Lucid Dreaming is the scientifically proven ability to become consciously aware while you're dreaming - to "wake up" and take active control of your dreams.
Many people can remember their dreams every night. This provides memories of rich inner worlds that tell us much about the unconscious mind.
But lucid dreams take one giant leap further - to a fantasy realm where everything you see, feel, taste, hear and smell can be as authentic as reality.
With conscious control, you can then explore your private dreamscape as if it were a virtual reality world. Sounds cool? You have no idea...
What Does Lucid Dreaming Feel Like?
A fully lucid dream is rich and detailed - sometimes with even greater awareness than you have right now, like 360-degree vision or existing in two places at the same time.
Because it all takes places in your mind, the dream world has no physical laws. Anything you can conceive of comes true. You can control your dreams and warp The Matrix like Neo, fly over cities like Iron Man, slow down timeInception-style, have sex with anyone, fight like a ninja, re-live childhood memories, and more.
In fact, the possibilities of lucid dreaming are limitless.
But a lucid dream is not merely a fantasy playground; it's a chance to interact with your subconscious mind via dream characters and the fabric of the dream itself. This website reveals all kinds of applications for conscious dreams, so if you think lucid dreaming is just about wish fulfillment, think again!
The Benefits of Lucid Dreaming
Once you know how to become lucid in dreams, you will discover a strange new world - an entire universe, no less - of which you are fully aware and can manipulate with the power of thought.
Beyond controlling your dreams for fun and fantasy, you can also interact with your subconscious self. That's because a lucid dream is a co-created experience; both your ego and your unconscious have control.
In normal dreams, the environment, characters, themes, symbols and plot are all driven by your subconscious mind, which communicates through experiential memory and conceptual form.
With self-awareness in your dream world, you can co-create the dream by wilfully performing any desired action within the unconscious dreamscape. You can ask any question or give any command and your subconscious dreaming self will respond automatically. For instance, ask your dream:
- What is my ideal career?
- Where shall I live in the world?
- How can I become wealthy?
- What is the purpose of my life?
- What is my greatest fantasy?
- What will my life be like in 10 years?
The answers may surprise you... and may be spoken directly from a dream character, written in the sky, or beamed telepathically into your mind!
Yep, lucid dreaming is a strange new world... come on in :)
Is Lucid Dreaming Scientifically Proven?
There is a variety of scientific research that proves the existence of lucid dreaming. This is not a paranormal phenomenon - and may actually provide an explanation for unexplained mysteries like alien abductions and astral projection. There are two particularly famous experiments which validate the existence of lucid dreams:
Communication via In-Dream Eye Movements
In 1975, lucid dreaming was scientifically proven in the laboratory for the first time. The British parapsychologist Dr Keith Hearne recorded a set of pre-determined eye movements from his volunteer, Alan Worsley, who was in a lucid dream.
By manipulating his Rapid Eye Movements (REM), Worsley showed that he was was consciously choosing to look in certain directions while dreaming. It was a kind of communication (like Morse code) between the dreamer and the outside world.
However, Hearne's groundbreaking research slipped under the radar of mainstream science journals and it was Dr Stephen LaBerge at Stanford University who became famous for first publishing his own version of this experiment in 1983.
LaBerge did his doctorate thesis on lucid dreaming and invented new lucid dream methods as a student, such as the MILD technique. Today, he runs intensive workshops and dream experiments at The Lucidity Institute.
Brainwave Recordings During REM Sleep
More recently, in 2009, a study by the Neurological Laboratory in Frankfurt showed people with significantly increased brain activity while lucid dreaming.
An EEG machine recorded highly active frequencies up to the 40 Hz (or Gamma) range in lucid dreamers. This is far more active than the normal dream state (Theta: 4-8 Hz) and even your current waking state (Beta: 12-38 Hz), supporting the need to classify lucidity as a separate state of consciousness altogether.
The research also showed heightened activity in the frontal and frontolateral areas of the dreaming brain - the seat of linguistic thought and other higher mental functions linked to self-awareness. Sleep scientists accepts that lucid dreaming is real and may offer considerable insight into the nature of human consciousness.
In addition to these studies and other measurable evidence, countless people can provide anecdotal evidence of their conscious dreams, such as those reported in these lucid dream forums. If you still have any doubt as to the existence of conscious dreams, then you can of course experience it for yourself!
Inspiration for Lucid Dreams
The hit movie, Inception, has popularized lucid dreaming and given us new triggers for our night-time musings - from lucid dreams-within-dreams to working with subconsciously-driven dream figures. The movie was written and directed by a real life lucid dreamer, Chris Nolan.
Often when I'm lucid, I choose to exit the dream scene and find somewhere new to explore. I like to summon up scenes of nature and step into them via a dream door or simply teleport there. Check out this montage of high definition lucid dreamscapes to inspire your lucid dreams and create some breathtaking dream memories...
Originally posted on: World Of Lucid Dreaming
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