Do you have Lucid Dreams?

I always find it strange when people tell me they don’t dream. I’ve been having lucid dreams ever since I was young and they have only become stronger. So much so that it can feel as though I live two separate lives.

I enjoy lucid dreaming so much, that I have been experimenting with a few different methods to trigger them. This includes audible sleep hypnosis and zen meditation. I had an out of body experience this way too (when you come out of your own body and look at it from the outside!), although this is rare and needs a different kind of focus.

Lucid dreaming is like being trapped in a state of unconscious awareness. While that may sound terrifying to some, with a certain amount of practice it's possible to attain a certain amount of control. This means you can choose whether to stay inside a dream or not, which is especially handy during a nightmare!

If I'm the mood for a really weird dream, I make sure that before bed I eat a piece of blue cheese known as Stilton. Don't ask me why, but for some reason the properties in this particular cheese always seem to generate exceptionally strange dreams.

And last night's dream was exceptionally strange …

It started by waking up inside a green triangular tent and looking down at my feet. For some reason I was wearing big fluffy oversized socks. I can remember not feeling cold however, as those kind of senses don’t always activate in my dreams.

There was a strange figure moving around outside the tent and I started feeling a bit panicky. Then next thing you know I’m not inside the tent any more, but standing outside a huge glass building with complete strangers wearing posh suits!

I told them I was desperately craving a coffee and asked them where I could get one. They all pointed in unison to a Starbucks that had suddenly appeared next to the glass building, when one of them kindly advised me it was a ‘Student Starbucks’ and a ‘bit different than normal.’

When I walked inside, it was nothing like Starbucks at all. Instead of the usual tables, there were long rows of high school desks. The customers were all sitting beside each other on those horrible plastic chairs. At the front of the room was a weird looking coffee machine resembling a piece of medical equipment from the 1950's.

I went to the machine, picked up a paper cup then placed it underneath a huge metal tap. It suddenly started frothing and hissing like crazy and the cup began disintegrating in my hand!

I scanned the room for assistance, then noticed some guy standing at a cashpoint machine. He smiled at me like a crazy serial killer and told me it would all be ok. When I looked back down at my cup, it had suddenly morphed into a big glass jug and I’m now watching the steaming coffee whirling around it like crazy. The steam was everywhere and I could actually smell the coffee aroma.

Realising I was lucid dreaming, I tried my best to stay inside and explore further. But as any lucid dreamer knows, it’s usually at this point you wake up and start yelling nonsense. My cat Bob was sleeping peacefully at the end of my bed and not very amused (Sorry Bob!)

After my lucid dreams, I’m often reminded of Neo in the Matrix and find myself wondering if there is any truth behind it all. Could it be that our dreams are reality and what we perceive as reality are just dreams? It would certainly explain all the madness in the world!

Thanks for reading.

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Original version published at https://medium.com/p/b1f31a1a0e48