How to Have Amazing Lucid Dreams


How to Have Amazing Lucid Dreams

Experts agree that everyone is capable of having lucid dreams.

Dreaming itself is a normal function of the mind. We all dream every night, even if we don't remember. And we all achieve conscious awareness while awake every single day. So what does it mean to combine these states?

Why, the amazing ability to have conscious - or lucid - dreams.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? So why do I keep hearing from people who say they can't achieve their first lucid dream?

They all love the idea of controlling their dreams, and they say they've been practicing, but to actually attain consciousness during sleep just seems like a paradox to them.

Most often, I find the problem lies in education. They've picked up a few techniques from the internet and rushed into things without really developing the mindset of a lucid dreamer.

I know that lucid dreaming is a learnable skill: I taught myself from scratch as a teenager. And I've seen that with the right tutorage, anyone can pick it up - sometimes within just a few days.

That's why I created my own approach to learning lucid dreaming. It's for every reader who lands on this website saying, "I can't lucid dream! It's too hard!"

Well, I've got news for you... You can have lucid dreams. I'll show you.

How I Started Lucid Dreaming

I discovered lucid dreaming when I was 14 years old.

There was an article about it in this paranormal magazine from 1996 called Encounters - alongside Bigfoot sightings, UFO theories, remote viewing and tales of the legendary Chupacabra.

(Of course, lucid dreaming is the only scientifically proven concept among all of these alleged phenomena.)

Like anyone with a pulse, I really wanted to try lucid dreaming for myself. I wanted to feel the freedom of doing absolutely anything inside my own private virtual world.

So over the following weeks I studied lucid dreaming and read up as much as I could. I kept a dream journal and practiced guided meditation every time I fell asleep.

Soon, I acquired the mindset of a conscious dreamer. Totally spontaneously, I had my first lucid dream:

"I'm standing in an empty white room, completely bare like a new house. The lack of detail makes me wonder... What is this place? Suddenly I realize, this is a dream!

The room surges into focus. I become fully conscious of my body and my surroundings. I do my reality check and feel my fingers push right through the palm of my hand.

I am so excited, I run out the door looking for someone to tell. I find a woman who I don't recognize and shout in her face. "I'M DREAMING! I'M DREAMING!"

I'm so excited, I accidentally wake myself up."

It was a breakthrough moment for me.

Suddenly, for the first time ever, I "woke up" inside my dream world.

My environment surged into focus and I existed entirely in that reality, much like how you exist entirely where you are sitting right now. It was not fuzzy or vague. It was real. I was there.

I did a reality check - pushing two of my right fingers through the palm of my left hand - and marveled at the impossible feeling. My lucidity became stronger.

Then I made that rookie mistake. I got all excited and ran outside to tell a dream character I was lucid. That's when the adrenaline woke me up.

I still had so much to learn about the surreal lucid dreamworld.

 

Developing The Lucid Skill Set

Developing The Lucid Skill Set

Over the following weeks and months I experienced many more lucid dreams.

Most of them were short-lived and lasted less than two or three minutes. That was before I learned how to prolong my dreams.

Mastering lucid dreaming is not just a case of knowing how to "wake up" in your dreams. It requires special knowledge to stay lucid and manipulate the dreamscape.

Fortunately, my research has revealed some pretty simple in-dream tactics to fix these issues.

Now I can:

  • Become fully conscious by "turning up" the dream intensity
  • Prolong my lucid dreams - sometimes up to an hour in real-time
  • Control my own movements with accuracy (flying is the best!)
  • Change the dream scene to initiate any fantasy I want
  • Interact with other dream figures on a meaningful level
  • Obtain information from my unconscious dreaming self

It took me a long time to become a proficient lucid dreamer, because I didn't realize the importance of developing this lucid skill set. I did almost everything the hard way.

In the early days I just bumbled along in my lucid dreams, wondering for instance why I sometimes couldn't fly (many times I just stood in a field willing myself to go up, and felt totally frustrated when absolutely nothing happened).

