Lucid Dreaming

Very simply put, a lucid dream is a dream in which you are aware that you are dreaming. So long as you remain conscious of this fact you remain lucid (‘lucid’ is synonomous with ‘aware’ or ‘clarity’.) Lucidity is a sense or more a ‘knowing’ of your participation in dream reality, brought about by the realization that you’re dreaming. The degree of your lucidity will vary between lucid dreams. You may be dimly aware that this is a dream, you may be consciously participating in a ‘normal dream’, you may have partial recognition and control, or you may be fully

I’ve spoken to plenty of people about lucid dreaming, and it’s interesting to hear how many people have had lucid dream experiences spontaneously. It’s a lot more common than one might think, simply because it’s not something everyone talks about that often. Not many people realize it’s something you can learn to do intentionally and regularly, mostly these short lucid dreams get passed off as curiosities and aren’t very well developed. There is usually a brief recognition that you’re dreaming, and without knowing what to do with it, you often end up just falling back into ‘normal dream’ mode. It

Lucid Dreams can happen whenever regular dreams happen. When we sleep we go through a number of different cycle of consciousness, delving deep into our psyche and ‘resurfacing’ a number of times. There are typically around four or five major dream periods in a single night, approximately an hour and a half apart, but getting close together as the night progresses. Each period can contain multiple dreams, so there is plenty of opportunity to make the most of our dreams. When we start training our dream recall, we can find ourselves becoming more conscious and even waking up in the

The really good news is that you can intentionally instigate or ‘induce’ lucid dreams. There are two main ways of doing this. With some training, you can enter directly into a lucid dream from the waking state. This is called ‘Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming’ or WILD for short. This technique is very similar to many astral projection techniques in that you consciously transition from the waking to the sleeping state. But most lucid dreaming techniques involve learning to ‘wake up’ within a normal dream, at which point you decide what you want to do from there. This is called ‘Dream

Remember how I said *anything* is possible in a Lucid Dream? Well, it is, but only if you *believe* that. What you believe in a Lucid Dream is very powerful, because your thoughts will create that reality virtually instantly. And this includes limiting beliefs too. As Henry Ford said: “Believe you can, believe you can’t; either way you’re right!” And don’t forget: “the impossible is achieved by those who believe it possible.” For example, you might be merrily flying along and think, “but this is impossible” – only to find the next moment you are plummeting to the ground –

Probably the greatest thing about Lucid Dreaming is that once you recognize you’re inside a dream, you can change or create whatever you like. By becoming aware of your ability to choose and exercising that will, you can experience just what you want to experience! If you consider that for a moment, you’ll see it’s a very powerful idea. Not many people get a chance to experience their desires with such little effort. It really is like your own ‘Personal Virtual Reality’, a holodeck with flexibility and realism far exceeding the most advanced of computer simulations. The possibilities that open

There is an important underlying factor that makes all Lucid Dreaming techniques work. Whatever you do to induce a Lucid Dream confirms to your mind that you are serious about having one. The effectiveness of any technique comes down to this: how strongly are you confirming your intent to have a Lucid Dream with it? Perhaps the simplest technique is to tell yourself as you are going to sleep, “I will wake up in my dreams tonight.” And yet, depending on the emotion you put behind this statement, your subconscious might not take you all that seriously… Other techniques that