(Disclaimer: The following article consists of one of my early lucid dreaming experience, that initiated the whole process for finding the truth attached to it. The dream mentioned here is in all its context a true event that happened with me, and in no way i would try to make up anything here. People may have a nightmarish experience they are afraid of sharing, believing that others might laugh it off, but my advise to them, please bring out such dreams, they can help. On addition to that i have deduced my own method an experimental way in which this concept can be understood in a better way, this is just to say, it is indeed a necessity to dream)
“How can anybody be awake inside a dream?” somebody asked me. Well honestly speaking i had no answer at that moment, that’s because back then i was in my tenth grade, and was totally unaware of the phenomenon called “A dream within a dream”. Things seemed crazy as far as i remember, how i began my journey inside the world of lucid dreaming, with some startling results. It all started for me, when i was in my tenth grade and we had this overnight scout camp to a place called bordi(a scenic location near the borders of gujarat, India). I was extremely excited the night before to be a part of this trip and hence could not sleep properly. Before going to sleep i rechecked all of my arrangements, that i had packed everything properly, the next morning we were to begin by 5.30 after all groups had reported at school. It was going to be a three hour long journey by the bus.
I tried to sleep, but could not even get a wink of sleep that night. I was just thinking about the camp and all the activities that would be happening once there, you see the excitement was too much to contain, and i knew it was going to be an experience, i mean that would be the first time i would be away from home with all my friends for an overnight with all the possible mischief one could possibly imagine of were all that was going on in my mind. As i remember we had planned a lot of things a day prior about what we would be doing as we reach there within our group. After a while of just lying on the bed, i woke up and sat near the window in my living room. I was looking outside the window, i saw a yellow-colored round structure far away in the sky, i tried to place it as Saturn, as i read it somewhere that certain planets can be seen in the morning sky at a specified time of the early dawn. I did not bother to check the time at that moment. I then looked down from the window, our society garden was full of dwarfs and gnomes and elves and they seemed to be dancing around and celebrating. It looked crazy but i enjoyed it, and was getting drifted away from reality. I starting watching them enjoy down there in the society gardens and soon i found one of the creature started calling me down to come and celebrate with them, i was confused but i politely refused the invitation, to which one of the creature returned back a wicked smirk. That kind of didn’t go down well with me and as soon as i looked up again in the sky i saw the sky was orange in color quite the color of the evening sky. I then decided to look at the time, to which i found it was morning 6 and i thought i was doomed. That was when i first thought that this has to be a dream, i ran back to my bedroom, as i entered my room, i saw somebody already there on my bed. Upon close inspection i realized it was me who was sleeping. A cold fear gripped me as i realized that i am in fact dreaming and the dream felt so real. I froze on the spot and nearly fainted, and went totally unconscious. After which i remember my mom waking me up around 4.30 in the morning to get myself ready. I never ever gave any importance to this incident ever after that day. I even chucked all thoughts of seeing a shrink about what the hell was wrong with me.(I am mighty convinced something’s really wrong with me, or else i wouldn’t have created a crazy blog and named it “MYTHBROAKIA”)
It has been 5 years since that incident happened with me, and it is today that i know the exact nature of the dream in which i was awake, the answer to all my questions were “Lucid dreaming”. I got mesmerized by this new concept, which was further cemented to my conscious and subconscious minds by the intake of films like Inception, Vanilla Sky and Alice in wonderland. They provided a lot of insight and the needful hunger inside me to hunt and quench my thirst of Lucid dreaming. I started taking an avid interest in knowing this new concept, which wasn’t new at all, in fact this had its existence for a long time from the land of Tibet where the monks practiced a form of dream yoga or the dream meditation. This was nothing but known as lucid dreaming in the west. On further research many startling revelations came to the surface and the world got introduced to Stephen LaBerge and Robert Waggoner who have made the most significant contribution to this field. To exactly know what i mean, their works should be definitely be amongst the must read section of one’s library of books one finishes in one’s entire lifetime. After going through their works, and understanding the world of dreams on an intricate level i have realized a lot of new possibilities and some entirely different dimensions in which one could get a taste of the reality.
