Dream Journal

Before moving on to present time to talk of my current dream work I want to address a few different topics. I think any lucid dreamer would tell you the most important thing is keeping a dream journal. I believe this sets intention. It tells your dreams your interested. It puts your focus there and helps open up that world. The longer I continue to write down my dreams, the more I remember. The more detailed, the more vivid, and the more dream segments throughout the night.

I enjoy star gazing as well. Usually when I first look up at the sky, I see a certain amount, but as I continue to stare, scan and bring my full consciousness to the stars, more and more peek out of the darkness. They start twinkling, vibrating, and I notice more patterns. The fainter ones glow brighter. And if I’m to speak a bit more on the fringes of this, I also find on a cloudy night, as I continue to gaze at the stars, the clouds begin to disperse. Slowly, if I’m patient enough, the clouds will completely clear and the stars will shine through. I mean this literally, but it can also be used metaphorically. Things we don’t know and don’t understand are foggy in the beginning. But the more time we take, the more focus we give something, it all starts to become clear.

Even something so simple as cleaning a house. When you quickly gaze over the surface you won’t notice everything. But as you begin to clean, get down on your hands and knees, you’ll notice the grimy base boards, the collection of dust bunnies under the couch, the gunk growing behind the toilet. As you give it your time and focus, you notice and see more. It just makes since. And that’s why keeping a dream journal is important.

But there are other beneficial aspects of keeping a dream journal as well. One aspect, that many people will point out, is it’s a way to help recognize and keep track of dream signs. Dream signs are reoccuring themes in your dreams. It could be anything. Some common dream sign may be flying, having your teeth fall out, dreaming of deceased people, being naked in public, having words on paper shift around so you can’t read them, or being very late and finding it impossible to get where you need to go. Dream signs can also be places you frequent or old friends who often appear in your dreams, but you never see in real life. Taking note of these dream signs and using them as a way to recognize when you’re dreaming can be helpful. Personally, I haven’t had any luck with this sort of thing. Mostly just a general paying attention to the thought of ‘that’s not right’ is what has always worked for me.

I mentioned before that I occassionally have prophetic dreams. I haven’t had any mind blowing prophecies, or worthwhile ones. Just simple dreams of simple future happenings. The first prophetic dream I remember was when I was a young kid. In waking reality my sister was telling us about a book she read. And I told her she already told us about it. She said she didn’t, she just finished it. But I said yea, you did, the book is about… and I knew exactly what she was going to tell us, I had dreamed of it. That’s probably the most detailed prophetic dream I had. Others have been more vague. Meeting someone in a dream and then in waking life. Dreaming I was going to do something and then doing it. I used to always dream I started menstruating the night before I would start. Not a big deal, but still interesting.

So how does this connect to journaling? In the summer of 2016 I found myself reading an old journal of mine, from 2015 when I was doing dream work. I read a dream from Nov 9^th, and recognized it as something that had happened on Nov 12. The dream was almost exactly the same as the thing that happened, only it was told in an abstract dream way where the people kept shifting and the setting kept changing. But it was more or less, the exact same thing. I read it again. It was kind of amazing because at the time I had no idea I had had this prophetic dream. I wrote it down and then forgot all about it. Then I had the exact same experience a few days later, but never made the connection. I had a prophetic dream and didn’t even know it. How many other times had this happened?

I believe there is much more power in our dreams than we realize and keeping a dream journal can help us tune in to that power.

Because I’m speaking of dreaming of the future, I will tie this thought in now as well. Where do dreams come from? It is commonly thought that our dreams are made up of things that happened throughout the day. Usually in a random, abstract way as our minds process everything. Of course we know dreams are also made up of our past, past events, places, and people. Especially nightmares can reflect the past. But what about the future? My dreams are often made up of the future just as much as they are the past and present. Not necessarily in a prophetic way, more in a mundane one.

For example – let’s say in the day I watched a show about lions and I had a conversation about brushing teeth and then I went for a walk and saw purple flowers. Then in the night, those 3 things entered my dream in some way or another. Perhaps in the setting of a town I used to live in. But what happens just as often is the next day, after waking, I’ll see a dead deer on the side of the road, and a sign advertising for new computers. I’ll remember that those 2 things were also in my dream the night before. Not only had my dream been made up of random objects and ideas from the past and present it also contained things from the future. Which is why I find it easy to believe that time is not linear. Why fate vs. free will can be an interesting debate.

I’m very curious how many other people experience this. About 25% of my dreams are remembered throughout the day, opposed to upon waking. It’ll be afternoon or evening and I’ll be looking at a magazine and they’ll be a picture of someone skiing off a cliff, then all the sudden my dream, which was previously unremembered, comes flooding back to me in a wave. I had dreamt about skiing off a cliff. Or sometimes someone says something that triggers a dream memory in the same way, or even smells have triggered the memories. If you are reading this and experience the same thing, I’d appreciate a comment about it.