How To Have Lucid Dreams

How to Have Lucid Dreams

The majority of lucid dreaming techniques train your mind to these ends:

• Increasing your dream intensity and dream recall 
• Learning how to recognize when you're in the dream state 
• Becoming more self-aware in your daily life through meditation 
• Advancing your visualization skills to enter dreams consciously 
• Habitually programming your dream content with reality checks

Having frequent lucid dreams becomes a way of life. You'll be more successful in your efforts if you incorporate these techniques into your everyday habits. After all, your dreams reflect your thoughts, experiences and emotions from waking reality. That's why just thinking about having lucid dreams can produce lucid dreams the same night.

There is no guaranteed method of having a lucid dream tonight. However, there are many tried-and-tested techniques which can certainly increase your chances. Start with these simple exercises.

5 Ways to Have Lucid Dreams

Here are five very basic techniques to kick-start your training:

1. Spend an hour learning about lucid dreaming today - This website has hundreds of articles to get the idea ticking over in your mind.
2. Every time you open a door, do a reality check - Try to push your handthrough the solid door and questing whether you are dreaming.
3. Imagine what you will do in your first lucid dream - Spend 10 minutes with your eyes closed and visualize your first lucid dream.
4. Incubate a lucid dream as you fall asleep tonight - Recall your imagined dream as you fall asleep, thinking "I will lucid dream tonight".
5. Repeat the last step every time you wake up in the night - especially n the later stages of sleep (after 4-5 hours of sleep).

These beginner lucid dreaming techniques are very simple but powerful ways to spontaneously have a lucid dream.

But don't just read this and forget about it - actually DO IT!

Once you've spent a day committing to all five techniques, it's time to move on to some advanced lucid dreaming techniques.

What's The Best Way to Have Lucid Dreams?

I've been lucid dreaming since I was 14 years old and I've spent the last five years researching and writing about lucid dream control on this site.

Understandably, I get a lot of emails and forum questions from beginners, and by far the most common one goes like this:

"What's the BEST way to have lucid dreams? I don't have time to read up about everything - I just want to do the one technique that works best!"

Of course, no-one would waste their time on techniques that don't work, they are all valid. And if there was just one ultimate method, by which everyone could learn how to have lucid dreams - don't you think I'd share it? :)

The truth is there are lots of different methods, and usually they produce lucid dreams by combination. One person might have a lucid dream simply by dream journaling and doing lots of reality checks. Another might achieve lucidity by meditation and incubation. Another yet might just adjust their sleep cycles. There is no "best way" to have lucid dreams that applies to everyone.

I know that isn't a very satisfying answer, but it is undoubtedly true. As a consolation, I'm going to share the best way for me to have lucid dreams. Take what you want from this - try it yourself, by all means - but don't ignore other techniques because they may deliver spectacular results for you personally.

The Best Lucid Dreaming Techniques (For Me)

Over the years I have found that these techniques, both individually and in combination, allow me to have the most lucid dreams:

1) Night-Time Meditation - There is a wonderful half-sleep state I like to go and explore, just after waking up in the night or the early morning. I lie perfectly still and relaxed and allow my mind to drift. I hold on to that thin strand of consciousness while allowing my body to fall asleep.

Not only is this deeply relaxing, it creates all kinds of interesting phenomena, like out-of-body sensations, memory impressions, auditory hallucinations and emerging dream scenes. This method is great for increasing your self-awareness, visualization skills, and walking your mind directly into a lucid dream.

The most effective kind of night-time meditation for beginners is a combination of listening to brainwave entrainment while performing the WILD technique. Do it regularly to see results.

2) Dream Journaling - If there were one technique that is absolutely essential to frequent lucid dreaming, it is to keep a dream journal. Spend 10 minutes writing down your dreams each morning and you will find that, not only your dream recall and intensity increase, but you will have many more moments of spontaneous lucidity in the dream world.

3) Incubation - There are many ways to incubate a lucid dream. They can range from simply thinking "I will have a lucid dream tonight" to spending quality time meditating before bed and repeating affirmations like "The next scene will be a dream".

Another way to incubate a lucid dream is to daydream about what you might do... by visualizing a powerful wish in detail, your subconscious mind may play back this same scenario in your dreams tonight. The memory of having done it all before may well trigger self-awareness on the spot.

Final Thoughts

For beginners, this may all seem quite overwhelming. I've shown you quite a few different techniques and only really touched upon the specifics - so where do you start? Take a look around this website for specific tutorial articles, or if you are short for time, jump directly to my complete course for beginners, The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track.

The course provides structured training for anyone wanting to learn how to have lucid dreams. You'll learn a systematic approach for priming your brain for lucidity each night. Enjoy!

source: http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/