Charting Dreams

Encouraged by these initial forays into dream experimentation, I tackled what became one of the most extraordinary observations of my dream life. Have you ever found yourself in a dream armed with your own full awareness that it was a dream, and the ability to interact with the dream? I set about finding out what was different about me or other circumstances at the times of these dreams.

The first step was to attempt dreamlogs; keeping pencil and paper by my bedside so that I could record my very waking thoughts, with a view to being able to recall and analyse dreams later. I have heard of other experimenters having great success with this: it didn't work for me!

My initial dreamlogs were completely indecipherable and contained frankly schizoid doodles decorating weird, lifeless landscapes. For several months I entertained the theory I had seen somewhere that the dreaming brain is a madman, safely locked away during the day but temporarily free when the conscious mind drops its vigil.

Breakthrough

All this changed one night when I had a new kind of vivid dream; I had encountered a knotty programming problem during the day, and left with it unresolved. I had taken a computer memory dump - several pages of numbers in unpatterned rows and columns which can often be used as a reference model of the state of a computer when a program blew up.

During a dream (about three hours into my usual six-hour sleep) I found myself in a well-lit room poring over this selfsame memory dump. Suddenly I found the answer - which required looking at certain specific parts of this listing. I woke up with this answer in my short-term memory and recorded the page number and two hexadecimal memory addresses on the top page of my dreamlog.

The next day I tore off that first page and stuffed it into my pocket. Later, in front of the actual memory dump listing on my desk at the office, I was able to confirm that the answer (which I had totally forgotten) could be reconstructed by checking the recorded page number and addresses - which were absolutely correct!

The implication of this is that either my dream mind is awake and recording during the day, or that my dream mind has detailed access to my conscious mind. Either way, it means that my memory is eidetic (photographic) although I had never before suspected it! I am able to store at least several pages of meaningless-looking numbers, as yet unanalysed by me, in a memory that can then use this in the same way we use a reference book!

New Techniques

Almost immediately after this revelation - just a few nights later - I explored a brand new phenomenon. I discovered that if I moved my eyes rapidly from one side to the other while having a conscious dream, I could both extend the perceived length of the dream and enhance its realism (or at least my ability to interact with the dream).

With a little practice I found that I could simulate this eye movement simply by spinning - a neat pirouette that I couldn't possibly accomplish in the waking world. More recently I have found that my dream eyes don't have to move; I keep them focused, and then snap my head 360 degrees on completion of one turn of my dream body (the elasticity of my neck is apparently great enough). One turn takes about a quarter of a (perceived) second, and I can do it tirelessly.

I know this sounds weird, but I welcome other experimenters to try it when they next find themselves in a conscious dream. After incorporating these fast spins into my dreams I found that dreamlogs became much more readable - and the seemingly morbid images changed to vivid reminders - not of the dream itself, but of associations. Moreover I found that I was mind-mapping in a primitive way during those few half-awake moments when I finished a dream.

Modifying Dreams

By the way, I also find that with practice I can explore and modify my dreams; first I note that I can even launch a conscious dream now - or turn an ordinary dream into a vivid dream. My one problem at the moment is the consistent belief of my dream self that there is a way to bring physical objects from a dream into reality: in a dream I am constantly annoyed that I have a cultivated resolve to bring back only knowledge, not goods! Secondly I note that my dreams are always in colour and always three-dimensional.

There is apparently no sound at all - or at least I translate sound into a different sense. On occasion I have even conversed with my wife (who is awake, and patently amused at the phenomenon) but when I awake with full memory of the dream, both my words and hers are transformed into something else - often a book or a detailed picture. I have never noticed any regret at the absence of sound.

On one occasion my wife played Brahms' First Symphony while I slept; I didn't remember hearing anything, but experienced a dream of riding on a train in a marshalling yard. If you listen to the first movement with that in mind, you (like I) may find this a logical translation.

It is difficult to be objective when you are the guinea pig in your own experiments: I am interested to know if my results are repeatable, or too highly personal. I find it interesting that in my conscious dreams I am invariably naked, but unashamed. Telling myself nobody will notice seems to assuage fear.

More recently I have noticed that when I intentionally turn a dream into a conscious dream, my dream clothes (if ever they were there) disappear. Nevertheless I have not had libidinous conscious dreams: nudity seems to be unconnected with sex.

I can also confirm that I have dreams about people I know - but they often have completely different faces; sometimes changes are subtle - eye colours, or the face mirrored (that slight mark on the left side of a known face is now on the right side). I have never had any memory of a third person dream: I have always been at least an active observer. However, I am able at will to make myself unnoticed by those around me so that I am effectively just an observer.

Time in my conscious dreams is different in funny ways: cause and effect are less precise, and the flow of time is somewhat erratic. I cannot recall any gaps in time, or flashbacks. Thought-processes (including delving into my memory) seem to function exactly as in the waking world.

Experiments to come

Are there are other morpheonauts out there? What are the results of your own explorations? Please let us know.

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