Tag: Lucid dreaming

Lucid dreaming: Charlie Morley is correct — it is possible to know your ‘oceanic unconscious’

June 20, 2015June 13, 2017by Douglas Ernst11 Comments

Regular readers of this blog know that I started to occasionally write on lucid dreaming in 2013. For some odd reason it took me until 2015 to run across an old TedX video by Charlie Morley, whose experiences with the practice mirrored my own. I was impressed by his ability to articulate just how useful lucid dreaming could be for, say, soldiers who suffer from PTSD or just the guy down the street who wants to confront his nightmares. I recently took Mr. Morley’s online course through Awake Academy to see what tricks he might know that I didn’t. I must say that I walked away (or should I say “slept away”?) impressed.

Here is one snippet from Week 2 of the seven-week course that I can vouch for through my own personal experiences:

To believe that your itsy-bitsy me, my, I sense of self that you bring in to the lucid dream state can in any way dominate, subjugate or control the power of the unconscious mind is to ascribe that sense of self and inflated degree of importance. The unconscious mind is awesome in power. As awesomely powerful as the ocean, perhaps. And to quote my friend Robert Waggoner: “Just as no sailor can control the sea, so to does no lucid dreamer control the dream.”

It would be an arrogant sailor to believe that they could control the awesome power of the ocean. And so too, I believe it is an arrogant lucid dreamer who believes that they can in any way control the powerful oceanic unconscious. So drop control. Don’t try it. Instead, turn your attention to making friends. Make an ally out of the unconscious. Be friendly towards it. Go into the dream with open arms saying, “I’m ready to meet the mystery.” If you do that, you’ll still be able to ‘control’ the dream and do whatever you want, but you won’t be doing it from a point of domination or subjugation — You’ll be doing it from a point of friendship.

Two years ago I was having lucid dreams that lasted 10-15 seconds. Over time that got up to perhaps a minute. These days when I have a lucid dream it feels like I’m lucid from 5-7 minutes. Like Mr. Morley says, the unconscious mind is incredibly powerful; the ocean analogy is spot-on. Likewise, it is possible to essentially become “friends” with your own subconscious. It may sound weird, but it is true.

During a recent lucid dream I asked my unconscious mind to impart wisdom. I was given an answer about certain unchanging elements of man’s nature, and when the tutorial was over and I found myself still lucid I casually asked, “So, I was just wondering, what the heck was that earlier dream I had tonight supposed to symbolize?” Again, my unconscious mind answered. I may not always get the answer I want, and some replies are downright mysterious, but I always wake up having learned something about myself.

There is no way I could fit the knowledge from all seven weeks of Mr. Morley’s course into a single blog post. Besides, that would be incredibly unfair to him and all the hard work he put into the project.

I will say this, however: If you want to start lucid dreaming, then a dream journal is a must. If you have the intention to lucid dream and you write down what you can remember at least five days a week, then you will probably be half-way to obtaining your goal. I would be happy to give you some pointers in the comments section below, but if you really want an assortment of tools for your “dream toolbox,” then I suggest checking out Mr. Morley’s course.

Note: If you regularly read and comment on this blog and you want to take the course — but you find it is too expensive — let me know and I will deposit $60 into a PayPal account for you. That is roughly half the course fee. I will do this for the first TWO “regulars” who make such a request. For those of you who are waiting for me to make contact about T-shirts, just know that I have not forgotten about you. I got a little sidetracked and haven’t been able to finish the design to my liking.

Lucid dreaming: Connect with the conduit to your soul and unlock stores of wisdom

January 7, 2015January 7, 2015by Douglas Ernst4 Comments

In 2013 I wrote a piece titled, “The effects of meditation: What if you could ask your nightmares why they haunt you?”. The post was inspired by lucid dreams that I began having as a result of meditation.

