hi sashamasha ! excellent post !!
Wish I had some answers to your questions....but I'm sorry, I can't really help. I take it that you didn't recognise any familiar landmarks ?
Are you capable of returning to the same dream, by e.g. intending it, whilst you are clearing the swirls ?
Looking forward to more of your posts !
Mark
Hi, Mark, thanks for replying! And I was just wondering whether I should have waited a day after the experience before posting such a long thing.
The swirls only happen in the projecting dreams. I've gotten progressively better at clearing them, and they are visual as well as aural-- like a windy psychadelic filter over everything. But I stay in the same place, it doesn't involve travel, it's just like adjusting the lense, kinda.
But as for returning to the same dream, in ludic dreams, yes. As long as I am not emotionally or physically exhausted (in waking), then I can usually return and bring back the same physical location and people, events, etc. But I am more likely to want to see something new. I've lately been toying with the idea of using lucid dreams to practice my musical performances or auditions, especially since I've been kind of stressed about that lately and tend to dream about it a lot anyway. I haven't quite gotten the hang of this yet, so far I wind up performing pieces I don't actually work on, or dancing. I'm practicing getting myself to do the actual pieces I do in real life!
I was just replying to someone on another thread about how the thing that confused me about this particular experience was that it had elements of both projections and lucid dreams. Like lucid dreams, I could move freely, and I didn't remember getting there or exiting my body. But like projections, I was invited or encouraged to exit (I just dont remember the actual exit itself), and I don't recall leaving my apartment... plus the swirls and the fact that I was wide awake, as opposed to more sleepy dreamy like in lucid dreams.
But since beginning to reply to you here, I've remembered that in fact I HAVE been in that house before, and I HAVE met that woman before. She helped me practice clearing the swirls, maybe a few years ago. Which makes me think even more that I was projected to a safe house or training thing or something for travellers. Too bad I haven't kept a journal of these things over the years.
Please pardon the cross-post... I think this might be the slightly more approriate story of my morning's experience. 5 karma points off my score for incorrect posting, thanks for your patience with this newbie. Please keep in mind that I haven't done a lot of research, just lots of experimenting on my own, so I don't know the right words for a lot of this stuff yet. Anyway. Here's what I wrote earlier (and when I figure out how to delete off the other board, I will do just that) :
Hi, everyone... what a relief to see a community like this!
I've always, since early childhood, had experiences with lucid dreaming; flying, changing scenery, changing people and their actions, etc. I've always just explored and experimented these on my own. Also some strange nightmares that, looking back, I think were just a variety of undercooked lucid dreaming or travel of some sort.
Anyway, lately, I've gotten stronger, and more in control of these dreams. BUT I've also, in the past couple years, experienced a new kind of "dream:" mostly, they begin in my apartment, during a nap or after I've dozed off in the morning after waking up too early, etc. I can "get up" and explore my apartment, usually first there is this CRAZY color thing going on, all the surroundings are swirly and over saturated, very very flourescent... I now can clear this up pretty quickly by will, and get to moving around, usually limited to my actual apartment (or, when I first started, neutral industrial-type environments), and go through things, and see (the one in my apartment, who I assume is my house ghost of many years, though maybe not, somewhat surprised at first) other beings of some sort, do some very simple walking around, and not too long after, choose to snap back. Thse have become much more vivid and deliberate over time, and I know that as a very young child I experienced them, though shut them off throughout later childhood and adolescence.
There has also been a male presence of some sort since adolescence who invites or encourages me into these dreams, or simply reminds me, with touch. Do I sound crazy yet??
But this morning, I had a weird experience that seemed like a hybrid of my usual lucid dreams and these walking around dreams. I found myself in this weird halfway house type place, and unable to remember going through the usual steps to enter the "dream." It was not the usual kind of lucid dream-- it was definitely the swirly walking around kind of dream, and as soon as I "woke up" in the house, I did the clearing of the swirls etc., and explored a little. I was greeted by a dog I know (this has happened before), which was comforting.
I explored this stange old house, and sensed other beds and people sleeping, and finally came to a living room practically brimming with old women, some visible, some not, some ancient, some younger. I didnt know they were there until I announced my name and asked where I was- their all-at-once reponses kind of scared me so I cut them off and they immediately were silent and sort of receded. I asked one of the women who seemed to be the hostess, a very nice person, where I was-- she wouldnt say beyond it being in my general actual neighb orhood, as if she didn't want to tell me as it would scare me or something. I told her I wanted to leave the house and go outside and she really was against that but let me go.
Outside, it was thick snow, wet streets, yet the trees were full and green, and the sky was gorgeous pink and blue. I overtook a young asian man whose activity was To Walk. He was just into the walking thing. He was nice but also wouldnt tell me where I was beyond telling me the name of my general neighborhood in the city. I asked whether it was something on TOP of that neighborhood, both together, or what, but he wasn't saying. I also asked where I could get a coat, since I was wearing (oddly) a nighgown, and he said "anywhere."
Then I got silly. I was so happy and felt so free and exhiliarated, that when i saw a weird scavenged sort of vehicle with some cute men, I sang to them-- rather, right in their faces, thinking they'd find it charming-- which seemed the wrong choice. they were brothers, I think, and VERY DOUR. they weren't upset or angry with me, but slow and curious, non-expressive, and when they made to get out of the car thing and investigate me, I decided to get the heck out of there, so I flew straight up until I was blocked from their view by the trees, and attempted to get a direction on where my building was from there. I had an idea of what specific neighborhood I was in, which is near my mother's childhood home. But as I continued to fly up, a new presence, which seemed to have been watching me the whole time, decided "that's enough of this playing around" and firmly but kindly pulled me back out of the dream, and back to my bed, and back awake.
Wow that was a lot of typing. So, until I can get my hands on some research on the whole topic, can anyone tell me where the heck I migh have been??? Was I in danger? Who ARE all these people and presences? I have sooooooooooooo many questions.
another thing I thought of-- usually when I experience the swirl dreams, I can still hear what is going on in the room, the apartment, etc. This time, however, I was totally at this other place. For what it's worth.