Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2011 0:27:41 GMT -6
shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/6-dream-mysteries-solved-2514671/
An interesting article on dreams. I was never aware before that during REM sleep (dream state) the body is paralyzed..which they explain is natures way of insuring we don't act out our dreams and injure ourselves.
I'm guessing that something here goes faulty with sleep walkers..and I guess that some dreams are so vivid, people think they are real. A certain percentage of people can 'determine' their dreams (lucid dreaming) and some do it very much by accident. Interested in a subject..they dream of it. For those who want to try lucid dreaming there's a how-to below.
' You can control your dreams. Lucid dreaming is a relatively simple, yet truly profound, type of dreaming. It can be learned by anyone who has the ability to remember their dreams and the non-conflicted desire to become aware in their dreams. It is simple and it is profound, because it suggests that you can continue your conscious awareness in the dream state, and make conscious actions and decisions in the dream state. You can fly. You can make objects and characters appear and disappear. You can ask the dream to tell you what the dream symbols represent. You can experiment.
Follow these steps and surely you will do it...
1) Sit in your bed, and tell yourself that you are leaving behind the cares and concerns of the day, and are becoming more settled.
2) Look softly at your hands, and as you do so, tell yourself in a caring manner that, "Tonight while I am dreaming, I will see my hands and realize that I am dreaming."
3) Continue to softly look at your hands and mentally repeat the affirmation, "Tonight while I am dreaming, when I see my hands, I will realize that I am dreaming."
4) Don’t be bothered if your eyes cross, or you begin to get tired, remain at peace and continue to repeat slowly and gently your intent to become lucid.
5) After about five minutes or once you feel too tired or sleepy, quietly end the practice.
6) Gently remind yourself of your intention to see your hands in a dream and then realize that you are dreaming, and go to sleep.
7) When you wake up in the middle of the night, gently recall your intention to see your hands and realize that you are dreaming. Try to remember your last dream; did you see your hands?
8) Followed faithfully each night ( with a welcoming mental atmosphere ), you should have a lucid dream within the first week - maybe after only one or two nights!
9) When it happens, and suddenly you see your hands in your dreams and you make the connection, "This is a dream!", try to stay calm and explore the dream environment. Later, when you wake from your lucid dream, take a moment and write it down in your dream journal -- write the entire dream; how you realized you were dreaming; what you did while aware that you were dreaming, etc. Congratulations!
At the early stages of lucid dreaming, it is important to become comfortable with the lucid state and maintain lucid awareness. So our advice is to: 1) Explore the surroundings, 2) Test your senses - can you taste, feel, hear?, 3) Test your memory - can you remember your name, where you live, where is your physical body?, 4) Maintain your lucidity - if needed, repeat, "This is a dream" 5) Make choices to do or not to do, to surprise the flow of the dream, 6) Do your best to fly or move from one area to the next, 7) Talk to a dream character, 8) See if you can use your intent or will to influence the dream - can you make something happen by expecting it to happen?, 9) Be creative - see what is created when you open a dream door, or a dream drawer ,and finally 10) Modulate your emotions - don’t get too excited, but stay interested and calm. Maintaining your lucid awareness and modulating your emotions are the two most important practices at this level. It is very easy to get too excited, and suddenly wake up; similarly it is possible to be lucid and get caught up in the dream action, such that you lose your lucid awareness.
By the time you are an intermediate lucid dreamer, you should have considerable experience with the lucid dream environment, so that you are comfortable there and have learned to move, act and maintain the lucid dream setting. The goal of the intermediate lucid dreamer is simply that - to have "goals" - to be able to take conscious goals and recall them in the lucid state, so that you can experiment.
What kind of experiments should you try at this stage? Experiments that personally interest you are the best to try. Things like: 1) Ask a dream character or the dream to explain a symbol within the dream, and then remember the response, 2) Move from the dream scene to a desired place (a friend’s house, a different city, your workplace, etc), 3) Ask the dream to show you a personal symbol for ’natural joy’, 4) Tell the dream that you want your inner self to show you something important for you to see, 5) Try to solve a personal or work problem in the dream, 6) Try to realize a false awakening is a new chance for lucidity, 7) Try for a very long lucid dream and try to remember the entirety of it, 8) Fly through walls, swim under water, sing songs, 9) Hold on through the gray of the lucid dream ending, by maintaining your lucid awareness without any visual imagery to re-enter a lucid dream and 10) Test your awareness within the lucid dream with an experiment that has a result that can not be "expected" in advance.'