Lucid Dreaming Information

So what is "Lucid Dreaming"? Put extremely simply, it is when you're dreaming, and you KNOW you're dreaming. Some of you will be familiar with the concept, others of you will find it mind-boggling. I remember back in college having a conversation with a girl I knew at the time. We were talking about sleep and dreams, and when I mentioned that I sometimes know that I'm dreaming, she absolutely REFUSED to believe it. She wouldn't accept it at all. "That's impossible!" was one of the things I heard her say several times during that conversation, as well as "you can't be asleep AND awake at the same time", or something to that effect. She was wrong, and so are any of you that share this belief. Maybe you'll be more convinced by the end of this discussion.

OK, so is there a point to having lucid dreams? Well, when I was growing up and having these experiences, I didn't even know there was a name for them, and certainly didn't make a point of having them. It was something that just naturally occured. I didn't look for any reason in them, I just enjoyed them when they happened. I did occasionally wonder as a teen if there was some significance to them, but this was quite some time after I started having them. It wasn't until years later that I came across the subject and was like, "Hey! I've had those types of dreams!" Having said that, keep in mind that we spend approximately three quarters of our lives sleeping. If there's a way to make even better use of the time, don't you want to try it?

There are numerous ways to utilise lucid dreaming - I'll leave those for you to discover, and maybe make them the topic of a future lens. For the moment, there are a couple of things that need to be said before you I get into the 'hows?' of lucid dreaming:

1. Lucid dreams can feel more "real" than waking life - anyone who has had lucid dreams will probably tell you the same thing, but feel free to ask anyway.

The level of clarity and realism in lucid dreams can be truly awe-inspiring. If I compare waking life to my most vivid lucid dreams, I'd say it's the equivalent of going from video-tape to DVD, or maybe it's like going from watching a DVD on a normal tv, to watching a blue-ray disc on a high definition tv. The point is, the difference can be that significant. This is what makes them a great stage for any role or scene you want to play out.

2.The brain is indiscriminate to experience - the subjective experience IS real.

Think about it, a really sad story can evoke tears, even if it is fictional. Why? Because your brain doesn't divide experiences into categories of real and unreal - this is something we do essentially by choice, and/or maybe out of organizational necessity. OK, so I pretty much just made up the term "organizational necessity". What I mean though is...

"We humans...we search for ways to make sense of things. An example is our need to label everything. We're obsessive about giving things labels, so much so that we end up needing to give our labels labels, categorizing the labels, and categorizing the categories, all in a bid to keep things organized in a sensible way."

So, we have these things we call "experiences", but then we have "experiences" that seem to only occur in our own heads. Well, this won't do. Humans need things organized, so these two types of experiences have to be differentiated. The first type gets called "real". The "real" ones will be the "experiences" that other people can verify. The other type (that happen in a person's head) gets called "unreal", or "imaginary". The fact is though, the brain itself doesn't have these distinctions built into it - it can't tell the difference between a "real" experience and an "unreal" one. So, essentially, if we experience, it's real. Look it up, you'll see I'm not making this stuff up.

If we translate the above into plain language, all I'm saying is that the brain doesn't know the difference between a dream and reality. What you do in a lucid dream counts towards your life experience. Why? Because in a lucid dream, you have your consciousness and, most importantly, your awareness with you.

Put simply, if you're lucid, you're aware. You know where you are, you know what you're doing. When you're awake, you're lucid (in theory - I'm sure we all have parts of the day we completely forget, because we weren't completely lucid during those moments). In case you never realised it, awareness is like a Mastercard, you can take it and use it anywhere - including your dreams!

Something else to consider... Even if you've never had a lucid dream, I think most of us have had at least ONE dream that was SO vivid that it felt like it really happened. The level of realism was so great in fact, that the memory of the dream was as vivid as the memory of most moments in your waking life. Even as I write this, I'm thinking about parts of my day yesterday, trying to put those memories side by side in my mind with the memories of my dreams. As I look at them, I really can't see the difference between the memory of the dream scene, and the memory of the waking life scene. The only thing that actually separates them is the knowledge that one happened while I was awake (I can only confirm this by asking someone), and the other happened while I was in a dream, just before taking off and flying towards the sky. If it was possible to play the two sets of memories back on youtube or something, I could almost guarantee that the majority of people wouldn't be able to distinguish between the dream scene, and the waking one - at least, not just by looking at the "image-quality" of the memory anyway.

