May 21, 2020

Lucid Dreaming

TEXT LAWRENCE LANOFF

VISUAL SHAUN LANG


For centuries, dreams have fascinated scientists, artists, researchers, and philosophers because they allow us to bridge communication between our conscious and unconscious mind. Dream interpretation is often considered to be an essential part of a spiritual practice; through dreams, we have the potential to discover inner guidance, meaning, and direction in life.

Lucid dreaming, popularized by Steven La Berge in the 1980s, is dreaming with an awareness of being in the dream state. What La Berge found was that lucid dreamers were able to signal their conscious awareness during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, otherwise known as dream sleep. Contiguously, there was a great deal of attention given to dreams in preparation for the Harmonic Convergence, the name given to the idea of creating the world’s first synchronized, global peace meditations. And, since there are similarities between meditation and sleep, lucid dreaming offered the promise of becoming even more present and available during conscious acts of meditation.

In a sense, dreams are a way for us to experience the sacred ritual of life every day. They are whispers from our unconscious about beliefs, ideas, and synchronicities that connect us directly to the circle of being. Many of our current drug practices—weed, DMT, ayahuasca, acid—come from our need to experience the sacred on an on-demand basis. Like video streaming for your unconscious mind.

In our current world, dreams are rather abruptly disregarded, seen as some vestigial appendage of a paleolithic past. This disregard goes so deep that we now believe we must rely on drugs to gain access to the unconscious mind. And now, anybody, at practically any age, can simply buy a “toad medicine ticket” and go on an adventure into the realms of the unconscious without ample training or understanding. For the inexperienced interested in quickly becoming spiritual, it’s a simple pay-to-play upgrade.

Dreams, however, give us a nightly opportunity, without payment or aid of a shaman, to connect with the realms of our own inner wisdom and insight. And through the practice of lucid dreaming, specifically, we are able to experience the sacred rituals of our consciousness, our connectedness, and become more in touch with the liquid nature of our thoughts. These dreams directly tap us into the symbolic nature of reality—often giving us more of a sense of control and awe in our daily lives.

Whatever consciousness is, it most certainly depends upon the delicate balance of competing systems we group together and call “the brain.” Triune brain theory describes three distinct brain structures that live within our skull. The most ancient part, sometimes called the reptilian brain, is responsible for our most basic functions, including our respiration, heart rate, body temperature, and orientation in space and time. This ancient brain, in my experience, is the simplest, most symbolic part of our brain—and can be accessed in states of deep distress.

The next structure is the limbic system, which is responsible for our emotional reactions and initiates our fight, flight, fuck, freeze, or fawn (i.e., make the bad people like you) responses. The limbic brain is also part of our “unconscious” self. It is, however, able to take in massive amounts of data and process those bits in a quick-and-dirty manner, resulting in our familiar “gut instincts.”

The most recent part of our brain, evolutionarily speaking, is the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This is what we tend to think of as “us,” or the seat of identity. But the mind is very delicate— and so is our sense of self. It is only held together by our deepest beliefs and our ability to control the more ancient parts of the brain.

Essentially, the different parts of the brain struggle for power and “self” control. Think of it like this: You want to eat that whole chocolate cake, but you know (PFC) that it will make you feel terrible. Sometimes we eat it anyway, and sometimes we don’t. When an impulse emerges out of the unconscious mind—even if it is self-destructive—it can be so strong that it drives the body to do things that “aren’t me.” “That wasn’t me,” is the cry of the identity-brain to defend what it believes itself to be. But because it doesn’t truly know itself, it conjures stories afterward about why it did what it did and holds onto those stories as facts—but they are not facts at all. These stories are permeable, flexible, degradable, and they will change over time. Lucid dreaming gives us a chance to rewrite our stories and have experiences that are not possible within our physical bodies. In these realms, we can break free of limitations, even gravity.

Our unconscious mind, when unleashed in the dream state, has no constraints at all. So, if we are lucky enough to become aware, we can accomplish seemingly miraculous feats in dream-consciousness. Imagine if we could live in a state of awareness where daily life feels less rigid. Where feelings and sensations are reminders of our inner reality instead of reminders of limitations and anxiety. There is even a path where we begin seeing daily life as a lucid dream, allowing us to feel a bit more in control of our experience. In this sense, there is a decision we can make: to experience life as a matrix, blending dreams and reality.

I have had lucid dreams on many occasions throughout my life. These sacred dreams arise fast and furiously once I commit to becoming more aware of my dreams upon waking. As I hone this practice—by keeping pen and paper by my bed—I naturally retain more of the images and feelings of my dream state. From these explorations, I have discovered an entire universe of creativity by training my conscious mind to remember, and even work with, my dreams.

So many of us rely on drugs for these blended experiences, yet dreams offer us the same potential to bridge the connection to our unconscious mind. For me, a life lived in the exploration of lucid dreams adds more magic, fun, and pleasure to my daily experience.

HOW TO LUCID DREAM

Journal your dreams. Be ready to write, stream of consciousness, as soon as you wake up. Feelings. Fragments. Colors. Symbols. Ideas. Images. This method, with practice, will train your brain to remember the details of your dreams.

Censor nothing.

Treat your dreams with reverence and ritualistic significance, as they are direct conversations with the unconscious and superconscious mind.

Think of journaling as building a bridge to a blended reality. Once your brain understands that you want to communicate with it, it will become very generous with you.

When you wake up, after writing, go back into the dream and work with the symbols you have been given, as if they are art. This will train your inner vision and prefrontal cortex to become flexible in working with symbolic reality. If you can do it in your awakened life, and if you practice going back into your dreams, soon you will find yourself and your conscious awareness awakening in the dream. That is lucid dreaming.

