Graeme's Dream Journal

[Anelior]

This thread is meant for me to write down all my dreams. Please post on it only if you have a comment/question regarding my dreams, or if you wish to share some of your own that might be helpful for me. Here goes!

[Anelior]

Influences: Ate a bagel before bed, had a bottle of water, and a corona. Practiced Twin Hearts Meditation before sleeping. My mind was very still and relaxed before I hit the sheets. Lights out at 11:07pm. Dreams: 2:17am - very aware of dreams, but they are very shapeless, illogical and hard to grasp. In one of them, all I can remember is that I wrote 4 different essays. The means of writing them was by looking at the paper and it was written - very strange! In another one, I remember walking through the drive of the public school I went to when I was a child, and finding the behicle I drive here in Scotland turned upside-down. I happened to be driving a duplicate myself, and proceeded to try to ditch it as well. Weird how during these dreams I didn't feel like any of this was weird at all! 5:45am - I am making breakfast for someone very ungrateful. I'm not sure who they are, thought the house I am in is a duplicate of my childhood house in Canada. After making breakfast, the person leaves and slams the door, ignoring my goodbye. I go upstairs and find one of the children I look after upstairs, and the father of the famil sleeping on the couch downstairs. 8:15am - got up for a bit. Tried to WILD. Had difficulty writing my dreams down at this point, it was as if the act of making that effort wasn't possible because of how deeply sedated I was. Potential imbalance in the reticular formation perhaps. No success with WILD, I end up sleeping until 10am. Make note of the fact that I have a fan running in the room which might be taking the moisture out of the air and making me less confortable. Will try having it off tomorrow.

[Anelior]

Influences: *1bottle of water at 9:30pm, and a long walk to unwind from the day. Had a very powerful session of visualizing my chakras, especially the third. *1corona at 10pm (don't worry, this isn't a usual habit! heh) *2 coffees from 10pm-11:30pm. This is the start of a little experiment to see what influence having a little bit of coffee before sleeping does. I have removed coffee from the evening since about December. And since this, I have very much lost dream awareness. No fan tonight. I practice meditation for about 10 minutes on my bed before lying down and then proceeding to deep relaxation. Takes a while for my mind to shut off - I am moreso attaining a mind awake, body asleep state, with heavy focus on my "third eye" area and a feeling like I am fully awake and aware in a separate body altogether. This might have gone on to keep a peaceful transition, but then I become aware that my kitchen tap is running - the washer is messed up and sometimes it just starts running spontaneously. So, out of bed I get, and after this, the night goes for a flop. Alarm goes at 4am, and I ignore it. Caught me in the wrong part of sleep. About 5am I get up for the washroom, try to motivate my mind to WILD. I approach it this time much like I might an Astral Projection - by trying to keep the mind awake and the body asleep. The idea is to create willing control, much as a hypnotized mind, so that the imaginitive dream experience is fully in control. Failed attempt. I have 2 very vivid dreams, but they're very personal (heh). I remember them very well and in great detail, just won't record them here because, well, yeah... Woke up at 9:30am.

[Anelior]

This night was very unorganized. I watched a tv program that help my interest long past my bedtime, and then was very groggy after, so I went to bed without any intention of dream recording. This is what I remember though: Very random thoughts and dreams up until about 7am. There is only one dream session I can remember, which happened after I got up breifly at 7ish. I was heading into some kind of exhibit involving a forest set-up, looking after a man who was special needs. Upon coming up the ramp to the registration desk, the man ran away and I couldn't find him. His sister was a good friend of mine in the dream, and I was very worried about her reaction. After looking through the mock-forests and wooden tree-forts, no success. Finally his sister comes in and, to my surprise, she is not upset at all. Later on, he does turn up, and for the remainder of this dream, I am extra cautious. I am talking with the same friend who is the sister of the special needs man from the previous dream. We are planning a trip all around the world, and as we discuss each place, I am taken there. This is very strange, I can't really describe it any better. At one point, I am walking down the street with the same woman, a street that I used to walk down in my old home town. I don't remember much after this.

