific case, try your best to resist the human habitual. Don't look down at those scantily clad girls waving up. The possibilities are many and uniquely personal, so don't get too rigid in your expectations. Trust the dream. The fulfillment may be immediate or it may take awhile. Just keep holding your desire in mind as you fly. When you see it, you'll know it.

Flying is not, however, essential. If it can't get you off the ground for some reason, you can apply the same techniques on land. This is not a contradiction to what I said earlier about the futility of reaching a specific destination beyond your visual parameters on foot. In this scenario, you are not fixed on a person, place, object or situation. You are fixed on intent. With unfaltering anticipation, you explore, you diligently watch and you wait. Turn a corner, open a door, approach a crowd, walk from a field into the forest, climb a ladder, peer down into a well. Again, remain focused on your desire, keep moving to generate new imagery, and give your dream time to bring significance forth.

There are more methods, most for me less reliable, and the outcomes of lesser merit. And so my friends, for now, I leave you to the wisdom of the night. /Stephen Berlin