What is lucid dreaming?

Before I begin, it’d probably be best for me to explain exactly what lucid dreaming is. Well, in short, it’s a dream in which you know you’re dreaming.

The conscious part of your brain wakes up. Not only does this allow you appreciate the dream far more – indeed, it all seems far more realistic (in some cases its impossible to distinguish between the dreamworld and real life) – but now you know you are dreaming, you can use this to your advantage.

How? Simple – its all taking places inside of your head – none of it is real. And as such, you are not bound by the normal rules of reality. Anything you can imagine (and more!) is possible in a lucid dream.

Think of the Matrix (which is actually based off lucid dreaming) for inspiration. Wanna jump real far, fly, run up walls and kill loads of people in an orgy of kung fu madness? Right, go for it!

But of coarse, you can do far more stuff then just that. Anything you can think of can be done… no matter how weird it sounds.

Lucid dreams last varying amounts of time and can last up to (and even beyond) half an hour. Though this may not sounds like very long, trust me… it is.

You may well (and probably) have had a lucid dream when you were younger. Lots people have one or two naturally whilst they are children.

You’ll also probably have had a nightmare and suddenly realised you were dreaming. You will probably have used this to wake yourself up… but instead you could have turned around and made the monster disappear or even fight it.

Oh – and one last thing. Lucid dreaming has been scientifically proven. So there’s no point being sceptical about it.

Interested?

How do I have lucid dreams?

There is a large variety of ways of achieving lucidity. Different people find different ways easier. And different people take long to have their first lucid dream – it can take anything from a couple of days, to a couple of months. Or perhaps even more.

But everyone can have lucid dreams. And everyone who finally has their first LD are not disappointed.

I’ll give a quick run down on some different techniques:

MILD - (Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dream): This is one of the simpler ways. At night, whilst falling asleep, you repeat to yourself a mantra (usually something along the lines of, ‘I will be aware that I’m dreaming.’)

WILD – (Wake Induced Lucid Dream): For most people, this is a more complicated way of inducing lucid dreams. However, you start the dream already lucid, and you can achieve more realistic lucid dreams easier this way.

Whilst falling asleep, you concentrate on a part of your body (say, for example, your breathing). This keeps your consciousness awake whilst the rest of your body falls asleep.

You will experience a number of things before falling asleep though. Such as, hearing things, seeing things, feeling as though you’re falling, not being able to move and feeling as you’re being spun around to name just a few.

VILD – (Visually Incubated Lucid Dream): This is a new technique, and has not been scientifically proven. However, it has proven useful for some – but not so useful for others.

Whilst falling asleep, you have to visualise a situation in which you take a reality check (see below). When this has ended, you repeat. Repeat until asleep – when you will actually dream this and become lucid.

This technique was discovered by Pedro at the ld4all forum.

HILD – (Hagart’s Induced Lucid Dream): This is an even newer technique, but is quite effective. After waking up in the night, when you’re most tired, you relax your body until you’re very nearly asleep.

Then, you move two fingers slightly as though you were pressing keys on a piano. After fifteen or so seconds (or until all the vibrations disappear if you experience them) open your eyes and take a reality check (see below).

If its worked, you’ll be dreaming.

This technique was discovered by Hagart (hence the name) at the ld4all forum.

WBTB – (Wake, Back To Bed): This technique is very useful, and is almost always used in conjunction with one of the above techniques.

Put simply, you set your alarm clock or something to wake you up in the night. You then get up and read for around half an hour (best used with MILD or VILD) or go strait back to bed (best used with HILD or WILD).

RC – (Reality Checks): Very, very, very useful. In fact, pretty much mandatory. A reality check is something you take, and it tells you whether you’re dreaming or not.

No, pinching doesn’t work. You can still feel pain in dreams.

Reality checks should be taken throughout the day – this way the habit will go through into your dreams, and you will take on in there. The more often you take them, the more likely you are to get a lucid dream.

I’ll list a handful of them here:

=> Pinch your nose shut and see if you can breathe though it.

=> Count your fingers to check you have the right amount

=> Look a clock, look away, check it again. Has it changed a lot?

=> Try and out your finger through something (wall, window or your other hand

There are, of coarse a lot more.

One thing to note – reality checks can sometimes fail. So you should always take a mix of them of them (eg. The nose one, the count fingers one, and the put your hand through something one).

DJ/DD - (Dream Journal/Dream Diary): Also very important. But very simple, once waking up in the morning, just write down everything you can remember about your dreams. This way, you’ll find that you’re dream recall will improve (you will be able to remember a selection of dreams in greater detail each night).

These also help you to spot reoccurring dream themes.

Good lucid dreaming web sites.

Right then, here’s three very good lucid dreaming web sites!

http://www.ld4all.com – a very good web site… sign up on the forums too. Everyone there will be more then happy to give you a helping hand.

http://wikibooks.org/wiki/Lucid_dreaming – a wiki book made by the members of ld4all. Invaluable to anyone considering starting lucid dreaming.

http://www.dreamofpeace.net/sealife – a forum on which you join a ‘dream team’ of around eight members. Here you share your dream stored and help each other out.

That’s everything…

And so, now you know all about lucid dreaming (well, not quite… there’s still a lot more to know, but those links I gave you – especially the second – have everything else if you look).

And so now… now I may put up my own lucid dream stories. Of coarse, everyone else who ahs lucid dreams are more than welcome to put their up too.