Chapter five takes a look at consciousness as a whole, but I'll be focusing on dreams, more specifically, lucid dreams. A lucid dream is a dream in which the dreamer becomes conscious that they are dreaming, potentially allowing them to control the dream. This has always interested me greatly, because of all the potential it holds and the liberation that comes with it. Many people share this interest with be, and the phenomena of lucid dreaming has spawned a large online community of people who share experiences they've had, as well as methods of achieving lucidity in dreams. One of said methods is to train yourself to find inconsistencies in the dream by doing reality checks. Some of these are to try to push your finger through your hand, flip a light switch and see if it turns on or off any lights, or checking the time of a clock and seeing if it changes when you look away.
Near the end of spring of 2011 I started using the methods that were recommended to me by individuals I met online, and after working at it for a few months, I remembered having around 3 lucid dreams, however all of them ended very quickly, or were even prevented, because of the shock they cause. Two of the times I was forced awake immediately after becoming lucid, and the third time I convinced myself I was inside of a video game, which was clearly the only conclusion that could be reached after my dogs were killed by the bad guys from home alone and my brother was completely unfazed.
I suppose what I'm trying to get at is that lucid dreaming is an amazing experience and if you've never experienced it you're missing out.
As a random side note, the most recommended activity to do once becoming lucid is to fly. People who have done it say that it is the most amazing experience and that they could do it for hours.
your post is really interesting! i didn't much of anything about lucid dreams before reading this. I think you did a really good job explaining and the personal experiences really adds to the post.