Have you ever felt physical pain while in a dream? Many people have the luxury of never experiencing pain in their dreams. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people. I feel pain in my dreams just as vividly as I feel it in waking life. Some people use the lack of physical pain as a trigger for lucidity; if they are injured and suddenly realize they are not feeling any pain, they recognize they are dreaming.
Have you ever been injured in a dream and woken later to find yourself experiencing pain in the same part of your body that was hurt in the dream? Or how about the reverse — have you ever injured yourself in waking life only to have the pain seep into your dreams?
In my own experience, physical pain is fully capable of crossing the border between waking and dreaming. I recently injured my foot and a few days later dreamed of hobbling along a wooded path, stumbling a few times due to pain in that same foot. In my dream, the pain in my foot felt just as intense as the pain I was feeling while awake.
It provided an opportunity for lucidity because I paused long enough to wonder …read more about how physical pain finds its way into our dreams
I recently read Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self by Robert Waggoner, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with an interest in lucid dreams. I've read nearly every book about lucid dreaming and I can say without hesitation this book is one of the best.
There are plenty of how-to books geared toward readers who seek to experience lucid dreams for the first time. While Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self contains some techniques for that purpose, it offers so much more than that.
Waggoner takes lucid dreaming to a whole new level. Through his investigation of the profound inner awareness ever-present in our dreams, he demonstrates the vast potential for exploration and personal growth available to us lucid dreaming. This aspect of the book resonated deeply with me because it echoes my current approach to dreaming.
In my early lucid dreams, I tried to control the dream and all its contents. Often, I focused solely on the entertainment value. Over the years, I learned there was much more to lucid dreaming and I began to …Read more about Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self
If you're looking for a quick way to relax and get rid of stress, give this 10-minute audio track a try. It features brainwave technology layered with relaxing ambient music.
I design tracks like this for my company each month as free gifts for our customers. We normally use nature sounds on our CDs instead of music, because any music with a steady rhythm or a repeating pattern or beat can counteract the effects of the brainwave technology. We've recently been exploring the use of ambient music designed specifically to enhance the effects of the brainwave technology. Today's track and the track I posted a few months ago are the result of our explorations with music. The music in today's track is a little bit spacey and atmospheric. I haven't decided if I'm happy with it yet or not, so any feedback would be welcome.
Instructions for using this track:
1. Do not listen to this audio track while driving.
2. Listening without headphones will provide light relaxation. Listening with headphones will give you access to …Continue reading
The International Association for the Study of Dreams is hosting its annual PsiberDreaming Conference next week. The conference is held entirely online, so no matter where in the world you live, you can attend without ever having to leave your home.
The conference will feature presentations and workshops, group dream experiments, a PsiberDreaming art gallery, and chats with some of the world's foremost experts on dreaming. There are dedicated discussion boards where you can discuss each presentation with the author and the other participants.
Here is a blurb from the conference web site:
Between September 21 – October 5, 2008 join some of the world's foremost experts on the subject of Psi dreaming for two weeks of cutting-edge papers, discussions, workshops, and chats. If you've ever had a precognitive dream, a lucid dream, or simply an "unusual dream" that never quite made sense, this is the place for you.
The list of presenters is a veritable Who's Who in the world of dream studies. Robert Waggoner, co-editor of The Lucid Dream Exchange, Kelly Bulkeley, author of several books about dreaming, Robert Moss, author of several books and host of the radio show Way of the Dreamer, and many other great presenters will be participating in this event. Ryan Hurd from the Dream Studies Portal will be presenting his paper, The Construction of Self from the Void of Imageless Lucid Dreaming.
To read more about the conference or to register to attend, please visit the PsiberDreaming Conference web site.
I just came across this great Calvin & Hobbes comic today. In it, Calvin experiences a classic false awakening. He dreams of being woken up, having breakfast, and going through his usual morning routine, only to discover it was all a dream. I've had false awakenings like this one many times.
Click on the image on the right to see the comic in full size.
While it's well known that various prescription medications can affect sleep quality or mental clarity, far less attention is paid to how they can adversely affect your dreams.
Some medications dampen REM activity, dull your dreams, and interfere with dream recall. Others stimulate vivid dream activity, though not always in a good way. Through a couple of recent experiences, I've also discovered prescription meds can impede your lucid dreaming efforts.
Muscle Relaxers and Hyperdreaming
A few years ago, I hurt my lower back and was left with a chronic ache punctuated by frequent sharp, stabbing pains. After an MRI and weeks of physical therapy, the problem got worse instead of better. Acupuncture and massage therapy had no effect either. I couldn't sit or stand for more than twenty minutes without pain, and I couldn't find a position comfortable enough to sleep in.
My doctor prescribed Flexaril, a muscle relaxer that was supposed to dull the pain. I don't like taking medication of any kind, and I was resistant to the idea of taking a muscle relaxer but gave in because at that point the prospect of being without pain overrode any misgivings I had. The prescribed dosage was one 10mg tablet three times per day, but the doctor recommended starting with only half a tablet before bedtime so I could get a better idea of how the medication would affect me.
Half a tablet, only 5mg, makes you very sleepy but also has the entertaining effect of …Read more about how prescription meds can interfere with lucid dreaming
