510: Waking Life

All this talk about dreams being in the underworld made me think of the movie Waking Life. For those of you who has not yet been enlightened by this film, a large part of the film has to do with lucid dreaming, which is when you realize you are dreaming and are able to make decisions while in sleep.

One way that the makers of the film suggest you can do this is by flicking light switches on and off during your daylife, because in dreams, you cannot adjust light levels. Therefore, you will get in such a habit of switching switches that when you do it in your dream, you will be able to determine you are dreaming when you are unable to turn the light off and on (this is, of course, assuming your dayworld invades your underworld, which Hillman would disagree with). After you realize you are dreaming, theoretically, you are able to make decisions and do pretty much whatever you like in the dream.

When it comes to Hillman, however, I am not sure how to apply this theory. If the dreams belong in the underworld, are we or can we control them? In class today, we said that dreams are supposed to be where you let go of the real world and let the underworld take over. If we do find a way to become an active role in our dreams, should we? Would Hillman acknowledge this phenomenon of lucid dreaming? Where does lucid dreaming belong in the underworld?

It seems as though, according to Hillman, we should not be able to control our dreams in any facet. If the person is aware enough to know they are dreaming, I wonder if they have even entered the underworld. If you are consciuos enough to make rational decisions, then it would seem as though the dayworld is invading the underworld. This is interesting, because Hillman thus far has only addressed the problems of bringing the underworld into the dayworld after the person has woken up and began to analyze the dream. Where do dreams lie if the dayworld is seeping into the underworld when the person is physically in the state of dreaming? Are they still in the underworld or have they reentered the realm of the dayworld?

This really intrigues me, because in my own experience, I have at times been able to realize I'm dreaming and been able to make decisions. For example, at one point in a dream, I was in the woods and became face-to-face with a tiger. At first, I was understandably frightened for my life. A moment later, I realized I was sleeping and I could fight the tiger. So I fought the tiger and won.

I am not a big fan of being able to control my dreams. My fiance has always been jealous; he's wanted to lucid dream for years and to no avail. I do think I think that dreaming is when the dreamer can let go and let the dream take over. I don't want to be able to make rational decisions; I have enough rational decisions to make in the dayworld.

So am I infringing on the underworld when I realize I am dreaming and decide to take action and possibly change the outcome of the dream? Or am I still in the underworld?