I asked:

Imagine the personal growth men and women could attain if they could ask the symbolic representations in their dreams what, exactly, they mean. What if a individual spends his days trying to improve his body, mind and spirit — and his nights doing the same thing? What would happen if we could stop the elements of our nightmares in their tracks to ask them why they haunt us? How would the physical world transform if individuals made the conscious decision during sleeping hours to take the darkest corners of their minds and fill them with light?

It turns out that Charlie Morley said very much the same thing during a 2012 TedX talk in San Diego. He put this way while recounting the time he finally stood up to his inner demons:

“So there I am, face-to-face with this demon, fully lucid so I know I’m in my own head and I know there’s no real threat, but it’s still pretty scary. So instinctively I get ready to fight. And then it hits me. Hang on. This must be an aspect of my shadow. … I gotta integrate this thing. I gotta embrace this thing. How do I do that, exactly? I will give it a hug! So I run up to this thing in the lucid dream, and I bear hug it. This dream was so realistic I could feel it struggling against my embrace. I could feel it […] breathing down my neck.

You know, the shadow is the sum total of all your repressed capacity for violence and aggression, so as you can imagine it’s not much of a hugger. But there I am, and I’m hugging this thing that doesn’t want to be hugged, and it’s struggling to get away and I’m clinging on for deal life and then it does something really unexpected. It starts to shrink. Within my embrace, this three-headed shadow monster starts to shrink. And I keep holding on and it keeps shrinking and then it stops. And there’s a moment of stillness. I release my embrace and I realize I’m hugging myself.

This three-headed headed demon has transformed into me — a direct carbon copy of me. And there I am, face-to-face with myself — maybe for the first time in my life. We shared a smile, and I woke up in floods of tears. Not only am I in tears, but I’ve got this weird feeling in my belly like as if a knot had been untied. Some deep emotional knot that had been there for so long I had forgotten it was there at all.

I don’t know what part of my psyche that shadow-aspect represented. Maybe some denied childhood trauma. Maybe some disowned childhood complex. Who knows? But what I do know is that when I was embracing that demon I was embracing some deeper part of myself. And I was engaging the innate healing potential, which resides within us all. In a lucid dream you have the opportunity to engage psychological concepts immediately in a seemingly [physical] form. This is a unique opportunity to directly apply healing intent to mental embodiment and personifications of your own own psychology. This is deep healing territory. This is what thousands of people are paying thousands of therapists thousands of dollars to do. Now, I’m not saying you should all go and sack your therapists. But what I am saying is: if you can learn to lucid dream — not all of the time, but some of the time — you can make their job a heck of a lot easier. If you can learn to dream lucidly — and it is a [teachable] skill — you can begin to integrate your shadow and finally reclaim, as Jung said, ‘the seat of all human creativity.'”

Bravo, Mr. Morley. I could not agree more. We dream for a reason, and it isn’t just to have funny tales to tell our friends and coworkers once-in-awhile. It isn’t touchy-feeling mumbo-jumbo when someone says that dreams are powerful tools one can use for realizing his or her full potential — it’s a fact.

To show that I practice what I peach, I will now recount a lucid dream that I had early Tuesday morning around 6:00 a.m.

I’m in a large convention center for individuals whose employment concerns national security matters. I’m wearing a flak jacket while surrounded by military personnel, FBI agents, other members of Homeland Security, etc. The entire convention starts buzzing as if something is wrong, and people get out of their seats. I don’t know what is happening, so I get up and follow a stream of people heading out the door.

As I go through a doorway I think, “Did I bring an M16 and forget it in my chair? I can’t remember. How could I be so stupid!?” I double back to go into the convention hall and find myself in an airport hanger. Individuals are running around as if an air raid of some sort is about to take place and I think, “Now I know I must be dreaming,” and immediately ask my subconscious, “What is my biggest fault?” Immediately one of the men running around the hanger gets in my face and sticks out his tongue — so I punch him square in the nose, he recoils, and stumbles off. I then ask, “What is my best attribute?” and a man immediately trips in front of me — so I bend down on one knee, hold out my hand, and help him up. Shortly thereafter, I wake up.

