Dream FAQ Dictionary: What is a lucid dream?

What is a lucid dream?

A lucid dream involves knowing you’re dreaming while you’re dreaming. In some cases, you can direct the events and outcome of the dream. Lucid dreaming has been linked to enhanced creativity and self-healing. It’s estimated that about 15 percent of the adult population naturally have frequent lucid dreams. Many people can learn to increase their lucid dreaming.

Source:Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Dreamspeak: How To Understand the Messages in Your Dreams

(See also: Lucid Dreaming, Dream Interpretation FAQ, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams)

Including:

• What Dreams May Come - Characters
• What Dreams May Come - Effects
• What Dreams May Come - Plot Summary

Read more here: » What Dreams May Come: Encyclopedia - What Dreams May Come

Dream FAQ Dictionary: What is Lucid Dreaming?

What is Lucid Dreaming?

Lucid dreaming is defined as dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming. The term was coined by Frederik van Eeden using the word "lucid" in the sense of mental clarity. Lucidity usually begins in the middle of dreams when the dreamer realizes that the experiences that are occurring are not that of the physical reality, but rather the creation of a dream.

Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/C005545/english/dream/lucid.htm

(See also: Lucid Dreaming, Dream Interpretation FAQ, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams)

I have taught many parents how to interpret their children's dreams. Knowing the language of mind gives you an invaluable window into your child's consciousness. When Briana was eleven I asked her parents, who are both dream interpreters, how often she remembered her dreams. Her mother, Teresa, said she remembered about four every week. Teresa also thought Bri had an idea of what her dreams meant. I encouraged her to listen to Briana's ideas and build upon them. When Teresa said sometimes it was like "pulling teeth to get her to express her thoughts," I suggested she encourage Bri to draw or even act out her dreams.

(See also: Indigo Children, What is Indigo Children, Parenting Indigo Children, Adult Indigo, Indigo Children Channeling)

The ability to communicate with those who have passed into the nonphysical or "died" gives a person a unique perspective on life and death. Working as a medium has blessed me with the opportunity to communicate with many in the spirit world. Often through the years, as clients have thanked me heartily for bringing through a loved one, I have found myself sincerely returning their gratitude for the opportunity to "meet" the spirits who came through for them. I have learned a great deal from these communications about the nature of life and "death."

Read more here: » AfterLife: Death is a Dream - What the Dead have taught me about the Afterlife

Art by Miguelanxo Prado In the far distant past, Dream and his new romantic interest Killalla of the Glow travel to a meeting of astronomical phenomena. The mortal Killalla is astonished to learn that the beings with which she is mingling and chit-chatting with rather comfortably are, in fact, the very stars, galaxies, and dimensions which comprise her universe. After an encounter with her world's own sun, Sto-Oa, Killalla and the star fall into each other's arms, possibly thank ...

See also:

Endless Nights, Endless Nights - Chapter 1: Death - Death and Venice, Endless Nights - Chapter 2: Desire - What I've tasted of Desire, Endless Nights - Chapter 3: Dream - The Heart of a Star, Endless Nights - Chapter 4: Despair - Fifteen Portraits of Despair, Endless Nights - Chapter 5: Delirium - Going Inside, Endless Nights - Chapter 6: Destruction - On the Peninsula, Endless Nights - Chapter 7: Destiny - Endless Nights

Read more here: » Endless Nights: Encyclopedia II - Endless Nights - Chapter 3: Dream - The Heart of a Star

Art by Milo Manara This story is about a woman who bargains with Desire to win the hand of her tribe's favorite boy, and then loses him to war. Gaiman himself has said that the story is based on a historical anecdote told by George MacDonald Fraser, and tells the story of a woman (who, like almost every character in the story, goes unnamed) in what appears to be pre-Roman Britain. She mostly tells the story ...

See also:

Endless Nights, Endless Nights - Chapter 1: Death - Death and Venice, Endless Nights - Chapter 2: Desire - What I've tasted of Desire, Endless Nights - Chapter 3: Dream - The Heart of a Star, Endless Nights - Chapter 4: Despair - Fifteen Portraits of Despair, Endless Nights - Chapter 5: Delirium - Going Inside, Endless Nights - Chapter 6: Destruction - On the Peninsula, Endless Nights - Chapter 7: Destiny - Endless Nights

Read more here: » Endless Nights: Encyclopedia II - Endless Nights - Chapter 2: Desire - What I've tasted of Desire

Art by Bill Sienkiewicz This story is about several mentally unbalanced people who are brought together on a quest to save Delirium from herself. It's possible at the end of this story that Delirium is somewhat healed in some fundamental way. ...

