Lucid Dreaming
Acting Consciously Within Dreams
Lucid Dreaming is an ancient technique known in many cultures around the world, including Tibetan Buddhism, the Toltecs of Latin America or the Sufis of Islam. In the West, Dutch psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden, German sports scientist and Gestalt psychologist Paul Tholey and American psychologist Stephen LaBerge laid the foundations for scientifically recognised lucid dream research, which has been taken up by renowned research institutions such as the Max Planck Institutes.
“Lucid dreams are dreams
in which you have complete clarity about the fact that you are dreaming and you can act according to your own decisions.”– Paul Tholey
A lucid dream is therefore a dream in which the dreaming person sees through the illusion of the dream while dreaming. As a result, lucid dreamers can consciously influence and direct the events of the dream, to a certain degree.
This is also the unique value of lucid dreaming: Doing things that are impossible in physical reality, but which then have an impact on our waking consciousness. From the lucid dream state arise phenomenal possibilities for integration and healing, including:
- Nightmare integration
- Facing fears and confronting and integrating emotions directly
- Working with archetypes, such as the Shadow, the Inner Child, etc.
- Psychological healing
- Healing the body/Physiological healing – Placebo Effect
- Rehearsing difficult or challenging situations
And also:
- Simply having fun and trying things out
- Finding solutions and creative ways forward
- Deepening spiritual practice, such as meditation and prayer
Research has shown that the ability to lucid dream is innate in children, as it still is in many adolescents. As adults, we are challenged to remember and reactivate our inborn natural capacity. Fortunately, there are numerous lucid dreaming techniques that will support us along this journey. To get you started I have compiled following techniques for you:
Prerequisites For Lucid Dreaming
There are four basic requirements for learning lucid dreaming:
- 1Sufficient Motivation
- 2Correct Practice of Effective Techniques
- 3Excellent Dream Recall
- 4Patience, Perseverance and a Touch of Light-Heartedness
A single lucid dream can change your life, but sometimes it can take weeks or months for the practices to bear fruit and for the first lucid dream to occur.
Even when the techniques have become stable, many lucid dreamers tend to experience them only weekly or more likely every few weeks. But the journey to your first lucid dream can be incredibly exciting and exceptionally rewarding. For these reasons I believe that lucid dreaming is worth all the effort and therefore has earned its permanent place in the Sleep-First-Aid project.
When you start the practice of lucid dreaming, take your time and make sure that you keep up all the other basic methods for restful sleep, i.e. developing your awareness of your sleep (nocturnal journal) and promoting rest and relaxation during the day (e.g. through Yoga Nidra, practising breathing techniques and the like). Remember, learning to lucid dream can and will be fun! 🙂
Creating a Dream Plan ✍️
Having a good reason for a lucid dream is the most powerful lucid dreaming technique there is. Therefore, focus first on the question: “What exactly is it that makes you want to experience a lucid dream?” Become clear about your motivation, as you will need this inner drive for the following techniques.
Then come up with a few ideas of what you would like to do in your first or next lucid dream: What do you want to heal? What trauma do you want to integrate? What fears or addictions do you want to face or let go of? What part of your Shadow 1 do you want to get in touch with? …
Once you have made a decision, you can start formulating your dream plan. Please consider following steps:
- 1
What you want to do. Start with the sentence “In my next lucid dream I …” and write down your intention in detail.
- 2
Draw a picture of what your dream plan could look like in action. By drawing your dream plan you are communicating your intention directly to your subconscious mind in visual language – the primary language of dreams. This drawing doesn’t have to be an artistic masterpiece, stick figures and speech bubbles will do just fine. But if you like, feel free to get creative and use colour pencils, stickers and more. 🙂
- 3
Summarise your dream plan with a call to action (Sankalpa 2). Keep it short and to the point. Your Sankalpa should summarise the essence of your dream plan and will later be used as a key to activate your dream plan once you are lucid.
1 The Shadow is a concept in analytical psychology according to Carl Gustav Jung, see Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology)
2 Sankalpa (from Sanskrit) means a will, wish, idea, intention or decision that gives direction to thoughts.
In the evening before falling asleep, become aware of your dream plan. Look at your drawing and play through each scene in your mind. While in hypnagogic (twilight) state, repeat your Sankalpa several times with deepest conviction before surrendering to sleep.
Repeat this process several nights in a row until you become lucid (please be patient as this can take weeks). As soon as you find yourself in a lucid dream, recall your Sankalpa, say it out loud and carry out your dream plan.
Example for a Dream Plan 📝
In my next lucid dream, …
… the moment I find myself in the same recurring nightmare, I will immediately remember my Sankalpa and call out, “Nightmare, STOP! I recognise you!”. Instantly, time stops around me and freezes in motion. I feel my fear immediately dissolve into nothing and a feeling of relief spreads through my being. Then I lift off the ground with ease and fly through the dream full of joy. I wake up with the unwavering knowledge that this nightmare has now been resolved, forever.
Sankalpa: “Nightmare, STOP! I recognise you!”
The dream planning technique in itself can be powerful enough to induce a lucid dream. However, in general we need to combine dream planning with other techniques to achieve our goal of lucidity. A wonderful way of doing this is to keep a dream diary in combination with tailor-made affirmations.
Boosting Dream Recall 🚀
Recalling dreams is crucial to lucid dreaming. The better you remember your dreams, the easier it will be to achieve lucidity in your dreams.
Most people experience four or five REM phases every night, during which we all – without exception – dream. This is equivalent to about two hours of pure dream time per night, and each of these REM phases can even contain a number of dreams. The question is not whether we dream, but whether we can remember our dreams …
In my opinion, the reason why so few people remember their dreams is due to the general dismissive attitude towards dreams in modern society, and also because we don’t even try to remember our dreams at all.
