Dream Interpretation
Dreams are real life….
Every time when we dream of images, people who are close to us or strangers at time, building, etc. that puzzle and amaze us. Ever wonder why we dream. It is no accident that one third of our lives spend in sleep and that much of this in dreams sleep. This is a major part of our lives and it is clear that sleep is not just about giving body much needed time to relax, rest but about providing us with the opportunity to dream.
Dreaming has many purposes:
Ø To clarify problems
Ø To reveal true feelings about others
Ø To take pressure off when times are tough
Ø To develop creativity
Ø To rehears future success
Recalling Dreams
Ø If you have difficulty in recalling your dreams, write down your mood on waking and any special thing that might happen in your dream which you can remember.
Ø Write yourself a note before you go for sleep:”Tonight I will remember a dream”.
How to interpret our Dream: People in our life
Each of us has a set of personal symbols that grow out of our life experiences. The essence of our dreams largely arises from these unique personal experiences.
{A dream of a teacher may indicate new learning for you.}
Mother: Mother means everything for a child, whenever our mother appears in our dream there is some connection:
Ø Are you in need of mothering? Do you need to be looked after and cared for?
Ø Do you think you are over-controlling or over-protective?
Ø Are you burdened by your responsibility as a mother?
Ø Do your dreams show the freedom to have fun with your children as well as take care of them?
Father: Relationships with fathers are highly significant. Fathers symbolize authority and protection. Whether you grew up with your biological father, a stepfather or a father figure, you will have been influenced by the nature of your bond. As we grow up we learn that our parents are not perfect and in dreams this awareness may come as a shock. I dream that my father comes back to home to live with us and he was smiling and always happy. This dream makes up for what the dreamer lacks.
Sister: sisters in dreams may refer to rivalry or competition. When I was young, I dreamed that my sister was in my class at school and I got really angry. If you have similar dreams, it my means that you are still trying to resolve issues from your past or that there is a current relationship that has similar conflicts.
Brother: Brother in dreams means sibling rivalry, dreams about a brother often relate to taking care of him, of being in parental, responsible role, with the possibility of failing and being blamed if anything goes wrong. This may produce strange dreams: I dreamed that my brother changed into a little red hen and I was chasing him down the road. Being elder brother john always felt he had to look after his fast moving unpredictable brother.
I dreamed that my elder brother came to know about my boyfriend and he shut me in study room all night, leaving me alone whole night. This indicates you are hiding something very important from your elder brother and you when he came to know your relationship will be in trouble.
Grandfather: Grandfather gives a sense of continuity in family life. Like grandmothers, grandfathers are traditionally viewed as protective, caring and more indulgent than parents. Connection:
I. Do you need the wisdom of an elder to guide you on your way?
II. If your grandfather is alive, could your dream be a reminder to visit him?
Grandmother: Grandmothers are wise elder who, after death, return to us in dreams to guide us or to accompany us through difficult times. They often comfort us. At times they share their experience and symbolize in dreams.
Daughter: The birth of child may reactive anxieties about our own childhood experience. A client who was 6 year old when her sister died cause of cancer, she use to dream that her own daughter would also die because of same disease.Though such unpleasant dreams do help us to face our fears about morality and help us to overcome. A daughter in dream may indicate a desire to have daughter or may represent yourself as a little girl, perhaps your inner child. At times such dreams to indicate “can you accept the dream daughter who comes to you”
Husband: Dreams in which your husband appears usually related to pleasure and pains in your daily life, as well as pointing out hidden conflicts. As marital bliss may turn sour, so dreams dramatize this change. If you have a close bond with your partner, you may find that you dream of the same subject on the same night.
Wife: Close relationships are the subject of the most women’s dreams and as wives we dream of husbands and children. Sometime women dream of being married, about the wedding and the ceremony that is involved, but less frequently they dream of being the “wife”. Wife swapping dreams, in which married couples swap partners for sexual gratification, may reflect a longing for another partner or a desire to spice up your sex life. If dream involves a couple you know, think about whether you are attracted to either
partner. However, remember in dreams there are no censor, so the wild fantasies that you dream about can exist without you having to put the dream into practice in your waking life.
