Four Powerful Tricks for Successful Lucid Dreaming
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!