See also:

Endless Nights, Endless Nights - Chapter 1: Death - Death and Venice, Endless Nights - Chapter 2: Desire - What I've tasted of Desire, Endless Nights - Chapter 3: Dream - The Heart of a Star, Endless Nights - Chapter 4: Despair - Fifteen Portraits of Despair, Endless Nights - Chapter 5: Delirium - Going Inside, Endless Nights - Chapter 6: Destruction - On the Peninsula, Endless Nights - Chapter 7: Destiny - Endless Nights

Read more here: » Endless Nights: Encyclopedia II - Endless Nights - Chapter 5: Delirium - Going Inside

Art by Glenn Fabry This is a story about some archaeologists who uncover and explore a peninsula from many years in the future. Chronologically, this takes place after Delirium's Going Inside, the chapter preceding this one. ...

See also:

Endless Nights, Endless Nights - Chapter 1: Death - Death and Venice, Endless Nights - Chapter 2: Desire - What I've tasted of Desire, Endless Nights - Chapter 3: Dream - The Heart of a Star, Endless Nights - Chapter 4: Despair - Fifteen Portraits of Despair, Endless Nights - Chapter 5: Delirium - Going Inside, Endless Nights - Chapter 6: Destruction - On the Peninsula, Endless Nights - Chapter 7: Destiny - Endless Nights

Read more here: » Endless Nights: Encyclopedia II - Endless Nights - Chapter 6: Destruction - On the Peninsula

Art by P. Craig Russell This story is about the ruler of an island off the coast of Venice who changes things so that his island and his people keep living the same day over and over again, always staving off Death. ...

See also:

Endless Nights, Endless Nights - Chapter 1: Death - Death and Venice, Endless Nights - Chapter 2: Desire - What I've tasted of Desire, Endless Nights - Chapter 3: Dream - The Heart of a Star, Endless Nights - Chapter 4: Despair - Fifteen Portraits of Despair, Endless Nights - Chapter 5: Delirium - Going Inside, Endless Nights - Chapter 6: Destruction - On the Peninsula, Endless Nights - Chapter 7: Destiny - Endless Nights

Read more here: » Endless Nights: Encyclopedia II - Endless Nights - Chapter 1: Death - Death and Venice

Dream FAQ Dictionary: What does this dream mean?

What does this dream mean?

A. Symbols are one way of interpreting dreams. Researchers have triedto find, for each common dream occurrence, a psychological situationthat matches the dream in some way and link it as a cause. Awell-known example of this approach is Freud's interpretation. Askingfor symbols allows for (sometimes too easy) interpretation of dreamsby given rules.

Other people question this approach. Dream interpretation by catalogof symbols doesn't take into account individual differences betweendreamers. You can imagine this flaw by taking into account that thecultural background is an important point that should not beneglected. Freud's theories, that give high importance to hidden signsof sexual desires, are based on a society that has suppressedsexuality. And so on. In a more global context, asking for specialsymbols is of dubious value. Nonetheless, in a certain given context,these symbols can have a valuable meaning.

Source: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/dreams-faq

(See also: Dream Interpretation, Dream Interpretation FAQ, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams)

Dream FAQ Dictionary: What is False Awakening?

False Awakening

While the basic definition of lucid dreaming is merely the ability to be aware that one is dreaming, this definition can be broken down into two types of lucid dreaming. These two types are "high level lucidity" and "low level lucidity." A lucid dreamer that is dreaming with a high level of lucidity knows that everything being experienced is the creation of the mind. This dreamer is aware that he or she is actually in bed and asleep and can suffer no physical damage as a result of the dream.

Dreaming at the lower level of lucidity, the dreamer is not fully aware that his or her environment is a sole creation of the mind. This would then allow for the dreamer to do activities such as flying, or participating in what is most interesting to him or her at the time. However, the dreamer may still see physical threats and other dream characters as being completely real. While dreaming at this lower level, the dreamer is usually unaware that his or her physical body is actually asleep and in bed.

