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The lucid Dreamer and Dreams
If you want to know how to condition yourself to be a lucid dreamer, you’ve come to the
right place. Let’s look at how this can be accomplished.
Why do you want to be a lucid dreamer? How will it help you? To understand the
rewards of this type of dreaming better, let’s look at common sleep experiences.
What typically happens is you lay down, you close your eyes and you wake six to eight
hours later – you may or may not remember any dreams you gave had in this time. In and
of itself, not terribly exciting.
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.
What if you could be an active instead of passive participant in your dreams? What if you
could take control of your dream instead of being controlled by it? Someone who has
managed to become a lucid dreamer can do all of this – they are not bound by anything
except for their imagination.
This sounds great, but how can you become a lucid dreamer? There are two ways to
reach this state – one is by having a DLID, or dream initiated lucid dream. These are
instances where the dreamer has taught themselves to recognize that they are having a
dream and start to assert control over the direction of their dream.
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.
What are the steps to begin having these lucid dream experiences?
Dream Recall
One of the best ways to begin learning to become a lucid dreamer is by practicing dream
recall. This is simply the ability to remember your dreams. When you remember your
dreams and learn more about the commonalities which can be observed in your dreams, it
is easier to recognize a dream and start to take control over the direction of it.
Keep a record of your dreams. You may not remember much at first but write down any
details regardless of how trivial. You will begin to remember more and more as time goes
on. Do this as soon as you wake up when your dreams are still fresh in your mind,
otherwise you will forget as the day goes by.
Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)
This method was developed by top lucid dreaming researcher Dr. Stephen LaBerge. The
idea is to affirm to yourself that you will remember something when you see it in a dream
– then when you do, you will realize that you are dreaming and begin to assert control
over your dream.
WBTB refers to Wake Back to Bed
To use this process, go to sleep with an alarm set to wake you up five to six hours later.
When you wake up, don't go right back to sleep. Instead, do something else, like think
about lucid dreaming or read a book, for about an hour. Then go back to bed.
This technique of learning to lucid dream has a sixty percent success rate according to
Stephen LaBerge. You have waked up during the dream cycle of your sleep which is
referred to as REM. This is like a trigger telling your mind that you want to be aware
when you are dreaming.
Cycle Adjustment Technique
Developed by Daniel Love, this involves setting your alarm to wake about 90 minutes
earlier than usual; once you acclimate to this, set your alarm to wake you up alternately
early and at the time you used to get up. At those times when you wake up at the usual
time, you'll be accustomed to waking early. This means that you are more likely to lucid
dream during this last hour and a half.
Wake Initiation of Lucid Dreams or 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.
There are several different ways to hold onto awareness, including imagining going up or
down a flight of stairs, chanting, counting numbers, breaths, or anything else, breathing
control, and muscle relaxation. These and other self-hypnosis methods will give you
something to concentrate on, but don't do this when you're tired, or you may lose
consciousness.
Technologies like strobe lights and dreaming masks can also help you to become a lucid
dreamer.
However, the most reliable method of all is to listen to binaural sound frequencies (also
called binaural beats) on headphones.
These binaural sounds induce lucid dreaming by causing the hemispheres of your brain to
synchronize, making your brainwaves reach the state 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.
Lucid Dreaming Delights. |