Planning for Lucid Dreaming

I am going to sit here, write some more, and hold onto to the credit card just a bit longer to make sure all those things am I about to buy on the Internet (for the office, of course) are really good choices. I have a hazelnut flavored coffee and all seems well. How are you doing? Has it been a good Friday for you?

Hopefully you will indulge me a little more in the lucid dreaming area. I am going fullspeed into this. Are you with me?

I have actually seen this mentioned a couple of times, but it seems like good advice. It is the idea of planning for lucid dreams. This could only enhance the experience and concrete the idea a little more. This is not scheduling it (but we have already covered ways to increase the likelihood of lucid dreaming), but knowing what to do once you get there, realize you have a certain awareness and can participate in the dream experience.

The question is, what will you do once you are there? Apparently, for newbies like me, it is very easy to come out of the lucid dream state just by the realization you are in it and not quite knowing what to do in the circumstance. So, it is good idea to have a plan of what happens next once you are aware.

So, what would you do? Or what do you do?

Would you fly? Would you turn day into night or vice versa? Would you turn the dream into a musical?

Me? I would look for a body of water and walk across it. Not to be blasphemous here, but I have always been fascinated by that idea.

But what would I do the moment after realizing I was an active participant? I would probably try to fade into the background and just observe.

A Few Basic Dream Recall Steps

Okay, this dream recall thing is strange. Do you have it down or do you still find them sliding away in the morning like they never happened at all?

This week I have played with a variety of techniques and have found a few to be helpful. So, I thought I would share them with you. If you have any others, please feel free to mention them.
Steps for Recalling Dreams

1. When you awaken from a dream, do not turn over. This apparently causes the mind to also turn away from the dream. I cannot find the direct citation for this, but know it was in some Association for Research and Enlightenment materials.
2. Play the dream back in your mind immediately. Do not let other thoughts get in the way of this.
3. Playing the dream back should be the first thing you think about before anything else. Keep the mind focused. I sort of put this in here twice because it is key to the process.
4. Write down the dream immediately. More will probably be recalled as you write the dream down.
5. Do not stress out about it. The more you try it, the easier it becomes (so they say).

What dream recall has to do with lucid dreaming

Time for a night cap and I am thinking seriously of heading off to bed as soon as possible. It has been a long day and my eye has been bothering me. Nothing more fun than bright car lights in the dark and a light-sensitive pink eye.

Slowly but slowly, we have gotten more in depth with the concept of lucid dreams. On the last lucid dream post, we discussed using auto suggestion to help create a lucid dream. We may also want to use auto suggestion for dream recall.

Now what does dream recall have to do with lucid dreaming and why is it an important skill to develop if you want to lucid dream? Intellectually dream recall and lucid dreaming seem to go hand in hand, but I have had a hard time understanding why. Now I know. According to the Dream Institute, dream recall helps one's conscious mind to be in sync with the dreaming (subconscious?) mind. Apparently one has a whole different world of people, places, and feelings in the dream state. By recalling these, your conscious mind or the mind that reasons will be more present in dreams. When in the dream state, while experiencing the dream, you will now be more apt to recognize the unfamiliar (wait....what?). Darn it, I almost had it. I am tired. Maybe it does make sense but I am too tired to understand. Or perhaps this post is part of a lucid dream. Hmmm. My hands still look the same (could use a little hand cream, but yes in fact, they are mine).

Okay, enough. To Bed I go. Goodnight.

As I Dream I Am Aware

Every now and then you may notice that I arise even earlier than my normal coffee time. Some times I stay awake and get a lot done at home. Sometimes I go back to bed. It is often when I do this that my dreams are odd and vivid. This seems to be pretty normal.

From what I have read, it is this condition, the idea of getting up earlier than your normal awake time, becoming lucid in normal consciousness and going back to bed that provides great opportunity for lucid dreaming. This is one of the techniques The Dream Foundation gives for having lucid dreams.

