Photo by Ryan Brohm via Iowa State Daily

Blake Dyer, also known as Sun Dyer, is a musician, entrepreneur, lucid dreamer, World Awakening Activist, and YouTube comedian who enjoys exploring lucid dreams and the unconscious.

 

When did you first learn about lucid dreaming? Can you recall your first lucid dream/s? What prompted your lucid dream awareness?

I first became aware of lucid dreaming after watching the film Waking Life where the main character has repeated false awakenings and has/observes several philosophical conversations regarding the perceptions of our reality and the implications of lucid dreaming.

 

I started lucid dreaming within days of seeing this film. I was in a living room with some friends when I realized that I was dreaming. I said, “Sooo, this is a dream. How about we all just get up and fly out of the window?” I flew up and almost immediately lost control and spiralled back towards the ground. I was lost back into the unaware dream shortly after. But the damage had been done—I was hooked.

 

Do you remember any of those pivotal early lucid dreams that inspired you? What happened?

One of my first lucid dreams:

I was sitting in the pizza place where I worked during high school, talking with one of my co-workers. I became lucid and said to him, “Wow, this is a dream; we’re dreaming! This is incredible!” He confirmed to me that we were dreaming and we had a whole conversation about it.

 

I was so excited when I woke up. I couldn’t wait to find him and talk about our experience. When I found him, he didn’t remember a thing. I was dumbfounded. The experience was so real. I knew that I had been speaking to him. So even though he had confirmed, within the dream, that we were dreaming, he didn’t remember upon awakening. Was he conscious in the dream and then forgot upon awakening? Was I speaking with his subconscious? Or was he a subconscious aspect of myself? It was so real, I couldn’t help believing that I was speaking to some aspect of him, rather than my own subconscious.

 

What was it about those early lucid dreams that propelled you deeper into lucid dreaming?

The magic and creative beauty that I experienced. I had always had fantastical dreams that left me in awe and wonder of this seemingly limitless realm. But having the ability to navigate and manipulate that realm at will was just too much (in a good way). I’ve always been a very visual and imaginative person. It was like being able to step into my own imagination, then taste, touch, smell, hear, and experience it. Lucid dreaming took it to another level, expanded my idea of reality and what was possible in expanding the limits of this world.

 

In one lucid dream I found myself designing a machine, a device to help people learn how to juggle. If you can think of the space where someone juggles, it’s an oval shape taller than your upper body and about the width of your arms stretched out. The machine was a technicolored belt continuously circling around this space. Within the space the belt circled, the machine slowed down time. So you could experience throwing and catching the balls in a slowed-down time reality while observing it in real time. This helped improve muscle memorization more quickly because you could actively watch where the balls would fall and place your hands there with less mistakes.

 

How cool is that!? I’m sure the implications of such a design might be more useful to society outside of juggling, but it was like stepping into my own imagination. Other than my learning to juggle for the previous six months in waking life, I don’t know where that idea came from. I doubt I would have come up with such an idea outside the dream realm.

 

At that time, what induction techniques did you rely upon to become lucid?

Some of the techniques that I learned through the film Waking Life, including flipping light switches, checking clocks, reading text, looking away then trying to read it again, and counting fingers on my hands. All techniques worked on and off but I like the technique of my hands the best, because they’re always there. And after so many times, it doesn’t take much to realize that I’m dreaming.

 

What real world lessons or life-altering realizations have you experienced as the result of lucid dreaming?

I always used to say, “I am a bad teacher.” I’m not sure where I picked up this belief but undoubtedly it came from a poor self concept and the belief that I was never good enough. Around five years ago, whenever I became lucid I would begin teaching other dream characters about how to wake up in the dream. I would go through the list of techniques I knew to tell whether you were dreaming or not. After so many times of me telling this story in waking life and saying, “I was teaching them,” I realized that I was indeed a teacher. I realized how limiting a belief saying “I’m not a good teacher” was, and that I was missing out on sharing something that I loved to do and even taking the next step to mastering a craft.

 

It also made me realize that everyone is a teacher and saying that you are a bad teacher essentially is saying that you aren’t good at anything. Which is completely untrue for any living soul. Everyone is good at something (or better than someone else at something) and therefore a teacher.

 

Then, I had a life-altering dream: I was in a grocery store when I woke within the dream. I gathered a group of about three dreamers and began teaching them about how to wake up and recognize they were in a dream. Two women wearing owl masks were listening in on the conversation from the outside. I became suspicious of them listening in and said, “Hi there. If you’re so interested, why don’t you join us—or you can get the %#^& out of here.” (This was a time in my life where I was beginning to step more into my own power).

 

One of the women said in a startled manner, “Woah, and THIS is who you’ve decided to Wake Up!?” Then the two women turned into owls and flew through the back of a solid wall. I followed to see where they went but upon coming to the solid wall I turned back into the dream. I heard a deep voice from seemingly everywhere state, “Look Deeper.”

 

Upon looking deeper, I saw there were some gaps in the wall and, between those gaps, a couple of handles. I grabbed the handles which opened a square door into blackness. There were some metallic pinchers receding into the blackness that resembled the bottom of a millipede. I thought to myself, “This is awesome! Should I go tell those other dream characters?” The voice then returned and said, “The fall is more graceful for some than it is for others.” I took that as a sign to go alone.

 

I let the metallic pinchers carry me into the blackness. I could feel them on my face and all over my body and it was surprisingly gentle. I was carried down to a platform that seemed to be floating in the middle of space. As I entered, I could see two large old men. It was just their heads, with large noses, on elongated necks, and they seemed to be made of gold. They were extremely grumpy.

 

I knew this was a test and I knew I had been there before. I said in a jovial tone, “You guys, great to see you again,” with a big smile on my face. In a surly manner, one of them said, “I wouldn’t be so happy to see the person that failed ME last time.”

 

Continuing in my jovial manner I replied, “Oh, the past, the past.” They proceeded to ask me a series of questions that related to the true value of the workshops we host in waking life. The answers came in the form of three keys, two large golden ones and a smaller key. I immediately knew the answer was how people are healed and had nothing to do with money.

 

I grabbed the smaller key almost before they were finished talking and opened a small doorway. I went through and found myself walking on a smaller version of our world. I was walking with a friend and holding an iron. I remembered at this moment having wanted to do something powerful in the dream world. I looked up at the moon and decided that I would turn it into a high-powered magnet.