Live the Dream as a Lucid Dreamer

We all dream, even those of us who think they don’t! Some of us even dream while we are awake. But let’s turn that around. How would you like to be awake while you dream? I’m not talking about daydreaming; I’m talking about lucid dreaming.

What does lucid dreaming mean? Well until recently it didn’t mean anything in the academic world and the rest of the world tended to dismiss it as nightmares at best or a mental problem at worst.

Then, in 1968, Celia Green, a writer on psychology, discovered there actually was a state between dreaming and being fully awake; a state where you could be awake inside your own dream!

Imagine being awake inside a dream! In what must best be described as a balance between emotion and reason. The dreamer accepts the reality of the dream while knowing it must by its very nature be inherently unreal.

This level of awareness gives the dreamer some control over what he or she does. On the one hand this might be viewed as fun; almost like having a computer game in your head, on the other hand controlled experiments with lucid dreaming have been shown to lessen the occurrence of nightmares and help with psychological problems like self-harm.

Scientists are even working on recreating near-death experiences lucidly to give them a better and, hopefully, safer understanding of the phenomenon.

Controlling their dreams seems to give the lucid dreamer a greater sense of control over their own waking lives. Practiced lucid dreamers can use the hours spent asleep as extra thinking time or create a virtual playground in their own minds.

It all sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Weird, and a little scary, but fun nonetheless. Surely, though, you have to be adept at this kind of thing. Don’t you need special, mystical powers to be a lucid dreamer?

It seems not. All you need is curiosity, a sense of adventure and a few hints on how to do it. After all, they are your dreams. Why shouldn’t you be allowed to explore them?

A simple technique everyone can practice is Dream Recall. This is sometimes referred to as the first step towards lucid dreaming. By recording (either vocally in a recorder or simply with a pen and paper) your dreams you become more familiar with them. You will come to recognize repeated patterns, certain recurring symbols. This kind of recall will bring you consciously closer to your dreams.

It’s usually best to record dreams immediately upon waking as they have a habit of flitting away shortly afterwards. If possible stay in the same position you were sleeping in, keep your eyes shut if you can and talk yourself through the dream in real time, as if it is still happening to you.

Increasing familiarity with your dreams will enable you to recognize these patterns or symbols when they occur again. This moment of recognition might be all it takes to tell you, “This is a dream!” That’s the moment you become a lucid dreamer. From then on in the dream is yours, if you can keep from waking up.

Because your REM cycles, or dream activities, get longer and deeper as the night goes on, setting an alarm to wake you a few hours before you actually need to get up can help induce lucid dreaming. The chances are that you were already dreaming. Lying in the dark rested and with nowhere else to go you are in the perfect position to recapture that dream and now, with your awareness of lucid dreaming, you may find yourself able to direct what happens next.

Alternating your wake-up times, or the Cycle Adjustment Technique, can have a similar effect. By setting your alarm early one day and for the normal time the next – and keeping repeating – you can confuse you body into being ready to wake when it doesn’t have to. In other words you are half awake already, but probably still dreaming. Where you go from there is only a matter of determination and practice.

The ultimate in lucid dreaming, though, has to be the WILD (wake initiated lucid dream) stage. The WILD adept learns to recognize the hypnologic state which occurs as one moves from wakefulness to sleep. By maintaining conscious awareness in the passage through this state it is possible to go directly from wakefulness to lucid dreaming.

But isn’t it dangerous? Don’t you risk getting confused between dream and reality? Well, no, because dreams are still fantastical experiences. If you aren’t sure whether you are awake of asleep, try sticking your finger through your leg, or put your head in a bucket of water. If the finger goes all the way in and you can still breathe in the bucket – it’s a dream! Enjoy!

