I recorded down a lucid dream that provides some real-life example of extending time showing how we can cultivate conscious experience through dreaming as I published on my blog with the article entitled, "Dreaming a 'Century of Time' During one Night of Sleep.". <<< I recommend reading the linked blog post first to understand some theory and science behind time and dreaming.
The movie Inception plays on this concept but in real-life practices, we can extend the perception of time during dreams. I hope to provide some real-life examples of this on the blog.
I gained about 2h 20m over the clock time. Recorded as much detail as I could.
Lucid Dream – July 26, 2010
Time To Bed: 5:30am
Time When Awoken: 7:20am
Time required to fall asleep: ~30 minutes.
The Techniques
This is the WBTB method using MILD to prepare myself to have a lucid dream. My intent is to cultivate extra time; possibly share a dream and be fully awake and aware during the process.
You can read some lucid dreaming techniques on my blog entitled, "Lucid Dreaming Techniques"
I set aside the following concepts: Ego, Fear, Expectations, Sexual Desires and lesser desires, belief in time, belief in physical body, belief in physical law leaving all of these concepts with physical systems so that while in the dream state only the raw experience can go as unfiltered as possible.
The process of falling asleep.
As I start to fall asleep, visual imaginations seem to happen nearly instantly. I start to see in a 2D window view people walking, I am not even physically asleep yet and unable to engage them in a full-Spectrum 3D dream environment.
Hypnogogia then emerges. I look at the fractal pattern. It is a repeat fractal of triangles that have a clear black triangle and blue triangle creating the pattern. They form clouds and rotations. I am becoming more relaxed.
The hypnogogia morphs into dream imagery, I visually click into a field where I dump a pot of soup into some flowers and some ladies are angry at me for doing so. I am still falling asleep but my sense of vision is completely involved in this imagery.
I click back to the hypnogogia and semi-awaken state. Audible sounds emerge, I hear my wife calling for me. This and the visual patterns confirm that key indicators of lucid dream success are nearly imminent.
My body drops off, I go into complete darkness for a second emerging in a car.
The Lucid Dream
The dream starts and I am sitting in my black 2006 Saturn Ion holding the steering wheel. I am a bit confused and bewildered. I wonder if I am drunk or stoned because I am not thinking clearly. I decide that I better pull myself together before I drive.
Looking out of the window, I see a lady who has a semi-automatic rifle and she aims it at a house and shoots. I am in shock at this. Then I realize that I am in proximity to what could be a psychotic woman with a gun who is going to go on a killing rampage.
I notice some people start running towards her and she is now walking down the street. She turns and shoots at them, they scatter and I start my car. She is walking towards my general direction but not looking at me yet.
Now I am fully awake and alert but not aware this is a dream quite yet. Fearful for other people instead of driving away, I decide I must make any effort to stop this woman before she kills anyone else, even if it means I die trying. I take a deep breath and with my resolve I step on the gas and point my car right at her.
She notices me and takes aim but I am moving and ducking left to right as I drive and this throws off her aim. She seems to be holding her ground and I have the car pinned. Now the Saturn doesn't have the best pickup speed and this is very well portrayed in the dream.
That said, she just opens fire and I slam the car into her sending her flying over the windshield and roof. I speed around a corner and take off.
My inner though asks me, “You just hit a woman! You might of killed her.”
Then start laughing, realizing I am dreaming. “Yes, she got what she deserved, she was on a rampage.”
My inner thought then asks, “You know you are dreaming now, would you have done that in real life?”
“It is tough to say what happens in circumstances such as these, I have a lot to live for with a family but I know that I am capable of taking action in an effort to save others.”, I reply.
I look at my hands holding the steering wheel, the detail of the car is perfect. I fully realize I am dreaming by now and decide to drive the car back to see what the end result is. When I get there and park partly on the sidewalk. There is nothing there. No people, nor the woman I shot at.
I don't expect there to be, I decide to go with the flow. My daughter who is 12 is there. She is special needs. Has a long list of complications from brain-damage at birth, down-syndrome, autism and pervasive learning disorder. I wonder if we are somehow mutually sharing the dream. I decide to treat it as if that is the case.
I walk to her and take her hand. It feels like her hand, the same textures and size. I am very aware of my tactile senses. I look at her and she smiles.
“Looks like we get to hang out in a dream?”, I tell her.
“Let's just go for a walk to the beach and have some fun, how does that sound?”, I ask her.
She nods.
I wonder just how she may interpret dream data. I imagine that she is quite capable of dreaming in the same vivid spectrum of detail that I am experiencing with her. I am very curious and happy to have this opportunity to be in a lucid dream and simply walk with her to the beach.
As we walk I tell her that I don't want her to limit herself here. That she is still a very special person that has the same freedom to grow and be limitless. She just looks at me smiling and walking in her complicated walk that she usually does.