Being able to control a dream and being lucid in a dream do not always go hand in hand. You can have great control over a dream without the full knowledge that you are dreaming. It is also possible for to be completely aware that you are dreaming with very little control of the dream it self. However, a higher level lucid dreamer has the choice to be the participant or creator of the dream.

Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/C005545/english/dream/lucid.htm

(See also: False Awakening, Dream Interpretation FAQ, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams)

Dream FAQ Dictionary: What causes sleep paralysis?

What causes sleep paralysis?

A. Conventional wisdom: REM atonia is a normal function of the body.The muscles that move the body are "turned off" during REM sleep,which prevents you from acting out dreamed actions in reality.Non-REM sleep paralysis after waking up ("old hag") is caused by afailure to re-activate the muscles immediately. Normally thiscondition lasts only a few seconds, but sometimes it can go for aminute, which causes a very scary feeling. You are damn sure you'reawake now but you can't move. This is extremely unpleasant but atleast not dangerous.

Source: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/dreams-faq

(See also: Sleep Paralysis, Dream Interpretation FAQ, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams)

Dream FAQ Dictionary: What causes nightmares?

What causes nightmares?

A. There is the dark side of dreams - nightmares, dreams of fear,pain, irrational bad feelings that often cannot be explained. Thesecan become a serious problem when you often wake up terrified, whenyou even don't sleep because of fear of nightmares... Nightmares occurmostly because some problem disturbs you unconsciously butseriously. Some nightmares carry obvious symbols that may indicatewhere your problems are, but often it is not that easy. Sometimes theycan indicate really serious problems like depressions, sometimes justan inadequacy of getting along with yourself. It's difficult.

How can I relieve myself of nightmares?

A. It's really hard to give an answer, since so much depends onyourself. Moreover, it's always risky to give or follow advice on whatcould be a serious problem from far away, and it's ultimately you whohas to decide whether it is just a nuisance you want to get rid of, orif you really suffer from depressions or health problems and it isnecessary to consult professional help.

The common "light" nightmares of permanently missing exams, falling orbeing chased can often be overcome with learning lucid dreaming (seesection 6). Basically, if you learn to deal with them, they are not aproblem anymore. Or, from a slightly different point of view, you'refacing the problems that cause your dreams and thus overcoming them.

Source: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/dreams-faq

(See also: Nightmares, Dream Interpretation FAQ, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams)

Dream FAQ Dictionary: What is a myoclonic jerk?

What is a myoclonic jerk?

This term denotes a common experience with sudden contractions of thebig body muscles while falling asleep. This mostly causes a feeling ofstumbling, falling or similar and subsequently waking up again. The exact cause is not known, it probably is some disturbance in thebrain's functions in the first stage of sleep. Surely it is common,and does not cause serious problems unless it stops you from sleeping(but then you have general sleeping problems as well).

[From: Corey Thompson <COREYT@vax1.mankato.msus.edu>]In my Psychology class, the professor said something to like:"...you're heart rate gets very slow, and and your breathing slowsdown quicker than normal. You brain may interpret this as your bodydying, so it sends an electrical pulse to your muscles. Like a jumpstart. This is similar to a Night Terror, when you wake up absolutelyterrified about something, but have no idea why...."

Source: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/dreams-faq

(See also: Myoclonic Jerk, Dream Interpretation FAQ, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams)

Dream FAQ Dictionary: What are out-of-body experiences?

What are out-of-body experiences?

A. [This is a section of Jouni Smed' alt.out-of-body FAQ]

Out-of-the-body experiences (OBEs) are those curious, and usuallybrief, experiences in which person seems to himself to leave his bodyand to observe the world from a point of view other than that which hewould have were he still 'in' his body. In some cases the experientsclaim that they 'saw' and 'heard' things (objects which were reallythere, events and conversations which really took place) which couldnot have seen or heard from the actual positions of their bodies.

Out-of-the-body experiences are surprisingly common; different surveys have yielded some whatdifferent results, but all in all one would not be too far wrong ifone said that somewhere between one person in ten and one person intwenty is likely to have had such an experience at least once.Furthermore it seems that Out-of-the-body experiences can occur to anyone in almost anycircumstances. They are most frequent during sleep, duringunconsciousness following anesthesia or a bang on the head, and duringstress. Not all Out-of-the-body experiences occur spontaneously. Some people have, by varioustechniques, cultivated the faculty of inducing them more or less asdesired, and number have written detailed accounts of theirexperiences. These accounts do not always in all respects square withaccounts given by persons who have undergone spontaneous Out-of-the-body experiences.