[Anelior]

Friday and Saturday night I only can quickly record what I remember before work starts at 6:30am. This being Saturday morning, I only have 15 mins to get this all down... 2 distinct dreams, occuring from 4am onward. I am not sure where the first dream begins, but I know I was in the house where I work, and the child I look after wasn't falling asleep. I was working overtime, cleaning the Aga (expensive cooker). I had to do very strange things to it, which I don't usually do, like take the cooking rings off. I cleaned it very thoroughly, and about halfway through, noticed that the kid's toys were all over the place! And the other two children were up. In the second dream, I was inside of a stadium that was being attacked by some strange ethereal creatures. They were headed by a very tall man of light with with long beard. I can't remember the exact sequence of events, but I know that it ended with the man of light and his army entering the center of the stadium where the chieftain of the stadium was waiting. The only other point in this dream that sticks out is just before the attack: a man is holding a miniature model of the stadium, and as he is talking about an attack on it, suddenly the door to the actual stadium is thrown off. And that's all for last night...

[irishcream]

Hey, have you had any lucid dreams? That one with the paper being written on by your mind, sounded like an excellent place to perform a reality check. that dream with the man with the white beard...do you believe in archetypes? sounds like he could have been one...

[Anelior]

Hi irishcream (what is your real name? don't want to call you irishcream all the time!) Yes, I have had lucid dreams, as described/classified on this site. I would have to guess that I've had about 10 over the last year or so. I have not yet found a technique to ensure it more often than not, but that's why I'm working with Seeker right now. When I first found dreamviews last summer, I experienced a very different kind of "lucid dream", where I would be aware of the room all night, and aware that I was dreaming. More like how someone when they watch a movie is aware they're watching the movie, but are still aware that they are sitting in their recliner, in their living room, etc. The technique I relied on to do amazing things in these dreams I have called "Threading", which basically put involes convincing the subconscious mind that I can do anything in both waking and sleeping reality. When sleep kicks in, with this subconscious belief, if I decide to levitate, then its easily doable. Over the last 9 months, since coming to Scotland to work, my dreams have been very different. I have been sleeping with such deep sedation that I no longer have the above described state. The journal entries here represent my attempt to induce lucid dreams as described here on dream views. We'll see how it goes! Thanks for the input, maybe we can chat more. (now time for last night's entry!)

[irishcream]

My right name is Liz. So, you're canadian...what's brought you to scotland? Perhaps you'd like to check out my Dream Journal some time, it might interest you, it might not. I seem to have a lot of dreams... I dream a lot about a man named Graeme, crazy coincidence...i thought he might be you for a minute, that would have been very strange indeed!

[Anelior]

Okay, here's last nights entry. Saturday night, which means I had to work at 6:30...so no time to write the dream down here before I went in. I did make special effort to keep the memory of the two dreams I remember through the day. First dream: This one I figure happened about 4:25am, as my alarm went at 4:30am. I was in the kitchen of an Italian lady I used to visit. She had two special dishes, which were quite odd, but very tasty. The first one was circular, like slices of a loaf, with chocolate inside, and a center like a haystack. The other one is made of cheese, but more like a bread - a bit hard to describe. I just remember they were very tasty. I was about to eat more when my alarm went. Second dream: this one happened about 5:55am because i was woken from it just before it was shower time. I had drawn a very carefully-crafted piece of art, but had not filled in one aspect of it. I submitted it to a teacher of some sort, and then my friend (just a friend, nobody I know in real life), butted in and coloured the unfinished part, but with the wrong shade of yellow. The whole picture was a particular shade of yellow, and I was quite upset that it was now ruined. This dream was very symbollic, and I'm still sorting out the deeper message. And that's all I could manage...

