Lucid Dreaming

“It’s the only way to fly.”

Lucid dreaming is the experience of being completely aware within a dream that you are, in fact, in a dream. This realization leads to complete power for the dreamer, allowing him/her to go anywhere and do anything in their dream. You might have had this happen to you once or twice in your life, but chances are the dream didn’t last very long. This is because as soon as people get excited from realizing they have achieved lucidity, they tend to wake up. So how does one avoid this problem, or even have more consistently lucid dreams in the first place? It is a rather long process before one can get good at lucid dreaming, but there is definitely a way to do it if you are committed. After all, why not have fun after you fall asleep too? Make your entire day on continuous adventure!

1) Master Dream Re-Call

Before you can lucid dream, you have to be able to remember that dreams that you have so that you can improve your technique. First, tell yourself before you go to sleep that you WILL remember your dreams. Recite something like “I will remember my dreams tomorrow morning.” This will put the idea in your mind and make recalling easier.

Second, figure out your method for recording your dreams when you do remember them. Whether it be a journal, blog, or podcast, record the entirety of your dream in some concrete way. Documenting your dreams will force you to remember every little detail of the dream and will train your mind to automatically remember. Make sure that you write down your dream immediately after waking up from them or you WILL forget them. The dream record will also allow you to go back and remember dreams from weeks and months ago so that you can look for patterns (which will help you attain consistent lucidity).

If you are having trouble remembering dreams even with these methods, you can set alarms to wake you up during your REM sleep cycle so that you will always wake up during your dream. Sleep cycles are 90 minutes long on average and REM sleep occurs at the end of the cycle. So if you set your alarm for any 90 minute interval after you fall asleep, you will most likely end up waking up during a dream, making it easier to remember.

2) Carry Over Some Consciousness

Pick a night when you are so tired that you will fall asleep as soon as you hit the bed…but don’t. Lie on your back with your arms at your side and keep your eyes open for as long as possible. Don’t jerk them open; you’re not trying to stay awake, only to keep your eyes open. Eventually you will fall asleep without even realizing it. For some reason this will make you more conscious when you begin to dream, making it easier to go lucid. Do this over and over and you will get results soon enough. After all, what better things do you have to do when trying to fall asleep?

3) Reality Checks

If step 2 isn’t allowing you to go lucid, try reality checks. This is accomplished by establishing a pattern of reality checks throughout your day (yes, when you are awake) so that you will naturally check if you are dreaming when you are asleep. You can check if you are dreaming in countless ways ranging from pinching yourself, checking if your watch is on or even checking how high you can jump. As stupid as this sounds when you are awake, you have to take it seriously or you will not take your reality check seriously in your dreams either. Check if you are dreaming at regular intervals to keep yourself in check until it becomes part of your routine. At that point, you will almost be ready to lucid dream.

4) Final Tips

- Practice meditation so that you can get used to being in an altered state of mind and become more comfortable with lucid

- If you can feel yourself losing the dream, start to spin around and the dream will usually become clear again. This also works to get out of nightmares because spinning around can reset the surroundings of your dream.

- Know what you want to do first when you begin lucid dreaming so that you will not waste your lucidity thinking of what you want to try ex. flying, visiting other planets, time travel, etc.

- 5-HTP, a natural dietary supplement that aids in serotonin production, has been proven to make lucid dreams more common and more vivid

- There are some binaural beats that assist in inducing lucidity by bringing your brain to the lucid frequency that you can download for free via torrents. Just search “lucid dreaming” in the audio section of your preferred torrent search engine. There are also step-by-step walkthroughs available if you are having exceptional trouble achieving lucidity

Stuff To Do In Your Dreams

** Remember that you can do ANYTHING in your dreams and that dreams are directly linked with your subconscious, so lucid dreaming can lead you to some crazy discoveries about yourself **

- Fly through the sky, to another planet, to another dimension

- Spend a night with your favorite celebrity, past or present

- Call yourself from your cell phone and ask important questions, you will get answers

- Go to heaven or hell and have a look around

- Be a superhero and save the world from Hilary Clinton!

What would you do if you found yourself in a lucid dream tonight?