EPTIntro – What is Lucid Dreaming – A Lucid Dream is nothing more than a dream in which the dreamer knows he/she is dreaming. A dream doesn’t have to have high levels of control or vividness to be a lucid dream, though these are frequent attributes of lucid dreaming.
Why it is of interest/worth learning:
1) The first, and most obvious aspect, is for fun. Lucid dreams offer endless opportunities to fulfill your grandest dreams. Want to fly? You got it, however you can imagine it you can do it. Fantasy Adventures? Conjure your own, create an entire fantasy world if you want. Want to experience the ancient world? Let your mind take you there. In short, whatever you can imagine doing, you can do. There really isn’t any limit to what can be done in dreams. Any fantasy, adventure, or desire can be experienced in a lucid dream.
2) Practical Applications – Lucid Dreams actually have a myriad of real life useful applications. For instance if you have a big speech coming up and are worried about your performance in front of a big crowd. Well, in a lucid dream, just create a grand hall packed with guests and your ready to go. You could start small, with a classroom of just a few, and eventually work yourself up to a grand stage. Lucid Dreams are also powerful tools for sports practice. Those of you that play sports know that visualization is a powerful practice tool. Almost all successful athletes use some form of visualization , whether its imagining exactly how you want to shoot a free throw, the feeling you want in your next race, or the rehearsal of the release to hit a nice low draw. The imagery you can imagine in your mind is good, but the imagery in dreams is perfect; as vivid as real life. Moreover, in dreams your body actually sends the nerve impulses to perform a given action, only sleep paralysis prevents one from acting out there dreams. Consequently, dreams have imagery as vivid as real life AND you are actually sending the nerve impulses to perform the action when you do something in a dream. A compelling argument can be made that dream practice is nearly as useful as real life practice; after all you have real life imagery and the transmission of never impulses – this is little different than in real life.
3) Spirituality – Lucid dreams can also be powerful spiritual experiences, allowing you to experience your beliefs in ways you way never have imagined or given thought to you.
Lucid Dreams – The How To
Step 1) -The first thing you want to do when learning lucid dreaming is developing good base dream recall. One dream a night is a pretty good goal to shoot for. Recall is so critical because without good recall you won’t remember lucid dreams as vividly as you could, making them duller experiences than they could be, or even worse you could entirely forgot a lucid dream.
The best way to develop recall is just to tell yourself as you drift off to sleep that you will wake from your dreams and remember then. Keep repeating this to yourself as you go to sleep. Make sure your focusing on the meaning behind the words, and not mindlessly repeating the words themselves. It’s their meaning that is important. When you wake from a dream, write it down immediately in a dream journal (keeping one is VERY helpful for remembering dreams). Even if all you can remember is a thought, feeling, or sensation right it down. If it any point in the day more comes back, go write it down.
If you find yourself still struggling to remember dreams, it can help to set an alarm at 90 minutes intervals after you go to sleep (no shorter than 4.5 hrs). This helps because it will usually wake you up from a REM period, which occurs roughly every 90 minutes, interrupting a dream. Our minds seem to have built in “dream erasers” in that if we don’t immediately make an attempt to remember our dreams they are quickly forgotten.
Step 1b) This step can be done at the same time you are working on developing recall. This step is learning to do what is called reality checking, or state testing. State testing is just confirming to yourself whether or not you are dreaming. While your awake you inherently know that you’re not dreaming, but could you prove it; probably not. In a dream, however, because you are so used to assuming in real life that you are not dreaming, you do the same thing. When you see a person with 5 arms, 6 eyes, and green skin in a dream you’ll rationalize it saying something like “Oh, that man must have had a bad surgery”, or “he must have had experiments done on him”. Reality Checks are a method of proving to yourself that your not dreaming, and aim to break the habit of mindlessly assuming you’re awake. Reality Checks (or RC’s for short) rely on common inconsistencies within dreams. They work because when dreaming your brain is forced to model the world with no sensory input and as a result there are many inconsistencies in dreams.