Friend: There is a saying that friends are what God gives us to make up for our families. While this may not be true for many people, it does acknowledge the importance of friends. They are there to sustain us in the worst times and to celebrate the best times. Connections-
Ø Fair-weather friend is one of your friend there when the world is wonderful, but not when you need more support?
Ø A friend in need is a friend indeed- does a friend want your help? As able to give it ?
Lover: in dreams, lover may be your waking partner, your ideal or your wish-fulfillment partner, or they may even compensate for a waking situation that is unsatisfactory.
YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE are crucial. Family, friends, lover and colleagues all play a role in bringing breadth and depth to your life. Dreams reveal what is happening below the surface and allow you to go beyond superficial ties to the roots of your connection with others. Dreams can also remind you to those who are important to you and can nudge you to make contact again.
Relationships take us to the limits our emotional range, from great joy to utter despair, and they can bring us into contact with the finality of death. In short dream will give you guidance on ways to ease the pain.
For further queries related to dreams you may contact jkusum200@gmail.com
Regards
Aabida Tarot Card Reader and Violet Flame Healer
Image taken on 2009-02-05 12:02:08 by Claudio.Ar.
What generates the senarios in my dreams? The people in my dreams, the things they say, the things they do, the things that happen? What makes it all happen? If my subconsciousness created the dream and all the people in it, and my subconsciousness controlled what the people would say in my dream, doesn’t it mean my subconsciousness is a personality in itself?
en.wikipedia.org A candy-colored clown they call the sandman Tiptoes to my room every night Just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper: “Go to sleep, everything is all right” I close my eyes Then I drift away Into the magic night I softly sway Oh smile and pray Like dreamers do Then I fall asleep To dream my dreams of you In dreams . . . I walk with you In dreams . . . I talk to you In dreams . . . you’re mine all the time We’re together In dreams . . . in dreams But just before the dawn I …
The Best Of 1992-2002 www.youtube.com Discografia The Cranberies: UNCERTAIN — 1991 www.megaupload.com EVERY BODY ELSE IS DOING IT, SO WHY CAN’T WE? — 1992 www.megaupload.com NO NEED TO ARGUE — 1994 www.megaupload.com TO THE DEPARTED — 1996 www.megaupload.com BURY THE HATCHET- 1999 www.megaupload.com Beneath the Skin (Live in Paris) www.4shared.com www.4shared.com www.4shared.com
Lucid Dreaming is a very interesting subject, and is definitely worth taking a look at. As we continue to grow in our knowledge of what happens while we are sleeping, and how we can use our brains to help us achieve success, it is also becoming apparent that we can find pleasure and entertainment in our sleep, and can become a part of it all. Lucid is described as “conscious awareness” during sleep. What this means is, we know we are dreaming, and we want to get inside the dream and have some fun. After all, while in the dream state, all things are possible! We can fly, swim underwater for a long time, see all things, and now, with practice, we can participate in these dreams.
Many people have heard for years that we only use about 10% of our brain capacity. This is why so many people now want to find out how to use more of that capacity, not just for work, but also for play.
Lucid Dreaming – a Gift for Certain People?
It was once thought that lucid dreaming was a gift given only to certain people, much like true Psychics have; but this is not the case. Anyone can learn lucid dreaming; it just takes practice and time. According to Charles McPhee, you must spend the time to identify when your sleep cycles are, and when your dream cycles come. Then, as you become more aware of your sleep cycles, you can prepare mentally for those times. “When you awaken early in the morning, before you roll over and close your eyes for another cycle, be confident that your dreams are on their way. In the early morning hours, you stand on the brink of thirty to forty-minute blocks of nonstop dreamscape action. The trick, of course, is to recognize the dreamscape.” (103).
By definition, Lucid Dreaming means “conscious awareness during the dream state.” But how can this be? Every book I’ve ever read on dreaming has described the dream state as being an entry into the unconscious, so how can you possibly be conscious during dreaming, and be able to enter your dreams. Keep reading.
