Are Lucid Dreams All About Controlling Your Dreams?

In many web pages and articles, the terms "lucid dreams" and "dream control" are synonymous.  But they really shouldn't be.  Yes, some dreamers report being able to significantly alter events in their lucid dreams just through wishing the dream to change, but this does not always happen.  Nor should it. 

What?

You read that right.  Controlling your dreams should not be the end-all and be-all of your lucid dream experiences.  First off, you my not be able to alter any events in your lucid dreams.  If you're like me, then the ability to change anything in a lucid dream comes and goes.  Instead of spending the remainder of the dream being frustrated by what you can't do, just try to enjoy what you can do within the boundaries of each particular dream.

Each dream is similar to a science fiction or fantasy novel in that each dream has its own rules and logic.  It'll make sense in that dream but may not make sense in another dream and definitely won't make a bit of sense in the waking world.  For example, you may dream that people use bald eagles in order to tell the time.  Each home has one or more bald eagles hanging from the walls.  The bald eagle screams out the time or marks time using its wings as arms.  Don't try to figure it out -- just note it and move on with the rest of the dream.

Exercises For the Waking World

In my twenties, I was able to control a large portion of my lucid dreams.  I could change the backgrounds, temperature, weather, characters and just about anything else.  I could change a dull dream about working at a Kmart (which mirrored my real life job) and change it so I was in charge of a pleasure palace for Peter Gabriel.  Considering how terrible my real life was (two college degrees and the best job I could find was graveyard shift at a Kmart) all I wanted to do was dream!

Unfortunately, I had insomnia.  Any dream, let alone a lucid one, was a tantalizingly rare experience.  So I started taking over the counter sleeping pills in order to get to sleep.  What I needed to do was get another job and some professional help for my major depression.  It was just so much easier to take the pills.  This is bad for your health and not receommended.

Just a Little Control

Now, I sleep better but can rarely control any aspect of my lucid dreams -- except for the fact that I know I was dreaming.  There is a lot about real life that I can't control such as

• natural disasters
• sudden accidents
• who the real Peter Gabriel  would fall in love with (just about every woman in the world except me)

Anyway, in my lucid dreams now I keep on going according to how the dream began.  I may ask a dream character like Dream Peter Gabriel if I should try to change something, but the answer I usually get is "no."  But sometimes I get a yes -- or, I feel mischievous and decide to change one little aspect of the dream.  Last night I dreamt I was a college student again and passed a huge malfunctioning fountain.  I thought hard of what it would be like if a woman made entirely of water rose from the fountain.  And that's what happened.  It really startled everyone else in the dream, except me.

So, I can't control a lot about real life.  Not trying to control every aspect of a lucid dream helps me rehearse how to go with the unpredictable flow of real life.

Image of fountain at Villa d Este from Wikimedia Commons.