sweet [lucid] dreams

Lkj and I have been experimenting lately with ways to have a lucid dream.

In a lucid dream, you as the object of the dream realize that you are, in fact, dreaming, and you are able to stay in your dream world. Once you realize that you are dreaming, you can control what is happening, and the limits to what you can do are subject only to your subconscious, which is pretty vast. Like flying. You could conceivably feel what it is like to actually fly around in a lucid dream. Cool, right?

It started when we watched Inception.

Great movie, really interesting and almost completely conceivable. You should see it if you haven't, just to get yourself thinking.

A few days later watched a movie called Waking Life. Lkj had seen it back in high school, and remembered it for it's thought-provoking subject matter and rotoscope style.

We decided we would like to be able to lucid-dream. So we started a discipline.

I've been writing my dreams down as vividly as I can remember them, and he's been listening to beta waves which are supposed to stimulate the part of the brain that helps you dream. He read a bunch about it, and found some other useful tips to help you remember your dreams and to help you realize when you are dreaming. For instance, when you are awake, ask yourself at random times if you are dreaming. If you ask it enough in your waking life, you will be more likely to think of the same question in your dreams, in which case the answer would be: Yes, I am. Let's fly.

So far, I'm getting better at remembering details, and I feel like I'm on the cusp of being able to realize I'm dreaming. But apparently these things take lots of practice, so I might not be as close as I think. I have the advantage over lkj in that I am not at the whims of an evil alarm clock 5 days a week, which unfortunately has the ineffable quality of blasting one's dreams to smithereens. We shall see.

Are you dreaming right now?

Yours, truly