Mirror Imaging – Outside the Mirror

(April 1993)

I am in what seems to be my childhood bedroom. I know I’m dreaming because I see furniture there that does not belong. Q is sitting on the bed. There is a huge mirror on the wall behind me and a rough, incomplete door frame nailed to another wall. Excitedly I point to the odd doorframe, and say, “This isn’t supposed to be here, though I recognize it!”

 

There is another woman in the room with us. I tell Q that this woman is a dream figure – even though I know Q is a dream figure too. The woman does not look like me. Without knowing why, I begin to will her to look like me, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Her hair is too straight and a little shorter than mine. (In this dream my hair is much darker than usual and is permed, though I don’t recognize this as being out of the ordinary.)

 

She is also too short; she comes up only to my chest. I will her taller, as I pull up on her shoulders until she is my height. I notice her face is still not like mine; she has a thinner nose and a pointier chin. I have to keep looking at myself in the huge mirror in order to remember what I look like so I can better visualize her looking like me.

 

At some point, she and I loosely embrace and dance around in a circle. I am hoping that the slow spinning will somehow make her look more like me . . .

Morphing Mirror Multiplies

(April 1993, from same dream as above)

. . . I’m still lucid when I remember the mirror experiment I wanted to do. I go to a full length mirror that hangs on a door. I kneel in front of it and look at my reflection. My hair is on wrong! It looks like a bad wig, on crooked. The hair style is messy and different from real life. The colour seems to be correct though. I push the hair on my head trying to make the image-hair move too. It doesn’t work.

 

Next I put my hand to my face. I note that my hand and face is chubbier than in waking reality. I peer at my image. It seems OK now except for the chubbiness.

 

Then I start to have problems with the mirror. Its surface gets dark and I no longer see an image in it. In the next instant the mirror is smaller and is on my lap. Then, it changes again, and there are multiple layers of different coloured ‘mirrors’ (or some kind of coloured reflective surface), and thin, different coloured papers (with writing on them) separating each mirror. I’m reminded of thin layers of carbon paper, back before photocopiers were in use.

 

I lift off alternating layers of paper and mirror: a blue paper, then a blue mirror, a black paper then a black mirror, etc. I see a silver paper not far down in the series of paper/mirrors and know that a ‘real’ mirror will be just under it. The entire scene soon blurs and changes, and I’m dreaming nonlucidly again . .

Perpendicular to Infinity

(June 1993)

. . . I start to get up to write out my dream when I look across the room at a beige couch and a sandy -coloured carpet. I say to myself, ‘This isn’t right. I’m still dreaming.’

 

I get up and walk through the house. At the end of a hallway is a large rectangular mirror hanging on a wall. In front of the mirror is a vase of pretty flowers on a polished dark wooden table. I feel the impulse to fly through the mirror, so I run at it and launch myself into the air.

 

As I easily fly through the mirror, another identical mirror scene appears. I fly through that too. Each time I fly through a mirror I am met with more and more identical wall/mirror/table/flower scenes. This goes on for some time, and I wonder if the series of mirror scenes is infinite.

 

Not content with flying through endless mirrors, I stop and change direction, flying perpendicular to my previous flight path. This takes me into another room, . . .

Multiplicity Triggers Lucidity

(June 1995)

(Much activity and confusion in this long dream – many things chaotic and constantly changing.) . . . I’m in a moving car with X and Y. We are all in the back seat, no one is in front. I ask Y, “Who is driving?” He and X then both squeeze into the front seat. . . . I look behind me and it seems as though there is a long and narrow room stretched out behind us, yet it’s still part of the vehicle. It is cluttered with furniture, books, and other odds and ends, and is dimly lit.

 

Among the clutter, I see a full-length mirror and a man’s reflection in it, though the man is not in this room/vehicle. He wears a dull reddish shirt. I then see multiple reflections within multiple reflections of this man in the mirror. It makes me think of parallel realities and infinite probabilities.

 

Looking to the right of the mirror I see another man with his back to me standing at a sink. He has straight shoulder-length grey hair and is wearing a long black coat. I think he’s washing his hands. He turns his head slightly to me and I observe a faint knowing smile on his handsome face.

 

In my confusion I’ve forgotten that X and Y moved to the ‘front seat’ earlier and I think that this man by the mirror is up front driving. But if so, he’d be in two places at once (or two selves?). If he’s driving, how can he be here too?

 

Just as I’m pondering this, I notice a door to the right of the man. I can see (through windows, and through glass in the door) that just outside of it is a line of people waiting to get in. But we’re moving! How can the people be standing outside the door, while we’re moving? Then I get it. It must be a dream! It’s the only explanation.

