In dreams, the idea of ‘time’ becomes much more fluid. We may find ourselves sitting in our kindergarten classroom with our current co-workers, talking to a spaceman from the future. Here, various decades of experience occupy the same space, and the past, present, and future merrily co-mingle.
In dreaming, we see time (and periods of time) re-arranging itself, according to inner principles or symbolic associations. An idea of time exists, but the linear nature of clock and calendar time disappears to a vast degree. Like a Salvador Dali painting, dream ‘time’ melts and drips and puddles across dimensions, only to re-form in new and surprising associations.
As lucid dreamers discover, ‘time’ can be played with on many levels. Here you can see a number of examples of how lucid dreamers play with ‘time’ in lucid dreams:
Some lucid dreamers may gesture with their hand and ‘stop’ the action of their lucid dream. Then, gesturing to the left, they may manage to re-wind the lucid dream to an earlier event. There, they suddenly may ‘release’ the lucid dream to begin again, and change some action or moment to alter the lucid dream’s direction, or explore a probable event (from the standpoint of the earlier lucid dream).
These probable events suggest the broader bandwidth of time (since we normally experience only the officially perceived version, but in lucid dreams, we can explore the probable versions, too, by altering earlier decisions and choosing different paths).
For lucid dream explorers, can you re-wind the lucid dream back before you became ‘lucid’ and then start it up again, but now lucidly aware? Or even more exploratory, can you re-wind the dream back to the moment just before the dream begins? For example, ten seconds before the entire dream begins? What do you find there? What do you experience?
Photo by Myriams-Fotos via Pixabay
Some lucid dreamers have actively sought to explore life events from their past. Consider some of these ideas:
Become lucid and request, “Let me experience sitting at my elementary school desk on the first day of second grade!” What happens? Do you find yourself sitting in that tiny desk, looking at the teacher writing on the chalk board? Do you notice the linoleum floor and the hum of the fluorescent lights?
Now imagine that you have success with this experience. How far back can you go? In a lucid dream, could you call forth a memory from the first month of life? And after seeing it and your mother, could you confirm the memory’s validity by asking her, “When I was born, did you use to wear a special pin with an amethyst in it on your left shoulder?” And when she asks, “How did you know that?!” You can tell her, “I asked in a lucid dream to experience a memory from my first month of life!”
When I saw the convincing reality of the dream exposed, laid bare, unclothed, and then suddenly became lucid, laughter seemed very appropriate. I laughed at my own stupidity, my ability to overlook innumerable clues and still not get it.
read moreIn 1985 after ten years of lucid dreaming, I had a mini-epiphany after an unexpected conversation in a lucid dream. In the dream, I approached an elderly dream figure in a three-piece suit and lucidly asked him, “Excuse me, what do you represent?”
read moreDo you begin to relate to the reflection? Does your analytical mind arise (e.g., ‘I need to wash my hair’) or the emotional mind (e.g., ‘You look marvelous!’) or the social mind (e.g., ‘I wish that pimple would go away—I want to look good for the party’)?
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