Lucid Dream -- Free Your Mind

第一次听到Lucid Dream这种说法，还是我女朋友告诉我的。大约一个半月前吧，New York Times上有一片文章专门介绍了这个东西，我女朋友看了之后觉得很有意思，就很兴奋的与我分享。但当时我还是糊里糊涂的，也不大明白到底是什么意思，反正不就是做梦么。第二次碰到这个名词，是在一部名为 [Waking Life] 的动画片里出现的（也是我女朋友买的DVD）。这部片子总体来说非常另类，反正我们还没看完呢，很有点哲学的味道，其中通过主角与他人的对话，阐述了很多稀奇古怪的哲学，科学，和道德伦理上的概念，其中Lucid Dream也是其中的一个话题。那到底什么是Lucid Dream? 通俗的话说就是Though some properly-designed training and conditioning to increase your awareness in the dream, and eventually develop the ability to recognize and control your dream while you are dreaming.

But some people may argue “So what? What’s the point of controlling the dream? It’s just the dream after all. It’s not real!”

I would actually answer these questions by asking more questions first. “How do you define dream and reality?” “How can you tell the difference between dream and reality? Don’t dreams always feel so real?” “How do you know that the time you believed you are dreaming is not the time that you are actually awake? Or vice versa?” Or the simpler question is “how are you so sure that you are not dreaming as of now?” For me the line between dream and reality can get really blur. Aren’t they both the result of the brain’s interpretation of various neural electronic impulses? We, humans, devote all our time and energy to live a better life, the life we narrowly defined as the time that we are physically awake with clear consciousness. This type of life only constitutes 2/3 of our natural biological life span. The worst part is that we are extremely vulnerable in this waking stage. Our life can be terminated in a split second, like being hit by a car or something. That’s why being able to control the other 1/3 of the life span sounds so appealing. Within this 1/3, we are free of harm, disease, gravitational limitation, physical laws, social pressures, moral conflicts, and all other things that are really pain in the ass in the so called “real world”. In dreams, we are the ultimate God! You can be anything you ever wanted to be, and you can do anything you ever wanted to do. You can be a professional basketball superstar, living large. You can drive the fanciest car as fast as you want on the highway with no cops around. You can even fly, with any kind of woman as your companion if you desire. You can even battle the aliens with your God-like power. Isn’t that just wonderful? I guess people always say “work harder toward a better life”, but someday it may well change to “dream harder toward a better life”. There are few people who actually harness this Lucid Dream power, and what they do all day long is just to eat, sleep, and dream (and getting fat as a side effect I presume, but hey, who cares? In dreams, people won’t judge you at all!). 这也就是中文里经常说的：“吃饱喝足了，没事干，天天睡大觉。”唯一的不同是这帮Lucid Dreamer们不是没事干，他们其实挺忙的，忙着做梦。

The toughest part of enjoying the dream is to realize that you are dreaming. Through my limited dreaming career, I only clearly figured that out twice. But both dream ended abruptly after I realized the truth. En… I should definitely try harder next time to stay in the dream a little bit longer. There are many little things to check to see if you are dreaming. (1) Does it hurt when you bite your fingers? (2) Can you turn of the light in the room? Does the switch work? (3) Can you see things clearly? (4) Can you pee freely without much difficulty? For me, the fundamental question that you need to ask is “Does the whole setup make sense?” If you got negative answers to all these questions, 99% of the time you are dreaming. Then, you can start doing some crazy shit that you always fanaticize to do, i.e., the South Park “Kick The Baby” stunt. (Just like what Morpheus said in [The Matrix], that would be the perfect time to “free you mind”.) Let’s all one day become a fat ass Lucid Dreamer!! Yeah!!!