What is it?
It is night. You are running through a dark wood. Something is chasing you. You are too afraid to look over your shoulder to see what it is, but you know that it is a malevolent presence intent on doing you harm. So you keep on running, gasping for breath, terrified... and then - suddenly - you wake up covered in a cold sweat and you realize you've had a nightmare.
Every night when we close our eyes to sleep, we enter a world in which we get caught up in events beyond our control. Some dreams are pleasant. Others are terrifying. But common to all dreams is the fact that we are unable to influence our dreams: that we are at the mercy of whatever our unconscious decides to throw up at us.
The lucid dreamer dreams differently. The lucid dreamer has the rare ability to deliberately take charge of the events in his dream life. If he finds himself running through a dark wood, he can, if he so chooses, turn around to face whatever it is that's pursuing him. If it is a monster, he can vanquish it with a wave of his hand. He can turn it into something else. Or he can simply change the wood into a sunlit meadow filled with flowers. He may even give himself wings and fly away. The accomplished lucid dreamer has absolute control. He can change and add to his dreamscape, set events in motion, interact with whomever and whatever he meets in the world of sleep and determine the outcome of the dream.
Why dream lucidly?
Lucid dreaming is a stupendous achievement, allowing the dreamer to walk in full consciousness through his own inner psychic labyrinth. The lucid dreamer is able to free himself from the demons stalking the world of sleep and many believe that if you're able to take charge of the events in your dream life, that you are on the road to taking charge of the events in your waking life as well.
Not everyone believes in the therapeutic value of lucid dreaming. There are those who believe that ordinary dreaming is supposed to help the dreamer gain insight into what is troubling the unconscious and that we are not meant to simply bypass all the symbolic, archetypical demons with which we are confronted when we sleep. If the dreamer has the power to edit out anything that he finds threatening or uncomfortable, how will he ever reach any insight? There are also those who warn that lucid dreaming can be dangerous in the extreme: that the lucid dreamer could be taxing his sanity and that the line between lucid dreaming and schizophrenia may be perilously thin.
Who is able to dream lucidly?
At its most basic, lucid dreaming means dreaming while knowing you are dreaming. Almost every-one has had such an experience. Less than five percent of the population, however, are natural lucid dreamers with the ability to consciously manipulate the events in their dreams. Lucid dreaming can - with great difficulty - be learnt and there are workshops dedicated to enabling the dreamer to dream consciously. Children and adolescents are more likely to dream lucidly and the most advantageous time for lucid dreaming is close to dawn when the cycle of sleep is near its end and REM sleep at its most prolonged.
The history of lucid dreaming
Lucid dreaming has a tradition stretching back over millenia. Shamans and mystics have always considered it an integral part of their existence. The Tibetan Bonpo school, which predates Buddhism by over 12,500 years, uses lucid dreaming extensively as a form of meditation. In the West, however, lucid dreaming has often been a subject of derision and fear. During the Catholic inquisition, lucid dreaming was forbidden - regarded as a subversive practice allied to alchemy, freemasonry and witchcraft. It was not until the nineteen eighties when Dr. Stephen Laberge conducted the first lucid dreaming experiments under scientifically acceptable laboratory standards at Stanford University's Dream Laboratory in the United States, that science started to take the phenomenon seriously. Since these early experiments, devices such as The DreamLight and the NovaDreamer have been invented by The Lucidity Institute in California, which can be used to deliberately induce lucid dreaming. These devices are microcomputers which process signal data from the dreamer's eye and body movements and use algorithms to deliver cues to the dreamer at the most opportune moments to stimulate lucid dreaming. Today there are websites dedicated to the phenomenon of lucid dreaming, and a wealth of literature have sprung up around the subject.
So what does a lucid dream feel like?
Lucid dreamers usually describe their alert dreams as ecstatic, liberating experiences. They also speak of the beauty of the dreams and the fact that the dreamscape itself seems incredibly realistic and minutely detailed: more real, in fact, than the real world. Lucid dreamers often tell of their difficulty in knowing whether they are awake or asleep. This experience will often lead to a reappraisal of what is perceived to be the reality of their daily lives.
We provide these links only as a convenience and are not responsible for the content you may find on them.
www.lucidity.com - The Lucidity Institute's website
www.lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html - Lucid Dreaming FAQ (The Lucidity Institute's answers to the most frequently asked questions about lucid dreaming)
