Ask The Experts #1: Invention

Rebecca Turner: Well I think this quote is interpretive. On the one hand, yes your brain can "invent" a new face, for instance by mashing different features of different people together. Or by making the features preposterous: adding a giant mole, changing the eye color to purple, and so on. Or let's go all-out: ten eyes down the left, eleven eyes down the right, a giant nose and a mouth coming out of the nostril. I'm confident I've never seen that guy before.

On the other hand, our dreams are drawn from real world experiences and unconscious interpretations. Even our imagination, in dreams and in waking life, is based on our attempts to thrust remembered images into new realms.

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Ask The Experts #2: Dream Characters

I am fascinated with dream characters. I have met a bunch and some of them are self aware.   They think and act on their own regardless and despite my own awareness of who I am, and that I am dreaming. I can ask questions and interact with them and they respond like real people and I don't 'put words in their mouths' and they seem like self aware, thinking beings.   Why do some people you meet in lucid dreams have a self awareness separate from your own? - From Michael Scannell

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Ask The Experts #3: Dream Time

Rebecca Turner: It's potentially the same as any normal dream: on any given night, your longest dream period is typically 35-40 minutes in the morning, shortly before you wake up. However there can be exceptions where the dream time extends longer than usual, and especially during lucid dreams the physiological variables are ideal for prolonged dreaming.

My longest lucid dream appeared to last around an hour, based on my looking at the time before a Wake Induced Lucid Dream, and then waking up and checking the time again. It occurred in the morning after I'd already slept a number of hours, which is the best time to lucid dream for most people with normal sleep cycles. Of course, not all lucid dreams last that long: more often my lucid dreams are an estimated 10-20 minutes long in real time. This is usually plenty to fulfil my lucid intention of the day!

 

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Ask The Experts #4: Sleep Paralysis

I've been having these dreams where I'm aware of everything around me as if I woke up but I can't move.   I feel like I'm trapped in my own body, can't do anything about it and I fell very, very scared. I can't be woken up while this is happening (my dad tried to wake me once because my phone was ringing but he couldn't and I saw all that happening). I have no control over when this occurs nor when to wake up.   Is this lucid dreaming or something else? - From Zubana

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Ask The Experts #5: Dream Healing

Daniel Love: This is a great question Highlander, one that has many avenues to explore. The first point I’d like to raise is how we define “healing”, as there are many varieties, all with their own subtle differences, so we must be careful not to use the word too lightly.

The simplest form of dream healing, one which can be easily addressed, is that of psychological health. Indeed, my own personal journey in dreamland started with a form of psychological healing, namely overcoming nightmares. Far back when I was the tender age of 5 years old, I was afflicted with terrible recurrent nightmares. So fearsome were these nightmares that as a child, I lived in a constant, almost debilitating fear of sleep.

Of course, such disturbed sleep and the continued worry was, itself, enough to impact upon my daily physical health; I would be constantly tired, making me more prone to illness and mood swings - some very real and tangible effects of an unhealthy dream life. It was my childhood discovery of lucid dreaming that brought resolution to these nightly conflicts, eventually "healing" me of these nightmares and, by proxy, the afflictions the strain of disturbed sleep had upon my waking health. Having experienced this form of psychological healing directly, and again indirectly through the shared experiences of my students and other lucid dreamers, I can confidently say that, at least for nightmares, lucid dreaming can be used to provide a form of psychological healing.

Furthermore, all manner of other psychological issues may be addressed and hopefully improved upon with the careful use of lucid dreams; I have experienced dreamers tackling anxiety, depression and various other issues through the use of skilled lucid dreaming. However, I would stress that with any health issues, either physical or psychological, one should always approach a qualified medical practitioner before attempting any personal experimentation in self healing. Certainly, with the support and aid of modern medicine and a trained health professional, lucid dreaming can be a useful tool in the healing process, if nothing else it can aid as a positive distraction or morale boosting mechanism. It shouldn't, however, be used as an alternative to real medical help.

