I’ve had some pretty stellar lucid dreams that I didn’t have the chance to write down over the New Year holiday. So I’ll just resume at today’s. This is a good one because it involved sleepers paralysis which can be a common effect of trying to use WILD to induce a lucid dream.
It’s a little more advanced to work through sleeper’s paralysis because the body is asleep having released neurotransmitters gamma-aminobutyric acid GABA and glycine which switches off the neurons in the brain that control muscles causing the paralysis to occur. All very natural, part of nightly sleep however when you are conscious in this particular switch off moment it is very common for new people to panic and try to fight it or wake up. Not the proper way to handle sleeper’s paralysis if you are a progressive lucid dreamer.
This state is also known as the mind-awake/body-asleep state and just one step away from entering the dream state with full vivid waking consciousness. The problem is, you feel stuck in your body and not in the dream. How the body feels in this state is unresponsive to your thoughts so you can’t move. The most important thing you can do here is relax, rationalize this is a very naturally occurring state and not respond with fear. You are not dying, nothing bad is going to happen. It is a welcomed part of WILD if you use the technique and can emerge from this opportunity.
My technique, and it’s the only method I found that works is to slowly, softly roll to one side. The body won’t respond but your dream body will start to roll and can roll in full 360 turns. If I feel this complete turn knowing that would be impossible in my real body I usually have to pull myself into the dream.
This is also similar to what people describe with out-of-body experiences because there is this distinct emergence from the body into the dream that feels very tactile. When I began to roll in one spot, I used my dream hand as an anchor by grabbing the edge of my bed and pulling. When I emerge into the dream, the level of lucidity is always 100% not semi-lucid.
The second problem I encountered was an issue of perception, I couldn’t see only feel so rather then just running off and doing something. I relaxed, focused on my perceptions until they cleared up and became vivid. Once balanced, focused and stable I then proceed to navigate in the dream.
The third challenge is super-realism. Because the high-level of lucidity and now grounded and focused perception is active, the dream appears physical. You might think you are actually awake and in your normal body. The realism is so accurate that it is indistinguishable from normal waking reality but that is the attraction to this experience. It is for having super-realistic dreams that are like first-person, 100% immersive, virtual reality with full sensory perception.
I was in my bedroom and opened the door to leave but instead of the house I was in, it was my Mom’s house where I go for the weekend with my Daughter. Wanting to go outside, I just walked the usual route to the door through the living room and dining room.
The door to the outside opens to this wonderfully beautiful sunny day, there is no snow and there is a tree in the driveway with all of it’s green leaves radiant and vibrant. Never expect things to be exactly as they are in the waking world. This is a dream after all so the details can vary from the time of year to the placement of things. The tree should have been in the front yard but these details also help with reality-checks needed so you do not loose yourself into the immersion and maintain that important knowing that one is indeed in a dream, not the waking world.
There were a couple of dream characters who were at the door. They started to engage me with dialog but I didn’t want to become distracted as I didn’t feel fully stable and anchored, so these signs are good to look for before progressing further. Instead of letting the dream create drama through distractions which can cause loss of lucidity, I walked pass the two women and decided to use an anchoring technique that I have used extensively through the years to re-focus, regain full control and become stable.
What better than the tree. I walked over to the tree and put my hand on it, the bark was textured and felt absolutely physically real. The anchoring technique allows me to regain focus except in this case there were external noises in the real world because my roomate was up. This was causing the instability as my body was at risk of waking. Normally I use ear-plugs but in this case, I could hear the external noises in the ambiance of the dream. I was also feeling the pull of my body to wake up. Now it was a larger challenge, so instead of just resting my hand on the tree I did a full arms around it and held on refusing to wake up. It’s more a test of wills and who doesn’t like a challenge. It worked, the external influences subsided and my intent to remain conscious in the dream over-rode the bodies response to external noise.
Who knew tree hugging skills would come in so handy? Lot’s of tricks to stay focused, stable and relaxed in a dream. More often than not, external disturbances cause near immediate wake up so this was a rare success. I was so happy that I survived the challenge I felt euphoric, just being conscious in a reality you can control and offers experiences one’s waking life never can is always bliss.
This blond haired woman seeing me hugging a tree comes over curious. Dream characters can often be a distraction, so I try not to engage drama unless I feel very stable and in control. She had this script and wanted me to participate in acting out a role with her.
I looked at the script always being fascinated when I get the chance to read something in a dream. It was a crime drama where she was a detective investigating some very sick serial murders and wanted me to read the lines of the killer.
I flipped through the script and this character was very dark, sick and twisted. As I was reading the script my attention being somewhat distracted she started acting out her role. She went from acting to becoming her character and her treatment of me changed where she was now viewing me as the actual character in the script.
I told her that I’m not the person in the story and don’t think I am a very good actor and passed the script to her. But she was now fully engaged in this form of role-play and throwing all sorts of emotional drama my way.
It was kind of funny because she was so angry and hateful at this point, I couldn’t reason with her. Finally, I just said I’m not the role I play and gave her this kind hug showing her that I was caring and compassionate. The hug broke her out of the role and she was happy that I was a nice guy.
The external noises still persisted and this time I was not able to fend the body’s urge to wake up. Always the worse part of a good dream is the jolt back into waking life. I love to try to see just how long I can remain conscious in that focus state regardless of the content. These are kind of my mini-vacations and the reasons to cultivate consciousness during sleep is one way I can kind of cheat time by simply having more of it. Always something gained.
Having deja vu linked to past dreams is more common than we think! Share this page to help raise awareness.
