Lucid Dreaming, Being Aware Of Yourself Within The Experience

Lucid dreaming prepares our consciousness for the walking meditation of an awakened life.  Most people are lost within their dreams and wake with a feeling that something happened beyond their control.  Lucid dreaming puts you back into a state of awareness and allows you control over your dreaming experience

“One’s ‘Lucid Dreams’ can be considered one’s personal ‘Stargate'”. – waking times

The dream time is a time for us to travel within our awareness of self and realign with our higher consciousness.  Lucid dreaming allows us to actively participate in that experience.
It is the place where we can find clues for our spiritual unfolding and the next steps to be taken in our awakened life.

The Value of Lucid Dreaming

The influence dreams have over our waking states is increasingly becoming more significant. We gather so much information during our dreams that can help us immensely in our waking states.

Lucid dreaming is a spiritual practice and to be successful takes practice.
Try these steps and begin your journey into the realm of awakened sleep.

Consciously Fall Asleep

When we fall asleep, our mind slips into a relaxed state of awareness while our body remains in a more active state of bio communication.
The key to lucid dreaming is in this first step.
I lay in savanasa and focus on my breathing.  Most often I will remember the feeling of the previous nights dream.  As I am conscious of my experience, I allow my body to continue to relax and gently fall into sleep.
This prepares your awareness for the activity of lucid dreaming.
Focus on your breathing, feel your physical body… and concentrate on feeling your body relax.

What happens to me after my body relaxes enough is that I’ll see a small dot in the middle of the darkness. It quickly expands out in every direction, it expands into me and becomes the reality surrounding me. It’s like I zoom into the dream while staying lucid. Sometimes I lose it and wake up, it’s a practice of breathing with your mental movements and staying focused.

Dream Journal

Keep a book and pen next to your bed.  This is very important!
Lucid dreaming is about bridging the gap between the Theta brain waves of sleep and Alpha brain waves of activity.  You engage Alpha waves as soon as you move or open your eyes.  So, try to lay still with your eyes closed and allow the memories of your dreams to roll back into your awareness.

Dream journaling is a practice that bridges Theta and Alpha brain activity.

These memories will likely be disjointed at first.  Without engaging any opinion or trying to make sense of anything… gather as much visual as you can from the memory. Then gently turn to your book.
You will find that the moment you start writing, some of what you remember will be lost.  Not to worry! This process will strengthen over time and soon you will be able to remember and write down far more of your dreaming memories.
The more you journal… the stronger your ability will be to be conscious of your experience while in a sleeping Theta wave state.

Reality Checks

Once you are asleep it is important to recognize that you are dreaming.

This is important because dreams can be so vivid that you may accept it as reality, only to realize upon –truly- waking up that something was amiss in what you experienced, and that it was a dream instead!

Imagination and dreaming are very similar and our brains have a difficult time attempting to distinguish between them.
A reality check will help figure out the type of experience.  It is how we pre-program our mind to realize we are in the dream world.

Usually, it is something very simple, something easily recognizable in the real world, but will yield a different experience in the dream world. When your mind realizes that the reality check does not match what happens in reality, this is usually when it accepts that it is dreaming, and triggers the start of the lucid dream experience.

Here is a basic list of common reality checks…

Check normal body functions – try and look closely at your hand or fingers.  If things seems a bit blurry or non-descript, you are dreaming.

Recognize words/numbers –try to read something in your dream.  Having trouble? Your logical mind will struggle with this if you’re dreaming.

Recall common information – take a look around.  Anything look familiar? Try saying your own birthdate or phone number.  Recall your best friends middle name.  Can’t seem to do it?  Realize… you’re dreaming.

Break the laws of physics –  by far… my favorite!  After doing some of the reality checks already listed, I check myself to see what possibilities I can create.  Just checking to see if I can hover and float like helium… and soon I find I’m flying anywhere, visiting countries or planets.

Awakening within the dream has some great benefits.  If I don’t like what is happening, I can use it to change the direction of my dream.
It feels quite empowering knowing I can change or shut off my dream if it’s not to my liking.

Sleep Paralysis

While in a dream, … when I notice the world seems odd or things are not going in pattern that would be typical for my life, I talk with myself and say, “This is a dream, and I wish to wake up.”
My mind wakes up and it might take a few minutes longer for my body to wake up.  There will be emotions still coursing through my body in memory of what was just happening within the dream.
Some say thing is sleep paralysis.  And if you experience this.. not to worry.  The hormones that create the emotions take about 20 minutes to leave your blood stream.  Be patient and relax…. all things will turn normal again once they are gone.

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