As we walk, I decide to tell people that this is a dream in the event of any mutual exchange is possible. It seems every time I am lucid I cannot dismiss this opportunity having had mutual dreams in the past.
People don't really seem to respond to well. I stop a couple and tell them they are dreaming and they just tell me to piss off and walk away. There is this african lady and I hear her say, “This is my dreamworld, not yours.”
“If this is your dream, then I really want to talk to you.”, I reply.
She ignores me and continues walking, “If you are dreaming, let's talk about this dream. I want to know more about what you think about it.”
“Just go away, leave me a lone. You are not real!”, she tells me.
“I am real enough to talk with, let's just chat about your dream.”, I ask... but it's too late she vanishes leaving the dog she was walking bewildered as it looked around for her.
My interaction with her caught the attention of a person who seems to be an amputee. He is probably in his 50's, a bit weathered looking and he angrily yells at me, “Get out of here, no one wants some crazy person bothering them!”
I walk over to him, “This is just a dream, there is no harm in talking with each other.”
He seems to respond to the dialog and replies, “This is not a dream, you crazy son-of-a-bitch! Get out of her before you piss me off!”
He pushes me with his one good arm and I let him.
“There is no need to get violent, you won't be able to hurt me even if you tried.”, I explain.
“You wanna make a bet? You don't think I could kick your ass?”, he yells.
I calmly stand there looking at him knowing I am dreaming and I laugh, “No, you couldn't hurt me even if you tried. Go a head, hit me if you want.”
He pushes me and grabs my arm and I don't resist. “You won't be thinking this is a dream if I bite your damn finger off!”, he yells.
I laugh, “Go ahead, bite my finger off. This is a dream, I will prove it to you.”
He is a bit shocked that I am not resisting, not afraid and allowing him to just do what ever he wants. Angry at my claim that this is a dream, he sets out to start to bite my finger. He bites into it and it really does hurt. I can feel his teeth press the flesh of my finger against the bone. This is a rare sensation of bone; I seldom have that much tactile clarity but regardless of the pain signal, the detailed realism of the event. I stand resolved that I am dreaming and know it's no big deal, I let it continue.
“It's ok, you can keep biting the finger clear off if you want. I don't mind. It's starting to bleed and I think you really need to bite harder.”, I tell him as he is kind of crunched forward holding my arm gnawing on my finger looking up at me from his side profile.
I just enjoy the experience, I look at the blood now running out where the teeth join my finger. In frustration, he lets go and I show him my hand. There is a bite size loose piece of flesh in the middle of my index finger. Instantly I heal the finger and all the blood disappears.
“There, it's good as new, this is a dream this should be your first piece of evidence.”, I tell him.
It seems like his mouth is sore and he has loosened some teeth and one of them starts to fall out.
“You teeth are not falling out, this is another very common dream experience where we construct a fear that our teeth are falling out when in reality you are fine. Don't give that too much attention, this is a dream. I assure you.”, I tell him.
He looks at me amazed and bewildered. “It can't be a dream! It's real!”, he tells me.
“Dreams are real, when you are able to observe them. They are a kind of dream reality.”, I point at the sidewalk and cause the concrete to start to reveal a hypnogogia mesh underlying the concrete.
He looks at that and it really gets his attention. “Oh my god, this is a dream!” he yells.
“Enjoy the dream, and tell all your friends.” I tell him as I then take my daughter's hand and decide that now is a good time just to enjoy our walk on the beach. I was satisfied in trying to connect with others.
We walk down the beach and the sand feels nice. It's a beautiful day. I could see the Ocean. We were walking on a sidewalk that had bricks laid down with a concrete rim. There were people sitting on the beach, some had lawn chairs, others towels.
I just walk in silence with my daughter and just enjoyed our time. I wondered about dream objectivity and if she in any way is actually with me. Having had mutual dreams I do not doubt that possibility but then wonder how on Earth could she ever tell me. She can't speak in real life. This produces an impossible realization that in no way could I ever know; she couldn't understand or confirm a mutual dream. I muse on these thoughts as we walk.
After a while of walking, she disappeared. .
During the walk, she disappears. I decide to go look for her. I walk back the way I came, past the finger biter who is still there looking at his hand and clearly in deep thought. I walk to the place where I first met my daughter and enter an apartment building.
I walk around the hallways for a while and it's like a maze, I feel a bit lost so decide to use the elevator. At first there is only one floor on the elevator; which makes no sense. I press the button and the elevator just opens at the same floor. The reason for this is I am loosing awareness that I am dreaming.
When the button's change again to a new set and I hit a secret basement key labeled “F”; I do a reality check and realize I am dreaming again. I stop and just observe the dream. I examine the stark reality of it.
