A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming (10 page)

cake will be when it’s done.

Larger goals, such as starting a business, need more passion

and specificity, but the process still begins with an intention, a

burning desire to get what you want.

For us lucid dreamers, not only do clear, passionate, and spe-

cific thoughts prove essential as we explore our dreams, but they

are often necessary to becoming lucid in the first place.

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A YOUNG MIND

We’ve  gotten  to  know  a  lot  of  lucid  dreamers,  and  many  seem  to  share  a
similar quality: they are confident and often playful. Many young kids and
teenagers are talented dreamers because at their age they don’t recognize their
own  limits.  They  haven’t  let  reality  harden  into  its  “concrete”  mold.  We  can
learn something from these youngsters: we can focus on creating and imagining
instead of doubting our abilities. If we treat it like a game, what could go
wrong?

How to Set an Intention

You can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough. You must
want it with an inner exuberance that erupts through the skin and joins the
energy that created the world.

—Sheila Graham,

gossip columnist during Hollywood’s “Golden Age,”

never got over F. Scott Fitzgerald

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A strong intention is filled with passion, what dream author

Robert Moss calls “juice.” It should be soaked in electricity,

powered by excitement. An intention is a bird in your stomach,

fanning your flame with each flap of its wings. Stop for a moment

and realize the profound nature of lucid dreaming. Imagine how

incredible it would be to wake up in a dream, head into your own

inner universe, to walk around and explore.

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With complete self-reflection and conscious freedom, you can

do anything you want. Excited yet? Follow these steps to set an

effective intention—but remember that an intention isn’t a math-

ematical equation, it’s a heartfelt desire.

1.  Wording  is  key.
To be most effective, an intention should be highly specific. Create short, powerful statements that focus your

desire. These are commonly known as affirmations. Your affirma-

tion should be clear and direct. If you say, for example, “I would

like to someday learn the piano,” well then, someday you might. A

specific version of that idea is, “On Tuesday I will start piano les-

sons and learn scales before June.” Try phrasing your intention in

the present tense as if it has already occurred. For example, before

bed say to yourself, “I am lucid and aware in my dream.” Thinking

in the present tense eliminates any doubt that your wish will come

true.

2. Feel it, see it.
All you Harry Potter nerds out there know this spellbinding lesson: words are meaningless unless you actually feel

them. “I will become lucid in my dreams tonight.” When you state

your intention, picture your desire coming to fruition—actually

imagine yourself in a dream realizing that it’s a dream. It might be

helpful to think of a recurring dream that you have and pretend

that you’re back in that very situation. Visualize the inner world

that surrounds you. Feel what that sensation is like, that exciting

“a-ha” moment: I’m lucid!

Engage all five senses—imagine breathing dream air, flying,

looking around. The more clearly you can imagine, the better.

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When you were a kid, you played “make believe.” You probably

imagined yourself battling dragons. By seeing the dragon in front

of you, by feeling the excitement of the battle, by allowing yourself

to be lost in that moment, it was real.

3. Expectation.
An advanced lucid dreamer doesn’t just go to sleep hoping that a spontaneous lucid dream will happen. Instead he

goes to bed looking for a lucid dream. In other words, he expects

to wake up in his dream that night. You sleep every night, and

dream for about two hours. Multiply that digit by days and weeks

and suddenly you’ve got a lot of practice time on your hands.

4. Make it your dominant thought.
Throughout this guide, we’ll

often ask you to use an intention before bed. It’s important that

these thoughts, feelings, and affirmations be the last things on

your mind as you go to sleep. If you find yourself thinking about

something else, simply let those thoughts go and gently bring your

mind back to your focused intention. “I am lucid and aware in

my dream.” Concentrate on your intention until sleep pulls you

under. This way your desire will carry over into the dream world

and produce the exact result you were hoping for.

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GRATITUDE

How  can  we  expect  something  will  happen  if  it  hasn’t  happened  already? 

