How To Have A Lucid Dream

[Dirty Andy]

What are Lucid Dreams?
Lucid dreaming means dreaming while you know that you are dreaming, and when you know you are dreaming within a dream you can also alter the dream course, with practice you can also develop full control over your dreams. You will be able to create anything the mind can imagine, change the environment even change your own appearance, have a chat with Abraham Lincoln or fly to the Grand Canyon.
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.

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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 the world is yours, anything you can imagine can happen in your dream. Have you ever wanted to be a superhero? Be able to turn invisible, to live as a millionaire, to sail around the world. The thing that I personally have had experience with is flying in my dream, the first time you accomplish flight in your dream you will have the most amazing sense of freedom that you have ever felt. Just think about it, if you could fly like a bird, the wind in your hair, the freedom to go anywhere, well you get the picture. People have used the experiences in their lucid dreams to improve their waking lives also, for instance, playing the piano better, improving at ice skating, or business success, some people even claim to have religious experiences.
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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[Demonballer]

I have these special glasses that my dad gave me a few years ago. The just cover your eyes and sense REM and then flash lights at your eyes so you kind of wake up in your dream. They are kind of a pain in the ass to where but they are fun!

[Vicious]

... never heard of anything like that^^

Good website dedicated to lucid dreams.
http://ld4all.com/guide.html

[briangumble]

I think the only time I had a lucid dream is when I took a prescription sleeping pill, but I don't know if that had anything to do with it.

[chipcago]

I had some really vivid dreams last night. I woke up in the morning and wondered "Maybe sleeping on a softer pillow increases vividity of dreams." Because I had recently gotten a new pillow that is softer than the one i had. So now I have a firmer pillow and a softer pillow, so I can choose which is more comfortable.

Hm... I woke up and I'm like "did I know I was dreaming?"

Eh.

[JohnnyBlunt]

Coleus is a good plant to smoke in order to enhance Lucid Dreaming.

Check it out.

[Weed_Beer_Metal]

Originally Posted by chipcago

I had some really vivid dreams last night. I woke up in the morning and wondered "Maybe sleeping on a softer pillow increases vividity of dreams." Because I had recently gotten a new pillow that is softer than the one i had. So now I have a firmer pillow and a softer pillow, so I can choose which is more comfortable.
Eh.

I wish my life was as exciting as yours.

[Smoken Souljah]

"Lucid dreaming means dreaming while you know that you are dreaming, and when you know you are dreaming within a dream you can also alter the dream course, with practice you can also develop full control over your dreams."

dude..... i had one of those 2 or 3 nights ago, except it was more of a nightmare.... fucking freaked me out... i knew i was dreaming, and i started like hyper ventalating... in my dream.... and i shook myself out of it and woke up.... it was intense....

[Still Smokin]

Originally Posted by Demonballer

I have these special glasses that my dad gave me a few years ago. The just cover your eyes and sense REM and then flash lights at your eyes so you kind of wake up in your dream. They are kind of a pain in the ass to where but they are fun!

could you find out the name of those glasses? or where I can buy a pair? that sounds bad ass!! i want a pair!

[MrBubbles]

In regaurds to the last post, since the topic is Lucid dreams, like Souljah said, its when your dreaming and you conciously REALIZE your fuckin' dreaming, so you can control it as much as your own mind can allow.

Just for a second here I want to think about if lucid dreams really are dreams that you yourself control when youve realized your asleep... when you cant figure out how to fly or something really off the edge, does that mean you don't have enough imagination? Well I think thats all there is to it. the point of my post is to tell that lucid dreams are close to the same thing as frying real hard. It's all about you.

I realize that the topic was about Dirty Andy explaining how to have Lucid dreams, and not asking about them. Thats right, skimmed through the first post, then focused after typying most of this.
but the way I see it; someone following directions to have a "lucid dream" would be the same as someone not being able to somewhat controll their trip on mushrooms and/or acid.
So in other words, use your mind.
whatever/whatnot the subject, whether you've read about it or not all that matters is when you decide to do what you want with it. Lucid dreaming is the same context as taking a HIGH hallucinigenic compound and freaking out.
just remember that it's ALL in your mind.

[Cornflake]

Lucid dreams are a blast. I haven't had one in a couple months so I think I'm about due for one.

Probably the easiest way for me to have a lucid dream is using the sun-eye method, but it only works on a regular sleep schedual. Wake up an hour or two before usual; have a glass of water, listen to some tunes or read a book for about an hour; then go back to sleep. Doesn't work every time but it's a pretty reliable method of getting a lucid dream, dunno why.

Another good way is looking at your wrist for the time a lot during the day if you never wear a watch, it's really easy to notice in dreams that somethings different when you look at your wrist. Or turning lights on and off every few hours.

I've tried the goggles but I mostly found they interfered with dreams and often woke me up, if I could get to sleep wearing them.

[Cornflake]

Originally Posted by briangumble

I think the only time I had a lucid dream is when I took a prescription sleeping pill, but I don't know if that had anything to do with it.

It likely was due to the pill. You probably hit a point where you were concious enough that you'd normally wake up but the pills effects kept your body asleep. Using pills is a really bad way to induce lucid dreams though they're addictive and its tough to remember dreams after taking them (at least for me).

[LUUUUUUUUKE]

could there be a difference in like half sleep lucid dreams? ill wake up to dreams in the morning and fall asleep to them too. its like right before im actually gone and i can do anything i want in them. its sweet too cuz it can be really cool ill give myself millions of dollars and shit.

oh and sorry to repost on a 3 year old thread

[LCM]

Originally Posted by Cornflake

Probably the easiest way for me to have a lucid dream is using the sun-eye method, but it only works on a regular sleep schedual. Wake up an hour or two before usual; have a glass of water, listen to some tunes or read a book for about an hour; then go back to sleep. Doesn't work every time but it's a pretty reliable method of getting a lucid dream, dunno why.

This is because the REM cycles get longer as the night goes on, and this technique takes advantage of the best REM cycle of the night. Because this REM cycle is longer and deeper, gaining lucidity during this time may result in a lengthier lucid dream.