If you're trying to understand lucid dreaming, it's important to have some awareness of what I'm trying to explain above. On the other hand, if you just want to learn how to do it, understanding it isn't really a prerequisite at all. As I said above, I started having these experiences as a child, and I certainly had no understanding of what made them possible. Just to wrap it up neatly though, I'll summarize what I'm saying in one line: ALL experience is subjective.

If you are interested in experimenting with lucid dreaming, the first thing that comes to mind for me to tell you is that you shouldn't start wishing and/or hoping for a lucid dream. Lucid dreaming is one of those things that can become harder with the more effort you put in, because what tends to happen is that you focus a lot of energy on making this experience happen, but when it doesn't happen you become a litte tense or stressed about it. Tension and stress DO NOT help you acheive the lucid state. The more stressed you get, the more difficult it becomes.

So, don't hope for a lucid dream. Instead, think about what you're going to do WHEN you get lucid. Plan ahead, then keep your goals in mind, especially at bed time. Iterate over your list of lucid dream objectives before you fall asleep. This is important for 2 reasons:

1. It puts you in a positive mindset that you will achieve the lucid state

2. When you finally get lucid, you'll have a pre-prepared plan that will help you keep focused and maintain your lucid dream for longer

Another piece of advice I will offer is to read as much on the subject as possible. Get a couple of good books on the subject, join a forum and talk to some people, generally let yourself get comfortable and familiar with it.

Last, but by no means least, keep a dream journal. This is incredibly important. If you already keep one, great. If not, you should start now. "What if I can't remember my dreams?", I hear you ask. Well, the intention to write your dreams down should change that, even if you only remember small details at first. The more dreams you recall and record, the more your dream recall will improve.

I won't go into the specifics of all the techniques that are available because that would probably triple the length of this article. Instead I'll just give you an overview so you can familiarize yourself with the various ways one can induce a lucid dream. I'm only listing the most common methods, but there are many methods, and many variations on those methods.

DILD - Dream Induced Lucid Dream

Called this because the lucid dream is triggered by some event within the dream, it is the most straightforward out of the techniques I've tried. It relies on you realizing that you're dreaming by recognizing a clue within your dream. An example is if you walk out of your house and everyone is walking on their hands. Assuming you even notice the strangeness of the scenario, you may well wonder what the hell is going on! This would be a significant clue, or dream cue as it's commonly called. The difficult is noticing these dream oddities as abnormal. You'd be surprised the things we accept as normal during our dreams! This technique is recommended for those who have a strong sense of awareness.

MILD - Mneumonic Induced Lucid Dream

This technique was developed by Stephen LaBerge, a well known writer on the subject of lucid dreaming. It focuses on setting an intention while falling asleep, essentially programming yourself to remember to recognize that you're dreaming. The suggestion I made earlier about going over your list of lucid dream objectives before sleeping also relates to this technique. It acts as an extra reinforcement of your intention to have a lucid dream. This technique works particularly well for those who are quite suggestible, and also for those who are good at remembering to do things in the future (like making a mental note to "remember to get the milk", and then actually remembering to get the milk).

WILD - Wake Induced Lucid Dream

Probably one of trickiest techniques to work with (but in my view, the most rewarding) this method takes you from full waking consciousness directly into a lucid dream. The individual remains fully conscious as the body moves from being awake to being asleep. If you're having trouble getting your head around this idea, good! It means you actually appreciate the implications of what is being suggested here. Remain awake while falling asleep, so that you can be awake in a dream? It's just as WILD as it sounds! This technique is NOT for the faint of heart, as you are likely to hear, see, and feel some strange things during the transition across the awake/dreaming threshold.

TOOLS

The entire UNIVERSE is your playground once you make it into a Lucid Dream. Listing the endless possibilities is impossible. Instead, I'll keep things a little more grounded and provide you with some additional tips for achieving and prolonging excursions to the Lucid Dream World:

Lucid Dream Headsets

Typically, these devices detect your eye movements during REM sleep. The REM sleep period is when dreams are known to take place. When the device detects your REM sleep period, it reacts by giving light, sound, or light AND sound signals. You then recognize these audio-visual signals and become lucid in your dream. It's a very easy way to achieve a lucid dream. The devices usually aren't very cheap, but they can save MANY months of frustration.

With an electronic device, you're guaranteed to get a dream signal, every single night. A little time is still required though to get used to the signals so that you recognise them regularly. When you practise with your own dream signs, you have less chance of noticing them in a dream. In that respect, a gadget can greatly accelerate your journey to lucidity.

