Beginning in Dreams
by David S. Warren
When I was ten or twelve years old, my dreams were in black and white just like the television shows.
Then one night I dreamt that I was watching a cartoon on our TV, and it was in vivid color. Compared to that dream cartoon life itself was pale. For long afterward, I tried to repeat the dream…but had no success.
In the best of my childhood dreams, I flew like a crow. While awake I tried flying off the neighbors chicken house and failed. In other dreams I met people who felt more familiar and dear to me than the people in my real life … and then I never encountered them again.
In the worst of my childhood dreams I was pursued by sharks, but was unable to swim faster than if I had been in a jello ocean .
How useful it would be to know
when we are struggling
under dream jello,
to consciously leave, enter, or
direct our dreams!
To revisit dream folk, to fly right out the window and try things we might not risk in life! How very good for the soul it would be, if we could gather ourselves in dreams to turn around and battle the personal Boogey Monsters who pursue us!
We can! Some people (but not this reporter) are highly skilled at this sort of dream consciousness; whole groups are devoted to what they call “Lucid (or Conscious) Dreaming”. An internet search will bring up a lot of practical advice on the subject. You can learn the basics from a WikiHow article full of hints and helps on “Lucid Dreaming,” or you can just try this :
Consider your hand.
There may be nothing you know better than the back of your hand. Get to know it better. Don’t just stare, but concentrate on it, draw it, memorize it, and PRAY that you remember to look for it in your dreams.
To succeed at all with this will take time and dedication, but once you have called up your hand in dreams and so, realized that you are dreaming, you have gained control of the imagination engine, and you are freer than a bird.. What you do with your powers is up to you. Fly into the sun if you care to. It is only a dream, but it’s still your life; responsibility begins in dreams.
from