[Anelior]

The first dream I remember happened just before 4:30am. I was going through an old 4-storey building. There were lots of people in here, it was abandoned and open all over - much like a jungle gym. Many of the people were teenagers, banding together in gangs. As I got up very high, I became aware that there was no need to worry about falling, I could just sail off into the air. However, there was still a fear and discomfort regarding doing this, and I decided that I didn't want to. Shortly after this, I became aware that this was a dream, and I could do anything in it. I began moving along a pole and was just about to test my powers of lucidity, when suddenly my alarm went off and I woke up.... Second dream I remember was just before 5:40am. I had many of my friends from Canada over visiting me in Scotland. We had hired a car and were driving around. Just before I was woken up by the alarm at 5:40am, I remember sleeping on the floor, where we had decided to sleep for the night. Third dream happened just befrore 6:20am. I was back in Canada this time, on a road trip to Vancouver. I don't remember too many details about this one, only that we were in a hurry because my friends had to catch a flight. At one point, I remember being angry because the hotel keeper at the previous hotel took my pajamas and now I had none for the next night. Fourth dream was rather strange. I was with the same friends fromt he previous 2 dreams, however we were going through a passageway and suddenly I began doing martial arts with a great deal of skill. At the bottom of the passage we came out onto a row of buildings and there was a tiny class-room where martial art students were watching. I stood in front of it and bowed, then pushed on. We walked along further, past the buildings, and in one of the windows was a very large man, like a giant. Shortly after this, my alarm went off again - 6:55am. This night was a big breakthrough for me in both dream recall and continuity. Everything felt very well-knit together, and for the first time in a long time I feel like I'm getting my dream abilities back! Yay!

[Anelior]

Lots of dream recall this night. Didn't go to sleep until about 12. Set my alarm for 4:40am instead, as the previous night, setting it at 4:30am interrupted my freshly onset lucid dream. First dream I remember happened just before my alarm went off. I was in an airplane, which is one of my greatest fears. We took off, and I had a seat very far back. As the plane got further down the runway, I kept sliding back further and further, until I was right at the back of the plane. Next thing I knew, I was on a tarpauline which was dangling from behind the plane. The only thing I could hold on to were two ropes. The plane had just taken off into the air, so I was suspended from the tarp. We got higher and higher, until I realized jumping off wasn't an option. I tried to climb up the tarp to get back in the plane, but found the hatch to the passenger area had closed. Then I heard an announcement that the tarp was just to assist in take-off, and would be discarded when the plane reached cruising altitude. That terrified me, and I scrambled up the tarp until I reached the two metal rings holding it in place. I thought I was safe (well, by that I mean that I wasn't going to go with the tarp), and then realized that the rings could be released too from the two pincers holding them on. Just after this, the dream ended. Next dream, my boss was very upset with me for some reason, and I finally just snapped. It was very emotional, and I remember him saying, "alright, I can see the job's getting to you, time to go home". I threw a sweater at his head, then stormed out the door. In another dream, I was at a friend's wedding. However, he found out that his to-be wife had to work extra long at her job, so we had to wait around for an hour and a half. During this waiting, I was reunited with several old friends from school, who used to hang out with the particular friend and I. I ended up having to leave the wedding - can't remember why. Later on, I remembered that I missed out on my friend's wedding and felt really bad. I saw him the next day, and he was fine. That's it for last night.

[irishcream]

Originally posted by Anelior Lots of dream recall this night. Didn't go to sleep until about 12. Set my alarm for 4:40am instead, as the previous night, setting it at 4:30am interrupted my freshly onset lucid dream. First dream I remember happened just before my alarm went off. I was in an airplane, which is one of my greatest fears. We took off, and I had a seat very far back. As the plane got further down the runway, I kept sliding back further and further, until I was right at the back of the plane. Next thing I knew, I was on a tarpauline which was dangling from behind the plane. The only thing I could hold on to were two ropes. The plane had just taken off into the air, so I was suspended from the tarp. We got higher and higher, until I realized jumping off wasn't an option. I tried to climb up the tarp to get back in the plane, but found the hatch to the passenger area had closed. Then I heard an announcement that the tarp was just to assist in take-off, and would be discarded when the plane reached cruising altitude. That terrified me, and I scrambled up the tarp until I reached the two metal rings holding it in place. I thought I was safe (well, by that I mean that I wasn't going to go with the tarp), and then realized that the rings could be released too from the two pincers holding them on. Just after this, the dream ended. This sounds like a classic anxiety dream... And why is it, these dreams are always really 'atmospheric' and vivid, and you wake up terrified? ]