To take this a step further and to address what I believe may be the core of your question: “is physical healing possible during lucid dreams?”

To this I can only give the answer, we don’t know. The human body is a marvelously complicated piece of biological machinery, with all manner of self-correcting and healing mechanisms that, as a species, we are yet to fully understand. Mechanisms, such as the placebo effect, go some way to demonstrate that a belief in, or a psychological suggestion of healing, seem to help induce some of these inbuilt mechanisms.

Lucid dreaming obviously offers us an arena in which we can experience fully vibrant and realistic virtual experiences. Perhaps this level of realism combined with healing themed dreams could help kick start our bodies own ability to heal itself.

However, it is unlikely that physical self-healing or the placebo effect can take us very far, for if you think carefully about it, if such a powerful ability to heal our bodies were latent in us, why then would the forces of evolution not have long since made these readily available to us? The evolutionary advantage of powerful physical self-healing would be immense; creatures with such an ability would have long ago held the upper hand over their competitors, and such traits would likely now be common place.

Instead, what seems more likely is that, whilst the human body does indeed have some powerful and astounding self-correcting mechanisms, these are limited - it is unlikely we have further undiscovered powers. However, positivity, humour and a fighting spirit can go a long way in helping to keep the human mind healthy, even when the body is not, and surely that is a good thing.

With humility, it must be said that the jury is still out on this topic and much research into this area still needs to take place. Certainly, as long as lucid dream healing is not used in place of proven medical help, there is unlikely to be any harm in experimenting with what may be possible.

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Do You Make These 3 Crippling Lucid Dreaming Mistakes? By Sean Kelly

Lucid Dream Forum

Imagine you are trying to get a promotion at work.

You've desired this promotion for 2 years now and with it will come more money, power, and freedom.

Your boss passed you over 6 times and promoted other people who are definitely not as smart or as hard-working.

After 2 years you finally barge into your boss' office and ask him loudly, "Why in two years have you never promoted me??"

To which he replies: "I'd love to and you're a great worker, but for some reason everyday you come into work with poop smeared on your pants. I have no idea what that's about, but I can't have a poopy-pants manager."

Imagine how embarrassed you feel in this situation. For 2 years you've been sabotaging your own growth.

And why?

Because you never learned to wipe properly.

This post will reveal to you the ways in which you smear poop on the pants of your lucid dreaming growth. And of course I'll show you how to avoid these 3 crippling mistakes.

The result?

Clean pants. Awesome lucid dreams.

 

Mistake #1
Reality Checks: Zombies and Ferraris

We've all seen the zombie movies where brainless undead humans slowly but surely move toward their goal of devouring more brains.

You've got to give it to these zombies, they've got dedication. They don't get deterred, they just keep on marching along slowly.

This kind of slow pace is fine... if you're dead. You've got nowhere to go. Nowhere to be. You just want a bit of brains, that's all.

But for us alive humans, moving that slow just doesn't cut it.

Since you're alive, you have to do reality checks in an alive way. You can't be a zombie while you do them.

When you remember to do a reality check by using your Prospective Memory, you have to stop for a moment.

Stop and truly question if you're dreaming. You might be in the middle of something. So what.

You have to stop. Check in. Are you dreaming?

Sit with it.

When you do reality checks like this, you're alive. It means you'll have found yourself a lucid dreaming Ferrari while everyone else is stuck as a walking zombie.

However, if you remember to do your reality check and take only 2 seconds to do the check, then go right back to what you were doing...you're a zombie. And remember, zombies move slowly.

So if you're ok with making progress like a zombie, then keep doing reality checks that way.

If you want a lucid dreaming Ferrari then every reality check has to be deeply impactful in your life. You have to question the nature of your existence. The nature of your perception. The nature of what reality you are in.

This questioning makes you alive. It brings presence. Awareness. Lucidity.

So... Zombie or Ferrari, what's your choice?

