image from millerblockgallery.comI let the pendulum swing back in last night's lucid dreams. Rather than commandeering the dream scene, I engaged the landscape presented to me in a relatively passive manner. Here's what happened:
Again, I find myself in a subdivision, and I know I'm dreaming. I watch a woman and her husband enter their house and shut front door behind them. Since they're the only ones I've seen around, I knock on the door. The woman lets me in without even asking who I am or what I want; it's just natural that I am coming inside her home. I follow her into a room to the left where she is removing boxes full of stuff from a high shelf. I introduce myself to her. She tells me her name, and we shake hands. (This is the first time I've not told the person I'm talking to that I'm dreaming.) Her husband is now absorbed in tv or technology, as he usually is. He barely notices his wife, ever. She is a shorter Asian woman with sort of a frumpy figure and gray teeth. I find her to be a very warm and caring person. As part of a relationship-mending program, she dyes her hair blond and gets a makeover. Magically, her white husband, who has a mustache, notices her again. At the end of the dream, they are both laughing together at the woes of their past. They are a happy couple once more.
What does this have to do with anything? I'm not sure yet. I needed to see what happened when I let the lucid dream take the driver's seat. Next I'll investigate ways to synthesize overcontrol versus passivity to the point of forgetting the purpose of the Lucid Dream Conservation Project.
Something else worthy of exploration is the recurring theme of the tract home subdivision. Never do such places appear in my "regular" dreams, yet they've shown up in three lucid dreams this month alone. Perhaps environs like these describe a counterpoint to the primeval wilderness this effort hopes to restore.
Tell me what you think. What are your ideas and experiences? This isn't a job for one person alone. I'm very curious about what comes next.
The issue of control versus passivity is one that I've often encountered in my lucid dreams. I suppose that's true of most people who experiment with lucid dreams. My inclination when I realize I'm dreaming is to try to do something. But often it is better just to let things happen. However, the danger of being too passive is that it can cause the dream to dissolve. It's probably good to experiment with different balances of control versus passivity.
ReplyDeleteI've also noticed that my dreams often occur in subdivisions, usually subdivisions I'm not familiar with in waking life. I don't know why. It might be because in our culture subdivisions are so pervasive. At the same time, there's something strange about them. Often people in suburbs don't know their neighbors very well, if at all. So there's a mystery. What's actually going on in all those houses? In a dream, you can sometimes just walk in and find out, as you did in your dream.
John
dreamkoan.com