I’ve had enough different dream experiences now that I am able to start differentiating a bit. I do see some parallels with some of your episodes and many of your readers’ etheric exploits. How am I doing?
1) normal daily grind dreams – varied, mundane, fade quickly after wake-up.
2) working dreams – since childhood I consistently dream of going into people’s houses (usually strangers, but occasionally I get a real-life hit) to help them with a particular task. It feels like a “job” and my awareness is usually nil…but my memory of these particular dreams upon awakening is at a much higher percentage.
3) lucid “play” – dream awareness during which my only agenda is messing around with the dream construct and/or seeking out friends, relatives, trouble, etc.
4) semi-lucid “teaching scenarios” – aware that I am dreaming but unable to change the scene. I am usually being tested here, learning something, or being prepared for a potential waking-world experience (precognition). These scenes have an “in-between” feel to them that is something more/other than the usual dreamspace. When lucid, if I am engaged enough to ask the subconscious to “show me something I should know,” I am usually transported to this type of scene…and often through a traveling backdrop of grey mist.
5) “Being John Malkovich” moments – I’ve had less than a handful (I am 43-years-old) and these suckers are clearly NOT dreams. In them I am looking through the eyes of another person or non-human entity(!) with crystal clear clarity – like a perceived merging of their consciousness with my own. I cannot control the scene, no matter how alien. These are my most amazing experiences…though I’m just clearly along for the ride…
And just what IS that transient blue ball of light to the left of my visual field that keeps checking in on me? (And you…)
Thank you for your continued dedication and insightful feedback on this forum!
Hi,
It sounds like you have been very observant about your dream and lucid dream life! Wonderful.
Regarding your lucid dreams (3 & 4), all of us have some percentage of #3 ‘lucid play’ and #4 learning-lucid-dreams. As we develop as lucid dreamers, I encourage everyone to see the potential in using lucid dreams to Access Creativity, Engage the Larger Awareness, Promote Mental/Emotional/Physical Healing and Personal Growth.
The transformative potential of lucid dream exists, but we have to work with it and intend our way to it. 😉
Regarding #5, yes, there are experiences which do not seem like dream-dreams. Instead they seem like viewing the world through the eyes of another. I began to have these as a teenager on rare occasion. In fact the first time, I found myself sitting in the living room of an older man wearing a wool coat in a simple room with ‘gas’ lights, who had a glass of red wine in his hand. For me, as perhaps a 14 year old kid, I had never drank wine because my family was against alcohol consumption. Anyway, the man lifts up his glass and (I sense) the excellent wine explodes in his mouth with a wonderful taste! I woke up thinking, “Is that real? Can tasting wine result in that experience?” — and it’s only been a few times in my life when a drink of wine has mimicked this dream experience.
In a chapter that my editor tossed out of my first book, I shared a number of these experiences in a focused chapter on the possible meaning of this type of experience. I hope to put it in my third book (which I intend to publish some day).
Enjoy your journey of awareness!