Lucidity exists on a spectrum.
Sure, you can say that a person is either lucid dreaming or not. If you have any awareness that your reality is a dream, or any level of conscious control, or both - then you're lucid.
But there is a scale of increasing lucidity to be defined. And the level of your lucidity has a major impact on:
The following are my own unofficial classifications of lucidity in dreams.
For most people, this is the default dream state.
You are totally unaware that you are dreaming and you accept the dream as reality.
It may be hazy and illogical, or vivid and highly evocative. Either way, when you have no conscious awareness or control of your dream, you are not lucid.
Non-lucid dreams are created entirely by the unconscious mind. They are based on memories, experiences, fears and desires, illustrated by your unconscious conceptual understanding of reality.
This is the lowest level of lucidity, most common in beginners.
A semi-lucid dream is almost always the result of a Dream Induced Lucid Dream (DILD). You're dreaming of being on a first date with a giant, gregarious gerbil when you suddenly realize you're dreaming. The world snaps into focus.
Perhaps for the first time ever, you exist consciously in a new reality. This is not like wakefulness. This is really, really alien. It's hard to focus.
You say out loud, "I'm dreaming!" You ditch the gerbil and attempt to take flight. But nothing happens. The gerbil sniggers. You try again. Gravity resists.
Something is blocking your conscious will from affecting the dream world. But what?
I'll give you a clue: you're still half asleep, so to speak. You failed to do a reality check or stabilize your lucidity. You're not in the habit of being highly self aware.
You're wandering around the dreamscape, half aware that you're dreaming, but also overpowered by the realistic and yet inconsistent nature of the dream.
That thin strand of conscious awareness is hard to hold on to.
A lion sneaks by. So does Angelina Jolie. Hey, what? A mailbox.
You forgot you were dreaming. Lucidity is lost.
The solution to this semi-lucid limbo? Take the time to maximize your conscious awareness the moment you become lucid. It will affect the entire outcome of your dream.
The good news is, as you heighten your lucidity, you will become more observant of your dreamworld and the rules at play.
The part of your conscious brain that is responsible for shaping and influencing the dream will start writing a new rule book.
Soon you will be able to soar above the clouds, run through solid objects and create entire new dream scenes.
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To enjoy a fully lucid dream, you need a little more practice at lucidity. That's my experience anyway.
Don't get me wrong - my early lucid dreams were highly exhilarating. But in no way did I have control of my dreams (at least, as much as I wanted at the time).
First I had to get to grips with staying lucid for more than ten seconds. This is actually the really easy bit when you know now.
Next, it was a challenge to control my immediate environment.
It finally struck me that all of this becomes so much easier when you become fully lucid. To heighten the intensity of your conscious awareness as a priority.
Then you can start controlling stuff.
A fully lucid dream means having no doubt whatsoever that you are in the mental construct of the dreamworld.
You understand profoundly that everything you see and feel is the creation of your own mind, and that you can manipulate any element at will.
It follows, through flawless logic, that in this fake reality you can teleport across the universe at the speed of thought or morph yourself into a tiger.
But lucid dreaming is not just about dream control. Anyone who has ever experienced a lucid dream knows that. It is about having conscious awareness of the dream state, which is often even more intense than waking reality, in its own way.
You can float above the city and observe hundreds and thousands of dream characters in the streets below, going about their business.
You can passively observe the dream while allowing complex plots to unravel on their own, while still playing a central character.
This is the real beauty of lucid dreaming. It is your gateway to an alternate reality world where you can exist in a far richer context.
As far as Tibetan Buddhism goes, there's an even higher level of lucidity which passes beyond the dreamstate.
The ultimate goal in Tibetan dream yoga is to attain a fully lucid dream -- then dissolve the dream.
That doesn't mean waking up. It means moving past the visual imagery, the tactile stimulus, the sounds and smells and tastes of the dream.
Deprived of any physical or conceptual dream sensory data, yet fully lucid and consciously aware, it's possible to experience the purest form of conscious awareness.
That sounds like an excellent goal for any lucid dreamer...
A lot has happened in the last 5 months. But how did we go from business as usual to changing the face of the entire lucid dreaming supplements industry? It’s a story that I think will interest you – and you might even learn a thing or two in the process. When I was first taken on-board as Chief Lucidity Officer in 2016, one of the first things I was tasked with was taking a good look at our operations and giving things a bit of an overhaul.
To lucid dream is to examine an intensely heightened state of self awareness, with all the senses activated - a uniquely human experience. What's more, lucid dreaming offers profound benefits that touch all of us, no matter our culture, beliefs or life circumstances. Ultimately, I think all of these benefits put together could play a serious role in advancing the human race.
To lucid dream, I recommend being able to remember at least one vivid dream per night. That will boost your self awareness in dreams (making lucidity more likely) and also means you can actually remember your lucid dreams. Which is nice. Here are four detailed tips on how to remember your dreams more frequently. And if you don't think you dream at all - trust me, you almost certainly do. It takes an extraordinarily rare sleep disorder to deprive someone of dream sleep.
Years ago, before I had my first lucid dream, I had a very specific idea about what a lucid dream would feel like. I thought it would be intense and magical and a little bit spooky. This turned out to be a pretty accurate representation. Becoming aware in the dreamstate is like entering another world. One where physical laws can be manipulated (there is no spoon, Neo) and your fantasies can come true in an instant. There's definitely something magical about that - and it's as if the lucid dream world is a living, breathing organism that can react to your very thoughts.
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?
It is estimated that these wise and wily Indians have been using mugwort in their healing and ritual practices for 13,000 years, where it is known as the ‘dream sage’. They use the herb to promote good dreams, which they consider an essential aspect of normal human functioning! But that’s not all...