completely non-lucid dreaming

dream
My visual interpretation of the below.

I was at a New Year’s Eve party somewhere in New York. The party was inhabited by not-friendly strangers. I was in a hurry to leave — I needed to stop at my friends’ house before I caught my flight, which was later in the morning.

As I drove, I kept trying to determine what time it really was — every watch, car clock, phone clock all had a different time and I couldn’t figure out what was Eastern Standard Time. Was I just late, or was I really late?

I sped along the long, low freeways of New York City, passing over not one, but two Brooklyn Bridges. I felt in over my head (as frantic driving dreams on mythical highways cause me to feel.) It was then when I broke down, the car coming to a shuddering stop at the side of the road. I made a call, presumably to AAA, and proceeded to wait for help.

I tried not to be scared. I tried not to trip out about missing my friends and my flight. I tried.. well, to piece together how exactly I came to be driving my own car (the crappy station wagon I really drive) in New York.

Huh, I thought to myself. That’s a puzzler. Maybe I am dreaming.

I leaned against the car, looking out over the water. Okay, so if I’m dreaming, how do I know?

I looked around from the city to the water to my car to the sky. It all seemed real enough. I felt disappointed at this news, since now that it was real, I was going to have to pay to fix my car, and figure out how I was going to fly back to California and get my car back there. This was not a good plan.

When I woke up, and felt the familiar flood of recognition and relief, I made a little pact with myself to create an in-dream “How Can I Tell If I’m Dreaming?” diagnostic test. Any ideas?

7 Comments

  1. Tristy on January 30, 2011 at 7:10 pm

    There are lots of tricks to “get lucid” in dreams. And you can practice in waking life! I learned my trick when I was looking in a mirror in a dream and looked into my own eyes and realized I was dreaming. Now, whenever I see a mirror (in dreams or waking life), I look into my eyes and ask myself, “am I dreaming?” It used to feel silly, but I’ve been doing it for so long now, I don’t even think about it. At this point, I just need to see a mirror in my dream and the lucidity kicks in. Other folks carry some kind of talisman around in their pocket (a rock, a button, whatever) and when they feel it in their pockets, they ask “am I dreaming?” In the dream, the talisman has often changed in some way, signifying the dream state. Other people do it by looking at the clock (because clocks get so crazy messed up in dreams [as your dream illustrates!]). Crazy clock = dreaming. Just like with everything else, you’ll find the technique that works for you! Have fun, Miss Lady!

  2. Carol on January 31, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    So funny, I was having a dream discussion with a 15 year old son of a friend a few weeks ago. He told me that he if he thinks he might be dreaming he requests a Jedi Sword. He told me that he had a dream and he thought “hey this is a dream, I want a jedi sword” but he didn’t get one. I loved that he asked for it in his dream.
    I have had that “how do I get my car back home” dream as well. I have no diagnostic test, I just go with the flow and hope all the people in the restaurant with no teeth staring at me and eating worms are, in fact, in my dream.

  3. hambox on January 31, 2011 at 6:46 pm

    Tristy: thankyou thankyou thankyou! I (almost) can’t wait to get trapped in another dream!

    Carol: Perhaps my talisman should be a Jedi Sword. And, yeah, what’s with those toothless wormeaters, anyway??

  4. Han on February 1, 2011 at 7:41 am

    I have random dreams – the worse are the ones that I have to convince myself aren’t real when I wake up. I had one a while back, my OH was doing climbing stuff at an activity centre he works for but he was going to be climbing some of it unattached to the wall. Well in my dream, I was at work and got the call to say that he’d fallen and really injured himself. Well I’m in a state and I wake up and his side of the bed is empty. Well that was horrible because I was convinced my dream had actually happened so I wake up and I ring my OH in a proper state to find out if he’s okay and where he is.

    On the other hand I just have some weird ones that are so surreal or unlikely to happen that I know it was a dream and not real. Me and some friends have got an audition for a team quiz show here in the UK. I had a dream we got to the recording and two of our team don’t show. Well we’re having a panic and decide to play as just three of us rather than a normal team of 5. We sit down and get ready and are joined by Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry of all people and then rather than getting all starstruck or anything we just go ahead and play as normal – then I wake up lol. Random or what?!

  5. Han on February 1, 2011 at 7:43 am

    Please ignore my really bad spelling that plagued my previous comment lol.

  6. Carol on February 1, 2011 at 12:36 pm

    Wow, so was Hugh Laurie smart?

  7. hambox on February 1, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    Good question, Carol!

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