To anyone who has had a Lucid dream, the experience is an exceptional one. Traditionally, a lucid dream refers to a dreamer’s experience of “waking up” in a dream with the freedom to do whatever they want, go where ever they want, and explore their dream world. Lucidity in dreams is a fascinating aspect not just for the dreamer, but also for psychologists, neurobiologists, and parapsychologists. The only “fact” of lucid dreaming that has been proven time and time again to be valid is that it takes both hemispheres of the brain to communicate with one another in order to achieve lucidity (usually just the right brain is at work during the dream state) during a dream.
So how does a casual dreamer get to a point of lucidity? It’s all about breaking it down, and also, learning not to try so hard. “Trying too hard” is one of the biggest hang-ups people will encounter with their mind whether they are wanting to induce a particular meditative state, wanting to calm down after a stressful day, wanting to fit into a social situation, or wanting to create a lucid dream experience. While Lucid Dreaming is going to be in the future a very hot topic of discussion (as well as astral projection and out of body experiences), for this article’s purpose, lets focus only on the basics on how to improve not only lucid dreaming, but any sort of conscious dreaming.
Step One: Take away its power
Lucidity in dreams is not unachievable – it’s even probable that you’ve already had one. Lucidity is another word for “conscious”, so any dream where you are conscious that you are dreaming, any point in time between the dream and awake state where you come to the realization that you were dreaming, even having a dream that solves a problem in your daily life – a very common form of dream – is in fact a lucid dream. In other words, at any point that you have control in waking life, you have control in your dreams. Even if it’s as simple as surrounding yourself with specific ideas by reading a novel before bed, if you dream about that novel, you have gained some form of control of what you’re dreaming about. If you have had any of those experiences then all your concern would be to focus on how to expand the control you already have on your dreams.
Step Two: Become more aware in your own life
Instead of spending so much time and energy in getting to a point of lucidity in dreams, put that energy into getting more connected with yourself. Connection with self will not only yield a better understanding of self which will lead to a better understanding of your personal dream language, but can also improve many areas of your life outside of the dream world. There are many resources on becoming more aware in your own life, but the main recommendations that will simultaneously lead to lucidity in your dreams would be the following:
- Invest in a self-empowering or guided journal. The Soul Catcher journal is a favorite of mine.
- Make a list of your beliefs
- Make a list of 10 things you really love and 10 things you really hate
- Take an online survey that pop up on places like Myspace and Facebook (You don’t have to tell anyone that you did it!)
- Make a list of your 10 greatest strengths and your 10 greatest weaknesses
- Short and Simple:
Before going to bed, go over your day in your mind and pick the best thing that happened to you and the worst thing that happened to you. This simple exercise can not only get you into contact with your feelings, but also can help with finding out what things in life you prioritize which are the very things that tend to make up our dreams.
Step Three: Become more aware of your surroundings
Putting energy into understanding yourself is one thing, but becoming more aware of your surroundings is one of the easiest paths to induce luciditity in dreaming (and one that is most covered in guides and books on how to induce lucid dreaming). The most conductive exercises are the following:
- Go to a favorite room of the house and sit in a familiar area. Set a timer (either internal or external) for 5-10 minutes. While sitting, notice everything you can about the objects you see, the sounds you hear, smells, even the texture of the room. Get as creative as possible at noticing the details. Once the timer goes off, take a blank piece of paper (or 5) and write as much of the things you recall about the room as possible. The first part of the exercises enhances awareness, the second part of the exercises reinforces that awareness with the added bonus of helping dream recall
- Turn your favorite music playing device on (radio, iTunes, iPod). If possible choose a “randomized” feature. Listen to three songs. The key to this is that during this time you’re not only listening to the songs, but you’re not doing anything else but listening. This active listening will not only enhance your appreciation of what you’re hearing, but will also enhance your ability to focus on one thing and sends the message that you are actively pursuing higher awareness in your surroundings. Apply this active consciousness to other things as well, such as eating for more results.
- Short and Simple:
Throughout your day ask yourself, “Is anything out of place here?” In most cases there won’t be. Dirty socks might be on the floor where they’re not supposed to be, but chances are they are there because you (or someone else) left them there. But in some cases there will be. Perhaps a person will be acting uncharacteristically, or you will discover something new about an aspect of your life that is “off” that you didn’t realize before. When you are constantly checking if something is out of place, you’re not only becoming more aware of patterns and “rules” of your environment, but you’re also training your mind to look for inconsistencies which will start to show up during your dreams.
Step Four: Practice Conscious Dreaming
Before going to bed, decide on what you would most like to dream about. Maybe you’d like a solution to a problem. Maybe you would like to have a talk with someone you know. Maybe you want to dream of going to the beach or sitting on top of a mountain. Or, maybe you might pray or ask for guidance according to your dogma. While this might not work at first, with practice, it will yield powerful messages as well as enhance your ability for lucid dreaming.
- K. Kennedy
Further tools:
The Self-Empowerment Journal is an excellent resource for self awareness as well as just about any Guided Journal.
The Books and Resources section of this site has excellent books about Lucid Dreaming while the Music and Meditation section has some guided meditation CDs to improve the occurrence of Lucid dreaming.