4wordsofwisdom

Dreams that you have where you know they are dreams and control the final outcomes of the dream are called Lucid dreams. These are the type of dreams where you pick the subject or the person they are about and make the dream come out the way you want yet you feel like you are fully awake, similar to day dreaming.

Your Lucid dreams can be a fantasy, adventure or mystery. Anything you want. There are no limits to what you can experience!

The difference between normal dreams and lucid dreaming is that you control the lucid dream, where normal dreams may wander randomly from subject to subject. You may even have to pinch yourself because they can seem so real versus normal dreams that may be strange, abstract and sometimes scary.

In a dream, certain things will not seem right, like reading words, or colors may not be pronounced. There are simple tests many people do to see if they are really are having a lucid dream or are in a state like sleep walking, for example.

Someone you want to be with may be impossible in real life, but in a lucid dream, you where anything is possible, you can be sitting and talking with a loved one that has passed or a guy you saw at the subway station.

In a lucid dream, you can change the outcome if you don’t like how the dream is heading. If you imagine you are with your loved one that has passed, you might dream that they are still alive because you were able to get to them to warn them of their upcoming demise, for example. Controlling your dream for the desired outcome is part of lucid dreaming.

Because your body has a biological need to sleep, your mind can remain in a semi-conscious state while your body is resting, which is what makes lucid dreams physically possible.

There are techniques to Lucid dreaming that must be learned. It can be a slow process, but it can be learned with patience and practice.

A good way to start is by trying to recall your dreams. Describe the images, from your dreams as vividly as you can. You can keep a pad and pen or pencil by the bed or lounge chair. Keep them handy so you waste no time jotting down your images clearly. If you don’t remember everything, don’t worry. When the dream repeats its self and it will, you will have an opportunity to finish recording it. Do this technique with all your lucid dreams and you will have a record to use as a reference.

Lucid dreaming is a great tool for writers. You can actually dream about all the characters, the plot and the way you want your story line to move. You can use lucid dreaming for expressing all your dormant desires and manifesting them in reality.

You need to make it habit to recall each and every detail about your dream. Once you do that, try sleeping again and if possible try to start the dream where you left and continue your dream from there. The dreams will repeat themselves so you can delve into more details every time that happens.

If you happen to wake up in the wee hours of morning, which is the perfect time to have a lucid dream. It may feel as if you were really awake and thinking but it was in reality lucid dreaming.

Soon you will be surprised at how easy it really is to do. One short cut you can try is to use self-hypnosis; it can help prepare your mind to recall vividly your lucid dreams.

You can sometimes put your mind into the mode of lucid dreaming using other techniques, such as binaural beats, which are a recent development in sound technology. By using sound waves to put parts of the brain responsible for lucid dreaming to work to instantly put you into the lucid dream condition and help you recall lucid dreams.

Any dream in which you are conscious that you are dreaming and can manipulate the dream is considered a Lucid Dream. Used contextually in this instance the word lucid refers to simply means that you are conscious and aware. The true extent of your lucidity actually varies according the stability of the dreaming session, your experience with lucid dreaming, how well you can influence the dream, and how much you remember when you wake up.

The most remarkable factor about the amazing Lucid Dream is the experience while dreaming. Just being able to identify and impact your dream is astounding. This means that you can direct your dream like a producer does a movie and you have no limits or budget dictating your creation.

Just think about this for a moment. A Lucid Dream is like reality in every aspect; you can see, feel and use all of your senses, but with the knowledge that you are perfectly safe and can do literally anything you want. This is a virtual reality experience far beyond the capabilities of any computer technologies to produce.

Lucid Dreaming is an incredible skill and many more people are learning to experience it. The Lucid Dream is very rarely experienced by those who are unaware of it or who have not taken the time to learn how to do it. Can you imagine how fun and thrilling it would be to be able to have a lucid dream whenever you wanted to?

If you truly want to open up a new path into some pretty amazing experiences then you probably want to learn just what you can do with these dreams. Imagine, if you will, being able to create your own universe, your own movie saga, create novels and book, or even experiment and design things all in the state of peaceful relaxation and slumber. You could even time travel and speak to people you have never met or have not seen in many years. Your dram has no limits!

It can be fairly complicated to achieve controlled Lucid Dreams on a regular basis. Up until recently many people spent months in training and using special self-conditioning procedures before even experiencing one single Lucid Dream. Even then, most people never even succeed once, let alone on a regular basis.

Some Simple Ideas that May Produce a Lucid Dream

Some people report that certain foods can encourage Lucid Dreaming if consumed shortly before sleeping – Mustard, Orange Juice and dairy products among them.

Others swear by pickles, fish, ice cream and popcorn. They say that these foods lay the necessary conditions for Lucid Dreaming to occur; but keep in mind that these foods are also high in fat and salt, which isn’t going to help you to get a good night’s sleep.

