We all dream, even those of us who think they don’t! Some of us even dream while we are awake. But let’s turn that around. How would you like to be awake while you dream? I’m not talking about daydreaming; I’m talking about lucid dreaming.
What does lucid dreaming mean? Well until recently it didn’t mean anything in the academic world and the rest of the world tended to dismiss it as nightmares at best or a mental problem at worst.
Then, in 1968, Celia Green, a writer on psychology, discovered there actually was a state between dreaming and being fully awake; a state where you could be awake inside your own dream!
Imagine being awake inside a dream! In what must best be described as a balance between emotion and reason. The dreamer accepts the reality of the dream while knowing it must by its very nature be inherently unreal.
This level of awareness gives the dreamer some control over what he or she does. On the one hand this might be viewed as fun; almost like having a computer game in your head, on the other hand controlled experiments with lucid dreaming have been shown to lessen the occurrence of nightmares and help with psychological problems like self-harm.
Scientists are even working on recreating near-death experiences lucidly to give them a better and, hopefully, safer understanding of the phenomenon.
Controlling their dreams seems to give the lucid dreamer a greater sense of control over their own waking lives. Practiced lucid dreamers can use the hours spent asleep as extra thinking time or create a virtual playground in their own minds.
It all sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Weird, and a little scary, but fun nonetheless. Surely, though, you have to be adept at this kind of thing. Don’t you need special, mystical powers to be a lucid dreamer?
It seems not. All you need is curiosity, a sense of adventure and a few hints on how to do it. After all, they are your dreams. Why shouldn’t you be allowed to explore them?
A simple technique everyone can practice is Dream Recall. This is sometimes referred to as the first step towards lucid dreaming. By recording (either vocally in a recorder or simply with a pen and paper) your dreams you become more familiar with them. You will come to recognize repeated patterns, certain recurring symbols. This kind of recall will bring you consciously closer to your dreams.
It’s usually best to record dreams immediately upon waking as they have a habit of flitting away shortly afterwards. If possible stay in the same position you were sleeping in, keep your eyes shut if you can and talk yourself through the dream in real time, as if it is still happening to you.
Increasing familiarity with your dreams will enable you to recognize these patterns or symbols when they occur again. This moment of recognition might be all it takes to tell you, “This is a dream!” That’s the moment you become a lucid dreamer. From then on in the dream is yours, if you can keep from waking up.
Because your REM cycles, or dream activities, get longer and deeper as the night goes on, setting an alarm to wake you a few hours before you actually need to get up can help induce lucid dreaming. The chances are that you were already dreaming. Lying in the dark rested and with nowhere else to go you are in the perfect position to recapture that dream and now, with your awareness of lucid dreaming, you may find yourself able to direct what happens next.
Alternating your wake-up times, or the Cycle Adjustment Technique, can have a similar effect. By setting your alarm early one day and for the normal time the next – and keeping repeating – you can confuse you body into being ready to wake when it doesn’t have to. In other words you are half awake already, but probably still dreaming. Where you go from there is only a matter of determination and practice.
The ultimate in lucid dreaming, though, has to be the WILD (wake initiated lucid dream) stage. The WILD adept learns to recognize the hypnologic state which occurs as one moves from wakefulness to sleep. By maintaining conscious awareness in the passage through this state it is possible to go directly from wakefulness to lucid dreaming.
But isn’t it dangerous? Don’t you risk getting confused between dream and reality? Well, no, because dreams are still fantastical experiences. If you aren’t sure whether you are awake of asleep, try sticking your finger through your leg, or put your head in a bucket of water. If the finger goes all the way in and you can still breathe in the bucket – it’s a dream! Enjoy!
Maybe pigs cannot fly yet, but you sure can. At least in your dreams. Lucid dreaming is a mysterious art form that many people wish they could master. You may have experienced a lucid dream, in which you were aware you were dreaming.
But would it not be great if you could have that self-awareness on a regular basis, and as a result able to influence your dreams?
Dreaming is realizing you are dreaming as you dream. When you reach the Lucid Dreaming state, you will be able to control your dreams and experience anything you wish.
Maybe you would like to take a flight through the sky or make other impossible things possible. Or maybe you would like to tell your boss you think he is unfair, without getting fired in real life.
There are many appeals to lucid dreaming, and if you can learn the elusive skill, then a world of excitement and an opportunity for personal growth await you.
