Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming is often characterized by heightened sensations and perceptions, and usually by a sense of wonder and excitement. I usually feel this way when I become lucid because I am happy about it, because it gives me the opportunity to have some fun and encounter unusual circumstances. My favorite thing to do is to remember that I can fly, and with that thought, up into the air I go. Yet after this initial thrill, I make a call out to my soul self and ask if there is anything that I can do to help someone. From the lucid dream state then, it is possible to contact other souls that are in the borderland between lifetimes, to visit scenes from past lives, or to travel out of body, to name a few of the possibilities.

The lucid condition may last for a few seconds or a considerable amount of time. One can never know in waking clock time just how long of a time we are talking about, but I would guess that a few of my lucid dreams have lasted for maybe one or two minutes or longer though the typical is only a half a minute or so. A two minute dream seems like a very long time, and many events can happen. Think about how long you spend in heightened attention throughout the day. When you really focus on something you are remembering, that amount of time is usually a few seconds or maybe a half a minute.. and then you spontaneously move on to thinking about something else. So to have a lucid dream for two minutes or more that focuses on just one subject really is not the usual thing to have happen. Aside from that there are other things that can limit lucid dreaming, among them, illness, lack of sleep, or stressful life circumstances are a few of the things. Lucid dreaming is an unusual condition just because it requires a highly focused state of mind coupled with a conscious realization of the situation. Therefore it is like having two minds turned on at the same time.

If you think about it, we usually go from topic to topic in a short time, or from thought to thought without especially trying to control it. Many people don't even like to think at all, because it takes effort. Lucid dreaming is a heightened and more intense form of thinking, so a lazy minded person is not likely to have lucid dreams.

There are some things you can do to help you have more lucid dreams if you want to try having them. First, while awake during the day try the following exercise. Take some moments to think of something and then suggest to yourself (perhaps with a playful idea)you might dream about, yet is not a part of your daily life. This is something you will use as a cue to trigger you into realizing you are dreaming. For instance, in my dreams if I see a friend of mine named Steve S., I know I must be dreaming because he lives far away from me and if I were awake, I would not see him. Seeing him while dreaming has helped me become aware I was dreaming more than a dozen times so far.

The thing to do then, is during the day be reminding and instilling in yourself that if you see that person or thing you have in mind, you will realize that you are dreaming. When you keep saying this to yourself, you actually are in a way inducing a lucid dream. Your mind will pick up the suggestion and produce a dream for you with that person or thing in it to give you the opportunity to become aware that you are dreaming. This idea may sound strange, but it has proven true for me in practice. The mind really is flexible, and will respond to suggestion given without a hard hand but with a playful and fun side. This is because few of us likes to be commanded or told what to do, and our minds are the same! They can be inticed, but not bossed around.

This is amazing in itself to think about, that the dream self will respond to the waking self. Yet I have proven it with my own dreaming and with many friends over the years. If you work with your dreaming self in an honest and sincere way, and give the dreaming condition respect for it's integrity, your dreams will be transformed into incredible creations that are often lucid. It is in a sense another way of believing in yourself, to believe that your dreams have a validity of their own, even if you can not prove it to anyone in any way. You will have our own proof, and probably won't need to prove it to anyone, though you may want to try and tell them how wonderful it is!

The lucid dreaming state is also a powerful condition to be in as I mentioned before. Yet if there is some spiritual work that you can do while lucid, you will be shown what to do or you will know automatically. Yet there are times when I just go along with the dream, even if I am lucid. It is like a parallel situation at this time, being in a position to watch the dream unfold while being aware that I am in a dream. This has always taken any fear I was feeling out of the dream, and made me feel safe and very curious. Often waking up in my room and going to work seems horribly mundane in comparison to what I have been dreaming about!