Friday, January 30, 2009

An Exciting New Experience as A Lucid Dreamer

By Lesley Groft

Many people want to dream lucidly. If you're among them, the first thing you need to think about is how you want to go about learning.

You also need to think about exactly why you want to become a lucid dreamer. What are the benefits of dreaming lucidly? 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?

Lucid dreamers are in complete control of their dreams. This allows them to explore new worlds in their mind and expand the scope of their dreams. Lucid dreamers can also conscious choose not to have nightmares - they just change the dream.

Are you are ready to begin but remain unsure of how any of this is possible? That is ok we are getting there, there are two way to enter lucid dream state. The first is a dream initiated lucid dream, (DILD). This happens once you have already begun to dream and during the dream, you come to the realization that you are indeed dreaming. At this point, you have brought an element of control to the dream because your conscious mind is now involved.

Another popular method is to have a wake initiated lucid dream (WILD); this is a straight shot from awake to asleep with no lapse in your consciousness. This is usually achieved by purposefully retaining awareness during the hypnagoogic state, which directly precedes sleep.

How exactly do you induce either one of these lucid dream states?

Dream Recall

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)

Developed by Dr. Stephen LaBerge the idea is to tell your self to recall an object or situation from your dreams, before you go to sleep. You can look back to your dream journal for an example of a recurring them like a pink haired woman. Anything that when you see it in your dream will tell you that you are in fact dreaming.

Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB)

To use this method, first go to sleep. Set an alarm beforehand to wake you up a few hours later (about five or six). Once you wake up, don't go back to sleep. Read for a little while, or think about lucid dreaming for a while, then head back to sleep.

According to LaBerge, this technique has about a sixty percent success rate. That's because you wake up in the middle of your sleep cycle, with your mind not fully aware, and are still in the middle of your REM cycle. This results in something a lot like telling your mind you want to dream lucidly and having it obey!

Cycle Adjustment Technique

As the name suggests this technique is all about cycling your sleep. Go to bed at your normal time but for a week set an alarm to wake you one and a half hours early. You should continue to do this for around 7 days. Once your body has settled somewhat into this routine, begin to alternate your wake up times. One day normal, wake up time the next early, on your normal days you will be trying to wake up early and should increase lucid dream chances.

Wake-Initiation of Lucid Dream (WILD)

This method was mentioned above. To achieve a lucid dream using it, all that's needed is keeping your mind awake while your body falls asleep. This is one of the most interesting ways of having a lucid dream. It's as if you're getting ready to watch a movie - you start in the real world, sitting on the couch, and turn on the television and press play (when you start to sleep). The screen begins black, just like when your eyes are closed, and all you need to do is wait for the movie or dream to start.

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.

First, it was cds and DVD's now we have devices that will help you lucid dream. Masks and other electronic apparatuses can be used to recognize REM sleep and give you a light buzz or light to make you aware that you are dreaming.

The most reliable and easiest way of inducing a lucid dream may be listening to binaural beats sound frequencies through headphones.

The sounds bring the two sides of the brain in synch. Your brainwaves are then converted to REM waves the time during sleep when you dream and the frequency at which lucid dreams occur.

Combined with self hypnosis sessions and personal affirmations that help prepare your subconscious mind, these methods make being a lucid dreamer a reality for anyone.

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