[Seeker]

Liz you beat me to it, some mentor I am Anyway, anxiety dreams do seem to be a common occurance for you. This is good and we can make use of it! Anxiety is one of my main dreamsigns and often leads to lucidity for me. Next time you are awake and find yourself becoming anxious over something, perform reality checks and do critical state testing. Seems your dream recall has improved dramatically as well. Ahh Progress!

[Anelior]

Hi Liz and Dave, Guess I hit the "new topic" button instead of "post reply" here. Well, here's the entry which should have been here: Sorry for the break - I've been without internet use for a while. Anyway, I hope to continue on my dream recording. Suffice it to say, last night I had a very neat lucid dream. I woke up at 4am, and focused on the assertion that I am going to know I'm dreaming. This culminated in a scenario where I was wandering through a world - much like in an astral projection - but all along I knew it was a dream/illusion, and went through challenging everything. I would stare straight at people, knowing they were part of the illusion. When I approached them, they vanished like ghosts. It was very liberating. There we go! Thanks Dave for the advice on the anxiety dreams - I will start implementing that now. Last night's dreams were very strange. I woke up at about 4am, and got up, taking careful note of what I had been dreaming about. The dream was not realistic at all, i.e. how it is during a typical eventful dream. Instead, it was a series of happenings, which ended in one person, a female, being split into a male and a female, both of who were at a booth in front of me. This was quite bizarre, which is probably why of that thread of thoughts, it is the only one that stands out. I intended, upon getting back to bed after taking the time to recall my previous dreams, to WILD, affirming that I am going to be aware I am dreaming. This was not very effective, I would assume partly because I couldn't get comfortable. I did manage a vivid dream, not lucid, but on par with what I would consider the experience during an "astral projection", where I was moving through a town I used to visit when I was a child. I ran into two people who I knew from there, who looked slightly older (its been years since I've seen them). They recognized me, but didn't say anything, and I kept moving. I remember with one of them - who I met on a contraption that was a cross between an elevator and an escalator - feeling great regret for not telling them that I knew who they were - they disappeared through a door and despite all my attempts I couldn't find them. I am starting to notice that my dreams have in common the following factor: I am always going through a place that is "familiar", i.e. in my mind I know that's where I am, but what I am actually seeing is something that should be completely foreign. For example, the town I was in was nothing at all like what I remember, it was completely imaginary, yet as I went through, it was as if my consciousness was oblivious to this. I am going to work some more at trying to hone in on this when I'm dreaming. Any suggestions?

[Anelior]

Just so you guys know, I haven't experienced many more of those anxiety dreams since my last post in August. I have been going through a lot of anxiety during the day - I manage it with my Threading technique - which is more like on-the-spot meditation, adapted to be performed when you are anywhere, doing anything. The anxiety has to do with knowing I am leaving Scotland, returning home, and the great unknown that lies before me. Of course, getting on a place, my chief terror, is part of that as well! heh

[irishcream]

can you tell us more about this 'threading' that you talk about? I often find myself in a stressful situation within my job, and i think it could be useful...if i could implement something 'on the spot' so to speak...

[Seeker]

Originally posted by irishcream can you tell us more about this 'threading' that you talk about? *... O_O Hehe, you asked for it! Anyway Graeme, I don't have a whole lo of advice to add at the moment orhter than to keep practicing WILD and to look for new dreamsigns. It seems dreamsigns tend to be like cocharoaches for some people. You idenitfy one and it tends to scurry back into the woodwork of the subconcious.

