To Sleep, Perchance to Dream --
I thought this was interesting. The other night I was in the middle of a dream. Suddenly, I realized that I was dreaming. I'm not really sure what triggered it. I had been aware of dreaming before, but I had never had this much cognizance in a dream. I thought about it and realized that I could do anything I wanted, or I could continue with the dream -- but doing so would forfeit its lucidity. Since I had never been in control of a dream before, I decided to give it a go. I thought, "I'm going to fly", and I rose up into the air and started to swoop around.
I was surprised how easily that it had worked, but was quickly disappointed -- apparently, since I was in complete control of the dream, I was in charge of actively creating and maintaining everything that happened. At that point, it was no longer a dream and was more like a daydream -- nothing was unexpected, so it wasn't really fun anymore. I was disheartened, so I decided to just continue with the story in which I had been involved up until that point. Retrospectively, it was better to experience the dream and have no control over it than the reverse. Regular dreaming is kind of like watching a movie for me -- since I'm not expecting it, it never gets dull. Controlling the dream is like writing a story -- you can do whatever you want, but you'll never be surprised by it, so it's much harder to enjoy.
That's how it is for me, anyway. It was cool to finally experience a truly lucid dream, but I don't really care to have any more. If I do, I thought I might try creating objects or situations. Maybe if I get good enough, I can create entire landscapes and stories, but I might as well just do so with my imagination here in the waking world. It seems to amount to the same thing.
I was surprised how easily that it had worked, but was quickly disappointed -- apparently, since I was in complete control of the dream, I was in charge of actively creating and maintaining everything that happened. At that point, it was no longer a dream and was more like a daydream -- nothing was unexpected, so it wasn't really fun anymore. I was disheartened, so I decided to just continue with the story in which I had been involved up until that point. Retrospectively, it was better to experience the dream and have no control over it than the reverse. Regular dreaming is kind of like watching a movie for me -- since I'm not expecting it, it never gets dull. Controlling the dream is like writing a story -- you can do whatever you want, but you'll never be surprised by it, so it's much harder to enjoy.
That's how it is for me, anyway. It was cool to finally experience a truly lucid dream, but I don't really care to have any more. If I do, I thought I might try creating objects or situations. Maybe if I get good enough, I can create entire landscapes and stories, but I might as well just do so with my imagination here in the waking world. It seems to amount to the same thing.