Dreamloom

Is it possible to control dreaming?

2007-09-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to consciously control your dream. Play around with it like you were in a Computer Game (HITMAN CONTRACTS or something.) Turn that into a fantasy world for a brief while? Well yes. Lot of times people complain that someone woke them up from a Sweet Dream. They curse these intruders. In most such cases they have been consciously enjoying a dream sequence, which they knew to be a dream. Well I am speaking from personal experience.

It's Called Lucid Dreaming.
(I invented it. But nobody believes me. Pls believe me)
HERE'S WHAT EXPERTS NOW SAY ABOUT IT.

There is nothing inherently difficult to understand about the concept of lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is simply dreaming while being aware you are dreaming. You can think of lucid dreaming as being conscious while dreaming. If, by chance, during a dream it suddenly dawns on you that you are dreaming, then you have experienced a lucid dream, regardless of whether you have been able to attain control of your dream. Lucid dreaming is usually induced by some sort of cue - something that indicates to the person that what he or she is experiencing is a dream, and not reality. Cues, however, are not necessary for becoming lucid: sometimes people spontaneously become lucid without noticing anything strange or typical of dreams. Lucid dreaming is a very simple concept but for most it will take patience and determination to achieve.

Many people seem ignorant of the distinction between having a lucid dream, and controlling a dream. Being able to freely control one’s dream does not directly follow becoming lucid: one can have a lucid dream without any control whatsoever. Controlling your dream is simply proceeding to the next level, by attempting to exert your will upon your surroundings.

Dream Control & Defeating Nightmares

Lucid dreaming was defined as becoming aware you are dreaming; the actual level of awareness varies, however. When the level of lucidity is high you are well aware that nothing you experience is real, and you realize that you have nothing to fear—you cannot be harmed by any situations that may seem precarious.

Instead of changing the dream, however, you could merely control your own behaviour. This kind of dream control is most beneficial during nightmares. Rather than attempting to change the dream, you can change your own attitude. By realizing it is merely a dream and that you cannot sustain physical damage, you can allay your fear, which is the only real part of the nightmare. Changing your attitude in such a manner usually transforms the nightmare into something more peaceful as well. Defeating nightmares is only one of many reasons to attempt to have lucid dreams

Sleep sans dreams

2006-12-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

Sign of mental fatigue, emotional dissatisfaction, troubled times. That's what dreamless state means to me. It reminds me of a student, who simply can't write a word on his exam paper. It's a mind in fear, that refuses to dream. Do you agree?

What to do when dream run dry

2006-08-08T11:14:00.001-07:00

Here is a list of (10) things to kick-start dreaming when you find that your capacity to dream has vanished. ( Have I gone nuts?)

1. Go on a long dreary journey, all by yourself. Visit vast, forlorn places that depress you.

2. Call up your childhood sweetheart.

3. Read Ephias Levy ( Hope I spelt it right)

4. Immerse yourself in Charles Dickens Novels

5. Watch a famous serial you used to love as a teenager (Project UFO..?)

6. Nurture a secret love for a strange-looking woman

7. Spend a whole day in a darkroom

8. Read History of Maya/ Inca civilization

9. Rediscover an old haunt.

10. Imagine it's your last day.

(I am nuts. Doubt Confirmed.)

End of dreams

2006-04-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

Why do we have dreamless phases in our life? I am going through such a long phase right now. Sleep is devoid of dreams. Empty slumber. Storyless, substace-less, dramaless. Waiting for a new turn.

SOLARIS

2005-12-29T09:31:00.000-08:00

Have you guys seen the movie 'Solaris.'? It's Science Fiction, of course.
But something to think about. Shall I quote the intro of the movie here?
Just to give you quick idea?