Can you be Conscious while Accessing the Subconscious?
According to Charles McPhee in his book “Stop Sleeping Through your Dreams,” the answer to the question on consciousness during sleep is a resounding NO! “Our ability for consciousness—our ability to achieve reflectivity in our minds—is specifically denied us during dream sleep. Single-mindedness is a quality that defines dream experience.” If you had the ability to reflect in a dream, you would recognize instantly that you were dreaming, and wake-up, and this is why it becomes difficult to judge and evaluate our dream experience.
An important event occurs with our muscle system with the onset of dream sleep. The main motor neurons of the body are inhibited, which prevents us from “physically” acting out dreams – you wouldn’t want to actually leap out of bed and start flying around the house; this would create chaos everywhere at night and you would wake up exhausted. Unfortunately, after the motor neurons are shut down, so is the ability for consciousness during dream sleep.
100 Minutes a Night for Lucid Dreaming
When we first awaken from dream sleep, we will have a good chance of recalling our dreams, whereas if awakened from any other stage, we will not even remember dreaming. We enter various stages of sleep during 90-minute cycles all through the night (you can test this by checking the clock before you go to sleep at night, and again when you awaken during the middle of the night.) This means that if you sleep for six hours a night, you will have four “dream cycles” which you can access for information or fun (most people dream an average of 100 minutes a night). In the book “Directed Dreaming,” you discover how to ask the proper questions of your dreams in order to receive problem solving information and direction for your life; now you can go one step further and discover how to step into random dreams to find out what clues they are trying to give you.
Trick # 1 – The First Step
The first step to becoming lucid during dreaming is to start trying to recall the previous nights dreams. This takes practice, but it can be accomplished. You will soon find out that if you work backward from the dream, it is easier to piece it together. This is easiest to do, of course, right after you wake up. If a dream is not written down, or recalled quickly, it will be lost forever. When you achieve the ability for lucid dreaming, you will find out that these dreams are recalled easier and do not vanish as quickly; that’s where the fun in lucid dreaming comes from! What good is it if you are able to jump into your dreams and “play,” then not remember anything about the experience. Remembering your lucid dreams can give you a calming feeling and something to smile about during the day. Soon, you will become aware of what you want to find out in your dreams, and you can tell yourself that the next time you have the dream where you are flying, you will remember that you are dreaming and want to participate in that adventure.
Trick #2 – The Best Time to Become Lucid
One important thing to remember about your dream cycles is that during the night, the time spent dreaming grows progressively longer with each cycle. This means that the longest stretch of dreamtime occurs just before awakening. This is the time you should concentrate on trying to become lucid. You should have tracked your dream cycles (as explained above), and determined approximately when you will reach the 4th cycle, then, when you awaken after the 3rd cycle, you can consciously tell yourself that next time you see or hear something, you will be dreaming, and you would like to be aware of this dream and enter into it.
Trick #3 – Not Sleeping!
It has been found that if you do not get enough sleep, and haven’t had time to dream, your body will compensate by dreaming more! It is almost as if it’s essential for us to have dream experiences. Therefore, if you are having a hard time becoming lucid in your dreams, you might want to try staying up later for a few nights, and then you will have more dream cycles as you try to “catch-up.” When you have these extra dream cycles in the catch-up phase, it’s a great opportunity to practice your lucid dreaming, as your cycles will be long, intense, and deep. It is more difficult to wake yourself out of sleep when the body is very tired, making this an excellent opportunity for lucidity!
Trick #4 – Associations
After you have become accustomed to writing down your dreams, it’s time to pick out a few common things in the dream that will remind you that you are dreaming. For example, if you commonly dream that you are driving various kinds of sports cars, the thing to tell yourself when you are awake is that the next time you are driving a fancy car you will be dreaming. That way, you create the association in your mind to trigger the unconscious to recognize that as a dream, and help you participate. If you commonly dream of flying, that’s also a good clue that you are dreaming, and if you consciously make a note of it, the next time you find yourself flying, you will wonder what you were supposed to remember about flying. If luck is on your side, this association will trigger your thinking that if you’re flying, you must be dreaming, and with that instant thought, you will be able to start your adventure into that dream.