The reverse is also true. As you work with your dreams, you will find that reality becomes a bit more dreamlike and flexible. This allows for more magic in daily life.

Enjoy the dream.

DREAM APPENDIX

F1020

I randomly see my father in a restaurant. He is in a wheelchair. He wants some kind of connection. I’m towering over him. I don’t really want anything to do with him. It’s awkward; I’m with friends. He’s just him, but in the wheelchair. He gets out of it. But he’s small now.

I’m with a co-teacher friend. She asks me what I want. I tell her that I don’t know. She points out that if we don’t make a decision, then the river will just drag us along. It’s a rain river, and there are some cool animals thatIwanttolookat.Oneisafishor something. I realize, in my dream, that it was related to my walk on the Highline. My brain is pulling up images from the day that interest it.

I’m in a room, doing some work with a bunch of people, and there are two imposing men coming at us. They are dressed in powder blue robes. They are speaking metaphorically; they are selling religion. I say to them, “Oh, this is religion stuff,” and I place the paper they handed me back onto the wrist of one of the men. They leave. I am proud of myself.

J1120

I lay on a massage table with a massive hard-on—I have two cocks, and the guy who is massaging both of my cocks is very flustered. There are super cute women around doing the massages, too. We are all playing and laughing, but not the guy trying to manage my two cocks. He is unhappy.

Earlier, I am jumping up stairs—like in a spy novel—jumping and flipping and trying to lose people. It’s lucid again. Exhilarating. I can fly. LIft my body. Jump with total lightness. I feel the freedom of lucidity.

J620

An older woman comes running at me with her face melting in pink stuff. She’s like, “I don’t know what it is, but I’m fine.” I’m like, “you are not fine.”

I’m on some high ground thing, but below are dangerous wild animals, and I’m like, “why are you letting all the wild things out.” These will not be contained. They are panthers. I meet a crew that is dealing with politics and racism stuff and I’m like, “look, this is endless. I’m not going to be around someone who is in endless chaos.” A red- faced woman flashes images in front of me. “I’m not different,” she said. I’m like, “yes, you are…”

I am driving. Water is getting higher and higher and I realize that somehow, while I was driving, I must have dropped some stuff… my suitcase and some clothes. I recognize my sweater and realize that it would be important to go get it. So I double back and find all my stuff. But some folks are going through it. I’m like, wtf. So, I take my stuff back. Kindly. I’m like, “hey, this is my stuff.” Nobody pays attention.

J420

Super tall, large waitress comes up an escalator with me. There is a crashed plane. On the escalator. She follows me all the way up. She is tall. She is flirty. Energy. Her coworkers notice and say stupid things. I am like, wtf??? “Men are stupid,” I say. She laughs. We vibe. She’s big. I like big.

There is some kind of wild animal that is like a big stingray. It’s sweet but scary. It’s making crazy sounds and slapping on the ceiling and really being annoying. I’m like, “Oh, that is emotional herpes. It won’t hurt you, but it ain’t going anywhere.” It’s just really annoying. I go outside and realize I have left my van door open. The stingray, alien kind of thing, is following me. I’m very happy that nothing is stolen. The stingray is happy too.

Some punk guy is telling people how amazing he is and how everything worked or didn’t work, because of how amazing he was and how dialed in he was. I was weaving through exercise gear. There were small Asian women boxing and working out. I’m eating something yummy. A super cute girl is there. I offer her some food and she eats it. Another woman says about me, “Do you know who he is?” She says yes. “He’s a tantra master.” I am lucid and begin flowing my tantric energy to everybody in the space. This is exciting and powerful.

I wake up still flowing energy and carry that energy into the rest of my week.

D2819

There’s an elevator shaft. I’m in it. A doctor’s office after hours. The buttons don’t work, so I go up and down but can’t get out. When the door opens, I see a guy walking around a small basement, but I’m stuck. I get out eventually and find myself alone in a doctor’s office with my own file. The file is worn. I tear it up a bit before I realize what it is. There is a tall sexy nurse who is playing with me. She is amazing. I think to myself that I am lucky. Eventually she switches over to playing with a blind guy who has carbon scoring all over him. I think that her kink is just whatever weird thing is going on, and the weirder the better. It’s all good. I like her.

I leave the doctor and we are looking for a Chinese restaurant. The first one we go to is the wrong one. There are all these amazingly big men who are completely enamored with themselves. I am rather grossed out. So I grab my crew and leave. Everyone in the restaurant has an oversized personality and is loud. I head outside and lead them to another Chinese food location—one that I think we may actually be supposed to be at. I guess it’s best to be at the place you are supposed to be at. Which is pretty much anywhere the moment you are there. Except when you are not.

D2719

I am in a car, not paying attention at all. Suddenly there is a crash and a human whimper.

The driver gets out of the car. I’m not sure what happens with the woman, but soon we are in a very tall, small, narrow house. Straight up and down. You have to climb steep steps. Yellow steps. There appear to be things to hang onto. I am aware that there is thick black goo—tar-like goo—on the bottoms of my shoes. I know it will leave marks, but no one seems to care.

Everything is difficult in this small house. The rooms are small. It’s vertical and steep. I realize it’s the driver’s house. There is no sign of the woman who whimpered and nobody seems too concerned about their injuries. At some point, I am in a bedroom with a pornstar. She is sucking and licking my feet. I like it, but I know they are dirty. She still licks them and spits out the tar. She asks me to eat her ass, which I do.

She’s a pornstar with vampire teeth.