How To Have a Lucid Dream
What are Lucid Dreams?Lucid Dreaming
The earliest recorded lucid dreams date back to the fifth century, the record came from a written letter by St. Augustine in 415 A.D. Another well-known recorded example of lucid dreaming came from eight century Tibetan Buddhists in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Buddhists wrote of a form of yoga designed to maintain full waking consciousness while in the dream state. This ancient documentation of dreams is said to be more advanced than the knowledge we posses today.
People have been having lucid dreams for as long as the human mind has been dreaming. The first known use of the actual term “lucid dreaming” was by Frederik van Eeden in his work “A Study of Dreams” which was published in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research in 1913. (Van Eeden also wrote the novel The Bride of Dreams). Since then the term has become part of our mainstream.
Steps to Lucid Dreaming
“I don’t dream”, have you ever heard someone say this? Or have you even said this yourself? It is not a true statement, everybody dreams nightly, but some people do not remember their dreams. The first step in learning to have lucid dreams, like in my Intuition article, is have the desire to want to remember your dreams. Now before going to bed, have a clear mind, tell yourself that “I will remember my dream when I wake up”. This is a proven and effective way to help dream recall. Having a cluttered mind or worries can distract you from remembering your dream in the morning.
Have a regular sleep schedule, try and get a routine going with a consistent bedtime and wake up time, this will also aid you in your dream recollection. Avoid alcohol consumption or taking medication before going to bed. These things may hinder you from remembering your dreams. Diet also plays a big part in dream recall, fatty foods or just eating right before you go to bed will task your body with digesting food instead of getting the rest your body needs and will divert your bodily resources from the brain.
The most important step in recalling your dreams is to keep a dream journal. Keep a pencil and a notebook or tape recorder next to your bed so that it will be within reach as soon as you wake up. You want to make the task of recording your dreams as easy as possible. Having a small lamp by your bed will help if you wake up from a dream in the middle of the night and need to record it.
Do not get out of bed immediately when you wake up, lay there in your bed keeping your eyes closed and move as little as possible. Wake up slowly and stay relaxed, hold on to your feelings you have and let your mind wander to the images of what you have just dreamed, write down as many details as possible about your dream, do not judge the content, just record it, so later you can go back and evaluate it when you are more aware. Talking to people about your dreams to friends or participating in some on-line forums will also help dream recall.
How to Have a Lucid Dream
Once you get your dream journal going and are able to recall at least two dreams a night then you can start the steps to having a lucid dream. There are many ways to key yourself to the fact that you are dreaming but I will discuss a couple of the easiest for beginners. First there is Reality Testing (RT). How reality testing is done, is you ask yourself “Am I dreaming?” Finding that out in a dream is not always the easiest thing to do, but is usually quite obvious if you are dreaming or not. If you find yourself in an unfamiliar place, or doing something or seeing something that will not likely happen in reality, you will know that you are dreaming. Now if you are in your bed or in your own house, then you can try looking at something like a clock or reading a book or something, look away, then look back and see if the time is the same or the words you read are the same. Try changing the color of something just by thinking about it. Ask yourself this question “Am I dreaming?” several times during the day, then you will be more apt to ask yourself this in a dream.
The second way to realize that you are dreaming in a dream is to recognize a Dreamsign. When your recognize this dreamsign you will realize that you are dreaming. (ie. A pink elephant, meeting deceased people, or magically flying.) By keeping a dream journal and going back and finding things that are common in your dreams, you can choose a dreamsign that is unique to you. So when you see your dreamsign you will realize your experience as a dream, and can then further the experiments or work you would like to do in your dream.
Upon becoming Lucid
The biggest problem upon becoming lucid for newbies is that once they realize they are dreaming, they get so excited that it wakes them from their dream. Actually experienced lucid dreamers can have this problem also. There are different ways to extend your dreams, if your dream shows signs of ending some people have claimed success by spinning to help the dream come back, in other words making their dream self start to spin like an ice skater, and remind yourself the next scene will be a dream, to ensure you are still dreaming do a RT. Sometimes just running, or jumping can prolong your dream. Once you become proficient in achieving a Lucid Dream state, and are able to maintain this state to some degree, the next step will be controlling your dreams.
Controlling your Dream
Now the fun part! Once you are Lucid Dreaming
Science has only just begun to examine the process of lucid dreaming. Some researchers view it as an evolutionary development of mankind and our consciousness expanding. Whether we are evolving or have always had this ability, we certainly are not taking advantage of all it has to offer. If we could become more disciplined with our dream work we would have many more options in which to learn and grow.
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Comments
this is really interesting.
a few days ago, in the early morning hours, i was dreaming for maybe 2-3 hours, it was a very clear and real dream. at some point i realized that i was dreaming. i kept waking up but tried to concentrate.. it did work to a ceratin extent, i just didnt manage to fall into a deeper sleep. i woke up. but the feeling of control was so striking that i was really excited when i woke up and realized what just happened. it was like the way described here, i could literally do anything or make anything happen.
its the first time that i have read about lucid dreams, i never knew there were studies about this. however, i recall having lucid dreams since i was young, maybe once a year or even less. i still remember a few dreams where i could fly… able to navigate.
in fact i do remember dreams very well in the morning, though i never write stuff down. and i won’t start now - this whole thing even scares me a little, and i guess it will just happen when it does.