The first few times you attempt to do this, the awareness that you are dreaming may wake you up! This is because your consciousness has been activated, and in order to keep dreaming you need to stay in the subconscious. It takes practice to make the acceptance that you are dreaming into a passing thought, and just go with the flow. If you think about it too much, you will wake up (and, of course, will need to try it all over again). Again, according to McPhee, “Whatever you choose as a clue to identify your dreams, the association will carry over to your dreams. As you keep a dream journal and familiarize yourself with the content of your dreams, you can experiment with clues. Before long, the next time you take off in flight or are pursued by some familiar tormentor, there is an exceptionally good chance that you will have the associated thought, “Oh! I must be dreaming.” And with this awareness, you will have successfully identified the dreamscape.
What do You Want to Find Out
After you have successfully entered your dreams, the next step is to find out what you want to accomplish by being there. Do you want to make your lucid dream into a fantasy where you physically fight off attackers, or do you want to be the fastest runner in the world and successfully outrun anything that comes after you, or would you rather have fantasies of a sexual nature? This fantasy type of lucid dreaming is fine, but what purpose does it serve? It does not help us resolve anything in real life; but it can be a good stress-reliever. A better way to work with lucid dreaming is to try to get some insight into why the conflict is occurring. If you were to stop those people who are chasing you in your dreams and talk to them, what would they say? Could they reveal to you why you are running and open up the opportunity to explore unconscious fears in real life? Since the unconscious is probably trying to tell you something, it would be best to find out what it is, so you can act on it when you wake up, and resolve these difficult situations. The more you practice, the closer you will get to resolving your issues — and then you can go back to fantasy dreaming (my guess is that that’s probably what you want to do anyway), but since you are taking your time to practice becoming lucid, you might as well make it work to your advantage every now and then.
Technology Can Help
As technology advances, so does the opportunity to get help with your Lucidity. There are now high-tech devices that you can use to induce lucid dreams. Most of them can be found in New Age bookstores, or you can go to the library and find mail order catalogs that carry these devices. You can now find popular devices such as eyeshades that detect rapid eye movement and blink a red diode when you start to sleep. This red light is incorporated into the dream, and reminds the dreamer to clue in that he or she is dreaming. If you’re having trouble getting into your dreams, these devices may be able to help you relax enough to have a little fun!
I think I maybe be starting menopause. I do have an appointment with my gyno. But I have been having some really strange dreams lately. They are really effecting my sleep. I don’t know why else I would be having these dreams. Has anyone else experienced this at the onset of menopause?
Lucid dreaming means dreaming while you know that you are dreaming. The term was coined by Frederik van Eeden who used the word “lucid” in the sense of mental clarity. With practice nearly anyone can experience lucid dreams.
Lucidity is not the same as dream control. It is possible to be lucid and have little control over the dream. However, becoming lucid in a dream is likely to increase your ability to deliberately influence the events within the dream. With practice you may extend the amount of control that you have over dream events. Many lucid dreamers choose to do something permitted only by the extraordinary freedom of the dream state, such as flying.
Some people have objections to lucid dreams. They say that it is un-natural and could be harmful to the psyche. In my opinion this is not true at all. Perhaps if all of our dreams were lucid and controlled there may be some harm, but with our lucid dreams spread out among many “normal” dreams we have plenty of time for non-lucid dreaming.
While we are in a dream our mind accepts what we see and feel as reality. We often find ourselves in very unusual circumstances when compared to our waking life. You could be living in a different house or driving a different car. The sky could be green and the river yellow. In most cases we accept these things as being true. Why doesn’t the mind “think” ‘Hey! I don’t have this vehicle’ or ‘This isn’t where I live!’ or even ‘Hey! I know the sky isn’t supposed to be that color!’
