A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming (4 page)

getting out of bed and standing on my feet, I performed a

reality check by looking at my digital watch, looking away,

and looking back at it again. as the digital numbers did

change, I still wasn’t entirely convinced that it was a dream

because everything was so vivid and real. —BeN S.

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your past (Wait a second,

I’m not in college anymore!

With regards to my early lucid dreams,

This has to be a dream!).

the earliest I can remember were when

I was just starting middle school (around

Typically, lucid dreams are

twelve years old), and they would almost

triggered by some sort of

always start off with me being at school

inconsistency, something

and walking around the hallways. even

that suddenly causes the

though everything felt like it did in real life,

dreamer to stop and ques-

I would eventually get a sense that some-

tion his or her reality.

thing was off and that the world I was in

Once you become lucid,

might not be real. eventually I developed

a strategy to test whether or not I was

you’ll have complete mem-

actually dreaming; I would “find” a bath-

ory of your waking life, and

room and look into the toilet. If I saw my

will be able to think logi-

reflection in the toilet I would know I was

cally, make decisions, and

dreaming and then go about interacting

explore the dream’s land-

with the dream fully aware. —WIll B.

scape in the same way you’d

traverse the physical world.

You’ll have direct influence over the entire dream and its content.

Whereas in a regular dream, you would react blindly, unable to

reflect on your current situation, you now hold the reins—your

mind is awake enough to call the shots. Have a conversation with a

dream character, fly across a mountain range, breathe underwater,

pass effortlessly through walls—these are just a few examples. No

longer confined to a physical body, you have the freedom to travel

over large distances, move at incredible speeds, or even transcend

time as you know it.

When you realize that you are not separate from the inner

world of your dreams, you can move, shape, even create objects

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out of thin air. Everything in the environment around you takes

on a very intimate relationship; you might even say that the world

around you is you! If it seems like we’re exaggerating, we’re not:

the sensations of touch, smell, sight, taste, and sound will seem

just as vivid as they do in waking life. If you’ve ever seen the sci-fi

film
The Matrix,
you already have a good idea what this world is

like: a place that seems real but is just a projection of the mind. As

the character Morpheus describes The Matrix, “If real is what you

can feel, smell, taste, and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals

interpreted by your brain.” But unlike
The Matrix,
lucid dreaming is not science fiction.

Imagine being free of

your physical body, leaving

behind silly things like grav-

I find myself flying and realize that I must

be in a dream. Now lucid, I slow my fly-

ity. Picture yourself flying,

ing down and take in the scenery in front

and doing so in the literal

of me. I am overlooking the most beautiful

sense, feeling the air rush-

sight I have ever seen. My vision seems to

ing across your face, the

capture everything for miles. grassy hills

weightlessness of your body,

and evergreen trees line the ground below

breaking every Newtonian

me. The sky. Oh, the sky! It is painted

law out there. Imagine see-

with the most incredible shades of pink

and orange I have ever witnessed! The

ing and conversing with the

sun in the distance looks like it is setting,

natives of the dream who

the clouds standing out in their vibrant

provide valuable insights and

hues. I am brought to tears from the sheer

knowledge about your life.

beauty of such a sight. I lie on my back in

Hidden in this place you can

midflight and close my eyes—I wake up.

find wisdom and guidance

—Rachel T.

that could change your life.

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Can Anyone Do It?

From an early age we’re told we can do anything that we put our

minds to. As we grow up, those reassuring words start to lose

their credibility. Not everyone can keep a beat, and math doesn’t

come naturally to us all. Fortunately, anyone can have a lucid dream.

The ability is not something you have to acquire, it’s something you

already possess. In fact, studies show that most of us can boast of

having at least one lucid dream. In a 1998 study of one thousand

average Austrians, 26 percent of participants reported having at

least one lucid dream in their lifetime. When 439 German students

were asked the same question, 82 percent of them had experienced

a lucid dream and a whopping 10 percent reported experiencing

a lucid dream two to three times a month! Without any training,

these average citizens witnessed the completely natural state of a

conscious dream. That same German study concluded that one’s

personality was not a major factor. Whether you are liberal, conser-

vative, extroverted, or introverted, you can become lucid.

All that’s really required to make the jump from normal dream-

ing into lucid dreaming is for you to recognize the dream state.