I’ve always found it fascinating how good fantasy and sci-fi stories mimic the activities of the flying dreamer. Perhaps their authors were fantastic dreamers themselves? Certainly, stories and illustrations make great dream inducers. If you read and view with the intent to inspire flight, you may well discover yourself aloft as you dream. For this sort of incubation, please put aside your serious literature and bring out your summer reading material instead. Paperbacks, comic strips or even children’s picture books can fuel your sleepy-time flights. 

Okay, so how do you start? Well, by flipping through a comic book, you might discover that Captain Marvel derives his ability to fly from a chant. When Julie Evans and Ed Kellogg told me they use chants in their lucid dreams, I decided to try one, too. Mine was much less complicated than their rhymes, though. I stole it from the old Superman TV series. The chant, "Up, up and away!" got me off the ground. 

Superman style, streaking though the sky in a horizontal position, is the most popular mode of travel for the flying dreamer. TV, movies, videos and DVDs often feature this type of flight. However, it can be quite intimidating for a newbie to go so fast and so high. Sometimes I’m asked, “Does levitation count as flying?” Sure, it does! Hey, even Superman hovers like a helicopter. So, if your first flight is but 1 inch off your own bed, congratulate yourself. And if you haven’t tried that style, I recommend it. It’s great practice in dream control.  

In Randall Garrett's *Too Many Magicians,* Master Sean explains that unlike a static spell, which imposes a condition, levitation is a kinetic or moving spell requiring concentration, power and precision. Sean says, "Levitation causes a tremendous psychic drain; the spell can only be held for a matter of minutes." This reminds me of trying to hold onto a lucid dream. Or a flight in a lucid dream. Dream flying may not be a physical effort. But it sure exercises the mind muscles. 

However, I’d like to dis-spell another myth. You don’t have to be lucid to fly. Arthur Dent, of *Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy* fame, first discovers he can fly while he's visiting another planet. Non-lucid dreaming is truly another planet! In *Life, The Universe And Everything* Arthur happens to be racing from an exploding volcano. Dreamers often fly to escape. The fight-or-flight reaction to fear is one of the most common reasons for becoming airborne. Personally, I applaud my non-lucid dream psyche for having the good sense to get me out of the reach of trouble, as quickly as possible.           

Later, in *So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish,* Arthur flies with his friend Ms. Fenchurch. Unless you’re a sociable dreamer, like I am, to dream of flying with another is more rare than flying alone. But it becomes more usual for dreamers who take the time and effort to work through their nightmares and anxiety dreams. When you’re not so caught up in your own problems, you can pay attention to fellow flyers. 

Zenna Henderson's "Francher kid" is descended from The People, survivors of a spaceship from another planet which crashed on Earth. He can dance in the air and make music without instruments. Dita, a full Earthling, is developing the same sort of talent. Flying doesn't mean you will always do it with grace. But, with practice, it can shift from an escape route to an art form. 

In order to get airborne, fantasy fiction often uses magic in the form of devices. Sparthera, the thief, finds a levitation charm in "Talisman" by Larry Niven and Dian Girard. Mary Poppins floats into her story by using the wind and an umbrella. On TV, an amulet she found in Egypt on an archaeological expedition, and worn in a headband, gave Andrea Thomas the power of the goddess Isis. With it, she could summon the "zephyr winds" in order to fly. Comic Super Heroes like devices, too. Dr. Strange's Cloak of Levitation allows him to drift through the air. Green Lantern flies from a power ring. It must be recharged every 24 hours at his namesake, the green lantern, which was made from extraterrestrial metal.  

The Fantastic Four got their super powers when they mutated after being exposed to cosmic radiation in outer space. Two of the Four gained flying abilities: the Human Torch and the Invisible Girl. The Invisible Girl can levitate and render herself invisible by force of mind. The Human Torch can turn his body into a living flame. Without such imaginative inspiration, it might not occur to us that, in dreams, we *don’t* have to fly in a body that looks like its physical counterpart. But even when our dream bodies are clones of our waking bodies, the conveyors of flight are many. Dreamers fly in open-air space ships, in cars, in beds, in chairs, in inner tubes and, yes, in costume.    

