Dream_Weaver:
Chris Bonta
Explores the
Other side of
the dreams we
have.
Written for English 3040
Literary Nonfiction ETSU Fall '04
About the author: Chris Bonta has been writing college papers for almost four years, five if you count some of his high school work. He spends his days mulling, waxing, and waning, over various philosophically earth shattering issues, while still finding time to juggle, skateboard, lucid dream, and hang with his girlfriend, Erin. Currently he attends ETSU planning to graduate in the spring of 2005, whereupon, Chris plans to relax and enjoy himself for a number of years, before returning to “official” academic work.
* * *
Have you ever had a dream in which you wake up early and, for example go to work, or do some other unenjoyable task, only to wake up and realize you have to do it again in the real world? If your dream is about work, what could be worse? You spend all day working hard only to come home, crash into bed, and work just as hard while you sleep. This can’t be right.
Our dreams should be fun. Our dreams should be the opposite of work. They should be utter recreation and self exploration. What about a nightmare, or a dream that your car was stolen, or that your house burned down? You spend so much time freaking out in your dream that you wake up relieved that your horrific experience was a dream, but also far from rested. We’re supposed to be recuperating when we sleep, not stressing out. But many times, these hum drummy dreams are the kind we end up with. Or, at the very least, our dreams can seem just normal. Take for example a dream I had a few years ago:
1 May 2003 (Excerpt
from the Dream Journal of Chris Bonta)
I’m
about to finish a secret shopping job at a Food Lion somewhere. I feel tired
for some reason so I pull out a sleeping bag from nowhere and take a nap, right
there in the produce section. For some reason, it feels perfectly natural to do
this, which is weird. I awake some time later, or so I thought, and start
writing about the dream I had.
Suddenly I find myself eating with a friend
of mine at the Café Pacific in
I’m dreaming here about Food Lion and Food. This isn’t a great dream. In fact it’s a waste of a dream because I could be dreaming such cooler things.
If your dreams just seem a little bit unsatisfying (and I know mine can be) then I have some news you might be interested to hear: you can decide how you’ll spend your time in the dream state. You can be the king of your kingdom in dreams and control them.
For most of us, dreams are confusing images that quickly fade upon awakening. When we dream, we believe that we are in the real world an awake. We assume that we are not dreaming. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the problem. We drag through them like any other day because we lack the knowledge that we are in fact asleep. Because we believe the world in front of our eyes in a dream is the same as the one orbiting the sun, we operate under the same rules that govern our actions while awake. Despite the fact that there are inconsistencies, like extra rooms or strange abilities, our mind rationalizes it, and we remain un aware of our dreaming state. When we awaken, we brush it off as “just a dream” and move on with the day, missing the immense possibilities the dreaming state provides.
Well, what if I told you that you could turn these “confusing images,” these mere dreams into a playground for the soul with unlimitied possibilities? You can become aware that you are dreaming and, after a bit of experimentation do almost anything you can imagine within them. How about soaring with the unicorns? A lunch with Isaac Newton? A conversation with the Buddha? This is possible in what has come to be known as the lucid dream.
I’m driving down the
backcountry road to my parent’s house in Piney Flats Via my black ’86 SAAB.
It’s a sunny day and I’m enjoying the rays and the scenery. I glance towards
the back seat and notice two guitars. At first I just keep driving along absent
mindedly, then I realize that I don’t own two guitars, I own one. Well…why are
there two guitars in my back seat, I wonder. I look back at the guitars again and
realize that one of them is a friend’s
guitar , but, I continue to wonder, I never borrowed it from him. And that is
when it hits me that I am dreaming. In awe, I have time to look at the distinct
reality of the space, to feel the steering wheel beneath my hands for only a
few seconds before the excited beating of my heart jolts me awake in a friend’s
dorm in
Loosely defined, lucid dreaming is the
state of consciousness in a dream in which 
the dreamer is
aware of his or her dreaming state. The term was coined by Frederick van Eeden
(pictured right) in his 1913 article “A Study of Dreams.” Eaden used the term
synonymously with mental clarity to describe the way he felt in a number of his
own dreams. Today researchers use the term to describe an array of mental
states centered around the realization of the dream state while still dreaming.
