March – Lucid Dreaming

doit — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:56:39 +0000

I told you I was not going to stray far from the pillow.In March, I will learn how to have lucid dreams. If you are dreaming, and then suddenly you realise that you are in a dream, all of a sudden things change a bit. The dream becomes more vivid and realistic, almost to the amount of realism you experience when awake. But most importantly, you become conscious. That is, you are able to control your actions in your dream just as you would in real life. Because the dream is a product of your own mind, you are also able to dictate where you are, who you are, what you can do, the laws of physics, and so on. You can be Spider-Man, the King or Queen of dreamland, a sports star, rock star, or even spend some ‘quality time’ with anyone you choose. You can interact with your subconscious and ask it questions. You can spend time working through problems you might need to solve in your waking life, revise for an exam, or practice a skill – there are literally no limits.One thing that interested me about this is that it is apparently possible to learn things that carry over into waking life. When you move around in the dream, the part of the brain that controls the body parts you move is activated. So you could practice some physical skill like martial arts or darts maybe, to see how that translates to real world skill development.The main resource I will be using to learn this is Stephen LaBerge’s “Exlopring the World of Lucid Dreaming”. LaBerge has a Phd in psycho-physiology, and his book is a pretty straightforward how-to guide rather than an in-depth analysis of what and why lucid dreaming is (though he covers this a little). As it’s written by a scientist and is backed up by research throughout, and as it is instructional rather than informative primarily, this is perfect for a month’s experimenting. I’ll be looking online for other resources, as I understand that immersion into the topic is very helpful in triggering a lucid dream. If you know of any good (free) online resources on lucid dreaming, let me know: warren@doitforamonth.com or post a comment.I tried to learn this a while back, but stopped as I got too busy with other things. At that time, I managed to have one lucid dream, and I remember being shocked at how real it seemed. I was sat on a field, and I could feel the wind and see the grass swaying. It seemed as real to me as sitting here typing this does. This apparently takes a few weeks to get started in, and a few months before you start getting good at triggering lucid dreams, but since I have tried this a little in the past, some of the ground work has been done and I should be able to do it at least a few times throughout this month. It is kind of weird that last month I reclaimed time by sleeping significantly less, and this month I am reclaiming time again, this time by actually being awake while I’m asleep.I will update with the techniques and methods I am trying, and the results they bring. So at the very least I’ll end up with a series of posts which offer a basic ‘how-to’ guide so people can try this out themselves without having to buy anything, along some recommendations of more in depth material for those interested. But hopefully I’ll be able to experience a few lucid dreams myself and try some things out. Some things I want to try are chatting to my subconscious, and weight training (I wonder what effect dream training will have on actual workouts?). Mainly though, I just want to be Spider-Man.

Do it for a Month » March – Lucid Dreaming

March – Lucid Dreaming