posted November 28, 2006 12:26 PM         

Dream Lucidity: Find Oneself Dreaming

By Lisa Reich (BlueDove)

The Silver Cord by Chris Wayan, http://www.worlddreambank.com

There are those who believe that dreams are what happen to us while sleeping and others who believe that dreams are the creations of our own dreaming mind. Perhaps dreams may be a mixture of both — a brave new world laying out pathways of both surprises and creations before us. We are the pioneers here. Every step we tread is a before-unexplored discovery. Such power of opportunity!

Never assume to fathom what lies just beyond the winding curve in the road. You will continually be awed by the intensity of the experience and surprised by the unexpected imagery.

Yet, to experience control in a dream even once is to ponder that dreams hold much more magic then we before imagined. Here may reside the power within ourselves for mastery and direction. Tantalizing such power is because we intuitively understand that to learn how to control and manifest the direction of our dreams may be the tentative first step in controlling entirely the direction of our very lives here on this tangible Earth.

Have you ever become aware in a dream that you were dreaming? Some sort of feeling or vision seems to trigger your conscious mind into this awareness. “I’m dreaming,” you realize, and this is what is meant by the term “lucid dreaming” — to become aware in the midst of a dream that you are actually dreaming. During this state there arises the awesome potential for controlling one’s dream at will. The dreamer also seems to come into an expanded sensory enhancement. Colors seem more vivid. Perception broadens into a wider panorama. It is as if the very experience of lucidity spirals your mind into an entirely new and unexplored higher state of consciousness. What was before unfathomable becomes not only possible but malleable.

Lucid dreams are most recognizable by their intense vividness and memorability. Upon awakening, the dream experience is vividly recalled. The details stay fresh in your mind as if they really did just happen. The intensity of recollection is somewhat similar to recall after a traumatic or intensely emotional life experience. “Where were you when John F. Kennedy was assassinated?” or “What were you doing when you first heard the news on September 11th?” We remember instantly. The experience of that moment comes flashing back to us as if it just happened. Lucid experiences while dreaming seem to share a space of the mind’s recall ability that is produced by sudden extreme focus of the conscious mind.

English writer Hugh Calloway, who wrote under the pen name Oliver Fox, described the vivid intensity as his dream shifted from an ordinary dream into the heightened awareness of lucidity:

“Instantly the vividness of life increased a hundred-fold. Never before had sea and sky and trees shone with such glamorous beauty; even the commonplace houses seemed alive and mystically beautiful. Never had I felt so absolutely well, so clear-brained, so inexpressibly free! The sensation was exquisite beyond words, but it lasted only a few minutes and I awoke.”

posted November 28, 2006 12:27 PM         

Fly, Dancer! by Chris Wayan, http://www.worlddreambank.com

The best way I can think of to describe the immense sense of freedom and expanded perception experienced is to use the example off a lucid dream of my own. I dreamed I was flying through the sky, and at the moment that I became aware I was dreaming, my entire perception seemed to expand. The sky widened into a panoramic view, as if suddenly I was unhindered by the usual, limited human scope of vision and was seeing all directions around me at once. The ground rose up to me in minute detail. I could see every valley and pathway below me whilst simultaneously absorbing the blue sky all around.

Each sensation seemed intensified far beyond normal and mundane perception. As I flew into each current of air, the cool briskness of it rippled in waves through my entire being. I began to manipulate my direction of flight by thought, but in a calm way that seemed a natural extension of the feeling of freedom I felt. In other words, there wasn’t an intellectual coldness to my movements, as if saying to myself, “OK, now I shall move this way or that.” Rather, it seemed a natural, unforced feeling of thought that directed me. Up, I felt. Up I swooped. Down, I desired. Down I dived. Side to side I glided, coming in tune with the air pockets around me as naturally as a bird in her first discovery of flight. Words fail to describe the boundless joy and ecstatic freedom that expanded within me and grew greater with each movement. I felt an otherworldly kind of freedom so exquisite that I ponder whether it is attainable at all in earthly existence — the unbridled freedom of a soul embracing all realms of its potential in a moment.

Of course, this was a personal dream of mine, and each lucid dreamer’s experience is as different as her own unique mind and soul.

A Discovery at Least as Old as Aristotle

Dream lucidity is not a recently discovered New Age concept, although the interest and fascination it has aroused in New Age spirituality has perhaps given it more recent focus. The first recorded reference to lucid dreaming is in Aristotle’s On Dreams, where he writes that, “Often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.”

The first description of a lucid dream experience was described in a letter by Saint Augustine in 415, in which he recounted two dreams experienced by Gennadius, a Roman physician who was troubled with doubt about the existence of life after death. In the first of those dreams, a young man appeared to Gennadius and guided him to a city where he heard music: “sounds of a melody so exquisitely sweet as to surpass anything he had ever heard.” When he inquired of his guide about this music, he was told, “It is the hymn of the blessed and holy.”