I remember standing out on a deck in the foggy night air and having a most peculiar, amazing thought: I am dreaming right now. I can walk through walls. And then I immediately walked through a wall! Well, at least in my dream!
I will never forget this accidental lucid dream and I certainly would like to experience something like that again. But how? In order to become an expert lucid dreamer, you must understand the basics of the art.
1) Why not just have normal dreams?
What is the effect of lucid dreaming? Not only do we all desire to control our environment and make fantastical things happen, but a dream is a safe place to rehearse for our waking life.
This is not to say our real world fears and anxieties do not follow us into our sleep, but no character or plot we conjure up in our dreams can physically harm us and no one but the dreamer will know what happens in a dream.
This means that a baseball player can practice his swing, a politician can practice her speech, or a newly widowed man can find love again – all without actual consequences.
Lucid dreaming gives people a forum; a place they can test the water or fulfill their desires. It also gives them a place to confront their fears. When we are able to control our dreams, we can turn those nightmares into memorable, productive fantasies.
2) How to lucid dream
Many folks spend years and years perfecting the craft of lucid dreaming, but if you are like me, you are not about to dedicate your time and energy to such an endeavor.
After all, you probably have a full-time job or children to worry about! So what are some simple tips to having clear, lucid dreams? Luckily, there are easy things you and I can do to control our dreams.
a. Keep a dream journal
The first step toward effective lucid dreaming is to log all your dreams on paper. As soon as you wake up from a dream, jot down everything you remember from it.
Do this every morning as well. The better your dream recall, the better your ability to lucid dream will be. One of the goals of maintaining a dream diary is to find out if you are already having lucid dreams as is! You may very well be.
b. Notice trends
Now that you have a log of your dreams, you can begin to take them apart. Are there patterns to your dreams? For example, do certain objects always show up, is there a setting that you commonly dream about, do you feel your dream is first or third person, etc?
Once you notice these regularities, you can then train yourself to respond to them with the question – Am I dreaming or is this real?
If you raise your self-consciousness and doubt, lucid dreaming is all the more possible.
c. Expect to lucid dream
Every night before you go to sleep, write down on paper – I will have a lucid dream.
Studies have shown that when you suggest things to your subconscious, while conscious, your suggestions are often taken to heart!
So if you plan on having a lucid dream, say so.
d. Short is not as sweet
Many people complain that they cannot prolong their lucid dreams. There are three techniques to doing just that. When you realize you are in a dream, spin around, rub your hands together, and focus on an object in it, repeating to yourself – the next scene will be a dream.
After you practice some of these techniques, you may want to invest in lucid dreaming products and courses too.
One of the biggest mysteries about lucid dreaming is whether or not the ancient art serves to increase the frequency of lucid dreams or on the other hand, simply improves lucid dream recall.
Either way, the more aware we are of our dreams, the more aware we will be in our waking life. If we want clarity about real world problems, we can gain it by having clarity in our dreams!
Lucid dreaming is closely related to astral projection! So, I would be sharing some of my lucid dreaming journeys here and I wish you many sweet lucid dreams this evening.
Copyright (c) 2008 Steven Magill
Lucid dreaming is something that many people wish they could do. Often when they realize they are lucid dreaming they get so excited that they wake themselves up! Lucid dreaming, for those who don’t yet know, is sort of like conscious dreaming. At some point during the dream you realize that you are dreaming. That is a lucid dream. Some people find that when they are lucid dreaming they can actually control what is happening during their dreams. So how do you induce a lucid dream? Here is a tutorial on step by step lucid dreaming.
The first step in step by step lucid dreaming is learning what time is the best time to have a lucid dream. Pay attention to your personal sleep schedule and how long it takes you to have a dream in the first place (this can be accomplished by noting the time when you wake up from a dream and comparing it to the time you fell asleep). Typically lucid dreams happen during REM sleep which is the sleep cycle you go through right before waking up. The easiest way to achieve a REM cycle is to wake up earlier than you normally would, stay awake for an hour to an hour and a half and then go back to sleep. Your brain should drop right into the REM cycle and you can have your lucid dream.
The second step in step by step lucid dreaming is deciding to have a lucid dream. This is often called the MILD technique (Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dreaming). While you are falling asleep make the decision to remember your dream and then concentrate only on that idea. Repeat to yourself “I will remember my next dream.” This will tell your brain to pay attention to the next dream you have and chances are high that when the dream starts you will know that you are dreaming, which is what a lucid dream is.
