Lucid Guitar Lesson

  • Falling asleep, I was more aware than usual during the hypnagogic state. I was able to watch the imagery while still being aware of them as objective images; like a lucid hypnagogic dream. This has been happening more and more recently.

  • In a small town, by the ocean, I'm attending a school in a multi-storied building. Some kind of crisis develops involving some murderous people running amok but I become lucid and discard the mundane reality surrounding me. With the practiced skill of one who is accustomed to the lucid dream state, I leap into the air and fly above the rooftops. With glee, I play gliding from steeple to balcony, buttress to clock tower. As I will my dream body through the air, I flex my powers of concentration in order to more vividly manifest the dream reality. Soon I come upon my friend, Adam, playing a classical piece on a nylon string guitar. I sit to listen and watch as he uses a two-handed finger picking technique I have never seen before. The melody he is playing is likewise unfamiliar, but simply beautiful. Still quite aware that I am dreaming and that I am listening to my own brain music, I ask Adam to teach me the tune. He hands the guitar over and teaches me the semi-complex fingerings. Being lucid with Adam brings an old memory to consciousness: I recall a very early dream from my childhood with me and Adam flying together. I've known him since I was three years old and it was one of my first flying dreams. I tell Adam about my recollection. After waking, I went to the guitar and tried, unsuccessfuly, to reproduce the lovely melody. Ah...I love it when you bring back a real gem from the collective unconscious.

  • Between sleeping and waking, I receive subconscious information regarding the I Ching.