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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I have been having lucid dreams since I was a child. I did not know there was a name for them until a couple of years ago. (I actually thought I was the only one who could control my dreams because I never met anyone else who knew what I was even talking about)
I am currently contacting others who lucid dream because I have noticed as I become older that most of my lucid dreams can be tracked to monthly fluctuations in hormones. I am trying to find others who may have had the same experience.
Hopefully you will be able to connect with someone on this Blog who you can correspond with about your experiences.
Good Luck
Great blog!!! Very informative and inciteful. Excellent!!!
I have these dreams that are awful nightmares and while I have them I come like out of my body and watch myself have them and know I’m dreaming and I try and try to wake myself up and if on the couch napping I can see my mom or whoever is up and talking, walking around and hear them it’s so scary and I beg them to wake me but obviously they don’t see me or hear me but I can tell them everything they did when I awake and what they said. It’s so scary to me I hate it when it happens and I don’t want to tell my doctors they might think I’m crazy. Doe’s anyone else have these?
I think that you are having an experience that many people strive to accomplish, although you have got it in your mind that it is a frightening experience, when it doesn’t need to be. When you realize your dreaming you can control every aspect of your dream with a little practice. You can stop the frightening aspects of your dream just by wishing it so. You are not crazy, and in fact in a very fortunate position. Some people practice for years to achieve what you can do already. Learn to control it and you will find that it is the greatest experience there is.
Good luck!
I had this dream once where my favorite singer was in front of me. I don’t think I had fully realized I was in a dream, but I kept pleading in my mind, “Don’t let me wake from this dream.”
Hi Summer,
I sometimes have a similar dream. However I am still in my body. I wake up in my bed, and have a really horrible sensation, it feels like there is a huge weight on me, like increased gravity, and I can’t get up. Sometimes I am able to throw myself of my bed and crawl towards the door, and I try to scream for help but no sound comes out.
I know that I am dreaming and try desperately to wake myself up. I try as hard as I can to ‘shake’ myself awake by shaking my real body (not my dream body), until I finally do wake up.
I used to have this dream about once a month, but it’s been about 6 months since I last had it, so I hope that’s it gone now. I remember having dreams that started of the same a few months ago, but I think I was able to sort of change it so it wasn’t as bad, but it still wasn’t pleasant.
Hey al
I dreamed that i was flying wauw really amazing!
So after that i had the feeling a black woman was chasing me, and felt very scared:(. After that i try ed to fly away but i couldn’t and woke up. So i guess i don’t must be scared if i want to fly again haha. I also want to let the people know for who are reading…NEVER NEVER be scared and if you are just turn around and look right in the eyes of that what is making you scared! only than you can see the truth.
Greetzz
Sometimes in the morning when I kind of drift in and out of consciousness, I have what I call a “clear dream.” It’s like a daydream, but I’m not exactly conscious, but it’s not exactly a sleeping dream because I can see/hear things that are actually happening around me, only they are integrated into my dream. Sometimes it feels like I have precognition, because events in the dream will clearly and obviously lead up to an event occurring around me (usually I hear a big noise from my mom doing laundry in the next room). The best example I have of this is watching someone fall in the dream, and hearing mom drop a laundry basket or something right when the person hit the ground.It sounds like Summer’s experience, but it’s never frightening and I can never see myself. Anyone else have this kind of experience, or know if it has a particular name?
Great response Eric
Some of the people here are explaining the beginnings of Lucid dreaming and are, experiencing and interpreting it as a scary experience, while others are trying so hard to reach the level of those very same people.
Well i actualy can control my in my dreams, once i try to kill my self in dream… And then i lost this ability to control me for more than year…
by attempting to kill yourself, you are giving yourself a code that tells your sleeping mind that you are dreaming, which starts the lucidity. I have never heard this way to do it but whatever works. A lot of people look at the clock in their dream which triggers the lucidity, others turn off the light switch in their dream which is a common trigger.
