Dreams

[Caya]

Would be cool, huh?

I read a trick in an article about lucid dreaming that I've found rather nice, namely, whenever dreaming comes up (in talk, thinking about it or, like, when reading this right now), look at your hand and count your fingers. If there are five of them (insert indivitual applicable number here) then no, you're probably not dreaming right now. If, however, you have trouble counting them or there is suddenly a different number (since you are, well, sleeping when you dream, brains apparently have trouble counting correctly then), then yes, you're dreaming. The point here is to make your brain connect the thinking-about-dreams part with the counting-fingers part, so that you do that automatically when dreaming, too, and thus might be able to realize that you're in a dream right now and enjoy a lucid dream for a little while. I've done this for a couple months now and, while it took a while to work, I've managed to make myself aware that I'm dreaming three times so far (once I had four fingers like a comic figure, once four and a half with half of the pinky missing, and once curiously enough six). Since I haven't head flying dreams for decades but used to enjoy them greatly, I cherish the chance to have those again, if only briefly.

[Artemis]

I wish I would have flying dreams.  I never have and they sound nice.   

I’ve been able to make myself aware that I’m having a dream, but never been able to control my dream.  At most, sometimes I can wake myself up (but sometimes not).

 

[J.P.]

The flying is almost always like "flying again", as if there was stored in the world of dreams waiting for me.
Sometimes I suddenly realize it's a dream (several times in the last few years), but I also cannot control anything, but trying to look at things carefully. So maybe I'm just dreaming of having a lucid dream?

[Carol the Dabbler]

 

On 9/26/2020 at 4:06 PM, Caya said:

whenever dreaming comes up (in talk, thinking about it or, like, when reading this right now), look at your hand and count your fingers. If there are five of them (insert indivitual applicable number here) then no, you're probably not dreaming right now. If, however, you have trouble counting them or there is suddenly a different number (since you are, well, sleeping when you dream, brains apparently have trouble counting correctly then), then yes, you're dreaming.

That technique sounds interesting -- and simple -- and your successful experience with it encourages me to give it a try.

On 9/26/2020 at 4:06 PM, Caya said:

I haven't head flying dreams for decades but used to enjoy them greatly

16 hours ago, J.P. said:

The flying is almost always like "flying again",

I may have asked this last time we talked about such dreams -- but when you folks say "flying" in this context, what does it look like?  Are you flapping your arms like a bird, or soaring like Superman (or what)?  My dreams are like neither of those -- I'm "standing" upright, able to control my altitude with my thoughts.  The best analogy I can think of would be how a hot-air balloon must feel, except that I can also consciously control my horizontal movement.  Anyhow, that's why I refer to it as levitation.  And I don't move very fast, just sort of float along.

On 9/26/2020 at 5:45 PM, Artemis said:

I’ve been able to make myself aware that I’m having a dream, but never been able to control my dream.

If I'm already half awake, I can often start controlling a dream, but then it becomes something of a daydream.

 

[Artemis]

On 9/26/2020 at 1:39 AM, Van Buren Supernova said:

I had inception level of dreaming about a week ago. 

I’ve only had one dream that was even close to anything like that, and it didn’t have all those layers.  I think it was only one or two. It was one of my “continuing” dreams, like the first one I posted in this thread, where I had the dream over several nights, picking up where I left off the night before.  I wrote it down in my journal, maybe I should go find it later and post it here.  It was one of my more “lifelike” and interesting dreams (for me personally; you all might not think so, lol).  It was also rather unique in that I felt its imprint for quite a while afterward.  It left a weird sort of absence when it ended that took a couple months to wear off.  I just felt like I was missing something.

 

[Artemis]

Last night I dreamt that I was on one of those ghost-hunting shows (ghosts again?).  I was trying to communicate with the spirits, and one came through; but she refused to talk, she insisted on singing.  So we let her sing, and she sang this really pretty song.  My partner on the show theorized that it was her “unfinished business”, something she wanted but never got to do in life.  Everyone saw it on TV, it went viral, musicians recorded covers of it, and it became one of the most popular songs of all time.  Next thing, I was a different character in the dream, and I was in a grocery store parking lot, pulling a cart from the rack.  I was hearing a woman sing the song to herself as she walked into the store; and being very skeptical about the paranormal, I thought, “I should listen closely to see if I hear anyone sing it with a matching voice, because it was probably a real person and not a ghost.”  I woke up after that.

