Well, about an hour ago I sat down for lunch in my College’s cafe. It was just like any other Tuesday lunch: some sort of sandwich and a glass of milk. (I’ve been trying to lose some weight so for the midday meal I try to eat healthy.) Anyways I began to eat my sandwich and I realized I could hear something.
Someone had left their phone on the table and had gone to get some food. The alarm on the phone was going off. BRRRT! BRRRT! BRRRT! I, at first, didn’t pay much attention to it; “It’s not that important.”
I continued to do as I do when I eat lunch alone: watch other people, and maybe some TV. I noticed that several of my collegiate classmates nearby noticed the alarm. They looked over in the direction of the noise - BRRRT! BRRRT! BRRRT! - and, after a few short seconds returned to their meal. I took another bite of my sandwich, and then noticed something.
I could no longer hear the alarm.
Immediately my attention refocused and there it was. BRRRT! BRRRT! BRRRT! I glanced back over at my classmates who noticed it as well and they continued to ignore it. It was almost as if it wasn’t even there.
It was then that I connected this to Lucid Dreaming. You go through life, and your dreams, overloaded with stimuli. So many things to see, so many things to hear, so many things to experience, how do you decide? The same way you do in a dream of course: you pay attention to what you auto-class as important.
BRRRT! BRRRT! BRRRT!
I bring the alarm back into the forefront of my mind and I realize how easy it is for me to block it out. It’s so easy… One misplaced thought and it’s gone. But I try to hold onto the sound piercing the air while I take yet another bite of my sandwich. BRRRT! BRRRT! BRRRT!
It’s then that I realize as well how similar Lucid Dreaming is to this very situation. The very fact that you’re in a dream is so present, so obvious, that your mind blocks it out like the sound of an alarm. BRRRT! BRRRT! BRRRT!
If you could just - BRRRT! - hold onto that thought - BRRRT! - simultaneously - BRRRT! - Lucid Dreaming would be so easy. But that’s the catch, have you ever tried to listen to an alarm going off, take a bite of a sandwich, and observe what’s happening around you all at once? BRRRT! BRRRT! BRRRT! It’s just like a dream: so much to do.
People just coming into the cafe demonstrated the same behavior: they pointed out the alarm and went about their usual business ignoring it entirely. But I - BRRRT! - try to hold on - BRRRT! - to that ever echoing sound - BRRRT! - that, at least to me, represented every bit of difficulty in having an LD.
It was then that someone remarked “Hey, who’s alarm is that?” They were clearly displeased by the sound. Three seconds later - BRRRT! BRRRT! BRR~ - someone stepped out of line and turned the alarm off.
Funny thing was, I could still hear it. It was still going off in my head: the little thought that said “You could be dreaming.” I also realized that the simple action of turning off the alarm spoke millions. It’s that easy to step out of a lucid dream, or to never have them in fact. Just stop listening.
So my final question is this:
When you’re going through your everyday routine expecting the normal, the casual, the mundane; when you’re thinking of having an LD later that night, or planning on trying perhaps; when you are doing something, doing too much, or doing nothing at all, Can you hear that?
