Ascendant: Trinity Clans has joined the pile of waiting manuscripts to get polished and edited for publication bringing my list back to four again. This will give me some time to flesh out Jena’s Blood Legacy before moving onto Shadow Fall. It is a bit of a habit of mine to write the bio’s, the outline, and some basic notes before putting that away (usually to never look at them again…) and working on something that has always been fleshed out. I think me and my subconscious made an agreement long ago that this would work out best for me.
Yes, you read that right. How many people are actually in cahoots with their subconscious? Someone had to keep me company as a kid (only child, both parents worked and were divorced, usually no one around when i got up in the morning and when i got home from school). I am pretty sure i am in a good relationship with my subconscious; I don’t have bad dreams, none at least that i can remember and despite being in my early thirties, i still have a full schedule of dreams to look forward to every night.
Often the subject of dreams comes up with me in casual conversation. When I say dreams, i do not mean aspirations but literally the shows that go on in your brain during the time you lie somewhere unconscious. I blame my parents for this as both of them have asked me about my dreams when i was little and made their own comments on them. When i ask my friends and my family, most people except my children tell me one of two things “I can’t remember most of my dreams,” Or “I don’t have dreams.”
In most cases the first statement is true. Most people cannot remember their dreams. I seem to be in the minority; people who can wake up and say “Wow, I had six dreams last night. they were awesome!” It makes me sad that I can’t share my dreams with most people. I ask other people if they have dreams because if i just talked about my dreams I think the conversation would be a little one sided. That is best left for blogs!
I will probably use this blog to share some general facts about my dreams. I would like feed back especially if you have dreams too! I hope writers are in the minority of people that remember their dreams most of the time. I also have a couple of suggestions if you are an adult and want to try to remember your dreams. I don’t know how good the advice will be but it won’t hurt to try it.
I can lucid dream, i usually chose not to unless i am given a clue that i am supposed to. Usually lucid dreaming is the ability to control your dreams. This might be why I have a good rapport with my unconscious mind. I can control the dreams but I usually choose to go with the flow of the dream. This is the time for my subconscious to romp around and get some time for itself. If i barge in on its fun I am sure it will cause me nightmares. I like looking forward to the programming schedule it has for me every night so I don’t want to disrupt it.
Now there are some scenarios where i can tell that dark side i can’t quite touch or get to know as well as i like wants to see if i am paying attention. Usually this is something like me jumping off of a cliff or the ground collapsing and me plunging into an abyss (I know, i said i don’t have nightmares but things like that don’t scare me for some reason. Probably because I know i am dreaming and that is a cue to do something). Now most lucid dreamers would choose to fly when they jump off the cliff. I figured that has been tried so many times and our unconscious selves probably talk about this common trick they do to the waking people to see if they can do something. I choose a different path like making the ground below me something like twenty feet of marshmallow or fluffy pillows or something to take the edge off of the fall. I am curious to see what that would do to me; after all a common myth is if you die in your dreams you die in real life. I don’t wake up with bruises so I don’t think that we have anything to worry about.
Second fact: this one is something I usually don’t share with people (my wife and the sister i never had know about this though); I usually am a girl in my dreams… I am pretty sure some of the people out in the inter webs just did this:
Yes, I have gender problems. I have had these problems all of my life. Puberty also decided to be a little lighter to me than most males; my voice didn’t drop as much as it could have, my shoulders didn’t broaden at all, I look at all of my childhood pictures with short hair and shiver. I kept a picture badge of me from a job i worked at for years to remind myself never to cut my hair above shoulder length. My subconsciousness picked up on this and obviously did me a kindness. considering that i may never have the income to fix this problem of mine, i thank my subconsciousness for it.
I my mind’s eye I see me and my two closest female companions as this:
But the reality of it something closer to this; Yes, those two are my children:
I am sure it is a good picture because four of the five people in this picture make it good. My beautiful wife on the left, the sister i never had on the left. My kids below, the only thing i see wrong with the picture is me.
She is the sister I never had because I am an only child. I have no biological siblings. I do have a step sister that is 27 years older than me and a step brother that is eighteen years older than me. I have seen very little of them, just like I have seen very little of my other family members. That is partly by my parents design. My mother wanted to limit contact with certain members of her family which meant I hardly ever saw my aunts or uncles and my father absconded from his family due to personality conflicts. Now my father wonders why I have problems keeping in touch and gets very cross with me about it. Well when I spent my childhood mainly trying to keep myself from going nuts; friends become like family to me. I told him that once, to which he said that Niki is not my family and I just about made this face:
What do you want me to do? This was their designs. Dreams are better, IMO. I don’t know how to talk to my family, my father is one of the oddest Christians you will ever meet. Well versed in the Occult. My mother is more spiritual and christian. they are upset that I turned to Druidry. I am pretty sure that my mother would be okay with me telling her I have gender problems but I can’t be sure. I know my father would make that face above or tell me to cut my hair (maybe come after me with scissors thinking cutting off the long hair will get rid of it).
So I dream I’m a girl. I function well in society when I am awake. I free floated most of that above. Didn’t mean to get off track like that.
I usually am an active participant in my dreams. Especially the ones that become the stories. I will dream about something and I will write it out. I usually write about the dreams in a journal or something because it produces more vivid dreams. They are second only to fever dreams.
My suggestions for trying to remember dreams. This has been met with varying degrees of success. I cannot say that any of these will help someone remember their dreams but they can’t hurt and you don’t have to subscribe to a costly program to try it out either. My first suggestion is to have a notebook and pen ready to go next to your bed. When you wake up in the morning, before doing anything else, put the pen in your hand, put the pen to the paper and write something. It doesn’t have to be about the dream (especially if you can’t remember it) but let it come out. Words will come, don’t worry about them making sense or anything. Sooner or later your brain will come to understand what you are trying to do and make you write what you are feeling when you wake up (usually caused by your dreams even if you dont remember them) and eventually you will start to remember the dreams. when you do; write them down even more. it will solidify in your head that you want to recall the nightly programming schedule. It will take time, could take years, but if you really want to know what you dream about then stick with it.
Suggestion number 2: There is a meditation technique to try. Fold a sheet of paper so it will stand up in a triangle and draw a red dot on it. Sit in a chair and look at the red dot. Don’t think about anything else but the red dot. Sounds easy but it’s not. When you think of something (and while you are new to this trick it will happen in a few seconds) don’t push the thought aside. As was told to me “We all have monkey brains and we need to address and tame the monkey brain.” You need to trace the thought back to its origin and address the issue. That will keep the thought from coming back (at least for a few minutes). This is also something that will take a while to conquer. I would be surprised if people got this down pat in anything less than a month. I have ADD so it took me a LONG time to do this. When you can sit in front of the chair and let the red dot be your world for an hour without an interruption from your brain you got it. That technique will help you to order your mind and make it easier for you to process thoughts in general. keep doing it once you mastered it. I didn’t and it again took me A LONG TIME to get back into the habit.
Hopefully I didn’t scare anyone away or upset anyone. I hope to see you again soon.