It is this kind of awareness that makes lucid dreaming so different from other
dreams. The term describes awareness, not necessarily control. High level
lucidity equates with some measure of control of the surroundings in a dream
while low level lucidity is closer to just knowing it is a dream. But far an
above, before any attempt at controlling your dreams can be fruitful, it is
most important that the dreamer make that initial jump from normal dreaming to
lucid dreaming. The awareness of the dream is that first step. To that end,
lucid dreamers have devised a number of methods to help make that jump more
frequent and more natural.
The cornerstone of lucid dreaming is remembering your dreams. Without dream recall, as it is known, we could be having tons of lucid dreams, and we probably do, but if we can’t remember them when we wake up, then it’s as good as not having had them at all. Further, in order to recognize your dreams as dreams, you must become an expert on what kinds of dreams you have, what they look like, and how they feel. That’s why a dream journal is the most important aspect of the lucid dreaming process.
The
dream journal is a simple thing and really self explanatory. It is a record of
every dream you can remember. You keep it by your bedside, open to a blank
page, with a pen ready to go. When you awaken from a dream, you grab the pen
and start writing. If you can’t remember everything, just write what you can
remember. Many times, the very act of writing something will trigger other
memories and you might even surprise yourself with what comes out. But even if
two or three sentences are all you can remember, write it down. Key points of
the plot are enough. When you finish , you go back to sleep, hopefully, to have
more dreams. The idea is to establish the habit. It will make it easier to do
when your pillow seems stronger than your will to write.
Another method of inducing lucidity in dreams is called the
“reality check.” With this method, you pause throughout the day, whenever you
think of lucid dreaming, and ask yourself seriously, “Am I Dreaming?” This
might seem silly, but it is important to remember that the dream world seems
just as real as the everyday world. In dreams, we see, touch feel and think in exactly the same way we do
in reality. So you ask yourself, “Am I dreaming?” and then wait. If you’re
dreaming, you’ll know it. Just look around and see if anything looks out of
place. Who’s around? What’s going on? Can you make things change with your
mind? Try to take off a few inches from the ground. If you’re dreaming, you’ll
probably rise. Let loose and enjoy it. The idea is to condition your self to
ask the question all the time. The more you ask it in waking life, the more
likely you’ll be to remember to ask it when you’re actually dreaming.
Some
dreamers use mechanical devices such as the nova dreamer (pictured below left)
to help them trigger lucidity. These devices are like high tech goggles that
sense rapid eye movement (REM) states during sleep. Studies have linked this
sleep stage to the dreaming state. 
When
these devices sense REM they flash a blinking light in the closed eyelid. A
corresponding blinking will manifest in the dream. This light serves as a
signal to the dreamer that he is dreaming, which triggers lucidity in the
dream. Many dreamers have used devices like these to effectively, and
consistently trigger lucid dreams.
I’m in a bar I went to
with my sister. It might be in
Dreams are dismissed offhand by a large proportion of our society. Nightly, we fall asleep, dream incredible things, wake up and forget anything happened as the new day comes crashing into our consciousness. But, when dreams become lucid, fantastical visions of unimaginable grandeur await the lucky dreamer. My own personal attempts at lucidity have been catalogued in a series of dream journals for about three and a half years. Nightly, I struggle through the fog and mist of sleep to scribble down what I can remember. The journals are filled with random entries like the ones above from dreams about normal everyday stuff, to more weighty matters, like my part in some vast interstellar struggle for the fate of the world. It’s real in my dreams. It’s an entire world of inquiry that can never be truly pinned down. No one really knows where our dreams come from or why. The mystery is there and I intend to explore it. Will you?