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What Do I Do
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10 Things
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Remember, lucid dreaming is not simply a matter of having a vivid dream - it is knowing that you are in a dream! Whatever is possible to do in dreams (and you may find that not everything is possible, even in dreams) becomes available to you. If you are like most people who become lucid, and you stabilize so that you do not wake up immediately from the excitement, the first thing you will probably do is fly. Maybe this is because flying represents unbounded freedom, or maybe it is because flying is a deep-rooted escape mechanism, but for whatever reason most people fly when they are new to lucid dreaming (and also when they gain proficiency at lucid induction, because it's still awesome).
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Without a Destination, How Will You get There?
But flying is not the end-all. What will you do when you can do anything!? How wide can you stretch your imagination. How much of that guilt, of that fear, of those old scars can you leave behind in the regular world so that you may experience real magic in the dream world? Basically, what you do in lucid dreams will be determined by two kinds of approaches: You can let the dream unfold and see where it goes, or, you can decide on a plan while you are awake and carry it out once you become lucid in a dream. I highly recommend that when you are attempting to induce your first lucid dreams that you have a definite plan in mind for what you want to do/achieve in a lucid dream. This having a plan is a powerful induction method in itself. It may not be enough to think to yourself "tonight I will become lucid in my dreams," because that is too vague for your mind - which is built for action - to work with. Rather, you tell yourself : "Tonight I will realize that I am dreaming and I will stabilize my lucidity and then I will proceed to __________________." You fill in the blank. But other than flying (and trust me, you will want to experiment with flying), what can/should you do once lucid? The dream system you were born with specializes in simulating threatening scenarios: failures, misfortunes, being chased, falling, etc. These threats are useful to recognize for both induction, and also for experimenting. The falling can be inverted and turned into flying. While flying, you may understand at one level that you are in a dream, but you may also be afraid when flying high that you are in danger of losing control and crashing down into "the Earth" below. Play with this emotion. Maybe let yourself fall and see how far you can go into the ground below. What if a monster is chasing you? What if you asked the monster who it really is? Maybe you can wrestle with it, or demand it give you a gift. What if you are flying and you see lightening clouds? You can fly into them and know that even if you get struck by lightning, it may be more energizing than terrifying. You are not an all-powerful God/dess in your lucid dreams, but you are the director/starring-actor of a movie light-years beyond anything you will see from Hollywood. I believe that many of the concepts which influenced the creation of the world's religions sprung from dreams. You see, in dreams we may come into contact with the deceased (or at least dream versions of the once-living). Primitive humans probably saw the dead once again as alive in dreams, and believed these avatars to be our loved ones and friends in a body which exists even after the physical shell becomes inanimate. This lead to serious thought about the after-life and in turn an Earthly existence preparing for this supposed after-life. Religion and the un-knowable aside, there is something very special about seeing the dearly-departed (in dream form) again. IN my own studies, one type of dream I ask participants to report on is called Most Important Dream, meaning, that dream which you consider to have had the biggest impact on your waking life. One of the most common responses I get is dreams about seeing a loved one again - a friend, parent, grandparent. As I write this, I can report to you that I had this experience myself for the first time last night (by the way, this was not a lucid dream, and it is absolutely true that many of our most powerful dreams do not require high lucidity in order for them to be valuable). I saw my dad, and realized that he was actually deceased (as of ~3 months prior to this writing). I asked the other people in the dream if they saw him, and they said they did not. The rest of the details are for me to know, but I'm telling you - it was a blessing to have that experience. Now, if I had been lucid, I would have interacted with him more. I will see him again in my dreams, and I will be more prepared. Who would you want to see in your dreams? What would you do together? Needless-to-say (but I will anyway), interacting with those no longer among us is an amazing opportunity available in dreams. |
This Hint is Really Big...
No matter what you plan to do once you achieve a lucid dream, you need to remember this!
Keeping The Fire Stoked Through Reading Lucid Dreaming Literature
I have summarized the major books on lucid dreaming for you.
My Current Lucid Dream Goals
Like everyone else, I spent a lot of my beginning years with lucid dreaming flying and practicing different flying methods. Also, from the beginning, I gave myself specific tasks to achieve when lucid, and I borrowed an idea from LaBerge which he got from the Tibetan lucid dreamers: master the dream environment by turning things into their "opposites." For example: turn big things small/small things big. I also experimented with using dream mirrors as portals (usually just ended up in a bathroom when coming through the other side...where do you usually see mirrors when awake?!), creating balls of energy, traveling through space, trying to convince other dream characters that we were in my dream (NEVER succeeded at this!), etc.
Sometimes my lucid dream practice would be put on halt for long stretches of time, and it could take a while to achieve a goal. And many times, it would require more than one lucid dream episode to achieve a goal (failure is built-in to the dreaming system). Currently, I have two primary goals: 1. Experience what it is like to be a dog and run wild in the country-side, and 2. Record myself talking while dreaming. This second goal is huge in it's possible ramifications. And, I know it is possible, but I have never heard of it being accomplished. You see, sleep-talking usually occurs during Non-REM Sleep, so although someone may be talking in their sleep, they may not be dreaming at that time. However...sometimes, sleep-talking is happening during a corresponding dream. Just like some signals can make it to the skeletal muscles when dreaming (watch a dog in REM sleep) - despite the general paralysis accompanying REM-Sleep - the vocal muscles can occasionally be operated during REM. So, my idea goes, if someone can learn to do this while lucid, we could go way beyond eye-signalling to communicate from inside of lucid dreams to the "outside world." Please let me know if you have experimented with this, either on the Lucid Blog or on The Lucid Dream Site FaceBook page. |