Think about how amazing it is that you can ask your own subconscious deeply personal questions and, without missing a beat, it will supply honest answers. In my case, I am quick to anger. I can lash out mentally, spiritually, and physically at those who I perceive to be adversaries — and this is often the wrong thing to do. There is no denying it. Likewise, I am also quick to help those before me who stumble and fall mentally, spiritually, and physically.

It is easy for a man to ignore the advice of friends and family. It is easy for a man to lie to himself in his waking state. It is not so easy for a man to lie to himself when he consults the conduit to his own soul and receives an instant reply.

There is a wellspring of wisdom inside each and every one of us, and I firmly believe that lucid dreaming is one way of unlocking those stores of potential. If you have questions about lucid dreaming, then feel free to ask in the comments section. Otherwise, check out Mr. Morley’s TedX talk and see if it speaks to you.

Lucid dreaming, the meaning of life, and flying through space like a ballistic missile

October 23, 2013November 24, 2013by Douglas Ernst8 Comments

As regular readers know, I occasionally have lucid dreams. Sometimes I share the memory of those dreams so that others can discuss their own experiences — or perhaps just see the weirdness floating around in my subconscious. For all those political posts that have made you ask: “What the heck is going on inside that man’s head?” you now have an answer:

Oct. 23, 2013: 5:00 a.m.

I’m in an office building. I’m following a young girl who is guiding me on a tour that involves a high-ranking military official. As I follow her I think: “I am lucid dreaming right … now.”

I break off from the girl, put my fist in the air, look up, and fly right through the ceiling and up, up, up. I don’t seem to be leaving the dream behind so I think: “Clarity now. Clarity now. Clarity now.” The dream dissipates around me and I find myself in a black void.

I feel as though wherever I am it’s at an incredible height. There’s a part of me that can’t believe I haven’t woken up. I think: “What is the meaning in life?” and I start falling.

During my decent I pass through all sorts of rainbows, fireworks, glittering ice particles (that don’t sting when you fly through them) … and then what I can only describe as childhood cereal boxes with cartoonish characters on the covers. There are words on the boxes, but everything is going so fast that it is hard to read them. Perhaps I pick up the word ‘linked.’

The entire time it sounds like I am in a casino and people are talking all around me. The voices are slightly high pitched in tone. I think: “Interesting. I must be doing something right. There is nothing negative here. Then I get slightly nervous, wondering if the act of pondering the existence of negativity would manifest something negative. That doesn’t happen, but I stop falling and realize that I’m still high above earth.

Still surprised that I’m conscious within my dream I think: “I want to see Yizhou,” [followed by my wife’s maiden name]. I am propelled through space, too fast to really even see what’s going on around me. I’m being hurled to some location. I look behind me and see an infinite blue cord stretching out and realize that it’s attached to me. I’m kind of taken aback by how long it is.

Finally I land, but I’m on some sort of puzzle board of the United States, and I’m in California. I’m on a map and it says my wife’s name. Underneath is a little red dot that is glowing and it says: “disconnected.” I get scared that something has happened to my wife and then realize that I said her maiden name. I shake my head and say: “No, I want to see Yizhou — my wife — in Arlington, Virginia.”

Immediately I am flying through space again like a ballistic missile. As I’m traveling I again think of the blue cord and can’t get over how long it is. When I land I’m on another map, this time with little cardboard houses. I get frustrated and start trying to read the lettering on the ground. I’m floating and can’t just walk like I normally do. When I try and stay still I levitate and sort of wobble around. All I can make out is “Lane.”

I start to float upward, but this time it’s out of my control. I grab a tiny cardboard house that was on the map and pick it up. I try to read lettering on the house and it says, “flick the white tab.” There is, indeed, a white tab on the piece of cardboard. I flick it, and then I wake up.

After waking I realize a.) I should not have said my wife’s maiden name because I ended up where we used to live in college, and b.) in my confusion I screwed up my wife’s location — again — because we used to live in Arlington, but she is now bouncing around due to medical school.

