Dream World

[Sapien]

In the movie “Inception” people placed themselves in a drug induced sleep state so that they could not only dream, but in their dream state enter into the dreams of others. In doing so they carried out specific complex plans including entering dreams in multiple levels. The purpose of their actions was to place a thought or a seed of a thought to into a person’s mind to change their future behaviour for a specific purpose.

It is obvious that the “Inception” movie is far fetched. I have had discussions with friends that planning and caring out such complex pre-planned actions in a dream state is impossible.

I am a dreamer. I usually have very lucid dreams. Sometimes they are nothing special, sometimes sexual, sometimes very bizarre and sometimes very scary (often life threatening situations). As expected my favourite type is sexual:biggrin1: but I really hate it when it ends too soon or I wake up before I am ready. However, I also like dreams when I am flying or floating. I find that even when I awake from such a dream that I feel fulfilled as if I had a major spiritual experience.

Often when I have bad dreams I realize that I am in a dream and try to control it or change it or wake up. For example, one time I dreamed that our cat had bitten an electrical cord and was being electrocuted. In my dream I grabbed the cat’s tail as was also being electrocuted. I couldn’t let go. I realized that I was dreaming but couldn’t wake up. In my dream, I knew my only way out of the situation was to somehow get my wife to wake me.

I tried to move to shake her but couldn’t. I began to breathe hard, that is all I could do. I was hoping that would get her attention but no luck. Finally, I awoke and felt somewhat traumatized. The next morning I talked to my wife about it. She said that I did manage to wake her and she did notice I was breathing hard but thought I was having a wet dream. She wanted me to enjoy it and thus did nothing.

My point is that I do dream a lot and often have reason to try and change/control my dreams but have very limited success. I have a friend that says he can control his dreams.

What are your dream experiences like? Can you control them? Does anyone have any specific experiences they would like to share?

 

[LaFemme]

I dream all the time - all kinds of dreams. I used to have nightmares - horrible, Freddy Krueger type stuff. But I learned how to shape my dreams. I can make myself aware that I'm dreaming and change the outcome of the dream. So far I can only use it to redirect a nightmare and not to get a good sexual dream! Which kinda sucks b/c I'd love to be able to make the good dreams last and last.

 

[mexdude]

I can control my dreams, even control nightmares, buts its been a while since i had a lucid dream like that, my oddest dream was about me having a date with some tv actress, and i felt like if it was for hours, going to one place then to another, other odd dream was about me and this perfect good looking girl in my eyes, and in the dream she did everything to call my atention, but i just didnt noticed a thing (in the dream i was there in third person, so i was the observer and the protagonist as well, quite ood), and in one moment, the girl just says to me, "cant you notice anything?, i want you", so far no sexual dreams that i can remember much, maybe just kisses but thats it

 

[spiritsong72]

What are your dream experiences like? Can you control them? Does anyone have any specific experiences they would like to share?

Dreams have been my constant friend and enemy since I could remember. When I was a child I would have VIVID night terrors. So vivid in fact, there were times where I didn't even know I was asleep and these horrific things would either be happening around me or to me. Terrors that would have me up screaming and crying for the rest of the night. Even as an adult it's very rare for me to go a month without having some sort of nightmare. Dreams have been such a constant companion of mine that I had a choice of either dreading each night and drugging myself so I wouldn't remember a thing the next morning or getting neck deep in researching the science and spirituality of dreams. I chose the latter, and here's what I've learned so far:

(Warning: This is about to take a spiritual bent. So if that isn't your thing, skip it.):

Whenever I have tried to control my dreams I end up waking up. So if it's something horrible that I simply can't "ride out til the end" I'll do my best to control it which inevitably leads to me waking up. Even in my "wonderful, fantastical, doesn't even have to be sexual" kind of dreams, if I try to control it I end up waking up. The only explanation I have for that is the Universe is trying to tell me something and I'm interrupting by trying to control the conversation.

Because of that, I've learned - for the most part - to "ride it out" until the end, regardless of whether it is a beautiful "everything's right with the world" kind of dream or a "Stephen King couldn't write something HALF this fucked up" kind of nightmare. If it is a nightmare, upon waking I get out of bed, walk around for a little while to clear my head and then begin to analyze the dream.

How did I feel inside the dream? What emotions were running wild in my system? What was actually happening in the dream? How was I reacting to it? Then once I get that square I try to figure out if there is ANYTHING in my waking life that has parallels. Am I feeling trapped? Am I feeling out of control? Do I think someone is out to get me? Am I fighting an uphill battle? Am I nervous about something? Do I feel ill-prepared for something?

