One of my all time favorite
dreams was one that I had about 5 years ago while in
high school. I was
flying above a
lake surrounded by
forest. The reason this dream was so good was due largely to the fact that it was a
lucid dream and it was
just plain fun to fly.
According to
Working With Dreams by Ullman and Zimmerman, some of the possible
metaphorical implications for flying may be:
"I feel pleased, satisfied, high about something I have done.
I feel competent, effective, powerful in relation to a recent happening in my life.
I feel special, different, in some way superior to others.
I am surprised at the discovery of some unusual ability that I didn't know I had.
I am sexually potent, my penis is up."
It is estimated that more than one third of those who regularly remember dreams have had at least one flying dream.
Creative types are more likely to have these dreams than most others and it has been reported that
Olympic athletes have a tendency to have these dreams after (and sometimes before) a winning
experience. It is also fairly common for
handicapped people to have these dreams.
Flying dreams can be traced back to earliest recorded
history (the
Babylonians and
Egyptians).
From the Flying Dream FAQ:
"Flying dreams are related to the
vestibular system, which regulates body
equilibrium. With this in mind, lab research confirms that certain physical
stimuli that affects
balance can induce flying dreams when the subject is asleep (wearing a blood pressure cuff, rocking in a
hammock, raising and lowering the bed). In the
laboratory, lucid dream subjects have more flying dreams than do nonlucid subjects. As measured by an
electrooculogram (record of eye movement), a lucid dream of flying took the same time as the dreamer's account related upon
waking."