A lucid dream, in the simplest of terms, is a dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. It was first referred to as “lucid dreaming” by Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik van Eeden, a contemporary of Freud. It is interesting to note that while Freud was developing his own theory of dreams and dreaming, many other psychiatrists were writing about lucid dreaming – an area of dreaming that Freud choose to ignore.
Lucid Dreaming is a scientifically accepted and studied concept. To be Lucid is to be aware of your surroundings and in control, so it follows that a Lucid Dream is one in which you are aware you are dreaming. With this Awareness comes control. A person who is aware can make decisions, deciding where to go in their dream and what to do. Suddenly, they are in control of their dream.
How to Begin a Lucid Dream
A lucid dream can begin in one of two ways. A “dream-initiated lucid dream (DILD)” starts as a normal dream, and the dreamer eventually concludes it is a dream, while a “wake- initiated lucid dream (WILD)” occurs when the dreamer goes from a normal waking state directly into a dream state, with no apparent lapse in consciousness. Normally, you are unaware of the fact that you are asleep. No matter how fantastic or illogical your dream becomes, you usually lack the same thought process you have in your waking mind that says “wait a minute, something isn’t right here.”
When dreaming, you simply are not aware of the fact you are in a dream. Occasionally, you can realize you are in a dream and this flips a switch of self-Awareness. Once this happens, you are now experiencing a Lucid Dream. What most people do not know is that once you are aware you are dreaming, you are also aware that your own mind is creating the dream world – the scenery which you are surrounded by, even the people in the dream. Here is a diagram which illustrates this. Note how Lucid Dreaming is a form of Dreaming with increased Awareness.
This type of Lucid Dreaming is what is called – dream-initiated lucid dream (DILD). With this increased Awareness in the Lucid Dreaming state, the dreamer can then initiate a projection by choosing to follow any one of the visualization techniques demonstrated in the course, Learning to Fly. How can they initiate a technique? When you reach a state of Lucid Dreaming or a state of Awareness that you are dreaming, you also reach a state in which you have control of your dream body. Once you have control of your dream body, you have reached the state of Awareness to release your Astral body.
The movie Inception dealt with the topics of dream creation and the characters in the movie were largely aware that they were awake. They could shape the dream world they were in and everything around them was a product of imagination, including most other people.
Knowing you are asleep affords you the same ability. You can then actively choose to “take control” of your dream and do what you want. Teleport somewhere new, visit anywhere you want, have any power you want. Lucid Dreams usually don’t last long because people lose focus and the sensation of Awareness fades. Many people train themselves to Lucid Dream more frequently by constantly questioning their reality; they then do this in their dreams, too, and are more likely to hit upon the notion that “this doesn’t add up, I must be dreaming”.
