Korpo

There are many definitions of lucidity out there, but today this one struck me: If you can consciously chose your response to a situation, you are lucid.

I once had a dream where a troll stepped out of the shadows. If I took the dream for what it seemed like, I would have run. But within a moment several things happened within my mind and I came to the conclusion the way to deal with the troll was to hug it.

My assessment to the situation had happened very fast. It went through several layers - realizing the unrealness of the situation, realizing that the troll was a symbol, realizing that it stood for something negative I didn't want to deal with, and finally chosing a response befitting my understanding of the situation. But this wasn't "thought out" - it all happened in one go, almost instinctual.

What we regularly consider lucidity was present here, too, at the beginning of that reasoning. But it went beyond that. It all came together. I took in the information from the situation and made an informed decision that was quite different from what habit, reflex or other automatisms would have suggested.

Similar processes are at work in the physical world. Whenever we just react we are no more lucid than during a normal night's dream. When we however chose our reaction, we move from unconsciousness into lucidity.

We might overcome and break the cycle of angry reactions. That would be like emotional lucidity. Or we might overcome a prejudiced belief and experience mental lucidity. Each time we do something like that we experience at least a temporary liberation into a higher consciousness. We experience lucidity.

When I decided to hug the troll, I had pierced through a layer of illusion. But fixed emotional and mental patterns can be illusions, too, and when you pierce through them your experience of the world surrounding you changes. And I think this translates to every world your consciousness might encounter. You take it with you.