The Lucid Void
Have you ever had a lucid dream about floating in a black space or all-consuming light? If so, you've discovered the lucid void.
Once you find yourself in the lucid void, all you need is the right mindset. This is one of calm lucidity, meditative alertness, peaceful stillness.
I get messages from people asking me: "How can I escape from this terrible black space? I can't see anything and it scares me!" Well, as we've explored in this book, dreams are thought-responsive spaces, so if we feel horrified to find ourselves in the lucid void, it will likely be a horrifying experience!
It's like the story of the puppy who ran into a cave of mirrors – there he found a whole gang of puppies all looking right at him. Terrified, he barked – and all of them barked right back at him! Out he raced, his tail between his legs. Silence fell in the cave. His curiosity got the better of him and he ventured back inside, feeling calm and brave. To his delight, he met a whole crowd of calm puppies. He wagged his tail – and they all wagged their tails back at him!
This is how it works in the lucid void and in any dream state.
If you are having fearful dream experiences, work on calming your fear by day, by practising deep breathing, surrounding yourself in a protective egg of light, and reminding yourself: "I am safe." Bring this serenity into the lucid black void with you, and your experience will transform in positive ways.
We are in control of our reactions to situations. We can learn to calm ourselves down and cultivate an attitude of curiosity.
How To Release Fear and Respond In The Lucid Void
The lucid void is a wonderous state, one of infinite creative potential. Instead of fearing it and doing all we can to escape from it, it makes so much more sense to learn how to navigate it and explore its marvellous gifts.
- Practice calming breathing techniques or recall a moment in your life when you felt totally safe and loved. Allow this feeling of wellbeing to envelop you. Chant OM in the void to create a sensation of calm.
- Welcome the void. It's a place of contemplation, painlessness, and infinite creativity. If it bothers you that you can only see blackness, create some light! There is light everywhere in the void, just look for it. At first you may see pinpricks of colour, or whole swathes of glowing light.
- If you are falling through the void, know that there is no rough landing awaiting you – these sensations are often caused when the brain transitions from the state of waking to the sleep state (hence the term, "falling asleep"). Simply relax and fall, perhaps trying out a few acrobatic feats on the way down.
- Play with your dream body if you have one. Stretch to become as long as a ladder, or as wide as a house. You have an incredibly flexible dream body, so have some fun with it: try somersaults or impossible yoga poses. Be playful in the void. Make yourself chuckle – laughter is the best antidote to fear.
- Build up an orchestra of musical instruments, or sing your heart out and observe the way sound causes the void to vibrate beautifully.
- Create a new dream – visualise anything you like and watch as the dream assembles itself before your eyes. This is fascinating; it sometimes appears as swirls of energy and colour that coalesce into dream people or full-blown scenes.
- Seek out the void whenever you get lucid. Once, I was testing how hard or easy it was to read text in a lucid dream when I read something that reminded me to head into a more expansive state:
I see the words: "Lucid dream expansion," and I like that. "Good idea," I think, "I'll let this lucid dream expand." I soar high into the air and the dream scene vanishes: I am in expansive darkness. I float bodiless in this vast, drifting space, the lucid void. It's like being among restful black clouds – I've fallen into the gap between dreams again. So peaceful...
This article is an excerpt from The Art of Lucid Dreaming by Clare R. Johnson, PhD. Used with permission from Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd.
The Art of Lucid Dreaming contains more than 65 practices to help you wake up in your dreams. Focusing on how to get lucid, stay lucid, and guide your dreams, Clare explains how to transform your nightly slumber into dream adventures that fill your life with greater meaning.
About The Author
Dr Clare Johnson was the first person in the world to do a PhD on lucid dreaming as a creative tool. As a former President of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, she's an internationally known lucid dream speaker and teacher, and the author of Llewellyn's Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming, Mindful Dreaming, Breathing in Colour, and Dreamrunner. Clare runs lucid dreaming ocean retreats in Portugal and is the creator of Deep Lucid Dreaming.
