I think I may have to start up a dream diary again, not here, but in a paper notebook. Here I will just publish the more noteworthy ones, the dreams that made the strongest impression on me.
It is a fact, that if you get into the habit of writing down whatever you can recall from your dreams immediately upon waking, even if it is just a fragment, it will help you remember your dreams in much greater detail.
The main reason perhaps why people do not keep a journal of their dreams, is because they do not think it is important. They think that the dreams are just silly nonsensical fantasies, having no value or significance to their waking life.
But why neglect such a large portion of your life?
If the average person sleeps six to eight hours a night, perhaps up to one third to one fourth of your life is spent in sleep. That's twenty to thirty years of your life. Do you really think it is wise to be unconscious of such a large chunk of time? Is there no value to be found there? Just dead sleep, nothing intelligent, forgettable years, disposable dreams, containing no value whatsoever?
I beg to differ. The more you remember your dreams, the more conscious and alert you become to all facets of your experience, both asleep and awake. Paying attention to your dreams is an exercise in mindfulness, the more you pay attention there, the more you will pay attention here.
The Elevator
Last night I had a strange dream. I do not remember much of it, but it made a very strong impression on me.
In this dream, I entered a large elevator with a man, perhaps others, am not sure. The man was in control of the elevator buttons, and pushed in the floor number that we were to go to. I'm not sure if we went up or down, but I think it may have been up. Something was wrong. The elevator was not stopping. It went passed our floor number, and just kept going. When the elevator finally stopped, and the doors opened, we were in a different kind of building, an entirely new place, but instead of being on a higher or lower floor, it turned out to be the ground floor of a single story building; some kind of warehouse located in the center of a great open grassy plain, surrounded by small residential houses and a sea in the distance.
I got the impression that I was not supposed to leave the warehouse. But a cat, which may or may not have been in the elevator with us, leapt past me and ran outside, whereupon I felt compelled to chase after it. It was warm and sunny outside, with lush green vegetation, a perfect kind of day. Something about the place felt entirely different, the smells, the colors, the lighting, just the general mood and feeling of the place was of being in a completely alien environment; not only a different city, or country, but seemed like an entirely different world, or different time period; it was earth-like, while at same time otherworldly.
I was in some kind of small town residential neighborhood, sort of like a modern village. People seemed to notice me, aware that I was an outsider, and were extremely curious about me, but kept their distance. I was being watched by all. The cat apparently lead me to a house. I entered the house. I met with a blond haired woman and her little dark haired child. There was some kind of a connection between me and the woman. She handed me a handwritten note, that I was to take away to the elevator, but then suddenly grabbed it back right away before I could read it. She was having second thoughts. There was some kind of problem. The woman was upset. Wasn't sure if I should stay or go.
So I sat down outside, sitting on the grass, watching the people pass by. There were pairs of people walking up and down the sidewalk, and sitting off in the distance on the grass, glancing over at me, seemingly waiting for something. It seemed like it was summertime. Very comfortable. Warm, but not hot. There was a magical quality in the air, like time was moving in slow motion. The smell of flowers, an ocean breeze, and the hypnotic sounds of wind chimes permeated the air. It's like I was under a spell.
There is much more to this dream, but this is all that I remember. I waited too long to write it down.
Dreaming That You're Dreaming
I also had another dream the other day, recently, which triggered a memory of having the same exact sort of dream before, a recurring dream of sorts.
In my dream, I went to sleep and had a very vivid dream in which I knew I was dreaming, but I was like a passive observer of it, like I was watching it on television. Then I dreamed that I woke up, and recalled my dream in very vivid detail, and I remember thinking to myself, wow what an extraordinary dream, so vivid and realistic, that it seemed so real that until I "woke up" I thought for a moment that it was really happening. But all the while while making these observations, remembering my dream, thinking about it, I was actually still dreaming, and didn't know it, didn't realize it until I woke up in actuality, and recalled what had happened.
In other words, I dreamt that I had a lucid dream, and I dreamt that I woke up from that lucid dream, spent some time recollecting the dream, but I was in fact still dreaming. I do not recall the specific details of the dream within the dream, other than the fact that I recall having similar dreams before.
I thought for a moment that maybe it WAS real, and maybe THIS is a dream...that my "real" waking life is the dream, and I only wake up when I go to sleep. That there could be this whole other parallel world, and parallel life that I am completely oblivious to, because I spend the majority of my life in a state of unconsciousness resembling sleep.
How weird is that, eh?