" ABOARD A LONELY SPACE STATION, ORBITING A MYSTERIOUS PLANET, TERRIFIED CREW MEMBERS ARE EXPERIENCING A HOST OF STRANGE PHENOMENA, INCLUDING RESURRECTED PHANTOMS FROM THEIR PASTS. AND WHEN PSYCHOLOGIST CHRIS KELVIN ARRIVES TO INVESTIGATE, HE CONFRONTS A POWER BEYOND IMAGINING THAT COULD HOLD THE KEYS TO HUMANITY'S DEEPEST DREAMS."

Seen the movie? Send me your thoughts on it.
I am waiting.

Falling in love

2005-11-24T08:32:00.000-08:00

Have you guys ever fallen in love in your dreams? I doubt it! And yet, here was this girl (girls?) that met in my dreams, who simply wouldn't go away. I fell head over heels in love with this fair maiden sometime in my teens... Only to wake up and realise that she was just a dream! Despair. Fear. Mysterious longing. I was dazed for a long while. And i simply couoldnt accept the fact that it was all just a mirage.

It's been ages since then. And yet I remember this dream with a lot of fondness... or shall I say warmth?

FELINE ENCOUNTER

2005-09-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

I have lost count on how many cats I've kept in my lifetime.
30 ...maybe more. I had this affinity for these characters. I would befriend these neighbourhood scamps and bring em home. And then take good care of them. And that meant spoiling them with the choicest food, taking them to the vet etc.

I was in high school then. A hardcore crime fiction fan. I must have been reading too many of them that season. I was startled to find ARISTOTLE, my cat do an ambush on me in my dream. He leapt from the cupboard, ready to shred me to peices.... What the H....? I wanted to ask. But before I could raise my voice Artistotle made this extrordinary demand. " Return 10 million Dollars! NAOW! I want it Now!...NOW!This very moment."

I wanted to kick him. But he pressed me to the wall and threatened. " You have no idea who I am." I was shell shocked. I couldn't even to look at that cat for the next couple of weeks!!!
I thought he was from the intelligence Department or something.

Funny? Not really.

Face to face with my younger self

2005-07-03T02:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I met my infant self. He must have been four of five years of age. And he was kind of annoyed by me looking so caringly at him. He was not a pretty boy. All disturbed and uneasy about being at a Childerns Nursery some 30 kms from home. He hated to be separaeted thus from his Mom and Dad. And then when I knelt down to inspect his face closely he ran away to Mom for security.
Funny.

Elephant Trouble

2005-06-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

I come from a land where elephants are a familiar sight. I see them at the temple festival. I see them at the timber mill. I see them in processions. And oftentimes I have stood beside its massive pillar-like legs and stared at amazement as itjust stood there fanning his ears. I remember how the elephant smelt, how his narrow eyes sometimes instilled the fear of life in you.

Today, I am working abroad, a grown up man. This past week, asleep after a gruesome days work, I saw this massive animal commit a carnage at a temple. Massacring a poor granny and 3 little children. I saw how this beast rammed the body on the ground and sqashed heads and trampled on human corpse. He was in a frenzy. As though he sought revenge. There were hundreds of people on the festival ground, and they were all flying hither and thither in fear of their lives. I experienced fear in its raw form.

I have been having nightmares involving elephants this past week. Twice during the past week. Both considerably scary.

Pachiderm, pachiderm leave me now.

Monks

2005-04-29T03:31:00.000-07:00

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I was deeply influenced by Buddhism in my early 20es. And even today I remain an ardent admirer of its teachings. I wondered how young people could renounce worldly pleasures and take up the path of a wandering monk. I admired the power of renounciation to no end.

So it happened one night that I dream of an ordination.
Saffron-clad monks were all over the place. They were walking, nay rushing here and there. Filling mud lamps with oil, making preparations for my ordination. I was so excited that atlast I too had the courage to renounce. I remembered seeing stern, austere monks in the yellow light of the oil lamp. Ordaining me in what seemed an ancient holy rock cave.

