A Lucid Dream About Performance Unpreparedness: Post #5

Last week we explored a musician’s recurring dream. In the dream, he had misplaced his French horn before a performance, and he was upset. The dream was interesting partly because the dreamer was lucid throughout. What follows is his description of his lucidity.

The horn player’s describes his lucidity

There was one big difference with this particular version of the dream, though.  Whenever I have this dream, there is always a sense of two people, one “me” in the dream, and the other “me” observing.  Always before, the one in the dream affected the observer, and both of us got anxious and agitated.  But this time, the observer “me” didn’t affect the dreaming “me.”  The one in the dream got plenty agitated, but the observer was more like, “I’ve been here before and I’m OK with that.  This is just a dream.”

Commentary

What the dreamer described is typical of those who are beginning to be lucid during dreams. With substantial effort, this dreamer could conceivably become proficient enough to manipulate his dream and completely do away with the tension he was feeling. When I made that suggestion to him, his response was: “I’ve had a little bit of success with that kind of thing. But frankly, I’d have to do a whole lot of work on myself to get good. I’m not sure I’m that interested.”

His attitude reflects that of many dreamers. While there are a few individuals who can manipulate their dreams naturally, most who do, achieve a degree of competence only after long and committed effort. And even then, only a small percentage can actually make their dreams do exactly what they wish.

Even lucid dreams speak in metaphors

One of the reasons lucid dreams are so difficult to manipulate in any substantial way is that they, too, speak in the language of metaphors. They tell a story about the dreamer, and even the manipulated changes during lucidity, have to reflect that story. As a lucid dreamer, you may be able to erase the tension in your dream, but the dream will still find another way to convey its intended message. It is a common misconception among lucid dreamers that they can skip the metaphors because of their lucidity during dreaming. They believe that lucid dreams are a totally different category of dreams, and that these dreams are to be dealt with more literally and directly.

Nothing could be further from the truth. ALL DREAMS: lucid, prophetic, past life, altered state, shape shifting, warning, nightmare, congratulatory, instructional etc., etc., speak in metaphors. Metaphor is the universal language of dreams.

I was heartened recently when I read Robert Waggoner’s wonderful book Lucid Dreaming Plain and Simple, and he devoted an entire chapter to the subject of interpreting lucid dreams by understanding their symbols. Waggoner is one of the USA’s leading lucid dreaming experts.

So on Wednesday, we will go back to our French horn player and analyze his lucid dream to discover what it is telling him.