Pinch Me I'm Dreaming.

    I consider myself to be very fortunate when it comes to dreams. Most of the time my dreams are very vivid and considerably pleasant to experience. This being said I have never needed to keep a dream journal in order to improve my dream recollection. For one of our assignments in Mythology this week, we were asked to recall a dream or start jotting them down once you have one. Because I have no trouble recalling dreams, I have started the process in learning how to Lucid Dream.
    A Lucid Dream, roughly defined, is a dream in which the dreamer is aware that he/she is dreaming and can exert some amount of control over the ongoings. A lucid dream can begin in many different ways. There is dream initiated lucid dreams where the dream starts as a normal dream and slowly the participant becomes aware and starts exerting control. Then there is a wake-initiated lucid dream, this is when the dreamer can enter the self aware dream state immediately with little to no effort.
    A wake initiated dream is extremely hard but that is my ultimate goal. So far I have had one lucid dream. Hopefully with some practice that number can increase.

All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream. -Edgar Allen Poe 

The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli, 1781, Oil on Canvas, 101.6 cm x 127 cm, Detroit Institue of Arts.