This dream and others of a similar nature have
revealed to me what I consider to be a very important
principle of lucid dreaming especially as it relates to the
confrontation of fear or problems. The principle is: Once
lucidity arises I am able to release myself from the
compulsion to confront a problem on its own level.
Instead, I am free to pray or meditate in the midst of a
situation that would normally draw me into an emotional
entanglement. In the above dream, however, I chose to
return to confront my attackers in order to assert myself
in relation to them. This seems to be valuable and even
necessary at times, leaving me with an exhilarating
sense of having overcome a fearful situation. Overall,
however, I have found that lucidity is a fragile faculty
especially during the beginning stages, and can be
quickly submerged by an over-confident exercising of it
in relation to dream images, as is suggested by the
"premature" awakening from the above dream. I feel
that for myself there is a need to regard lucidity as an
opportunity to cooperate with or forgive the dream
elements rather than an opportunity to exercise control
over them.
      Since I possess a limited understanding of the
workings of the unconscious, I prefer to approach it with
an attitude of healthy respect. It is possible that during
the few dreams in which I have attempted to change the
dream content, I was in effect saying, "I know what is
best for me." And this I know is rarely the case!
Whenever I consider changing the dream content
according to my momentary fear or desire I am probably
violating the functioning of a deeper level of myself from
which the dream content originates. So instead of
approaching lucid dreaming in this manner I have tried
to alter and improve my responses to the dream content.
In this way I have hoped to engender a creative and
growing relationship to the dream. In my opinion it is
unfortunate that at this time when lucid dreaming is
being introduced into popular literature, there is such an
emphasis upon the manipulative capacity of the dreamer.
Such an approach to this potentially powerful experience

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