Therefore, the first step is to make a firm commitment to remembering your dreams. Use the following affirmation to strengthen your dream memory:
“Tonight I remember my dreams,
I have excellent dream recall!”
As you fall asleep, lingering in the hypnagogic state, repeat this affirmation in your mind for a few minutes. Then let go of the affirmation and surrender to sleep.
After a few nights with this affirmation, you should be able to remember at least some of your dreams without much difficulty – even if you have not been able to remember a single dream for many years. Time and again, I have had the great pleasure of witnessing workshop participants overcome and recover from dream amnesia thanks to this powerful affirmation.
When to Practise
Repeat the affirmation to remember your dreams each night as you fall asleep
Keeping A Dream Diary 📕
The next step is to document your dreams whenever you wake up: Either in your Nocturnal Journal or in a Dream Diary dedicated for this purpose.
Write down your dreams as soon as you wake up, otherwise you run the risk of forgetting them. You don’t have to record every tiny little detail of your dreams. Five minutes is often enough to record the most important aspects: a brief summary of the dream, the main theme, dominant feelings in the dream and after waking up.
Give particular attention to any dreams that you feel inner resistance to – especially if they involve feelings of boredom, disgust, shame or fear, and note them down. It’s worth repeating: Pay attention to these dreams and feelings too. By doing so, your dream memory will skyrocket and the content of your dreams will gain in clarity and become more meaningful to you.
Then give your dreams a title. This will train your mind to recognise the essence of the dream and make it easier to find specific dreams later on.
Tracking Down Dream Signs 🔎
As you write down your dreams and read through your notes, try if you can spot and recognise any anomalous, weird, beautiful or recurring elements or themes (like a singing dog, a rainbow, your late grandma, going back to school, seeing your ex-partner, etc.) which indicate to you that you must have been dreaming all along. It’s often the contrast in a situation that makes these elements pop out. These are your so-called Dream Signs.
Dream signs can be used as triggers to activate lucidity in dreams. Because if you are able to recognise them in your waking state, you will also be able to recognise them in your dreaming state: “Hmm, I’m back in my old school again, which I often dream about… Hang on?! Wow, this must be a dream!”.
Write or mark down any dream signs you find in your dream diary. The active hunt for dream signs strengthens your critical awareness for self-reflection – one of the most important keys to lucid dreaming.
When to Practise
Every morning write down your dreams in your dream diary and then scan your dreams for dream signs. Consistency is key.
Tips on Documenting Your Dreams 💡
Hypnagogic Affirmation – Self-Hypnosis in the Twilight State
Hypnagogic affirmation involves using the hypnagogic state (the twilight state between wakefulness and sleep) to place an affirmation (statement of intent) to stimulate lucid dreaming. The aim is to infuse your sleep-consciousness with the intention of experiencing a lucid dream.
There are two optimal times to use this technique: first in the evening when you fall asleep, and second in the middle of the night as you wake up again (intentionally or unintentionally). Later times generally achieve better results. However, if the affirmation keeps you awake, only use it when you first fall asleep.
Take some time to formulate a suitable affirmation. Make sure it is in the present tense, positive worded and expresses your intention to experience a lucid dream. Some possible affirmations include:
“Next time I’m dreaming, I know that I’m dreaming”
“I’m lucid and conscious while dreaming”
“I recognize the dream state with ease”
If you have already formed a Sankalpa for your dream plan (see technique above), a combination of the two is a great idea:
“Next time I’m dreaming, I know that I’m dreaming.
When I know that I’m dreaming I remember my Sankalpa and call out:
[fill in your Sankalpa here]!”
As you fall asleep and are entering the twilight state, repeat your affirmation in your mind a few times (7-21 times is sufficient). Try to do this with feeling and enthusiasm. Saturate your consciousness with the firm intention of gaining lucidity – this is crucial. This will give the technique the power it needs to actually work.
When to Practise
Each night when you are falling asleep and in the middle of the night when you have woken up and are falling asleep again.
Attention: Sleep Cycles❗
There are numerous different lucid dreaming techniques out there, including: WILD (Wake-Initiated-Lucid-Dream), MILD (Mnemonically-Induced-Lucid-Dream), DILD (Dream-Induced-Lucid-Dream), WBTB (Wake-Back-To-Bed), The Weird Technique, Falling Asleep Consciously (FAC), Reality Checks, Dream Signs, and many more. But be aware that some of these techniques work by deliberately interrupting your sleep cycles, which can make sleep problems worse and are not recommended for people who already suffer from poor sleep.
The above-mentioned methods of Dream Planing, Dream Diary and Hypnagogic Affirmation do not affect sleep cycles and can therefore be used without any concern.
Weaving Together A Solid Practice
- 1
Create a Dream Plan, then focus on your Dream Recall and use Hypnagogic Affirmations to strengthen it.
- 2
Consistently note down your dreams in your Dream Diary to build a solid foundation for lucid dreaming.
- 3
Scan your entries for Dream Signs and take note of them.
- 4
Every time you wake up at night, repeat your Hypnagogic Affirmation in combination with your Sankalpa to gain lucidity.
With practice you will be able to recognise the dream signs in your dreams, gain lucidity and carry out your dream plan successfully. For some it will be the very first night, for others it will take a few weeks or months before they experience their first lucid dream. Practice makes perfect, but it’s really worth it. I wish you every success! 🙏
If you would like to delve deeper into the world of lucid dreaming,
I invite you to attend one of my courses: floriandivi.com