The third step in our step by step lucid dreaming tutorial is to remember your dreams. Keep a dream journal and write down every detail that you remember from your dreams. By making yourself remember details from all of your dreams, you are telling your brain that your dreams are just as important to you as your waking life and it will start to stay more alert while you are dreaming. Keeping a record of all of your dreams can alert you to patterns in your dreaming and help you with the fourth and final step in our step by step lucid dreaming tutorial.
Perform regular reality checks. Intermittently throughout your day start asking yourself if you are awake or dreaming. Look around, take stock of your situation and consciously decide if you are awake or dreaming. Make sure to do this when you encounter any people, places or situations that are regular players in your dreams. Your brain will start to do this on its own and before you know it; your brain will tell you when you are dreaming!
Lucid Dreaming is a term coined by Frederik van Eeden. Very simply put, a dream in which you are aware that you are dreaming is called a Lucid Dream. The term ‘lucid’ is thus synonymous with ‘conscious’ or ‘aware’. But the degree of your ‘lucidity’ can vary according to the strength of your conscious focus and its stability, the presence of the critical faculty and memory ability, and finally, your ability to take control of the dream itself.
Similar to Astral Projection, Lucid Dreams can be spontaneous or intentional experiences, yet they are somewhat more commonly remembered. Sometimes people become lucid in a dream seemingly without any particular reason, just suddenly realizing that they are dreaming. But mostly, lucidity is triggered by an incongruity which would not occur in physical life, such as flying, or being unable to turn off a light switch, or words rearranging themselves, or anything that ‘cannot’ happen in the physical world.
The great thing about Lucid Dreaming is that once you recognize you’re inside a dream, you can change or create whatever you like in the dream. By becoming aware and exercising your will to choose, you get to experience just what you want to experience! Consider that for a moment. Not many people ever get a chance like that, certainly not so easily. It really is your own ‘Personal Virtual Reality’, with a flexibility and realism far exceeding the most advanced computer simulation.
I think this is best thing about them – you can do anything in a Lucid Dream. And I mean anything! There are no limits or boundaries to your experience as there are in the physical world, nor is there any time delay to what you create – everything appears virtually instantly as you desire it. I’m not sure how else to describe this but to say it’s very fulfilling and freedom engendering. And really really really fun!
This deeply satisfying aspect of these experiences may be partly why the Astral Plane has also been called the ‘Desire World.’ And because dreams take place within the Astral Plane, by becoming lucid we find we are already in the Astral! If and when we want to ‘project’ from a Lucid Dream, we just stop creating stuff, make it all disappear, and try to see what’s there. We may find ourselves exploring or interacting with other conscious dreamers or projectors on the Astral. Or we can return to our bedroom for an instant Etheric Projection.
Another huge point that needs to be made is that dreams are totally realistic to us when we’re experiencing them. It is only upon later reflection we may call an experience ‘just a dream’. All our senses, emotions, thoughts, feelings in a dream are as though the dream were ‘actually’ happening. It is! It’s not less real, it’s just more dynamic and fluid. And, when we become lucid, we usually find the acuteness and sensational aspects of the experience increase many times over, similar or beyond peak alertness while awake.
”Some dream events are more vivid than waking ones. It is only when the personality passes out of the dream experience that it may seem unreal in retrospect.” – Seth, Seth, Dreams and Projections in Consciousness p.219
And now for the real good news: you can induce Lucid Dreams too. One of these techniques is almost exactly the same as projection ones. In this case the difference in name is merely a technicality. But most Lucid Dreaming techniques involve learning to ‘wake up’ within a normal dream, at which point you decide what to do from there. There are a number of ways of doing this, some more effective than others, but I’ve made it my quest to explore and improve on them all.
Lucid Dreams can happen whenever regular dreams happen, and there are typically around four or five major dream periods in a single night, and each period can contain multiple dreams. So there is plenty of opportunity to make the most of our dreams. It’s actually quite hard to describe the sense of wonder that comes with Lucid Dreams! But okay, you convinced me, I will try…
To you – the self in the dream – the dream IS real, simply because that IS the ‘reality’ you are in. But at the same time you ‘know’ you are ‘dreaming’. From that inside perspective, it is your waking life that can seem like some kind of vague dream! It’s truly only a matter of perspective or focus as to what is ‘more’ or ‘less’ real at any particular time.