On the following night, the same youthful guide appeared in a dream and asked Gennadius if he recognized him. Gennadius replied that he knew him well and relayed to him the dream of the previous night. The dream guide then asked him if the experience of the night before was while in sleep or while awake. “In sleep,” Gennadius answered. The youth then confirmed that indeed it had been while Gennadius slept, and that he was again sleeping. The guide explained:

“Asleep and lying on your bed, these eyes of your body are now unemployed and doing nothing, and yet you have eyes with which to behold me, and enjoy this vision, so after your death, while your bodily eyes shall be wholly inactive, there shall be in you a life by which you still live, and a faculty of perception by which you shall still perceive. Beware, therefore, after this of harboring doubts as to whether the life of a man shall continue after death.”

And so, after that amazing dream, Gennadius never more doubted the continuity of life after death.

posted November 28, 2006 12:30 PM         

In 12th-century Islam, Spanish Sufi Ibn El-Arabi persuaded his followers that, “A person must control his thoughts in a dream. The training of this alertness will produce great benefits for the individual. Everyone should apply himself to the attainment of this ability of such great value.”

In 1867, the Marquis d’Hervey de Saint-Denys used the term reve lucide to describe dreams in which “I had the sensation of my situation.” But the person most commonly credited with coining the term lucid dream was Dutch psychiatrist Frederik Van Eeden. Dr. Van Eeden presented a paper to the Society for Psychical Research in 1913. The paper consisted of descriptions of Van Eeden’s lucid dreams and also of various experiments used in testing the boundaries and range of his dreams.

In the United States, a great deal of the modern interest in lucid dreaming was sparked by Carlos Castaneda’s series of books, beginning in 1968, which described the young anthropology student’s apprenticeship in sorcery with Yaqui Indian sorcerer Don Juan. Techniques to achieve lucid-dreaming mastery were first detailed in the third book, Journey to Ixtlan, wherein Don Juan explains how to set up dreaming. The goal, he says, is “to have concise and pragmatic control over the general situation of the dream.”

Don Juan tells Castaneda to look at his hands in his dreams. Other familiar objects may be used for focus, but the hands are most favored because “they will always be there.” When his hands begin to change shape in the dream and he feels control is being lost, Carlos is advised to look away from them and pick something else to focus on briefly, and then return to his hands once again. Don Juan explains:

“Dreaming is real when one has succeeded in bringing everything into focus. Then there is no difference between what you do when you sleep and what you do when you are not sleeping. Dreaming is real for a warrior because in it he can act deliberately, he can choose and reject, he can select from a variety of items those which lead to power, and then he can manipulate them and use them, while in an ordinary dream he cannot act deliberately.”

Don Juan discusses dreaming with Carlos again and again throughout the apprenticeship, explaining that in order to integrate such new awareness into the mind, such sorcerer’s concepts must be repeated to the point of exhaustion before we open ourselves to them, for repetition is the way the world has programmed us to function in the daily world from the beginning of our lives.

In the book The Art of Dreaming, Don Juan delves into every aspect of dreaming, from techniques for achieving lucidity and control in dreams, onward to shifting one’s normal position of perception, or assemblage point, to travel to the other worlds of the universe.

Scientific Recognition of the Phenomenon

In the decade from the 1970s to the 1980s, a new heightened awareness of dream lucidity brought the concept into more focus in metaphysical studies as well as in scientific research. Books such as Castaneda’s, as well as others such as Creative Dreaming (1974) and The Dream Game (1976) by Ann Faraday, brought something of a double inspiration into the world — on the one hand, inspiring the open-minded, such as spiritual seekers and healers, to ponder the wonders of lucidity as a new way for enlightenment, and on the other hand, inspiring more skeptical thinkers, such as scientists in the field of sleep research, to use REM (Rapid Eye Movement) monitoring techniques to prove or disprove the concept once and for all.

Yet, until Stephen LaBerge burst on the scene in the early ’80s with the results of his amazing research, few psychologists and scientists were willing to think of lucid dreaming as anything more than partial waking during dreaming. LaBerge, a lucid dreamer himself since childhood and a young researcher at Stanford University, resolved to focus on lucid dreaming for his doctoral thesis.

The first problem he and his colleagues at the Stanford University Sleep Lab encountered was how to gather enough data for research. At that time, LaBerge was experiencing about one lucid dream per month. By using a technique of auto-suggestion developed by psychologist Patricia Garfield, he began telling himself before sleeping each night, “Tonight I will have a lucid dream.” Soon LaBerge was able to increase the frequency of his lucid dreams to about five per month.

