What is Lucid Dreaming?

What is lucid dreaming and what's it all about? Is lucid dreaming a scientifically proven phenomenon? Is it possible for anyone to learn lucid dreaming? How long will it take to learn, and what can I use it for?

I'm quite sure you have many questions regarding the topic of lucid dreaming. This article will try to answer them all. Grab your favorite beverage and make yourself comfortable - welcome to my quick start introduction to lucid dreaming!

 

What is Lucid Dreaming?

Lucid dreaming is the art of consciously controlling your dreams with vivid clarity - where the entirety of your dream world becomes an alternate sandbox reality. All that you see, smell, hear, feel, and even taste can be just as authentic as the waking world.

Lucidity occurs to the dreamer when he is in an altered state of mind, when the dreamer realizes he is dreaming - and his brain switches into waking mode inside his dream.

During normal dreams, one's self-awareness is at all times automatically shut down. That is why such dreams often feel hazy and distant. However when lucid, our conscious brain becomes self-aware and wakes up during REM sleep!

Rest assured this is an entirely safe and natural state. It is quite unlike an OOBE, or out of body experience - because we are always asleep in our bed. And if we want to, we can wake ourselves up.

When we become lucid, our senses come to life. We can explore all the inner workings of our subconscious with uninhibited freedom.

Tip: This website holds an extensive informational guide to lucid dreaming. If you're sure you're ready to enter this realm of elevated self awareness and bonding with your inner being, be sure you bookmark this site now and come back often for new lessons on lucid dreaming.

Is Lucid Dreaming Scientifically Proven?

Tibetan buddhist monks have been using dream control and lucid dreaming for more than 1000 years, through a philosophy called Dream Yoga (or Milam). It's certainly not a new phenomenon. However, the contemporary term "lucid dreaming" (dreaming with mental clarity) wasn't yet coined until the early 20th century by a Dutch psychiatrist named Frederik van Eeden.

The concept of lucid dreaming was popularized by Celia Green in 1968, when she pointed out the scientific research potential of having self awareness during dreams. She was also the first to link lucid dreaming to both false awakenings and REM sleep.

The first scientifically proven evidence of lucid dreams was produced by Keith Hearne, a British parapsychologist, by recording the eye movement signals of his volunteer, Alan Worsley, during a lucid dreaming state under laboratory conditions.

But Dr. Hearne's research humbly slipped under the radars of mainstream science journals, and it'd been Dr. Stephen Laberge from Stanford University who'd become famous for replicating Hearne's experiment when he formally published his findings.

A prolific and talented lucid dreamer himself, Dr. Stephen Laberge in 1987 founded The Lucidity Institute to fully explore the question: what is lucid dreaming? Since then his mission has been to research the nature and scientific potential of consciousness within our dreams... A very clever riddle that will one day lead to considerable advances in our current understanding of the human mind.

 

Can Anybody Learn to Lucid Dream?

Absolutely. All of us have dreams (whether or not we can remember them) and so I think all of us have the capacity to become lucid within them. There are many accounts of children reporting to have lucid dreams. Plus, there are certain medications for cognitively degenerative conditions such as Parkinson's Disease that can cause lucid dreams. So age is certainly not a major factor.

Having a successful lucid dream isn't really that difficult, once you start using the right mechanism. Studies have shown that everyone will experience at least one lucid dream during their lives, just by accident. It's really quite easy. And to become lucid on demand, all you've got to do is to make it a habit of recognizing the dream state.

There are a number of ways to achieve this automatic subconscious recognition, for example:

• meditation
• hypnosis
• reality checks
• visualizations
• dream herbs

Feel free to practice all or just one of these methods during your waking day or right before you go to bed, so that the seed of lucidity will be planted in your subconscious mind. It all depends on your subconscious to trigger you to lucidity during a normal dream. Don't worry though - this subconscious programming will get easier over time.

As a matter of fact, many beginners are able to experience their first lucid dream between just 3 days and 3 weeks. With enough practice you'll be able to elicit lucid dreams on demand - and the more you do it, the easier it gets.

Tip: Want to start working on your subconscious right now? My favorite method is deep meditation by listening to MP3s of binaural beats - it is both very fun and very effective. The more you practice visualization and meditation, the easier it'll be for you to go lucid.

 

What are the Benefits of Lucid Dreaming?

In the beginning, most people are drawn to the concept of lucid dreaming for the pure escapism it offers. Within the virtual reality dreamworld, you are able to realistically fly over clouds and cities, meet your favourite celebrities in person, or become a stealth ninja assassin. It's far more realistic than daydreaming or playing one of your favorite video games.

But as soon as you get past the novelty value of mere wish fulfilment, you'll see that lucid dreaming carries a multitude of personal development applications for the waking world, such as:

• improved problem solving skills
• improving your creativity
• facing your fears
• increasing your confidence
• practicing newly acquired skills
• developing your identity
• exploring the depths of your own subconscious

Robert Waggoner goes into extensive detail about this subject inside his book titled Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self. There he introduces many new methods to interact with our lucid dreams and how to make use of dream figures to communicate with our inner self.

If all of that isn't appealing enough to personal development enthusiasts, I'm not sure what is! Lucid dreaming is a powerful psychotherapeutic tool and a very enlightening experience. Whether you're a beginner, intermediate or master oneironaut, I hope that you find this website and its comprehensive guide to lucid dreaming of substantial use in your own personal pursuit for self-awareness within the unconscious dream world...