Dreaming

September 6, 2005 2:36 PM

Life is but a dream. Some people study dreams, while others post to dream BB's. You can even learn how to have lucid dream with these cool, little coins. And of course, there is the inevitable link list. Enjoy!
posted by flyboy (11 comments total)

*Looks around for dreamsign*
...
I tend to have very vivid dreams and often lucid dream (3x or so a week). Its not always fun. Although this does seem useful.

*Checks for dreamsign again*
Hello?
*Wanders off confused*
posted by Smedleyman at 2:55 PM on September 6, 2005

There are also macjians which im to lazy to link to that flah lights when you enter rem state to let you know your dreaming. More expensive then a cheap plastic coin though.
posted by Suparnova at 3:48 PM on September 6, 2005

I like the celebrity dreams on http://www.mydreamdiva.com

Also the midi file-- yes, it's playing "sweet dreams are made of these"
posted by cell divide at 4:14 PM on September 6, 2005

Don't forget this; lucid dreaming, now in rotoscope-o-vision!
posted by anarcation at 4:38 PM on September 6, 2005

I was out having way-too-sweet miso, smedley.

Good topic, posted before, but worth it anew just to see what new members may have experienced and experimented with. It's been awhile for me, alas, since I haven't been too rigorous with my daytime prep routines, but once I'm there I've delved pretty deep in terms of experimentation with conscious/unconscious boundary issues. (still working on reading that library of the unconscious -- it may not be possible)

Three times a week, smedleyman -- without any effort? I'm jealous! :)
posted by dreamsign at 7:45 PM on September 6, 2005

When you look at your hand in a dream, you become aware of your Dream Body.

Uh, not exactly. It's just a mental sign that you've conditioned yourself to while awake. My cousin has held seminars on learning lucid dreaming and he does advocate this method, but it's really the meaningful repetition that lends it any value whatsoever. Nothing intrinsic in "the hand".

Alas, I've always found the business of dreamsigns fascinating, and had been long working on a story of a person or persons who had learned to spot the dreamsigns in "real life" and gained a certain semi-preternatural edge with the rules of reality -- with some very specific examples in mind. Then The Matrix came out and I chucked it all in the garbarge. ARGH.
posted by dreamsign at 8:12 PM on September 6, 2005

There are also macjians which im to lazy to link to that flah lights when you enter rem state to let you know your dreaming.

If you are able to turn lights on and off it means you are NOT dreaming. See "Waking Life".
posted by dingobully at 3:05 AM on September 7, 2005

If you are able to turn lights on and off it means you are NOT dreaming.

Sorry, but no. The only activity that dreams have proven unable to replicate accurately is reading. And even that is not 100% foolproof. Pinching, flipping light switches, etc. are all useless reality tests. While it's possible the dream will use that opportunity to reveal itself by "failing" to replicate accurately, you want something more surefire, and reading is it.
posted by soyjoy at 9:02 AM on September 7, 2005

Supposedly, Casteneda advised looking at your penis, but the publisher made him change it to "hand."
posted by sonofsamiam at 9:12 AM on September 7, 2005

With Castaneda, it amounted to the same location.





Kidding! Without Carlos, lucid dreaming would still be unkown by virtually all of Western culture.
posted by soyjoy at 7:57 AM on September 8, 2005

Dreamsign: my understand about the hand is that it's not just "looking at the hand." You have to study it, at least casually. Enough to see and apprecate the complexity of some fine detail (fingerprint). Fine detail is difficult or impossible to dream with any sort of stability, so by training yourself to notice them makes you more likely to lucid dream.

When I first started trying to lucid dream, I had almost immedate success: for a couple of nights. I've fallen out of the ability. Mostly, I think, because my mind has been too preoccupied lately to do reality checks.
posted by absalom at 4:11 PM on September 8, 2005