Lucid Dreams: What are they and How to experience them?

Perhaps one of the most intriguing topics in dream space, lucid dreams, is the act of being fully conscious during one’s dream. As such, the implications of this are practically limitless – you can create your own worlds, manifest your own desires, even experience things that you’ve never been in contact with your whole life. 

 Given how the dream world is one of the most malleable realities that are readily available to us, successfully harnessing its power can properly be done through lucid dreams . Thus, in this article, we’ll be exploring ways on how we can manifest lucid dreams and explore their potential benefits in our life. 

What is Lucid Dreaming? 

As mentioned above, lucid dreaming is the act of being conscious of one’s dreams. By allowing your consciousness to traverse into the world of dreams itself, it becomes easier for you to explore the dream world. 

Generally, when we dream, what happens is that we’re not in control. Like spectators in a movie theater, images and actions flash right at us even if we’re the main actors of the dream. However, with lucid dreaming, we become aware of this situation. Thus, we are able to make conscious choices from within the dream state itself. 

 With that, we can say that lucid dreaming is quite similar to the one presented in the movie Inception. Given their ability to enter a dream state and build their own worlds, we can say that lucid dreaming is like that, albeit temporary. 

As such, there are two general ways for us to experience lucid dreaming:

1. Deciding within the dream – this means that we are already subject to a situation, and we can make conscious choices knowing that we are in the dream state. 
2. Deciding what to dream and mold it – this means that we can change the dream as we desire, even to the extent of making illogical paradoxes. 

In both instances, we can say that lucid dreaming takes us a step further – by allowing us to influence the result of our dreams. 

How to Experience Lucid Dreaming? 

 There are a couple of ways to experience lucid dreaming. However, note that not all of these ways are for everyone, especially if you consider yourself a beginner in this subject. As such, we’ll suggest five helpful ways for you to manifest this experience on your own. 

1. Dream Journaling – being the first and most crucial step, dream journaling is the act of recording your own dream. By doing such, you are able to list out certain elements and images which you consider are significant or important. As such, these elements or images can later be used as starting points or inspirations for inducing lucid dreaming itself. Furthermore, dream journaling also allows you to keep track of certain symbols that may occur during the dream state, something that is crucial in order to consistently do lucid dreaming. 
   
2. Being conscious of your Sleep Hygiene – apart from preparing a dream journal, it also helps if you are conscious of your sleep hygiene. This means that you are preparing yourself physically and mentally to enter a dream state. As such, you can do this by ensuring that you enact certain rules before sleeping like avoiding blue-light that’s emitted from your phones or televisions. Furthermore, you can also exercise the act of sleeping not too late or in a pitch-black environment, ensuring a well-rested night that’s prepared for the act of lucid dreaming. 
   
3. WBTB Technique – also known as Wake Back to Bed technique, this method requires you to set the alarm somewhere around 4hrs 30mins after sleeping. By waking up and doing something that raises your attention levels, you are bringing your consciousness to light. With this, the moment you enter dream state again, it is likelier for you to experience lucid dreaming, given that your conscious mind is still in control. As such, this method is often the best introductory one since it is easier compared to the WILD technique. However, it can also be quite disturbing since there’s the possibility of you not being able to go back to the dream or even back to sleep. 
   
4. MILD Technique – also known as the Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming, this method focuses on creating the proper conditions to induce such a dream state. With that, it carefully selects certain words and phrases that can be repeatedly said before going to sleep. As such, your mind is somehow conditioned and is likelier to experience the dream state itself. By incorporating certain dream symbols together with simple positivist phrases, it is likelier that you’ll be able to will yourself towards lucid dreaming. 
   
5. WILD Technique – perhaps the most complex, the Wake-Initiated Lucid Dreaming method requires you to enter a trance-like state through hypnagogic hallucination. Simply put, this technique seeks to induce that state between waking and dreaming and transition further by going into lucid dreaming itself. You’ll be able to notice such a state since it is often characterized by feeling through your five senses. As you transition from hypnagogic hallucination to dream state, it is likelier that your conscious mind is carried over and, thus, induce the lucid dream. 

Final Word

While lucid dreaming seems to be a lucrative spiritual practice, exercising due to prudence and pre-cautions will always help. Since you are entering a dream space whose elements and symbols can be influenced by transcendental entities, it is always better to keep a fail-safe method at bay. 

 However, do not be discouraged since lucid dreaming is also known to bring positive effects such as reconciling with your shadow, curing addictions, and even practicing techniques in dream state itself. As long as you are able to exercise it properly, there seems to be no trouble in exploring such a boundless reality!

The Individualogist Team

The Individualogist Team is made up of archetype fanatics, individuation practitioners, and spirituality fans. Our humble group has banded together to deliver thought-provoking, life-changing, and growth-probing wisdom.