“Who are you? Who are you?”

At the time, it seemed a simple question, which I posed to the young woman in the lucid dream. But this simple question led to profound lessons in lucidity, and taught me much about the nature of transformation in dreams, lucid dreams and waking.

In the dream, I found myself in a farmhouse kitchen in the South. The farm wife cooked on the stove and I sat at the kitchen table with my oldest brother and someone else. When the farm wife placed a pile of cooked beans on my plate, it all struck me as too strange.  Suddenly it hit me, ‘This is a lucid dream!’

Immediately, I knew someone stood behind me, since I could feel the energy. Realizing that the ‘Shadow’ (or the denied, ignored or repressed aspects of the self according to Carl Jung) often remained behind the person, I turned and discovered an attractive, young black woman there. Picking her up, I brought her directly in front of me, and asked, “Who are you? Who are you?” She returned my gaze, and replied, “I am a discarded aspect of yourself.”

How do you respond to “a discarded aspect of yourself?” What does “a discarded aspect of yourself” even want? For a moment, these questions bounced around my mind. And then I just knew – a discarded aspect wants acceptance — complete, heartfelt acceptance. From my heart came complete and total acceptance for this dream figure, this discarded aspect of myself.

After that, something magically unexpected happened. As I sent complete and total acceptance onto this “discarded aspect”, she began to shrink towards her center point, and then transformed into wisps of colored light that headed straight towards my torso, and entered me with an energetic jolt!

Accepting a Dream Figure Transforms It

Upon waking, I knew the ‘light’ energy had changed me somehow. A week later, the answer became clear: Ever since this lucid dream, I thought daily about trying to write a book on lucid dreams – a project I started two years earlier, but discarded. Now it made sense! The energy of the “discarded aspect” or discarded book project had now re-integrated with me, through my complete acceptance of the dream figure. Moreover, that energy propelled me forward to write my first book, Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self.

So what ‘lessons in lucidity’ emerged from this brief lucid dream? Here, you can see a few:

1. Many (but not all) dream figures exist as projections of your mental energy.
2. Shadow-type dream figures (ignored, denied, repressed aspects) can re-integrate with you ‘if’ you totally acknowledge and accept them from the heart.
3. Totally accepting such a dream figure often results in it returning to its natural state of mental/emotional energy, experienced as light and energy.
4. A lesser acceptance by you may result in the dream figure changing; for example, shrinking, or becoming less threatening, etc. Because they change as your mind changes, you see that they ‘connect’ to your mindstream.
5. Reintegrating energy in a dream or lucid dream can dramatically change your waking life experience.

When you think about ‘transformations’ in lucid dreams, you often think about transforming yourself into something – a bird, a rock, a tree.

But lucid dreaming shows you that if you transform yourself or your response, then the lucid dream (or the figures in it) may change dramatically. This change can serve to transform your waking experience, helping you to live more lucidly and more compassionately.

Respond lucidly; respond with compassion.

‍