dreaming life: exploring the mind through lucid dreaming

Interesting quote from Richard Bach

June 17, 2008 on 3:32 pm | In Book Reviews |

In discussing a new found ability to rememeber his dreams after writing them down, Richard Bach, author of Illusions and Jonathan Livingston Seagull, writes in A Gift of Wings:

It wasn’t much later that I noticed that my days were dreams themselves, and just as deeply forgotten. When I couldn’t remember what happened last Wednesday, or even last Saturday, I began keeping a journal of days as well as of nights, and for a long time I was afraid I had forgotten most of my life.”

We all know how easily our dreams slip away from us, but what about the memories of our waking lives?

The specifics of our days blend together and so easily become forgotten, just like a passing dream.

This observation frightens me.

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Ben,

So glad to see that Dreaming Life is back in action! I have often been kidded about my bad memory but I like to point out to others the ephemeral nature of our memory. How much of your life do you really remember? Pick any age. How many memories can you cull from that year?

I sometimes practice a pre-sleep technique in which you review your day. Images and feelings stand out - not necessarily in logical or temporal order - and the day itself seems to be a dream.

Comment by Chad — June 19, 2008 #
Hey Chad!

Thanks. Good to see you’re still around. With so many long hulls without posts, I was worried
maybe I lost everyone who used to visit me.

“How much of your life do you really remember? ”

I think we don’t really remember much of our lives, and I’m guessing that’s what you’re getting at. Our memories become like little self indulgent fantasies, strengthened and slightly changed every time we recall them. Very odd to think about.

I’ve read about this pre-sleep technique you speak of. In fact, I think it may have been on the Reality Shifter blog in which Kris wrote about this. If memory serves me correct (how ironic!), it was described as a technique used in order to “mentally process” the day so to speak, in order to free up the mind for more engaging & interesting dreams to have that night. Does this happen to you when do this before going to sleep? i.e. you find your dreams do not recycle so much of what happened during your recent day.

Comment by Ben — June 21, 2008 #
Ben,

You hit the nail on the head. The pre-sleep technique of reviewing your day has just that effect (clearing your mind for more interesting dreams). This technique is great for ‘clearing the field’ and setting up a night of lucid dreaming.

Comment by Chad — June 25, 2008 #
Hi Ben,
I’m very glad to see the Dreaming Life site is active again. It seems like all the dream-related blogs went quiet for a few months and have only recently become active again. Maybe we’ve all been dreaming for a while and finally woke up.

You’re right, I’m the one who posted an article about doing a mental review of your day at bedtime to free up your mind for dreaming. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Using that technique definitely clears up a lot of the clutter I would typically encounter in my dreams. I seem to have much more interesting and meaningful dreams on the nights I take the time to do a quick mental review. It’s one of those nice techniques that takes hardly any time at all (usually only a minute or two) but causes very noticeable effects right away.

Kris

Comment by Kris — July 29, 2008 #