more on lucid dreaming and lucid awakening

a couple of weeks ago, i had a lucid dream in which i looked at my hands, looked away, and looked back at them. they had changed, so i knew i was lucid dreaming. i enjoyed knowing i was dreaming and looking around at my dream environment.

one of the things i wondered after having that dream was how "solid" things are in the dream world. if you can look, look away, look again, and see things differently, what does that mean? does it mean nothing is solid in the dream world?

earlier this week, i had another lucid dream. i didn't have to look at my hands. i was aware that i was in a place from my childhood, with a person who hadn't even been born then, and therefore i was dreaming.

in the dream, i tested my hypothesis. we were walking past a painted wooden structure. i touched the painted wood. it felt solid.

i saw a place where the paint was chipped away, and i began scraping more paint from that area with my fingernail. the bare wood felt solid, and i felt paint under my fingernail.

we walked on. i noticed even the air seemed alive with energy.

somehow, awareness that one is dreaming seems to make everything more vivid and vibrant. this can transfer to waking life!

since then, i have had several unexpected moments of seeing differently. today i walked to the clay pit for lunch. crossing lavaca, i glanced at the street's asphalt, and it was as if i had never really seen pavement before. it's a matrix of individual pieces of gravel embedded in tarry black stuff! it has a pattern and texture.

walking on 16th, i saw a feather on the sidewalk, just an ordinary gray pigeon feather. it seemed to have something extra to it, as if it had extra dimensions. it "jumped" at me energetically.

and so it goes... will report more when i have more to report!