Thread: The Nature of Dream Control

@ The Cusp

On Vibration: I see. Yes, I can understand why you'd feel that way. I will keep it simpler in the future. I brought it up in reference to your response to kulananda on the Secret. I've noticed several people have noticed a connection between the concepts mentioned here and those of the Secret. The main difference is the Secret's heavy focus on vibration and the Law of Attraction, which ties into Positive vs Negative.

On Positive vs. Negative: I can agree to disagree with you on this. I certainly have no desire to argue about it. I have experiences of my own to confirm my conclusion, which I must add does not correlate to your archetype of a "tree hugging hippie." I'd thank you to please keep these names to yourself even if you vehemently disagree with it.

Followers of the Secret have found a way to manipulate their own realities through their vibrations. In their view positive thinking draws positive things to you and they also believe that positive vibes are stronger than negative ones (I'm quoting the speakers in their movie on this one).

Its mainstream reality control that works for people. However its not so detailed or specific as lucid dreaming could be once it's mastered. The link seems to be programming archetypes in your dreams which correspond to a certain vibrational field, and then letting the Secret's law of attraction carry it out in RL.

To my mind, the problem then becomes having lucid dreams reliably and regularly.

Wicked post Cusp. I really enjoyed reading that.

Very interesting read. I am going to follow up on this thread when I have more time. Thanks for sharing.

Jordan..

Originally Posted by flyinghawkins

@ The CuspTo my mind, the problem then becomes having lucid dreams reliably and regularly.

I think that's almost everyone's problem on this site. It's certainly my biggest problem.

Originally Posted by The Cusp

After a lot experimentation, I have some thoughts on how this works in practice.

There seems to be a more general control, rather than specific control. Say I wanted to summon a monster with 6 arms, 8 eyes, purple fur, hooves and a tail. It most likely wouldn't work. But I could summon a general monster, and then tweak it's characteristics until becomes like I want.

It also seems to work more reliably when you focus on your goal, but not how you accomplish it. First of all, it's really hard to know where to begin to make something happen. When you have infinite possibilities at your disposal, it's hard to pick just one. By focusing on what you want, the "how" will take care of it's self.


Back in the Real World
I've been keeping an eye out for this process in action in the waking world, and I'm beginning to see it happening more and more. I've been a little shy in practicing this type of dream control in RL, mainly because I feel bad about manipulating people like that.

The other day on the bus, this woman had caught me checking out the girls on the bus. Not wanting to seem like a perv, I figured this would be a good time to reset my attention. So I focused in on the first thing I noticed, the yellow hand bars on the bus. Actually I just focused on the color yellow, zooming in my attention like I do in my dream. Immediately the yellow color became 2-3 times brighter than it was originally. After that I began to see bright yellow everywhere, where I hadn't noticed it before. People wearing yellow outside the bus, yellow on the store fronts, just everywhere. There was so much yellow around me, it no longer seemed real, but dream like. It just didn't seem possible that there would be that much yellow around, it was like a tooth dream gone bad, only I was pulled into a sea of yellow!

One application of this kind of dream control over people I don't feel bad about using, is flirting. I've never been much good at that, but now it's a whole new ball game. Things like how to capture and direct a girl's attention are so much easier now. Before it was like playing a game where I didn't know the rules, now it's like a game of Calvin Ball, where I make up the rules as I go along so that things turn out in my favor.

Another application I not sure I should go through with is at work. My partner at work is hard to get along with. He wasn't in yesterday, and I worked with another guy who's partner didn't show. We were both happy to have a break from the people we work with. Now I'm wondering if I shouldn't switch partners. Using this technique, I could make it happen easily with only a few words here and there, without anyone that I was the one that made it happen. But just because I can change something doesn't mean I should. Would things really improve if I went ahead with it? Asking directly to switch partners would cause a lot of tension at work, and the boss probably wouldn't do it just to spite me. But this subtle approach to change is very tempting.

First off, I want to mention an article I came across (which I can't find at the moment) which supports my dreaming/awake link. It said that the dreaming state persists even while awake. So while you dream, you are just dreaming. But while you are awake, you are awake + dreaming. It would suggest dreaming is the totality of existence. Anyone see anything about that? I've had too many beers to find it right now.


Going back to the notion that your dreams are formed by sum of your attention, where you direct your attention while dreaming has a direct influence. But there is also a residual spillover effect from where you direct your attention in the waking world. This spillover can be from the that day's events, or events deep in your past.

