How To Lucid Dream...

Wanna Know How It's Done?

OK, so by now you probably know what Lucid Dreaming is BUT what is the best, natural and quickest way in inducing it?

Over the years I have been trying all kinds of weird and wonderful ways in inducing this state… and have had luck in many different ways. The fact of the matter is there is no definite ‘one way solution’ that will please all. That’s not to say however you can’t increase your chances in lucidity with applying the right preparation and correct mind set. With time and dedication you're guaranteed for success. Furthermore you will focus on the techniques that work best for you and improve on this. By having perseverance and focused goals, you will achieve great things.

Preparing For The Journey Ahead!

Of course with any metaphysical journeying that you’re about to embark on, there should be some sort of preparation that needs to be taken into consideration.

It’s like when you’re going on holiday; you wouldn’t just walk out of your front door with no luggage, passport or toothbrush, let alone not having a flight booked! The answer is, of course not, it would never work out! You would always make sure the necessary items and arrangements were organised first before travelling. This is the same type of thing with Lucid Dreaming. Having taken into account the correct preparations and guidelines you will have greatly increased your chances in becoming lucid and will have spectacular vivid adventures.

I have documented a list of preparation guidelines that I’ve used over the years, which I fully live by. Weather you’re an experienced lucid dreamer or not, I believe this list will be a great advantage to you.

Preparation Guidelines

Use a dream journal to document all of your dreams-Daily! (Further detail on this below)

See all life as a dream… Your interactions with people and the situations you encounter. Question your physical reality in how you perceive your day to day life.

Say to yourself throughout the day- ‘Am I Dreaming?’ (Set an hourly bleep on a watch to remind you). Reality check your environment - Jump up and down to see if gravity exists!

Don’t watch T.V./Movies before bed. It makes it incredibly hard to dream!

Plenty of Vitamin B (essential for dreaming)

Eat more fresh fruit and green leafy vegetables

Plenty of regular exercise

Cheese

Eggs

Fresh organic fish

Lamb liver

Spirulina (Blue-green algae superfood- high in B12!)

Organic wild salmon
Green Tea (caffeine substitute)

Fresh clean water throughout the day (Mineral)

Ashwagandha (Indian herb)

Brahmi  (Indian Herb)

Freshly squeezed Lemon/honey tea (just add hot water)

Chamomile Tea

Lavender Oil/Jasmine Oil (essential oil drops on pillow at night)

No Alcohol/No Drugs and plenty of rest.

Napping in daytime is also good on occasion!

Lots of meditation when you wake, daytime, and just before bed with setting your intention

Plenty of sun for the Vitamin D & Melatonin (don’t wear sunglasses)

Ground yourself as much as you can during the day. Walk in Nature barefoot!

Please check this link for details on grounding:

http://www.the-psychic-detective.com/grounding-and-protecting-yourself.htm

The MILD Technique

Many studies over the years have shown which techniques have a bigger success rate than others. The first one I tried was the M.I.L.D technique  (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams)

The MILD technique employs prospective memory, remembering to do something (notice you're dreaming) in the future.

Dr. LaBerge developed this technique for his doctoral dissertation and used it to achieve lucid dreaming at will. The proper time to practice MILD is after awakening from a dream, before returning to sleep.

Here’s How…

Setup dream recall

Set your mind through intention to awaken from dreams and recall them. When you awaken from a dream, recall it as completely as you can. 


Focus your intent


While returning to sleep, concentrate single-mindedly on your intention to remember to recognize that you're dreaming. Tell yourself: "Next time I'm dreaming, I will remember I'm dreaming," repeatedly, like a mantra. Put real meaning into the words and focus on this idea alone. If you find yourself thinking about anything else, let it go and bring your mind back to your intention. 


See yourself becoming lucid

As you continue to focus on your intention to remember when you're dreaming, imagine that you are back in the dream from which you just awakened (or another one you have had recently if you didn't remember a dream on awakening). Imagine that this time you recognize that you are dreaming. Look for a dreamsign--something in the dream that demonstrates plainly that it is a dream. When you see it say to yourself: "I'm dreaming!" and continue your fantasy. Imagine yourself carrying out your plans for your next lucid dream. For example, if you want to fly in your lucid dream, imagine yourself flying after you come to the point in your fantasy when you become lucid. 


