REMEMBER THE FEELING

This is a subject that's rather hard to describe. The most I can really do is to let you know that it is important to draw your attention to the fact that there is a feeling within a dream that is not like physical reality. Most of the people in the world fall asleep and they let the dream carry them along because they accept it as physical reality. They see and they feel no difference because they don't try to focus their awareness on the difference.

I was in a dream once where I was on a school bus or perhaps a city bus, and for no particular reason at all, I FELT like I was in a dream. Nothing strange happened like there were monkeys attacking the bus, and the monkeys were purple and then I had the thought IS THIS A DREAM??? No. Nothing like that at all. No strange thing happened. Just a strange feeling. I couldn't understand the feeling because I looked around and EVERYTHING seemed as real as the physical. There was no difference to me at all (and I'd been lucid many times before).
So, I decided to test if this was a dream. I suppose I tested it with the same logical thinking I would have tested it if I had this feeling in the physical state, I tried telekinesis. (This doesn't bring quite as much attention to yourself as flying) I noticed the bus driver had a small bag of Chips on the dash board of the bus. So I lifted my hand toward it, and CONCENTRATED with all my might. I held my hand up there for a minute, which is a long time to look ridiculous in public. NOTHING. NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENED. But I continued to have this FEELING. So, even though I was defeated first time around, I lifted my hand again and TRIED with even more CONCENTRATION. After what seemed like forever, the bag of chips FLEW to my hand bringing with it a smile to my face. (mind you I'd never even tried telekinesis in a dream before - I just thought it would be the best way of testing). I turned around to everyone on the bus and announced that THIS IS A DREAM And I received the weirdest looks any one has ever seen.

Anyway, the point is, this FEELING was persistent with ME. That said something to me. I continued, with every exploration of the dream world, to try and remember this feeling whenever I was lucid. And I coupled that with a daily walk of lucidity. Of awareness. See, you don't just walk around during the day and say, this is a dream, am I dreaming? This is a dream. Am I dreaming? TEST life. TRY telekinesis. Really TRY. All it takes is a day or two of REALLY TRYING until you have a dream where you do it. And if you weren't lucid before, you'll definitely know you're dreaming now. No doubt about it. And believe me, this creates a snowball effect. More dreams of telekinesis means more lucidity.

SO - what did we learn?? That dreams ARE more than nonsensical imagery. Within a dream is a FEELING that BEGS you to recognize it. Imagine there is a PIE CHART for The Ways to Become Lucid. A large portion is dedicated to INTENTION. Another is REALITY CHECKS. Another is for DREAM JOURNALING. The JOURNAL of course is a precursor to this FEELING.

When you Journal down your dreams, as I'm sure you're all doing already, you write more than words down on a pad. You write the best words that describe your perception and emotion. Think about it. Without writing them down, you may forget some parts. But even if you don't forget, writing them down could bring about MORE memories. Maybe the order you wrote it, or the words you used. But the fact is, when you read over your dreams, you bring up that FEELING. When reading over a dream, IMMERSE yourself WITHIN the dream. BE in the dream again. Don't JUST read it. Relive it. Stand where you were standing. See the imagery around you. Feel the state of mind you were in when you first had the dream. Don't just say "that was cool dream, but I want to dream THIS now..... " and forget about it. Spend time with it, try to understand it if it has a meaning. Make it personal, after all you created it.

These practices will help you to better discover the FEELING of your dreams. This is a big piece of the pie.

Once you become comfortable with this feeling, other things will become apparent to you. I now realize when I lose my visuals within a dream and I 'feel' like I'm back in my body, I actually am not. Not completely at least. I am at that Mind Awake/Body Asleep stage where, at my will, I can induce the vibrations and go back into the dream state.

I hope this helps. I know its a lot, but I can't write a short post apparently.
I may add or edit this at times, so keep coming back to it. Even just as a reminder. Good luck

Socrates

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