For me, engaging the larger awareness on many occasions has made me feel completely confident in its existence and larger sense of awareness. This has also led me to have some unusual intuitions, where I ‘know’ or feel that I receive information about some situation, and then later this gets confirmed as being accurate.

Have you noticed an increase in intuitions or accurate hunches?

I wouldn’t necessarily say my intuition has increased. However, I find it much easier to decipher the dream insight while lucid, as my dreaming self seems to better understand the symbology than my waking self. Usually, my waking self is clueless! But when I’m lucid, I seem to intuitively know what’s going on or engage the awareness to ask about the things I don’t understand. In these types of situations, I tend to wake up and immediately know the answer. I’ve come to trust what I receive, as the awareness has always been spot on.

In fact, just a few months ago, the larger awareness helped me solve a big problem at work. We built a set of prototypes of a new valved device. For some reason, one of the valves would not seal. We checked all of the parts. They looked fine. We cleaned it out thoroughly. It still leaked. After much troubleshooting, we took a lunch break with no idea what else it could be. I was at my wit’s end.

At lunch, I usually take a short nap. This time, I decided to ask for a dream to show me what’s causing the mystery leak. Hey, I got nothing to lose, right?

How to Remove the Furry Mouse

I’m sitting alone, facing an orange, stucco wall. There’s a little 6 inch x 6 inch recessed window covered by a small, yellow curtain. There’s something behind the curtain, moving it around. Hmm, that’s odd. There shouldn’t be anything in here. I guess this must be a dream. (Fully Lucid) I see it’s a furry brown mouse as he pokes his head under the curtain. Ohhh, a mouse is in my (valve) flow stream! I get up and approach the window while asking the Awareness, “How do I get rid of the mouse?” I then see the mouse and curtain are gone. A grey/black striped cat has climbed onto the window ledge. He has his left paw up with his claws out.

I awoke knowing there was something foreign stuck in the passageway. We took apart the valve and looked down the main hole. We still didn’t see anything. I then removed parts at the other end and shined a light down the outlet hole. At the transition, I could just make out a “hair” of a burr from when the passage was drilled. We found it! I took it back to the machine shop to see if they could cut the burr out. Unfortunately, the hole was deep, and we could only get at it with the original, long drill bit. The bit was dull (original cause of the burr), so we ended up cutting up the passage, creating a “furry” field of burrs. I concluded the drill bit must have been my “cat’s claws.” Thanks to the dream, we found out we needed to replace drill bits quick! 

A lot of people use lucid dreaming to simply have fun. How do you see lucid dreaming as encouraging personal growth? Any lucid dream examples?

I see the lucid dreamscape as a personal place where we can explore who we really are. We are free to experiment with anything we please, limited only by our imagination. The real growth happens when we purposely translate what we learn to our waking lives. By applying my dream lessons to waking reality, I find I’m becoming a confident, calmer, more empathetic person. Am I a better person now because of it? I guess you’ll have to ask my wife. 

Looking back through my life, I see a progression in dealing with lucid dream monsters that parallels my reaction to waking reality antagonism. As a small child and teen, I would run away. In my 20’s and early 30’s, while learning to manage my bouts of depression, I would get lucid, turn, and fight the monsters. Now in my 40’s, once lucid, I turn and have a discussion with them. I even give them a hug if given the opportunity. Here’s what happened the first time I tried to give a monster a hug.

Lucid Devilish Confrontation
… I open my eyes and I’m now sitting at the end of a table with the party guests. The tall, skinny, creepy woman that was formerly my father is sitting in the corner at another table. Okay, let’s think about this. I’m wondering if my father represents God. God is love, meaning putting other’s needs first. The opposite would be selfishness, putting your needs first. Father/Creepy Woman responded to my question by asking me to give her something, rather than offering something. So, she must be the opposite of God. Ah-ha!

I look at her and say, “She is Satan.” The people all look at me surprised. I now see another Dream Goal opportunity, to embrace my enemy. I walk over to her and give her a big hug. As we embrace, I whisper in her ear, “God loves you. God loves us both.” I repeat it. We’re both overcome with joy! We kiss, then hug again. I repeat saying, “God loves us.” We both start crying. It’s wonderful! An old woman who looks like Betty White, wearing all white, steps in to join us. I open up and we group hug. I’m joyfully crying.

Finally, how do you see lucid dreaming as encouraging spiritual growth? Is it the deeper connection with your larger awareness, or something more?

Ah, the million dollar question! For me, it’s huge. I’m convinced it’s a direct access to the Divine. No special training needed. No need to starve yourself in a cave or memorize formal rituals, mantras, and so on. You just need a sincere desire to develop a relationship with the awareness and explore your connection to it all. The awareness is more than happy to work with us. I suspect it’s even pleased we are seeking it to begin with. Granted, it does test me (a lot!). But that’s where the growth happens. When I fail, I get upset with myself. The awareness just laughs, which reminds me it’s all ok. We’ll get it right next time. Or the time after. We have plenty of time.