Dreams and Fantasies Of A Lucid Dreamer
Wouldn�t it be nice to have a lucid dream, to be aware you are dreaming and control what happens? Of course you do, but how does one learn to do this?
You’ll need to think about why you want to be a lucid dreamer, as well as the benefits of it. First, we’ll take a look at normal sleeping.
Why is lucid dreaming different from normal sleep? When you lie down to go to sleep, your eyes close and hopefully you go to sleep. When you wake up you remember dreaming something or you don�t remember anything at all.Kind of strange when you think about it.
Normal sleep is just a method of refreshing ourselves for the busyness of the next day.However, it could be a lot more interesting if you could control the period of time in which you’re dreaming.
How would you like to control what you do while in your dream? Control the events that happen in it in any way you like. A lucid dreamer is in complete control of their dreams.They are able to enter the spiritual realm of existence far removed from what exists in the physical waking hours.
If you want to become a lucid dreamer, how do you manage it? There are two main ways. The first is what’s called a dream initiated lucid dream, or DILD. That’s when the dreamer realizes they’re dreaming in the middle of a dream, restoring their consciousness without leaving the dreaming state itself.
WILD refers to a wake initiated lucid dream. You slip into a dream before you are fully asleep. Instead of going to sleep before you dream you simply enter into the dream with your mind still conscious.
So, what methods can you use to induce these kinds of lucid dreaming states?
Remember your dreams.
If you’d like to lucid dream, perhaps one of the most successful way of doing so is known as dream recall. Dream recall is simply the ability to remember one’s dreams. By remembering your dreams, you are able to recognize them when you are sleeping, because most likely, you will have the same dream, or at least aspects of it, more than once.
The way to practise dream recall is by keeping a dream journal. The dream journal is meant as a tool to write down anything you can remember about your dream, in order to recall it for the future. This should be done right after waking up; otherwise dreams will become harder to remember.
Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)
This is a technique that was developed by Dr. Stephen LaBerge, one of the lead scientists studying lucid dreaming. The intent here is to simply tell yourself that you will remember something, like an object for example and then in the dream, when you see this object you will realize it is a dream.
Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB)
The way you do this one is, only plan on sleeping for a few hours like five or six. Set your alarm if you need to so you will wake up. After you have slept the few hours and wake up, stay up. Find something to do to stay awake. Do a little house work; Think about what you might like to do in your lucid dreams. Return to bed in an hour.
According to Dr. LaBerge, this technique has a success rate of about sixty percent. That’s because you’ve awakened in the middle of the sleep process, while you’re still in the middle of an REM cycle and not completely aware. It’s like telling your mind that you’re interested in lucid dreaming.
Cycle Adjustment Technique
Created by Daniel Love, this method involves setting an alarm to wake you one and a half hours before your normal wake-up time. Once you get used to this early time, alternate your alarm between a normal time and the early one. When your alarm is set to wake you normally, you’ll find your body’s already ready to wake up early. That makes it more likely that you’ll wake up in your dream, and dream lucidly.
Wake-initiation of Lucid Dreams (WILD)
This method was described before. If you would like to achieve a lucid dream this way, all you have to do is to keep your mind awake while you body falls asleep. This is perhaps the most interesting way of entering a lucid dream. It is as if you are getting ready to watch a movie. You are in the real world, you sit on your couch, you turn on the TV and press play (starting to sleep), the screen is black (in the same way as when your eyes are closed), and all you have to do is wait for the movie to actually start.
You need to stay aware; it is a lot like self hypnosis. This is not a good exercise to try when you are tired as your mind may not stay as aware. Try to focus on things that require brain activity such as doing math puzzles, jogging or anything to keep your mind active. Breathe evenly and focus on relaxing every part of your body.
In recent years, the advance of technology has brought us new devices to help us dream lucidly. These include strobe lights, dreaming masks, and other gadgets thought to assist with lucid dreaming.
Definitely the easiest and most reliable way of inducing a lucid dream however is by listening to binaural beats sound frequencies via headphones.
These work by synchronizing the two hemispheres of the brain and have the effect of almost instantaneously changing your brainwaves to the REM frequency needed for a lucid dream to occur.
Anyone can learn to be a lucid dreamer. Practice the self hypnosis and keep telling yourself when awake that you will be aware when you are dreaming. This will prepare you for your lucid dream experience.
