A few nights ago I asked the question, “Am I dreaming?”
The answer could fall either way, so I performed an uncharacteristic action. Just a test, like pinching myself… except way more fun.
I was standing next to a young woman wearing a light gray skirt. If I am awake, I surmised, I wouldn’t reach over and touch her like this. After applying said action to my (and hopefully her) satisfaction, I decided beyond doubt that I was asleep.
The moment my awareness bloomed sufficiently, I realized that my surroundings were coming from an inner transmitter. I was having a lucid dream.
Source: http://howtocontroldreams.com
Rewind 32 years ago. I used to have lucid dreams all the time. Like clock work. I had no reason to suspect that I was the only person having these vivid and profoundly pleasurable nocturnal adventures, in fact, I figured they happened to all kids at a certain age. These nightly episodes, being as intense and wonderful as they were, impacted me to the degree that I would go to bed early each night before my parents would have to yell, “Bedtime!” I couldn’t wait to get under the covers, close my eyes, and enter a world of my own creation. I could fly!
My routine lucid dreaming ceased as quickly as it began. I don’t think they even lasted more than a few months. Over time, I dismissed them as a biological phase in my early childhood development, a brief span when my pre-adolescent mind was sufficiently open, pure, and prepared for these spirit-world ecstasies.
Perhaps losing lucidity in dreaming is as natural to us as losing baby teeth. Perhaps not. Only rarely do I have lucid dreams now, and never for more than a few moments before I wake up.
I have chosen to open that old, dusty box again. It is a box of dreams, and it is filled with mystery and wonder. I invite any who happen upon this site to travel along with me as I journey back into the limitless landscape of my own inner cosmos.
Fast forward to earlier this evening. I’m at Barnes & Noble, thumbing through self-help books, deciding what to read next. It’s what I do. There’s no shame in my game.
I’m just browsing the self-improvement isle, looking for nothing in particular, when lo and behold, there they were. Two titles: A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming by Dylan Tuccillo, Jared Zeizel, and Thomas Peisel, and Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, PhD and Howard Rheingold. I buy them both.
The following blog is an open investigation of lucid dreaming, and it is a primer to help me dust myself off and fly again. I hope that it will be a guide for you too. This blog is dedicated to all those who share in this exploration wherever you are, and to the science of Oneironautics.
Lucid Flyer Blog 