JOURNALS -- PART TWO (1986-present)
Reading and Writing
Can one read or write in a lucid dream state?
In several dreams I have had a book or other
written material in my hand, and upon entering the lucid state made a willful
effort to read the piece in front of me. In other non-lucid dreams
I can recall afterwards that written material in my dreams always faded
or blurred or became nonsensical when I tried to read it.
However, in a recent lucid dream of this type, I wanted
to see how a conscious directive might change that experience. In
my lucid dream, I began reading, but what I read seemed to be disjointed
and nonsensical. At first the letters were various symbols and not
even English; then the symbols formed into letters, but were jumbled and
did not form words; and finally the letters organized into words to form
into "organic" ("open") poetry. I read a number of lines. In
the dream it seemed profound and marvelously written, but upon awakening
I realized that the words made little sense, like writing profound
poetry when stoned.
I wonder if this suggests that symbols, letters, words, and lines are progressively more difficult and constitute a continuum of written mental skills?
And that organic poetry is somehow archetypal?
In other dreams of this type I have tried
to consciously compose poetry while lucid. In a couple of these dreams
I succeed in rapidly creating and reciting entirely original poems, spontaneously.
In some of these dreams I have even written them down in the dream, but
this is laborious and takes great concentration in the lucid state.
In other dreams, I just recite them aloud in the dream, and this takes
far less effort than does writing.
A few times I've woken just after the dream
and was able to recall some of the lines of the poems, and some seemed
intelligible and even moving and profound, as if spewed from the deepest
part of my heart and soul.
It's interesting that the poetry is sensible
and emotionally moving when I try to "compose" it in these dreams, and
that it is gibberish when I force myself to simply try to "read" it ...
although, of course, what I am "reading" in my dream is what I must "compose"
in my dream to read! Why this difference? It is as if reading
and writing (or spontaneous oral composition) are fundamentally different
processes that use different parts of the brain that react very differently
in the dream state, lucid or otherwise. I wonder if people with brain
damage, that differentially affects reading and writing (or speaking),
have experienced similar contrasts in the ease of spontaneous creativity,
in dreams or in the waking world.
And I wonder what kinds of lucid dreams that
people with different kinds of brain damage have.
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