Image from The Matrix (1999).
“Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?”
- Morpheus, The Matrix
For the last few months, I’ve been getting by on much less sleep than I used to. A nap in the early evening makes all the difference. However, I’m finding that I need at least 3 hours of sleep at night, or bad things happen. Bad things like barely being able to function in the morning, or oversleeping by 4 hours.
This morning was a new experience though. After getting 2 hours of sleep the night before, I lay down yesterday at 6:40 PM to take a 20 minute power nap. When I woke up, the clock said 5:30 AM. I was drawing a blank on what the heck was going on.
After a minute I remembered that I was supposed to wake up at 7 PM, so either I slept waaaaaaaaaay too long, or the clock was wrong. As I moved closer to check the clock, I noticed something very strange. When I moved my head, the clock of course stayed in place, but the numbers on the clock moved with me. They actually came off the clock! That’s when I thought that maybe this was my first lucid dream.
Ideally I would have written about lucid dreaming before, as there’s a lot to say about it. But for now, a short explanation will suffice. A lucid dream is a dream in which you’re aware that you’re dreaming. While technically asleep, you’re fully conscious, you have more or less complete control over your dream, and everything seems as real as it does when you’re awake. And don’t bother being skeptical, because scientific experiments have verified lucid dreaming.
I’ve heard that a good way to have a lucid dream is simply to intend to have one, or even to think about it. And since we had just been discussing lucid dreaming on Catherine Lawson’s blog, I thought maybe that had done it.
The numbers on my clock didn’t look right, but maybe that was just because I was groggy. I needed a bigger sign, so I got up and started looking for a “glitch in the matrix,” an imperfection in this fantastic simulation that would prove it was just a dream. But if you can’t wake from your dream, how would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?
- Pinching yourself doesn’t work, because you can feel pain in dreams.
- First I tried to fly (not by jumping out the window, just from where I was). It didn’t work. If I could fly, then I’d know it was a dream. But not being able to fly doesn’t prove anything.
- Then I tried turning on the lights. Light switches rarely work in dreams. If they’re on, they stay on, and if they’re off, they stay off. The lights were off, and I flipped the switch. Nothing. But that didn’t mean anything, because I was just flipping the wall switch, and maybe the lamp itself was off. I tried another switch and a light came on. But that didn’t necessarily mean I wasn’t dreaming.
- Mirrors are my favorite reality check. Reflections in dreams often don’t look like they’re supposed to, and I often check mirrors when awake to make sure everything’s OK. But it looked right in this case. I was becoming more convinced that I was awake.
- Next, I tried reading things, looking away, and then reading them again. Very often, text will change in dreams. But it didn’t here. Darn. I was going to have to go to work in a couple of hours.
- Finally, I turned on my computer and starting checking email. Surely my subconscious mind wasn’t capable of emailing me or leaving comments on my blog, so I must have been awake.
All this just to find out that I had simply overslept and waken up disoriented. It was a bit disappointing, but also good practice for next time. In the meantime, I’ll have to start getting more sleep.
Hi Hunter,
Good thing you didn’t try jumping out the window.
I’ve read about lucid dreaming on Steve Pavlina’s blog. I never did understand it, but apparently it works.
I like my sleep too much to try and get by on just a few hours. They call it “beauty sleep” and I’ll take all I can get.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..If One Is Good, Two Is Better
Great story, Hunter.
It reminds me of an episode of a Batman Adventures cartoon. The Dark Knight finds himself in a dream world from which he cannot wake up, thanks to being captured and drugged by the Scarecrow. He was finally able to escape once he could prove that he was in a dream — when he tried reading books in a library, all he could see were random garbled words. His mind could not make up what it didn’t know. Something like that.
It was pretty fascinating. My wife has lucid dreams, and I mentioned the idea to her some time ago. I should ask her about it again.
Anyway, get some sleep, mister! You’re running up a high sleep “debt”, which obviously you had just repaid.
But I love sleep. That’s when the body heals.
Nez’s last blog post..Dial ?M? for Blogger
Hunter,
Please feel free to delete this comment. I’m a huge Matrix fan. And I used the Matrix in a message to prospective clients who had given me permission to stay in touch.
But first, lucid dreaming. Are you saying you slept for 10 hours 50 minutes? (6:40PM until 5:30AM?). Your reality checks seemed sound to me.
Lucid dreaming can be replicated in real-life – and why not? Why not believe you can achieve what you want and make it a waking reality?
Anyway, I live in Liverpool in the United Kingdom. Our local dish is called scouse. It’s a cheap and cheerful dish anyone can make which involves the scraps from your plate the night before or an original dish comprising a stewed combination of some meat (lamb, steak, mince or no-meat – AKA veggie scouse), potatoes, carrots etc. Chucked into a pot over a stove for an hour or two.
