From an early age I remember lying in bed right before I'd drift off, entering dreamland while telling myself ongoing stories. Sometimes I'd succeed to do the same in reverse in the morning, but this was more difficult as I've always been by nature an early riser and, especially as a child, I seemed to awaken and spring into action (while the rest of my family still dozed, my kid brother, Seth, in the bunk bed below me).
One's attitude about dreaming has a profound effect not only on one's dreams, but also on the way dreams feel either real or just a passing mist. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, "I don't dream." I just don't believe that. Storytelling, both awake and asleep, is what makes us human. Long before recorded history, we've been telling stories. We've also always loved hearing stories. A well-told tale is invigorating, comforting, transporting and even healing. They help us understand and they imbue us with courage and hope.
So it was with an openminded, pleasant sense of anticipation that I began to learn about lucid dreaming. And the more I learned and experimented, the more I recognized how much the feeling of being lucid in waking hours resembled the "holding everything through letting everything go" place that takes me into a lucid dream.
For me lucid means clear and light and calm and loose and curious and gentle. The definition of a lucid dream that I find in the dictionary seems to focus on the awareness that one is dreaming while in a dream. That makes sense to me, but is a kind of bare bones, even impoverished description of lucid dreaming. If it is I who am aware of my being in a dream state, this is the broadest, most openhanded version of me that I can imagine. Lucid, I experience my sleep story from multiple points of view all at once. Yes, Big I can direct the dream story, yet at the same time not feeling any particular need to steer. A sense of wonder. And humor. And amazement. This state is familiar to me from my potent and valuable experiences with psychedelics.
In the realm of human consciousness, journeys begin with a choice to travel, an intent or sometimes just a hope that such adventures will present themselves. Please give this a try. At the end of an evening when you are ready for bed, (preferably not on a night that you're emotionally drained or physically exhausted or at all inebriated) as you relax into the bedding, say to yourself, "I'd love to dream tonight. I want to melt into a dream and even carry some back with me as I awaken. Yes, that's what I'll do!"
That's to get started. Once you experience the gentle carrying into the day some dream segments or feelings, do some writing at your dawn. Feeling at one with one's dreams, owning your dreamweaver identity is the first step toward bringing your cosmic consciousness into your dream life. To me it is similar to the feeling you may experience after 20 minutes of sitting in meditation. You get up and go about your business, yet the peace and spaciousness needn't be left behind, but continues to surround you like an ethereal cloak.
If you feel like sharing your dreams and your progress with another, make sure you choose the right person at the appropriate-feeling moment to do your sharing. For contemplation is an openhanded, openhearted gesture. Realizing that one is the fabric of one's dreams is, I tell you, extraordinarily liberating.