Repeat until your intention is set 


Repeat steps 2 and 3 until either you fall asleep or are sure that your intention is set. If, while falling asleep, you find yourself thinking of anything else, repeat the procedure so that the last thing in your mind before falling asleep is your intention to remember to recognize the next time you are dreaming.

For me this particular technique served as a great foundation for my dream studies because it trains your subconscious mind into focussing on an intention. I still use this at times depending on what my body wants.

I believe it is always good to know a few different methods so that you can keep your subconscious mind entertained and varied. You see the subconscious mind prefers things repetitive, simple and clear. When you constantly use the same technique over and over it will adapt and could, not always, work against you. You somehow build a tolerance for the method. So the secret is to use a few of your favourite different methods and alternate them throughout the week. This will prove to be more successful for you.

There are many other methods available and I can't list all of them unfortunately. Instead I will give you a particular method that has served me proud over the years and has given me countless lucid dreams!

Many experienced lucid dreamers know that in the early hours of the morning i.e. 4:00am till 6:00am this is when your brain occupies high levels of serotonin and melatonin. This makes your chances in becoming lucid extremely high!

This particular time in the morning is when our dreams are most vivid and interactive. Studies show that this is when we experience ‘Rapid Eye Movement’ or the ‘R.E.M’ period.

They call this method the ‘wake back to bed method’(WBTB)- with a few minor improvements of my own!

Here is what I do…

STEP ONE

Go to bed as normal (preferably 10 pm). Set your intention whilst sat up in bed with closed eyes and clear your mind. 
Say to yourself the following:

‘When I Dream I Will Know I’m Dreaming’ repeatedly for 10/15 minutes.

Allow yourself to sleep for six hours. Set your alarm clock to wake you up at 4:00am.

(You can also train your subconscious mind to wake you up naturally at 4:00am-link below)

STEP TWO

After six hours, get out of bed and half wake yourself up (the less lights turned on the better- I use a torch so I don't fully wake up!). Get up and use the toilet if need be, drink a glass of water and occupy your brain with reading about lucid dreaming. I prefer to go back to bed after a quick toilet break and prop myself up with pillows and meditate on the intention which I find is more effective:

(‘When I Dream I Will Know I’m Dreaming…’)

Do this for 20-45 minutes. (Hint: you must get out of bed to begin with!)

STEP THREE

Go back to bed or move the pillows back to there original position and lay down to relax.

If your mind is too alert, practice ‘relax breathing’ techniques or meditation (Link below)

You may also use your visualisation skills to place your mind back in the dreamscape and plan your next lucid dream as you fall asleep. The idea is to fall asleep again so try not to get too excited about what will happen, this in turn will work against you. Just try to relax and fall asleep again with the intention in mind.

Link for natural awaken/sleep times without alarm clock

http://www.wikihow.com/Wake-Up-Without-an-Alarm-Clock

Link for Progressive Relaxation technique

http://www.hypnos.co.uk/hypnomag/jacobson.htm

Keeping A Dream Journal

Your dream experiences no matter how big or small should all be placed into a ‘Dream Journal’. At first keeping a journal can be a bit of a chore and you may sometimes forget to write down experiences. However in time you will realise how much of a necessity keeping a dream journal really is, and writing in entries every morning becomes a pleasure!

My journal for me is the most important tool I have… It unlocks all the wondrous secrets of the psyche and 'dream patterns' suddenly emerge. In time you will detect more clearly the symbolic nature of your subconscious mind and what it is communicating to you.

You will be able to identify your ‘dream signs’, anything in particular that is reoccurring and unusual? Maybe a certain childhood memory or location perhaps?

The symbolic nature of our dreams can tell us a huge amount of information. As soon as we put focus on recording our dreams daily, we begin to grow as a human being and not a human doing. Your awareness will grow significantly and will become more and more lucid. I also believe in using a hand written journal and not a computer or dictaphone to record your entries! This is because when we physically write with our hands onto physical paper we make a stronger bond to the subconscious mind. It recognises this much more clearly. 


Studies show that when we write we stimulate the right side of our brain’s hemisphere. This is our creative side, our spiritual side and what connects us to dreaming even more. This is an important note to make; many people have reported increased lucidity by recording their dreams as soon as they awake. Don't wait until the morning. You will include more details if you write it down directly after the dream.

