Sunday 23 October 2011

Myths On Lucid Dreaming

MYTH #1. If you don't lucid dream, you're wasting 8 hours a night.
Oh please - this is just marketing hype!
Sleep is essential to your survival. You could never call it time wasted.
What's more, the crux of the claim is that you would otherwise be lucid dreaming for 8 hours every night which is, of course, poppycock.
You sleep in phases, of which only around 100 minutes in total consist of REM sleep. So even the most proficient lucid dreamer could only go lucid for 100 minutes per night - and even that is stretching the idea.
If you read this statement on a website then they have no idea what they are talking about. They are most likely internet marketers trying to cash in on lucid dreaming - run!

MYTH #2. Only advanced meditators can have lucid dreams.
While meditation does prime your brain for lucidity, you don't need to be a Buddhist monk to attain this state.
I began meditation when I really got into lucid dreaming, because the two go hand-in-hand. Meditating simply means focusing your attention on your own train of consciousness (without your internal dialogue running).
This serves to heighten your self-awareness while awake, and has a knock-on effect while you're dreaming too. It becomes much easier to have that "Aha!" moment when you're dreaming - and become lucid.
Of course, many children can lucid dream naturally and they are unlikely to be meditators. But they do daydream more and visualize dreams as they go to sleep, which is how they master the art. So it's a very valuable skill to have - to simply meditate and visualize as you go to sleep.

MYTH #3. Lucid dreaming is a New Age fad - not science.
A friend actually said to me once, "Lucid dreaming? Do you really believe in all that?" This goes to show just how silly myths about lucid dreaming still lurk in the general population (and prevent people from trying it themselves).
The ability to 'wake up' in your dreams is not a New Age theory - indeed, it has been subject to scientific testing in the lab and proven to be real.
In the 1980s, Dr Stephen LaBerge published his experiments of communication between a lucid dreamer with the outside world, through pre-determined eye movements performed within the dream.
Later, in 2009, German scientists at the Neurological Laboratory in Frankfurt measured the brainwave frequencies of lucid dreamers. Quite amazingly, their dreaming brains proved to be highly active in the GAMMA range - and that is more active than your brain is right now!

MYTH #4. There is a big secret to lucid dreaming that I'll never know.
I believe everyone has the ability to lucid dream. (You already dream. And you are already conscious. It's just a case of combining the two mental states - and it really isn't that hard when you know how.)
Don't believe the myth about lucid dreaming that it belongs to an elite club of people with special mental skills who are dedicated to years of training. It simply isn't true. Lucid dreamers come from all walks of life, among a range of age groups, and they have a wide range of IQs.
There is no "secret" to lucid dreaming - but rather, a collection of techniques that will enhance your ability to become conscious within dreams. You may have your first lucid dream tonight, but you will probably not become an expert overnight. Think of it as a process, like learning to play piano. (Except lucid dreaming is a lot easier than learning to play the piano expertly!)

MYTH #5. If you die in a lucid dream, you wake up.
This myth was probably born from the idea that if you die in a dream, you die in real life. It's another one from Hollywood, I'm afraid. And neither are true.
I have died in regular dreams and in lucid dreams and, well, I have never died in real life! Equally, when I die in a lucid dream it doesn't result in waking up. Instead I just emerge in a new dream scene, either as a new character, or myself in a different time (maybe like a flashback) or however else my subconscious wants me to perceive this plot twist.
It's possible you could wake up from a dream about dying, particularly if you go splat over the edge of a cliff and the shock wakes you up! But this is by no means a default reaction in the brain.
Incidentally, if you want to wake up from a lucid dream (although I can't think why you would) the best way is to shout "Wake up!" while opening and closing your eyes. I used to do this to escape from nightmares, although I later learned to convert this state to lucidity and continue the dream along a more pleasant route.

Sunday 4 September 2011

How To Get A Lucid Dream - Reality Checks

An easy method on how to get a lucid dream easily is to use reality checks. This method can be done alone or paired up with any other technique but either way it is simple and highly effective even for beginners to lucid dreaming.

What Are Reality Checks?
Reality checks are ways to check whether what you are going through is reality or not. How can tell that you are awake now and not dreaming? Because you can smell, see, feel and taste? When you're dreaming you can still smell, see, feel and taste so how can you tell the difference when you're dreaming? With reality checks!

Reality checks are more extreme ways of trying to figure out if you're dreaming and by doing them you can increase your self-awareness. Below are a few popular reality checks...