Paul McCartney, John Lennon etc were “scousers”. They were brought up on this culinary delight.
I can only take on clients within a 20 minute drive of our office, so please enjoy this (or not, no offence taken) as a non-salesy sharing of a Matrix-esque thing:
Hi Kerrin,
There is actually a scouse version of Keanu Reeves’ classic trilogy of films, the Matrix.
Sue, the Liverpool-based small business manager stars in the scouse version. For those who don’t know, the Matrix is a virtual world. Nearly all of Humankind is physically imprisoned in a coma. Their minds live in this virtual world. In the film, Neo (played by Keanu), is offered a red pill by Morpheus which can shake him out of his coma and join the fight against the machines.
You see computers and machines have taken over. They use mankind as biological batteries in an ironic role reversal – producing power, and necessarily comatose. To stop them waking up they create the matrix for them to live in. Their first version of the matrix is a perfect world devoid of disease, poverty and any kind of disaster
…The Scouse Version….
Sue manages a small business in Liverpool. Her nightmarish, every day existence is one of long hours. She’s so busy doing what she’s doing that she just needs everything else to be right. She wants the bank to leave her alone. Her accountant to make sure all of the tax returns are done. And her computer support company to fix problems whenever they arise.
But it doesn’t quite work out like that. She has to query the ridiculous charges she gets from his bank. Her accountant charges a small fortune and still has her filling in dozens of forms. Her computer support company takes ages to turn up and fix problems, they don’t seem to care, and do little or nothing to prevent things going wrong in the first place.
She meets Morpheus. When Sue consumes a magical bowl of scouse, she will awake in small business heaven. She devours it. Her bank waives all charges. Her accountant fills in her forms and just asks for a signature. Her IT support company fixes all problems within 2 hours, cares deeply about her business, and does their utmost to prevent problems happening in the first place.
Fancy a bowl of scouse?
[549 word sales pitch deleted, even though very few of us are within 20 minutes of Ian's office - Hunter]
Ian Denny’s last blog post..You Are The Best – So Why Don’t New Clients Beat Down Your Door?
@ Barbara, I first read about it on Steve Pavlina’s blog too, and I also read a book about it. I think you probably have to experience it to really understand it.
@ Nez, I wish I could see that Batman episode! But maybe it was just a fake library, like on a movie set–they kept their budget low by using fake books!
I guess that if you suspect it’s a dream, you’ll be able to prove it within a shadow of a doubt if you really make an effort. Our minds are good, but they’re not good enough to replicate everything perfectly. But I heard of someone who realized he was dreaming, and said this to the dream characters, but they tried to convince him he wasn’t dreaming!
@ Ian, wow that was a long comment! Yes, I slept for 10 hours 50 minutes, a bit longer than the 20 minutes I had intended. I enjoyed your Matrix story, but I had to delete the part at the end, as it got too off topic. But I hope you’ll continue to use the Matrix to win new clients!
No problem with the deletion – I wasn’t pitching – just couldn’t resist the timing – you’d wrote about the matrix, and I had the same day…
Ian Denny’s last blog post..You Are The Best – So Why Don’t New Clients Beat Down Your Door?
Your reality check sounds more like a bad dream itself . . . “I did oversleep? Really? I have to go to work in a few hours?”
There is nothing wrong about lucid dreaming, I guess, but I still don’t get why anyone wants to do it — except just to amuse oneself
Don’t we have enough entertainment?
Further, there are some souls whose dreams are not about themselves. . . they do volunteer work, so to say, for others during their sleep while they are in the astrals. So analyzing their dreams do little for themselves. Just to let you know.
Akemi – Yes to Mes last blog post..Gratitude Friday, Week 6, Gratitude And 10 Things That Make Me Happy
@ Akemi, I think for a lot of people, a lucid dream is their first sure connection to something beyond the ordinary. Someone who wants to be a skeptic can doubt psychics and so forth, but lucid dreaming has been accepted by scientists, so they don’t have any reason to doubt it no matter how skeptical they are in general. And since they can experience it while fully conscious, they can be completely convinced of it, as opposed to thinking that they might have just imagined it. Maybe it loses its novelty after a while, but I’m sure the first time is such a rush!
That’s interesting about the “volunteer work” aspect of dreams. That must make dream analysis very difficult, if you’re not sure who you’re dreaming for!
i stummbled across your site in search of another that im with.
lucid dreams, what are they. dreams are said to be answers to questions that we dont know how to answer yet.
is it possible that the lucid dreams are a gateway, portal into a reality that we cant explain. a reality in are minds. “what would happen if you were unable to wake from the dream. how would you know the difference between the real world and dream world.
is it possible that by doing these extra ordinary things within are dreams, flying, die’n, even waking from a dream into another dream is our mind trying to wake up sort of speaking….trying to awaken from something,
is it the powers of the lucid dream that is the key to realse. only time will tell.