Which raises the question "How much can you pay attention to at once?" Or what is the maximum number of things that it is possible to pay attention to? For an indirect, roundabout answer, I'd like to introduce the notion of The MonkeySphere. The following is a very entertaining article on the subject.

It also sheds some light on the behavior of DCs, and how we view them.

What is the Monkeysphere? | Cracked.com

I have read articles similar to what you mentioned concerning waking state=waking+dreaming state. I believe it had to do with the Pineal Gland. Also I have some experience that tie in general vs total control and waking+dreaming states. In my last patch of WILD's ( and it's been a while) all throughout the day I would repeat specific suggestions to myself. A good example of this was "I will see through my bedroom door". When I reached lucidity and got to my door............there was a porthole in it I had many lulz when the dream was over especially because I am the epitome of a smart ass, apparently my subconscious is also.

So, like..
If I were watching T.V or playing a video game..
Everything around the T.V would pretty much vanish and my concentration would move all into the T.V..
Right? :s

With the first rule, what about things that newly appear as you explore? Like if you are just running through your dream world with you SC mind making things that you don't pay that much attention to. I'm not trying to poke holes in your theory but I am just asking you to elaborate on that.

Its all in the frequency. Like the church chimes on my alarm clock... I can hear those same 5 notes for 15 minutes after i wake up.. but it isnt just a repeat of a recording. It is in the wind.. i can here fans playing this wind chime with the same frequencies well after i awake, so your hypnopompic state allows for translation in the awake world. Which in essence will allow for you to bring these frequencies to life that are in our sleep. This is the key which allows for us to better understand telepathic unity among ourselves,animals,trees & shared dreams. Only ones who can put themselves into hypnotic states will truly understand, as 80% of the world are more solidified than thought. Excellent post.

Originally Posted by imnewtothis

So, like..
If I were watching T.V or playing a video game..
Everything around the T.V would pretty much vanish and my concentration would move all into the T.V..
Right? :s

Right. I'm reminded of dreams where I was watching TV and my surroundings faded away until I was in the show.

Or sometimes you'll see young kids watching TV, and you can talk to them but they don't hear you.

Originally Posted by Soulnote

With the first rule, what about things that newly appear as you explore? Like if you are just running through your dream world with you SC mind making things that you don't pay that much attention to. I'm not trying to poke holes in your theory but I am just asking you to elaborate on that.

I think of those as satellite properties of the main archetype your attention is focused on, or peripheral archetypes. They exist through the main active archetype, until you focus your attention onto one of them and then they become the dominant archetype that drives the creative process in your dreams.

That's pretty much the main algorithm of dreams. Main archetype produces satellite associations until one of those associated properties captures your attention and become the main archetype, which produces it's own association until one of those captures your attention... On an on all night.

Of course archetypes don't necessarily have to produce something new. They can alter existing elements. For instance, in a recent lucid dream, I was being chased by a motorbike gang. I ran into the woods where I could better ignore them, and a glowy pixie like thing caught my attention. When I looked back to the motor bike gang, they had become an elven army. Obviously I associate pixies with elves and such.

Originally Posted by The Cusp

I think of those as satellite properties of the main archetype your attention is focused on, or peripheral archetypes. They exist through the main active archetype, until you focus your attention onto one of them and then they become the dominant archetype that drives the creative process in your dreams.

That's pretty much the main algorithm of dreams. Main archetype produces satellite associations until one of those associated properties captures your attention and become the main archetype, which produces it's own association until one of those captures your attention... On an on all night.

Of course archetypes don't necessarily have to produce something new. They can alter existing elements. For instance, in a recent lucid dream, I was being chased by a motorbike gang. I ran into the woods where I could better ignore them, and a glowy pixie like thing caught my attention. When I looked back to the motor bike gang, they had become an elven army. Obviously I associate pixies with elves and such.

I'm 15, that made near no sense to me...