To use an analogy, it is as if you hold both hands out wide: one hand is your waking self and one hand is your dreaming self. If you turn your head and shift your focus from one hand to the other and back, is either ‘less real’? No way – both exist simultaneously. You remember the ‘opposite’ exists, but you are simply not focussed there. Just as both hands are ‘yours’, your waking and dreaming selves are both ‘you’.
By learning to dream with lucidity, we are blending our waking self and dreaming self identities in a way that will enrich the experience of both. We bring an ability to focus better consciously in the dream world and our creative abilities surface far more easily in waking life. And in the process we explore many new ideas and have a whole heap of fun!
Funny as it might sound, you can ‘induce’ a spontaneous Astral Experience. To do this you need to fill your mind up with Astral Projection and Lucid dreaming information by reading about it, thinking about it, discussing it. Some advocate becoming obsessed by these subjects to do this (I do not however. From experience I can say this information overload was more of a setback than a help. Concise quality information is a far better option. Meaning this course of course. 
But basically by this you are just suggesting and prompting your subconscious to induce an experience during or after sleep, and there are far more effective techniques for doing this too.
In the end, intellectual knowledge only helps so much. Both Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming are things you DO, and get better at. They involve intentional active practices, like learning to play an instrument or a sport. Knowing about something is not the same as experiencing it. You can’t become an expert by studying the Astral second-hand, any more than you can become a violinist by reading music. Real results are achieved by the right attitude and actually using the techniques you learn.
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!
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.
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
Most lucid dreams occur between 5AM and 8 AM, times that are most likely to be longer REM periods. LaBerge’s work at Stanford confirmed this occurrence. The first step is to develop good dream recall. If one cannot remember dreams at all or has difficulty remembering dreams, then lucid dreaming is nearly impossible. Awareness must be developed in the area of dreaming. First of all plenty of sleep is necessary, and the longer one sleeps, the more dreams are possible. As the night progresses, dream periods get longer and closer together until near wake up time, the dreams are forty-five to sixty minutes long and only a half hour apart. The first dream of the night is the shortest, perhaps only five to ten minutes in length.
Dream recall happens when the dreamer awakens directly from the dream, which happens after almost every dream a person has. We fall back to sleep and forget the dream because we are in the habit of it. One way around this would be to set an alarm clock to wake you up at a time when you are likely to be dreaming. You could set your alarm for ninety minutes after bedtime, or other various intervals of ninety minutes from bedtime. If you are aiming for a period of time that would be richer with dream time, try setting the alarm(s) for six or seven hours after you go to sleep. Dreams are thickest and most likely during the late morning hours of sleep, right after or before dawn, depending on when you like to wake up. The probability of a lucid dream during this time is also double than in the earlier part of the sleep period.
Remind yourself of your intention to remember your dreams before you go to bed. Motivation is a big factor in the success or failure of dream recall. It will help to keep records of the dreams you recall, for this will inspire more dreams to be remembered.
As soon as you awaken in the morning ask yourself immediately what you were dreaming, for you were just dreaming before you woke up, if you woke up naturally. If you cannot remember to ask yourself this, try putting a note next to your bed reminding yourself to ask this question. Don’t move when you wake up. Stay still. Don’t think about anything either. If you can’t remember what you were dreaming, ask yourself what feelings or thoughts are present. This will give you clues to what you were just experiencing and might jog your memory. This may bring back the entire dream. At first, only fragments of the dream will be remembered by the person who does not have good dream recall, but with practice, more will be revealed without as much effort.
Many techniques are available to train oneself to dream lucidly. One common technique taught by many, including the Don Juan character in Carlos Castenada’s books, is to look for the hands in the dream. Once the hands are seen, one can realize one is dreaming because the signal was recognized, and then one is lucid in the dream. If the hands begin to change, one must look away or lucidity might be lost.
A very potent technique for inducing lucid dreams is to train the waking life consciousness to always be asking itself if it is dreaming. Every 90 minutes, one could ask oneself if he or she is awake or dreaming, and always answer, “Yes, I am dreaming. This is a “conditioned response” that will show up in the dream world.
