By Lucy Gillis © 2013

A brief selection of lucid dreams from my dream journals in which dream figures and I do not perceive the same things in the same way. In the first dream, children, a friend, and I can see ‘Sasquatch-like‘ beings emerging from another reality, whereas adults can not; in the second, a dream figure can‘t see what I see unless I am touching him; in the third, I infer that a dream figure is able to distinguish between presence and projection, where I can not; in the fourth, I travel through probable realities, unseen, until ‘something goes wrong‘; in the fifth, I wonder if my dream is someone else‘s reality; in the sixth, I am beside the bed of a probable version of myself who can sense my presence, but can‘t see me. In the last, I meet a couple and we discuss who is real, me or them.

 

Sasquatch-like Beings Emerging from Another Reality

 

I‘m standing with a friend next to a camper van. There are some children inside, playing on bunk beds. I become aware that I can see some Sasquatch-like creatures from another reality, as I see a furry arm here, a furry leg there, as they seemingly emerge from ‘no-where‘ into the van.

 

My friend, the children, and I can see them easily. Some of the younger kids are excited – these creatures look like big Teddy Bears – some are scared, not knowing what is happening. There are adults nearby, but they don‘t seem to notice anything unusual. Somehow I know that if they were right here with us, next to, or inside the van, that they would still not be able to perceive the Sasquatch-like creatures at all.

 

I wonder if the creatures are aware of us, if they are purposely attempting to emerge into our spacetime, or if our realities are simply overlapping, and some of us are able to perceive both. I wake before learning anything more.

 

Houses on the Hill

 

It is night time. I‘m standing outside in the backyard with my uncle. We are looking up at his place on the hill. I‘m aware that I dream. I can see several houses in a row beside his. I know they are not there in my present waking reality. I make some comment about them, possibly existing in the future. My uncle can‘t see them.

 

I‘m surprised, as they are as plain as day. I look at him and watch as he stares up the hill, searching for the houses I‘ve just mentioned. With one hand, I touch his arm, with the other I point at the houses.

 

Instantly, and with surprise, he says he can see them. But when I take my hand off his arm, he can‘t – to him, they disappear. For me, they have not changed, they have remained. I touch his arm again, and again he can see them.

 

I‘m amused and intrigued by this odd phenomenon of his only being able to see the houses if I am touching him. I soon wake.

 

 

“He Isn’t Here”

 

At some point during a rather long lucid dream, I‘m asking questions of two male dream figures. One older gentleman seems to be more ‘present‘ than the others, and responds to my questions. I ask something regarding symbols or phrases that may be limiting to me in my waking life.

 

He responds with, ‘When you say, ‘Shut your face,‘ it implies blindness.’ I understand that he is talking about several levels of interpretation: blindness to my own faults/limitations, and a refusal to see others as they really are, or to not see them at all; it also implies shutting myself off from certain experiences, etc.

 

Aware of my awareness that I‘m dreaming, I then ask, ‘How do you know that I know I‘m dreaming? How can you tell (that I‘m lucid)?’ The older gentleman responds with something (that was unfortunately forgotten upon waking).

 

Pointing first to myself, then to the dream figure, I ask, ‘What is the difference between me and him?’ Smiling, the older gentleman nods his head toward the other man and says, ‘He‘s not here.’

 

His response startles me and I‘m left wondering if he‘s pulling my leg, or if there is some defining characteristic about me and/or the other dream figure that he is able to perceive, but I can not.

 

I wake, feeling I‘ve just stumbled on something very interesting, and I wonder about the characteristics of projections and awareness in dream states regarding perception.

 

Moving (Almost) Unseen Through Other Realities

 

I‘m with a group of people, maybe a dozen or more. We travel to other realities and times. (We are wearing tan-brown outfits that would appear to be some kind of uniform (with small backpacks); but they do not have a ‘military‘ feel to them.) A male ‘leader‘ stands near me. We are all standing in two or three rows.

 

He (and maybe all of us?) raises his arms from the elbows, pauses just a second, then bends them back down as though he‘s folded something over. Instantly we are in another reality, but though we are all in the same positions relative to each other, in this reality we are lying face-down on the ground.

 

All around us, people walk past, like on a busy street or public area, like a courtyard. Very near my head I see a blocky, white, high heeled shoe as some female strolls past. The people in this reality are unable to see us. Then we do a similar movement (similar to the elbow thing, but (I assume as I write this) we must pass our elbows ‘through’ the ‘solid’ ground below us – obviously it is not solid to us). I recall we needed to do this 3 times.

 

But it seems that something has gone wrong – the people of this reality, startled, can now all see us. Some stop and watch, a bit shocked, as we get up off the ground quickly. The leader tells us we will have to split up. (This requirement to split up is ‘indicated‘ because the people ‘here’ can see us.) As two smaller groups now, we go off in different directions. Luckily, though the people can see us, they don‘t approach us or chase/ follow us when we move apart. (There is a blurring here, can‘t recall detail. Then I find myself in a place that looks like my old university where I see a younger version of myself……etc.)

 

Is My Dream Your Reality?

