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Lucid Dreams

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A chemical method of inducing them.

When I was younger, I rarely dreamt, period. (And yes, I get the bullshit that I was dreaming but I just didn’t know it. Sorry, if I don’t actually have any memory of experiencing it, it’s not dreaming — it’s just some weird and useless unrememorable mental state ).

But in my elder years, I dream quite a bit, and most of it is unpleasant (sort of a nightmare, in which things are continuously shifting, and where I am and what I have, or what I possess, or how I am being transported is inconstant).

But I have also started, on rare occasions, to have lucid dreams. I particularly remember one in which the cat started talking to me (in English), and I realized, “Gee, I’m pretty sure cats don’t do that. I must be dreaming.” And the dream was amazingly realistic, just like real life, so it was pretty cool. I’m not sure it’s useful, but it’s a lot better than the crap dreams I was having in which I didn’t understand that I was dreaming, until I finally realized (because everything was continually changing) that it was a dream, but at that point, I woke up.

12 thoughts on “Lucid Dreams”

  1. I sometimes dream. Nothing special.

    Occasionally I dream the same few dreams I’ve dreamed before.

    Visually stunning, situationally (sic) dramatic, memorable, repeatable, otherworldly, vaguely video game-like.

    It seems to tell me that my brain possesses creative artistic abilities I don’t seem to be able express in waking hours most of the time.

  2. I have had a few dreams that I remember vividly, but most of my dreams fade within minutes of waking and unless I make a effort to enforce the memory, write it down etc. it’s gone for good very quickly.

    But in December 2016, post colon cancer surgery while recovering from anesthesia effects, I had very lucid dreams. I could enter and leave the dream state at will. When the dream got too intense, too weird, I would just think “Ok, enough of that” open my eyes and I was back in my hospital room. Then when I tired of my room I could close my eyes and start dreaming again, immediately. I suppose it wasn’t really so much a dream state as an intoxicated, drug addled state but it seemed like dreaming to me, at the time.

    I am very jealous of those who can have realistic, pleasant lucid dreams. Some even say they can more or less chose what they want to dream about. If I could do that I’d probably spend every night with my mother, father and brother (and aunts/uncles) who have passed.

  3. I suppose I’m a semi-lucid dreamer. I only recognize that I’m dreaming when a dream I’m having starts to go bad. When it does, I recognize that I’m dreaming and I immediately wake up. So no bad dreams for me, and I don’t ever remember having a nightmare.

  4. The one lucid dream I remember best happened long ago, shortly after Is first heard of the phenomenon.

    I dreamed I looked out my bedroom window in Sacramento — from which mountains were never visible — and saw a towering peak barely ten miles away. I realized I was dreaming, and took it from there.

    My control only lasted through part of the dream though. Apparently I forgot why I was able to do the things I’d been doing, and eventually I was back in passive-dream mode.

    My most recent semi-lucid dream featured an appearance by a recently departed cat that, even in the dream, I knew had passed sway. I didn’t take control then, just was pleased to have the visit.

  5. These days, my lucid dreams have focused somewhat on the deceased and do-overs.

    My aunt and uncle who went childless in this life, he was busy constructing a nursery in their home in the afterlife.

    My dad, finally getting to build those 40’s & 50’s hot-rods. And now, not having to worry about supporting a wife in retirement and two kids through college, maybe even pursuing that pilot’s license. Heaven really isn’t fun if everything is just given to you after all…

  6. But in my elder years, I dream quite a bit, and most of it is unpleasant (sort of a nightmare, in which things are continuously shifting, and where I am and what I have, or what I possess, or how I am being transported is inconstant).
    Sleep apnea can induce nightmares. It’s the mechanism your unconscious brain uses to force you awake so you start breathing again. A CPAP machine can make those go away.

  7. I’m in my mid-sixties and the past few years I have started to experience lucid dreaming frequently. Sometimes I wake up too early and in trying to go back to sleep find myself repeatedly dozing and waking. In this mode it is very easy to have lucid dreams. As with you, I will recognize that something in the dream isn’t possible and realize I am dreaming, but I can often continue the dream and even make choices about what happens. It is a bit like daydreaming, but the essential difference for me is a sense of presence in the imagined place. Waking up, then, is the jarring sensation of suddenly being aware of the room and the environment around me, even when I have not yet moved or opened my eyes.

  9. Hush now don’t you cry
    Wipe away the teardrop from your eye
    You’re lying safe in bed
    It was all a bad dream spinning in your head

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