It is a known fact that each night when we close our eyes and doze off to sleep and bid adieu to the world of reality for few hours, we open our eyes to a new world of infinite possibilities, the world of virtual reality. This is a place where irrespective to one’s caste, creed, race, gender, age anything is 100% free to do anything one desires. Perhaps this is where most of the worldly creations or inventions have been possible. This is where it all begins from, and the perception of things change when it is observed from an infinite point of view, a world with no limits. To completely understand the nature of dreams and capitalizing this to one’s advantage, one needs to be more in touch with one’s imagination and as far as possible stimulate it with the most unlikeliest of things and make sure they are vivid. After this the most important standard procedure for entering into the lucid state of dreaming is maintain a dream journal, wherein one’s dream makes its entries each time as it occurs, and increase one’s dream recall.
The basic definition i can provide to lucid dreaming is being awake while asleep. Now if one attains that state things can become so interesting and anyone could then work out their thoughts in the virtual worlds and see what eventually their dreams take shape as. The results i am sure would be quite intriguing and the very thought of having control over one’s dream while one is inside it, is a very powerful feeling and this can pave way for development at the same time knowing one’s true potential as well utilizing it to the fullest, to get the desired outcome. Of all the numerous occasions on which i have had bouts of “lucid” experience i have deduced one thing that the subconscious is the root of all evil in a human. One may resort to any wrong means or any wrong action or anything that one doesn’t has any control of, well such acts of evil are quite masterfully triggered by the subconscious mind. Hence it becomes necessary to have control of the subconscious if not complete but still. For this one needs to train one’s subconscious mind to keep track of every activity one might do over which one might not have control of. A trained subconscious mind is a strong defense against any evil elements. To achieve this feat, one needs to befriend one’s subconscious while one is inside a lucid dream, that is the moment when the subconscious is at its vulnerable state and can be manipulated as our will.
There are many ways to attain a lucid state of dreams, but most of them requires a constant practice to perfect it. One such way i thought of introducing to the already known methods of lucid dreaming, is my very own conception of the half-remembered dream experiment, which is a kind of social experiment. It covers the concept of Lucid dreaming, dream within a dream and dream sharing on a very practical level. In other words, making the entire theoretical application of dreams and converting it into a practical approach, which simplifies the concept and makes it seem accessible to everyone who may wish to broaden his/her horizons of imagination. It is very simple and can be carried out in a hall, room where the words “hall” or “room” be appropriately replaced by the word “dream”. This creates an awareness amongst those present inside the now replaced word “dream” as in fact they are inside a dream and they know it, this covers the basic definition of a lucid dream.
Now, let everyone present in the “dream”, remember any of their dreams or any vivid imaginations of theirs(chances are people may not remember their dreams exactly, hence they are allowed to use any of their imagination as they please as it tells them that they can dream of anything and have the complete freedom to think about anything corresponding to their imaginations) and as they create it in their minds write it down on a piece of paper before them, but just the half part of it. The half part of the dream or imagination that gets written on the paper will then be interchanged amongst the others present in the room and they would try to complete the next half of the dream as they please and it could be anything they want it to be. After this the paper returns back to the person who had written the first part of the dream. The results are expected to be varying from shocking to bizarre to insane and utterly crazy, but this is a fun and interactive way to understand a complicated concept like lucid dreams. The end part also achieves the dream sharing phenomenon. This in totality gives a distinct idea of what lucid dreaming is and how can it be achieved. This experiment creates an awareness, and i was more than excited when all of a sudden i got this idea of making the concept of dream within a dream available to all on a practical basis. So now if i am asked, How can anybody be awake inside a dream? well this experiment may give a definite idea! So my friends keep exploring and stay mystified!
Fabulous article, now i am quite curious to try that out! 🙂
The experiment thing sounds really innovative, and highly interesting, i would love to give it a shot, with my friends! Super Post! 🙂