Many flying comic heroes have appeared on television in cartoon form, which permits those unique types of flight not possible in waking life. Computer magic is swiftly catching up. But if drawings and virtual renderings are not to your taste, there are literal examples available. The techniques perfected on the physical stage (notably in the theater production of "Peter Pan") and on the silver screen (using a moving backdrop) allow you to empathize with live human beings. 

Such a TV series was the *Greatest American Hero,* which ran from 1981-83. Aliens in a UFO gave Ralph Hinkley a super suit to do the job. Unfortunately, he kept losing the instruction booklet for the suit and could never quite attain aerodynamic stability. Likewise, flying in dreams is not always an easy task. And just because you desire to have a flying dream doesn't mean you always can.     

In Ray Bradbury's *Dark Carnival,* Uncle Einar is a member of a family with psychic powers. When he flies into a high tension wire, Uncle Einar loses his ability to fly by night. It's not unusual for a flyer to encounter wires, cords, poles and other lines in the dream world and, yes, they can hinder flight. Like the knee-jerk reaction to fear, the perennial potential to fall and the difficulties in maneuvering aloft, obstructions along your flight path are Kryptonite Factors of dreamland. Experienced pilots know that obstacles and stormy weather can ground you. Temporarily. There’s always time to try again tomorrow night. 

Fantasy uses magical means for flight or floats the fancy of emerging human psychic powers. On the other hand, science fiction tries to provide a grounded explanation of flight based on the known laws of the physical universe.      

Some sci-fi authors speculate that very light humanoids with enormous wings would be able to fly on a planet with high air pressure and low gravity. Writer Poul Anderson has carefully calculated the planetary specifics and anatomical details of such beings in his novels, *War Of The Wing-Men* and *The People of the Wind.* "Wings" by Vonda N. Mcintyre features compassionate flying men. An all-female race of sensual space-faring winged humanoids are found in Sandi Hall's *Wingwomen of Hera.* You may recall Flash Gordon's birdmen from movies or TV.    

Science fiction also hypothesizes that Terran humans might fly on such a planet, using metal wings. That’s the premise of George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle's *Windhaven.* With one-sixth Earth's gravity, wings could also be used on the Moon. In "The Menace From Earth" fifteen year-old Holly Jones flies in a volcanic bubble, two miles in diameter, that serves as the air storage tank for Luna City. Her wings are very similar to that of a metal bird and her process of flight, very much like that of a hang-glider ride. Hang-gliders and airplane pilots often report flying dreams, although, in the dream state, they tend to fly without any vehicle, like Supergirl. Or the improved version of Wonder Woman.    

Beyond planetary pull, gravity is nonexistent and no wings are necessary. In Spider and Jeanne Robinson's *Stardance,* Shara dances to music in the zero-gee environment of a space station as a camera catches her performance. Later Shara and her fellow stardancers don space suits so they can use the expressive aspects of dance to communicate with aliens. Finally, they are transferred into creatures who are able to dance in the infinity of outer space.  

Images of free-fall of outer space may lure us into the future, but there are quite practical reasons to fly, right now, here on Earth. In Robert Sheckley's "Carrier" a crippled newspaper boy has the ability to fly. Bed-ridden and handicapped folks have testified that flying helps compensate for their immobility. *The Boy Who Could Fly* is a movie that features an autistic mute. I know several people with mental problems who, nonetheless, can fly in their dreams. For everyone, dream flying can be a healthy vacation from the traumas and blahs of mundane life.    

So, why not take a vacation trip in your dreams? In "Mana From Heaven" by Roger Zelazny, Phoenix, the sorcerer, draws his powers to fly from a kind of cosmic dust brought to Earth by meteorites. Fairy dust from Never Land helps Wendy, John and Michael Darling to fly in the tale of *Peter Pan.* But you can do Peter one better. Put aside your dusty daily concerns. "Wonderful thoughts" are all that's needed to induce a flying dream before you go to sleep.     

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