Get Lucid is a lucid dreaming media portal that is hosted by Tom and Joe from the Get Lucid UK Podcast.
Sean Oliver who plays Jason in the series Lucidity recently had a blog about fear and lucid dreaming that was published on Get-Lucid.net.
You can read the article
Here!
I've posted the article below for convenience.
"Fear Inspired Lucid Dreaming"
In the few years I’ve been independently investigating dreams I’ve
come across some pretty WILD information. But one of the most
interesting and recurring experiences I hear about involve people
learning to lucid dream out of fear.
We generally accept that there is some sort of feedback mechanism in
the dream that not only knows us, but respond to us. For instance, a
nightmare for me would probably include snakes, but for another person a
different creature would need to be used. The dream knows what it needs
to do in order to scare you.
It’s very very common for people to learn to lucid dream because they
have nightmares. My own Sister was taught by our Grandmother in order
to alleviate her bed time fears. Now, most people see it in this order:
Person has nightmare, Person learns to lucid dream, confronts their
fear, and the nightmare never returns. But what if the nightmare only
existed in order to
force us to gain Lucidity? In some ways we
feel like we have conquered the dream, but perhaps it is simply
preparing us for something else.
Recently one of the cast members in my show
“Lucidity” posted a facebook status that said,
“Rape dreams are the scariest:( Sleep: Take 2.”
I of course commented with,
“Get Lucid and take control!”
This is a common response from anyone who has investigated dreams. I
spoke with the cast member later that day and as it turns out she did
gain lucidity near the end of the dream, but only enough to purposefully
wake up and avoid the nightmare. This is her first remembered lucid
experience, and it was born out of fear. In her pose she was also
asking “why” in the world she would have a rape dream? One person
responded with an answer about dream interpretation and the psychology
of rape, and all the different ways to interpret the dream as a
metaphor. I on the other hand had a much simpler answer, “Your dream is
trying to force you to become lucid.” Instead of looking at the scenerio
and relating it to the individual, I simply looked out the outcome.
Which was awareness of being a dream.
I’m having trouble articulating my point, but perhaps another example
will help. Another female friend of mine told me about a dream she had
in a shopping mall. She got into an elevator, but the door shut and
wouldn’t open. She began to panic and lose control, but then realized
that the elevator she was in was wooden, and wooden elevators don’t
exist in shopping malls, so this must be a dream, and the doors opened.
But if the dream world can construct an entirely passable shopping
mall, why the wooden elevator? Are we really so naive to believe that
this is simply a glitch in the dream? That on a nightly basis it creates
completely foreign and comples realities and populates these realities
with people and characters, but a simple elevator is just
too complex? I tend to lean on the side of no, this is not a glitch.
Try to hang with me on this: If we accept that the Dream knows us
and what we will accept as reality and what we will accept as dream,
then we must also acknowledge that the subconscious (or whatever you
wish to call it) of the girl trapped in the elevator was fully aware
that a wooden elevator would be a clue. The dream would have to know
that she knew that the wooden elevator was out of place.
Meaning, that she was put in a scenario that the dream knew she would
realize as fake. Which leads me to the conclusion that on some level
our subconscious is attempting to teach us to become lucid. Rather than
lucid dreaming being a skill you pick up to stop nightmares, it may very
well be
the reason you are having nightmares.
For a long time I’ve speculated that the natural state of dreaming
may be lucid, and that we are the ones that are out of synch. I mean is
it really natural to play out ridiculous scenarios that are nowhere near
real and not question it? It’s difficult to say for sure, and until we
have a new cultural wave that really values these experiences from
childhood, we may never know. But every time I hear a story about a
person gaining lucidity out of fear, I can’t help but smile.
“The inconsistencies in dreams are clues left by you to increase your awareness and control” – Bill (From
Bill’s Guide to Lucid Dreaming)
- Sean Oliver
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