Don't understand archetype or algorithm, but I THINK peripheral is like peripheral vision, which humans have

i likes the comparison to schrodingers cat. in fact yesterday i was talking to my friend aboutbdreams and stuff and i made the comparison to the cat before i looked here

i think it can be applied to real life too, because what we see is light bouncing off things.

ex-i see a house. it is red. i can only see the front side because mybrain can catch light from only thebaide of the house facing me. through logic and memory, i can assure you that the other side of the house exists. however, since my brain cannot see the other side of the house, it may not exist.

this concept is easier to visualize in a dream, but the other side of the house could be a void, or sonething obscure as if in a dream in real life. the probability of that is just too low. in a dream anything has legitamate possibility.

hi I need your help really badly I'm having trouble once I become lucid controlling my dreams for some reason every time I try to control something like when I wAnt some thing to appear or something to happen well something does happen but not what I wanted like the other when I had a dream and realized I was in a dream and became lucid the 1st thing I did was change the setting that's something I'm really good at then I seen a worm in some grass all of a sudden it became like 200ft tall and had a gold crown on it's head i got creeped out so I flew up (flying is a work in progress for me ) as I got higher I saw that there were these giant worms all over my deam world infecting it n blowing stuff up then I became afraid and fell out the sky into a lake I was hovering over I began to drown then the big worm with the crown came from the water and a claw came from it's body n he took a swing at me then I woke up so I wanted to ask because things like that happen all the time to me in lds also most of the time the dream won't do what I want it to can u help

Originally Posted by terezrucker

hi I need your help really badly I'm having trouble once I become lucid controlling my dreams for some reason every time I try to control something like when I wAnt some thing to appear or something to happen well something does happen but not what I wanted like the other when I had a dream and realized I was in a dream and became lucid the 1st thing I did was change the setting that's something I'm really good at then I seen a worm in some grass all of a sudden it became like 200ft tall and had a gold crown on it's head i got creeped out so I flew up (flying is a work in progress for me ) as I got higher I saw that there were these giant worms all over my deam world infecting it n blowing stuff up then I became afraid and fell out the sky into a lake I was hovering over I began to drown then the big worm with the crown came from the water and a claw came from it's body n he took a swing at me then I woke up so I wanted to ask because things like that happen all the time to me in lds also most of the time the dream won't do what I want it to can u help

The run-on is strong with this one.

Originally Posted by terezrucker

hi I need your help really badly I'm having trouble once I become lucid controlling my dreams for some reason every time I try to control something like when I wAnt some thing to appear or something to happen well something does happen but not what I wanted like the other when I had a dream and realized I was in a dream and became lucid the 1st thing I did was change the setting that's something I'm really good at then I seen a worm in some grass all of a sudden it became like 200ft tall and had a gold crown on it's head i got creeped out so I flew up (flying is a work in progress for me ) as I got higher I saw that there were these giant worms all over my deam world infecting it n blowing stuff up then I became afraid and fell out the sky into a lake I was hovering over I began to drown then the big worm with the crown came from the water and a claw came from it's body n he took a swing at me then I woke up so I wanted to ask because things like that happen all the time to me in lds also most of the time the dream won't do what I want it to can u help

This is a perfect example of the second rule of dreaming. The more attention you give something, the more related detail it creates.

The worm hooked your attention, and that focused attention caused the worm archetype to grow out of control.

You just have to learn to break away and focus on something else when that happens. The only real control you have is where you choose to focus your attention.

I have a question, I tried to Earthbend in a lucid dream a couple of days ago and it didn't work. I concentrate a lot on it but not too much. But still nothing happens. Any tips?

Originally Posted by WarBenifit156

I have a question, I tried to Earthbend in a lucid dream a couple of days ago and it didn't work. I concentrate a lot on it but not too much. But still nothing happens. Any tips?

That's a tough one. While looking at the earth, try to impose archetypes that embody what you want to accomplish. Perhaps stuff like earthquake, hill, mountain, bulldozer, chasm or canyon. Anything that is related to how you want to earth to move. Maybe waves like water. It will probably take a lot of work to master it, but you should be able to make at least something happen.

Hey Cusp,

Just wanted to say thank you so much for this thread (I should probably PM you) also the link to the shared dreams thread is awesome. I have yet to finish this thread or that one but you guys are just confirming my suspicions.

I am still very new to lucid dreaming but it feels as if my thoughts and ideas (that I had prior to knowing what lucid dreaming was) about dreams are correct and their effect on 'reality'.