 

Mistake #2
The Devastation of Frustration

Have you ever spent days, weeks or even months trying to lucid dream but have had little success?

Ever wondered why this is?

One of the most crippling downfalls is something we are all familiar with: frustration.

It's a demon on the path of lucid dreaming. It's a slippery foe who pops its head up to sabotage our success in a most efficient way.

How does it sabotage our success?

It has its roots in our expectations. Most people will decide to try this lucid dreaming thing and practice some techniques before bed or throughout the day.

They'll dedicate a certain amount of energy of their life in order to get a certain return from it. They want a certain benefit. It's how we interact with most of life.

Now the problem comes when the expectation isn't fulfilled. In this case, you spend 2 weeks trying to become lucid in your dreams. Every day you read about lucid dreaming and do your techniques.

But in the morning you wake up and realize you didn't have a lucid dream. What often comes next?

Frustration.

Frustration that you are putting in all this work and getting nothing out of it. Frustration that this stupid lucid dreaming thing doesn't work. Frustration that whoever made these techniques is full of crap and lied to you.

Lucid dreaming can be like a board game. You roll the dice and get to move forward 3 squares....yay! You roll the dice again and you land on the frustration square. Darn. Go back 3 squares.

Now you're right back to where you started.

Unfortunately, most people play this frustration game with lucid dreaming. They take 3 steps forward, but still experience frustration that their progress isn't matching their expectation. This takes them 3 steps back.

A person can only play this game for a short while before giving up. But you can play another game. A game that doesn't include a "Go Back 3 Steps" square. A game without frustration.

So let it go. Just let it go.

Tell yourself that you'll do your techniques to the best of your ability and you'll trust that the results will follow.

Do this for however long it takes.

When you let go of your expectations, your progress on the lucid dreaming journey speeds up.

 

Mistake #3
Insidious Inconsistency

Do you practice your lucid dreaming techniques every day? Before bed each night? During the day?

Or do you practice one night then take a couple days off, then practice again and take another couple days off?

Inconsistency will be the bane of your lucid dreaming practice if you let it take a hold of you.

We all have excuses.

"I was just busy today."

"I forgot."

"I'll do it tomorrow."

"Oh... it is tomorrow? Then I'll definitely do it tomorrow."

Let's put the excuses aside for a moment and speak a truth.

You make time for the things you truly care about in your life. If you truly value something you'll find a way to make time for it. Your time is one of the ways you show what matters in your life.

Does lucid dreaming matter to you?

I want you to be honest.

If the answer is no then congrats, you've been truthful with yourself.

If the answer is yes, then you can make time to do your simple practices everyday. Even 5 minutes. Who doesn't have 5 minutes in a day?

We all have a few minutes to spare. It might mean catching yourself when you are getting sucked into Facebook, or the news, and redirecting your energy.

A consistent practice of even 5 minutes a day will allow your lucid dreaming practice to consistently deepen.

It will entrain your mind and groove the pathways needed to lucid dream, night after night.

 

Final Thoughts

You're now in a wonderful place. You can now see the poop that you were smearing on your pants in the form of being a zombie, getting frustrated and being inconsistent.

Now that you're aware, you can recognize the next time you're sabotaging your own progress with these 3 crippling mistakes.

Once you recognize yourself doing one of them, you can make another choice. You can change the game and stop taking 3 steps back for every 3 steps forward.

Enjoy those clean pants and your awesome lucid dreams.

Go get that promotion.

 

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My Most Memorable Out of Body Experience by Adam Palmer

One of my earliest and most memorable dreaming experiences took place about ten years ago, and firmly altered my beliefs, feelings and course in life.

It was this experience that first lead me to what I believe are undeniable conclusions; both that we are far more than our physical bodies, and that our dreams are not random neurons firing in our heads as our subconscious processes the day's information. It is a weak theory, backed by very little proof that simply cannot exist for me alongside my personal experience.

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