[Anelior]

Did not get a chance to practice WILD last night. For some reason, i didn't even hear my alarm go off at 4:30, I woke up at 9am, still groggy, and went to have a caffeinated beverage (I'm going to start trying that idea of a caffeinated beverage when I have my 4am waking). However, I had slept long enough, and by the time I finished my coffee, I was fully awake. So, nothing exciting from last night! just a dud! hehe

[Anelior]

This is a short and simple description of Threading for you, Liz, and anyone else interested. As Dave put it, "Threading is to consciousness as lucid dreaming is to dreaming", and that sums it up quite well. When you are dreaming, if you can tame your mind into knowing that it is a dream, you gain complete control of yourself in the dream, and sometimes (often) the very dream itself. I find when I become lucid in a dream, I am content just navigating around, exploring with the exciting awareness that I have complete control. Now shift your thinking to your consciousness. You go through your waking life, which includes your job, your home life, any emergent personal stresses, hobbies, etc etc. Even your "dreaming life" is a subtler and different form of your consciousness Threading involves looking at your conscious world and doing much the same you would in a lucid dream. You focus, meditatively, on the truth and understanding that this is all an illusion of your True Mind. You don't need to be sitting in a lotus position, nor do you need to close your eyes. You can be standing in line getting your coffee, and do this. You can be at work with your boss yelling at you, and lapse into this awareness. Essentially, through frequent use of this technique, your mind becomes clearer, and you start to notice that your life moves with very symbollic progression. Synchronicities and happenings fall in your way, and life gets more and more unbelievible, almost as if it is a dream itself. The key is to remember that this is like a key - and you are on a journey to take it to the door. When life and the world around you gets you down, you focus on what the key means, and that you are getting closer to the door with your every step. You may not reach the door, but you will get closer, and the state of inner peace one reaches is the true goal. Threading is not a magical practice - it doesn't involve bending reality to get what you want. It involves the opposite, actually, that is, making yourself very undefined and broad, so that you can go with the flow and accept the universe and your reality for what it is and therefore attain greater peace. You become less attached to this reality as an absolute reality, and therefore free yourself from associating your absolute state of mind with it. Slowly, you develop an inner peace, an internal state where nothing can shake you or move you; and you can properly deal with the stresses and decisions of your life with greater effectiveness, and without being enslaved to emotional responses that can often make you do the wrong thing. Hope that helps!

[irishcream]

Originally posted by Anelior This is a short and simple description of Threading for you, Liz, and anyone else interested. As Dave put it, \"Threading is to consciousness as lucid dreaming is to dreaming\", and that sums it up quite well. *When you are dreaming, if you can tame your mind into knowing that it is a dream, you gain complete control of yourself in the dream, and sometimes (often) the very dream itself. *I find when I become lucid in a dream, I am content just navigating around, exploring with the exciting awareness that I have complete control. Now shift your thinking to your consciousness. *You go through your waking life, which includes your job, your home life, any emergent personal stresses, hobbies, etc etc. *Even your \"dreaming life\" is a subtler and different form of your consciousness *Threading involves looking at your conscious world and doing much the same you would in a lucid dream. *You focus, meditatively, on the truth and understanding that this is all an illusion of your True Mind. *You don't need to be sitting in a lotus position, nor do you need to close your eyes. *You can be standing in line getting your coffee, and do this. *You can be at work with your boss yelling at you, and lapse into this awareness. * Essentially, through frequent use of this technique, your mind becomes clearer, and you start to notice that your life moves with very symbollic progression. *Synchronicities and happenings fall in your way, and life gets more and more unbelievible, almost as if it is a dream itself. * The key is to remember that this is like a key - and you are on a journey to take it to the door. *When life and the world around you gets you down, you focus on what the key means, and that you are getting closer to the door with your every step. *You may not reach the door, but you will get closer, and the state of inner peace one reaches is the true goal. Threading is not a magical practice - it doesn't involve bending reality to get what you want. *It involves the opposite, actually, that is, making yourself very undefined and broad, so that you can go with the flow and accept the universe and your reality for what it is and therefore attain greater peace. *You become less attached to this reality as an absolute reality, and therefore free yourself from associating your absolute state of mind with it. *Slowly, you develop an inner peace, an internal state where nothing can shake you or move you; and you can properly deal with the stresses and decisions of your life with greater effectiveness, and without being enslaved to emotional responses that can often make you do the wrong thing. Hope that helps! so, is it kind of like, gaining perspective, when you've lost perspective? For example, being in that really stressful situation, knowing you've lost control and all you can think about is the stress... is it like training your mind to recognise the stress, but realise that it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things? I think i do that to an extent...in that i might be worrying about something, and then i think 'yes, and in a week, this won't matter' And that does a lot to alleviate it...i might be way off here..i'm just trying to understand it.