Essentially:
a) Nearly everyone on this site seems - to me - to be exceptionally smart.

b) I view 'reality' as our consciousness creating/manifesting itself into a 3 dimensional body (technically 4 but possibly more) and then as our conscious 'bumps' into someone else's, reality is 'created'.
Also, just because no one is paying attention to something doesn't mean it's not there. As long as someone 'knows' that it's there then it exists. I apologise, that's very poorly explained and I will extrapolate further as soon as I get through the thread.

Also, I have finals in a month and I really should be focussing on them so I may not be able to post for a while but I probably will

Originally Posted by The Cusp

Mankind has always manipulated physical reality as we've pleased. It needn't be through mental super powers, but can come about from science and technology. Any technologically advance people would seem like gods to primitive people.

The development of science could be said to follow these rules as well. Paying attention to a problem or question until you begin to uncover related detail.

Originally Posted by The Cusp

First off, I want to mention an article I came across (which I can't find at the moment) which supports my dreaming/awake link. It said that the dreaming state persists even while awake. So while you dream, you are just dreaming. But while you are awake, you are awake + dreaming. It would suggest dreaming is the totality of existence. Anyone see anything about that? I've had too many beers to find it right now.

Well, I don't know about that article, but it really is like that. What we see in RL is not what really "exists". Our brain does not waste energy absorbing all the details and information from the "outside" world. It captures a few things and fills in the rest of the picture with stuff it expects to be there according to previous experience and expectations. That's why sometimes we don't see something that was right in front of our eyes. There's a famous story that is usually mentioned to represent this: when the first caravels arrived to the American coastline, the Indians didn't see them until they were really close to the shore, because they had never seen anything like it and their brains ignored them at first. It took some time for their minds to even consider these objects as "real" and to decide "wasting" resources to make them "visible" on the Indians minds. The brain just kept the boats invisible and out of the picture until they were so obviously there, the mind had to deal with its presence and recognize them consciously.
When we're awake, we're still half-dreaming, because our brain recreates the world around us in its own personal manner. What I see is surely different from what you see even if we're in the same time and place. It's like a shared dream that has personal areas and overlapping areas. If you point my attention to some object I wasn't seeing before, it becomes real to me to and we're then sharing that dream-like object. Don't forget that matter isn't really real, it is just a cloud of endless probabilities that we collapse with our conscience, our attention, just like we do in dreams.

Originally Posted by The Cusp

I've hit that same speed barrier while flying. The problem is in order to have movement, you need to be moving in relation to something else. Once you start going fast enough, everything just becomes one big blur and you lose all sense of motion.

I can fly at really high speeds and I have no problem with that. Once I even flew at what seemed to be the speed of light. It felt like crossing several universes as if they were 2D... Hard to explain. But the dream didn't fade, the images I was seeing of the sequential universes were clear and focused. I even choose one that attracted me the most and stopped there. I think speed limits are only imposed by yourself but they can be overcome if you just free your mind from being worried about creating the next landscape. I never create the landscape. I simply move freely through worlds I don't take the slightest second of thought creating. Try it

Originally Posted by The Cusp

That's quite the inconsistency we have here, in that semi-lucids seem to offer better control than full lucids. Since it's awareness of being in a dream that lends you control, it would be reasonable to assume that the better the awareness, the better the control. That just doesn't seem to be the case.
My only explanation is that we (myself included) are scatter brained victims of the digital age. Technology has conditioned us to the point where we can barely focus on anything for any length of time.

My own theory on this is that when you're half-lucid you know you're dreaming but you don't think too much about it, you just do things naturally and they happen as you expect them to. When you're fully lucid, your rational mind may take over, not allowing spontaneous intuitive creation to simply work its magic. You start thinking too much about how to make things happen, therefore blocking them. There is a parallelism between this and attaining enlightenment. Masters are always saying, if you wish and crave for enlightenment all the time, it won't come to you, only when you stop thinking about it you will achieve it. Still, if you never have that goal, it probably won't come either. So the secret is in keeping the balance, a very subtle balance, between knowing you can have it and not thinking that you want it.

It's been a while since I've been on, and decided to check the ol forums out to see how things were going (nice new logo, or "new" logo...not sure how long its been that way). Anywho, I was reading the first page or so of this discussion, and feel your explanation archetypes is spot on. I think one of the reasons people tend to have problems controlling their dreams is because they are coming from a purely logical and rational angle. "I am in a dream, since my dream is simply my imagination, there is no reason why I shouldn't be able to do _____ if I imagine I can." I know I have used this approach, and though it can work, for me it doesn't work that often or that easily.

