A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming (29 page)

I notice that the town is no longer happy. It is full of darkness,

misery, and pain. It is hell on earth. As I start exploring this night-

mare, I begin to stumble across the “happy” people from earlier.

But they are no longer happy, because they are dead. When

I approach their dead bodies, I’m instantly sent back to relive

the last minute of their life. It always starts with them hiding

or running from one of the bad guys. Despite where I/they run

to, they always get caught and are brutally murdered. Right

before they die, I’m sent back into my own body. This happens

over and over again. I end up finding at least seven-plus bodies,

where I relive their deaths. The dream ends when the bad guys

find me in my body and chase me down. I’m about to be killed

and then I wake up. —JAReD Z.

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troubled relationships, or traumatic events can manifest them-

selves as dark forces come nighttime. If we have been avoiding

something in our daily lives, it will soon find a means to get our

attention. Nightmares might also be our subconscious’s response

to physical conditions such as illness, fever, medication, the use

of certain drugs (or a rapid withdrawal of them), upcoming life

changes, pregnancy, financial concerns, or a change in jobs.

Fortunately it’s possible to completely vanquish a nightmare in

a lucid dream. Like a bomb squad disarming a land mine, in this

chapter we’ll teach you how to defuse your nightmares. We’ll also

bring you in on a little secret: how to use nightmares as a shortcut

to becoming lucid. Nocturnal demons can be so frightening that

some people consciously commit to forgetting and repressing all

of their dreams, ignoring these urgent messages. If you are such a

person, don’t you worry. This chapter will give you the simple tools

you need.

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Integration of Our Shadow Elements

Although it might not seem like it, our nightmares are not

trying to scare us—they are trying to get across an impor-

tant message. Carl Jung refers to nightmares as “shadow elements.”

He believed that they are missing parts of ourselves. Nightmares

seem to reflect undesirable aspects of our psyches that we have

unconsciously rejected, disowned, or denied. Like neglected pup-

pies, they just want to be loved and embraced, accepted back into

our lives. In Jung’s eyes, if we accept our nightmares and integrate

them into our psyches, we’ll be on the way toward becoming whole

and balanced people.

In waking life, we try to overcome our fears. If you were to

overcome a fear of heights, for example, the resolution of your

phobia would open up more possibilities and a fuller, richer life.

Finally you can take that trip to the Grand Canyon. Resolving

nightmares works in the same way. By solving the problems of the

dream and facing what’s plaguing you, the result is more freedom,

less internal conflict, and a more balanced perspective.

The longer your nightmares stay hidden in your subcon-

scious, the more damage they’ll do. You can deal with nightmares

during the day by talking about them with your friends and family

or by writing them down in your journal. Acknowledging them in

your daily life is the first step in treating them, letting the sun fill

in the darker shadows. You can also vanquish them at night while

lucid. Our dreams might not be the first place our demons show

up, but luckily they can be the last.

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Using Lucidity to Face a Nightmare

In a nightmare, we lack a sense of control. Lucid dreaming is an

empowering tool to face nightmares and heal through them.

In fact, for the oneironaut, nightmares are a perfect springboard

to trigger lucidity. Running away from something or being scared

for your life—these situ-

ations can actually serve

as dream signs. Therefore,

I am being chased by the guy from the

Halloween
movies, the guy with the white

next time you find yourself

mask, Michael Myers. I’m aware of his

in a hot pursuit or mortally

presence in the house. He just seems to

afraid, ask yourself if you’re

keep killing people. It is nighttime, and I

dreaming.

think, “As long as we can make it to the

Stephen LaBerge tells

daytime we’ll be all right.” But then the

us of one such event in his

daytime comes and he is still chasing us.

book
Exploring the World

He doesn’t run fast, he is just always there.

We shoot him, and we think he is dead . . .

of Lucid Dreaming.
He

but no, he is not. There is a final standoff

was on the phone with his

on this steel bridge. The last thing I remem-

seven-year-old niece when

ber is running right at him. —DeRek A.

she told him of a horrible

dream: she was swimming

in a local reservoir when a shark attacked her. LaBerge, being the

maverick lucid dreamer that he is, told his niece that the next time

she sees a shark, she’ll know that she’s inside a dream. Since noth-

ing bad can happen in dreams, she could make friends with the

shark. A week later his niece called back: “Do you know what I

did? I rode on the back of that shark.”

Sometimes nightmares are standard hero-in-danger narratives.

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Other times there is no actual antagonist, but just a pervasive feel-

ing of anxiety or dread. We’ve all had the dream where we’re late

to a class (there’s an essay due tomorrow?) or a tooth falls out (it

will never grow back!) or we’re naked in public. It’s not the subject

matter that turns a dream into a nightmare; it’s the feeling you get

while trapped inside the dream.

No matter what kind of nightmare it is, the only way to get rid

of it completely is to face it head-on.

I’m walking down a white hallway in some very plain building.

Up ahead there are two guys walking toward me. I turn to my

right to open the door closest to me. It’s locked. The two men are

now walking fast toward me. I turn around and start running.

The hallway becomes longer to the point where it’s nearly two

football fields long. As I’m running, I can hear them behind me

getting closer. The thought crosses my mind, “What am I doing?”

I continue to run as a dialogue plays in my head. “Am I dream-

ing? Yes! Of course I’m dreaming!” I decide to stop running and

face these attackers. Immediately when I turn around they too