Beginners Guide To Lucid Dreaming

I think i'm going through a dream deprivation. The passed few nights my dreams have seemed to elude me right upon waking. I have a few glimpses of what I dreamed of, but not enough to really make a clear post about. SO instead of that, I will write a Beginner's Guide to Lucid Dreaming.

This blog post examine some easy lucid dreaming techniques, that guide most people with their first lucid dream and will take between 3 days and 3 weeks.

I have put as much information into this  Beginner's Guide to Lucid Dreaming as I possibly can, so don't worry if you feel overwhelmed. Just take it slow.

First, my name is Christopher Franko. I've been lucid dreaming since I was 13 years old. Over the last 13 years I have spent alot of time researching dream control. I have learned many different lucid dream techniques and developed a few of my own ways to become lucid and stay lucid in the dream world for longer, allowing me to have many fantastic lucid dream experiences. 

Step 1 - Improve Your Dream Recall

Dream recall is really important and you should improve your dream recall so that you remember at least one dream every night (and preferably more). The best way to do this is to remind yourself regularly, "I will remember my dreams", especially just before you go to sleep. This will put the intention to remember your dreams in your subconscious.

I recommend keeping a dream journal by the bedside so you can write down your dreams as soon as you wake up. Right before you actually get up though, take the time to go over all of the details of the dream a time or two even before you open you eyes, this way your recall will be more implanted into your memory. Also discuss your dreams with friends as often as you can, to really soldifigy the message that dreaming is really important to you and must be remembered. 

Step 2 - Perform Frequent Reality Checks

A very easy lucid dreaming exercise, reality checking is the secret weapon of those who want to start with Dream Initiated Lucid Dreams (DILDs). If you have ever seen the movie "inception" they accomplish this with tools they call totems. Either way. It works. By doing reality checks frequently  throughout your waking day, you will enhance your awareness of waking life and be much more likely to recognize that small changes of reality that happen during dreams. An example is, reading text, and flicking a light on and off. Because in a dream, both of those things (though not impossible) are difficult at times. Soon you will spontaneously perform a reality check in a dream, exposing the nature of the dream reality and giving you instant dream control.

Step 3 - Learn To Meditate

Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains his or her mind or induces a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit. Meditation is generally an inwardly oriented, personal practice, which individuals do by themselves. When you meditate, you have the chance to experience some amazing phenomena, including hallucinations, euphoria and epiphany. Meditation tunes you in to your waking life on new levels, and helps you feel more at peace.

Research has linked meditation with easy lucid dreaming for several reasons. First, meditation trains you to enter altered states of awareness on demand. Secondly, meditation bridges the gap between your conscious and unconscious brain. And third, meditation makes you more self-aware, helping you to recognize the unreality of the dream world hence you become lucid in a dream more often. You can find some good beginners guides to meditation all over the internet, so give it a google!

Step 4 - Lucid Dream Research

If you are serious about having lucid dreams on the regular then you need to do research. It can help you find the best induction methods for you, and will help you learn easy ways to control and explore your lucid dream world. If you don't know the ropes, the whole process takes a lot longer to learn. I have also discovered that, if I am researching lucid dreams, the research is like priming my mind to become lucid that night. So you are essentially telling yourself, dreams are important, lucid dreams are more important, and this is what I want to accomplish when I wake up.

This part is easy. Lucid dreaming has become increasingly popular with books, websites, forums and even appearing in mainstream media now. The more you think about lucid dreams during the day, the more likely you are to become lucid in your dreams at night. The more you understand about this amazing mind phenomenon, the sooner you will take to it.

Step 5 - Discover Advanced Methods

Once you get yourself into a regular routine with lucid dreaming techniques, like dream journaling and reality checking, it's time to begin more involved methods. Get ready for some acronyms.

So far, I have only offered methods for Dream Induced Lucid Dreams (where you start dreaming normally and become lucid from within the dreamstate). The most popular type of DILD is called Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD), created by Stephen LaBerge. I recommend starting out on this route, because DILDs often give way to spontaneous lucid dreams.

There is also a whole other category known as Wake Induced Lucid Dreams (WILDs). These were originally developed by Tibetan Buddhists in the form of Dream Yoga, which involves training yourself to go directly from waking to a lucid dream state. It involves falling asleep consciously and induces some strange phenomena linked with the out of body experience (OBE). 

So there it is - easy lucid dreaming for beginners. Of course, a beginner's guide is only the start. Once you have found some effective ways to become lucid, you will have more questions about controlling and working with the alternate reality of lucid dreams. But that is another article altogether...