In time, LaBerge developed his own method, which he named the MILD technique (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams). This method involves waking from a dream, visualizing yourself back into that same dream, seeing yourself becoming lucid, and then telling yourself, “Next time I’m dreaming I want to recognize I’m dreaming.” With his MILD technique, LaBerge was able to increase his rate of lucid dreams to over 20 a
month.

The second challenge in LaBerge’s research was finding a way of sending a signal during sleep to alert the other researchers that a lucid dream was being experienced. Already aware of past dream-research studies that revealed that most dreaming occurs during REM periods of sleep, LaBerge saw the opportunity of using eye movement as a means of signaling a lucid dream.

Originally using himself as the primary subject in this research, he chose for his signal two vertical sweeps of the eyes. Upon examination of a series of such sessions, LaBerge noticed that a group of zigzags were recorded through brainwave-detection equipment, which revealed the eye signal he had wanted to send. To prove that the eye signal wasn’t a mere indication of REM sleep, he then signaled from a lucid dream by clenching his fist.

posted November 28, 2006 12:32 PM         

With new study also came many various techniques for inciting lucid dreams. Dream recall is an effective beginning on the path to lucidity. The more detail a person recalls from his dreams, the more likely he is to eventually achieve a lucid dream.

Some do well using auto-suggestion, such as repeating to oneself throughout the day or on the verge of sleeping that one will become aware during a dream. A variation of this method, called the intention technique, is to constantly tell oneself during the day that particular objects or events in the dream world will trigger the dreaming mind to awareness. For instance, if one frequently dreams of riding in a car or being at work, then while awake that person could tell herself that when these events occur in a dream, it shall alert her that she is dreaming.

The reflection technique consists of asking oneself as often as one can throughout normal activities of the day, “How do I know that I am not dreaming now?” Then, instead of looking for obvious answers, really ponder the difference in waking and dreaming life. It then becomes easier to distinguish dreaming from reality, producing lucid awareness in dreaming.

An interesting exercise produced by psychologist Carl Jung and inspired by various Eastern traditions, is the technique of active imagination, in which one imagines one is dreaming while awake. By entering this “virtual” awakened dream world, the mind can see one’s own creations and illusions all around, and by separating the illusions from realities, a link between waking and dream consciousness can be formed, creating an alertness that extends into one’s dreams.

Why such great desire to achieve lucid dreaming? Recent breakthroughs of discovery in lucid dreaming show us that we are entering a new frontier of awareness of our subconscious minds and possibly our souls as well. To think of Stephen LeBerge’s achievements in contacting others from within the realm of a dream is amazing in itself. Like an astronaut relaying back to us here on the Earth the scenery of a planet that has never before known the presence of man, his contact confirms that we are all pioneers of the mysterious places that exist within the human mind.

Each night that we sleep, not only do we have the wondrous opportunity to explore, we also have the god-like power to create. With this knowledge we can swirl into theories and an abundance of philosophies as to the possible connections of the dream world to the afterlife. Does this power to control and create our dreams signify the power that we may have to create our own life after death? Heaven may be only a thought away … here and now, as well as thereafter.

Resources:
Our Dreaming Mind by Robert L. Van de Castle
Mysteries of the Unknown — Dreams and Dreaming, Time-Life Books
The Secret Language of Dreams by David Fontana
The Dream Encyclopedia by James R. Lewis
Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda
The Art of Dreaming by Carlos Castaneda
The Lucidity Institute Inc. website: http://www.lucidity.com/

posted November 28, 2006 12:46 PM         

His website: http://www.worlddreambank.com

is mind-blowing, filled with thousands of dreams and art to visually describe them.
I highly recommend it, especially for it's creative imagination, psychological dream exploration and also for breaking through the confines of conventional societal taboos.

posted January 23, 2007 01:38 AM         

I just remembered how I was guided to some knowledge that I was seeking here on earth. Perhaps it was my pure higher self speaking to me and showing me the way.

posted January 29, 2007 05:51 PM         

You've long been a comfort to me,
even if you didn't know.
thank you.

So cool was the timing of your enquiring here. I was just contacted by Chris Wayan, the artist that I mentioned above as the artist whose paintings appeared in my article. It had been 3 years, so it came as a freaky/nice out of the blue surprise, hearing from him.
More on that soon.

Your pure higher self....always, Mannu. I hope you find what it is you seek...I believe you will.

posted February 03, 2007 09:37 PM         

Yes, I remember our conversations vividly

BTW thank you so much for putting this information here , inspite of all the events that happened here.

I made an effort to seek and Im no longer the seeker for I found myself. Wishing to quote Osho in one of the links that you have posted here. He did a brialliant job.

When we are ready , when we have the knowledge the boundaries dissapear. When we do not know, we are nothing. But when we know, we apply and we marvel.

Have you met people who have used their powers for bad use? I wonder why they still have the powers. I sometimes wonder how did they get their power in the first place and if they did, how come they didn't lose that power.