 

[Caya]

4 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

I may have asked this last time we talked about such dreams -- but when you folks say "flying" in this context, what does it look like?  Are you flapping your arms like a bird, or soaring like Superman (or what)?  My dreams are like neither of those -- I'm "standing" upright, able to control my altitude with my thoughts.  The best analogy I can think of would be how a hot-air balloon must feel, except that I can also consciously control my horizontal movement.  Anyhow, that's why I refer to it as levitation.  And I don't move very fast, just sort of float along.

For me, it's pushing myself off the ground, I then enter "flight mode", and I can spread my arms and soar. Once I touch the ground again, it's a bit like a magnet, gravity reasserts itself and I'm back to "normal mode". But this way of dream-flying is very likely influenced by computer games , because that's the way it worked in an MMO I used to play. I remember that, in my flying dreams as a teen (when 3D computer games were little more than a dream as well), my mode of starting was much more strenuous, I'd have to jump down from some high spot, face first and arms spread wide, and shortly before I faceplanted, the wind would catch me and I'd start flying. Flying itself was pretty much the same, though, soaring with arms spread, no flapping required.

 

[J.P.]

12 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

when you folks say "flying" in this context, what does it look like?

It's an intentional effort, a kind of will act. It's like trying to move something with your will, only you move yourself and it actually works. To stay in the air I need to keep that effort, like with swimming or biking - if you stop doing this, you will go down. And sometimes I get a bit scared of the heights. And I mostly float on my belly, like with swimming.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Sounds like we're a bit different, then, although my dreams are more like J.P.'s than Caya's, other than me "standing" while she's "swimming."

 

[Artemis]

The closest I've ever had to a flying dream was what I might describe as gliding.  I either jumped or fell off the roof of a burning skyscraper, and instead of falling straight down, I glided across the city and gradually downward for awhile, arms outspread like an eagle.  I had that dream when I was very little, and I haven't had one like it since.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

3 hours ago, Artemis said:

The closest I've ever had to a flying dream was what I might describe as gliding.  I either jumped or fell off the roof of a burning skyscraper, and instead of falling straight down, I glided across the city and gradually downward for awhile, arms outspread like an eagle.

That sounds a lot like Caya's second version:

22 hours ago, Caya said:

... in my flying dreams as a teen[....] I'd have to jump down from some high spot, face first and arms spread wide, and shortly before I faceplanted, the wind would catch me and I'd start flying. Flying itself was pretty much the same, though, soaring with arms spread, no flapping required.

... and both of you had those dreams when you were young.

 

[Artemis]

On 9/28/2020 at 2:19 AM, Artemis said:

I wrote it down in my journal, maybe I should go find it later and post it here.

As promised, here be the journal entries.  I'll put them in a spoiler box, so people who want to skip it don't have to scroll all the way through.
 

Spoiler

[Removed.]

...

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

On 9/27/2020 at 4:06 AM, Caya said:

I read a trick in an article about lucid dreaming that I've found rather nice, namely, whenever dreaming comes up (in talk, thinking about it or, like, when reading this right now), look at your hand and count your fingers

The problem is I normally realized I was dreaming very fast or I woke up, but maybe if I have longer one, I would try this.

On 9/28/2020 at 11:33 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

I may have asked this last time we talked about such dreams -- but when you folks say "flying" in this context, what does it look like?  Are you flapping your arms like a bird, or soaring like Superman (or what)?  My dreams are like neither of those -- I'm "standing" upright, able to control my altitude with my thoughts.  The best analogy I can think of would be how a hot-air balloon must feel, except that I can also consciously control my horizontal movement.  Anyhow, that's why I refer to it as levitation.  And I don't move very fast, just sort of float along.

That is exactly like mine, slow, relaxed, but I'm able to get out of danger (if it's an element in that dream) and remember that I enjoyed it tremendously.