I’ll go to sleep now.
I have lucid dreams and there GREAT!!!!
I’m a computer programer and this dreams really helps to find solutions to some problems. i dont know how but they work.
I didn’t know what they were called, but when i finished reading this i knew it….. thanks a lot…
Yeah well I have been able to do this since I was about 5 or so, but I dont have full control of the dreams, used to but not anymore, all that I can do is control my actions and fly at time super strength too but thats about it not too much
Very usefull article, thank you.
I’ve also had a quite similiar dream except for I was in my own room (while dreaming) and moved something, say for example my chair, or sweatshirt in the dream with either my mind or hands and when I woke up it actually was moved to that exact space.
I thought I might have been sleepwalking or something but I took a few precautions to make sure I wasn’t, and I wasn’t :|..
But thank you for the very interesting article 
I’m in the midst of reading other books about dreaming and such.
A recent one Im into is dreams and their meanings.
This should carry a warning: There are downsides to lucid dreaming!!
I remember my dreams, at least two or three a night, and it is absolutely exhausting. If you do condition yourself to remember your dreams you will be trading off a peaceful night’s rest. I started keeping a journal once, just for fun, but I could fill 5 to 10 pages with the details I remembered. It doesn’t stop. I would trade places in a second with someone that goes to sleep and passes the night quietly, only to wake up feeling refreshed, instead of waking up tired and confused like me.
I’ve been able to do this a few times in my life. I’ve always been interested in it, especially now that i started skydiving. I wish I could go to sleep every night knowing that in a few minutes I would be flying around wherever I wanted to go.
I’ve seen a mask that you can wear which recognizes REM sleep and flashes lights to alert you that you’re dreaming so you can have a lucid dream. I doubt it works, though.
the main problem here is that you can become addicted to lucid dreaming, almost like you can be addicted to narcotics. i’ve experienced this a lot. you start to prefer lucid dreams to reality so you sleep all day and enjoy your dreaming. then you wake up and life is not as fulfilling as your dreams. i can probably remember hundreds of dreams i’ve had since i was a kid (and i don’t write a log). i don’t think this is something someone should want to learn.
instead of lucid dreaming, someone should perfect the ability of not sleeping. then you really can live a second life.
My dreams are always short. more like watching a move in a first person mode. just scenes after sceenes. I never had a real ‘lucid’ dream, but always wanted to attain that skill.
What i did noticed though that if I had a little alcohol (little, equivalent to 1 or 2 beers) then by dreams are always more complex, longer and more real and my dream recollecion is really good. 99% on the morning i dont recall having any dreams (without alcohol that is)…
A friend told me he had lucid dreams and convinced me it was possible. I tried for months until it finally started to happen to me.
I did not have any techniques and didn’t keep a journal. I just “willed” it to happen over a long period of time until it finally did.
i had a nightmare once. i was trapped in a dark room with monsters trying to get in.
in the dream, i was so terrified and was about to scream for help. but then i somehow realized this couldn’t be happening and it was just a dream.
from then, i was lucid dreaming. i broke the door, flew out of the house. the monsters were gone and the night turned into a bright morning.
really cool.
Hmmm… I might just try this. I remember my first lucid dream (I haven’t really had many)… I was 4 years old and dreaming, when I realized it was a dream. Then I thought of Scooby Doo and the gang and the Mystery Machine and it was there with me… Strange but true Hey, what can I say other than I was four years old.
I sometimes have lucid dreams. There is a simple test to tell if you’re dreaming or not. Ask yourself if you’re dreaming. If you’re not sure, then you’re dreaming.
I’ve been doing this on occasion for about 15 years. I can’t do it every night or even every week, but, once every month or so I realize I am dreaming and can take control. Normally I fly but occasionally I have done it during a nightmare and have been able to take a scary dream and turn it into one where I am in control - make bad people disappear, make interesting people appear, etc. Lots of fun. I agree that waking is the biggest problem… but, I can often go right back to it if I wake up.
You might want to do an article on how to program oneself to wake up easily, whether groggy or clearly awake, without recalling dreams. For those who struggle with nightmares and anxiety it’s harder to learn how to maintain control of the dreams than it is to simply not recall them.
while i’ve been able to remember dreams regularly for a few years, the number i can remember has increased to at least one per week now.
i recently had a lucid dream. i dreamed that i was dreaming and became aware or partly aware of the dream, and i was able to change my size and pick an attacker up in one hand.
i haven’t tried anything special at all other than journaling. now perhaps i’ll try to ingrain something in my mind that will help me become aware that i’m dreaming.
i mean, despite how ridiculous some dreams can get (involving a mix of star trek, superman, and the matrix) they all seem pretty believable at the time…
I tend to have lucid dreams when I wake up in the morning (early morning.. 5-8am). I decide to go back to sleep for a bit, and if my mind is flowing with thoughts already, that’s when the fun begins.
I too have had a nightmare. I mean, I’ve had countless nightmares but I was able to stop everything once I told myself it was just a dream. Everything just dissapeared.
It is quite depressing once you DO wake up from a lucid dream as you would with any other regular dream. But sometimes my dreams motivate me into obtaining something I’ve always wish I wanted or wanted to do.
In my experience, accomplishing lucid dreaming is much simpler and doesn’t require a dream journal.
