Beekeeper
22nd February 2009, 10:42 AM
Toilets in my dreams sometimes cause me to become lucid. This is actually good if you remember to do reality checks when you use the lavatory. Here are a couple of examples from last month:
14/1/09
Now I’m walking with G and M and possibly some other people. I need to change clothes. We’re in a street with shops in sandstone buildings that remind me of The Rocks in Sydney. You can descend a little to enter a shop or ascend to enter another. A dark haired girl with a solid build goes past in a convertible and makes fun of the fact that I’ve undone a button on the top of my shorts. I was about to change clothes and didn’t get a chance but I left the button undone. This convinces me to go upstairs and find a shop with a change room.
There’s a man at the counter. I pass him. The shop seems to have a few rooms but I can’t find a change room. I see a toilet room. There’s the double toilet bowl that was in a previous dream. I notice it’s in view of the shop’s back door where people can pass. Immediately I decide I’m dreaming. Toilets are a dream sign for me and, the less private and more bizarre, the more likely I’m dreaming.
I’m out of the street now, walking with a group again. There’s an old lady with us. I ask a dream character, “What’s wrong with her?†and he states that she’s in the world of senility. The lucidity doesn’t really last long but I’m happy with it anyway because it’s a step forward and I’ve felt the last couple of night’s dreaming was leading in this direction.
It's occurring to me more and more that "changing clothes" in dreams is about level of awareness for me. When I chose to go up in the building, I chose an increase in awareness. I was helped along by the challenging behaviour of the dream character in the convertible who was reminding me that I'd begun to rise in awareness because I'd unbuttoned to change clothing. I think that rise in awareness began to happen "earlier" when I dreamt I was at a school carnival and there was an event that involved students flying with jet packs but some sunk and almost landed on us.
I think the discussion about senility was also a warning that I wasn't going to remain lucid for long. She was a warning of impending loss of lucidity while the lady in the car was there to provoke awareness.
I had also had this dream interspersed among my others:
There’s a girl on the ground cutting/digging through long grass growing between pews. H, my youngest, urges her not to sit in the long grass, plunging her hands in unprotected because there could be insects in the grass. She continues and we seem to return to her at intervals between my dreams. There comes a point where I think, “Why doesn’t she just use a lawn mower?
Eventually, the lawn is beautifully manicured under the pews. It’s shortly after this I attain a level of lucidity. I feel it worked as a metaphor for the act of clearing away the something that was preventing awareness. Unfortunately, I seemed to have taken a circuitous path to lucidity and it wasn't long lasting at all.
Thursday, 29/1/ 09
I’m at a school in the principal’s office dressed in my wedding dress. I’m talking to the principal or deputy. I need to go under his desk to get to the exit. He lifts and twists the back of my gown, which surprises me until I understand he’s helping me so I can crawl under the desk.
I’ve come out in place with a choice of doors. I go through one with “Staff only†on the door. I’m in a large toilet block. I open a door and they are old-fashioned dunnies. I go, “Yuk.†Then I see a bunch of students coming out of a cubicle and I hear more. I tell them it’s staff only and to leave but I feel slack because there are so many toilets I can’t see how it makes a difference if the kids use them. I think it odd that there are several toilets in each cubicle. I glance over and see a row of toilets with no privacy at all. I briefly decide I’m dreaming but I don’t do a reality check and I just let the awareness go.
Entering the door seems to indicate a slight level in awareness. “Staff only†is indicative of increased control, as staff have privileges students do not as do lucid dreamers over ordinary dreamers.
14/1/09
Now I’m walking with G and M and possibly some other people. I need to change clothes. We’re in a street with shops in sandstone buildings that remind me of The Rocks in Sydney. You can descend a little to enter a shop or ascend to enter another. A dark haired girl with a solid build goes past in a convertible and makes fun of the fact that I’ve undone a button on the top of my shorts. I was about to change clothes and didn’t get a chance but I left the button undone. This convinces me to go upstairs and find a shop with a change room.
There’s a man at the counter. I pass him. The shop seems to have a few rooms but I can’t find a change room. I see a toilet room. There’s the double toilet bowl that was in a previous dream. I notice it’s in view of the shop’s back door where people can pass. Immediately I decide I’m dreaming. Toilets are a dream sign for me and, the less private and more bizarre, the more likely I’m dreaming.
I’m out of the street now, walking with a group again. There’s an old lady with us. I ask a dream character, “What’s wrong with her?†and he states that she’s in the world of senility. The lucidity doesn’t really last long but I’m happy with it anyway because it’s a step forward and I’ve felt the last couple of night’s dreaming was leading in this direction.
It's occurring to me more and more that "changing clothes" in dreams is about level of awareness for me. When I chose to go up in the building, I chose an increase in awareness. I was helped along by the challenging behaviour of the dream character in the convertible who was reminding me that I'd begun to rise in awareness because I'd unbuttoned to change clothing. I think that rise in awareness began to happen "earlier" when I dreamt I was at a school carnival and there was an event that involved students flying with jet packs but some sunk and almost landed on us.
I think the discussion about senility was also a warning that I wasn't going to remain lucid for long. She was a warning of impending loss of lucidity while the lady in the car was there to provoke awareness.
I had also had this dream interspersed among my others:
There’s a girl on the ground cutting/digging through long grass growing between pews. H, my youngest, urges her not to sit in the long grass, plunging her hands in unprotected because there could be insects in the grass. She continues and we seem to return to her at intervals between my dreams. There comes a point where I think, “Why doesn’t she just use a lawn mower?
Eventually, the lawn is beautifully manicured under the pews. It’s shortly after this I attain a level of lucidity. I feel it worked as a metaphor for the act of clearing away the something that was preventing awareness. Unfortunately, I seemed to have taken a circuitous path to lucidity and it wasn't long lasting at all.
Thursday, 29/1/ 09
I’m at a school in the principal’s office dressed in my wedding dress. I’m talking to the principal or deputy. I need to go under his desk to get to the exit. He lifts and twists the back of my gown, which surprises me until I understand he’s helping me so I can crawl under the desk.
I’ve come out in place with a choice of doors. I go through one with “Staff only†on the door. I’m in a large toilet block. I open a door and they are old-fashioned dunnies. I go, “Yuk.†Then I see a bunch of students coming out of a cubicle and I hear more. I tell them it’s staff only and to leave but I feel slack because there are so many toilets I can’t see how it makes a difference if the kids use them. I think it odd that there are several toilets in each cubicle. I glance over and see a row of toilets with no privacy at all. I briefly decide I’m dreaming but I don’t do a reality check and I just let the awareness go.
Entering the door seems to indicate a slight level in awareness. “Staff only†is indicative of increased control, as staff have privileges students do not as do lucid dreamers over ordinary dreamers.