Lucid Dreaming And How To Do It

Knowing you are dreaming when you are dreaming is Lucid Dreaming. I aspire to have Lucid Dreams every night and to make them last as long as I can. I want to do this as a way to learn more about myself and grow spiritually. I want to do this as a way to explore fantasies I have.

I have a long way to go to get where I want to be, but we all must work hard at anything we want to achieve in this world. The great thing is if I fail to have that Lucid Dream, I still had a good night's sleep.

I think I first became aware of these types of dreams after watching Dreamscape or Nightmare On Elm Street 3. I didn't really pursue it at that time though. Too busy being stupid  and trying to create these feelings artificially, I suppose.

Actually, the first weird memory I have of this type of stuff was the feeling of myself flying around in a circle over my bed looking down at my body when I was a child. I had that experience a few times. One time I awoke and told my mom and dad about it. It was just a nightmare, they said. Actually, I believe it was an out of body experience, which relates to LD's.

I believe if children are taught about this at a young age, they can learn to induce them at will. There's the whole debate about getting too caught up in fantasy vs reality and that sort of stuff, but there are spiritual benefits that ancient cultures knew. I think mankind misses out by not tapping into this. Maybe this is due to fear, or religion or culture, I don't know.

Imagine you are a concert pianist preparing a new song for your show the next day. In a Lucid Dream, you can practice that song or even fine tune it and adjust it. The next morning, you will remember what you rehearsed in that dream. A doctor can prepare for a big surgery, a lover can work on technique to please the one they love. You can fly in a Lucid Dream, visit places you've never been. The possibilities are limitless. You can even induce an out of body experience from a Lucid Dream.

What is most important is recalling your dreams. If you don't recall your dreams, it won't matter if you are lucid in them. The first thing you need to know is not to move when you first wake up. Lay still and try to remember a scene, a person, an action or something from your dreams. If you move, that can effect what you remember. Once you remember some aspect of that dream, you will usually recall more from it.

Once you have gathered a few thoughts, write them down in your dream journal. Keep that journal next to your bed, because the quicker you write it down, the more you recall. This is important for several reasons. If you are just wanting to analyze your dream, you can go over all the notes. Your dreams may be trying to tell you something about what is going on in your life or a change you need to make, so pay attention.

For Lucid Dreaming, it's important to keep that journal to look for dream signs. Dream signs are things that will let you know you are in a dream, and if you know you are dreaming in a dream, you are lucid. Dream signs can be places like a school you went to as a kid or an old home. They can be an old friend from childhood, objects that are out of place, a digital clock that has messed up numbers, blurry or scrambled text or a light switch that doesn't work.

Once you write down your dreams, you can begin to detect a pattern to your dream signs. Remind yourself before you go to bed, "If I'm at my old school, I will realize I am dreaming, " or whatever.

One early Lucid Dream I had happened after I had seen the movie Pleasantville. The scene where she went to the ladies room and there were no toilets is what helped trigger it. In my dream, I was in a bathroom with no toilet. I knew I was dreaming. I was pretty excited about that (A good tip is not to get too excited when you realize you are dreaming, because you can wake up too soon).

I washed my hands in the sink. It was a weird feeling, because the light in the room was dim. The mirror was foggy. I was thinking, "what do I want to do?" I had no plan (Always have a plan for when you become lucid or you will lose lucidity. Go to bed stating your plan to yourself a few times). I decided to just go with the dream and see where it took me. I walked out of the bathroom and lost lucidity. The dream continued and had an XXX rating to it but that's for another time...

It's a good idea to ask yourself if you are dreaming throughout the day. When you ask yourself that question, don't just say no and move on. Really take a good look around you and observe for a minute. If you can get used to asking that question of yourself when you are awake, you will ask yourself in a dream. If you look around and test reality, you will do it in a dream.

A few reality tests I use are:

1-Look at text or street signs, look away and look back - In dreams, text will change when you look away.

2-Look at a digital watch - In dreams, digital watches never stay consistent.

3-Cover your nose and try to breathe - In a dream, you can still breathe out of a covered nose (Had a Lucid Dream recently from this method).

4-Look at your hands - In dreams, your hands will look unusual (I've had a few Lucid Dreams from this method).

5-Flip on a light switch - In dreams, electronics will malfunction.

There are several checks you can do, but these are examples of what you can do to test reality.

Getting there is just part of the effort. Once you are lucid, you can lose it very easily. I've had many that fade away as quickly as they come. Remember to stay calm when you get lucid and have a plan. Maybe you want to fly the first time. I've done that, and it is pretty cool.

If a dream scene is starting to fade, try to ground yourself in the dream to stabilize it. Rub your hands together. Saying things like "increase clarity" or "increase lucidity" while you rub your hands will help. I did all of these in a recent Lucid Dream, and it made it last longer. Panic set in and ended it before it got really good.

Now, I am no expert on this, but I've had enough success to know it's real and how good you feel when you wake up knowing you were lucid in a dream. I recommend books by Stephen LaBerge and Robert Moss if you want to read more about it. Waking Life is a good movie that talks about this, among other subjects. It's a very philosophical movie that will make you think.