Threatening Encounters in Lucid Dreams

 One very strong association that I have with frightening lucid dreaming is a story written by Franz Kafka called the Metamorphosis. Gregor Samsa awakes after having strange dreams and finds himself transformed into a big, repulsive bug-like being. It takes a while for Gregor and for the reader to recognise that he’s not having a lucid dream, that odd as it seems, he will not suddenly wake up and be human again. I have had lucid dreams like this, caught in some Kafkaesque environment, bizarre humans with bizarre rules, and I try to find a way to get back home, or elsewhere. I wonder how much control we can have in lucid dreams, because not everything is controllable. I know I am dreaming, and I have the capability to detach myself and take the view of an observer to evaluate the situation, then go back into the ’dream-me’, what I decided to do does not create the story I would have anticipated. Can we practice the way we interfere with our dreams? Can we initiate lucid dreaming? I have the habit of setting my alarm early and press the snooze function multiple times before I get up. In between I often have lucid dreams. Whenever the alarm rings I wake up, leave the dream and dive back in into the same dream-scene. Such dreams are a major source of inspiration for me. I just love that surreal feeling they leave on me, with just enough control to keep my head up, but not enough to unravel the mystery of the ending.

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