It’s simple. Lucid Dreaming is knowing that you are dreaming while you are dreaming. It is having a dream when all of the sudden you become aware of the fact that you are in a dream. You snap out of that trance, out of that strange effect that makes you forget you are really in your bed, and wake you into the realization that you are indeed sleeping and that you are in a dream, and yet you do not wake up from that dream, you stay in a dream state exactly where you were a moment ago, only with the clarity that none of it is real while it’s all still going on.
This, if you have never experienced it before, is an astounding experience to say the least and no words can describe it if you had not had the exquisite pleasure of dream lucidity.
So why learn to lucid dream? There are many reasons, and beyond just the exhilarating experience itself it is a practice with tremendous benefits. The dream world is the ultimate virtual reality where you can literally create and do anything your imagination can invision. Ever wanted to fly? walk through walls? travel the galaxy? create a galaxy? I am barely scratching the surface here and the list is infinite. But dreams can also be the stage on which you face and overcome fears, learn about yourself and perhaps even about the nature of reality. Sounds fantastical? Find out for yourself, it is a personal journey after all.
Let me repeat something many who came before me pointed out which is the fact that we spend about a third of our lives sleeping. Now you can spend a large part of this time in the grandest adventures of your life…
Want to give it a try? Here is the simplest way to start lucid dreaming.
Jay Mutzafi
Latest posts by Jay Mutzafi (see all)
- Lucid or Bust - June 23, 2016
- Episode 26 – Mike Lamberti - February 6, 2016
- Episode 25 – Dream Researcher Kelly Bulkeley - January 29, 2016
Jay:
I really enjoy your pod casts. I just discovered them a couple of weeks ago, and have listened to about half of them so far. Here’s a little bit of my background.
I had my first lucid dream when I was six. I had had a non-lucid dream immediately before the lucid one, which I recognize now was nearly lucid as well. In the first dream, I was being carried by a witch, and I realized that if I made myself invisible, I could get away from her, and did so.
In the first lucid dream, I was chasing a poodle that jumped over a glass wall. Suddenly I was in front of my grandmother’s house (a venue where tons of my dreams, lucid and otherwise, take place). She was standing outside, and waved at me. Her once-a-week cleaning lady was there too. I looked down in front of her house, where normally there was a railroad track, and beyond that, a small creek. In the dream, the small creek had become a big river, and instead of being just a few feet down, it was at the bottom of a huge chasm. I looked at it and saw that instead of a bridge across it, cars were going up and down the river on a road that ran over the river, supported on piers like a bridge would be.
This was the point where I knew, even as a six-year-old, no…bridges go across rivers, not up and down them, lol. And I suddenly knew it was a dream. But this was uncharted territory, and I sort of wanted to just wake up. How to do so? I remembered that the dream started when I jumped over the glass wall, after the dog. So I figured if I jumped over the way again, I’d wake up. I took off running toward the wall, and woke up. I was really smug that it had worked. Ha, ha.
Anyway, that’s how it started. I tried to tell Mom I had dreams where I knew I was dreaming, and she said that was impossible. (This was in the ’60s) When Steven’s article came out in Parade Magazine, 30 years later, she sent it to me. I was finally vindicated! LOL!
Ever since I was a kid I’ve had tons of dreams, every night, all kinds. Lucid, pre-cog, multiple false awakenings, and a couple of super scary dream paralysis events. One I was sure I was dying lol. It’s hard to keep a dream journal, I have way too many dreams. And the more I write them down, the more detail my brain churns out. Sometimes I have to just do dream suggestion that I DONT have any that night.
Keep up the good work. You can be sure I’ll be listening.
Thanks! Glad you’re enjoying the podcast. I wonder how many kids tell their parents and they don’t believe them. Good thing it is more common knowledge these days.