I have sexual dreams if I am in love with someone for real, If it’s fake love I can’t no matter how sexy they are it has to be real love. I also have found that in my dreams I can close my eyes tightly and wake up instantly. I love that! Which means my bad dreams are short, the good ones are long! I would like to know, how can you kiss someone in a dream? This still beffudles me why I see someone I love and completely forget to kiss them in a dream! Please help me.
i have had lucid dreams as long as i can remember… but now less and less. i fear i’m losing the ability to lucid dream, and hopefullly this will help
mostly i just let my dreams do there own thing and if i start to have a nightmare i could wake my self up with ease, a very useful tool for me
I think i have had lucid dreams on several occasions but just never knew what that was called. I now know thanks to you. Thank you for the post
I’ve had dreams where I was flying around and stuff before, but there was this one of a more realistic variety that really stood out. This one wasn’t like the others in the way that I’d just fly around like superman or something, but it was more like I’d have to concentrate really hard, and it wasn’t really flying, more like floating, and I only got like a couple feet off the ground. But nonetheless it was exhilarating because it felt SO REAL, and when I woke up, I was genuinely surprised it was a dream, and quite disappointed at that.
Thought I finally hacked flying… lol
This is a very interesting post. If you’d like to know what starts the dreaming process, you should check out my hubpage. http://hubpages.com/hub/Lucid-Dreams-Whats-going-on-and-how
Just trying to get the word out, because it’s not very common knowledge. Thanks, Zaureny.
It looks that you’ve put a good amount of effort into your article and I want a lot more of these on the World Wide Web these days. I truly got a kick out of your post. I do not have a bunch to to say in reply, I only wanted to register to say special work.
Just browsing around and came upon your site. Very nice post. Will be adding you to my RSS reader.
hey, if anyone who can have lucid dreams could like to contact me to help me get them i would be extremely happy you can add my email james_15111995@hotmail.com . thanks
hey can the owner of this topic email me at sammywammybar@live.com i want to talk to you about my dreams.. ive had a few dreams of flying and also breathing under water and i need to know something…
I remember trying and finally succeeding at the “see your hand” technique found in Carlos Castenada’s books. I was trying to explain this technique of learning lucid dreaming to a friend the other day and this is the perfect explanation to help!
i had a lucid dream 2,BUT,i woke up right after i found out.the second time i was beinng chased by something freeky,i knew i was dreaming but i could not control my dream,the thing was still chasing me.i’ve been trying to have lucid dreams for so long.to be exact 2months.
i know how to kiss someone you just have to believe shes real like i had a dream once with a girl i fancy and she said i love you to me or you can make her kiss you by saying stuff lucid dreaming is so cool ive had it since i was 55 and im 10 now
i meant 5 not 55
Very nice article, However, did you read “the art of dreaming”? by carlos castaneda? And if so what do you think of it. Because obviously lucid dreaming is only the first step. Much more things are possible. I am also a lucid dreamer and I have some amount of control. I would like to contribute that one should try to be still and have no thoughts in other words, start meditating in your dreams. We all have our internal dialogue that never stops in our heads in the waking state. But we also have it in our dreams! Your internal dialogue plays a big part in reaffirming that the objects you see are in fact real objects. But if we are totally silence, inner silence, then we’ve also shut of our reference system. Then you’ll start seeing things as they really are!
i lucid dream all the time. the other night i was a boy and i was fighting people ina giant library\warehouse and i could jump to the ceiling and drift, i control my dreams ahead of time by thinking about what i want to dream about while im falling asleep. once when i was little i was camping in a motor home and i had to go pee very badly but i didnt want to get up because i was cold. i keapt dreaming about going to the bathroom over and over again and then it became so real that i though i was on the toilet and i peed then i woke up and i peed in my bed haha.
I had random lucid dreams when I was small. I began to read about dreams when I was about 7 y.o. and that’s when I was able to put a word to what I was sometimes experiencing but I had no control. I did however learn how not to have scary dreams. As a teenager I gained control of my lucid dreams. Then life events changed everything, I didn’t focus on my dreams and now they’re never lucid no matter what. I hope some of these tips will be helpful to me.