Can Technology Assist You?

New technologies can make it somewhat easier to experience Lucid Dreaming. There are devices which can help to stimulate you to have Lucid Dreams such as eyeshades and sleep masks which activate a LED when rapid eye movements are detected. This light reminds you that you are dreaming; letting you take control of the dream!

One of the most exciting developments in Lucid Dreaming comes to us from the world of audio technology. Audio researchers have discovered a process called binaural beats, in which different frequencies are played into each ear.

Binaural frequencies can synchronize the hemispheres of the brain; as you listen, your mind reaches the state of REM sleep; which is necessary fro Lucid Dreaming to occur.

If you have always wanted to experience Lucid Dreaming for yourself, binaural sound presents the quickest and easiest way to begin.

You have decided you want to be a lucid dreamer, otherwise known as a conscious dreamer. Knowing what you would like to do is good, the question remains on how do you accomplish this?

You also need to think about exactly why you want to become a lucid dreamer. What are the benefits of lucid dreaming? To help us find the benefits, let us first look at ‘normal’ sleep.

When you go to sleep, you get into bed, close your eyes for a certain length of time, and either dream or just see black for a few hours and then wake up! It isn’t very interesting now is it?

Normal sleep just seems to serve the purpose of simply refreshing ourselves in order to live out the next day. But what if you could control that period of time that you have dreams?

What if rather than being an active observer, you can be the one who can lead your dream to be whatever you want, rather than your dream leading you? This is what a lucid dreamer is; someone who is in total control of their dreams; able to explore new worlds that are not bound to the physical, societal and time-space laws of the real world.

So if you want to become a lucid dreamer how do you do it? There are actually two ways. The first way is having a dream-initiated lucid dream (DILD), which is where the dreamer is in a dream and then realizes that they are, restoring their sense of consciousness within the dream.

The second way is having a wake-initiated lucid dream (WILD); where the dreamer goes from being awake, to being asleep with no change in consciousness. In other words, the dreamer enters their dream as if it were a door, rather than just “waking up” in a dream.

So how are these types of lucid dreaming induced?

Dream Recall

The easiest place to begin your lucid dream search is in dreams you have already had. When you can remember your dreams, you will be able to recognize when you have that dream again. Many times, we will have the same dream or part of a dream over and over.

A dream journal is perhaps the best way to learn this skill. Use this to write down every detail of your dream that you can remember immediately after you wake. If you wait., it will become increasingly difficult to recall.

Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)

This is a technique based on entering your dreams with the intention of realizing you are dreaming or looking for a dream sign. For instance when you awaken in the nigh from a dream and recall a blue dog you mark that blue dog in your mind as your dream sign. Then when you encounter this again you will know you are dreaming.

Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB)

The process here is to go to sleep, doing nothing but setting your alarm to wake you up a few hours later (5 or 6). Once you wake up, DO NOT go back to sleep. Instead, do something else like read for a while, or think as much as you can about lucid dreaming for around an hour then go back to bed.

According to research, this technique has about a 60% success rate. What has happened is you were awakened during an intense time of REM sleep. Your brain will not be completely aware that you are awake. Many times since REM stages tend to be longer, the episodes of lucid dreaming will be as well.

Cycle Adjustment Technique

This was created by Daniel Love, and what it is, is setting your alarm to wake you up an hour and a half before your normal time. Once you’ve adjusted to waking up early, alternate your alarm to wake you up normally and early. During times you are to wake up normally, you’re body will already be ready to wake up early, and therefore, you will be likely to be awake in your dream.

Wake-initiation of Lucid Dreams (WILD)

As described earlier wake initiated lucid dreams are matter of keeping your mind conscious as you fall asleep. This may be the most fun way to achieve lucid dream state.Imagine if you will that, your dreams are like a movie you are planning to watch. You get comfortable, turn on the television set, (sleep), first you have a dark screen (eyes closed) and now it is a matter of getting through the previews to the movie.

A number of ways to stay aware are counting, imagine climbing or descending stairs, chant, control your breathing, count your breaths, and concentrate on relaxing the body from their toes to head. (This all falls under the term ’self hypnosis’.) It is best to do this when you are not tired, like in the afternoon.

Technology has moved on in recent years, and there are various devices like dreaming masks and other scientific appliances which contain such things as strobe lights to induce lucid dreams.

Definitely the easiest and most reliable way of inducing a lucid dream however is by listening to binaural beats sound frequencies via headphones.

The purpose is to synchronize both sides of the brain to create the REM frequency that is required for lucid dreaming.

With self affirmations and self hypnosis combined with binaural sound, being a lucid dreamer is a goal which anyone can reach.