 

I am on roller blades or ice skates, skating through an upper level of a dim and cluttered building. The building is very large, like a warehouse. In one area there are many people, and the atmosphere is like that of a smoky, noisy bar. I keep checking clocks and asking people for the correct time. I can’t get straight answers. Vaguely I wonder if I could be dreaming, but I continue for a while in a more non-lucid attitude.

 

Then, skating through the cluttered rooms, I see so many odd things that I finally let it sink in that I am dreaming. I know that I knew I was dreaming before, but I wouldn’t let it sink in then. How odd!

 

“We’re dreaming!” I say. I want the others to realize it too. A train is about to go through the building. People leave the area, because it is going to be very noisy. They don’t think I’ll be able to bear it. I stubbornly stay and clap my hands over my ears. I continue to skate around while the train screams through on a level below me – I can see it through cracks and openings in the floor boards as I skate from room to room.

 

It is very loud and does hurt my ears a bit, but I do it! I skate triumphantly around once the train has gone, and when I don’t hear applause for my endeavour, I skate back into the bar room until I do. (Ego looking for acknowledgement!)

 

Near the bar I talk with a young woman. We don’t like each other very much. We debate whether my dream is her reality or vise versa. I ask her, “Is my dream and your reality the same thing? I hope not! Would that imply that your dream and my reality are the same?!” I want to wake myself to write this phrase down. She wants me to write it there. I tell her it won’t be there (in my waking reality) for me when I awaken. I know I need to wake to write this down, but I walk around looking for a pencil, lucidity obviously slipping. I wake at this point.

 

 

A Probable Self Senses My Presence

 

A little black dog has gotten loose and I‘ve been chasing it about a dingy neighbourhood. Suddenly I find myself up on a ledge or ridge of some sort, and when I look straight down, I can’t believe how high up I am, and so close to the edge! Slowly and carefully I back away. I am so frightened by the height, afraid I‘ll fall. At that point I begin to question whether I could be dreaming. . . .

 

I decide to fly for a reality test, the ultimate test. When I do so, I feel a strange sensation in my legs that I sometimes notice when I move to fly in a dream; like there’s water running down them.

 

The scene changes, and I fly into a room where I can see my sleeping body on a bed. I just hover above “her/me,” I don’t want to frighten “her/me,” but at the same time I want to let “her/me” know that I am there.

 

I come around to the other side of her/my body and sit on a pillow that is on the floor by the bed. ‘She‘ wakes and I notice that as ‘she‘ sits up ‘she‘ immediately looks towards me, but obviously can’t see me, as ‘she‘ has a kind of quizzical look on ‘her‘ face, and seems to look right through me. I know that she has sensed my presence, and is startled, even a bit nervous, wondering what‘s happening.

 

I don‘t want to frighten her/me, so I start barking like the little dog from the first part of the dream – hoping that she/me will hear it and assume she is still dreaming and the presence she feels is just a lingering ‘feeling‘ of the harmless little black dog, from ‘her‘ dream.

 

Then I feel a shift and I wake, flat on my back. I do not wake in the body that I had just been looking at, nor did I expect to. (Though it was “me” I saw in the dream, I felt it was a different version of me, not the same me who is writing this.)

 

So Who’s Dream is This, Anyway?

 

I‘m outdoors at the foot of some very wide stairs that lead up to a large, old government or academic building. I am thinking of Sue Watkins’ book Dreaming Myself Dreaming a Town. It is at this point that I realize I‘m dreaming!

 

. . I repeatedly sing out loud that I’m dreaming, using several different phrases. I find a middle aged couple, and for some reason, I want to take them flying with me. They seem eager to join me. We are outside a structure, a building of sorts, near a cliff edge. I run up and down the edge of the cliff. I want them to get used to the idea of flying, and somehow I think this helps.

 

There is glistening dark blue water far below. It is remarkably enticing, and I think about running off the cliff and plunging head long into the water. It would be such a rush! But instead, I run then fly out over the water, mildly surprised that I haven’t fallen into the water due to my deep wish to dive in.

 

I turn and hover over the water so the couple can see me. I tell them I‘m going to do a somersault. As I do so, I close my eyes. I then feel that I am waking. I pause in midair a little disappointed.

 

One of the couple calls out and asks me what’s wrong. I still feel that I may be waking. (I remember being in a grey space for a moment.) I want to stay in the dream or at least get back into it if I wake, so I imagine talking to the couple and almost instantly I am back on the cliff walking up to them.

 

I apologize to them, saying that I‘m waking up, and that soon I will disappear. We then get into a discussion of who is real; me or them. I tell them they are dream characters (therefore ‘not real‘ in my waking sense of the word) in my dream. Then I say something like “But maybe I am not real, maybe I will disappear from here and you are real,’ (in this reality).

 

I embrace and hold them to me briefly and say, “Well you’re breathing,” as though that could be a sign that they‘re real. We are all happy and smiling, but each of us thinks the other is a dream character.

 

Then I feel I‘m back in bed. I keep my eyes closed to see if I can slip back into (lucid) dreaming. I do so very quickly, into a new scene....