The elevator door feels like real steel. I see my reflection in the grainy steel. I look up and see a black widow web with insects stuck in; there is no spider. This causes me to remember many dreams I have had where very aggressive and exaggerated spiders have attacked me. I laugh about them and know not to project such thoughts into that web.
I simply observe the details and how clear they are rendering. If I didn't have a keen sense of dreaming there is no question the overwhelming realism that presents itself would certainly make me think otherwise.
Here I am, in this lucid dream experience and so far it's been a lot of wandering around and although interesting and fun it seemed to lack anything purposeful. I decide that I want more from the dream then just details and environments; that is never going to change.
I have been in e-mail communication with a few researchers. There are two that I have spoken with that I thought if in any way I could induce a mutual dream amongst us; that would prove to be one of the more interesting topics in our e-mail exchange.
I focus my intent and then focus on them. Perhaps dragging two into a dream is a bit much but I feel the effort of trying is far more important then not. The first obvious problem was I was stuck in an elevator; or at least thought I was in an elevator.
They were not present so I would have to try to summon them here. I started with that tangent and focused on their names, even saying out-loud that I want to summon them to my dream. I focus and call out, even stick my hands out but all this does is cause the texture of the elevator to swirl into hypnogogic meshes.
I completely remove the elevator and all sensory details away by focusing; soon I am in a void where there is no details. Just emptiness and swirls of energy.
I get mental impressions of them in the void. There is white light flickering in a vertical mirage, it seems to move and fold on itself. Everything is in flux and I lose focus.
I emerge out of the void at my home area. There is no sign of the people I want to share dreams with; I cannot expect that my effort is the technique that could be used although I realize this is a very difficult task. I should be happy that I was even able to try at all.
There are people I know around me are there so I resume engaging people in efforts to tell them it's a dream. The problem is and I realize it, is how would I be able to verify that it is a mutual dream without sounding like a complete weirdo in real life.
I decide that the reward would be if I could help them gain some insight that they are in a dream world should my telling them; and the objectivity exist... then that is worth an effort.
Anyone I know or recognize I tell them they are dreaming. One runs away from me and runs into the house. I follow him up a flight of stairs. He was carrying some boxes into the house; then he returns but this time he is invisible but the boxes are not. I watch as these boxes float as if carried by someone down stairs. The detail was really fascinating to watch. It was very surreal and also helped me stay centered in awareness that this was a dream.
The inside of the house is not what it looks like in reality. I know my friend lives here so I call out at my friend. “I'll be with you in a minute, I am just upstairs”, she yells.
“That's ok, I just want to let you know that this is a dream!”.
She doesn't answer back and I decide to explore this strange surreal house. I walk by a crib and I look inside and see my oldest daughter from the previous dream sleeping in there with a blanket I recognize.
I look at her and she changes to my youngest daughter, the 18 month old.
The focus causes the dream to shift yet again, and now I find myself in a hotel room. There is this attractive blonde woman in the dream. She has long flowing locks of blond hair, really nice make-up. She has a nice sized set of boobs on her and over all is quite a sexy woman.
I am not centered and she is talking to me as if she is my girlfriend. She hits on my and wants to have sex, I tell her I am not interested. “Why don't you want to make love to me! Am I ugly or something?”
I look at her up and down, she is very attractive but I realize I am dreaming. “No you are very beautiful, I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to have sex with you. I am just not interested.”, I explain.
She gets angry and throws a couch pillow at me. She storms into another room and I sit on the couch and just relax and go with the flow. I re-affirm that I am dreaming and look back to see her changing. I can see her panties now, she is bent over and I shake my head. It was quite nice to see but I reflect on how happy I am with my wife in real-life and how great our sex life is.
She doesn't believe me when I tell her that even in my dreams I do not cheat on her. This is yet another example of just how tempting that can be. The girl dresses up in a cow-girl outfit with this really tight and short pair of shorts. She has a belt with two revolvers on it. A bra with a vest that is open with some tassels. Everything is white, she has a scarf and a cowboy hat and boots. Finally a whip.
It was like a scene in a movie with the perfect woman standing there, holding a whip dressed in sexy role-play fantasy wear. I swear that when I looked her up and down, wind even tossed her hair. It's the kind of dream you wish you could at least snap some pictures. But that said, my intent on not having sex in a dream clearly was being tested.
She walked over to me and I told her the bad news, “You look amazing, really amazing. I love the outfit and the whip just tops it off. You see, I'm married”, I show her my ring, “And I don't really know you. This is a dream and I don't want to use my dreams to fulfill sexual fantasies when there is more important items on my mind right now.”
She doesn't like the bad news one bit, and this doesn't stop her. “You don't like the outfit! Just tell me you don't like it and I will change! What do you want me to dress up as. I'll do anything you want. Anything!” she pleas.