Introduction to dream interpretation and the dream meaning website. Dream interpreter and psychic author Craig Hamilton-Parker talks about his website articles about dreams. You can read extracts from his books the Hidden meaning of dreams and Remembering your dreams at his website. The website also has dream forums where you can ask about having your dream interpreted and discover the meaning of your dream. There is also a dream chatroom and opportunities to talk with people about your dreams and psychic dreams.
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Kevin J. Todeschi speaks on dream interpretation and the Edgar Cayce readings. Recorded at ARE's Virginia Beach headquarters From Your Inner Oracle Conference Dreams, Imagination and Symbolism, Jan. 17, 2004. To see ARE's current conference schedule, visit EdgarCayce.org/conferences. For more on dreams or to join one of our online dream interpretation groups, visit EdgarCayce.org/dreams.
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Learn advice for analyzing a dream in this free dream analysis video. Expert: Carmen Lynne Bio: Carmen Lynne, Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, has been in private practice since January 2007 assisting clients in achieving their personal goals in such areas as habit modification, stress reducti Filmmaker: Louis Nathan
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Dream Analysis: www.in5d.com Did you ever have a dream that seemed so bizarre that you were not sure what it meant? Our dreams are the gateway to our subconscious mind which can reveal a lot more to what is going on in our lives than what we can interpret from the dream. Our dreams are played out in metaphors because the reality behind these metaphors can often be overwhelming. For example, if an office manager is dreaming about his secretary opening and closing file cabinet drawers, then the act (and motion) of pushing a drawer in and out would represent this manager's inner desire to have sexual intercourse with his secretary with the metaphor of sex being the file cabinet. Another example would be a man who sees a building-sized tire about to roll over him. This dream doesn't mean something bad is about to happen to this man. The tire represents the stressors in his life that are overwhelming. As a Psychology major in college, I have taken an advanced class on the Psychology of Sleep and Dreams. As a child and family therapist, I have used dream analysis to help my clients overcome obstacles in their lives but recently, I have seen an interesting twist that has not been covered in dream analysis: metaphysical and spiritual interpretations. For example, in a typical dream analysis, climbing up a ladder usually represents a promotion or a new level of achievement but a spiritual or metaphysical interpretation may also indicate ascension or a DNA upgrade. I have also ...
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Learn how to interpret your dreams by enrolling in this UniversalClass online course.

How to Interpret Your Dreams: this is a technique that I have used successfully for years.
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Modern Psychologist Should Use Old Dream Analysis to Support Marriage Counseling Processes

How Can Relationship Advice and Marriage Counseling Processes Benefit from Your Dreams?

What is Day Residue? It is a large part of the content of dreams is related to occurrences going on in our lives during the day; they referred to as Day Residue.

What is Dream Interpretation? Modern theories of dream analysis frequently focus on the person’s interpretation of the dream rather than on the inherent symbolism (Freud) or the expression of archetypes (Jung). From this view: dreams are an internal replacement for external stimulation.

However, for Freud: dreams are the “Royal road to the unconscious”. Manifest content: refers to the overt story of the dream. Latent content: is the hidden, usually unconscious, message. According to Freud, these messages were expressed indirectly because they were threatening or shocking to the conscious personality. This assumption is the link between the traditional Dream Theory material and current modern counseling processes.

Dream interpretation is therefore a valuable counseling component since it can pinpoint to the larger framework: the roots deep in the psyche or within daily life. Dream images and associations are most instrumental in personal problem solving. Since every person is responsible for their own growth, progression, and health the solutions are many times inside their mind or spiritual domain.

The meanings of dream symbols and themes can be common or complex; will cross cultural, social and interpersonal boundaries and have distinctly different interpretations for each dreamer. Freud suggests that the main and common subjects and issues in our dreams are: human body and persons within our surroundings, parents, children, siblings, birth, and death. The main and common messages: a male is often represented as a building with regularly shaped sides. The female is represented as a building with porches, cupolas, wings, etc.; these are appendages for grasping onto and holding close. The birth experience is usually represented in water. Death is often represented as a journey.

As is true of the theory in general, Freud used most of his symbols to represent sexual ideas and objects. The number 3, for example, is a substitute for the male genitals. Words that indicate penetration may also indicate penises—i.e., knives, swords, or tools. Any object or event that fights against gravity symbolized penile erections. Female genitals, on the other hand, were represented by objects that enclose a space: pits, caverns, boxes, jars, luggage, pockets, mouths, and shoes, for example.

But… in order to be a good counselor and a responsible client we always remember Freud’s warning: “Oftentimes a cigar is only a cigar.”