This is what I call incongruities. Things in our dreams that are not “normal”. We must wonder, and many have, why our mind so readily accepts anything we experience within our dreams as being real. We know there are no monsters. We know the proper colors for things. We know our home and our daily life. While we are dreaming we often forget these things and we believe what we see in the dream.
Just knowing this and thinking about it can actually help you on your way to a lucid dream experience. An incongruity is one of the triggers to lucid dreaming. A trigger is that which inspires or begins lucidity.
Here is an example of this from one of my own lucid dreams:
I was driving a blue Ford Bronco down a dirt road. I think it was a late 70’s model. There was a young boy in the passenger seat. I was giving him a ride because his motorcycle had run out of gas. The bike was in the back. Suddenly I realized it. I did not own a blue Bronco! In the dream I slammed on the breaks and held my hands up. “I don’t own a Ford bronco!” I said, “I am dreaming!” from that point on I was lucid.
A recurring dream or nightmare can also be used as a trigger. If you have a recurring dream make a conscious effort to realize that you are dreaming the next time you are in that situation. If the dream involves a certain person or place try to think as you go to sleep, “The next time I see that house I will know that I am dreaming”. Since the dream is recurring it wont be long before you see that house, person, etc. This may take several attempts. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work the very first time.
Another technique that works for a lot of people is asking yourself “Am I dreaming?” and leaving notes for yourself. Several times a day ask yourself the question aloud. Also write the question on a note and put it on the refrigerator. Put the same message in other places where you will see them throughout the day. Many people will find them self asking that question or seeing the question written on a note while they are actually dreaming. This will trigger a lucid dream.
My first lucid dream, that is the first one I had when I was trying to achieve lucidity, was triggered by a flying dream.
Try to go to sleep in the same place and around the same time as much as possible. It is best to sleep with silence as music or other sounds can affect your dreaming. If you do choose to listen to music while you are going to sleep choose soft and soothing music, preferably without vocals. Use the same music each time. Before you go to sleep concentrate on a trigger. My first time I said, “tonight I will fly”, aloud several times and I concentrated on it. The second night I had a flying dream but I did not become lucid. On the fourth night I had another flying dream and at that time I became lucid. I was then able to fly to wherever I wanted to!
The trigger or combination of triggers that you use will depend upon you. If you have a common dream theme this is a great trigger. Just concentrate on the next time that you see or experience that you will be dreaming. Think of it as often as you can while you are awake.
Lucid dreamers often comment to themselves in dreams. You may say aloud, “This is a dream! I know that I am dreaming.”
Make a list of questions that you have about dreams. Read the list often and look over it several times and concentrate on it before you go to bed.
Can you read text in a dream? Can you add numbers in a dream? These were some questions I had on my list at one time. I had read in a dream book that it was not possible to read text or to calculate numbers in a dream, but I didn’t believe it. I eventually found myself lucid in an office. I walked over to a calendar on the wall and I read the text describing a New England farm house. I turned to another man there and said, “You see? You can read text in a dream!” I turned back to the calendar to read again and found that the words had completely changed. That amazed me and I commented to the other man about it. Next I walked over to a desk and found a calculator. I added and subtracted numbers and came up with correct answers. Yes, you can read text and perform mathematics in a dream. I proved it to myself beyond any doubt and with more confidence than I ever could have by reading anything about dreams.
Keep a Dream Journal
Keeping a dream journal is one of the most effective tools to achieving lucid dreams. Try to write down your dreams as soon after you wake up as you can. Don’t just write a narrative of what took place in the dream. Record your thoughts and emotions felt. This will help you later on as you develop your dreaming research. Be sure to note all major elements, such as people, places, animals, etc.
Keeping a dream journal will also help you a great deal in understanding your non-lucid dreams. As you continue to write in your journal and re-read your previous entries you will begin to see parallels with your dreams and your life. Gradually you will be able to recognize what the symbols in your dreams are really saying to you.
