Lucid Dreaming

Brig asked me about dream books. After June of 1974 when I was taking the Dream Course thorough the Experimental College at the University of Washington I found two books I really liked.  I have neither anymore.  A more recent one was Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep by Celia Green, 1990's vintage. I probably remember her as we share a first name.  The second I can recall neither the title or the author only that his first name was John and he wrote many self-help books in the '70's and early '80's. I have reached that time in my life when many facts that were at my finger tips have faded beyond my reach much to my irritation.  I remember the class date well because I was the only one in line with a 2 1/2 year old Chris, and a newish May baby - David, in a sling on my chest.  The other students, young men and women played with Chris and when we were done he didn't want to go home.

I found this online World of Lucid Dreaming and have read through some of it.  I know nothing about the author but a lot of her material seems similar and its clear she is pushing her online class which I know nothing about either and don't plan on taking her class. You have to dig a little but there's information there. Goggling Lucid Dreaming brings up a pile of stuff. Use your judgement.

These are not the books where you look up an object to get a meaning. You have to do a little digging and find your own meaning for yourself. I found some of my own "objects" were similar to those of others but we also had similarities in life experience or culture and interests.

At the time I was also making art at home. I used the dreaming process to create ideas.  I've always had vivid dreams, full color and very active. I used to remember them or at least pieces of them.  You start out working on recall partly by keeping a dream journal. My only remaining journal is made up mostly of dreams from the last 10 years. Before sleep I'd think about finding a solution to (for me) to the creative block I was experiencing. For me it was design, color, or subject.  After I got the hang of it I would often have an answer in the morning even if I had to wait to get the babes to bed before I could begin.  Many years later in the mid-80's I became a computer programmer and found I could use the same process to discover why some code wasn't working. I'd look through it in the evening and often awake with the answer.

My husband and my best friend dream quite differently, they remember some of their dreams but they are not 3-D and color, they dream in numbers, letters, and what sounded to me like real time thought processes!? Totally foreign to me. 

I hope this is useful information. I am trying to put it to use again, along with a new journal of day to day stuff and dreams.  My brain is not what it used to be but I am discovering useful things.  I'm trying to tune how I view things and I see that some of my photos are better than they were.

Stay warm you all.  It's supposed to be 15° tonight here.  Could be worse the sun is out.