Living In A Lucid Dream
September 12, 2024 at 05:06PMExperiencing a lucid dream for the first time, after a long night of insomnia, sparked curiosity for writer Claire L. Evans. For Noēma, she surveys modern dream science and learns what luminaries have had to say of experiencing a wakeful altered reality before learning a mindfulness method to open the door to lucid dreaming for herself.
But our dream bodies are only loose sketches of the real thing. When I’m awake, my hands have ink stains and nagging splinters. I have 10 fingers, and the signet ring I wear on my right hand reads “JB,” my husband’s initials. The first time I thought to examine my hands in a dream, though, they looked like a bouquet of wilting fingers. The signet ring was etched with unreadable glyphs. It’s difficult to put into words the feeling this gave me. One of the key attributes of dreams is that they feel real in the moment. When I looked at my hands and saw the mutant flippers of a Midjourney hallucination, I felt the walls drop. My whole body flushed. Nothing was real here — least of all me.
In my own lucid dreams, a ripe, summer stone-fruit from the market explodes with flavor. The sensation of someone licking my belly feels wet. Pain and pleasure unfold in their phenomenal fullness. But this is always the case. The sea and sky always shine with their glamorous beauty. The world is detailed and rich. How often do I really taste a peach? How often do I take the time to examine the paving stones? Of course it’s trippy to examine my own hands: I never do it. I rarely look at anything so closely.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/09/12/living-in-a-lucid-dream/
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