-
- Lucid dreamers create their dream plots in advance
-
- Lucid dreamers feel the exhilarating freedom of flying.
-
- Lucid dreamers meet and interact with their heroes.
-
- Lucid dreamers summon dream figures for sexual intimacy.
-
- Lucid dreamers travel in time and space to other "dimensions".
-
- Lucid dreamers discover a personal meaning to life.
-
- Lucid dreamers summon and converse with their true selves.
-
- Lucid dreamers practice and improve real life skills.
-
- Lucid dreamers safely overcome fears and phobias.
-
- Lucid dreamers process grief by reuniting with lost loved ones.
-
- Lucid dreamers explore their inner creative potential.
-
- Lucid dreamers discover new "worlds" that lie beyond words.
benefits of lucid dreaming
1. Keep a dream journal. Keep it close by your bed at night, and write down your dream immediately after waking, or the emotions and sensations you experience right when you wake up. This will train you to remember more of your dreams, which is important for lucid dreaming. Plus, there's not much point in controlling your dreams if you forget the experience before the morning. Alternatively, keep a recording device by your bed. Also you might remember more of your dream if you stay still for a few minutes concentrating on the memory before you start writing.
2. Use reality checks frequently. Every few hours during the day, ask yourself "Am I dreaming?" and perform one of the following reality checks. With enough practice, you'll start following the habit in your dreams as well, cluing you into the fact that you're dreaming.
Pinch your nose, close your mouth and test whether you can still breathe. Simply look at your hands and feet. These are often distorted in dreams when you inspect them closely. Read a page of text or the time on a clock, look away, then look back again. In dreams, the text or time will be blurry or nonsensical, or will be different each time you look. Attempt to push your index finger straight through the opposite palm. Really expect it to go through, asking yourself whether your dreaming or not both before and after attempting. During a dream, your finger would pass straight through your opposite palm, and asking yourself the question twice will increase your chances of realizing this is not normal.
4. Learn to recognize your personal dream signs. Read through your journal regularly and look for recurring "dream signs." These are recurring situations or events that you may notice in your dreams. Become familiar with these, and you may recognize them while you dream, and therefore notice that you're dreaming. You probably know some of these already. Common dream events include losing your teeth, being chased by something large, or going into public without clothes on.
5. Drift back to sleep when awakened from a dream. When you wake up and remember your dream, write it down in your dream journal, then close your eyes and focus on the dream. Imagine that you were in the dream, noticed a dream sign or reality check, and realized it was a dream. Hold on to this thought as you drift back to sleep, and you may enter a lucid dream. Note that most lucid dreams occur while the person is fully asleep, usually because he notices a bizarre event and realizes he's in a dream. This is just an alternate trigger that starts off about 25% of lucid dreams.
6. Consider purchasing a light alarm. Go online and purchase a light-based, instead of a sound-based alarm, or even a specialized "DreamLight" designed to induce lucid dreaming. Set it for 4.5, 6, or 7 hours after you fall asleep, or set it to go off every hour if possible. While sound, touch, or other stimuli during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep can also make a dreamer aware of the fact he's dreaming, one study shows that light cues are most effective. You don't want to actually wake yourself up . Keep the light alarm more than arm's reach away from your bed, and/or cover it with a sheet to dim the light
Learn to lucid dream
3. Repeat "I will be aware that I'm dreaming" each time you fall asleep. Each night as you fall asleep, repeat to yourself "I will know I'm dreaming" or a similar phrase until you drift out of consciousness. This technique is known as Mnemonic Induction to Lucid Dreaming, or MILD. Mnemonic induction just means "using memory aids," or in this case using a rote phrase to turn the awareness of your dreaming into an automatic habit. Some people like to combine this step with a reality check by staring at their hands for a few minutes before they go to sleep.
The term lucid dreaming was first coined by Frederik van Eaden, a Dutch writer and psychiatrist in the late 19th century. It is a special kind of dream in which the dreamer is aware of the fact that he or she is dreaming. The word “lucid” simply means “aware” or “conscious”.
Early references to the phenomenon are found in ancient Greek writing. For example, the philosopher Aristotle wrote: 'often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream'. Meanwhile, the physician Galen of Pergamon used lucid dreams as a form of therapy. In addition, a letter written by Saint Augustine of Hippo in 415 AD tells the story of a dreamer, Doctor Gennadius, and refers to lucid dreaming.
In Eastern thought, cultivating the dreamer's ability to be aware that he or she is dreaming is central to both the Tibetan Buddhist practice of dream Yoga, and the ancient Indian Hindu practice of Yoga nidra. The cultivation of such awareness was common practice among early Buddhists.