Lucid Dreaming

Ayeisa Chavez

SPCH 1311 MW 8:30 am
Irma Garcia
March 6, 2013

Imagine going to bed one night only to wake up in a whole other world where anything your heart and mind desired became reality. Flying over clouds, breathing underwater, going to any part of the world or even getting to be with that person you so much desire wasn’t impossible anymore. Well there is a way that can be done, and that’s through something called lucid dreaming. After listening to this presentation I hope you will have a better understanding of the world of lucid dreaming and how it can be done. I will begin by explaining to you in detail what it is exactly. Then, you will learn a few of the benefits gained by this experience and some dangers. Last, I will give you a few simple steps to how it can be done. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? I know I was!
As explained in an article by Rebecca Turner, Lucid dreaming is the proven ability to become aware while you’re dreaming, to consciously “wake up” inside the dream world and control your dreams. In other words, it’s being able to do as you please while you dream.
Marshall Brain researched that when you sleep, your brain goes through several stages of a sleep cycle. The cycle that deals with dreams is REM or rapid eye movement which takes up 20 to 25% of sleep and your brain is basically shut off during this period of time. Your body becomes paralyzed except for the eyelids and the part of the brain that deals with logic is shut off which is why most of the time our dreams don’t make sense. Lucid dreaming occurs during this stage of sleep with a slight difference. The part of the brain that deals with logic or the lateral prefrontal cortex “wakes up” so dreaming and logic is working at the same time. You are aware of what is going on in your dream and make what you want of it. I know it sounds a little insane but before you go jumping into it, you should know some of the benefits you get from this and of course, the dangers.
One of the benefits that comes from lucid dreaming is the ability to interact with your subconscious self. Who better to talk to about your troubles than yourself? Keep in mind that your dreams are thoughts, and images that occur in your brain while you sleep. Everything you see, hear, touch, smell, and taste in your dreams comes from past experiences. Those random faces you saw in a dream that you don’t remember seeing in your life could be a guy you passed by at the mall a week ago. When you’re able to talk to your subconscious self, it brings out all those memories you thought were gone long ago.
When you lucid dream, you can ask an animal, a tree, or a person around you a troubling question and it will be answered. This is another benefit that comes from this. If you are feeling stressed and don’t know the source of it, ask yourself in your dream. The answer might surprise you. You might see it written in the sky or water or an animal might give you the answer. The reason being is that these characters are created by you and are in fact you answering yourself. This can be done when questioning a career choice or a difficult decision you have in life.
Not everything about this experience is fun if you aren’t careful and you do your research before you try it. If not done right, you might forget you are dreaming and need a reality check. Don’t worry, it’s nothing like the movies where you get stuck and you aren’t able to wake up, but it can become a traumatic experience when you can’t distinguish your dreams from reality which is dissociation.
Another danger is when sleep paralysis occurs. This is when you aren’t able to move your body in your dream or in reality. You might feel like someone is on top of you holding you down and it can be a frightening experience. This usually lasts about 30 seconds but it might feel like an eternity.
Another scary feeling that comes from lucid dreaming is false awakenings. You might tell yourself in your dream to wake up, only to wake up in another place but still in your dream. This can become frustrating and frightening if you don’t have the practice or knowledge behind lucid dreaming.
Now that you know the basic information to lucid dreaming, here are ten steps created by Rebecca Turner, a long time lucid dreamer, to get you started.
The first thing you should do before becoming a lucid dreamer is to keep a dream journal. Try to keep up with it regularly because this is an important step. Keeping a journal helps to get your mind used to remembering dreams and in time they will become more and more vivid. You will notice that by doing this, you will start to notice the little things in your dreams. Things like color and details you didn’t notice before start to come out. It is important that you write these details in your journal and if possible, do a small sketch on it. This can help remember images in the dream. If you cannot remember anything about your dream or don’t remember dreaming at all, write that down too.
The second step to lucid dreaming is identifying dream signs. These signs are anything unusual that stands out in your dream. Something that normally wouldn’t happen in reality. The four main signs that might help you realize are awareness, action, form, and context. Awareness is having unusual thoughts and putting them to reality in your dream. Action is when things function differently than they would in reality, like a car or phone. Form is when the appearance is unusual or almost impossible like proportions in size of objects. And context is when you are in an unusual situation that may not make sense. This could be like you being in another planet or time.