It was a deeply mysterious and wonderful dream
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An AIDS patient

2005-04-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

I was going through an especially disturbing phase in my life. Friends were far and few.
That night I dreamt of a girl. I was waiting to see a Doctor in a hospital in my home town. I was suddenly attracted to this quiet woman sitting a little distiance away from me. I discerned a suppressed pain, which broke out and times in tears and whimpers. But suddenly there was a lot of commotion. She was led to the Lab by her parents and family - a little forcefully. And there was loud sobbing, as a nurse haded over a note. It obviously a said she was HIV poistive. And of a sudden every one let go off her. And refused to touch her. She sobbed uncontrollably, crying "....What happens to the person that was me. My values... My everything.." I suddenly wanted to reach out and touch her. I rushed forward, and caringly but firnly held her forearm. I was shocked to find it moist. A sticky colourless fluid was dripping from my hands.
The dream ended just there. And I woke up.

Examination

2005-04-22T04:35:00.000-07:00

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Final exams were over some 13 years ago. School had already become a dim distant memory, and yet when I slipped into a deep sleep one summer night, in 2001, I relived the fears and turmoils of an examination season that had once haunted me as a high schooler.

" I found myself in the classrom again. I was making last minute preparations for the Mathematics exam. We had just few minutes more to go. Others in the clasroom all seemed totally relaxed, some were even cracking jokes and running around. Try as I would, to my dismay, I couldn't remember even a single formula. I realised I haven't learned any thing... And there were just minutes to go... A cold sweat broke out. I sank in dsitress.
Luckily, I woke up just then.
And realised, I was 28 years old now
And that schhol exams were a good 13 years behind me.

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Dreamloom

2005-04-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

Dreamloom

A Friend Comes Home

2005-04-20T08:49:00.000-07:00

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SHARING A POEM

Sharing Poetry with a friend could be an intense experience. I don’t share my writings with casual acquaintances or colleagues. I am rather particular. So when that special someone comes in, one’s eager to show all those special creations. It’s a special experience. A lot like sharing a common dream.

I had just completed my studies, and had started working. College days were behind me. But I still loved my school days best, and cherished my school friends best. I rarely wrote poetry now. It all seemed to have dried up. Looking strangely incoherent. Life was in disarray. I had stopped dreaming.

So when I dreamt of my old school friend looking through my poems, I was overcome by an inexplicable happiness. There we were, sitting in my study, looking through some of my writings... and I suddenly looked up to my friend and wanted to say something like…" Hey, I can't believe this. Is this happening for real. Two of us meeting up after so long like this...? Is this real..? Just then my friend's image began to fade. Like a mirage it seemed to melt into thin air. And I soon found myself sitting upright in bed, wondering where that dear friend of mine was just then.

I left for Office with a heavy heart the next morning. It had been more than nine years since last I saw my beloved friend. When I reached office, I was told that I had a guest waiting for me at the reception. It was indeed that one person I had dreamt of the previous night. I mentioned nothing about the previous night’s dream at that time. But even today, it’s quite a mystery to me. Are we indeed capable of projecting ourselves into the future…?
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Deep Forest

2005-04-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

This is by far the most powerful dream that comes to my mind.

The year was 1989. We were all coming to terms with the death of a classmate. She was a close friend. A chirpy young girl. Full of life. Who wanted to live. And had a zest for life. One afternoon she quietly succumbed to Brainfever.

We folks were all beginning to drift apart. Having just left school, we were all on our way to Universities in different parts of the country. This loss somehow brought us together once again. I wrote to a few close friends. They called up. We shared our grief over the phone. And that night, I had this strange dream

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" I saw her sinking into a moist patch of earth. In the middle of a vast Rubber Estate behind the school premises. The hole was slowly revolving inward, sucking her inward. And she held out her hand. We stood around, all of us too dumbfound and rooted to the ground - not knowimg whether to go ahead and pull her out. I was shouting to my friends not to take her hand - lest she should drag them all in. But I had the confidence that I could do it. I was - pushing everyone aside and going right upto the edge of that hole to pull her out. Just as it got too much to handle I woke up. ...with a sense of loss. "

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