What I have found is unless there is biology behind it (i.e., ate a big meal and then went to sleep, drank liquor and went to sleep, took any kind of medication and went to sleep) by and large there is no such thing as a "nightmare". It's usually the Universe trying to tell me something and the only way to get through the cement density that is my blockhead is to scare the bejeezus out of me. Now that's easy for me to say right now since I'm wide awake. Try telling me that after I've watched myself being eviscerated ala "SAW" in a dream and I'm probably not gonna be as rational.

Sexual dreams are fantastic face value dreams that in my opinion are us connecting to our "higher selves". (That is, as long as biology isn't involved - see above paragraph). They're fun and fantastic and tell us - if we believe in this kind of thing, anyway - that there's something bigger than us out there and for just a little while we connected to that energy and were taken away where we fucked our brains out with other people that were having the same experience at the exact same time. Sexual dreams can also mean you're in a waking life situation where you have the highest respect for someone else OR you feel dominant or submissive to someone else in your waking life. Again, depending on what turns your crank as a sexual being, that could be a good or bad thing. With sexual dreams, as with any other type of dream, I'd ask myself how I felt in the dream. And be honest with it. And then ask if there is anything in my waking life that makes me feel like I did when I was fucking my brains out in the dream.

Flying dreams are again fantastic face value type of dreams which - if you believe in this sort of thing - connect us to our higher selves and remind us there's something bigger and better out there than just our waking lives show. And I'm with you. Both the sexual and flying dreams make me feel at peace and happy and content and fulfilled. They're wonderful dreams to have and I hope each night to escape into that portion of "Dreamland". :wink: :biggrin1: :wink:

 

[helgaleena]

Dreams take place in the subconscious and are full of all sorts of good stuff that our minds can process better in there. We need our dreams for balance, and I am convinced that there is in them some link to everyone's dreaming. The process of coming awake is a place I have been working at lately, as it involves coming back to the physical body as well as waking back into 'real' life.

Each of us develops a symbolic repertoire unique to us, that can be interpreted to good effect, those times we manage to remember the dream. In fact we dream nearly constantly during sleep and only manage to remember the most vivid bits. Hopefully they are more significant than the bits that sink back again into our unconscious to continue churning, but who's to say?

They are full of great stories and images and puzzles. I am very fond of dreaming and studying my own dreams. And I'd love it if the celebrities and characters I met in my dreams actually were meeting me in 'Dream Central', but I suspect they are actually my own construction of how I'd like them to be. Our dreams tell us mostly about ourselves, because they take place in our own minds and any wacky out-of-body stuff is filtered through our minds as well, if indeed it's happening.

 

[Sapien]

Dreams have been my constant friend and enemy since I could remember. When I was a child I would have VIVID night terrors.

Whenever I have tried to control my dreams I end up waking up. So if it's something horrible that I simply can't "ride out til the end" I'll do my best to control it which inevitably leads to me waking up. Even in my "wonderful, fantastical, doesn't even have to be sexual" kind of dreams, if I try to control it I end up waking up. The only explanation I have for that is the Universe is trying to tell me something and I'm interrupting by trying to control the conversation.

I try to figure out if there is ANYTHING in my waking life that has parallels. Am I feeling trapped?

What I have found is unless there is biology behind it (i.e., ate a big meal and then went to sleep, drank liquor and went to sleep, took any kind of medication and went to sleep) by and large there is no such thing as a "nightmare".


. :wink: :biggrin1: :wink:

As child I had bad dreams once and awhile but it was really as an adult my dreams became more significant (good and bad ones). I experience the same thing when I try to control my dreams - I tend to wake up. Unfortunately, that happens sometimes in my sexual dreams. Sometimes the sexual part is ending but I don't want it to end (haven't finished yet) so try to control it and wake up.

There are definitely links to the real world. I know if I spend an intense amount of time on something I dream about it. When I was in school I used to work out mathematical and engineering problems in my sleep. Your dream mind is not constrained by your normal logic and intuitive solutions just appear. Whenever I dreamed about a subject I would ace the exam.

For me, eating a hunk of cheddar cheese before going to bed definitely results in lucid dreams. There are biological triggers.

Dreams take place in the subconscious and are full of all sorts of good stuff that our minds can process better in there. We need our dreams for balance,

I am very fond of dreaming and studying my own dreams.

Yes, I love dreaming as well and also believe they are essential to our being.

But I learned how to shape my dreams. I can make myself aware that I'm dreaming and change the outcome of the dream. So far I can only use it to redirect a nightmare and not to get a good sexual dream! Which kinda sucks b/c I'd love to be able to make the good dreams last and last.