Just tell tell yourself each night before you go to sleep that, in your dreams, you are going to look at the back of your hand. It also helps to ask yourself frequently if you are dreaming - even if you know perfectly well that you’re awake. Eventually the question will seep into your dreams and you’ll take over control.
You might wake the first few times but you get the hang of it quickly - it’s not rocket science
I can usually get into the lucid dream state faster during afternoon naps when I’m less likely to fall into deep sleep. I just do imaginary underwater backflips in my head until sleep takes hold and it’s practically like asking Scottie to beam me up. Trippy.
There is some time when “we” are able to control ourselves, the predictability in the course of our dream. In some other cases, we can’t.
I’ve been lucid dreaming for about 6 years now. Its a lot of fun, and can be really useful. An excellent website, with a very informative forum can be found at ld4all.com.
I so hope this will work, a few years ago I could control my dreams without doing anything, I can’t anymore, I’ll try this. : D
There is a technique, which I have used successfully to both recognize a lucid dream and to begin to manipulate the dream. That is, once you suspect you are dreaming, look at the back of my hands. This was one simple but effective way for me to start.
i have lucid dreams where i am in my bed or wherever i am sleeping, however, i cant control anything. i actually try furiously to wake myself up and i cant. i just simply lay there…kinda strange
I learned how to control my dreams when I was quite young, but I didn’t know that other people couldn’t do it so easily. Mostly it was to get myself out of nightmares.
The first time I did it I was having a nightmare that my pet hamster escaped, and I was running around in a panic trying to capture him. When I finally caught him, I didn’t know what to do next, and at that point I somehow realized it was a dream so I let myself put down the dream-hamster & walk away instead of panicking. I woke up & everything was fine, the hamster happily in his cage running on the wheel. Ever since then I’m often able to stop my nightmares; I stop running & beat up the guy chasing me, I put on clothing if I’m naked in front of the crowed, I put my teeth back in when they fall out. I have lots of weird dreams.
I don’t always realize right away that I’m dreaming, but when I do it can be quite fun, thou then it can also be disappointing when I wake up. One dream I won the lottery & went on a shopping spree, and I mid-shopping I realized it was just a dream and all the cool stuff I bought wouldn’t be there when I woke up.
I already read an arcticle about lucid dreaming but this one was more to the point. I tried it and I can do it sometimes (although I still can’t fly…) I didn’t write a journal but I began to really remember my dreams and it became really exahusting. I have now read the anonymous reply and its pretty reliefing to know I’m not a wacko or something like that…
beware! remembering your dreams is very exahusting but having a lucid dream is awesome! so it’s worth it.
P.S. look at electrical devices to see if they work correctly. it another king of RT
and one more thing. you can even change the image you see! say aloud thimgs like “mute” and “black and white” to change how the things look. (didn’t had the chance to try those)
Hey, http://www.dreamviews.com/ is a good place with lots of information of lucid dreams. Lots of good advice. For example there are more reality checks: you can try to breathe through your nose when it’s closed by fingers, it’s possible in dreams but not in reality. Cool feeling, impossible! This is so amazing, you can be awake all night and control the whole “dream world” when you’re really lucid. And the funniest part is that ALL is possible!
Good nights
this is interesting, but isn’t it true that the mind cant tell the diference between experiencing so called “reality” now or experiencing something in your head, what im really interested in is this, lets say in this so called reality, we are brought up with so much doubt that it hinders what we would really like to be and it makes us put those desires in the category of impossible, i call it the impossible box, we put things there that we think are not possible because we have doubt, and society says they arent possible, flying or being a superhero as you mentioned is not embraced, its not thought possible for the majority of humans in this world, what if in your dream you start doubting yourself, but i meen the doubt has to be strong and conditioned just like it is for us here in this reality ;), do you think you will be able to do those sort of things, being a superhero, a millionaire, i personally dont think you will, so if this is true, then we could be in a dream right now and we can be whatever we want to be, but doubt, social norms, concepts, hinder us almost put blockage againt our desires, because we believe doubt, concepts and accepted behavior to be the way things are, maybe because while we are dreaming, we let go, we think everything is possible because it’s a dream, maybe that alos contributes to the ability to be everything, but i think right now we are everything, we are just not aware of it, nice article, it got my rotors spinning this morning 
[…] Lucid dreaming is exactly what I’m doing every single day. Want to do it too? read more about it at the How to have a Lucid Dream article. Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
I used to have these on quite a regular basis back when I was 8, after a while I got so sick of it and tried to use the power of will to try and wake myself up, every time I’d realize I was dreaming, It always felt like I was actually waking up, but after a while I’d realize I’d just stepped into another ‘more realistic’ dream.
Well a few years ago I’d gotten interested in lucid dreaming again after reading a bit about astral projection, but still haven’t succeeded in having another lucid dream, but I’ll give your tips a go
For quite some time, I have been having dreams which I can control. For instance, I once dreamed that I accidentally walked out of a store without paying for merchandise; I saw a friend and was trying to get her attention. An alarm sounded and I was trapped between two barred walls. Then the manager of the store came out to the cage. He was holding what looked like a neon green glowstick, made of glass. He held it up to my mouth, and smashed it with a hammer into my face! I fell to the ground, and I remember thinking, “That should not have happened!” So my conscious took over, and I was able to reverse time, pay for whatever it was, and be on my merry way. Then, since the plot was resolved, I woke up, and was instantly awake and ready for the day.