Once lucid in a dream, people can often choose their actions and exert some deliberate control over the dream content. This ability has been utilized in the laboratory to study lucid dreaming and dream psychophysiology. For example, proof that lucid dreams occur in REM sleep was achieved by having subjects give a prearranged distinct signal with deliberate eye movements to mark the points in time when they realized they were dreaming. The dreamers’ reports of the eye movements they had made in the dreams corresponded exactly to their physical eye movements as recorded by means of electro-oculograms on a polygraph record. Reports from experiments conducted using eye movement signaling in lucid dreams can be found in the literature (Dane, 1984; Fenwick et al., 1984; Hearne, 1978; LaBerge, Nagel, Dement & Zarcone, 1981; Ogilvie, Hunt, Kushniruk, & Newman, 1983).
What Are The Benefits of Lucid Dreaming?
The scientific study of dreaming and REM sleep
A variety of psychological and recreational applications.
Lucid dreaming can be a powerful tool for overcoming nightmares
In therapy, lucid dreams appear to be promising for providing personal insight, assisting with integration, and as a safe environment for experimentation with new behaviors (LaBerge & Rheingold, 1990).
Many lay people are attracted to lucid dreaming because it offers an outlet for fantasy, an opportunity for adventure unfettered by the laws of physics or society, and free of risk. As such, lucid dreaming is for many a source of creative and inspiring recreation. Anecdotes indicate that lucid dreams are helpful for artistic creativity, problem-solving, and practicing skills for waking life (LaBerge & Rheingold, 1990).
Dreams hold the most vivid mental images attainable by most people. Lucid dreaming is probably the best method for achieving the benefits such as enhancing physical performance, learning, remembering and facilitating healing.
REFERENCES
Dane, J. (1984). An empirical evaluation of two techniques for lucid dream induction. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Georgia State Univ.
Fenwick, P., Schatzman, M., Worsley, A., Adams, J., Stone, S., & Baker, A. (1984). Lucid dreaming: Correspondence between dreamed and actual events in one subject during REM sleep. Biological Psychol, 18, 243-252.
Hearne, K. M. T. (1978). Lucid dreams: An electrophysiological and psychological study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, U of Liverpool.
LaBerge, S., Nagel, L., Dement, W., & Zarcone, V. (1981). Lucid dreaming verified by volitional communication during REM sleep. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 52, 727-732.
Ogilvie, R., Hunt, H., Kushniruk, A. & Newman, J. (1983). Lucid dreams and the arousal continuum. Sleep Research, 12, 182.
LaBerge, S. & Rheingold, H. (1990). Exploring the world of lucid
dreaming. New York: Ballantine.
Image taken on 2007-08-18 12:53:26 by Pensiero.
What are Lucid Dreams?
Lucid dreaming means dreaming while you know that you are dreaming, and when you know you are dreaming within a dream you can also alter the dream course, with practice you can also develop full control over your dreams. You will be able to create anything the mind can imagine, change the environment even change your own appearance, have a chat with Abraham Lincoln or fly to the Grand Canyon.
The earliest recorded lucid dreams date back to the fifth century, the record came from a written letter by St. Augustine in 415 A.D. Another well-known recorded example of lucid dreaming came from eight century Tibetan Buddhists in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Buddhists wrote of a form of yoga designed to maintain full waking consciousness while in the dream state. This ancient documentation of dreams is said to be more advanced than the knowledge we posses today.
People have been having lucid dreams for as long as the human mind has been dreaming. The first known use of the actual term “lucid dreaming” was by Frederik van Eeden in his work “A Study of Dreams” which was published in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research in 1913. (Van Eeden also wrote the novel The Bride of Dreams). Since then the term has become part of our mainstream.
Steps to Lucid Dreaming
“I don’t dream”, have you ever heard someone say this? Or have you even said this yourself? It is not a true statement, everybody dreams nightly, but some people do not remember their dreams. The first step in learning to have lucid dreams, like in my Intuition article, is have the desire to want to remember your dreams. Now before going to bed, have a clear mind, tell yourself that “I will remember my dream when I wake up”. This is a proven and effective way to help dream recall. Having a cluttered mind or worries can distract you from remembering your dream in the morning.
