Dream Production

DREAM PRODUCTION by THEM
---- Big Frank Dickinson

The show comes on nightly for your what,
amusement, enlightenment, entertainment?
Is the writer tied up in the basement sending
the plot upstairs through one of the wonderful
pneumatic tubes? "Hello, here's scene three!
Places everyone, just got to get this thing set-up.
Right, OK street scene, no traffic, sunset:
Camera on sky - cloudy and menacing.
Up on fear, and consternation, now
figure of self running. Close up on face
Fade out. Switch to kitchen discussion."
Or is the writer/director locked up in the
memory vault snatching bits of dialogue,
lines of emotion, and vague yearnings,
and then blowing them up and filling in
with whatever scraps are lying around on the floor?
"'You told me that you would never do this!'
Low rumblings of anxiety and fear. Now
enter image of almost-forgotten lover who
in fact did do that - smiling but darkly."
Or maybe this is a joint project with the
pneumatic tube delivering images from the
fantasy chamber (wherever the hell that is)
and everything - dialogue, scenes and characters
are all strangers to your memory. Who gets the nod tonight,
subconcious yearnings, replays of long gone pokes,
or the totally new production? No - they all work together
in between takes and during the waking hours - they
are collecting data - they see what you are not even
aware of, and mix it with your day scenes along
with an emotional soundtrack that tells the real story.
Who the hell are they?

Conscious Creation

Lucid dreaming has Big Franks’ attention lately. The concept is intriguing: the dreamer controls the dream, and can determine scene, plot, character, dialogue, interactions, outcomes . . . everything! Now, Big Frank has to be honest about this; he cannot do this . . . just yet, that is. However, it is conceivable that through this kind of dreaming one could reverse any setbacks in your dream, could put more than a positive spin on events – one could actually change events manipulating the outcome that one wanted. Consider the possibilities. In waking life it is generally acknowledged that humans have the capacity to synthesize happiness. We have all done this. You have some setback, some seemingly unfortunate occurrence: a career stumble, a rejection in a personal relationship, a financial disappointment. You can react positively or negatively to these events. The positive reaction entails some use of explanation (whether true or not) to remove the uncertainty and mystery of the event. We tend to chew on things that don't make sense to us; this leads to stress, worry, and generally prolonged unease. When people write or talk about such events, make sense of them (if only to themselves) they can spin the event they preveously viewed as a negative into a positive one, and make themselves happy! For example, someone applies for a job, doesn't get it, is initially upset, and then convinces himself that it wasn't the right job and there are much better ones still out there. James Pennebaker has written extensively on this, as has Daniel Gilbert, and Jonathan Haidt.

However, and this is where Big Frank takes a radical turn, what if you could not only put a positive spin on events, but could actually change them! Who would not want that power? If, for example, one could master the art of lucid dreaming and create a duplicate of your waking world, then you could begin to manipulate it, tweaking it, or radically changing it to make it more compatible to you. There would be no surprises, no set backs, no disappointments. Big Frank is curious about how this would turn out. Would the dreamer end up, through his overarching egotism and desire's inherent insatiability, in creating a complete hell or a heaven on earth (in your dreams!). You the dreamer become The Creator!

Lucid Dreaming

Big Frank had indicated that there would be a follow-up on lucid dreaming. Essentially another name for lucid dreaming is conscious dreaming. When the dreamer is having a lucid dream it is possible for this person to not only be aware that he or she is in a dream, but also participate actively in the dream by even manipulating the the dream experience to suit the dreamer. For those interested in a more comprehensive summary of lucid dreaming go to this article in wikipedia or the lucid dreaming website.

There are many techniques for inducing lucid dreams: recalling dreams is a good first step and reviewing them afterwards, waking during a dream and then going back to sleep, and reality testing techniques can help make yourself aware during a dream that it is in fact a dream (looking at your hand, looking at your digital watch to see the numbers randomly change, flipping on a light switch because light levels don't change in dreams, or looking in a mirror because the images there are often blurred or distorted). Then when you can discover when you are dreaming the next step is to begin to manipulate and control the dream.

As you can imagine there are many many benefits of being able to dream lucidly. You can dispel nightmares, you gain a sense of control, and you can have a lot of fun (think about it - in the extreme you create the dreamworld; you are becoming god-like!). In many yoga traditions lucid dreaming is used to become aware of the insubstantial nature not only of dreams, but of your waking life too! In this way one can awaken to the true reality of the self.

Big Frank isn't quite there just yet, but he is on the road. He is thinking that perhaps in this state, for example, if the guest bearing bad news appears he could, in the dream, turn it into good news! It is conceivable that with practice and growing expertise that one would then begin to view dreams the way most people view life now - a state of consciousness where you have some control. In fact, it is possible that one could begin to prefer the dream-state because it hypothetically offers more control than the waking state. In fact, over time Big Frank or you could create your own paradise - would anyone really want that; and would that be a paradise?