I cant wait to try this. I know I’ve had them, but none stick put I’m my mind. I often have dreams about being underwater and feeling like I’m going to drown, but then i take a breath and my lungs fill with air. I hope I have one of those again soon so i can take over. Thanks for the awesome article!
The only way I can tell when I’m dreaming usually is if I’m “Using the force” or call it telekinetics if you want. I often try to do this in real life, usually around friends who can reach whatever I’m trying to levitate to my hand. Of course it never works, but in my dreams it works like a charm. Usually It lets me know that I’m dreaming and I’m more likely to remember this type of dream, although I don’t have any kind of full control.
Also, I’ve been able to cancel nightmares at will for about as long as I can remember. If the dream is going too weird, I mentally press the reset dream switch and move on to something else.
I once journaled 7 separate dreams in one night, although my memory for such things has gone to pot since then. (Pun intended). I’ve read in many places that drug use of almost any kind will inhibit certain upper brain functions that control dreaming and awareness as well as memory.
Saw your comment on my blog, Wow, I didn’t expect a visit! Thanks for stopping in, and for the articles I grabbed (Im totally embarrassed, lol). If you want me to edit them down on my site any, thats cool..
Well, I tried to have a lucid dream, and some strange things happend. On other websites, they tell you to stay completely still and count until you sleep. I attempted this, and eventually a strange feeling came creeping up my legs. It felt numb, but I soon became aware that my legs were convulsing slightly. It shook me out of it, so I attempted again. This happend several times until my entire body resembled a person experiencing epilepsy, but I was looking at my body. Strange and scary indeed. I looked at the clock, and it said it was 7 AM. I immediately thought, “Oh crap, Ive gotta get up!” Springing up, I stopped short. I felt rather weightless. Confused, I shot a glance at the clock once more. Now it said 4 AM. “What the hell…” I looked back to my pillow, and there lay my sleeping form. I freaked out and shouted in surprise, diving back into my body. An instant later my head shot up from the pillow, and I sat there hyperventilating, in a cold sweat. Out of body experience, anyone?
[…] How To Have a Lucid Dream These things really do work, try it out it can reduce stress improve your success and best of all you can experience anything you want. (tags: dreams lucid Sleep) […]
Well before reading about lucid dreaming I have already been keeping a dream journal. However most nights I simply forget my dreams but I write down the ones that I remember. Hopefully this gives me a good start. If I’m able to control my dreams I hope to be able to swim in my dreams, and get rid of my hydrophobia one day.
Very simple method of lucid dreaming.
step one: look at your hands before going to sleep. Palms up or palms down, makes no difference. Look at them long enough to form a picture them in your head.
step two: go to sleep. If you can look at your hands while you are dreaming, the memory of the mental picture will result in a lucid state.
step three: keep the lucidity going by manipulating things, with your hands at first, moving on to other forms of fantastic alteration.
I don’t know why this works, but my theory is that the hands represent, psychologically, the body’s ability to manipulate the physical world. If the dream state is a simulation of the physical world, then it follows that the hands would also play a role, symbolically, in altering the dream world as well.
I had a dream once where a monster was chasing me through a hedge maze. After what seemed like several minutes of frantic running I saw an exit just a short distance ahead. In slow motion I raced towards the exit with the monster bearing down right behind me. Suddenly I tripped and fell as the monster jumped and landed on top of me. Trembling in fear I looked up into its eyes and asked, “Are you going to kill me?”
To my astonishment he answered back, “I don’t know Will, it’s your dream…you tell me!”
I hadn’t realized it was a dream until he spoke. Of course by then I had awaken, too relieved to continue.
In my view, finding out the true nature and identity of who one really really really is, to and within which dreams appear is much more important than simply being aware of the dream and manipulating them.
Yours In True & Lasting Health and Well-Being!
Michael
I read this article in my dreams… and putting this replies after I woke up.
often time, this lucid dream is problem for me because I can’t tell if I awake or in dream.
I woke up, go to work, eat lunch, come home, then go to bed, then woke up like a minute later.. realizing that whole day I spent.. was a dream.. and I get so tired… what I saw in the dream happens in real life… drives me insane…
[…] Charles gives clues about having your own lucid dream: “Everybody dreams nightly, but some people do not remember their dreams.” […]
Once I dreamed that I saw the Power Rangers. I then realized I was dreaming, so I kicked one of them in slow motion.
I have always dreamt, but flying, and teaching myself how to fly is still my favourite dream. The experience is so exhilerating, you just want the dream to go on and on.
Over the years, and having so many dream experiences, I have deducted that we have 2 types of dreams.
1. The influenced dream - this occurs when we think of things, people or events, or are influenced by them in an advert, conversation and the like, and the information is absorbed by our subconcious which records the event or part thereof, but says I’m too busy to analyse this at present, and later manifests itself in a dream once we are asleep.
This type of dream can be a nightmare, or the influence thrown out of all proportions etc etc.and is usually a stress relief for the brain.
This type of dream I feel is common and we all experience them.
2 The second type of dream (I have experienced, and I am sure we all have)is the ability to move from the conscious to the sub conscious state, and actually leave the body and experience people and places that we have never met or seen - this is the ability to leave the parameters of time and space, and travel in a different dimension. I have been able to astral travel to other parts of the world, and have met people, did things and experienced events which only occurred later in my life.