Other suggestions they give include using auto-suggestion before falling asleep. This is probably similar or the same as setting your intention. Expect to have a lucid dream. As I dream I am aware that I am dreaming and can consciously do anything I want to do increasing my confidence (or something like that).

Also, I find this an interesting concept, as well (quoted directly):

Perform reality checks as a habit: Always Test First and then Decide when you have even the slightest inclination that you might be dreaming. In this way you won't miss valuable lucid opportunities. Also, throughout the day, ask yourself as often as you can remember, whether you are dreaming, and perform a test to find out. This may seem silly, but it will carry over by habit to the dream state, and you will be very glad (for once) when you find that your check has bounced! The best test is to read some text, look away and quickly look back. If the words change - you are dreaming! It helps to try to get the words to change. A digital watch is excellent for this. If there is no text nearby, look at your hands for a good 5-10 seconds to see if they appear wavy or odd in any way - as they most often do in dreams.

Interesting stuff!

The Theme of the Dream

There are at least a few others who seem to want to try lucid dreaming as well (as if). So, lets continue these coffee conversations (though every now and then they feel like monologues) in regard to dream control.

Something that Bill Perry wrote in one of his posting keeps itching at my mind. He mentioned lucid dreaming is more about knowing that you have the ability to control your dreams than perhaps actually changing them so much. It is the idea of choice. You have a choice when you become aware that you are lucid dreaming of whether to interfere with the theme of the dream or to just be aware of the dream environment. So, I guess in this instance, it is an empowerment tool, knowing you have control but not asserting it totally.

Here's my question (aren't I just full of them?): If you become aware that you are in control of your the dream, does the dream still flow along like a dream or does the dream reality remain in pause until you do something in the dream? If you do nothing, is it like playing a video game where nothing happens or can you just explore the scenery? Does stuff still happen spontaneously like in dreams where one is not lucid?

Lucid How-to's

Putting down the tea cup, what I want to know is how many of you have worked with lucid dreams using hypnotic suggestion, either as a hypnotist giving the suggestions or as the person being hypnotized? Or...have you used self-hypnosis to lucid dream?

I have to begun to think (and I may be slow on the uptake here) that maybe to become proficient with lucid dreams, the techniques are all self-hypnosis with maybe the exception being the use of the dream machines...but that seems hypnotic, too, just not so vocal based.

All this comes into my mind from perusing Bill Perry's Lucid Blog. Bill was kind enough to respond to the Sunday Question about lucid dreaming, and I am so glad he did. His experiences are pretty interesting, as is his approach. He uses an anchoring technique and it is as follows:

• As you are lying in bed, simply visualize the dream you would like to have. Experience it as you would like to experience it. Get as far into the visualization as you can. Hear the sounds, see the sights, smell how it smells. As you are getting into this visualization, clench your hands into fists. Not tightly, but relaxed fists. Use it as an anchor.
• Allow your brain to tie the feeling of clenching the hands into fists with he feeling of what your prospective dream feels like.
• Next time you are lucid, clench your dream fists and remember the dream you want to have. Much like running a computer program, your dream will now “load up” for you.
• And, since you are now altering the content of the dream, you don’t have to stick exactly to the “script” you’ve made in your visualization. You can now make things happen by the power of sheer thought.
• Dream on!

This was taken from his blog posting How to Control Your Dreams. Using both self-hypnosis techniques and NLP, is this just another fabulous tool of hypnosis? When I was debating using the home-made sunglasses dream machine to use the lights as an anchor to remind you that you were in a dream and now could take control of it, Bill's technique does this without all the gadgetry. Definitely worth exploring.

The Dream Question

Dreaming seems like a great topic to continue upon so today's question is all about lucid dreaming.

If you are a lucid dreamer, what techniques do you use to assist yourself in doing such?

In other words, how do you do it? What works and does not work? What is the value in lucid dreaming?

If you read yesterday's entry then you know this is not something I have experienced...so I am hoping those of you who have had any experience with it, will relate some knowledge here.