Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake. — Henry David Thoreau Our civilization has a penchant for escapism. Whether it’s TV, reading, movies, sports, thrill rides, drugs, sex, or alcohol, many people find some way to escape the daily grind. One emerging domain that holds gripping promise as a means of escape (sans hangover) is virtual reality. VR technology allows us to take a break from our everyday world by neatly providing an alternate one. The goal of VR is to supply information to our physical senses from sources other than the outside environment. For example, hi-tech goggles give our eyes and ears a visual and audio landscape, while "data gloves" provide the sensation of touch and the ability to interact in the virtual realm. When these elements work in concert — stimulating our senses with preprogrammed information — we experience an alternate environment, a landscape generated by computer rather than the physical world. VR technology is progressing slowly, though. Computers may be becoming faster and more powerful at an alarming rate, but they’re still a long way from possessing the speed, subtlety, and fluidity to even attempt to stand in for our ingenious biological senses. Nevertheless, there’s excitement about this emerging technology that will someday allow us to realistically explore completely nonphysical environments. Though VR is still in its infancy, the potential applications are already creating a powerful sense of anticipation as we wait for it to come into its own. Except there’s no need to wait. For those who desire it, the ultimate VR experience is not only here now, but is readily available. In fact, you already have the state-of-the-art hardware required for the experience: the human brain. The technique that produces the ultimate VR experience is called lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is the experience of being physically asleep and dreaming while at the same time mentally alert and conscious. You're awake within your dream. At first glance, it may seem that these two states — awake and dreaming — must be mutually exclusive. They’re not. In fact, the concurrent experience of dreaming while conscious generates an utterly awe-inspiring VR experience, one that technology can only "dream" of rivaling. Many of us have experienced being aware that we’re dreaming to some degree, but for our purposes, "lucid dreaming" refers specifically to being completely awake and aware — like you (presumably) are right now — while dreaming. Although partial lucidity is fairly common, complete clarity while dreaming occurs only rarely when not deliberately invoked. In lucid dreaming, you have the extraordinary opportunity to explore an infinite realm: a world comprised of pure consciousness and imagination, yet one that feels as utterly solid and authentic as the world you’re in right now. While you’re enjoying this virtual universe, you can take advantage of the accompanying benefits available through lucid dreaming, which range from no-holds-barred recreation all the way through spiritual enlightenment. And did I mention that it’s free? The only equipment required for lucid dreaming is a sense of curiosity, a willingness to learn some simple techniques, and the intent to succeed. My next New Times article will focus primarily on how to dream lucidly. If you want to start sooner than that, there are several books available that can get you going. I especially recommend Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming and the more recent but currently out of print Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge (the former with Howard Rheingold), and Patricia Garfield's Creative Dreaming is another valuable resource. Further information is available at <http://amidreaming.com/>. No matter what exercises you use to achieve lucidity, the single most important variable is your confident intent to succeed. Dreams are remarkably responsive to our expectations, so remember this most basic strategy: if you expect to achieve lucidity, you will. One of the most remarkable discoveries awaiting you as a lucid dreamer is the inconceivable physicality of the dream environment. Although we commonly tend to think of dreams as rather indistinct and intangible, a strong dose of lucidity is all it takes to banish that misconception. To the lucid dreamer, the environment completely satisfies the requirements of an actual physical landscape. In the dream world, glass shatters, paper tears, and water pours, just as they do back home. I’ll never forget an early lucid dream in which I was walking along the bank of a lake and spotted a gum wrapper on the ground. Completely aware that I was dreaming the whole experience, I picked up the gum wrapper, felt it between my fingers, then tore it to small pieces and watched them flutter to the ground. My perception of that simple act was so completely genuine that, while I was astounded with the utter authenticity of the virtual scene, I was simultaneously bored, just as if I had performed the same commonplace actions here in the physical world. The virtual experience was so wholly convincing that it achieved the mundane. Granted, you may be looking for more excitement than tearing paper. The point is that the dream world feels absolutely real. We’ll wait a long time before technology offers anything remotely resembling the completely believable environment of the dream state. Although it certainly feels like physical reality, the dream world is not subject to any physical laws. Like our imagination, the world of dreams is malleable and magical. Rules are few. Objects and landscapes can be created from nothing. You can pass through "solid" objects as if they weren’t there. You can be anyone, go anywhere, and do anything at any time. And — in what remains one of the greatest benefits of doing away with physics — you can fly! This opportunity is reason enough to embark on lucid dream adventures. Where else can you experience the pure, consummate, completely realistic sensation of gliding, diving, and soaring through air — or water, or outer space — in complete safety and with no need for an airplane, hang-glider, jetpack, or device of any kind? Beyond flight itself, the opportunity for recreation of all kinds is a rock-solid reason to go lucid dreaming. While others wait for the world of technology to offer their latest, greatest VR experience — which will inevitably be awkward, unintuitive, and programmed with someone else’s idea of a good time — you have the chance right now to experience a truly flawless alter-reality that responds directly to your personal requests, desires, and imagination. What are your fantasies? Would you like to visit other galaxies? Join Joan of Arc on her adventures? Fly through the core of the earth? Make love with the partner of your dreams? Maybe you would like to invent whole worlds, using your imagination as the master blueprint. If you can imagine it, you can realistically experience it. Lucid dreaming is a potent and readily accessible vacation from the limitations of life in a physical body. Beyond recreation, there are other powerful reasons to wake up in your dreams. It’s commonly understood that our dreams are a window to the inner working of our minds. Both Freud and Jung, two illustrious forefathers of modern psychology, placed major emphasis on dreams, maintaining that they offer insight into the deeper mechanisms of the mind. They held that paying attention to the symbols and narratives that unfold each night while dreaming can yield a deeper understanding of who we are. With that understanding, we’re better prepared to embark on healing ourselves psychologically. With the awareness that our dreams are an elaborate stage, rich with symbolism unique to each individual and populated by a cast comprised of myriad parts of our selves, we add lucidity. While lucid, you can intentionally set foot on that stage; you can engage the characters and symbols of our own mind, taking a deliberate part in the nightly drama. There is no limit to what you can learn by purposefully engaging the subconscious mind. Lucid dreaming offers you the singular and potent experience of being able to consciously and directly interact with the characters, images, and symbols of your own psyche. The potential of lucid dreaming goes even further. For those of us who believe that the physical constitutes only a small segment — a reflection — of a greater, more subtle yet more profound reality, lucid dreaming’s most important relevance might be found in the realm of spirituality. If there is "another side," a realm less dense than our own, populated by entities not of the flesh but of the spirit, it remains largely hidden from most of us. Our five physical senses are not fine enough to perceive such subtle energies. If we want to explore astral realms, it would be convenient to temporarily shed our physical armor and become an entity comprised of nothing more solid than "mind." Lucid dreaming is the key to those travels. With your physical body home safe in bed, you’re fitted with the perfect tool to explore other realms: your pure consciousness. Many of us are interested in establishing a stronger connection to our guides and higher selves. What better way to foster that interaction than by shedding the coarse physical body and meeting the spiritual realm halfway, by voyaging, as they do, clothed in consciousness alone? Kenneth Tobias has been lucid dreaming for 12 years. He has taught lucid dreaming in Seattle, where he now resides. To reach Ken, e-mail <loocid@earthlink.net>. |