Lucid dreaming, to me, seems a function of being unable to wake up, yet having some direction inside your dreams. This makes it worse, not better. We compensate for the lack of external movement with internal stimulation. But don't we get enough of life while we're awake not to have to suffer through more while we're asleep?
My psychologist was the one who looked at me in just that way during a therapy session. Except for that total failure to comprehend, she's been a very good practical cognitive theorist and personal organizer.
The closest I have come to a solution is a claim from Zen Buddhism that the trained mind can rest in meditation to order its thoughts, then sleep only as needed in peaceful, dreamless sleep to further restore the body. Experienced monks can sit in mediation to process the day, then sleep without dreams. In that paradigm, dreams are a symptom of mental disturbance: the more you have and the more you cling, the more troubled you are.
Of course, getting to that ability is right up there with becoming a trained Jedi Master, as far as I'm concerned.
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Re: Dreams, Immensity
Date: 2008-01-06 08:30 pm (UTC)My psychologist was the one who looked at me in just that way during a therapy session. Except for that total failure to comprehend, she's been a very good practical cognitive theorist and personal organizer.
The closest I have come to a solution is a claim from Zen Buddhism that the trained mind can rest in meditation to order its thoughts, then sleep only as needed in peaceful, dreamless sleep to further restore the body. Experienced monks can sit in mediation to process the day, then sleep without dreams. In that paradigm, dreams are a symptom of mental disturbance: the more you have and the more you cling, the more troubled you are.
Of course, getting to that ability is right up there with becoming a trained Jedi Master, as far as I'm concerned.