Dreaming When You're Not or the Other Way Around #LucidDreaming #Science

water rushing down the street toward me
i think that's too high for a flood like this
so i lower the water level
but still it keeps coming
the water looks really strange
now I see there plastic doll heads in it
thousands of them
the surface of the water is covered with them
one of them looks like a black man
but he changes and turns white
with his wife beside him
and they sweep past me in all that water


Zen Yogi:  you're dreaming, Silas

I said, "Bullshit.  I can get up."

Zen Yogi:  try it

I told him, "I can't be dreaming.  I don't remember any dreams ever."

Zen Yogi:  you haven't remembered it yet since you're still in it

I couldn't and it showed all the more the hipness of Zen Yogi since we're paralyzed when we dream and that makes sense since walking around in a dream will result in an injured dreamer.


I rarely remember anything of dreams and I wondered at whether that's as rare as it seems.  (verywell:  10 Facts Researchers Have Discovered About Dreams)

As much as 95 percent of all dreams are quickly forgotten shortly after waking. Why are our dreams so difficult to remember? According to one theory, the changes in the brain that occur during sleep do not support the information processing and storage needed for memory formation to take place. Brain scans of sleeping individuals have shown that the frontal lobes, the area that plays a key role in memory formation, are inactive during REM sleep, the stage in which dreaming occurs.

- vw

That's satisfying to a point but really not so much since I don't remember any dream ever existed.  I'm  not concerned about that fact; it's just an observation.  I must forget them exceptionally quickly, I suppose.

Note:  you will be able to confirm the paralysis in a dream state and it sounds creepy but it sounds like a crafty safety measure by the mind.  In a similar way, the mind will not permit us to remember pain; we can only remember that it happened and not what it felt like.

The interested student probably won't find the depth you want in the verywell article but that may well lead to heavier references and Science Daily is a particular favorite of the Rockhouse.  A search on SD would likely lead to some promising references.

Simon leGreedyGreed:  that was the blizz.  The morphine did it.

It's a valid consideration but it doesn't sound credible when I take the morphine 'round the clock and there's been no other evidence of the phenomenon.

Note:  in case you're not a Regular, the morphine is required for a valid medical purpose for which nothing else will work.

Zen Yogi:  are you up for the full Existentialist Cowboy Cattle Call?

I don't think it's necessary, Zen Master, since as much of reality as I know is only slightly diminished by the morphine and I monitor that acutely.  Whether reality ever had any substance is why we have Existentialist Cattle Calls but I don't see a purpose in it at this time.

The novelty in this experience is it's apparently an example of lucid dreaming and I have heard of it off and on but never paid it much attention since, wtf, I don't remember them anyway.  The difference between lucid dreaming and any other variety is you're aware you're dreaming while it happens as was the case just now.

Note:  there's a section in the verywell article with more content about it lucid dreaming.  It has a bit of ooh wow to it but it's informative as well.

Zen Yogi:  so why do you remember it this time?

I was trying to remember it while it was happening since I was aware I was in it and hoped to have some idea of it on really awakening.

Zen Yogi:  I tell you, Silas, it all sounds kind of shaky

Don't I know it, Brer Bear, but the parts seem to stack up although it's your guess how long they will stay that way.