Binaural Beats

Binaural beat recordings use specially generated sounds to alter your brainwaves. This is nowhere near as scary as it may seem. I have used binaural beats in the past and they did help my dreams become more vivid, and increased the frequency of my lucid dreams.

Actually, what happened with me was that my dreams became more absurd, and so I ended up questioning my circumstances far more frequently which lead to me realizing that I was dreaming. I think it probably works slightly differently for each of us, because I know I had to experiment with different binaural beat audio recordings before I started seeing the results I desired. I tried several free options until I decided to buy a cd instead. It just so happened that the paid option produced the best results. It may well be different for you though. You might try binaural beats and find that the first one is the one that gets you results. They're definitely worth looking into.

Lucid Food

There is lucid food around - so they say. I can't say for sure personally, but many people swear by it. So here is a list of consumables people commonly attribute to their lucid dream success. It is advised that they you have them about half an hour before going to sleep:

Remember - what works for one person may not work for another. AND don't try them all at once!

• Milk and diary products


• Fish (especially rich in Omega-3)


• Fresh fruit juice


• Pistachio nuts


• Ice-cream


• Popcorn


• Bananas


• Pickles


• Avocado

PROLONGING LUCIDITY

Once you realize you are dreaming, it is sometimes difficult to remain lucid, or even to remain dreaming. Here are some tips to keep you lucid:

Remain calm

One of the most common things that happens is that the sheer excitement of becoming lucid wakes you up. I've had this happen a number of times. Try to stay calm by taking deep breaths and repeating something like: "I'm lucid, and I'm staying in this dream."

Spinning

If you feel your dream losing clarity or detail, you can use this technique to ground yourself back in the dream world. Twirl around your own axis (you won't get dizzy) and repeat to yourself:"When I stand still I'm still dreaming." or "When I stop I'm [insert place you want to end up]"

Look at your hands

A useful stabilizing technique is to focus on a stable reference point in the dream - the hands are a good option, as is the ground. If you feel lucidity waning, stop and take a good look at your hands. It will focus your attention back in the dream.

Rub your hands together

Rubbing your hands will provide a vivid sense of movement and friction. This will shift attention to your dream body and away from your physical body, thus preventing you from waking up. It's also useful to repeat something like, "I am still in my dream".

The running commentary

As soon as you find yourself lucid in a dream, start repeating to yourself, "I am lucid, I am in a dream", or something to this effect. It acts as an on going reminder of where you are, and what you're doing.

Shout! DEMAND lucidity!

Another trick that works very well is to call for or demand lucidity. Shouting out something like "Lucidity NOW!", or "Lucidity x1000!" is usually very effective at raising your level of lucidity if you feel it slipping.

Grab hold of something

When you feel your dream fading, grab hold of an object in the dream. It can be anything - a table, a tree, or even a person! Gab hold of the nearest thing to you. This will focus your attention on the dream environment and keep you in the dream a little longer.

Make a "to do" list (YES, it's that important I'm mentioning it twice)

If you manage to get lucid, but then can't think of anything to do in this exhilirating state, you'll most likely lose lucidity and slip into a non-lucid dream, or wake up completely. As mentioned above in "Keep your eyes on the prize", you should make a short list of things you want to do once you're in a lucid dream. Before you go to sleep, choose a couple of things from the list, then keep those things in mind as you fall asleep.

I've used this as an accompaniment to DILDs, MILDs and WILDs, and it helps a great deal already knowing what you're going to do.

Try it when waking up

On the weekend, or on any day that you don't have to get up to an alarm clock, as soon you feel yourself stirring out of your dream and into wakefulness, remind yourself NOT to move a muscle! Just lay as still as possible, and let yourself drift back to sleep, while repeating or reminding yourself that you want to be lucid in your next dream. I have used this technique several times and it has produced fantastic results!

Lucid dreaming is something that I could talk and write about for hours. Such incredible experiences are possible with it that I can't imagine I would ever get bored.

I'm still pretty much a novice though, with only around 30 lucid dreams under my belt since I officially started experimenting with it in my adult life. It seems insignificant when I think about people that I know have had thousands of lucid experiences. Still, the beauty of lucid dreaming is that one amazing experience is worth a thousand uneventful ones. And there is a lot of amazement and wonder to be experienced while lucid dreaming. With each occurrence you're ideas about exploring the dream world will expand. Your explorations won't always go according to plan, but there will always be something worth recording in your journal!

For now, I'm going to leave this where it is, and let you decide where you want to take it. This article isn't mean to be your final destination, it's only a launch pad for your exploration! Now...

Fly