Mindblogging

It hasn’t been long since I’ve been keeping a dream journal again and already I am learning things from it. I first write out the dream as I recall it, then spend some time analyzing it. I will frequently find that items and events of the previous day appear in the dream.

While there’s nothing new about seeing things in dreams that you saw during the previous day, I have found that I’m gaining a sense about what things may become dream fodder while I’m experiencing them. I think this is an important step in my being aware of my conscious state at any particular time.

In the few times when I’ve seemed to be particularly “psychic,” I’ve often felt my mind at that moment has been in “idle.” I am just observing what I experience, or being “in the now” as meditation experts call it. Frequently what I experience during these times will appear later in dreams. In fact, what I see and hear at these moments will undoubtedly appear in following dreams.

The challenge now is to gain an even greater awareness of this state. Even better would be to learn how to achieve it at will. The dream journal, though, has proven to be a vital source of feedback, regardless of whether or not my desired precognitive dreams ever appear.

Kinda funny, isn’t it? You would think that dreams just happen. How can having one be success? Well, what good is a dream if you can’t remember it?

After finally replacing my copy of Dr. Stephen LeBerge’s Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, I got around to restarting my dream journal. Years ago, I bought a nice, hardback leather journal for this purpose – and then promptly ignored it! My usual excuse for not writing has been my concern about waking Kelly.

Yet throughout the summer, I’ve been getting up an hour early every few days and riding my bike for exercise. I’m used to waking up before Kelly and Kelly’s used to me getting up. She usually doesn’t even budge when I get dressed for my ride. Thus I have no excuse for not writing.

Even so, I’ve been take my journal into the bathroom and write there. When I’m feeling brave, I may begin writing while I’m still in bed. But you gotta walk before you run.

So how is it going after one week? Very well! I’m remembering far more details than I was – more than I have in years. And not just my last dream, too. I’m remembering snippets of previous dreams from the night. I don’t always get everything down on paper yet, but I’m aware of them. In essense, my dream recall has increased tremendously!

During the time in high school when I religously kept a dream journal, I found my so-called psychic abilities greatly increased. I felt my dream journal somehow kept a little “window” open to my intuitive side, providing me insight my conscious mind would’ve otherwise ignored. Writing down dreams sends a message to one’s conscious mind that these insights are important. I believe it teaches the mind to be more open to input originating from other than the five physical senses.

I also believe it works in reverse – giving the subconscious mind reason to trust the waking mind. In my experience, this leads to more frequent lucid dreams, as the subconscious is more comfortable inviting the waking mind into its realm. By sharing their worlds, both “minds” learn to work together.

This morning I reached a milestone in my dream journaling: When the alarm clock sounded, I stayed perfectly still and did nothing but go over the details of the dream still in my head. It had been a long time since I did that – for whatever reason. It helped a lot for my dream recall.

One more trick I’ve adopted is to always write in the journal, whether I recall a dream or not. I’ll simply write the date followed by “NDR” – for “no dream recalled.” This gives me no excuse for not writing a dream down: if I have to write anyway I might as well write down a dream.

Its only a week into the new dream journal, so one could say that I haven’t proven anything yet. Time will tell if I can keep this going. So far, though, the benefits are obvious and seem to be growing. I’ve missed not doing it for so long. It’s almost like having an old friend back.