Dreams seem so real, and yet they have no actual substance. Usually when we're dreaming in our sleep, we aren't aware that the activities taking place in the dream are not real. But sometimes we know we're dreaming, and that's when we can make a vigorous effort to wake ourselves up.
I remember being troubled by an unpleasant dream, and yet somehow I knew it was just a dream. And how I wanted to wake up. In deep longing I called out, "Please, God, help me wake up." The dream was making me feel as if I were at the bottom of an ocean with tons of water on top of me. But the minute I called out to God, I knew what I had to do. I began to make a vigorous effort to swim upward.
Although it felt like a strong demand on me, the dream-water made no real resistance to my upward movements. Suddenly I was out of the water—and wide awake! The effort to wake up, to come up out of the dream, was all I had needed.
