An Exciting New Experience as A Lucid Dreamer

by Lesley Groft

Many people want to dream lucidly. If you're among them, the first thing you need to think about is how you want to go about learning.

Knowing why you have chosen to pursue lucid dreaming is important. How can it benefit ou personally? To know this we can work backwards from what it considered normal sleep.

Normal sleep helps us refresh ourselves for the next day. However, if you were a lucid dreamer, you would be able to control the period of time when you were dreaming.

The human body has a built in requirement for sleep. It rests the body so that we are prepared to continue our lives. Without it, there is strong evidence for insanity. That is all well and good but there is nothing saying we cannot control certain aspects of sleep is there?

Lucid dreamers are in complete control of their dreams. This allows them to explore new worlds in their mind and expand the scope of their dreams. Lucid dreamers can also conscious choose not to have nightmares - they just change the dream.

If you want to become a lucid dreamer, there are two major ways to accomplish it. The first way is called DILD, or dream-initiated lucid dream. That's when you're in the process of having a dream, realize that it's happening, and retain your sense of consciousness inside the dream.

The second method is called WILD, and stands for wake-initiated lucid dream. This is when you start out awake and fall asleep, but do not experience a change in consciousness levels. This is the process of simply entering a dream, the same way you'd walk through a door, instead of waking up inside the dream.

So, what methods are used to induce both of these kinds of lucid dream experiences?

Dream Recall

If you'd like to lucid dream, perhaps one of the most successful way of doing so is known as dream recall. Dream recall is simply the ability to remember one's dreams. By remembering your dreams, you are able to recognize them when you are sleeping, because most likely, you will have the same dream, or at least aspects of it, more than once.

To make dream recall easier you can keep a dream journal. This is a notebook or pad of paper that has the sole purpose of recording your dreams. Whenever you have a dream, you should write all you can remember in the journal as soon as you wake up. The longer you are awake the more details of the dream that will be lost.

Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)

This technique was developed by Dr. Stephen LaBerge, one of lucid dreaming's lead scientists. The method used here is telling yourself that you'll remember something in your dream. Once in the dream, you'll see this object, recall what you told yourself, and realize you're dreaming.

Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB)

The process here is to go to sleep, doing nothing but setting

your alarm to wake you up a few hours later (5 or 6). Once you wake up, DO NOT go back to sleep. Instead, do something else like read for a while, or think as much as you can about lucid dreaming for around an hour then go back to bed.

According to Stephen LaBerge, there is a 60% success rate of this technique. The reason why is that you would have woken up during the process of sleep, meaning that your mind is not fully aware of this, and are still in the middle of REM cycle. So basically, it's like going to your mind and telling it that you want to lucid dream.

Cycle Adjustment Technique

As the name suggests this technique is all about cycling your sleep. Go to bed at your normal time but for a week set an alarm to wake you one and a half hours early. You should continue to do this for around 7 days. Once your body has settled somewhat into this routine, begin to alternate your wake up times. One day normal, wake up time the next early, on your normal days you will be trying to wake up early and should increase lucid dream chances.

Wake-Initiation of Lucid Dream (WILD)

When you consider all the methods and techniques wake initiated is by far the most intriguing way to enter lucid dreams. What you have to do is manage to keep the brain aware while the rest of you falls asleep. You can enter your dreams much like entering a theater. You go into watch the movie, set down and the light go down, (sleep) dark envelopes you just before the movements on the screen appear.

Several ways to stay aware but not awake include imagining descending or going up stairs, chanting, counting, breathing control, counting your breaths, and relaxing your body from head to toe. This all falls under self hypnosis. Don't do this when you're tired, or you'll simply fall unconscious.

First, it was cds and DVD's now we have devices that will help you lucid dream. Masks and other electronic apparatuses can be used to recognize REM sleep and give you a light buzz or light to make you aware that you are dreaming.

Definitely the easiest and most reliable way of inducing a lucid dream however is by listening to binaural beats sound frequencies via headphones.

The sounds bring the two sides of the brain in synch. Your brainwaves are then converted to REM waves the time during sleep when you dream and the frequency at which lucid dreams occur.

With self-hypnosis and a conscious preparedness before you go to sleep anyone can practice lucid dreaming.

The author Lesley Groft is one of the experts who writes for the http://www.luciddreaminginfo.com site. You can enjoy the incredible experience of being a lucid dreamer and you can try it yourself when you get 29 Free lucid dreaming Audios when you visit here.