The reason why I love scuba diving (it's been too long since I last did it) is that is the closest I could get from flying, peace and solitude. It is really weightless and sometimes I enjoyed letting the calm moving water controlled my position (upside down etc etc) as long as I'm buoyant and safe it's fine. The more exciting ones were where there were current, mostly unexpected because we would try not to put ourselves in dangerous situation, but when there are unpredictable currents that appeared halfway into the dive, if it's going opposite our navigation and in danger of carrying us to the open sea, we would have to fight it. However, if the diving plan is adjustable and we were in relatively safe area, we would let the current carried us, and that, I have to admit, so fun! As long as everyone maintain the distance close with good visibility, it's really flying experience, it doesn't hurt that we sometimes have fish or turtle companion. Gosh I miss it a lot.

[Carol the Dabbler]

12 hours ago, Artemis said:

It was just a dream, of course.  Funny, though.  The day after he told me I would need to rest and repair, I slept 15 hours a day for two weeks.

Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it?

11 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

That is exactly like mine, slow, relaxed, but I'm able to get out of danger (if it's an element in that dream) and remember that I enjoyed it tremendously.

There was danger in the only two such dreams that I am aware of having since reading Zenna Henderson's novel The People and its sequels (and I wonder if the danger was influenced by her stories).  In one, I was in the living room of the house where I was living in the dream, with all the curtains drawn so no one could see in, and I was levitating around the room, sort of practicing, I guess, but I was aware that it might be dangerous if anyone could look in and see me doing it.  In the other one, I was outdoors, levitating at about treetop height, and there were a few people (men, I think) on the ground, shooting at me, but I managed to avoid being hit.  In each of those dreams, I was wearing an ankle-length skirt, so I'd guess they took place around maybe 1880, which was also consistent with parts of those novels.

I don't recall having any levitation dreams since then, and that was decades ago.  Maybe I should try reading those novels again and see what happens.

 

[Artemis]

On 9/29/2020 at 2:47 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Definitely curious.  It was an odd dream in a number of ways, not least of all because it felt so real and left such an impression.  It stands out among my memories.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Most of my dreams (at least the ones I remember) haven't been that logically elaborate, either.  In the light of day, they tend to look pretty disorganized.

 

[Artemis]

Last night I dreamt that I couldn't find anywhere quiet to sleep.  I was wandering around with my sleeping bag, looking for an empty room.  But every time I settled down somewhere, other people would start streaming in, and soon I was surrounded by people talking loudly, with no regard for me.

I tossed and turned all night and I've been drowsy all day.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

7 hours ago, Artemis said:

Last night I dreamt that I couldn't find anywhere quiet to sleep.

Was there actually noise in the room?

 

[Artemis]

Yeah.

 

[Artemis]

Oh wait, did you mean in the room I was physically sleeping in?  No, not more than normal (outside noises, dogs barking, etc.).  I thought you meant in the dream.  Sorry, lol.  I’ve been a bit out of it all week.

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

I dreamt I was pissed at family nagging on me, grabbed a surfing board and headed to the sea. I had zero idea how to surf but I thought I would figure it out, anything but staying.

The 'sea' was brown colored, looked more like river color, and soon I was riding a very high wave. I have no idea what I was doing or how to control it, but I was on top of it, feeling great, happy and weary as it lifted me high without knowing the direction, and then.... I spotted a huge crocodile shape. Waks! I quickly tried to drag myself to the land and climb a crooked big tree, and I did, so did the crocodile. Wait, whattttt.. so I swing like a tarzan to another higher tree.

Too bad I'm not sure what was the ending as I woke up, but there were couple of other people who surfed and they climbed slower than me.

Moral of the story: you don't have to outrun the crocodile, just the climb mates, I guess.

[Artemis]

I dreamt I was in China, trying to escape a wrongful arrest.  It was intense.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, Artemis said:

I dreamt I was in China, trying to escape a wrongful arrest.  It was intense.

What did they say you had done?

 

[Artemis]

I forget. 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

12 hours ago, Artemis said:

I forget. 

That's not much of a defense!