1. Start lucid dreaming.
2. Run through some place with an open view of the sky. A dusty, sun-scorched village in Africa might work well.
3. Conjure up a sense of urgency. Having a madman hot on your tracks helps.
4. RUN like your life depended on it - it probably will (see above).
5. Spread your arms while running flat out, hazarding a leap or two as you tear through said village. Take notice of your surroundings and your urge to outrun your pursuer.
6. Get desperate.
7. Take a deep breath and launch off in earnest. Gravity will pull you down, but now that you have a split-second experience of what it feels like to fly, nothing can stop you. You have already gained momentum, and also knowledge of flight. That's all you'll need. Keep flapping those arms and bobbing inches from the ground, occasionally scraping your toes through the dirt, steadily, steadily now...a bit higher...and next thing you know, the village has shrunken to a toy town and you really are flying!*
*Well that was how I learned to fly anyway.
Showing posts with label dreams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dreams. Show all posts
8 Oct 2009
1 Mar 2009
More than just dreams
I'm currently in the process of sorting out my stew of problems, which means a lot of aimless probing, trying to make sense of it all. It just so happens that I've stumbled across a likely culprit for a good number of issues.
Did I mention I suffer from procrastination, sleep problems and occasional depression (residue of two especially intensive outbreaks)? Well there's another thing that figures in this whole mess - dreams.
Dreams, not nightmares. Dreams so substantial and vivid that it's as if you're living an alternative life. Dreams in which you encounter new experiences, solve complicated problems, and gain memories related to earlier dreams. Dreams that operate on a plane of their own, with their own logic and physics and geography. If I saw a pink umbrella with polka dots on sale, I could make a mental note of it, then relocate it in another dream, some other time - it might still be there, or they might have changed their stock to green striped ones.
Never have I met anyone else in the same situation - but that's probably because people don't usually talk about this kind of stuff. The parallel worlds in The Lives of Christopher Chant (by Diana Wynne Jones) come close, though I obviously don't find sand in my bed after a trek through dream dunes!
The thing is, very few everyday experiences make it into my dreams. This does not necessarily make them unpleasant, only highly different, so much that it makes the transition from one state of mind to another very difficult. I guess this partially explains my reluctance to fall asleep or wake up.
Well I should be off now, to monitor velociraptor behaviour perhaps. Or plan the counterattack at dawn. Or observe the next hourglass storm. You never know ;)
Did I mention I suffer from procrastination, sleep problems and occasional depression (residue of two especially intensive outbreaks)? Well there's another thing that figures in this whole mess - dreams.
Dreams, not nightmares. Dreams so substantial and vivid that it's as if you're living an alternative life. Dreams in which you encounter new experiences, solve complicated problems, and gain memories related to earlier dreams. Dreams that operate on a plane of their own, with their own logic and physics and geography. If I saw a pink umbrella with polka dots on sale, I could make a mental note of it, then relocate it in another dream, some other time - it might still be there, or they might have changed their stock to green striped ones.
Never have I met anyone else in the same situation - but that's probably because people don't usually talk about this kind of stuff. The parallel worlds in The Lives of Christopher Chant (by Diana Wynne Jones) come close, though I obviously don't find sand in my bed after a trek through dream dunes!
The thing is, very few everyday experiences make it into my dreams. This does not necessarily make them unpleasant, only highly different, so much that it makes the transition from one state of mind to another very difficult. I guess this partially explains my reluctance to fall asleep or wake up.
Well I should be off now, to monitor velociraptor behaviour perhaps. Or plan the counterattack at dawn. Or observe the next hourglass storm. You never know ;)
4 Nov 2008
Next Time
"Next time, oh but next time"
Thus the idle heart flounders,
And the crannies of thought never see the light of day:
Old Time never loses,
Nor the Moirae nor the Muses,
Yet still 'tis the Mind that holds sway -
It holds sway.
-----------------------------------
I was lying awake in bed in the wee hours of morning when this barged in. As sleep had not yet come and consciousness had exhausted itself out, my mind was a state of utter chaos.
Suddenly the first line came drifting across my plane of thought.
Then a blurred image of the second line floated into view.
Then a hint of the third...
I fumbled for my mobile phone, switched it on and jabbed the shortcut code for "notebook" in record time, all the while coaxing lines out of obscurity. It was like receiving unexpected extraterrestrial signals over wireless: a frantic attempt to record while trying to hold on to the signals!
Anyway I successfully got it down, and in a presentable form needing very little editing on my (conscious mind's) part. One of the very few times I've been able to do so. The "signal" is frequently too weak to capture, save a few phrases or lines. Revelations that occur during the day usually fall under this category because the Conscious is too active and overrides the "critical wavelength". The fragments produced go on my "pending projects list", and with some luck, get worked into a full-blown poem. Otherwise they get labelled Fragmentary and sit in my ditty box forever.
Thus the idle heart flounders,
And the crannies of thought never see the light of day:
Old Time never loses,
Nor the Moirae nor the Muses,
Yet still 'tis the Mind that holds sway -
It holds sway.
-----------------------------------
I was lying awake in bed in the wee hours of morning when this barged in. As sleep had not yet come and consciousness had exhausted itself out, my mind was a state of utter chaos.
Suddenly the first line came drifting across my plane of thought.
Then a blurred image of the second line floated into view.
Then a hint of the third...
I fumbled for my mobile phone, switched it on and jabbed the shortcut code for "notebook" in record time, all the while coaxing lines out of obscurity. It was like receiving unexpected extraterrestrial signals over wireless: a frantic attempt to record while trying to hold on to the signals!
Anyway I successfully got it down, and in a presentable form needing very little editing on my (conscious mind's) part. One of the very few times I've been able to do so. The "signal" is frequently too weak to capture, save a few phrases or lines. Revelations that occur during the day usually fall under this category because the Conscious is too active and overrides the "critical wavelength". The fragments produced go on my "pending projects list", and with some luck, get worked into a full-blown poem. Otherwise they get labelled Fragmentary and sit in my ditty box forever.
3 Nov 2008
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