I believe that we have these 2 types of dreams - the influenced dream and the one where we create something out of nothing and then it comes true - where we actually get glimpses of our future (we all experience these events during sleep, but coming from a subconcious state of REM sleep to a conscious state is quite traumatic, and many events are lost and forgotten in the awakening - until they actually occur - dejavu!!)
I have had dreams that have come true and believe that if I wrote all of my dreams down, could analyse the influenced dreams from the ones which would become real, then I would have my whole life spread out before me.
I know there are sceptics who do not believe the power of the mind and altered states of consciousness and energy - but these people are limited by what we know, what we are told, limitations of our human existance.
I have had such wonderful dreams and experiences in life that I know there is so much more to our existence and the power of the mind than we can’t imagine.
Let me give you and example ( I could write a book on my actual dream experiences)
In high school - grade 11, I had a recurring dream (3 nights in a row). It was the beginning of the year.
I dreamt I was on a bus in an area that was unknown to me.
Then I was riding a bicycle- which was unusual because I did not own a bicycle, and had only very limited experience riding one.
I was with someone else also riding a bicycle
We rode down a street I had never seen or been in before.
We saw a girl who was in my class (Lynne), and she waived as we rode past. This is how the dream ended.
12 months past and it was school holidays.
I was going to go to Robert’s (a friend) house at Indooroopilly. I had never been there before. We were going to go to Andrew’s house at Kenmore. Robert had told me what bus to catch, where to get off etc.
The morning I awoke to go to Robert’s home I felt I had done this before!!
I got on the bus, and knew when to ring the bell before the stop came (even though I had never been on that bus)
I knew which house was Roberts without looking at the number - I felt I’d done all this before.
When I got to Robert’s house I asked him if his father was to drive us to Andrew’s place and Robert said that he wasn’t home because he had given Paul (Robert’s brother ) a lift somewhere.
Robert did ride a bike to school(and so did his brother).
Robert suggested that we ride over to Kenmore, and that I could borrow his brother’s bike. I told him I wasn’t much good at riding, but I’d give it a go!!
Still I had the distinct feeling that I had lived this day before, but couldn’t put my finger on it!!
Once I straddled the bike (Paul’s) rather akwardly my dream of 12 months ago came flashing back - I knew I had lived this day- had viewed it like a section of a tape recording in a dream state.
I told Robert that we were going to see Lynne on the way and that she would wave to us!!
I told him I had dreamt the whole day and he just laughed at my comments.
We soon left and I clumsily followed Robert, because I didn’t know the way he intended to go.
We came to a side street off River road - near Nudgee junior college - I had never been this way to Moggill Road.
Walking in front of us was a lady and her daughter (with their backs to us). As we caught up and over took the pair - it was Lynne, and upon recoginising the two of us gave us a wave as we rode past!!
- Well Robert nearely fell off his bike with amazement.
This was one actual case where I had prophesized, if you like, a dream I had 12 months earlier.
After many other instances of dreams coming true I am totally convinced that we live our lives in our dreams, and this energy and altered time frames can be accessed in a dream state.
[…] Page Summary: The Buddhists wrote of a form of yoga designed to maintain full waking consciousness while in the dream state. It is not a true statement, everybody dreams nightly, but some people do not remember their dreams. Now before going to bed, have a clear mind, tell yourself that ?I will remember my dream when I wake up?. There are many ways to key yourself to the fact that you are dreaming but I will discuss a couple of the easiest for beginners.read more | digg story […]
Interesting article. Another good tip to becoming lucid, is to learn as much as you can about lucid dreaming. it’s good to read articles like this one, and looking up available media and books online.
It also helps to have someone to talk to about your experiences.
I have many LD trhought the years. You can see my experience in lucid dreaming visiting my blog: http://stulzer.net/blog/category/lucid-dreaming/
this is funny, i just had a dream last night where i suddenly realized i was in a dream, i jumped into the air, started flying, then woke up i was so excited
i can tell you, suddenly realizing your dreaming is the weirdest feeling i could imagine.
say your doing some complicated project IRL, your about halfway done, then suddenly you found out a way to do the project in one step, thats the feeling i got when i suddenly realized that floating clams and mile long golf drives weren’t normal and i must be dreaming
I don’t dream. Say what you will about not remembering but that’s how it’s been for the last 21 years.
I’ve had two dreams that could be described as ‘lucid’ or ‘prophetical’; one I had in the fifth grade, I had a dream that I was pushing a stroller in a zoo, turned in front of an exibit, but there was too much fog for me to see what was in the exhibit. The next day, we had a field trip to the zoo, and sure enough, my friend’s mom asked me to push a stroller with her youngest kid in it just before reaching an area that looked like the start of my dream. Everything happened like my dream, except I could see the exhibit (elephants). The second dream I just realized I was dreaming, and flew around while doing X-Games type stunts on a skateboard in a concrete skatepark (and I have no skateboarding ability in the waking world).
My Nightmare of the Powerful Zombies.
I have had lucid dreams. You can do whatever as long as you keep remembering that you are dreaming and that you are in control.