On some level I’m annoyed that I would screw up such a direct request, but on another I’m actually impressed that I was able to keep it as mentally together as I did, given how surreal the experience was. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if I had I kept enough composure to get my wife’s actual address right.

Any armchair psychologists out there? If so, have at it.

The effects of meditation: What if you could ask your nightmares why they haunt you?

August 11, 2013November 25, 2014by Douglas Ernst8 Comments

Since this blog’s inception much of its content has been dedicated to getting people to think about freedom and individual liberty, how precious it is, and the public policy decisions that either strengthen or erode America’s moral fabric. At the start of the new year, I came to the conclusion that my ability to change perceptions was extremely limited because I was focusing on the external world’s problems before my own flaws were adequately addressed. And so, I turned inward. One aspect of that introspection began with meditation. Besides stripping away anger and frustration, which has allowed me to think more clearly, it’s also had another profound impact — on my dreams.

Dreams are often discounted as nothing more than a mish-mashed thought-manifestation of whatever is going on in a person’s life at any given moment. I have always believed they possess a deeper meaning. Now, I have come to the conclusion that the subconscious mind will gladly reward the person who makes the conscious decision to want to learn from it.

The following is a dream I woke up from at 6:57 a.m. Was it just a run-of-the-mill dream, a lucid dream or an out-of-body experience? And if lucid dreams are real, what are the implications for a man who could ask his subconscious mind questions about life, the universe and … everything? (Cool points awarded if you got the Douglas Adams reference.)

I’m getting ready to leave a hotel that seems inspired by the Moulin Rogue set design. I’m sitting on some steps just collecting my thoughts and J.K. Simmons walks by. He has no hair and is dressed like a skinhead. He has a swastika tattoo on his shoulder. He stops as he nears me and I wonder if he thinks I’m really a skinhead because I’m muscular and have all my hair shaved off. He sees my favorite Army cap on a railing and says, “Hey…” and looks like he might take it. I grab it and calmly say, “Do you know where you can get these? Old Navy. $10 bucks.” He nods and walks away with his entourage.

The hotel clerk then says to me, “I think that guy was going to steal your hat!”

I reply “Maybe, but I don’t think so.” In my head (in the dream) I think, “because I wasn’t going to let him.” Then I think: “That clerk doesn’t know he was an actor. He thinks he was a real Nazi!” which makes me laugh.

I then stand up and jump from the staircase I was sitting on, but suddenly I’m falling down a shaft farther and farther and father. Then I slow down and start floating. Again, I’m in some sort of Moluin Rouge-ish theater house. I see all sorts of strange things on shelves and there are walls with words written all over them.

I feel like I’m going through a slow Disneyland ride and I’m trying to read all the lettering on the walls. Some sort of fairground music is playing. I then think: “I need to read all of this.” The only thing I can make out is the name of author ‘S.E. Cupp’ although there are many others. As I’m floating I see a game that reminds me of ‘Fireball Island.’ I think: “I used to love that as a kid!” and laugh.

As I continue on I see a sign that says ‘Which Way To The End?’ I then rotate like a clock. I think: “I must want to go home now,” and then do a full clockwise rotation in the air.

At this point I begin speeding up. I’m going faster and as I’m accelerating I see a sign that says ‘You End With a Jump!’ and in midair I do just that like a happy kid. I burst forward at an incredible speed — like a fighter jet with its afterburners on. I’ve never felt like I was going so fast in my life.

I’m suddenly back in the theater, speeding along what seems to be a never ending wind tunnel lined with red velvet movie curtains along the walls. I think: “This is awesome!”