Indeed there is no such thing as coincidence. Do you believe we are all one reincarnation of God? Have you met one such reincarnation in the awake world?

Cheers,
Mannu

posted February 10, 2007 12:39 AM         

Mannu,
your questions have been tumbling in my mind for days, yet not yet settling.
Just to say that
these things do play out, I believe. It's a matter of watching the wheels of time; a magical combination of just the right alchemy in remaining alert while letting go with trust.
There is no power gifted, persay, except by God.
If someone believes they were granted power from someone else, most often it is an illusion, for the other had never really surrendered their own, as is thought. Power games are most often subjective projectory illusions. Realize this, step outside of it and you are free. You were always Free just not knowing.

Anyone who would boast of gifts, are immediately headed for their fall from it. Gifts cannot remain without the humble gratitude and empathy that would nurture its continuance.
It's a natural reactionary flow. You witness enough rises and falls...and the common patterns that trigger the falls, and it becomes foreseeable.

Yes, it does seem at times that the person can seem to go on forever and forever with power, exploiting others along their way, and it's frustrating the injustice.
But there are so many other factors in play, and we never see the misery. Most often projectory people (who are most likely the ones to seize power in the first place for being so needful for it), only air their glories. What else could there be that we aren't aware of?

Although it's difficult at times (and I speak as much to myself here as anyone else), we must let go and trust in natural cycles to play out. Not to say that bringing injustices to common awareness doesn't have it's important place and timely place too.

Do I believe we are all reincarnations of God?

This is the one still tumbling.

to you, Mannu.

posted February 11, 2007 04:01 AM         

When time began, when space got seperated, each beheld the eternal brahm in them. The brahman does not stop for anyone. That is, it will create and destroy and then create.

We are a result of creative forces at work. Our existence was imminent. Perhaps, when we were celestial beings we had nothing to beheld. And when we had the matter world, we held it dear never to part with it.

What then is the antichrist? Is that not the forces of the matter world that stops us from seeing the light. Hmm..this is going off topic. I only saw tunnels so dark and so long. It is scary to be lost because time exists and the longer you are in that light years distance tunnel, the more dreadful it becomes.

Ok back to track. Being one reincarnation of God. It is God that sends to us his son or an angel or whatever, depending on how you call upon him. And they guide you and make you reach your goal.

Well its 4 am , so not sure if I penned down all I wanted to write. Later.

Cheers,
M

posted February 12, 2007 01:44 AM         

I miss lucid dreaming. The last time I had a real one was almost a year ago.

posted February 12, 2007 06:32 AM         

Does anyone else experience this?

posted February 12, 2007 12:29 PM         

Many of my lucid dreams involve conversations with dead people. Sometimes they're about other things, like the one last night - it was about me having a baby. My lucid dreams tend to be very different from my other dreams, not just in that I remember them. They tend to be more coherent. I don't normally "read" that much into them, although sometimes they have proven to be prophetic.

posted February 14, 2007 02:25 AM         

Lialei, I would like to clarify. Those who find themselves at the end of the search, haven't really found anything as they are still really at the plane of soul level. But it does not mean that its futile. It only means one has not looked closely. There is a world beyond this and its like falling in deepest sleep to reach there. Its like being connected to that tree on that street, to the earth, to the winds, to every object you can think of in the universe. Connecting to the source is like connecting to the life blood of all things/creatures. The experiences changes each second. We cannot comprehend 4 world. Imagine how one can comprehend 14 worlds..

It indeed is like the child suckling the mothers breast. He is at peace. The world seems to have been made for him alone.

Ok more rants later. I really had great news for me today. My mom will be visiting me soon as she got her visa approved after three rejections.

Happy valentine day to you Lialei and to my fellow knowflakes.

Lots of love and hugs.....
Aloha

posted February 14, 2007 02:58 PM         

------------------
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

posted February 17, 2007 03:04 PM         

Thank you, Sherry and welcome to LL.

Oz, perhaps we aren't always meant to control lucid dreams. The dream theme-experience, may be for a reason. Such as nightmarish lucid dreams where our first lucid thought might be to panic and flee....if we stand our ground through them, what might be learn that otherwise we might not?
I've been inspired by a new way of looking at this through reading Chris Wayan's dream philosophies.
Maybe it's about learning a balance of creation/allow...just as in our wake lives.
How benefitial to us ever is too much control?
Randy is always good.

Gemini Nymph and Silver, hey. *waves*

posted February 25, 2007 03:20 AM         

Waves __--__--__

Lialei, No its first time for her.

posted March 01, 2007 02:04 AM         

I hope my little Cancer crab boy
will one day be so happy to have me visit him. That's so sweet.

Hope she won't be too culture-shocked.
You are in NYC, aren't you? Woah.

Mannu, I hope you are well and happy.
I always look for and cherish your seeds of wisdom.

{{{ }}}