This Morning . . .

I woke up and sloughed off to the bathroom to take a pee. I had my pee and then I looked at my face in the mirror. I have been growing a new beard for two weeks now and I noticed that it was much longer than I thought it should be. It was rather wirey and maybe a half an inch long. Also I noticed that there were two huge streaks of skin running through it - where it had been shaved clean. I felt the smooth parts of my face and suddenly thought, this isn’t right at all, something is wrong. I wonder if I am dreaming. So I quickly did a “state check”, glancing down at my watch to see if the numbers were solid or ’swimming’ like in the move, ‘Waking Life’. Sure enough, they were very blury. “I’m dreaming,” I thought, with a sense of exhileration.

“Chris?!” someone called my name. I tried to answer, ‘Yes?’ but my mouth was sealed shut and as I strained to answer the bathroom faded and my bedroom rushed in. I did a quick ’state check’ and sure enough, I was awake. The sense of exhileration remained, however, a real rush of energy in my body.

Now what is always interesting about these types of dreams is how ‘real’ they seem. That’s why doing a state check is so helpful. If the numbers are swimming then you are dreaming - but that might be your only indication, especially in such a mundane dream as this one seemed to be.

In order for state checks to work, you must check them periodically when you are awake. Do a check anytime something seems ‘odd’ in waking, like a feeling of dejavu, or witnessing a near car accident, or an odd color to the sky - anything like that. A state check can involve looking at some text - carry around a little message with you - something like “Are you dreaming?”. Chances are, if you are dreaming, that these letters will not hold their form. Or you can do like I do and wear a digital watch. In the dream state the time will not hold. Check three times. Each time you look at it the chances of it changing will increase.

Also it is helpful to make note of dream signs. You can keep a journal if it is hard for you to remember your dreams but take note of ‘odd’ occurrences in the dream, like your beard being too long. Teeth falling out is another one. Being in your underwear at school - and on and on. Then state to yourself that if any of these things are happening it means that you are dreaming. Really dwell on that.

My challenge now seems to be keeping the lucid state longer. I always seem to get very excited and blow myself right back into being awake now. I have only had a couple of lucid dreams that were prolonged.

For more information on lucid dreaming, check out the Lucidity Institute.