Tag Archives: Subconscious Mind

Skittish Dreams [Free Verse]

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I don't remember my dreams --
     not in the middle of the night 
     and not in the morning.

But, sometimes, I catch a glimpse
     at a random instant:
          composing a poem,
          reflecting on a passage
               from a book,
          eating a cracker...

 But my dreams are like
     frightened animals,
          turning my attention
          directly upon them, 
          makes them skitter off..., 

     vanishing into the thicket.

My dreams vanish like they 
     were never really there,
     and I am left wondering
          just what I saw.

The harder I try to remember,
     the more severely I scrub
          my mental hard drive,
     purging all shapes and motions,
          until my recollection is nothing
          but a vague residue of feeling.

I don't KNOW that it was a dream.

I couldn't swear to it.

All I know is that it's an image 
     that I can't tie to my waking life, 
          can't tie to any person, place,
          or thing I know to be real. 

(And, often enough, it's an image
     that couldn't exist in the real world.)

I couldn't remember it as a dream,
     but - somehow - I intensely FEEL
          that it was a dream,

but the Dream is deep down in its hole,
     shaking like a critter that
          was almost snatched up by 
     a monster too awful to 
          contemplate....

and, somehow, I am that monster.

What Lurks Below? [Lyric Poem]

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I'm swimming in the lake -
  miles from one and all,
 feeling peace and calm - when
   the monster comes to call.

What could drag me under?
   I'll never, ever know.
 Some will always wonder
   what caused the undertow.

The lake is surface calm,
   and should be at its depths,
 but in its muck lie bones
    of those pulled under breath.

Some will swim tomorrow,
  and in the days to come.
 Most will come and go,
   and just feel blissful numb.

Subconscious [Haibun]

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Couriers carry communiques from town to town in the country of me. These secret messages are unprojected, but couriers sometimes sneak peeks. Then, a summary can be read in an expression - a precis that could elsewise not be divined. An expression read from aspect of eye is a hint, and is as reliable as any hint  -- which is to say, not very. A hint is subject to misinterpretation. It presupposes a common language, a lingua franca that doesn't exist because one side has no language and the other is afflicted by the arrogant assumption that all things are understood via language. 

shooting signals
snap through the unmapped
spaces of my mind

BOOK REVIEW: Lucid Dreaming by Charlie Morley

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Lucid Dreaming: A Beginner's Guide to Becoming Conscious in Your DreamsLucid Dreaming: A Beginner’s Guide to Becoming Conscious in Your Dreams by Charlie Morley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon page

 

Lucid dreams are those in which the dreamer is aware he or she is in the dream and can interact with the dreamscape. Most people experience lucid dreaming only as a happy accident. Some people dream lucidly in their youth, but never as an adult. Some people become aware they’re dreaming under specific conditions, e.g. on a certain medication. However, lucid dreaming has been practiced in some traditions for centuries, most notably by Tibetan Buddhists (though chapters 5 & 6 demonstrate that it’s much broader than just the Tibetans.) Furthermore, having confirmed lucidity in dreams in sleep laboratories, scientists have moved to advance our understanding of the phenomena using the scientific method and by taking advantage of the latest brain imaging technologies.

Charlie Morley has written a couple books on the subject as well as giving a well-received TEDx Talk on the subject. Morley studied under a Tibetan lama as well as studying up on the science of the phenomenon.

There are eight chapters in this book. The first three chapters constitute part one, the basics. This part introduces one to the subject of lucid dreaming, considers some of the reasons why people get into it, and explains how to recognize one is in a dream. The remaining five chapters form the second part, which is about going deeper with one’s practice. The second part explores what one may see in a dream, and how one can use the experience of being lucid for self-improvement. Lucid dreaming is one of the few access points to one’s subconscious mind. The second part also charts the development of lucid dreaming in both the West and the East, as well as offering suggestions about how nutrition may help in one’s practice.

The book is written as an instructional manual, and offers “toolboxes” of techniques to help advance one’s lucid dream practice by teaching one to remember one’s dreams, understand the phases of sleep, recognize one is in a dream, achieve lucidity, and know what to do once one is lucid in a dream. These are handy summaries of the lessons taught in greater detail in the text. All of the chapters but 5 and 8 have one of these toolbox summaries. There are also frequent text boxes of strange but true facts about lucid dreaming, tips from experienced lucid dreamers, case studies, and stories used to make relevant points about lucid dreaming. There are no graphics, but they aren’t missed.

I found this book to be useful and interesting. It’s readable and logically organized. I’d recommend it for anyone interested in developing a lucid dreaming practice—particularly if one is starting from scratch. There are a number of books on the subject, but many will be too ethereal to be of value to a new practitioner, but Morley writes in an approachable fashion and organizes the book to help one get into a practice as efficiently as possible.

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