Techniques for Lucid Dreaming

Lucidity Part 3

Your body and mind are the most amazing instruments, and there is so much more music for you to play as you move to a fuller life. And a first step in learning lucid dreaming is to begin remembering and recording your dreams. In doing so you will be taking the first steps into lucidity. In fact remembering a dream is a penetration of the unconscious by your awareness.

Your Dream Creator is in some ways as shy as a deer in the woods, and in other ways as ready to please you as a dog that loves you. It is certainly as old and as natural as the creatures of the forests. Like any creature, this natural part of you is moved by feelings, by curiosity and love. Therefore your first step in remembering your dreams lies in stimulating interest in that usually hidden and natural world within you. Remember that a lot of great art arises from the unconscious in dreams and unbidden inspirations. Sigmund Freud wrote that, “Not I, but the poet discovered the unconscious.” So open yourself again to those things you find moving, beautiful or rouse passions in you, and allow your curiosity to question what more of wonder is still unknown in you. Use the steps in the following exercise to help you remember your dreams and become lucid. (Quoted from my book Lucid Dreaming.)

This directs your attention to the subtle dream process that can so easily be ignored or lost in the welter of waking impressions. But keep your intention playful as you might with a good friend. Don’t let early failures bring difficult feelings. If possible avoid taking sedatives or stimulants before going to sleep – such as coffee, alcohol, tea, cocoa derivatives or a heavy meal.

3) Put a notepad or small tape recorder near your bed so you can record any dream you remember. Dreams melt like snowflakes on your hand unless you record them quickly. This is especially so of dreams remembered during the night. The tape recorder is probably the easiest as you do not have to put a light on or rouse yourself too much to use it.

4) As you start to fall asleep, wonder what strange world of beauty or learning your dreams are going to explore. You dream about five times a night, so you will certainly have a different life in your sleep. Wonder what it is, and determine to ask yourself what you have dreamt as you start to wake during the night or in the morning. What is life telling you in your dreams? Build an image of yourself remembering a dream and recording it.

5) When you wake, do not move or open your eyes. This floods your awareness with massive new impressions and can blast the dream memory away. Tests also show the passage of time, even a few minutes, between dreaming and attempting to remember, causes many dreams to fragment and be lost. So lie still for a while and look backwards into the dimness of sleep. Imagine yourself drifting backwards into the place you are just emerging from. Leave your mind like a keyboard that can be played by subtle feelings and images. Having given time for your dream to emerge, record it right away.

6) Write your remembered dreams into a dream journal, either in a good thick book, or in a computer file. Such a journal is a precious resource. It will gradually develop into a record of your most intimate and whole self. It can become a rich mine of inspiration, of creativity, and definitely of insight into yourself and your endeavours. When you have written your dream, think about it as a drama that reflects your own hidden nature. Ask yourself what the images depict. This is not an attempt to interpret the dream, but a necessary technique to make you aware that dreams are only like a book cover. What is important is what lies underneath.

A computer file has the advantage of being easy to search, so it is worthwhile noting any themes, characters and places that appear.

The Second Steps

An important next step is for you to practice being lucid in waking life. You can do this by visualising, imagining the things that lucidity allows you to do. So try the following:

1. The first thing that lucidity allows is an escape from the little box of your body. Even if you are a great athlete you know there are barriers you cannot cross. But you can in the freedom of the mind. So imaging you can jump so far it becomes flight. Try it, fly! It might take practice but you can do it.
2. You cannot die in your dreams, but you might feel the feelings you associate with dying. So imagine a very tall building and jump off it. If you feel the fear let yourself feel it and see you can survive. With practise there will be no fear. If you like, try a smaller jump until  you get used to it.
3. Your mind is immense and full of creative ideas. So imagine yourself expanding out of the top of your head into the huge space beyond. And as you get the feeling of it explore ideas without the usual barriers you put in the way. Remember that your thoughts are things in this world. So you create your own limitations. So any thoughts such as this is impossible, or “I cannot and never have been capable of this!” are a tremendous brick wall in your way.
4. In lucidity you can travel to the very core and creation of yourself. To do this you need to practise dropping all preconceptions of who and what you are. You need to tense your body and then slowly drop the tension. Ten do it over and over with less tension each time until you can only feel the tension without and movement of your muscles. Then continue into the feeling of dropping, letting go of everything.. everything.

These exercises are vital if you wish to enter your dreams lucidly. As you practice you will see the quality of yoru dreams change – and that means you will change.

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