[Anelior]

Hi Liz, I guess everyone participates in threading to a different expent. I would be wont to classify threading more strcitly as an intense meditational practice, but I guess, like meditation, aspects of the mental processes do emerge in common thinking more or less. What I find interesting is how you mention the idea "it doesn't matter", which is one of the central mantras/thought loops of Threading I have found most effective. It helps, as you express here, in letting you stop focus on the present, stressful situation, and escape it. The focus of threading is that this, everything around you, is all an illusion. I am not saying to you that this IS an illusion; for that would imply certainty, which is certainly not correct. What I mean is that the focus, the mental "belief" you instill in your perception is that this is an illusion, and the revelations that follow such a simple proposition are astounding. Threading is a very useful tool because, unlike meditation, it can be practiced while walking, while sleeping, while in a state of stress, while in mid-motion of life, while sitting still as one would do in meditation; anywhere you like if you remember to do it. I'm still learning a lot about it, with every day, so all I can tell you now is what I know about it and what it does for me. Everything else is speculation. Threading also does an amazing bit in dreams. It is a method of controlling dreams with amazing precision but without lucidity. The reason this is so: you program you mind, create a habit (just as with reality checks you create a habit), to believe the world around you is an illusion. In the waking world, you might not see "results", but in a dream, when you practice threading, you see things moving according to your will, in accordance with your desire to see/experience/observe, and the experience can be amazing. Often times in dreams, with threading and no lucidity whatsoever, I levitate, fly, or go on journeys, visit friends as if I'm there in another world, etc. Right now, my objective is to cultivate lucidity in conjunction with threading. Threading sort of works itself in automatically. My hope is that with gaining lucidity, because of my natural work with threading, it will create dreams that are all that more intense, enjoyable, and valuable to me upon awakening. Just as in waking reality, sometimes you are best to detach, know its an illusion, and flow where it takes you, with inner peace, calm, and positive will. Similarly, I find that when I become lucid in any way in a dream, I like to let the dream take me along. In life, we are taken certain ways to learn lessons, and the same goes in dreams. Sometimes our dreams are our subconscious mind's way of telling us there's something we're hiding from when we're consicous, something stuffed deep down that we're ignoring. Listening to dreams can create a lot of insight in waking life, I have found.

[irishcream]

Hey, this is really interesting...i'm glad i replied to this! regarding how you related it to dreaming...i made a post a while back about having control without actually being lucid. I'd know i was dreaming, but not be lucid, yet still controlling the dream, if it made sense. But when it came to control, i only controlled certain elements, so as not to lose certain aspects of the dream. Ie, in spite of not being lucid, i was making conscious decisions. I find this far more interesting and useful to me than lucid dreaming. I think being able to control a whole dreamscape can take the fun out of lucid dreaming...in that there's no spontaneity left...i tend to change a dream when it's something i don't like, such as a screaming baby!

