How often have
you woken in the night, looked at a digital clock, but it
has appeared blurred or doesn't make sense? Have you ever
reached out to turn on the light - or any electrical appliance
- to discover that it doesn't function properly, or not at
all? Have you got vague memories of getting up in the middle
of the night, trying to open the door, finding that it won't
open and going back to bed? Would you believe it, if you were
told that you were probably dreaming?
A false awakening is a convincing
illusion of having woken when, in fact, you are still in dreaming
sleep, so the imagery - although seemingly real - is artificial.
There is the same degree of
conscious awareness in the phenomenon as in a lucid dream
- all one's 'critical' faculties are present and the subject
can think very clearly. However, what is lacking is the realisation
of being in a dream, because the dream is recreating scenery
that is familiar to the dreamer - say, the bedroom.
The accuracy of the imagery
to that of the real scene can be quite amazing - until something
gives the secret away.
False awakenings sometimes
follow lucid dreams, or they can occur separately. Intending
lucid dreamers need to be aware of this fascinating situation,
so to illustrate, here is such a case from our files:
I seemed to wake up from an
interesting, vivid lucid dream. My mind was perfectly alert
and I looked around the bedroom. It was morning and the room
was fairly light. I got up and walked around for a while.
Then I went to the window and looked out. Incredibly, the
road outside was not the road it should have been! The surprise
woke me and I found myself snuggled in bed.
Some individuals report that
they experience multiple false-awakenings - which can leave
them rather puzzled:
Several times I have known
that I was dreaming when it was time to get up for work. I
have tried to wake myself up, but only succeeded in dreaming
that I have woken. This could happen four or five times in
a row before I actually woke up properly. I'll know it's still
a dream usually because the carpet or bed-sheets are a different
colour, or that something else in the room - say, furniture,
is not correct.
It is not unheard of for some
unfortunate souls to apparently wake up in the morning, wash,
eat breakfast and then wake to find themselves still in bed.
They get up again, wash, eat breakfast, and leave for work.
Caught in the rush-hour traffic, and while thumping the steering
wheel, impatiently, they wake up again to find themselves
still in bed. And so it can go on almost ad infinitum.
The false-awakening is more
common, however, when dreamers perceive themselves as waking
up at home in their own beds, then probably turn over and
- in their dream minds - go back to sleep. Sometimes this
occurrence can be accompanied by an atmosphere of eager expectation,
stress or even apprehension, and these feelings can remain
with the subject for some time after waking.
Celia Green, in her analysis
of lucid dreaming, identified two varieties of false awakening.
In Type 1, the person seems to have woken from a dream and
reflects on things normally.
In Type 2, the individual
seems to have woken, but there is a somewhat oppressive atmosphere:
I thought I was awake. It
was still night and my room very dark. Although it seemed
to me that I was awake, I felt curiously disinclined to move.
The atmosphere seemed charged, to be in a 'strained' condition.
I had a sense of invisible, intangible powers at work, which
caused this feeling of aerial stress. I became expectant.
Certainly, something was about to happen.
Fox,O, Astral Projection,
University Books, New York, page 48.
So how can we recognise false
awakenings when they happen to us? As described earlier, electrical
appliances will not function properly - if at all - during
a false-awakening. As with the lucid dream, Dr Hearne was
the first person in the world to discover this and other anomalies,
and has devised a test whereby the dreamer can assess their
validity. ...
(Continued
In Lucid Dreams Part 2...)
Authors Details:
David F. Melbourne Web
Site
David F. Melbourne, who lives on a remote Scottish island,
has been studying dreams for 25 years and is known all
over the world for his accurate dream interpretations.
Apart from the general public, he has analysed dreams
for celebrities and famous authors, all of whom have
admitted a high degree of accuracy. |
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