Lucid Dreams:
Do Lucid Dreams enhance our Mindfulness?
All that we see or seem is a dream within a dream. ~ Edgar Allen Poe
We all experience dreams every time that we enter REM sleep. Sometimes we will remember our dreams, and other times they are just a faint memory, if we remember them at all.There is among these dream experiences that the rare situation arises when we realize during our dream, that it is just a dream, and we become the masters of our dream environment. This is known as a lucid dream.
I remember as a child I use to have nightmares all the time. I had to sleep with a bright nightlight on, or my night terrors would eliminate any chance for a restful night’s sleep.
Watching movies such as, “The Exorcist” didn’t help my sleep patterns to say the least.
Then one evening I saw a movie in the horror genre called, “Dreamscapes” which lead my thought process as a young impressionable child in a whole new direction. There was one line in the movie that is still ingrained forever in my head.
“It is a dream Alex. You can do anything you want in here.”
What an enlightened way to address a lucid dream. Although at that time I had never heard of a lucid dream, I was now about to face my dream demons with absolute confidence, and total control.
Another great movie about dreams which even more closely references lucid dreams is, “Inception”. There is a character from the movie who eloquently puts it, “Well dreams, they feel real while we are in them… right? It is only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.”
What is a Lucid Dream?
A lucid dream is when you become consciously aware that you are dreaming while you are in the midst of your dream, and begin to take creative control of your dream actions and the dream environment around you. Some will only be able to control their own actions within the dream, their lack of confidence in their ability to construct their entire dream environment is their undoing.
Their consciousness is still grounded in physical reality where they have been conditioned to believe that the only thing they have control over is their own actions. Therefore they believe that they cannot effect the environment around them as well.
Those of exceedingly well enlightened consciousness will know that they have full control of their dream environment and can create it in its entirety.
(If our physical reality is all composed of atoms, and everything around us is just energy, can we manipulate this energy and make our “Real World” lucid as well?)
How to have a lucid dream?
We must choose to expand our conscious awareness, and willingly make an effort to awaken in our dream. Expanding our conscious awareness naturally envelops us during the hypnagogic state if we choose to embrace that state, and recognize it as it happens.The mental state required to induce Astral Projection is strikingly similar to the one we will enter into as a prelude to inducing a lucid dream.
We must first be mindful of the world around us in our wakeful state. We must constantly be consciously aware of what is normal and natural in our everyday reality so that we will be more prepared to recognize the psychedelic nomenclature of our dreamscape.
If we try asking ourselves several times during the day, “Is this a dream, or is it really happening?” We will condition ourselves to always question if we are dreaming, and be mindful of the differences.
Some of the differences we can be mindful of to recognize a dream are…
Remembering what happened before the moment we are currently experiencing. In real life we can recall our memories far back in time, but in the dream, our memories start where the dream started.
Reading anything is nearly impossible in our dream. Futilely trying to read something can be another sign of a dream for us.
Being mindful of a surreal dream environment completely different from the reality that we are accustom to will also help us to recognize a dream as it unfolds.
Willful induction of a lucid dream.
When we lay down upon our beds ready to fall asleep, and await our adventure in dreamland, if we were to try to remind ourselves as we drift off to sleep that anything that happens after this moment is merely a dream, we will help to induce a lucid dream.
Simply speaking it into existence can cause it to manifest.
“Tonight I will realize that I am dreaming, and take full control of my dream environment… I will have a lucid dream, I will have a lucid dream.”
Being mindfully aware of the concept of lucid dreaming will be helpful to those who suffer from nightmares as well. Having frequent nightmares leads to insomnia due to those with night terrors resisting the urge to sleep, and choosing to remain awake to avoid their night demons.
Always be mindful of the world around you, and you will be prepared to recognize your dream as it happens.
Make your dreams lucid, and create the reality within them.
Did you know many people worldwide claim to have experienced Sleep Paralysis at least once in their lifetime?
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