Dreams tends to be very emotion-driven, naturally speaking. Instead of trying to overpower the natural inclinations of how you dream (and bend it to your will with sheer force), why not use a little psychological judo and simply redirect the momentum of the dream itself? Why try to stop a train dead in its tracks with your bare hands when you can just derail it with a small ramp? For example, I have tried and failed many times to simply manifest something out of nothing. However, lets say you want a gun...try reaching in your pocket the next time and see what happens. Pockets, as an archetype, are associated with containing things...you can use that to your advantage. Doors, as an archetype, are associated with entering new places...you can use those to teleport from place to place instead of flying (think Matrix, the 2nd or 3rd one...I forget).

Anyway, I was reading about synchronicity between dreams and real life, or just thoughts and real life...to which I began to grow dubious. A lot of what you were saying makes sense on some level, like how focusing only on positive things can alter your (perception) of your reality...I don't necessarily think there is a direct connection however, at least not like in dreams. Sure, a positive mood and make those around you act differently, and that could possibly result in beneficial things for you that otherwise may not have happened...but that's not really the same phenomenon that happens in dreams. Your mind isn't actually "creating" reality, that reduces to sociology.

The other thing that concerned me was that part your dream-to-waking life approach is very similar to confirmation bias. In fact, it's almost as if you are taking this natural inclination known as confirmation bias, and making a conscious effort to amplify it. There is no doubt this will have a very real effect on your perception of reality, but again, that is a tad different than how it would effect physical reality. Like before, there may by indirect results that are related to this shift in your perception...but only via external natural mechanisms like sociology. Since the vessels of those effects are still bound by physical laws, there is only so much changing your perceptions can accomplish. You won't be flying anywhere, in other words, but you can theoretically manipulate how other people act around you (to some degree).

Anyway, back on point...so all of these thoughts are going through my mind when reading your stuff, and like I said before, I was skeptical. That night I was talking to a friend of mine, and we got into a discussion about how people might truly be savages at heart based on how people tend to act in the absence of authority. I used the example of a stop light going out, and how even something this simple can lead to a breakdown in normal (traffic) behavior...such as people not treating the intersection like a 4-way stop. On my way to work this morning, I was listening to the radio, and sure enough, a big issue about a traffic light being out on a major street, causing many traffic problems.

Now, did I have a part in that, or was it confirmation bias? The knee jerk reaction is synchronicity...however of all of the different things I had talked about that day, or all of the possible things that could have lead to a "synchronic" event, the odds were actually pretty good that at least one of them would match up with something that was going to happen the next day. But, none of those things that didn't tripped my radar, after all, why would they? I was completely oblivious to all of the (potentially) millions of non-synchronic events that happened that day, but since one did happen, I involuntarily "cherry picked" it. That would be the logical answer, but like Aristotle said "the mark of an intelligent mind is being able to entertain a thought without accepting it". I will keep my mind open and see what happens, because honestly I got a little kick out of this traffic light thing.

Originally Posted by Mayatara

My own theory on this is that when you're half-lucid you know you're dreaming but you don't think too much about it, you just do things naturally and they happen as you expect them to. When you're fully lucid, your rational mind may take over, not allowing spontaneous intuitive creation to simply work its magic. You start thinking too much about how to make things happen, therefore blocking them. There is a parallelism between this and attaining enlightenment. Masters are always saying, if you wish and crave for enlightenment all the time, it won't come to you, only when you stop thinking about it you will achieve it. Still, if you never have that goal, it probably won't come either. So the secret is in keeping the balance, a very subtle balance, between knowing you can have it and not thinking that you want it.

Kind of like finding love in that way.

And yes there is a magic that lucidity interrupts.

A few nights ago I woke remembering me realizing that I was debating on whether the dream I was seeing should be realized as a dream. I was debating on holding myself back from lucidity! I think this is the problem with the whole approach most take to lucidity.