Out-of-the-body experiences, especially spontaneous ones, are often very vivid, and resembleeveryday, waking experiences rather than dreams, and they may make aconsiderable impression on those who undergo them. Such persons mayfind it hard to believe that they did not in fact leave their bodies,and may draw the conclusion that we possess a separable soul, perhapslinked to a second body, which will survive in a state of fullconsciousness, perhaps even of enhanced consciousness, afterdeath. Death would be, as it were, an Out-of-the-body experience in which one did not succeedin getting back into one's body.

Such conclusions present themselves even more forcefully to the mindsof those who have undergone the variety of Out-of-the-body experience known as a 'near-deathexperience' or NDE. It is not uncommon for persons who have been tothe brink of death and returned -- following, say, a heart stoppage orserious injuries from an accident -- to report an experience (commonlyof a great vividness and impressiveness) as of leaving their bodies,and traveling (often in a duplicate body) to the border of a new andwonderful realm. Reports suggest that the conscious self's awarenessoutside the body is not only unimpaired but enhanced: events whichoccurred during the period of unconsciousness are described inaccurate detail and confirmed by those present.

Source: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/dreams-faq

(See also: Out-of-body experiences, Dream Interpretation FAQ, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams)

Dream FAQ Dictionary: What does it mean when I have the same dream over and over?

What does it mean when I have the same dream over and over?

Recurrent dreams, which can continue for years, may be treated as any other dream. That is, one may look for parallels between the dream and the thoughts, feelings, behavior, and motives of the dreamer. Understanding the meaning of the recurrent dream sometimes can help the dreamer resolve an issue that he or she has been struggling with for years.

Courtesy to: http://www.asdreams.org

(See also: Recurring Dreams, Dream Interpretation FAQ, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams)

How can dreams be used for healing? Many of the people I interviewed were women who had suffered breast cancer. Their stories were as varied and individual as the dreamers themselves and ranged from little bears helping with house cleaning to dramatic stories of physical and spiritual loss and rebirth played out in dreaming and in waking.
When we finally feel confident in exploring the elements of dream diagnosis, the next step is to explore the elements of healing in our dreams. Diagnosis is presented not to frighten us, but to allow us to begin a journey of healing.

This article is adapted from SHE WHO DREAMS By Wanda Easter Burch.

Read more here: » Healing dreams: What is Healing dreams?

The analysis of dreams and their cause by psychoanalysts are defective. They maintain that the cause of dream creation lies in the suppressed desires of the dreamer. Can they create dreams as they like by suppressing desires? No, they cannot do that. They say that desires stimulate or help the dream creation. But they do not know what supplies the material out of which they are made and what turns the desires into actual expression, enabling the dreamer see his own suppressed desires materialised and appearing to him as real.

A spiritual view on dreams and the meaning of dreams by Sri Swami Sivananda, an authority in the vedic sciences and traditions.

Read more here: » Philosophy of Dreams: Introduction to Philosophy of Dreams by Sri Swami Sivananda

Dream Commonly applied to the chaotic impressions which memory transmits to our consciousness at the moment of waking, which are but a small part of the dreaming which goes on during the sleeping period and which is not recollected.

To a large extent dreams are a reflex of our sensory impressions and of our thoughts during the waking state; the principles concerned in these cases being kama and the lower aspect of manas, which act and react with the various nerve centers and the organs at the base of the brain.

But if the word dream is to be distinguished from dreamless sleep on the one hand and waking consciousness on the other, it must include a far higher kind of dream which is the experiences of the higher aspect of manas. These experiences, being so different from those of the waking state, cannot be transmitted to the latter except symbolically or in distorted form.

The astral light also plays an enormous part in most dreams. We may witness scenes which cannot have formed part of our waking experience, and evidently in this case are seeing pictures in the astral light which we correctly or erroneously connect with our own personality. Again, with prophetic dreams our vision, untrammeled by physical senses, perceives in the astral light the image of what will later happen on the physical plane, and we may occasionally carry a recollection of what has been seen into the waking state.

The Sanskrit term for this state of sleeping consciousness is svapna.

(See also: Dream, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)