I remember one in which I was in a dark cave with rivers of flowing lava and surrounded by zombies (Night of the Living Dead type). I remember running from cave to cave avoiding the lava and the zombies but the zombies were everywhere and catching up to me. I realized I was dreaming and flew out of the cave into the sky as the lava filled the caves. I felt safe in the serene, blue sky until I looked behind me.
The zombies were also flying and quickly catching up. I could not believe it; they should have disappeared like all the other nightmares that I willed out of existence before. I felt my heart pounding in my chest. No matter how much I tried, I could not get rid of them. And, they were catching up to me even as I flew faster. Quickly, I realized that I was dreaming but not in control of this dream. The zombies were in control and they could not be willed out of existence.
Finally, I came up with an idea. I stopped in the middle of the sky and turned to face the zombies. The zombies were flying straight at me. If this idea failed then I was dead -or so I thought at the time. I remember yelling, “Okay, so you have the same powers as I do –then try this!” In that instant, I used the only power that could get rid of them. I woke up.
So if all else fails in your dream, eject! I guess it worked. Either that or I brought an army of ultra powerful zombies to this world. 
Hey, what’s that reaching from behind you…? Run!
Happy Halloween and for your information, the dream did happen. That was the only time I could not will a dream monster out of existence and the monsters were equally as powerful as I was.
P.S. Careful, Hollywood is always looking for new ideas for movies. If they can’t have lucid dreams then they might just rip some of this good dream plots and make them into a movie. I think they are the zombies incarnate. ©
i can usually lucid dream if i realise i am in a dream, but if it is a bad dream then for some reason i can never get away from the evil feeling.
I don’t understand - if I could do this it would be nothing but sex with Jessica Alba every night until I woke up. Who wants to waste a lucid dream on problems at work?
I was a child the first time I had a Lucid dream. In it, there was a monster trying to get into houses on my block. I realized it was a dream and made myself run next door to my best friend’s house. The monster was at my heals but of course I was able to slip through the back door. Her family was watching out the window and were terrified, worried that the monster would get in. I told them not to worry, that this was just a dream, the monster couldn’t really hurt them, and it would be over soon. I never thought about beating off the monster, only eluding it and calming everyone else’s fears.
When I was younger, my dreams were so vivid, I started pinching myself on my inner thigh, where the skin is thin and tender, whenever I wondered if I was dreaming or awake. I always pinched myself before I would pee, just to make sure I really was sitting on a toilet!
When I was younger, I was very sensitive to spirits, or a parallel dimension, or psychotic illusions; who know what they are. I don’t know if this has anything to do with lucid dreams, but these things happened was I was definitely awake.
I’ve had lucid dreams and most often end up flying. I’ve also tried ‘moon bouncing’, telekinesis, changing locale or companions immediately at will, and re-experiencing the same locale from a different perspective (e.g. going through a dream labryinth backwards).
Your post reminded me of something I’d heard years ago about certain mammals.
Monotremes (e.g. the echidna, or ’spiny anteater’ of Australia) have an extremely large neocortex. They do not exhibit REM sleep which has lead some researchers to argue they’re are able to process new information into memory in *real-time*.
I’ve always liked to think it meant they’re sleepwalking through life… Aboriginal dreamtime indeed!
I had to learn lucid dreaming at a young age to get over bed wetting (I dreamed I was in the bathroom…)
I just wanted to reply to a couple of the comments.
I can relate to the person who could become “addicted” to dreaming.
My theory: I believe in an other side and think that the more sensitive people are to it, the more they can experience it in their dreams. It is an amazing escape, and, yeah, who would want to leave?
Fortunately, or not, it seems to be something I have grown out of.
As for the 2 types a dreams, I share the same view completely.
I have experienced so many things in life that I have dreamed. To me, it is undeniable.
I have also had some pretty wacky influenced dreams. Those can be fun to try to figure out.
Lucid Dreams, are nothing new. My father (Native American) taught me to control my dreams when I was young. I taught my stepson how, when he had nightmares about his real father. Later my son. I was intrigued by the comment that it is addictive. I have have always thought it natural. I have made many friends who thought I had this wonderful gift and wished they could do it. I have helped some to do it. Some can’t. The only time I thought of it as a bad thing was when I was taking a medication that had the side effects of vivid nightmares. I had them and could not take control fast enough (talking split second changes) to over come them. A couple of the most disturbing nights of my life. Turns out the medicine shouldn’t have even been prescribed. Oh well good luck to all. I think you sleep better if nothing bad can happen and making things funny makes you wake up happy.
To “Flyer”
The device to which you are referring is called a “Nova Dreamer” and is available from the Lucidity Institute run by Dr. Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D. Dr. LaBerge is the individual responsible for scientifically proving the existence of lucid dreaming through a series of repeatable experiments involving the monitoring of REM during sleep cycles. The Nova Dreamer works by monitoring your eye movements. When it detects REM, it flashes small LED’s and, if you choose, also emits a small beeping sound. If you follow the instructions which come with the Nova Dreamer, it actually works quite well, at least based upon my own personal experience. The settings are adjustable and it does take some experimentation to get the right settings for yourself, but it is worth it in the end.