“What is real? If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.” – Morpheus, The Matrix. The third step to lucid dreaming is making frequent reality checks. This can happen when you’re doing something unusual in your dream and your mind realizes it is dreaming. At this point you are beginning to lucid dreaming. Your mind and body are aware that you are dreaming and everything in your dream suddenly becomes more vivid. Almost as if you were looking at it in reality. Colors stand out, sensation becomes more dramatic, and you can almost clearly experience everything that is going on around you. Reality checks in your dream can be done by trying to do something you couldn’t normally do in the real world. Try to walk through a door or shove your hand through a solid object. Practicing this as often as you can improve your awareness in the dream.
The fourth step is total relaxation. By this, it means physical and mental complete dissociation from the real world. Begin by letting go. Relax your body in parts. Start with your toes or fingers and let them escape reality. Close your eyes and let yourself get carried away. This might not always work at first but you can practice. Tell yourself you are going into hypnosis and concentrate on it. Complete concentration should have you relaxed in a matter of minutes. The point of this is to let your body sleep while your mind is still aware.
The fifth step is to let your body go into hypnagogic state. This is something everyone experiences and is usually described as your body drifting into sleep and you start seeing shapes and swirls. If you try to maintain your mind awake but let your body drift into sleep, you will begin to start consciously drifting into your dreams. Doing so can usually begin with the total relaxation as described in the fourth step. Once you are in your dream, you can start practicing the controls. Begin by trying to transform faces into something you like. You can also try it with objects like cars, plants or furniture. Bring out something you want into the dream and you focus hard enough, whatever it is you desire will somehow “magically” pop out in the dream. This can be exciting and at this point, you are now in the middle of a lucid dream!
The sixth step is to hypnotize yourself. Sounds crazy right? Well it’s possible. Force yourself into relaxation and let your mind free. Get into a comfortable position and take slow, deep breaths. Let all thoughts go away and any speech in your mind should become quiet.
Release any tension you have in you. Picture yourself in a field with good lighting or sunlight to help you completely relax.
Take steps as you count to ten. It can be done in a staircase or sidewalk. Let your mind drift slowly towards your subconscious as you count. When you get to the end, tell yourself what you need to. Tell yourself that you are going to lucid dream. Give commands to what it is you want to do. Once this is done you can start counting back and slowly start going out of this trance.
The seventh and one of the easiest steps is simply to take supplements or vitamins to help enhance your dreams. These can be Calea Z which is a herb commonly known as “the dream herb”. Others are Silene Capensis, Mugwort, Galantamine, and Choline. These are some of the popular herbs but don’t necessarily make you lucid dream. They only give your body that extra push.
Don’t worry we’re almost getting to the end!
The eighth step is called the Wake Back to Bed technique. This is when you go to sleep normaly but purposely wake yourself up in six hours. Set an alarm or have someone wake you up. Once you are fully awake read a book or walk around. Do this for about 30 minutes to an hour then go back to bed. Try the total relaxation technique again let your body drift back to bed. That’s all there is to this step!
The ninth step to this process is to learn self control and stabilization. Beginners tend to get excited and run around their dream once they are able to lucid dream which causes the effect to last only about 30 seconds.
There are five simple steps to help you maintain your cool when you realize you’re in the middle of a lucid dream. The first is to stay calm. Don’t run around excited; instead, get a grip and carefully watch everything that goes around you. Second is to rub your hands together. This helps your mind focus on that specific movement. Third is to look at your hands. Look for details like creases and marks you wouldn’t normally be able to see in a dream. Fourth is to do a reality check. Try to push your hand or finger through a solid object. And fifth is to tell yourself in your dream that you want to see things clearer. Do this in a commanding way and your mind might respond almost immediately.
Finally the tenth and final step to becoming a lucid dreamer is to have full active dream control. Your mind may become distracted by the surroundings going on in your dream and may cause you to lose control. It is important that you train your brain to stay in control in your dreams. This can be done using the expectation principle. If you expect something to happen, it will. There’s a difference between expecting and wanting. When you expect, you know it’s going to happen therefore, it will. Change the background, find something, or make something appear. Anything you can expect will happen.
So there you have it. Lucid dreaming is a strange thing and not meant for everybody, but if you think it’s something you can master, go for it! It might sound a bit intimidating but if you do the correct research and practice the correct way, nothing should go wrong. Remember it can be a therapeutic experience and it can help you figure out any doubts you might have.
I hope you now have a better perspective of what lucid dreaming is and with these steps, hope you have an idea of how you can get started in becoming a lucid dreamer yourself. I gave you some information on what lucid dreaming is, a few of the benefits and dangers, and several steps to get you started on how you can become a lucid dreamer yourself. So go give it a try if you’re up for it. You might be surprised by what you learn about yourself.