Sound in Dreams

I had a vivid, non-lucid dream this morning that involved me riding in the back of a SUV whilst defending against zombies with a MP5 machine gun. The gun itself was pretty realistic (as was the rest of the dream), and I had the opportunity to fire it at some lawless bandits who were shooting at our vehicle.

I had to fire it through the window and the bullets went through them as expected, although the window never completely shattered or broke down.

One noticeable thing that was missing was the sound of gunfire, however.

Now, I was talking to the person driving the vehicle and I can clearly recall "hearing" my own voice, as well as his, as we were racing down a dirt road. I just didn't hear any sound coming from the gun as it fired and there was no dream-silencer attached to it.

Aside from this being a clear dreamsign that I could have used to become lucid (along with the fact that we were running from zombies), I have to wonder why some sounds are so conspicuously missing in many of the dreams that I have. I guess that all it means to me, practically speaking, is that I have a clear dreamsign that I can use to become lucid in future dreams.

If there is no sound, it might be a dream.

Internal Alarm Clock Revisited

I posted earlier about the idea that our internal alarm clock can be consciously set through intentions before sleep; it has occurred to me that if one could consistently wake up at a certain time without the aid of an external alarm, one could also just program the mind to "wake up" while remaining in the dream instead of emerging from sleep completely.

Although I intend to continue with my affirmations as I fall asleep, I also will experiment around with "programming" my mind to wake up at certain times while remaining asleep.

Why lucid dreaming?

I have recently been thinking about why I spend so much time thinking about lucid dreaming, practicing techniques to become lucid in dreams, and in general hold the mastery of lucid dreaming as a main goal in my life right now.

On a superficial level, the ability to conscious experience and create wholly internal worlds is a great way to experience instant wish-fulfillment. From what I have read this is generally the most fairly common reason that people become interested in learning how to consciously experience their dreams. The prospect of realistically (or fantastically) doing anything, anywhere, with anybody is certainly tempting.

And it is definitely something that I enjoy and will continue to enjoy about lucid dreaming.

For me (and others interested in lucid dreaming), there are many other reasons that go beyond mere wish-fulfillment. Exploration of spiritual states and questions, generation of creative content, mastery and practice of waking life skills, and general mastery of the mind are among the other reasons that I am interested in mastering lucid dreaming.