Does anyone notice that when you suddenly awake from a deep-dream state of mind; That if you shift the position of your head just a smidge, that you thought become unfocused, unless you are totally comitted to remembering.?!??? I’ve noticed that if I awaken from a deep dream and roll over my total thought process is eliminated and renewed, even with fain glimpses of my dreams i just had… or always have…. but The position of the sleeping persons head, and therefor the majority of blood flow to the pillowside ofe the brain… in other words.. whatever portion of the brain that is most saturated with blood will respond with particular dreams according to the particular corresponding emotional and memory related stimuli that will therefore occur… Henceforth conceiving the dream like state of mind… where your thoughts excede your physical boundaries and are only limited by mere imagination…. Keep Dreaming!!!! Everything is possible! Dream and pray for the best, Please!
I love lucid dreams. I have had many since I was a kid. I love the ones where I can fly. I just start running and take off. It’s an awesome feeling when you know that you’re dreaming. Unfortunately in some lucid dreams I do some not very appropriate things. Maybe it’s just my subconscience getting fantasies fulfilled, I don’t know. In any case, I am surprised when people I know tell me that they have never experienced a lucid dream. I think everyone needs to experience it, if even just once.
This may seem a bit pretentious, since lucid dreaming seems like a sort of sith-like technique, but trust me, once you get it it can become almost mundane.
I’ve been lucid dreaming since I can remember sleeping and dreaming. It’s only difficult in the sense that it has to occur once with some awareness and remembering in order to do it again.
The tips above are nice, but from someone who has done this thousande of times, remember please that none of these are set in stone.
Frankly, the easiest way I’ve found is to place an soft-sounding alarm clock near me. Set it 2-3 hours before I want to wake up with a 30 minute snooze alarm. Then, train yourself to hit the snooze–half asleep–repeatedly. You will find yourself conscious and able to remember the majority of your dreams (if not, they will be on the “tip of your tongue”). Just keep trying, over and over, waking and sleeping between your “snooze alarms”. If you can fall asleep for at least 20-25 mins per snooze alarm, I assure you that 10-20 days of this will result in you realizing you are dreaming. For me, it happens every single day, since a part of my mind associates the snooze alarm with being “awake”, and my self-awareness seems to recognize them in dreams (on behalf of my concious). That’s all I can say, really, but give it a shot. The rest is almost nosense. Sometimes it’s best to “shake up” your cycle and your patterns to encourage new behavior and thoughts.
Lucid dreaming sounds interesting. It’s too bad we can’t lucidily dream out the iraq - afganistan war or George Bush Jr and say it was just a nightmare or something. Stay real and let dreams be…
I have had several lucid dreams. They do exist and can be manipulated very easily if you can actually realize you are dreaming. In several dreams i basically told myself, “f–k this! i’m dreaming.” Suddenly i start to levitate off the ground and begin to fly very fast…feet first like i was laying back in an easy chair. I can “up” myself out of a negative dream situation and into any pleasant one i want.
I have found that lucid dreaming is an excellant way of solving problems. If I am building something and can’t figure out the details, I’ll lay down with the problem in mind and I will come up with the answers while dreaming. If I have a project at work that I’m not sure how to go about it, I just think of it when going to sleep and the answer will come. If I have a sticky situation concerning relationships, the problem is answered in my dreams. I even use it when I am writing a story and am not sure where I am going with it. I put the story aside, lay down with the story in mind and my dream-mind will come up with the obvious conclusion.
It can also be used to solve everyday, mundane problems, such as-where did I leave my keys? Just keep the problem in mind when you lay down to go to sleep and your subconscious will do the rest.
“Watch Your Dreams,” Ann Ree Colton, is one of the best dream books I’ve read.
“Looking into the Invisible,” Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, also.
“The Masters and Their Retreats,” Mark L. Prophet, and “The Master of Lucid Dreams,” Olga Kharitidi, M.D., round out the list.
Other than a few nightmares, I’ve never had a dream in my life and I’m now 62. I think this is a lot of baloney.
My I reccomend an inexpensive satin sleep mask like the type you find at your local wallgreens. The type that touch your eyes are best.
The slight pressure on your eyes will start the lucid process once you fall asleep. Works every time every night for me. I call it my “magic sleep mask” ..
I also use foam earplugs to keep any sound from my ears too.
The whole process ,mask and ear plugs is simple sensory depravation but it WORKS EVERY TIME.
jg
I seem to have had lucid dreams, i.e., being able to change the story, but I have never had a vivid dream. Even in the dream it is usually like driving through a heavy fog and faces can not be distinguished. Similarly I can’t imagine the face of a loved one. Visual imagery must be stored somewhere since I recognize images, but I do not seem to have the vivid imaging skill that my wife, for ex., has. She has also had several extremely vivid near-death experiences and OBEs. I’ve often wondered if anyone like myself who has never experienced vivid “alternative reality” experiences such as a vivid dream or NDE ever suddenly experiences this? Before abductee researcher Constance Clear was killed in a motorcycle accident, I discussed this with her by phone and she told me that she too had never had a vivid dream and was also a poor visualizer. It is perplexing, and I am a bit amused when someone leading a visualization exercise tells me to visualize something.
Try falling asleep on your back. I find that if I can maintain this position until I lose consciousness I will most likely have a lucid dream. I’ve always thought it happened because there was nothing physically in front of me in the real world, and my mind translated this as being free to move around in the dream world and thus being more “in control”. Either that or because certain key portions of the back of my brain were more saturated with blood. Either way it is always an exhilarating experience!
