I realized I was dreaming. I raised my arms and began to rise… I rose through black sky that blended to indigo, to deep purple, to lavender, to white, then to very bright light. All the time I was being lifted there was the most beautiful music I have ever heard. It seemed like voices rather than instruments. There are no words to describe the JOY I felt. I was gently lowered back to earth. I had the feeling that I had come to a turning point in my life and I had chosen the right path. The dream, the joy I experienced, was kind of a reward, or so I felt. It was a long, slow slide back into wakefulness with the music echoing in my ears. The euphoria lasted several days; the memory, forever. (A.F., Bay City, Michigan) Taken from pg 1 of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming.
Lucid dreaming occurs when you become conscious during a dream. This allows you to control your dream character.
Lucid dreaming is a skill. Anyone can learn it, but it takes time and practice. The time and practice are well worth it. I had my first lucid dream 5 months after hearing about it. Some people are faster learners.
The most common way to induce a lucid dream is to program yourself to notice the “weird” stuff in dreams… you perform “reality checks” to see if you’re dreaming or not. For example, you might be dreaming and notice that you can’t read the numbers on a clock. “Why can’t I read those numbers? I can normally read… wait, this must be a dream”. Then click, you become conscious in your dream and can now control your dream character. Next step usually is to fly around for a bit then go make out with your favorite celebrity.
Learning to have a lucid dream isn’t hard, but you need the right techniques, which are too detailed to give in this book. I recommend Exploring the world of Lucid Dreaming. Written by the very guy who first validated lucid dreaming in scientific research. It’s gained the reputation as the lucid dreaming how-to book. Worth the low price.