Way to go, keep it up.
You want to Lucid Dream… trust me. A deeper infinitely more creative, knowledgeable part of yourself emerges and some of the new dream associates you’ll meet are VERY good company to keep. I’ve heard time and time again that many geniuses, I believe even Einstein reported solving problems and generating breakthrough, life-changing inventions in their dreams.
(“Don’t we have enough entertainment?”) I disagree… our current entertainment IS the problem.
If you’re not part of the Matrix, the posed question (“Don’t we have enough entertainment?”) does not come across as a question that you serioulsly need to ask yourself. It comes across as part of the Matixs control program, in other words… – OBEY! Don’t go there.. don’t change, don’t look for it!
Here’s the proof… =)
!)@(#*&$^%|\]{-}$^£OBEY!£¤¤¦¨$^´¯;”?/>Don’t%|go there..«°²´¯;”?/>$%|\]{-}ʓȱǯ;”?/>>,,$^%|\]{-};”?/>>,$^don’t change`¤¤¦¨$$^%;”?/>$don’t look for it!ʃʥʂʓȱ&$^%|\]{-}$^£OBEY!
You see, I didn’t start to Lucid D. until I stopped watching TV. Now after 5 years of not watching TV, and only reading books, I have more than 20 Lucid Dreams per month. The realization came about a month ago, when I was trying hard to figure out how, over the course of a few years I went from no Lucid Dreams to an abundance of them. Then while at a friend’s gathering I walked into a room where they were watching an action movie. That’s when it struck me that, the movie they were watching was someone else’s dream that Hollywood put together and released to the general public. And they (my friends) were all stuck – by choice, into watching and experiencing someone else’s dream, that they couldn’t break out of, unless they changed the show or channel. Unlike in Lucid Dreaming where if something unwanted happens you can simply change the dream scene or experience with your mind, (“FREE YOUR MIND” – Morpheus). That’s when I had that kind of inner knowing that, I had my answer!… People are conditioned “out of” Lucid Dreaming because of television and the movies they subject themselves to, in which the “control” of the experience is taken away and they are forced to go from point A to point B. (The beginning of the movie to the end) without personal interaction. People don’t believe or feel that they have any control now when they find themselves in a dream because the nature of watching our current real-life technology/movies conditions us and doesn’t allow for interactive scene/plot/cast, or whatever changes that you CAN affect when you’re Lucid. Dreaming for most people is just an extension of their waking lifes, i.e. working the assembly line, cleaning your house, doing volunteer work, whatever… The realization never occurs to them that they are dreaming, they get stuck in their dreams (not knowing the awesome power they have to control and create their own reality) doing boring routings and experiencing the burdens of their waking lives, never realizing that they can, also, like Neo at the end of one of his movies put his arms in the air and take off soaring into the sky, consciously awake in the power of the universes consiousness and playground – The UN-Matrix.
Keep trying!!!
Hi Hunter,
I forgot to share about my experience of lucid dreaming, so here it is:
A while ago this summer, after reading so much how so many people want to experience lucid dreaming, I said to myself, “Okay. I’ll give it a shot. What the heck.” That day, I pushed the wall several times asking myself, “Am I dreaming?” as I read somewhere this is a handy way to train for lucid dream.
That very night, I found myself still pushing the wall with my little hand, and this time the wall gave way. So I knew I was lucid. (Beginner’s luck, I guess) I was talking with a very intimidating man. I put my mind on the stuff he was holding (pen or something) and in my mind wiggled a bit. The pen started wiggle in his hand, which scared him a big time
That was fun! Telekinesis seems to come really handy in lucid dreams.
So I finally (yeah, finally) watched The Matrix. Everyone in the movie looks so serious! I guess there is a difference between lucid dreams and this computer game Matrix. Because, if it’s lucid dream, all you have to do when you don’t like what’s happening is 1) change the scenario, like me using telekinesis power against the big guy 2) decide to wake up.
What do you think?
Akemi
@ Akemi, wow, you make it sound so easy. I haven’t had a lucid dream yet, though I always check my reflection in mirrors to see if it’s how it should be. I’ll try pushing walls too.
Glad you finally watched The Matrix. I guess they’re serious because the human race is nearly extinct – must be a lot of pressure.
The reason they can’t really change scenarios in the matrix is because it’s not their program – the machines wrote it. But in a lucid dream, you’re the programmer. And they can’t wake up without a phone call on a land line, for plot reasons. No fair if they could avoid bad guys just by waking up!