  • Breathing - Can you hold your mouth and nose and still breathe? Should be impossible when awake
  • Hands - Can you put the fingers of one hand through the palm of your other hand? Should be impossible when awake
  • Magic - Can you fly, walk through walls, change your surroundings? Should be impossible when awake
  • Time - Can you tell the time properly? Should be do able whilst awake
How To Use Reality Checks
Pick two reality checks (one is used as a fail safe) from the list above and start to perform one on every hour whilst awake. What this will do is program your mind to do this whilst asleep and when you are asleep you will have a very different result e.g. your fingers will go through your hand! When this happens you will realise you are dreaming and straight away induce a lucid dream.

As you can tell this method to induce lucid dreams is simple and has been said to be very effective on the topic of how to get a lucid dream. If you want more in depth information on reality checks check out this article

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Tips For Lucid Dreaming - How To Remember Your Dreams...

One of the most important tips for lucid dreaming  is to develop great dream recall from all of your dreams whether lucid or not.

Why Do I Need To Remember?
When you dream there will be things that you won't have happen in real life whether it be unusual characters, symbols, signs etc. Things like this are what separates your dream world from the realistic physical world.

How Do I Remember?
One great method to remember is to start a dream journal. This is a notepad you'll have besides you bed and when you wake up after having a dream you'll quickly scribble down your dream in as much detail as possible and if you remember any you can even scribble down any symbols that you saw too.


How To Improve Recall...
You can improve your recall by breaking your sleeping pattern up into 2 hours per session. So you would set your alarm for 2 hours, wake up jot down your dream and repeat until you have about 5 dreams for the night or until you have to wake up.

What Is The Point?
The symbols and characters you jotted down are going to be triggers, make sure you learn a few of them so when you next go to sleep if you see one of these you can be like "wait...am I dreaming?" and with this realisation you can go on to start your journey of lucid dreaming.

Conclusion
Remembering your dream is one of the most important tips for lucid dreaming so start yourself a dream journal and watch how quickly you'll be able to start your first lucid dream.

Saturday 27 August 2011

How Do I Lucid Dream? - Questions...

You've stumbled on lucid dream induction and you are interested in this life changing experience and like a high majority of people you will have a number of questions on this topic such as "How do I lucid dream" which I hope to cover in this blog post starting with the most basic question...


What is lucid dreaming?
Is the ability to control your dream consciously as if you were the director. Your dream world will become a reality; taste, sound, smell and sight are all like what you will experience as if it was all real!


Normally when you sleep your brain also goes to sleep leaving you unaware of your dreams which is why you won't be able to recall them properly as they'll be fuzzy in your mind.


Now when it comes down to lucid dreaming you're brain realises that you're dreaming and this self-awareness gives you the ability to be put in the driving seat of your own dreams. 


Can anyone learn it?
Yes! It is very simple to learn, in fact everyone does it but our brains aren't aware of it so what need to happen is wake up your conscious self to realise that you're in a dream. 


People can have the first of these dreams anywhere ranging from 3 days to 3 weeks with simple methods such as...

  • Reality checks
  • Meditation
  • Hypnosis
  • Visualisations
  • Affirmations
These are just a few things you can do and more will be explained in-depth in this blog!

Is it dangerous?
A question that has people wary of wanting to go through their first lucid dream is whether it is dangerous or not. For example "If you die in your dream will you be lost forever?" NO! Just as long as you remember that you are in control of your dream you can make sure you don't die, you can fight phobias and nightmares and you can even wake yourself up from this state too so if you are afraid then you can easily pull out.

Benefits?
The benefits of this are endless! You can do so much in your dreams when you are in control...
  • Fly
  • Visualise amazing landscapes
  • Problem solving
  • Improve confidence
  • Face your fears
  • Increase creativity
  • Talk to your subconscious 
YOU ARE IN CONTROL!

How do I lucid dream?
For those of you who want to jump straight into it read the next post where we will start going into some simple techniques.

If you still have any questions then check out this lens over at squidoo which goes into a few more questions...How do I lucid dream - Your questions answered

Lucid Dream Induction - About this blog

Welcome to our blog about lucid dream induction. This is for anyone who hasn't experienced a lucid dream yet (beginners), those who want to know what it's like before going into it and also for those who can get into the lucid state and just want tips for how to do it more regularly.


The blog will be updated constantly twice a week with new information, tips and techniques that you can give a hand at trying. 


We will also recommend some products which you can use to help you accelerate your learning time and sometimes even experience your first dream tonight!