About Me

Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real,
and you're just a reflection of him?

~Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

Hello and welcome to the World of Lucid Dreaming. My name is Rebecca - I am a freelance writer and the creator of this website.

I've always been interested in dreams. I remember some bizarre dreams right back to when I was just 4 or 5 years old. Back then I distinctly remember dreaming in cartoon!

Growing up, I was fascinated by the dreamworld. Why is it that some people dream in color, while others dream in black and white? Why is it often hard to read language in a dream, or tell the time from the face of a clock? Why do some dreams appear to come true? For me, the dreamworld was a captivating glimpse at what an alternate reality might be like.

My First Lucid Dream

When I was 14 years old, I stumbled upon the concept of lucid dreaming in a science fiction magazine. According to the article, you could take control of your dreams and do absolutely anything in an authentic virtual world. WOW - freedom or what?! I was immediately excited by the idea, and bought a self-hypnosis tape for inducing conscious dreams.

I listened to the tape every night before I went to sleep. It was much like a 20-minute guided meditation, which planted a single objective in my subconscious mind: to realize when I was dreaming.

The tape encouraged me to perform reality checks during the waking day. One simple and discreet way to do this was to try to push two fingers of my right hand through the palm of my left hand. I did it a dozen times throughout the waking day, while asking myself... "is this a dream?"

After several weeks, I gave up on the tape. It was a simple speech by a hypnotist - nowhere as exiciting as the binaural beats available today. But I continued my reality checks and read more about lucid dreaming. It was not long before I had my first conscious dream...

It was like a light bulb had turned on in my head. Suddenly I was in a new reality. Like a dream, but not quite. Like reality, but not quite. What was this phantom place?

What are Lucid Dreams Like?

When you become lucid inside a dream, you will enter a new reality. At first, you will be shocked by the realism - and then overjoyed by the realization that you control any element you want!

You will be able to think with clarity and make logical choices. However don't be surprised if you can't remember what day it is. It's funny how the simplest memories can be lost inside guided dreams.

This strange new perception of a dream is totally compelling. Once you have your first conscious dream, you will want more. You will yearn for the freedom from all the usual physical restraints. The first thing you will do is float or fly - the ultimate freedom for many.

I was so excited about having my first lucid dream that it only lasted a few seconds. I was totally overwhelmed because I had been building up to this breakthrough moment for weeks. But I wasn't prepared for what to do next. The surge of adrenaline woke me up.

This is a textbook error. There are some things that every dream explorer must know. As I practiced and researched more about lucid dreaming, I learnt how to fly in dreams, how to manipulate the scenery and - most importantly - how to stay lucid, for extra long lucid dreams!

Why are Lucid Dreams so Vivid?

When you first start to have lucid dreams, the most exhilarating thing you can do is fly. I had some amazing lucid dreams flying above the fields of my house in the south of England.

One time the sky was blazing red like the atmosphere of Mars... I have yet to see anything as dazzling as this in real life! The feeling of weightlessness was wonderful.

And most of all it felt real.

This is the really interesting part. I have never experienced weightlessness in real life. Few people have. Yet I know what it feels like. In the dreamworld, I had the physical sensation of lifting off the ground, rising into the sky, and dancing among the clouds.

Lucid dreaming is nothing like day dreaming... True, they both require imagination. But in a day dream your body remains fully connected to the physical world.

During REM sleep, you enter sleep paralysis to prevent your body from acting out your dreams. The only parts of you that can possibly move are your eyes, mouth and maybe the tips of your fingers.

As far as your sensory system goes - you are shut off to the outside world. So with lucid dreaming, your senses can receive artificial impulses from your brain that seem real. All sensations are generated from within the body. And that is what makes lucid dreaming so vivid.

Your Gateway To Lucid Dreaming

Some people discover how to have lucid dreams naturally when they are children. They are practiced enough to have conscious dreams every night!

Others go their entire lives without ever waking up in a dream. But now that you have discovered lucid dreaming, there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to experience this wonderful phenomenon.

The are many benefits of lucid dreaming. Sure, it is fun and exciting to play around in a virtual reality world. Some people call that escapism. But conscious dreams are also good for:

• Problem solving
• Facing your fears
• Improving confidence
• Practicing new skills
• Inspiring creativity
• Exploring the nature of reality

I don't know about you but that gives me plenty of motivation!

Not to mention that attaining lucidity is like opening a gateway to a new world... Your inner world... full of anything you desire.

So go ahead and give yourself permission to indulge in something that could change your perception of reality forever.

Exploring Mind Phenomena

Earlier on, I mentioned that I am drawn to the unexplained. That's not to say that I believe in aliens or ghosts or pixies or anything which requires some element of idle faith. But I am interested in exploring mind phenomena that remain a mystery to scientists and laymen alike.

It's important to go about this the right way. If you're too skeptical about new ideas, you won't get very far. But equally, as one writer put it, "open your mind too much, and your brain may fall out."

So where's the middle ground? It's a place where you can approach new ideas with an open mind, then weed out inconsistencies using scientific principles. The beauty of scientific enquiry is that it's all about questioning your reality... The exact same mindset as a lucid dreamer!

As a result, you may find pages on this site that don't sit comfortably with your existing view of reality. I will openly discuss topics like astral projection and mutual dreaming. Ideally, you won't accept these ideas at face value, and will form your own line of enquiry.

I have included step-by-step guides where possible, so you can induce these mind phenomena for yourself. I write about these topics because they interest me and I believe they hold the potential to better our understanding of reality.

So read on, curious bears, and explore the World of Lucid Dreaming...

Best wishes

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