If you visited my blog in the last couple days you may have seen a funky background (pretty, but not oriented properly to my blog) and it was probably hard to read. Luckily a very helpful person alerted me to this problem.
Seems the background that was being hosted remotely was changed. My fault. I should have been hosting the background myself. Duh. Anyway, this background is a temporary fix. A bit bright and hard on the eyes, isn't it? I'll have it adjusted as soon as I can.
Dreams....
I've been having very vivid dreams lately. I tend to go through cycles of vivid dreams that I remember in the morning and cycles of non-dreaming (or at least I don't remember them).
Vivid dreaming has been something I've done since childhood. I still remember some dreams I had as a child. When I reached young adulthood, I began to lucid dream.
A lucid dream is when your sense of self "wakes up" during the dream. You realize you're dreaming and you may be able, if you have the ability, to alter the dream itself. Lucid dreaming is an unmistakable occurrence. You KNOW when you've had one. It's like being in reality -- you can touch, smell, feel, ect -- except the world is surreal. The couch is on the ceiling or Cookie Monster is in your living room. (Both have happen to me)
In lucid dreams I have crawled on the carpet (and experienced the scratch of it under my knees and hands) chasing darting shadows that felt smooth and silky between my fingers. I have caught snowflakes on my tongue and flown over a patchwork quilt of the countryside. In dreams anything is possible.
I'm fascinated by dreaming and lucid dreaming and probably have every book ever written on the subject. If you're interested, I highly recommend the works of Robert Moss. He's done a lot of research on dreaming cultures of indigenous peoples, shamanic dreaming and the like. Fascinating stuff.
I haven't had a lucid dream in a long time. Since I don't have the time or energy to induce lucid dreams, mostly they only happen spontaneously these days. I am, like I said, dreaming vividly though.
Sometimes, like last night, I'll dream about a place and then I'll revisit that place over and over. These aren't recurring dreams because the cast of characters and the situation are different. The symbols are different. The place, however, is the same. I dream sometimes of roads that twist through forests. Narrow in places, they flood easily and quickly. That where I was last night, trapped on the end of a quickly flooding road and a thunderstorm rising in the distance.
Ominous, huh? I still haven't figured out what it means, but I do think it means something to me. Pulled from our subconscious, I believe each dream we have is a message from us to us.
There is value in remembering and interpreting our dreams. If you can't remember your dreams, there are ways to enhance your ability to recall. If you do a Google search, you can come up with many web sites packed with info on ways to do this. Most effective is simply staying quiet for a couple minutes after you wake. Don't move. Don't turn over. Don't do anything but allow the flood of memories to enter your mind. Keeping a dream diary is very effective too.
What's your take on dreaming?
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