“I admit I do love everything, its sexy and you are gorgeous. I love the detail it's like living breathing artwork, and I do love art.” I tell her. “I'm just not feeling it.”
She changes again, this time into a mechanics outfit. I really don't know what kind of sexual fantasy I would want with a mechanic but that said, her big boobs and nice body certainly made this the best looking mechanic I have ever seen. I kind of digged on it.
As much as she wanted to have sex, I really was genuinely not interested. It's not that I couldn't... clearly the opportunity was in front of me. All I had to do was engage the fantasy and fulfill what ever desire. Except there was simply no desire. I clearly remember my intent and know that this might just prevent growth opportunities.
She was really upset and I gave her a hug and told her she was very beautiful. That if circumstances were different I would love to have sex with her. I told her that this is a dream, and I would rather just maintain my awareness and see what growth opportunities might come from it.
She wiped away tears and smeared mascara from her eye and smiled. The phone rang and I told her I had to get that. I grabbed the phone and it was my family doctor. He told me the results of his test had come in. I wasn't aware of any tests so the dream gave me a “flashback” moment to fill in the blanks.
In the dream that lead to the phone call; I was at the doctor's office for a normal checkup. I decided to ask him if he ever had deja vu. Then I asked him if he ever had deja reve. He didn't know what deja reve was. I explained it to him and we talked about precognitive dreams and some of the experiences I had. He took some notes and found it really fascinating. Happy to have shared that with my family doctor I left the appointment.
On the phone however, the doctor had a more serious tone. He looked into what I described and said that I could be suffering from a serious delusional disorder called paramnesia and his colleagues urgently wants us to meet. I know I am dreaming and know that paramnesia in dreams is plausible as we often cannot make connections with language and symbols.
“Well, it's funny that you have called with this prognosis because it just so happens that I am dreaming right now.”, I muse on the phone.
“What do you mean you are dreaming right now?”, he asks.
“Well, you are concerned that I might be delusional or suffering paramnesia however the fact is this is really just a dream. You're diagnosis is really just a fantasy and has no reality to it at all.”
The phone goes quite and he talks in a very somber tone, “If you really think this is a dream, and we didn't have our appointment, you really need to come to my office right now.”
“Easy peasy Doc, I'll be there in a second.”, I tell him
I phase to his office instantly, I am sitting in a chair and he is there with his colleague. He doesn't seem to make note that I just instantly materialized into this dream focus.
“We want to have you come and stay at our mental health facility”, says his colleague. “You are suffering from a serious mental illness and you need help.”
I kind of laugh because this whole mind-play that the dream is pulling off is kind of entertaining. “What kind of illness do you think I have?”, I ask
“You have a dissociative disorder with reality, you are claiming that reality is a dream when in fact this is a psychotic detachment from the real world.”, he explains.
“So you are trying to tell me that this 'dream' is actually the 'real world'. Then what does that make the 'Real world' when I wake up? Is that a dream also?”, I ask.
“It is still the real world, there is no dream world that you wake up too”, he tells me. “The dream world is part of your illness, and that is why we urgently want you to come to our clinic so we can help you return to normal reality.”
I start to laugh, the whole irony of the conversation is killing me. “I'm sorry doctors, I appreciate your intent to help me realize that this dream is not a dream, but is in fact reality. Which I will say I cannot entirely dismiss. It seems certain that we are indeed here having this conversation and the details match what one does expect from a 'reality'. That said, this is still a dream in all context of the word.”
“Why do you think this is a dream?”, he asks.
“Why do you think it's not a dream?”, I ask.
“I know it's not a dream because I know what reality is.”, he tells me.
“You are going to have to do a reality check then. This isn't the reality that you think it is. It is a dream.”, I tell him. “Look, in my real-life I don't go around telling everyone that it's a dream. I reserve that for this reality. In the real-world I work hard and enjoy researching dreams. I love it when we share dreams, when we have dreams that come true and a whole myriad of experiences come with dreaming.”, I explain.
I tell them both about precognitive dreams and how there is entanglement and interconnectedness with everything. That information and data are all parts of how consciousness processes and renders data. I hold up my hand and make it glow, rays of energy beam from the fingers.
They look at it in awe and are stunned. I cause more hypnogogic mesh to appear in the desk and cause it to animate. They look at it and my doctor recoils backwards from the shock.
“This is a dream, it is easy to prove. I enjoyed our conversation but I know I am waking up soon.”, and that was my queue.
I woke up.
Time Estimations:
Driving car until I stop: 20 minutes.
Walking with daughter on beach: 1 hour.
At apartment building and elevator: 30 minutes.
At home area: 30 minutes.
With girl: 1 hour.
With doctor: 30 minutes.
Total estimated time: 3h 50m total sleep time 1h 30m total conscious realization cultivated beyond clock time: 2h 20m
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