• NEW! LOWEST RATES EVER -- SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE VERY BEST PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! Welcome to The Paracast+, eight years young! For a low subscription fee, you can download the ad-free version of The Paracast and the exclusive, member-only, After The Paracast bonus podcast, featuring color commentary, exclusive interviews, the continuation of interviews that began on the main episode of The Paracast. We also offer lifetime memberships! Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! You can sign up right here!

    Subscribe to The Paracast Newsletter!

Dreams

Free episodes:

I find that with my flying dreams, if I can get myself to recognize I'm flying, and I know I can't do that in real life, that recognition turns me on to the fact that it is a dream. Once I recognize that, it turns lucid, so I try to control the flight.
 
ive had the flying dreams
the naked in a public place dreams
and the harder you try the slower you go ones.

used to have a shocker of a recuring dream when i was very young, that of a momentarily unsupervised todler falling into the fireplace, face and upper body fully in the coals, and during the ensuing panic and pandemonium my grandmother pours a bottle of milk onto the burnt child to put it out
 
If you don't mind me asking, how did you get good at it?? I never seem to be able to recognize I'm in a dream however bizzare my surroundings are.


I second the Castaneda recommendation. The Art of Dreaming is an excellent read and has some good tips. The 2 best tips I came across were:

1) Asking the critical question "Am I dreaming?" as often as possible during the day, and following this up with a short test, such as jumping off the ground, or reading a short passage before looking away and coming back to it. The more you do this, the more chance you have of doing it in a dream. Text never appears to be the same twice in a dream and the laws of gravity don't seem to be quite the same either.

2) Keep a dream journal every day, and look for the clues and dream signs that are individual to you so you will have more chance of recognising them when you are next dreaming.

If all else fails, buy a Novadreamer sleep mask which flashes LEDs at you when in REM sleep. I've never had the spare cash for this myself though.
 
My biggest recurring dream is of driving in my car when the breaks go out and not being able to stop.

Another interesting couple of dreams I've had involve dying in dreams. Apparently the old myth that if you die in a dream you die in reality isn't true at all because I have died twice while dreaming and did not wake up either time. I suppose it has to do with how one dies. In one of them I was lethally injected and in my dream I slowly drifted out of consciousness (in the dream of course) until everything went black and I then remained asleep. I don't remember the second time well but I do remember that it occurred in a similar way.

I've also experienced sleep paralysis twice and was able to wake my self from it once. It was like a lucid dream/ sleep paralysis because I realized I was in sleep paralysis while it was happening so I counted to three and was able to much myself out of it. Interesting experiences.
 
My biggest recurring dream is of driving in my car when the breaks go out and not being able to stop.

I wish that had been a dream. Unfortunately, it happened to me. Went through a couple of red lights and bumped up against a concrete barrier in a gas station parking lot in my 56 VW bug.

That was a rush.
 
commonphilosopher- you've only died TWICE in a dream? Maybe that's all you remember.

If you want to wake yourself up by killing yourself or dying in a dream try jumping off something. The falling sensation usually makes the dreamer "fall awake".
 
OK. You wanna know a REALLY bad recurring dream? Well, here goes.

My wife passed away 15 years ago. She disappeared and was never found, but anyone with half a brain knew what happened. I had to go through the 7 year missing person thing before everything could be settled: Insurance, the estate: You get the picture. Those were seven very difficult years of legal infighting, court apperances, etc. Looking back, I really don't know how I survived it. It took a lot out of me. I'm a much weaker person because of it. I can't handle stress as well as I used to.

My recurring dream is that she's back, just been hanging out in Canada for a few years teaching school. I've re-married, but in the dream I haven't, but I know I have, if you know what I mean. All I know is that I am totally screwed in so many ways.

This dream is SO REAL that I cannot distinguish it from reality. There IS no difference. When I do wake up I am faced with wondering where I am and who I slept with the night before. I look at my surroundings and determine it's my 'new' house (though I've lived here longer than anywhere else). I have to think through the fact that my wife has just gotten up and gone to work and everything is okay. I need to find my dog (asleep beside my bed always.) It takes several minutes for me to re-ground in this reality and realize everything is okay.

It doesn't happen as often as it used to, but when it does, it's really a killer. Compared to dreaming I'm naked? Phhhh! Piece of cake.
 
I had a recurring dream for about 7 yrs for at least several nights every week starting from the age 4.

I would be in my backyard playing on the swings. I even knew what I was wearing with great detail. A blue corduroy farmer-style overalls/jumper with
a flowered, short sleeve shirt and white tennis shoes and white socks.

I look into my side yard and there would be a four-door, flat dark green chevrolet (1970's style) parked on the grass into my yard, back of the car facing me, with the shadow/silhouette of the head and shoulders of a man with short hair just sitting there looking straight ahead. (back to me).

I'd just stand there looking at it, feeling a sense of foreboding and fear.

Had this for yeeeeaaars.

Reaaally strange dream!
 
I find that with my flying dreams, if I can get myself to recognize I'm flying, and I know I can't do that in real life, that recognition turns me on to the fact that it is a dream. Once I recognize that, it turns lucid, so I try to control the flight.

That's weird, it happens slightly different with me. On the occasions when I've recognized I am dreaming, I immediately start flying. It's not even a conscious choice really, I just feel this overwhelming urge to fly that sorta takes over.

I don't think I can remember a single time when I've realized I'm dreaming that I didn't either just wake up, or start flying. But I've never become aware of the dream while flying. Which is kinda odd, I guess.
 
This dream is SO REAL that I cannot distinguish it from reality. There IS no difference. When I do wake up I am faced with wondering where I am and who I slept with the night before. I look at my surroundings and determine it's my 'new' house (though I've lived here longer than anywhere else). I have to think through the fact that my wife has just gotten up and gone to work and everything is okay. I need to find my dog (asleep beside my bed always.) It takes several minutes for me to re-ground in this reality and realize everything is okay.

My God. That's terrible, Schuyler. Those few minutes after waking must
really be oppressive. I can only imagine.

Is your avatar your dog? What's his name?
 
1) I'm in the middle of doing something, and my teeth start falling out.

Never had it. I lost my two front teeth playing hockey and haven't gotten around to having them fully repaired yet...perhaps this is why?

2) I'm in a car, and the driver falls out of the car or disappears somehow, and I have to jump into the driver's seat and try to steer it into safety.

I haven't had this one either. But I'm a control freak and I'm not comfortable when anyone else drives.

I've had a remarkable series of lucid dreams, which I may share at some point. But for now they would be a bit further off topic. :eek:
 
Back
Top