 

Now X is beside me, and I turn to her and say, “It’s a dream! We’re dreaming!” She understands and smiles, which surprises me a little, as most dream figures don’t seem to believe me when I tell them we’re in a dream . . .

Multiple Mirrors, Multiple Me’s

(December 1995)

An awesome night of dreaming – three lucids! plus several false awakenings, and then:

 

. . . I go upstairs but my bedroom door is different, made of very old wood. I open it, suspecting that I’m dreaming. When it opens to another, and another, and another, and yet another identical door, I KNOW I’m dreaming.

 

Instead of opening more multiple doors, I decide to fly down the hallway to explore another room. Easily gliding down the corridor, I make a sharp right turn into a huge room, like a ballroom, empty but for large, floor-to-ceiling mirrors covering all of the walls.

 

I land in the middle of the room, and turn a full circle, looking at my image reflected in all of the mirrors. Excited by the symbolism of probable (parallel) selves, I call out, ‘Probable Me’s!’ in the hope that the reflected images will ‘come alive’ within their mirrors, and then step out into the room with me.

 

Almost instantly there is a lot of movement and activity in each of the mirrors, then the flat, twodimensional images of myself begin to transform, becoming three-dimensional as they step out of their mirrors to join me in the ballroom.

 

The women are in constant motion, moving throughout the room, talking and laughing, some gathering in small groups, some in pairs, some preferring to be on their own. Though many of the women are identical to me, some look slightly different, and some no longer look like me at all. Even their clothing has changed since they came into the room.

 

I’m curious to see a ‘me’ who is the most opposite of who and what I am. Immediately, I think to try to find a “pregnant me” as that would be the most opposite to me, since from early childhood I knew I would never want to have children. Soon I see a very pregnant woman with dark curly black ringlets (nothing like my hair colour or style) wearing a large dark coat. As she walks past I study her face, and though I detect a very slight resemblance, she looks perhaps more like a distant relative, than another self.

 

All the women are still moving about; there is faint music playing, as though this is indeed a ballroom or dance hall. Then I see some people (me’s) together in a large group and immediately what comes to mind, is the idea of groups of me’s coming together in a symbolic gesture of the intent to learn from and support each other, through shared abilities, strengths, wisdom, healing, etc., to join our best resources for the benefit of us all. I want more and more groups to form, to take part in this playful ‘pooling’ or ‘integration’ of our best attributes.

 

As if they can read my mind, a group of about 7 or 8 me’s with their arms entwined around each other in a big group hug, sort of dance or glide towards me. They spin in a large slow circle, as they get closer to me. I feel I’d like to get ‘absorbed’ or swept up into the group, but they make no move to pull me in. Somehow I know that I am welcome to join them if I want, but it must be me who makes the move – they will not simply scoop me up, or pull me into their group embrace. The choice must be mine.

 

However, just as I decide I’d like to join them, I begin to feel my bed under me, and my conscious awareness shifts to the physical. Since I’d had several false awakenings between lucids this night, I remain still a moment, to see if I am really awake or not, or if can I get back to the dream. Unfortunately, this time, I’m too awake to slip back into the dream.

 

As seen in the sidebar, besides the mirrors and reflections of course, other common objects are doors and hallways (i.e. ‘long narrow room’).

 

Multiplicity/series is a common feature as well, in mirrors (mirror/paper, mirror/table/flowers scenes), reflections, doors, selves, as well as the ‘line of people.’

 

Spatial configuration is also an interesting aspect, though I’m unaware of the specific significance. Rooms/doors being perpendicular to hallways, mirrors, or series of scenes, in two cases me moving ‘in sharp right turns,’ or perpendicular to my original direction.

 

Other selves are implied by the men (Multiplicity Triggers Lucidity); the one in the mirror and his reflections, and the man by the mirror and the possibility of his other self at the front of the room/ vehicle. There is also my attempt to make the dream woman ‘look like me,’ which implies creating another self, from the first dream, and of course the multiple other selves in the last dream. Even the thought of carbon paper and photocopiers ends to the concept of other selves, when they are views as ‘copies’ of myself.

 

Naturally, there are many ways to perceive and interpret the symbolism in these dreams. Since we live in a linear time based reality, I’ll begin with that perspective, describing the progression as seen in the dreams in their chronological order.

 

In the first dream, my interest in interacting with multiple realities/selves is perhaps indicated by my poor attempts to will a dream figure to look like me. On some level was I (unconsciously) trying to create the experience of interacting with another self? I couldn’t even remember what I looked like, and had to refer to a mirror to check my image. Oddly, I found it neither strange nor frightening that I couldn’t remember what I looked like.

