Lucid Dreaming, Conscious dreams!
Have you ever wondered how it would feel to fly? Being able to travel in time, breath under water, visit different worlds, traveling to different planets? What if I told you it is possible, and that you will not even have to leave the comfort of your own bed. I am of course talking about the mysterious world of Lucid dreaming. This is the first post in a series about lucid dreaming, and will mostly be an introduction, but there is also a bit about the most basic tecniques.
Lucid dreaming is simply being aware that you are in a dream. There are many layers of lucidity, from the vaguest idea that the nightmare is just a nightmare to absolute clarity where you are able to control every aspect of your dream and maybe even talk to your own unconscious mind. I know many out there are skeptics, and that this sounds a bit spiritual or unscientific at first. I am a skeptic myself and do not believe in many of the more metaphysical aspects of Lucid dreaming, like astral projection and shared dreaming. It doesn`t really matter what you believe when it comes to spiritualism, this guide will work anyway. To those of you that doubt that Lucid Dreaming is possible in the first place, I can assure you that it has been scientifically proven.
Even though Lucid Dreaming is possible, most people will only experience it a few times in their lifetime, some will never experience it at all. If you have never experienced it ever, it may be a hard skill to perfect, and it is likely to take several months before you achieve your first lucid dream. Others will achieve it under a week. However, it is totally worth it. Being able to do whatever you want and not hurt anyone or get hurt is very liberating. My favorite thing to do is to fly over the ocean and look at the extreme clarity of everything. It just looks so real. And feels so real. But everything is inside your brain, so it is literally only limited by your imagination. Does this sound like something you would like to try? I will end the post with the basic techniques you will need to get a lucid dream.
There are dozens of techniques, and I will only go through one of them today. The one I have chosen is the most basic, the DILD, or dream induced lucid dream. This is when you already are dreaming and find out that something is wrong, and therefore realize that you are dreaming.
You will need:
Good dream recall
A regular sleep pattern
A lucid life
Patience
A good dream recall is important in almost all the lucid dreaming techniques. Whats the point of having the most amazing dream, and not remembering it. A dream journal is key. Some people recommend that you write down all the details you can, and while that is a good idea, there is nothing wrong with censoring very explicit parts of your dreams either. Just write down all the details that you think are necessary for you to clearly remember the dream. If you right now are thinking "crap, I never dream, how can I write down anything! I have to give up already", then you are not alone. However, if you does not have a very rare sleep disorder, you are most likely dreaming every single night, your brain just does not think it is important to remember it. If you start to write down the small details you remember, you will slowly tell your brain that it has to save your dream. This alone may be enough to trigger a Lucid Dream.
This post is already a bit long, so I will just quickly go through the next steps, and add more details in my next post.
The Lucid Life part means to question everything. How do you know you are awake? Are you 100% sure? How? If you do this many times every day, and sincirly ask the question while you do a reality check, you will be more likely to ask the question while you sleep. A reality check is a way to check if you are awake. I will go through a lot of different tests in my next post, but if you cant wait, ask me in the comments!
That was all for today, please leave a like if you liked it, and follow so you dont miss the next chapter! Resteems are free, and really helps me out a lot. If anything is unclear, please ask in the comment section down bellow, I will answer as quick as possible!
Have had one of these!!
Cool, what happened?
It was a creative-process dream, actually. I remember realizing that my dream of drawing with an ectoplasm-like material was, in fact, a dream, semi "woke up" then kept on with the creation and simply enjoyed it till I went into a deeper sleep....always fascinated me!
Sounds very interesting, thanks for sharing!
An old jewish saying goes: "A not interpreted dream is like a letter not readed".
Are you going to talk about meaning of dreams.
I could make a post about dream interpretation too, if people want me to.
I do.
That would be interesting as well. ☺ I would love it too.
I do
Ok, I will do it right after my post about realitychecks
It took some time, but it's finally here
That was a great introduction to lucid dreaming! I write about lucid dreams sometimes too. From now on, I'm going to link to this article when I do, so people have a solid foundation for how to start doing it.
I love looking at the extreme clarity of everything too. It still blows my mind how real everything looks and feels.
Thanks! I have gotten so good response on this post, glad you liked it!
Very cool post @dafro ! Lucid dreaming techniques can really help a person relax and defrag the brain. Thank you for this well-presented information.
Most of time people don't know that lucid dreaming is path to astral projection, and that they need to write down experiences after lucid dreaming. Process is long except if you are extremely "talented". But soon enough you learn that awakeness don't finish when you fall asleep it's just starting. Good post!
Astral projection or OBE is a very interesting phenomenon. I am a bit scepticial on the claims that you can effect the real world when you are asleep, but the world inside your own brain is just another reality, so it's clearly a real experience anyway. I will cover astral projection in another post
Another post on dreaming. Great post BTW.
I always longed for a Lucid Dream, so I practised dream checks while I was awake. After practising for few days finally I did have a Lucid Dream...but as soon as I knew that I was dream, and I became excited and woke up. :(
But after that I kept on trying and now I occasionally get lucid dreams.
Awesome article @dafro.
I also started my Simple Question Series with the first post "Why do we dream?" and discussed a little about lucid dreaming there. :D
Cool, I will check it out!
You make me recall my own Lucid Dreams. I had them in the past more than I do now. Perhaps I'll start "encouraging" myself to dream lucidly again.
(I upvoted you, and followed you. Follow me too if you'd like.)
I've experienced lucid dreams a couple of times. it's a mind boggling experience, one day i screamed so loud upon realizing i was sleeping that i was concerned people "up here" would listen, the first thing i did was to fly and i was so delighted that my happiness toke my awareness away.
i also experience false awakenings sometimes, for those who dont know what it is, its when you think you are awake but actually you're still sleeping, sounds a little bit scary at first, but it's a profound experience, and in a sense it's the complete opposite of lucid dreams.
great post
thanks
Yeah, I often have false awakenings myself, I have had five in a row. It feels very weird
Interesting post and I followed for more. ☺ My favorite of all - flying dreams. I had many of those. I had few bad dreams too when I was a young teen being chased and I would close my eyes and make myself invisible. There are times too that I did this and told myself I want to wake up - and then I woke up. That's something I don't think I will forget. I don't know how did that happen. I wasn't even aware I'm in a dream.
That's the first step towards lucidity, some of my earliest lucid dreams was me trying to wake up from a nightmare.
Thanks for the response ☺ I should get to it again. I believe I've done it once or twice when I got interested before with lucid dreaming.
yeah, just do reality checks and keep a dream journal, and you will soon have them
Super excited to hear what else you have to say about this. I love lucid dreams and id like to get better and being able to go into them.
Only had a couple of dreams like this but loved them and its so interesting to read more about them, so thank you (: @bethwendy
Yeah, do reality checks daily and write down all your dreams, and you will have them every month, or maybe even week if you are lucky