I also made the mistake of pursuing lucid dream sex when I didn't even know how to stay fully lucid, nor how to successfully interact with dream figures (they are often representations so they don't behave like real-world people).

Eventually, through research and practice, I put together my mental rule book. Simple solutions to overcome lucid dream problems, based on intuitive dream logic. For instance:

If you're semi-lucid, vaguely aware that you might be dreaming but not really focused enough to do anything about it, you can quite simply rub your hands together to stimulate kinetic sensation. This awakens your senses and the conscious part of your brain, thereby heightening your lucidity immediately.

These simple rules are golden in the lucid dream world. Adhering to them transformed my amateur lucid dreams into extraordinary journeys through imagination land.

As I began to master lucid dream control, my inner world became a rich and infinite source of fascination. I was no longer held back by illogical beliefs ("I can't fly, I'm too heavy") nor my own lack of lucidity.

I gained access to the infinite lucid universe. I was able to teleport around the world in a flash... soar so high above the clouds that I would end up in space... and work with my fellow dream characters to do all sorts of cool stuff. From getting it on to learning new insights about my inner self.

 

Exploring The Lucid Dream Universe

I'll Teach You to Lucid Dream

After 17 years of lucid dreaming, I'm well versed in the surreal workings of the lucid dream world.

I know how to induce lucid dreams and program my dreams in advance, plus how to understand and shape my dream world to achieve anything I want when I'm lucid.

I'm also now an avid explorer of passive lucid dreaming: dreams in which you allow your unconscious dreaming self to show you anything it wants and lead you down the rabbit hole. This is a whole other aspect of lucid dreaming which often gets passed up in favor of dream manipulation, but it's equally exciting.

I put all my knowledge down into this online course. It's the result of thousands of hours of practical work and research.

My course has been through four editions since its launch in 2008, and has been taken by over five thousand lucid dreaming students.

The latest version is incorporated into The World of Lucid Dreaming Academy. So you can learn how to have lucid dreams, with the help of an active, supportive community of lucid dreamers.

Here are the guts of the course:

Phase One: Priming: The Lucid Dreaming Fast TrackPhase One: Priming

Phase One will broaden your understanding of the sleeping brain and lead you into the optimum mindset for lucid dreams. This part deals with science and theory.

You'll learn how to relax and meditate, taking charge of your awareness during your waking day so that it becomes automatic during your dreams. This produces lucid dreams.

It's a goldmine of information for beginners including background philosophy, step-by-step tutorials, troubleshooting tips, first-hand insights and more.

Learn about:

  • The spectrum of lucidity - and how to achieve fully lucid dreams under any circumstance.
  • What lucid dreams feel like - exploring feelings and cognition, expectation and the unknown.
  • How to record your dreams - the most effective way and harness your journal for lucidity.
  • How to boost your dream recall - enabling you to remember up to four or five dreams per night.
  • How to have your first lucid dream - by rapidly increasing your waking awareness.
  • How to relax deeply - before incubating a lucid dream and drifting off to sleep.

Phase Two: Induction: The Lucid Dreaming Fast TrackPhase Two: Induction

Phase Two is a hands-on course in how to initiate lucid dreams. It's highly practical.

You'll learn the most effective techniques including wake-induced and mnemonically-induced lucid dreams, dream chaining, hypnagogic induction, supplement use and sleep cycle adjustment.

The idea of developing your awareness through meditation is emphasized as a holistic route to lucid dreams. This has minimal disruptive impact on your sleep patterns.

I've also shared my personal favorite combinations of techniques which you can tailor to your own lifestyle.

You'll learn:

  • How to visualize effectively - and initiate intricate dreamscapes while you're awake in bed.
  • How to enact dream chaining - by lucidly re-entering a dream from which you've just awoken.
  • Which dream supplements to use - an (optional) way to leapfrog to nights of intense dreaming.
  • How to identify false awakenings - and turn these realistic dreams into lucid dreams.
  • How to stop nightmares - and lucidly turn the source of the fear in on itself to resolve the conflict.
  • How to hypnotize yourself  - and plant the seeds of lucidity which produce more lucid dreams.

