Lucid Dreaming and Other Dream Experiences

I was introduced to lucid dreaming in my 7th grade science class, when we did a unit on dreams. We learned the scientific explanations of what causes them, as well as ways we could learn to influence them. We were also invited, for extra credit, to keep a dream journal. I didn’t bother, because at the time, I wasn’t really interested in putting in the effort, though I found the topic itself fascinating.

Within a year or two though, I began experimenting with lucid dreams. For those who haven’t heard of lucid dreams, a lucid dream is a dream in which you become aware of the fact that you’re dreaming while still asleep. This awareness allows you to shape the dream as you like.

First I tried the dream journal approach. I wrote all my dreams down, since that’s supposed to help with both dream recall as well as noticing similarities in dreams that might help you catch yourself dreaming. It definitely helped with the dream recall, but it never really helped me pick out a common thread that let me become aware of my dreaming.

So, while keeping the journal, I moved on to reality checks. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s when you get in the habit of asking yourself if you’re dreaming while you’re awake. This habit eventually carries over into your sleep, at which point you realize that you are actually dreaming. Variations include checking your digital watch often while awake (this used to be my favorite), or trying something impossible, such as slowly lifting off the ground via willpower. If you’re dreaming, the watch will show some sort of nonsense instead of the time, or if you’re trying the levitating trick, you’ll actually start levitating. When something weird like that happens, it becomes the clue that tells you you’re dreaming.

As I mentioned before, my favorite reality check used to be checking my watch all the time. It worked really well, because anytime I saw anything other than the time, I knew I was dreaming, and could take control of what was happening. After using this reality check for a long time though, something weird happened: I learned to read in my dreams. When I looked at my watch, it would show a real time, no mistakes. When I opened books, they had completely consistent writing that made sense. In short, something happened in my mind that made this reality check no longer helpful to me. This does help dreams become a bit more immersive though, as there’s now another outlet of information I can perceive while dreaming. I’ve had far fewer lucid dreams since that time, though in truth, I’ve grown not to care as much. They’re definitely fun, but they do take a fair bit of effort to have consistently. Now, I usually become lucid just through asking myself if I’m dreaming and realizing that I am. Of course, when a normal dream involves casting powerful spells to push meteors away from Earth, holding back natural disasters, and fighting off crazy monsters with magical swords and armor, it takes a bit to make you realize “oh yeah, this is a dream, I can take control now if I want to.”

To be honest though, I’m sometimes curious as to why this happened. Did I just acclimate to my own lucid dreaming technique? Is there a reason not to dream lucidly all the time, such as letting the mind just shut off and rest? I don’t know the answer to either of those, though sometime I should see what I can find. It would probably be pretty interesting.

While having lucid dreams, I did realize something useful though. When you want to change what’s happening in a dream, it’s much more useful to make gradual shifts, or to use some method to make a major shift seem believable. For instance, if you want to be in Japan, don’t try to just teleport to Japan, or rebuild the world in your mind. That much effort usually causes only one thing: the end of your dream as you wake up from exerting too much mental effort. Instead, pick a building to walk into. If there is no building in sight, turn around to see the building behind you. Then walk into the building. Then walk out another door into Japan. While it gets the same result, it provides a sense of continuity to your dream that’s lost if everything just changes around you. This seems to take less effort, and keeps you happily dreaming.

There’s one more experience I’d like to talk about, because it amuses me. I’ve been killed in a dream before. I share this only because people believe dying in a dream causes you to die in real life as well, and I have an experience that says otherwise, at least sometimes. Basically what happened was I was exploring a nuclear power plant with a friend when something went wrong. The plant exploded, and I was at ground zero, so the blast killed me. I blacked out for a bit, then woke up to my spirit floating above where I was a minute before, alongside my friend’s spirit. After feeling slightly freaked out, I really woke up. Needless to say, I don’t worry about dying in my dreams anymore, though it hasn’t happened since that time.

As you can probably tell, I really do enjoy my time spent dreaming, whether lucid or not. Lots of really cool stuff happens that just won’t be happening in real life, and while it’s not a substitute for waking life, it’s a great set of additional experiences to have.

Related Posts:

• How Does the Paranormal Work… If It’s not Real
• Paranormal Experiences I’ve Had
• The Smart Kid
• Don’t Rely on The Paranormal to Pull You Out Of Your Mess
• Tune in Now for the News That Could Save Your Life

Tags: Dreaming