Lucid dreaming #1

I have recently been reading up on lucid dreaming, that point in a dream where you realise that you are asleep and can do anything you like. Of course I was keen to try this.

As a child I recall having very vivid dreams, including the old standard of being able to fly. In my case though it was not so much flying as drifting. There were two ways I remember achieving this:

Firstly I could start off at the top of a hill - usually a steeper version of a street around the corner from our house. Then I would take larger and larger strides until I began to glide above the ground. By the time I reached the bottom of the hill I would be able to control direction by exertion of will, although it wouldn't be instantaneous and I would find myself drifting out around corners. Fortunately it was my dream and there was never any oncoming traffic.

Secondly I could find something light enough to be borne away by the wind, typically a leaf. I could then sit on this and wait for a breeze to waft me upwards along with the leaf. This method didn't offer as much control as the previous version but did bring with it that wonderful feeling of weightlessness. I wonder if that is comparable to the sensations experienced by astronauts?

In the years since I have grown up (I'm now 34) these sort of dreams have become extremely infrequent. There are times I think I have a vague memory of one but requirements of the new day usually force themselves onto my consciousness before I can lock that memory in. As soon as that happens it's too late and the threads of the dream dissipate.

So yesterday, after wading through a lot of google links and finding the ones that offered general advice rather than a "how-to" manual for only $49.95 it seems that there are several important factors involved which I will attempt to sum up:

1. Be open to the possibility. If you don't believe that you can have a lucid dream then you probably won't. The mind is an extremely flexible tool but you have to give it room to move.

2. Improve your waking memory of dreams. This almost certainly means keeping a dream journal. Something I will be starting today after last night's experience. The better able you are to remember past dreams the more likely you will be to notice whan you are dreaming.

3. Constantly question whether you are awake or asleep. If you question whether you are asleep during the day, when you are fairly certain you are, the habit will become ingrained and you are more likely to do it while you are asleep. Common consensus seems to be that it is a good idea to have some kind of trigger - every time you look at your watch, for example, or every time you see a bus, or a pram. The exact trigger isn't important and will probably depend on your normal daily activities. Pick something that is likely to recur several times a day.

Once you have your trigger all it takes is to do something that can establish whether you are awake or dreaming:

- Look in a mirror. Is it actually you looking back at yourself? Do you look like you normally do?

- Look around you. Are there any inconsistencies in the immediate area? Flying cars, that rhino in the corner for example. Anything that would not be there when you were awake.

- Read something. Look away. Read it again. Do this a couple of times. Does the text stay the same? Does it make sense? Is it just garbled characters? If so you are probably dreaming.

- Use something. Turn on a light, turn it off again. Repeat a few times. If it suddenly turns on when it should be off you are probably dreaming. Either that or you need to call an electrician.

It must have been the fact that I had been reading up on the phenomenom but last night I managed to have a lucid dream. For most of the dream I was unconscious - not in the typical sense but in that I didn't recognise that it was a dream. I had been running round town with my partner, who had started to have contractions (this was unlikely, but not impossible - we are expecting in about 4 weeks). I had been timing them but when they stopped we went to a shop. Suddenly my point of view shifted and I could see a woman trying on a pair of shoes that were too small for her. She was insisting they were the right size and as she arched her feet in them she began to levitate. Instantly I realised that I was dreaming. My point of view shifted and I was sitting in the changing room in front of a mirror. I stood up and attempted to levitate myself. I managed to raise myself an inch or so off the ground before becoming extremely excited and waking up.

On awaking my whole body was alert. I could feel every inch of my skin and this hypersensitivity itself, although very strange, was a pleasurable sensation. It felt as though I was still dreaming. Lying in bed I concentrated on recalling the dream and ran a few mental checks to ensure that I was actually awake. Unfortunatley I was but this was enough to prove to myself that it is possible to train yourself to have lucid dreams. Hopefully, in time, I will be able to remain asleep and exert a greater control over myself and my dream environment.

Categories: Dreaming