I think it was easy because I thought it was easy. After that, I tried to do it again, and I couldn’t. Or maybe I don’t go lucid because it really doesn’t matter to me.
I heard checking the mirror can be very scary in dreams, so I don’t do it. I think all it takes is to program myself to notice when I’m dreaming and teach myself a few clues (like wall testing. I also taught myself if I see my parents or my ex, that’s a dream)
May I ask another stupid question about that movie? Are Morpheus and Trinity from the future world or are they also from the 20th century world who took red pill? Because if they are from the future world, there is no way they die in the Matrix. Just like Neo cannot die there. It’s a computer program, so if they die there, all it happens is, in their real world, they go, “Gosh, I lost!” The only way they would die is when their real bodies get killed.
Perhaps they think they would die in the Matrix because of another plot need?
Btw I am completely against the idea that instant gratification and violence can improve anything. But the movie was interesting nonetheless.
@ Akemi, Morpheus and Trinity are from the 20th century, and they took the red pill, same as Neo.
The thing about the matrix is that while it’s not real, your mind makes it real. So when someone gets hurt in the program, their body bleeds in the real world. And if they die in the matrix, they die in real life, because the body cannot exist without the mind.
Cypher kills some people by unplugging them, thereby separating their mind from their body. Mouse dies when he’s shot in the matrix, because on some level he believes it’s real. It meets a plot need, but I think it makes sense too.
I don’t think they’re very much into instant gratification, just the occasional woman in a red dress. I’m sure the novelty of the matrix wears off after a while. And in the sequel, they learn that their violence was not as effective as they thought.
the matrix is nothing more than electrical impulses controling are minds through a computer generated dream world/state.
“if you are kill in the matrix. you die here as well.”
“the mind cant live without the body”
perfect example of this is in the movie mouse dies after being shot. But while neo survives. This is becasue he awoke twice. but most of all he risked everything (ie love)
is it then possible that if we are willing to risk everything in order to release oneself from our mental prison that the truth would be revealed to us.
@ Neo1, another thing is that the Oracle told Neo he wasn’t the one, that he looked like he was waiting for another life. Then after he “died,” he knew he was the one.
this is true, but his life was a pardoxical one, really when you think about it, neo’s life was a dream within a dream within a dream. it was only through the power of anothers love did he truely awaken, not only to become the one, but to see the truth (The Matrix for what it really is). where as trinity, morpheus and the others on really awoke from one from of prison to another THE MATRIX to ZION.
so really if this is the case, love is the key to this whole thing. the merovingian said the love has a similar pattern to that of insanity. and i think it firstly takes a crazy person to believe in dream world reality. but when you are in love, and i truly mean in love your eyes are opened to so many diffferent things.
So who gave morpheus the red pill?
I don’t think it matters who wrote the Matrix program. If you don’t like a program, and if you know the computer language, you can just change the codes. Hackers do that. There may be a legal issue on ownership of the intellectual property, but not a technical issue.
No one is sure who free’d morpheus from the matrix.
as for hacking the matrix the only person to do that is the One himself.
“If you don’t like a program, and if you know the computer language, you can just change the codes. – quote from Akemi” that would be great but this is were the whole igronance is bliss comes into play. for most people living there lives day after day, with thier creature comforts, the world to them is real, they have no reason to change anything. but it is that 1% that do question there world, so really in a sence there are hacking the matrix. not through code, but through a question and disbelieve mind.
Neo1,
I respectfully disagree. We all can rewrite the program of the universal computer, and it’s not even difficult. At least it’s easier than HTML codes for me.
I have a few posts about this, and I’m leaving the link to one of them (my latest) because I think Hunter loves this, too.
http://yes-to-me.com/2009/11/17/review-the-spontaneous-healing-of-belief-by-gregg-braden/
Being suspicious does no good. I’ve tried that to my computer. I also admit I have hit my computer, which only damaged it.
Smiles,
Akemi
Im sorry Akemi is hould have been more specific in saying that neo was the only one who could hack the matrix. morpheus, trinity and everyone else that where on the ship of zion. But they could only do small things. But because neo was in a sense the code from the matrix he was able to do the thing that he did.
I had a look at the link that you posted, but i have to this time disagree with you. what he describes is what morpheus and the other can do with the matrix, small things. but the matrix is much bigger. in fact the word matrix means simulation. read the books simulacra and simulation, and out of control.
igronace is bliss, if it was that easy to hack the universal code (ie the matrix) then i would be free from my mental prison. and i said a disbelieve mind not a suspicious mind theres a differents i have a disbelief mind, where i doubt certain things.
as always
Neo1