Lucid Dreaming

I saw 'Inception' a couple of weeks ago and it turned me back to my long-neglected and almost forgotten habit: lucid dreaming. It is a method and state of mind that helps you realize that you are asleep without waking up. If you practice it patiently, sooner or later you will have the ability to control your dreams and you can do things that you are not able to do when you are awake. You can fly, swim down to the bottom of the sea, go through walls and other such things. You can also communicate with your dream characters(all of them a part of you:) and through this, you can gain insight into deeper levels of your consciousness.

If you would like to try lucid dreaming here are the steps you should take always baring in mind that sometimes it takes months to have your first lucid dream and forcing it doesn't help the process at all:


- Start a dream diary. When you wake up in the morning write down your dream or what you remember of it. It doesn't matter if you don't remember too much at first. As time goes by, you will become more aware of your dreams and you'll remember more and more details.

- If you see something strange or bizarre you should seriously ask yourself if this is a dream or you are awake. If it's a dream, you probably cannot remember what you did the previous day so this is a good question to ask yourself. If you turn around quickly in a wake state (and you're not under the influence of drugs or alcohol!) the world stops spinning when you have stopped to turn. In a dream, however, the world usually keeps on spinning. Another technique is to look at your hands. If they don't look like your hands, they are big, or the lines are different, it's a sign too. There are also some other reality tests that you can do. Always do some serious reality check before you do any flying and start your flying exercises with the good-old 'jump up and flap your hand' routine.

- If you do realize that you are dreaming try to do something extraordinary. See if you can walk through a wall or jump up in the air and see if you can make your fall very slow and soft. Try not to stare at a point fixedly as it will wake you up. Slowly you'll be able to control your dreams, but go step by step, because very sudden and forced changes are bound to wake you up too.

- If you experience fear or you start to have a nightmare you can always wake yourself up by staring at something for a few seconds. Later you will have enough control to change these dreams but at first it can be reassuring that you can wake up any time at all.

- Have fun and don't get upset if you don't have a lucid dream at once. Some people start to have lucid dreams after days some much later but with practice you lucid dreams will happen.



Here are a few images that you are more likely to see in dreams than when you're awake.














This man is flying like a duck. I would do a reality check if I saw this:)
(picture source)




















It is a flying house. No big deal if you're watching a remake of "The Wizard of Oz". In most other cases it should cause some raised eyebrow movement (REM:)
(picture source)
















Lost doggy is yearningly looking at a giant cat. VERY suspicious!
(source)

And finally, two images that show you how very tricky reality can be.



















Stairs leading absolutely nowhere with spooky little figures wandering all about the place. You'd think you're dreaming, wouldn't you? No, mate. Just take a good look around. You're in a museum!
(source)




















A green goat. Or more like a green-headed grinning goat. Hmmm. You should do some more checks, it is for real. They marked it with a crayon for some odd reason(lack of paper??) Anyway, if you see this, you may or may not be sleeping, but more likely that you are awake. Further tests and a beer are needed.
(source)