Wake up!

Speaking of dreams within dreams, I have just re-read a potentially life-changing little book called Lucid Living by Tim Freke (yes, it's pronounced 'Freak'). The essence of this book is to suggest that our experience of everyday reality is, itself, much like a dream. In a dream, we are typically blissfully unaware that we are dreaming. We get caught up in the dramas of our dreamworld, and it is only when we wake up do we realise that we had, in fact, been dreaming!

Unless, that is, you are having what is called a 'lucid dream'. In a lucid dream you know that you are dreaming. And then, once you're aware that you are dreaming, you can even consciously control the dream.

Lucid living applies this idea to our waking experience. If your experience of everyday reality is like a dream, then you can 'wake up' in the dream and live your life more consciously. Mr Freke calls this state of consciousness being 'deep awake'.

Now, I don't know about you, but the idea of lucid living really strikes a chord with me. There have been maybe one or two times in my life when I have felt to be in this 'ultra-conscious' state that Freke calls being deep awake. In this state, the world just seems to be a very different place, and life does seem to resemble a waking dream. I guess the challenge is to find ways of achieving this state of awareness on a more permanent basis.