Freedom - or - Dream Control
Dreamer: Jesse, late teens, North American female
I was walking down a street that was unfamiliar to me. A very beautiful neighborhood, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. I began to walk down the road and came to a small intersection. There were no cars in the road. This place almost seemed to be a ghost town. Next, I looked up and I noticed there were people. A lady passed right by me like she did not even notice me. She was dressed old fashioned, like the 1930's. I remember her bonnet. She was pushing a baby buggy. I looked down at my clothes and I noticed that I was dressed normally, a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I noticed a couple sitting at a little deli-restaurant. They were sitting outside on the patio enjoying lunch. I sat down next to them at the table. I got very excited because they could not see me. This is when I realized that I was dreaming. I figured that I could do anything that I wanted and not have to deal with any consequences. That is when I picked up the couple's wine bottle and smashed it up against the old building. No one looked at me.
I started running down the street screaming and yelling out of pure excitement. I have always heard about people who knew they were dreaming and could control it and I was actually doing it. I could not change my location, only my actions.
Mr. Hagen's Reply:
This is what's called a "lucid dream." You have made the realization that you are free in your dreams, with none of the consequences that result in everyday waking reality. No one will look at you or punish you for your deeds. Therefore you feel free, and this is the point of your dream.
In everyday reality, the way that you are perceived in others' eyes reinforces your conformity. If you went running down the street screaming in waking reality, people would think you had lost your mind. That is why you don't do it. You are afraid, as most of us are, of what other people would think. So you conform to the "look" of socially constructed reality in everyday life. The film "The Matrix" deals with the issues of the social construction of reality and our conformity to it. There are other aspects to your dream that would require some personal associations.
For more on lucid dreaming read Stephen LaBerge's "Lucid Dreaming."
Hope these thoughts are of help and provide some insight,
Mark H.