I am on a high hill above a lake, searching for Indian
artifacts. It seems that I am being told about the culture
which existed in the area during primitive times. I am
told that the Indians were very advanced in the area of
stone flaking.
      I go atop the hill and find three beautifully crafted
stone trowels or knives. I realize that they are too fine to
be real, and I must be dreaming.
      Taking the stone trowels, I sit down to meditate facing
east and stick the trowels in the ground, one at a tune. I
repeat, "The Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost."
      At this point... walks by. I ask "Do you know that we
are dreaming?" She laughs. So I direct her attention to
the three stone objects on the ground. In their midst
items of silverware begin to appear spontaneously— first
a fork, then a cup. I look at her face. She is puzzled,
seemingly on the verge of "waking up." I take the items
away and other objects appear. We begin to laugh as the
process speeds up. We are inundated with beautiful
silver objects. Then I awaken ...

     This type of lucid dream resembles the first except
that the anomaly or inconsistent event in the dream
lacks a threatening quality; it is merely at variance to
what the dreamer knows to be true or possible. In his
book, Astral Projection (circa 1938), Oliver Fox calls this
distinguishing awareness, which begins to arise with
greater frequency once it occurs, the "critical faculty."
This awareness is essentially the recognition of
inconsistency in the dream.
      The development of such a faculty has had construc-
tive but painful implications for me during the waking
state, as well. It seems that as lucidity has developed I
have also become more aware of the inconsistencies in
my waking actions and thoughts; however, the
awareness has hardly been pleasant. I have begun to
realize that lucidity is only the first step in fully "waking
up," and that the more difficult step is then accepting
and living creatively with my faults and inconsistencies.

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