I’m so close to the ceiling that I see a blue glow reflecting off the tile. I think “Is that coming from me? Am I having an out of body experience? Am I returning to my body? I think I am!” I tell myself not to get too excited but I can’t help it and I let out an exhilarating yell. Immediately I come to an abrupt stop, slowly reverse, hear a “woooshhhoop!” noise, and wake up with my wife shaking me; she was under the impression I was having a nightmare (which I used to have regularly). She tells me that in my sleep I was breathing incredibly fast. I tell her that’s because I was flying like Superman if he wanted to get somewhere in a hurry.

Imagine the personal growth men and women could attain if they could ask the symbolic representations in their dreams what, exactly, they mean. What if a individual spends his days trying to improve his body, mind and spirit — and his nights doing the same thing? What would happen if we could stop the elements of our nightmares in their tracks to ask them why they haunt us? How would the physical world transform if individuals made the conscious decision during sleeping hours to take the darkest corners of their minds and fill them with light?

If these are questions that interest you as much as they do me, I suggest giving meditation a try. Then, feel free to circle back with me here with your findings. I’d love to hear your stories.

Best,

Doug

Thoughts on lucid dreaming and the floating purple orb

May 20, 2013November 24, 2013by Douglas Ernst24 Comments

Every so often bloggers are accused of writing for “attention.” There are many reasons why this is silly, but what drives me to write is because I’m a writer. It’s really that simple. That’s just what I do. I have thoughts and feelings and emotions that I have to get off my chest. They’re inside me and they have to get out. Every time I get a random comment from someone who essentially says, “I thought I was alone out there,” it brings a smile to my face, because one of the primary reasons I write is so that people who have similar experiences do not need to feel as if they are alone. No one should ever have to feel like there isn’t somebody out there who they could talk to or lean on, and bloggers of all kinds help mitigate such situations.

It is for that reason that today I’ll part ways from politics and popular culture to talk about lucid dreaming … and the floating purple orb.

The following is a dream I woke up from at 6:47 a.m. EST.

I’m at an old high school cross-country meet, but I’m on a pair of swings talking to my old friend Larry about the upcoming season and he says he’s in better shape going into senior year than he was in the past. Then I think that I am in really good shape too and I say, “One more year! Gotta make it a good one!”

Then I pause and think: “Didn’t we already graduate? I’m actually not in cross country shape anymore because I’ve been lifting weights and I like where my physique is at. Wait a second … I’m lucid dreaming!” I jump off the swings and start running around in circles like an excited little kid, saying, “I’m lucid dreaming! I can ask anyone anything I want! I can do anything! I need to talk to someone before I wake up.”

I see my old coach, Coach Devine, and he looks confused for a moment and says, “Doug, is it really you?” I say yes and he says: “Do you still think about me? Do you still love me?” (There wasn’t any sexual connotation to it.) I say, “Yes. I do. I really do think of you,” and he smiles and I smile and we both come close to having these tears of joy and then I give him a really big hug.

As I hug him everything begins turning white and then I start flying towards this book that opens with pictures of an older woman hugging a child drawn in purple ink. It’s not my deceased grandmother and me, but it reminds me of the two of us. I try to read the lettering that is on the bottom as I then start to enter the book, but can only make out ‘Ha xx Ho xx Ho xx’.

I then started to really wake up and my whole body was tingling, particularly my arms and hands. As I opened my eyes I saw a purple orb floating directly above my head that scared me, so I closed them again, and then there was a little “whooop” feeling (Perhaps like I was disconnected from my body?) and then I woke up. The purple orb was gone.

Question: Was I lucid dreaming? Was I having an out of body experience? Was the purple orb real or was it just my eyes playing tricks on me? My wife thinks I was dreaming that I was lucid dreaming and she thinks my eyes were just playing tricks on me.

I’m sharing this story, again, because on a long enough time line I figure someone out there will have had a similar experience that they could share, or perhaps they just think it’s all a bunch of “hooey” and they can let that be known as well.

The only thing I will add is that this dream felt real. Very, very real. It was extremely vivid and clear, perhaps an “HD” version of my other dreams.

So there you have it. Thoughts on lucid dreaming and floating orbs? I’d like to hear them.