Phase Three: Exploration: The Lucid Dreaming Fast TrackPhase Three: Exploration

Phase Three will transform your early moments of lucidity into epic lucid dreams that color your world forever.

You'll learn how to avoid common mistakes and maximize your lucid dreaming potential with personal examples of conscious dream principles at play.

By harnessing dream control for both fantasies and personal growth, you'll improve your waking life too. You'll take your lucid dreaming skills to advanced levels, applying philosophical and therapeutic practices.

You'll discover:

  • How to prolong and control your dreams - with my golden rules of dream control.
  • How to program your dreams in advance - by seeding your desired dreamscape or plot.
  • How to summon dream figures - and use your creative dreaming imagination to play with them.
  • How to seek wisdom from your true self - by communicating with the awareness behind the dream.
  • Which lucid dream challenges to take on first in order to advance your dream control skills.
  • How lucid dream therapy can treat anxiety, depression, phobias and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Ready to go? Start the course here. You'll be on your first lesson in the next two minutes.

More Applications for Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming isn't just about flying on Mars or getting hot and steamy with celebrities. In my home study program, I share plenty more exciting applications such as:

Improving your creativity

Improving your creativity

Explore the lucid dreamscape and ask the dream to show you new things. Artists can find new inspiration by browsing their own in-dream gallery or fully immersive dreamscapes which they can replicate upon waking.

My partner Pete Casale uses his lucid dreams to create instrumental songs (his first was aptly named Lucid). It's amazing to follow the free-flow of ideas from the unconscious mind without your analytical left brain becoming critical about it.

Overcoming your fears

Overcoming your fears

Behavioral psychologists say that phobias are ill-conceived childhood fears projected onto a specific stimulus. So, your irrational fear of spiders may be about a whole lot more than just the perceived weirdness of the eight-legged freaks.

The solution when lucid is to summon a giant tarantula and talk to it! Though surreal, the spider can talk freely about what it represents why you feel so anxious being triggered by it. The lucid dream world is a safe place to realign your miscalibrated beliefs and overcome these fears with confidence.

Communicating with your true self

Communicating with your true self

By the same token, you can have profound and life-changing conversations with the best therapist in the world: your inner self. For instance, any time you are lucid, ask the dream if it wants to show you anything. Ask if you can help it achieve something in particular or if it has anything it wants to tell you.

I'll show you more ways to interact with your inner self and ask probing questions, the answers to which could leave you truly awe-inspired.

Advanced Lucid Dream Exploration

Once you know how to induce lucid dreams (virtually on demand, but that's just a matter of commitment) and remain fully conscious for prolonged periods of time, there is unlimited potential for advanced lucid dream exploration.

In Dream Yoga, the Tibetan Buddhist's approach to lucid dreaming, the ultimate goal of lucidity is to dissolve the dream state. Deprived of physical and conceptual stimulus, you have the unique opportunity to observe the purest form of conscious awareness.

Whether you are religious or atheist, tuning into these rare states of altered awareness make way for some profound experiences. I'll show you how you can use your lucidity to explore your personal beliefs about the nature of being.

The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track

I'd love to share my many lucid dreaming insights with you. As you can tell, I'm passionate about this life skill, and it excites me to be able teach others how to access this amazing simulated reality that is all at once intense, mind-expanding, thrilling, erotic, surreal, magical and fun.

Best of all, your dream world is unique and personal to you - it is your own private playground to use as you want.

Whether you seek the ultimate physical freedom, sexual fantasies, evolution of the mind, or a spiritual quest, there are no limitations or boundaries in your own lucid universe.

All you have to do is start your free trial right now!


About The Author

About The Author

Rebecca Casale is a lucid dreamer and a science writer with a special interest in biology and the brain. She is the founder of World of Lucid Dreaming and Science Me.