Have a regular sleep schedule, try and get a routine going with a consistent bedtime and wake up time, this will also aid you in your dream recollection. Avoid alcohol consumption or taking medication before going to bed. These things may hinder you from remembering your dreams. Diet also plays a big part in dream recall, fatty foods or just eating right before you go to bed will task your body with digesting food instead of getting the rest your body needs and will divert your bodily resources from the brain.
The most important step in recalling your dreams is to keep a dream journal. Keep a pencil and a notebook or tape recorder next to your bed so that it will be within reach as soon as you wake up. You want to make the task of recording your dreams as easy as possible. Having a small lamp by your bed will help if you wake up from a dream in the middle of the night and need to record it.
Do not get out of bed immediately when you wake up, lay there in your bed keeping your eyes closed and move as little as possible. Wake up slowly and stay relaxed, hold on to your feelings you have and let your mind wander to the images of what you have just dreamed, write down as many details as possible about your dream, do not judge the content, just record it, so later you can go back and evaluate it when you are more aware. Talking to people about your dreams to friends or participating in some on-line forums will also help dream recall.
How to Have a Lucid Dream
Once you get your dream journal going and are able to recall at least two dreams a night then you can start the steps to having a lucid dream. There are many ways to key yourself to the fact that you are dreaming but I will discuss a couple of the easiest for beginners. First there is Reality Testing (RT). How reality testing is done, is you ask yourself “Am I dreaming?” Finding that out in a dream is not always the easiest thing to do, but is usually quite obvious if you are dreaming or not. If you find yourself in an unfamiliar place, or doing something or seeing something that will not likely happen in reality, you will know that you are dreaming. Now if you are in your bed or in your own house, then you can try looking at something like a clock or reading a book or something, look away, then look back and see if the time is the same or the words you read are the same. Try changing the color of something just by thinking about it. Ask yourself this question “Am I dreaming?” several times during the day, then you will be more apt to ask yourself this in a dream.
The second way to realize that you are dreaming in a dream is to recognize a Dreamsign. When your recognize this dreamsign you will realize that you are dreaming. (ie. A pink elephant, meeting deceased people, or magically flying.) By keeping a dream journal and going back and finding things that are common in your dreams, you can choose a dreamsign that is unique to you. So when you see your dreamsign you will realize your experience as a dream, and can then further the experiments or work you would like to do in your dream.
Upon becoming Lucid
The biggest problem upon becoming lucid for newbies is that once they realize they are dreaming, they get so excited that it wakes them from their dream. Actually experienced lucid dreamers can have this problem also. There are different ways to extend your dreams, if your dream shows signs of ending some people have claimed success by spinning to help the dream come back, in other words making their dream self start to spin like an ice skater, and remind yourself the next scene will be a dream, to ensure you are still dreaming do a RT. Sometimes just running, or jumping can prolong your dream. Once you become proficient in achieving a Lucid Dream state, and are able to maintain this state to some degree, the next step will be controlling your dreams.
Controlling your Dream
Now the fun part! Once you are lucid dreaming the world is yours, anything you can imagine can happen in your dream. Have you ever wanted to be a superhero? Be able to turn invisible, to live as a millionaire, to sail around the world. The thing that I personally have had experience with is flying in my dream, the first time you accomplish flight in your dream you will have the most amazing sense of freedom that you have ever felt. Just think about it, if you could fly like a bird, the wind in your hair, the freedom to go anywhere, well you get the picture. People have used the experiences in their lucid dreams to improve their waking lives also, for instance, playing the piano better, improving at ice skating, or business success, some people even claim to have religious experiences.
Science has only just begun to examine the process of lucid dreaming. Some researchers view it as an evolutionary development of mankind and our consciousness expanding. Whether we are evolving or have always had this ability, we certainly are not taking advantage of all it has to offer. If we could become more disciplined with our dream work we would have many more options in which to learn and grow