Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming

Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming is a practical guide to dreaming consciously which uncovers an invaluable channel of communication between your conscious and unconscious mind.

The starting point to understand lucid dreaming is recognizing that it is the same mind that operates the dream and awake states. This means that the sensory information you collect throughout your days is stored in your conscious or unconscious memory. Then, it is used as the “building blocks” of your dreams.

There are two important implications of this. For one thing, it means that the creation of your dream landscape depends solely on your mind. Whatever is stored in there can be used for generating the fabric of your dream.

The other consequence is that the activities of your mind during waking hours impact your ability to lucid dream. Thanks to this, there a few exercises you can engage in during the day that will increase the likelihood of becoming lucid at night.

One is dream journaling. As you choose to record whatever you remember from your dream adventures, you give your unconscious mind a signal that these experiences are important. With practice, it enhances your chances of “waking up” within a dream.

Another exercise that you should do throughout the day if you want to become a lucid dreamer is “reality checks.” This simply means asking yourself “Am I dreaming?” as often as you can. Once this becomes a habit of the mind, you will eventually end up asking that question while dreaming – which is exactly what you need to prompt lucidity!

The approach of evoking awareness when you are already in a dream world is one way to lucid dream. However, there is also an alternative.

The other option to lucid dream is by simply maintaining consciousness as you fall asleep. Sounds wicked? Maybe, but it is definitely possible! According to LaBerge and Rheingold, there are two major approaches to invite conscious awareness to dreams. The first is what I was describing in the section above: dream-initiated lucid dreams (DILD). This method implies that you lose consciousness upon entering the dream world, but then you regain it, thanks to appropriate training. However, some people find that the second approach works better for them. In wake-initiated lucid dreams (WILD), the point is to fall asleep without losing consciousness in the first place. One way to achieve that is through the hypnagogic imagery. Hypnagogia is the scientific term for the transitory phase between being awake and asleep. In this “limbo-like” state of consciousness, we often experience flashes of light and various images showing up in our mind’s eye. If you want to enter a lucid dream straight away, you should keep your…