despite waking

My dreams are quite vivid, but I would forget most of them automatically and not even realize it if I did not cultivate certain habits. For example’s sake I thought I’d take you through the writing up of today’s dream (Portals in the sky).

Before I go to sleep, I remind myself that I want to remember any dreams. It is a mere statement of intention, but it can be quite a powerful help, especially when you are first starting to practice. I set the alarm to go off an hour before I need to actually get up- to catch myself during a deeper level of sleep. As soon as I wake up, I jot down key words of the dream, and then usually keel back over until I have to get out of bed as I am not a morning person. I used to try and write out the dreams in their entirety, but that takes up too much time and I usually am falling back asleep as I write. Later on in the day, I am able to use those key words to jog my memory and relive the dream in my head as I write it out in detail.

The most important part of remembering a dream for me has been to realize when I am dreaming and to pay attention.

The key to realizing you are dreaming is to look out for things that would not happen in reality. Waking Life discusses several techniques such as flipping a light switch or trying to read a clock. A technique championed by the works of Carlos Castaneda is to look at your hands. In dreams, controls often do not work, the hands of a clock may spin strangely, numbers and letters may move around independently, and you might not even “be” in your own body, much less have the control of your normal hands. For me, it is usually obvious that I am dreaming when the park rangers announce the rhinos are about to perform synchronized ballet, or, in today’s dream, when circles appeared in the sky and opened magic portals to other worlds. (On better days I would have realized before then, I’m sure, but I was very tired when I finally got to sleep early that morning.)

At first, it is common to be so surprised or excited about realizing that you’re dreaming that you wake yourself up. With practice, that becomes less of a problem. Then you can focus on what is going on in the dream. The more attention I can pay to the dream as it’s happening, the better I can remember it later. The more I can fully accept and immerse myself in the realm of the dream, the more vividly and potently I will recall small details. In today’s dream, once I saw those magic circles, I tried to remember what happened before then and how exactly the magic circles came to be, as well as notice where I was, what time it was, who else or what else was there, and what I was feeling about it all.

When my alarm went off, I stumbled over to write things down. Now, I have a notebook and pen that I keep by my bed almost all the time, specifically for this purpose. However, I was especially out of it that morning, and instead ended up jotting everything in an open JC Penny catalog. I went back to sleep, and later, when I finally found my notes, they consisted of the words: 7 circles, dime, art, create/destroy, park, Mary Poppins singing, dirigible, GG movie, 2 mice, and cages, written in brain-storm type clouds on a page featuring a matelasse coverlet on sale for $24.99. This was enough for me to remember what the whole thing was about.

I do advise writing out the dreams as soon as possible, however, because in a few day’s time, your notes might make as much sense to you as those notes of mine just did. Even if I only achieve some very sketchy outline, I try to fill things in right away or I risk losing it altogether.

Next “article” up will be about interpreting the dreams. :)