Lucid Dreaming

Through the aid of YouTube and the internet, I've become very much aware of the concept of lucidity. I've been researching a lot over the past few days on the subject, and have made the conscious decision to become a lucid dreamer. First and foremost, it would make more sense to tell you what lucid dreaming is, although you probably know already.

Lucid dreaming- Being in a state where you are dreaming and are fully aware that you are.

So, basically, knowing that you're dreaming. Depending on the level of lucidity you're in, you will be capable of having full control of what goes on in your dream. I'm not going to go into the all the levels of lucidity at present, but I'll probably touch on them at a later stage. For now, I'm going to talk about the journey I'm going to take to become a lucid dreamer.

NOTE: In the challenge that I'm currently taking, I do not desire to have OOBE (out of body experiences) or anything of an occult nature. Rather I simply wish to experience the extraordinary capability of lucid dreaming, and the personal enlightenment from interpreting my dreams and becoming aware of my dream signs through doing so.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's begin. One of the key things that is recommended to anyone who wishes to lucid dream, is a dream journal. Basically it's a diary that you keep near your bed at all times. That way, having woken up from a lucid dream/dream, you can quickly jot them down before you forget them. I now have a dream journal that stays beneath my pillow and I've been trying to record my dreams in it for about three days.

Many people don't remember their dreams and find it hard to record them (me included),that is because our brains have gotten so used to forgeting, that they're stuck in their ways. To have a stronger dream recall (term used to express remembering your dreams), you must train your mind to remember. Creating the intent in your mind to consciously remember your dreams. To do so, you can think very hard about recalling your dreams, wanting to become lucid and doing reality checks. It's all about intent.

You'll have noticed that I said "reality checks" there. What are they? Well, it's basically a check you do to ensure you that you are/are not dreaming. To become lucid you need to practice these reality checks even through the day so that your mind is so used to checking, that it will do it in it's sleep. Below are a few common reality checks:

1. Observing your hand- often in the dream world, your hand will not look like an ordinary hand. It could be discoloured, deformed etc. From seeing that your hand doesn't look normal, you'll realise that you're in a dream.

2. Holding your nose and closing your mouth- This is a test to see if you can breathe without the aid of a nose or mouth. In the dream world, you can usually breathe without them, thus you'll be able to tell that you're deaming.

3. Asking questions- Asking yourself questions like, "Where am I?" (if your surroundings aren't everyday fimiliar ones, you'll know that you're dreaming), and the list goes on. The questions will make you come to the realisation that you're in fact dreaming.

Sadly, I know more theory than I do practical, but hopefully that will all change. This takes patience, motivation and practice. This journey might indeed transpire into something far bigger and enlightening. I'm a stickler for believing that dreams have meanings, meanings that could indeed benefit me as a person. I'll continue with dream journaling etc and update you later.