Make sure when you wake that you don’t move from your bed position-moving and then trying to remember will greatly decrease your memory of the dream!

Whilst not moving, say to yourself that you will remember everything from this dream. Now cast your mind back and recall all the events you experienced. When your ready to move pickup your journal and proceed to write it down.

How I Organise My Dream Journal:

Date: (Write the date of the morning you had the dream-the same date as when you awaken)

Time Within Dreamscape: Write down the time it ‘felt’ like in the dream. Obviously time has no meaning in the dream world but it somehow prepares your lucid mind to stay lucid longer.

Trigger: Try and remember the crucial point at what triggered your lucidity. Maybe just before you felt a certain emotion, being chased perhaps a conversation?

Location/Landscape: Describe what landscape surrounds you and what it reminds you of, maybe a type of particular building etc

Spirits/Projections: State who you interacted with? Write down the type of characters that you were communicating with.

Dream Symbols/Objects: Any particular object or weird thing stand out? Any certain colours, animals, a weird structure of some kind, sound?

Emotions: How were you feelings during this dream? What emotion(s) did you experience? What do you feel now you are awake?

Experience: Describe from the beginning your lucid or none lucid dream experience. Use simple and concise wording when writing in your entries.

Always write in the present tense instead of using past tense.

For example, you would write, "I’m walking down this street and I see a man" 
instead of "I walked down this street and saw a man." By writing in the present tense, you will be able to remember even more details of your dreams as you are recording them.

Conclusion:

This section can be completed at a later date or the day after if you wish whilst the memory is still fresh in your mind. This is where you can dissect and analyse what your dream was trying to tell you, from the people you met to the perceptions and objects you encountered.

I find underlining the main key words within the experience really helps me when trying to decipher the dream’s encryption. This gives me easy access when quickly referencing my dream meanings.

For example you may have wrote,

“I’m running up a steep hill and I see a red flag which makes me feel happy”

Here is what stands out:

“I’m running up a steep hill and I see a red flag which makes me feel happy”.

This is where you can start to see emerging patterns and symbolic meanings that can be understood. There are many books on dream interpretation and thousands of websites that offer dream meanings. At the end of the day, only you can interpret the true meaning of what you really feel from the experience.

And lastly I place a little box in the top right hand of the page where I write what ‘Type’ of dream it was. This really helps you gage your success rate whilst quickly flicking through your journal. It also pushes you mentally to achieve more if you’re not satisfied with the results.

I use this method of abbreviation when labelling the dream’s type:

(L) ‘Lucid’- Full lucidity is when one is fully conscious that one is dreaming within a dream and recognises the physical body simultaneously coexisting.

(SL) Semi Lucid- is when you’re aware that you’re dreaming but believe that this is the only version of you existing within the present dream. You have no sense of a physical life on Earth and are at risk of re-entering a ‘Non-Lucid’ state.

(NL) ‘Non-Lucid’- is a regular dream. You play out an entire script and are completely unaware that you are dreaming.

(VD) ‘Vivid Dream’- Very much like a 'non-lucid' dream in sense of being unaware one is dreaming but this time everything is completely vivid and real. Your interactions are extremely realistic, your senses are completely heightened and the tactile sensations are extremely mind blowing like waking life.

(OBE) ‘Out Of Body Experience’- is when the spirit (energy body/soul) leaves its physical body and can project outwards to anywhere within the astral planes. (I will make a detailed post regarding this soon!)

Example of my Dream Journal Layout

With all this practising and perfecting always remember to take care and practise Lucid Dreaming responsibly.

Make sure you have enough sleep in between sessions so that when you have a lucid dream you maximise your chances and well being.

REMEMBER-Your body is no use to anyone or anything if you deprive it of sleep!

In future posts I will touch on the following matters:

‘Lucid Dreaming Supplements’

‘Spirit guides that can help you on your travels’

‘Now you're lucid, how can you stay lucid for longer?’

‘Astral Projection/O.B.E’

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Feedback & Questions are alwayz welcome...

Many thanks fellow lucid astronauts…

Peace & Blessed Dreaming,

Nick