This is my growing theory: It's not about chemicals, biology, or the way we are wired it's about how we are trained as children to desire to see dreams as dreams and not as something more. Thus we are trained to shield ourselves from the reality of dreams and our deeper realizations on ourselves, this is seen as both safe and comfortable. We are drawn to "safe and comfortable" and it is a struggle to pull ourselves out of this well ingrained comfort zone. I think this is why there are no reliable drugs to help us LD and why the mechanical devises are also less than effective. In the end we can always fool ourselves. For example we all eat stuff we know is bad but we still fool ourselves while completely wakeful and lucid, and this despite some of the incredibly silly things we tell ourselves! We have to get over fooling ourselves, this is when I realized that breaking down the nonlucid barrier permanently is going to be really hard. Still I think it can be done and am working on it. I feel confident about this because I know now I have the key to this, I just have to find it.

The person behind it all is you! So where do you start with this conversation?

Originally Posted by Mayatara

There's a famous story that is usually mentioned to represent this: when the first caravels arrived to the American coastline, the Indians didn't see them until they were really close to the shore, because they had never seen anything like it and their brains ignored them at first. It took some time for their minds to even consider these objects as "real" and to decide "wasting" resources to make them "visible" on the Indians minds. The brain just kept the boats invisible and out of the picture until they were so obviously there, the mind had to deal with its presence and recognize them consciously.

The way I heard it, they didn't see nothing, but instead saw something created from their own personal inventory archetypes. And I'd wager many saw different things while looking at the same boat. I've actually heard more recent examples of this happening on Coast to Coast AM from time to time. Several people encounter something strange and each sees something different yet the same on an archetypal level.

Originally Posted by Mayatara

When we're awake, we're still half-dreaming, because our brain recreates the world around us in its own personal manner. What I see is surely different from what you see even if we're in the same time and place. It's like a shared dream that has personal areas and overlapping areas. If you point my attention to some object I wasn't seeing before, it becomes real to me to and we're then sharing that dream-like object. Don't forget that matter isn't really real, it is just a cloud of endless probabilities that we collapse with our conscience, our attention, just like we do in dreams.

Nothing to add to that, you covered it too well

Originally Posted by Mayatara

I can fly at really high speeds and I have no problem with that. Once I even flew at what seemed to be the speed of light. It felt like crossing several universes as if they were 2D... Hard to explain. But the dream didn't fade, the images I was seeing of the sequential universes were clear and focused. I even choose one that attracted me the most and stopped there. I think speed limits are only imposed by yourself but they can be overcome if you just free your mind from being worried about creating the next landscape.

I don't want to get into this too deeply right now, since I logged in to post something else. I'll agree the only limitations are conceptual ones, but I think there might be a couple of rare ones that can't be overcome. "Speed of Light" is irrelevant, since there is no way to measure how fast you are going. So let me rephrase and say increasing your speed indefinitely is impossible, at least in a controlled manner. I suppose you could get locked into nightmarish fractal loop to adjust for the constant perspective changed needed, but even then you'd only be moving relative to the current fractal which can't really be seen as an increase in speed.

Originally Posted by Mayatara

I never create the landscape. I simply move freely through worlds I don't take the slightest second of thought creating. Try it

Oh don't you? Rule 5 says you do! I'm not much of a realm sculptor myself, and my surroundings are not something I micro manage. You don't need to create it all manually, but you do need to remember you have a choice.

Originally Posted by Mayatara

My own theory on this is that when you're half-lucid you know you're dreaming but you don't think too much about it, you just do things naturally and they happen as you expect them to. When you're fully lucid, your rational mind may take over, not allowing spontaneous intuitive creation to simply work its magic. You start thinking too much about how to make things happen, therefore blocking them.

I think the dream state is a delicate thing that the subconscious knows how to maintain with great skill. I think bringing full consciousness into the picture overrides that instinctive distribution of awareness, bringing along invocations of real world physics.

Only way around it is to learn to merge the two, a common archetype in it's self among the new agers.

Originally Posted by Mayatara

There is a parallelism between this and attaining enlightenment. Masters are always saying, if you wish and crave for enlightenment all the time, it won't come to you, only when you stop thinking about it you will achieve it. Still, if you never have that goal, it probably won't come either. So the secret is in keeping the balance, a very subtle balance, between knowing you can have it and not thinking that you want it.

Dream control is nothing if not about balance. I got my best results in my dream influencing experiments when I didn't even get around to "doing" my various means I was using to achieve my ends. I chose my subject to send and said I'd get around to the sending part later. My targets began getting hits before I even tried to send.

Are you coming from a magical perspective with that last part? I sounds a lot like some of the magical school parallels I've been researching. Chaos magic in particular is practically interchangeable with dream control on every level.