One word:
gratitude.
Feeling thankful before something happens is a very
powerful, creative force. And it’s not some mystical mumbo jumbo nonsense. If
you’re thankful for something in advance, it has already happened in your mind,
eliminating any stress and fears that come with the unknown. As you visualize
yourself in the dream in the present moment, imagine yourself looking around
at the dream world in front of you. Give thanks for the lucid dream prior to
actually  experiencing  it.  Even  say  out  loud,  “thank  you,”  and  let  those  goose
bumps run down your spine. Ahhhh, feels good.

I Caught a Big One!

An effective intention is all about bringing a future goal closer

to the present moment, like a fisherman reeling in a fish,

dragging it through the water toward his boat. The better the inten-

tion, the less space there is between you and your goal, the more

real and tangible it is. All that is required to become lucid is to go

to bed with the confidence, expectation, and intention to realize

when you are dreaming.

You are dreaming every night, unconscious and unaware that

you’re inside a dream. Begin now to look for awareness in your

dreams. If you do, you might be surprised to actually find it.

This is one of the greatest paradoxes: the very thing for which

you are looking is actually essential to finding it. Chew on that

one for a while.

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�

Summary

•   Many people have their first lucid dream directly after hearing or 

reading about it.

•   The mind doesn’t know the difference between a thought and 

an action. Therefore it’s important to mentally rehearse becoming 

lucid.

•   Visualize yourself in a dream, feeling the excitement of 

recognizing the dream state.

•   Feel a sense of gratitude that you have experienced a lucid 

dream before having one.

•   When setting an intention, make a simple phrase to go along 

with it, such as “I am aware and lucid in my dream.”

•   Cultivate a strong desire to lucid dream and make such desires 

your dominant thoughts before bed.

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6

Remembering

Your Dreams

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Let us learn to dream, gentlemen, and then we may perhaps find the truth.

—F. A. Keule, German chemist,

discovered more in dreams than most do awake

Aloud alarm clock jolts you awake. You struggle to reach

for the off button. Snooze? Wait, is it a phone call? Who’s

calling this early? You stumble out of bed and into the

bathroom, dreams lingering, barely holding on by a thread. What

was I just dreaming about? The memory fades quickly as you begin

to think about your day, your responsibilities, your obligations.

You try to pull a piece, an image, anything from your memory but

to no avail.

Sadly, so many of our nighttime adventures disappear like

this, sinking into the waters like wrecked ships, never to be sal-

vaged. If you never remember your dreams or rarely do, don’t fret.

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There’s nothing wrong with you or your ability to dream. You are

a healthy, wonderful, normal human and have many dreams each

night, we assure you of that. Your sails are intact; you just need to

find the rope to pull and catch the wind.

In other words, you simply need to remember the dreams

you’re already having.

It might seem obvious, but remembering your dreams goes

hand in hand with lucid dreaming. How do you expect to become

conscious in your dreams if you can’t even remember them?

Imagine a wide river, with dreams on one side and your daily life

on the other. By remembering your dreams, you build a bridge

to the dream world, carrying back memories and experiences

across the great divide. Without this connection, you’re left on

that muddy riverbank alone. You need to have a solid relation-

ship with your dreams before you can become lucid. Building this

bridge, strengthening your dream recall, is the first step.

It makes our eyes water just thinking about all those dreams

we had that were never remembered, as if a case of amnesia swept

away years of our lives. Think of all that wisdom and guidance lost

because of bad dream recall (cue the violins).

Despite their fluid and fleeting nature, there are a few simple

strategies, an appropriate mind-set that makes remembering your

dreams a breeze.

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You Are a Dreamer

Anyone . . . who pays attention to his dreams over a period of time will
have more dreams than usual—which no doubt means that he remembers

his dreams with greater ease and frequency.

—Sigmund Freud,

psychologist, dream pioneer, lover of Greek literature

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For many, remembering dreams seems impossible. We’ve heard

it countless times before: “I don’t dream,” “I’m a light sleeper,”

or “I just don’t dream as much as other people.” Statements like

these are a double-edged sword. Remember how powerful our

words and beliefs can be? By telling yourself that you don’t dream

or that you never remember, you are in effect creating the exact

circumstances to make this belief true. Regardless of your beliefs,

however, you must accept this simple fact of life: you and everyone

else on this planet dream every single night. The only question

now is whether you’re doing so consciously or unconsciously.