Bizarre occurrences are dreamsigns, triggers which become doors to lucidity. A single out of place object, character or circumstance can be a dreamsign. These are clues to show you that you are dreaming. For instance, a streetlight is flashing blue, rather than the familiar red, green or yellow. This would be a dreamsign for the dreamer, and the dreamer could then realize that this is a dream, rather than physical reality. Then lucidity is achieved. If a tree in a familiar courtyard were pink instead of green, this could be a dreamsign. If your boss comes into work wearing a tutu, when this is completely out of character for that person, this can also be a sign that the dreamer is dreaming. Almost every dream has dreamsigns, some defiance of physical laws, social laws, or out-of-the-ordinary interactions of objects, people and things. By training yourself to recognize dreamsigns, you can wake up in any dream you like. Train the waking consciousness to look for out-of-place objects, situations or people in waking life. Noticing that one’s boss is wearing an orange hat with a feather in it when it is completely out of character for him or her, this could be considered a dreamsign. A dreamsign is something that is unordinary, like purple kittens, and this would be a signal to the dreamer that he or she is dreaming. Impossible situations and objects are possible only in a dream.
Another discipline is looking for dreamsigns during waking hours and then this mental attention will be carried into the dream world. Simply recognize the out of the ordinary experiences all around every day, confirm that it is a dream, and as the dreamworld presents unusual events, the mind will respond similarly in the dream state as it did in the waking state by confirming that it is a dream.
An ancient Tibetan Buddhist technique is to maintain wakeful consciousness as one drifts off to sleep. Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold say in their book Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming (1990), that Rinpoche, a Tibetan teacher who was visiting America, taught people to “think of all our experiences as dreams and to try to maintain unbroken continuity of consciousness between the two states of sleep and waking.” One could most easily do this when going back to sleep after just having awakened from a dream. It is more difficult if the first REM state hasn’t been reached yet.
Another is called “Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams,” or MILD, the phrase coined by Stephen LaBerge. Mnemonic means “something that aids the memory.” It is difficult for most of us to even remember that we are trying to awaken in a dream, let alone do so. Stephen LaBerge’s MILD technique can assist with this. This is a close cousin to the technique of looking for dreamsigns, but differs because you are the one who picks something to look for, rather than just waiting for something out of the ordinary to happen. For instance, one could program oneself to wake up in a dream every time he or she opens a door. This is done by remembering in waking life to check whether or not one is dreaming every time a door is opened in waking life. Then, in the dreaming life, this will automatically happen again, the question will be posed and the dreamer will then awaken in the dream.
A second version of this method, MILD, is to recall the dream just awakened from. While returning to sleep, imagine returning to that dream and waking up inside it. Before falling back to sleep, pick something you want to do as soon as you see yourself awakening in the dream, like flying or something like that. Often, the dream one was having is returned to and one and might remember that one had seen oneself waking up in this particular dream.
Another method for inducing lucid dreams is called “sleep redistribution.” A normal eight hour period of sleep might be between midnight and 8 AM. With this method, the eight hour sleep period is cut short by sleeping only until 6 AM. One goes about his or her business for two hours and then goes back to bed from 8 AM to 10 AM. During these two hours, one will have more dreams than was possible from 6 AM to 8 AM in normal sleep. It is a fact that within only a few moments of falling back to sleep, especially during the morning period, REM can be re-entered quite quickly.
Stephen LaBerge’s invention, the Nova Dreamer, also called Dream Light, is a wonderful device that delivers a trigger while the dreamer is dreaming. Other methods mentioned above deal with bringing a trained waking awareness into the world of dreams, but this method sends a direct cue into the dream as it is actually happening. This device, as mentioned before, flashes light into the dreamer’s closed eyes whenever it detects REM. The dreamer will then see flashing lights in the dream and may use the trigger to wake up in the dream. It is most effective if the waking mind is trained to look for light sources in the dream. I have personally found this device quite effective.
Wake Initiated Lucid Dreams, or WILDs, are lucid dreams based on the idea that one can fall asleep consciously. This means that the body falls asleep while retaining full wakefulness and enters the dream state with consciousness intact. Full lucidity would be present immediately with the beginning of the dream. This is probably the most difficult technique of all, but it has been reported that it works, especially from the Tibetan Monks. A WILD is most likely when one awakens during the night and then goes back to sleep. It is not as effective in the beginning of the night for the deep delta sleep must be attained first before much else can happen. The ability to stay awake is quite a skill indeed, and might only be possible for meditators who have gained much mastery in not slipping over the sleep/awake border so easily into sleep. It takes great training to straddle this border without losing the wakefulness of waking life consciousness.