"Destroying A School Bus"

Oh fun!  Ripping, pulling, grinding, throwing, thrashing; I destroy the yellow beast.  Impervious to it's attemps to flee, I delight in my destructive deviancy as I cry out "School buses are for stupid heads!"
No fear now, just the yellow tops of buses.  
Flap flap is my cape in the breeze as I execute the the next in line.  Sweet tearing metal, ripping a skylight into my ride.  Take that you scoundrel.

Topic: Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming is basically the ability for one to remain conscious in a dream.  The gradient of awareness varies much, but with practice it seems that most can learn this technique.  "If dreaming is considered to be an altered state of consiousness, then lucid dreaming can be considered an altered state of dreaming".  

The first description of a lucid dream was by Saint Augustine.  He told of a dream had by a physician of his, Gennadius.  Gennadius had a fear that there was nothing in the afterlife.  In his dream, an angel visits him as asks him about his dream, and in it, he becomes aware that he is in fact having a dream, and is still conscious of his body that is still in the waking world.  

Tibetan Buhhdists have also shown the abilty to activate dream lucidity.  The goal of the monk was too realize consciousness while lucid dreaming.  Through these actions they could attain enlightenment.

Lucid dreams are often described as having a greater enhancemnt of imagery; whether it be sound, smells, or audio input that is being exaggerated.  Many famous inventors, musicians, artist etc claim to have been inspired by lucid dreams.  

There have even been labratory tests to determine if it is possible for one to become conscious while still remaining in REM sleep.  During REM, which represents the dream state, the eyes move quickly back and forth.  "Dreamers" have been monitired with special equiptment, and then requested to make specific eye movement patterns when they realize that they are conscious.  

Of the articles I read is seems that while it has been shown that lucid dreams do indeed happen, and than one can train themselves to have lucid dreams, there is still a lot that is unknown about them in general.  Some claim that lucid dreaming gives us an opportunity for unrestricted play while we sleep.  Another theorist suggests that we can use lucid dreams to interact with dream characters--characters who represent vices within our waking lives.  Charles Tart, the editor of Altered States of Consciousness, states that it may be possibel to prefect a form of two way communication between a dreamer and a waking subject.  Fascinating.  Yes, it's fascinating.

Discuss/Interpret your artifact in relationship to concepts from your topic: 
If the dream represented by this atrifact was the product of a lucid dream, then it does seem to me that there IS a great deal of unrestricted freedom of being in dreams.  To be your favorite cartoon character, or in this case, your favorite cartoon characters favorite pretend hero, and best yet, to retain the ability to realize that it is a dream, and that you are in control.  That would be an exiting ability.  I wish I was able to make more of a connection between my topic and my artifact.  Except that it's like Carl Sagan always says..."Light is fast, but space is empty",  Those two concepts are related because they both deal with subjects in a scientific realm, but in most ways, they are unrelated.  That's how I feel about relating the topic of lucid dreams to the representation of a dream.

Refrences:
Creative Dreaming. / Garfield, Patricia L. / New York /1975,c1974
Robert L. Van de Castle, Our Dreaming Mind