I can control my dreams, even control nightmares,...t

Do you have techniques that you use to control your dreams? Do you tend to wake up when you try to control them (as I and spiritsong 72)? When you are controlling them how do you know that you actually are? That is one of the issues I encounter when I do try to control a dream. It is like the movie "Inception" with a dream within a dream. The dreamscape may change but do you really have control? Did you really precipitate the change?

 

[Bbucko]

Every once in a great while I'll have a series of vivid dreams; they are so extraordinary that I can remember them well enough to describe them in detail. My last set were written down and shared with others who might help me understand them better. However, the vast majority of my dreams are forgotten in moments.

I dream in color. Frequently I dream in saturated, extreme, hallucinatory color. The colors and light form part of the symbolism for me in one way or another, I guess.

I've never been able to "take control" of my dreams (ie: lucid dreaming), and attempts to do so usually result in waking up. That's not to say that I'm not unaware that I'm dreaming and not awake, just that my subconscious insists that I be a passive participant in the experience. Most of my erotic dreams are just that: erotic rather than sexual. I don't believe that I've had a truly sexual dream in years, though I frequently have highly erotic ones.

I have also had dreams that I recognized as premonitions after the fact in the form of déjà vu. Occasionally, especially when I was younger, I would recognize them as such before experiencing the actual déjà vu sensation, though they were inevitably extremely banal in nature. These dreams are one of the reasons why I'm such a fatalist.

 

[EagleCowboy]

If you don't dream, you will go insane.

For me, I learned to control my dreams out of necessity in my teens. To this day, I'll have severe nightmares for 3 or 4 months, then "normal" dreams for 3 or 4 months, then back to the nightmares. After talking to a doctor, this is normal for a lot of people.

Since I have learned to control my dreams, I've also noticed that there is a 2 hour window in which I cannot wake up, nor can I be woken up by anyone. Maybe a side-effect of being able to control dreams? I've also noticed that I can't remember any nightmare that I have. All I know upon waking is that it was extreme and disturbing.

Now I can remember my good dreams, but I don't try to control those. And they almost always involve one certain car that I own. And it's not even my favorite car.

I have learned that dreams are like cartoons. You can do anything you want in dreams.

 

[nudeyorker]

I don't think it's possible to control dreams because they are the product of your subconscious. I think it's possible that you believe you can control them.
The possible meanings of dreams are as varied and intricate and infinite as our conscious and unconscious thoughts.
I have a dream interpretation book and it's helpful but to be really good at it you have to remember colors and visual symbols as well as the dream itself. It helps to keep a pen and paper beside your bed to write down your thoughts as soon as you wake up. But remember... sometimes dreaming of a train going through a tunnel is just a dream about a train going through a tunnel; or as Freud said "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
One of my favorite quotes is by Henry David Thoreau... "Dreams are the touchstones of your character."

 

[mexdude]

Do you have techniques that you use to control your dreams? Do you tend to wake up when you try to control them (as I and spiritsong 72)? When you are controlling them how do you know that you actually are? That is one of the issues I encounter when I do try to control a dream. It is like the movie "Inception" with a dream within a dream. The dreamscape may change but do you really have control? Did you really precipitate the change?

Well maybe all the videogames ive played helped to somehow change whats happening, but this was early, when i was a kid i couldnt, i remember a drem where i was running from something but i could not run fast enough, or got tired too easy, i hated the feeling, so much i still remember it, but the last nightmare i remember i just decided to fight instead of doing nothing, and it did help, nope i dont wake up, and yes i know its a dream, and yea i can control what happens, but more than that, i cant explain how i manage to

I don't think it's possible to control dreams because they are the product of your subconscious.

Like above, i used to be unable to change the dream, but after some years i did control them, i guess those videogames did helped somehow

 

[helgaleena]

One trick I learned from reading Carlos Casteneda, that big con artist It is to remind yourself before you go to sleep what it is you want to dream of. Eventually you will. Then as a specific exercise, try to look at your own hands in dreams and keep control of what you do with your hands.

It may be self-delusion but I have noticed that when I set out to dream a thing, they act like sort of stiff marionettes compared to the dreams I am content to simply let happen. That may be my subconscious demonstrating its obduracy! Anyway, most dreams I don't try to dictate.

The main thing to remember with nightmares is that they ARE dreams. I vividly remember being killed by a monster once and realizing I was still there, asleep. So I 'rewound' and died a couple more times, just to get clear on the whole business.

 

[LaFemme]

Like I said I can redirect or shape the dream but not create the content. The first step was to remember my dreams. After that it seemed that I could become conscious of dreaming - but not do anything about it. And then one night, during a nightmare, I had the consciousness that that I was dreaming - and I shifted the direction of the dream. I was in control and the nightmare was under my control. I didn't wake up. I don't really understand how it works - but I do know that remembering your dreams is the first step.