Sometimes people experience lucid dreaming spontaneously when their curiosity is triggered by reading or hearing about lucid dreaming. It might happen that you read or hear about another person's lucid dream experience and become engaged in the ideas.
Ever wonder how it would be to walk through the walls or on water and clouds? Fly outside this world in the immense void of the universe, visit heaven and hidden mysterious lands, learn and become proficient in different skills, explore your inner world, meditate and receive teachings, etc. There is so much that can be done and achieved and the good thing is that you can teach yourself to start lucid dreaming. So let's learn how to induce lucid dreams.
Important Steps Towards Lucidity
Motivation
You may be interested in lucid dreaming for fun and enjoyment, to escape from your life reality, to practice and perfect your skills, for healing, psychological and spiritual growth etc. the list is endless as you can manifest anything you want in a LD and the experiences seem as real, if not more, than the real we are used to.
A strong and proactive motivation is a must if you want to learn to lucid dream. You can prepare yourself both during daytime and at bedtime. During waking hours you can set a strong intention to do something in your next lucid dream, make your dream plans, for instance if you have a strong desire to travel around the world, then at intervals throughout the day imagine yourself becoming lucid during a dream and travelling to your favourite destinations. Also, at night before going to sleep use positive and repeated statements, like, "Tonight in my dream I am going to recognize that I am dreaming." It doesn't really matter whether you say it aloud or in your mind but what really does matter is a strong will and determination.
Dream Recall
Dream recall is the very foundation of lucid dream practice. Remembering your dreams makes you more aware and connected to your unconscious mind. So, if you become more aware of your dreams it would become easier to become aware within the dreams. Also, dream recall helps improve your memory.
It has been found that an average person has about three to five dreams every night. But by the time we wake up in the morning we either suffer from a complete dream amnesia, or struggle to remember it clearly.
Tips for dream recall :
Before falling asleep set a strong intention to remember your dreams. Use positive statements like,"I am going to remember everything I dream tonight."
Wake up during a REM period if you want to remember your dreams. REM period is a time when you tend to have most of the dreams. Our first REM period is only about ten minutes but as we progress through the sleep cycles we spend more and more time in REM stage with the last two hours of sleep having the longest REM periods.
By improving your memory during the waking hours you can also have a better dream recall.
Lie still upon waking and quickly try to recall the dream from which you awoke.
Make a habit of writing down your dreams daily in a dream journal.
Dream Journal
The most important step to improving your dream recall is to keep a dream journal. Also, documenting them serves as an important tool in recognizing and understanding some repeated patterns, signs or messages that your unconscious mind has been giving to you.
Use it exclusively for documenting your dreams. You can keep a fancy journal or an ordinary one, or whatever feels suitable to you but choose something that would make you want to use it.
Always keep your diary and pen handy, for instance on your bedside table.
Note down the date of your dreams.
If you wake up in the night, you can quickly jot down some key points, this will help you recall the dream/s in detail later on.
When you wake up in the morning, before getting out of bed, write down everything, including the way you felt (in the dream), while it's still fresh in your mind.
Go through your diary every now and then. You will be able to find certain repeating patterns, scenarios, characters, symbols etc which is an invaluable information to help you become lucid.
Dream Signs
Sometimes we dream things that would most probably not happen in our waking life, for instance a vegetable ringing like a phone, deceased family members, being back at school etc. These are called dream signs. If you keep a track of your dreams, you will be able to see that there are some dream signs that appears repeatedly in the dream. These are called recurring dream signs, and the more you have them more are your chances to become lucid.
Now, once you know what your dream signs are, you must set a strong intention to recognize these signs whenever they appear in your dreams. By doing this you are creating a lucidity trigger that will help you become lucid every time you see these signs in your dreams. For instance, if one of your dream sign is the repeated appearance of a deceased family member, you train yourself with the reminder, "The next time I see my grandma, I will know that I am dreaming."
Lucid Dream Induction Techniques
Now that you have equipped yourself with a strong motivation and an excellent dream recall it's time to apply some LD induction techniques.
These techniques can be broadly categorized into three:
Cognitive techniques - it involves mental exercises or cognitive activities such as intention, autosuggestion, reality testing, MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams), Tholey's combined technique, Dream re-entry etc.
External stimulation - it includes all kinds of stimuli given during REM stage such as light, acoustic, vibration, electric, brain stimulation etc.
Miscellaneous techniques - it consists of all other induction methods that are not included in the above mentioned categories such as intake of certain substances or supplements.
In the following posts we will learn more about these techniques.
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