I realise that boogey-man type dreams happen mostly while we are young but,on two occasions did me and my younger brother SHARE dreams simultaneously at a young age ,both dreams were a little bit spooky we both recalled the SHARED dreams immediately afterwards.
This is a very interesting article. I’ll have to give this a try.
I remember having only a few lucid dreams and only two dreams that I actually knew I was dreaming while in the dream, although the first time that happened the excitement of the realization woke me up.
One of the few, and by far the best lucid dream I have ever had I also was able to realize I was dreamin and from there I did whatever I wanted untill I woke up.
I was walking along the side of a large white house I did not recognize with a person whos face and voice are still a blurr to me to this day, but I seemed to know the person in the dream. The sky was completely black except for the brilliant full moon that was lighting our path. We came upon the backyard of the house, and there was a thick forest just beyond with a narrow trail that seemed to be pulling us toward it, although neither I nor the person walking next to me had an obligations to enter. So we did. After a few paces into the woods we came upon one of the most hideous creatures I have ever witnessed, and at that moment I was struck with fear because I thought this was really happening (I hadnt realized it was a dream just yet). The creature had green glowing eyes that set in the head of a bear but had the torso of an ape, and the legs of a kangaroo. It was feasting on a dead deer when we first seen it, and as soon as it turned its gaze on us everything slowed for about a second and then all at once three things happened. The creature leapt through the air to kill me, the person I was walking with jumped into the bushes off to the right of the trail, and I wished, silently in my head, that I had wings so that I could fly away and my wish was granted the moment I thought it. I felt the rush of air through my hair, the pull of gravity on my stomache, and the movement of my new wings ripping through my shirt and lifting me away from the danger. I then realized that none of this was possible and that I was dreaming so I proceeded to enjoy the gift of flight for as long as I could before I inevitably woke up. I didnt think about doing anything else… just flying. And everyone I flew over would shout at me “How do you have wings?!” and I would just respond “Its a dream!” and be on my way.
Before that dream I often had dreams that I would be helplessly falling through the air and dreading the moment of impact I knew would end my life only to awake upon impact, horrified of the feeling of such helplessness. But since this dream, I have never had a dream of falling, nor of controlled flight, again.
I have had these since I was about 10 yrs old. I have had several types of dreams that fall into somewhat consistent categories, including the full fledged out of body experience. What I find interesting is that my son now has the same thing and we have compared experiences and he also has experienced most of the different types of dreams I have. I also have a daughter who doesn’t have these experiences. As far as I have been able to deduce my mother also has them, but is religious and doesn’t want to talk about it.
I’ve had lucid dreams that managed to backfire or trick me. I noticed that any time I look at the sky in my dreams, everything is exaggerated (planets too close, stars really bright, etc) So I figured next time I start to become lucid, I’ll look at the sky. The first time this worked something in my dream tipped me off that I must be dreaming, so I looked at the sky. Except this time the sky looked perfectly normal and I thought I must not be dreaming! After that I lost the lucidity.
Another time I realized I could “beat” a bad guy that was bothering me, but then he came back later in the dream with a new ability that caught me by surprise and I couldn’t stop him, so I woke up. One dream I’ll never forget was rather amusing. A dog kept bothering me, so I imagined a man in a gorilla suit walking out of a nearby building. That got the dog’s attention! I don’t recall being aware that I was dreaming, however, so I don’t know if this was a true lucid dream or rather just one I was able to influence through willpower.
People should be aware that it may not always be a good idea to try and change your dreams; you might miss an important message from your subconscious by doing so.
[…] Ez azonban megváltozni látszik, ugyanis 4-5 napja folyamatosan fel tudom idézni, hogy mit álmodtam. Ez szépen alátámasztja azt, amit itt olvastam az irányított álmokkal kapcsolatban. Mi is az az irányított álom? Az, amikor álmodsz és tudod, hogy álmodsz. Ilyenkor meg tudod változtatni az álom menetét és irányíthatod a dolgokat. Szuperhős lehetsz vagy vadakat terelő juhász… de előtte néhány dolgot meg kell tenned. […]
I have found that when I am laying on my back with my head turned to the right I will dream lucid as apposed to turning my head to the left and having nightmares. I also have found that when I am dreaming lucid I can keep myself from waking by breathing deeply in my dream putting me even deeper. I have very vivid deams most of the time but when I think I may be awake I bite my cheeck and if I feel no pain I know I am dreaming. Just a few ideas that may help.
I have always been able to create lucid dreams. I never knew what they were called until i read this article. I just create a story in my head while i am laying down relaxing and then I fall to sleep. After that I have a few dreams I dont control and then right before I wake up in the morning I have my lucid dreams. I do whatever I want and say things that I want to say. Its really fun. I dont do it everytime. It doesn’t work when I am stressed out. It does always work when I make that first story up in my head. I think it’s something that each individual person does in their own way.
I am extremely interested in lucid dreaming. I have nearly 100% total recall after I wake up. Sometimes very disturbing and some nightmares are horrendous.
I once dreamed that I saw my father dead in his coffin. That morning I called Mom and asked if Dad was OK. When she asked why I called about this I told her my dream. Then she said that my sister-in-law’s father had died that morning. weird!
For a while I kept a journal too, but recently gave it up.
I’ve always been interested in this since I was about ten years old. I think I’ll print this out and read it after work.