As children we are tought that we can do anything we can dream. In the case of lucid dreaming this can be construed quite literally. For those who don’t know lucid dreaming is the act of achieving lucid consciousness in one’s dreams. Once lucidity is obtained a dreamer is fully that he or she is dreaming and can manipulate the dream into whatever their imagination allows. The difficulty in obtaining lucidity in dreams, is that the brain’s logic center is almost entirely shut off while we dream. So despite the fantastic imagery and amazing scenes we may be experiencing the brain is fully content with accepting this dream as reality. During some dreams, however, our logic center will click on (for whatever reason) just briefly enough to realize the dream state. From here we can remember that we are dreaming and do what we please. Most people will experience this type of phenomenon at some point in their life and not pay any mind to it. If conscious steps are taken to envoke this experience though, the phenomen can be trained to happen more frequently, and a greater level of lucidity can be achieved.

The comparison I make with water skiing is best understood by the beginning skiier. Water skiing, unlike many other sports, takes a great deal of time, effort, and practice before one can even BEGIN to water ski. Even after finding a boat, someone to drive it, and getting in the water with skiis in place, the skiier must still learn to stand up on the skiis while the boat pulls him or her through the water. However, once one learns to stand on the skiis the feeling is worth the effort, a truly unmatched experience. When one does learn to stand on the skiis there’s a feeling of freedom, and immediately the skiier will explore his or her world of standing on the water.

This feeling of freedom is the prime point of comparison between the world of one’s dreams and the world of standing water. In both cases a great deal of stumbling blocks must be overcome to even begin to experience the joys of these worlds. And in both cases the feeling of having achieved this goal is worthwhile and ultimately inspiring. The comparison doesn’t stop there, as anyone who has tried to water ski and tried to lucid dream, (not at the same time of course, though that would be something else) knows that these things also have one more thing in common… they’re both very short experiences the first time around. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of lucid dreaming, you would know that the first one is quite short. Similarly, the first time one manages to stand up on water skiis, the experience tends to only last a few seconds the first time. Its then back to trying to envoke a lucid dream, or trying to stand up on the water skiis. But each failure, and more importantly, each success, brings the dreamer/skiier that much closer to their eventual goal of voluntary control over this new world.

Being an avid lucid dreamer, and amatuer water skiier, I can vouch for the accuracy of this comparison. But don’t take my word for it! Buy a book on lucid dreaming, and try out water skiing, and see for yourself!