 

And another odd thing – the ‘rough, incomplete door’ that I recognized. From where did I recognize it? And why did the recognition cause a feeling of excitement? Could the doorframe’s appearance, ‘rough and incomplete’ represent my level of ‘ability’ at that time to connect with probable selves?

 

Without giving it any thought, I embrace the dream figure, and we move in a slow spinning circle, and for some reason I seem to think that this will help, that by spinning together she will somehow ‘blend’ with me in a way that will make her look like me, (or become another me?)

 

Or was it some forerunner of the larger dream experience to come, in which groups of me’s are embracing and spinning, while I hope that this symbolizes the pooling (or blending) of our abilities and talents, etc.?

 

In the same dream, with another mirror, I’m still trying to create an image identical to me, but this time with my reflection, and not with another person outside of the mirror. I’m not successful. Soon the mirror itself changes, becoming a series of mirrors (with coloured reflective surfaces) separated by thin paper.

 

Am I using mirrors as symbols of multiple realities? Do the thin papers represent membranes between universes? (And does ‘membrane’ imply brane cosmology, associated with some multiverse theories⁴ )? Does the thought of carbon paper/photocopiers refer back to my attempt to make the woman look like me, or in other words, make a copy of myself?

 

In the next dream, lucid, I’m entirely alone, and I don’t even note my reflection when I see a mirror at the end of a hallway. I take flight, and this time, I enter the mirror, soon realizing that I’m flying through a series of mirror scenes, each identical to the last. Was I finally learning to travel through multiple realities, my conscious mind translating the event to appear as a series of mirrors?

 

Then, to break this endless pattern, I fly off at a right angle (perpendicular) and find myself in another room. Was this a forerunner of the future dream in which, after meeting with multiple doors, I flew down a long hallway, then took a sharp right into the ballroom?

 

Lucidity comes later in the dream after that. Again, my desire for interaction with probable selves is evident in the symbolism of the multiple reflections of the man in the mirror. Because of the ‘faint knowing smile’ of the other man, the one by the mirror, I get the impression that he is a friend or guide who may have been helping me with my ‘dream education.’

 

Certainly the idea of him being in two places (or being two selves) contributed to my becoming lucid; then seeing a line of people (in series) at a door (located perpendicular to the mirror) somehow helped confirmed it. (Also, I have to wonder if X and Y were helping me in some way as well, as it seemed odd to me that Y would smile, and understand when I told her we were in a dream. It’s as if she knew that all along, and it was me who was the last to know!)

 

Finally, in the last dream where I attain my desire, imagery similar to that of the previous dreams are evident: the multiple or series of doors, my change of direction (perpendicular to the doors) down the hallway, the large room (perpendicular to the hallway), with walls lined with mirrors, each reflecting my image, and the other selves embracing, and spinning in a slow circle.

 

(You could also say that the images of the embracing selves in circular motion, ‘circles back’ to the first dream where I embraced the woman and we turned in a slow circle.)

 

From the first dream to the last, it would appear that I was on some kind of learning curve, as I attempted to reach my goal, each dream contributing something that carried over to future dreams. But that conclusion comes with viewing things in a linear manner.

 

It is believed by many scientists and philosophers alike that essentially all time simultaneous and that we think that events come one after the other because of the way our consciousness is focussed. In other words linear time is an illusion, a trick of perspective, not unlike some grand illusions performed by magicians with craftily placed mirrors.

 

With that in mind, the perception/interpretation of events changes. Viewed from a larger perspective, where time does not apply at all, all the events (dreams) are simultaneous. From that point of view then, the dreams can appear as variations or aspects of one larger event, simply viewed from different perspectives. You could select any one and call it the core event, and ‘see’ how the others relate to it.

 

In other words, if the ‘Multiple Mirrors, Multiple Me’s’ dream is chosen as the ‘core’ event, then the other dreams, like facets on a mirrorball, display a version or fragment of the larger event. For that matter, Richard’s photo could be taken as the ‘core’ event, making all the dreams appear to be inspired by that image. Or, perhaps this article can be seen as the ‘core’ event, and the photo and dreams are reflections inspired by these words. You get the idea.

 

However, since most of us are experiencing life in a linear fashion, it makes it easy for me to conclude, (from a certain point of view), that on a learning curve through lucid dreaming, I fulfilled a strong desire, in meeting and interacted with probable selves, with conscious awareness in my dream state.

 

And it was all done with mirrors.