[Anelior]

Couldn't shut down as usual. I worked on affirmations, present-tense statements to fill my subconscious with just before I fall asleep. This involves positive thoughts, etc, which I have found helps at relaxation and how I feel the next day. However, I just couldn't switch off properly. Woke up at 2:15am, here's what dreams I can remember. I am driving from Scotland and just make my way to England via a left turn. I find myself on a toll-road, much to my dismay (have no money ready. As I approach the booth, I rifle through my travel bag, patiently. At first, becaus I am trying to do this, I end up driving too far down the window, and I have to reverse. Luckily, the guy is patient. The toll sign said, £1, but the attendant says its £1.56, which I find odd. Plus, all my coins are very large, as if they are plastic duds. Now get this: once I get onto the motorway, I find my car is no longer a gas car. Its a slide, much like what you go shooting down snow-hills in. The motorway turns into a massive downward spiral, and I go for the ride of my life. At the end of it, I come to a sharp turn, then stop abruptly. The sled I am on goes shooting out from under me, and hits people on the top level. After this, I get up and tell the people on the top level that I'm going to try skateboarding next. Didn't get up then until my final alarm, at 6:30. The dreams I remember: This was a real-life king-kong dream. It was like a sene from a movie, and I wasn't a character in it, I was just watching the characters. It started with them going to a sort of bar-like zoo, that was very spaceous. Then, suddenly, an announcement came on and it said that the place was much bigger, and then panels flew away and the space was one open studio. Next, there was a roar, as king-kong came and started attacking people. In the end, the main characters were in an elevator, and king-kong attacked from below, he was able to fly on a spinning-top (that was what the characters said in the dream!). There was a bit of a conflict, then the men in the elevator got an idea to feed king-kong their sandwhiches. That was a hit, and it pacified him immediately. There were other dreams, but this one is the only one that is continuous and clear. Plus, there was one dream that I remember vividly, but it was a private one (hehe).

[Anelior]

I very much agree with your approach - it is by far my preference, as I believe that dreaming is a way of your subconscious mind making you aware of things. Its not just a playground for you to come up with just about anything. If one were to think on it, they would realize that indeed, everything in their dream that they see is dependent on the level of detail their mind is capable of, which is largely a part of how much they have observed, and how they have observed it, in their waking life. That said, there is something about being lucid which I have found valuable, namely the background knowledge that it is a dream. I am not adamant on always needing to be lucid. For instance, last night's dreams were not lucid, but they were very meaningful and colourful to me, and I enjoyed them just as much as I would were they lucid. I believe in causality - everything that is meant to happen happens exactly as its supposed to, by the governing of the unified Mind of which we are all derived (that is not a biological thing, by the way! heh, hence why I capitalize it). Thus, I don't fret over when I can and can't achieve lucidity; everything I dream and decide to do/think in my dreams are all part of the massive, collective learning process I am going through in this experience I call my "life". Thanks Liz for your interest in my dream thread - I really am enjoying having help, guidance, and questions to answer, etc!

[irishcream]

Originally posted by Anelior Woke up at 2:15am, here's what dreams I can remember. I am driving from Scotland and just make my way to England via a left turn. *I find myself on a toll-road, much to my dismay (have no money ready. *As I approach the booth, I rifle through my travel bag, patiently. *At first, becaus I am trying to do this, I end up driving too far down the window, and I have to reverse. *Luckily, the guy is patient. *The toll sign said, £1, but the attendant says its £1.56, which I find odd. *Plus, all my coins are very large, as if they are plastic duds. Now get this: once I get onto the motorway, I find my car is no longer a gas car. *Its a slide, much like what you go shooting down snow-hills in. *The motorway turns into a massive downward spiral, and I go for the ride of my life. *At the end of it, I come to a sharp turn, then stop abruptly. *The sled I am on goes shooting out from under me, and hits people on the top level. *After this, I get up and tell the people on the top level that I'm going to try skateboarding next. This sounds like a fantastic dream, i often wish that i could have something as exhilarating as this in my dreams...however, my dreams are often very bizarre...