The RC’s:
1) – Text/Digital RC – Look at a clock (digital) or some text, look away, then back and see if it has changed. In dreams because there is no concrete sensory input text often changes, scambles, or becomes incoherent. If this happens in your RC, your dreaming. 2) Nose Plug – Plug your nose and see if you can breathe through it still. If you can, you’re probably dreaming
3)Flying/Levitation – See if you can, if so, you’re dreaming
I would recommend using all three of these each time as a buffer system in case one fails, which happens occasionally. The key to good RC’s to make it habitual in some way. You can do them every 30 minutes, every time something seems odd or out of place, or everytime you do a certain common real life activities. When you choose to do them is up to you, as long as you work to make it a habit. One final CRITICAL note: Make certain your RC’s don’t become mindlessly. Even though you may know IRL that your awake, if you do them mindlessly with that conclusion in mind you’ll do the exact same thing in dreams.
Lucid Dreams – Step 2) Induction Techniques
There are two ways to become lucid, DILD or WILD. DILD is a dream induced lucid dream, in which something in the dream triggers you to realize your dreaming. WILD, wake initiated lucid dream, is any lucid dream induction in which you remain conscious into the dream state as your body falls asleep.
Basic DILD Induction Technique – MILD: My preferred method for DILD is the Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams, or MILD, technique. MILD basically involves repeating a mantra to yourself as you go to sleep such as "I will remember to recognize that I'm dreaming." Its much like practicing dream recall in that you need to focus on the meaning of the words and ensure your not mindlessly repeating them. If you find your attention wandering, refocus it and begin the mantra anew. You can enhance the effectiveness of MILD by setting an alarm later in the night in order to get more "chances" and, for the visually oriented person, it can be helpful to visualize yourself in a dream situation, such as flying, and recognizing the impossibility of the situation. This is a pretty darn effective technique, and the one I first used to learn to lucid dream at will.
Basic WILD Induction Technique – WILD: My favorite version involves focusing on hypnagogic imagery (imagery you see as you fall asleep, the little dots/patches of color/shapes, etc) as I fall asleep. After waking up later in the night I will begin to fall asleep again, and as I do focus on the imagery behind my eyelids. It needs to be a soft focus, like a distant and passive observer. Attempting to actively interact with the imagery or control its flow will wake you up, as will getting impatient. Never ever get aggressive or impatient when WILDing, it pretty much dooms you to failure. As you continue the hypnagogic imagery will begin to evolve, changing from random colors/shapes/dots etc, into more clear images, perhaps starting to form patterns or organized imagery. It is typically around this time that you’ll start to notice your body beginning to fall asleep and you will start experiencing what is known as SP or sleep paralysis. SP can be very frightening if your not used to it or prepared for it. People often hear all kinds of sounds, from humming, to scratching, to banging, and so forth, and it will often feel as if there are vibrations or sensations running through your body. It isn't dangerous and is actually a good sign: it means your close to being in a dream. Its tough to relax the first few times you encounter this and as is true of being in a dream as well if you get too excited/nervous/etc. you'll wake right back u so it’s imperative you remain calm. As you go through this your imagery will begin to become a moving scene, almost like watching a movie. At this point you need to allow yourself to be drawn in to the scene. NEVER attempt to force or project yourself into the scene, you will wake up. You must allow yourself to be drawn in. Once you are drawn and are in he dream, feel free to do have fun.
The attitude you need for good WILDing is that of a passive observer. You need to disinterestedly observe whatever is happening around you. It’s a delicate balance though. To little observing and you’ll just fall asleep. But if your too forceful or expectant you'll wake right back up.
Lucid Dreams – Final Notes: Neither technique is inherently better than the other. While there is a very general rule of thumb that says that WILD is easier for people who fall asleep fast and MILD can favor those who fall asleep more slowly, this is just a general trend. Experiment with both techniques before deciding what you feel suits you better. While both of these techniques benefit from WBTB (Wake-Back-to-Bed; i.e. waking up after 4.5+ hours of sleep and then attempting to LD), it is essential to WILD. It is extremely difficult, usually impossible to WILD at the beginning of the night since the body usually passes through the deeper stages 3 and 4 of sleep during the beginning of the night and it is next to impossible to remain conscious during these stages of deep sleep.
Well, it really turned out to be a wall of text, but I hope I have been able to give you guys some insight into lucid dreaming, particularly some of the how to's. If you have more questions, don't hesiate to ask.
