I’ve just found this site and thought I’d share my experiences with you. Apologies for the lenght of my post, but I hope it is of interest to some of you and I also have a couple of questions. I first found out about lucid dreaming from a white witch who introduced me to the ‘Western Way’ about 20 years ago. I’ve tried researching this on the ‘net since with very little luck. Essentially, it is a philosophy whereby one uses lucid dreaming to meet various archetypes to gain understanding of yourself from them. I tried ld’ing with little success until one night when I suddenly became lucid during a dream. I’d looked down at my clothes and saw I had my boxer shorts on outside my trousers. For a moment I was embarrassed, but quickly thought: “Why should I be bothered – it’s only a dream.” With that, everything became clear. I knew I was ld’ing and wanted to make the most of it, so I launched myself into the air and took off. I flew around a familiar-ish landscape – the dream had been set near my home town, and this is what I saw from the sky above. Soon I found myself flying toward a huge cliff face. I banked, but couldn’t avoid it. I woke with a thump, and went back to sleep.
At work a few hours later I started to feel dizzy and was sent home. I only just made it home as every time I looked sideways, my head went into a spin (not good when you’re driving!). Heartbeat was below 30 bpm and the doctor was called. Then hospital for blood tests, cardiogram, EEG, etc. No problem was diagnosed. Eventually I fully recovered after about 4 weeks. I never associated my illness with the dream until a couple of months later when reading a report by a 19thC writer who experienced a lucid dream himself, and subsequently had a slow pulse and dizziness.
QUESTION 1
Has anyone else experienced anything similar? I’ve read somewhere that if you astral body snaps back to your physical body too quickly, this can cause physical problems.
Over the next few years lucid dreams came occasionally and unintentionally. One early one in particular comes to mind – I slowly materialised inside a pub, and everyone stared at me as if they had seen a ghost!
With the advent of the Internet, my interest was sparked again. After a while, I came up with my own technique that I’d like to share.
-
We need to lose consciousness of our physical bodies – I think this is common practice amongst ld’ers, but it is essential for my technique. I like exercise, such as bike riding, and find this helps when relaxing later. Controlled breathing is another well-known technique. Finally, make sure you are totally comfortable – I always ld in bed, usually lying on my back.
-
Music and / or sounds can help but are not essential. I often listen to trance / chill music when I go to sleep to mask any external sounds that can wake you from an ld. Avoid music with vocals however, as this demands your attention. I’ve also tried BWG, and find it helps too – only problem is sleeping with headphones on.
-
It’s also going to help if your mental state is relatively clear of any stress.
-
Being tired! This can help so much. In my opinion, lucid dreaming and hallucinating are practically the same thing, and I’m sure everyone knows that sleep deprivation can cause hallucinations. I’m not suggesting you go that far – maybe just stay up a few hours past your bedtime. Your brain will be more receptive to entering the REM state with which ld’ing is associated (I think!).
-
This is the real key. Close your eyes and look ahead of you. Imagine you are a lookout on a dark night, and it is imperative that you don’t miss anything that appears in the gloom. If you’re like me, you’ll probably be staring at a dark mess with a spattering of orange specks. It helps if you look upwards slightly, but not so much as it hurts – this is a common technique amongst hypnotists. Keep looking. You can think about anything you like, and indeed, this may have an effect on the content of your ld, but not necessarily so. Keep looking and don’t lose concentration on the scene ahead. If all is going to plan, you should gradually lose sense of your body. Next you may feel your eyes REM’ing. Now, the image in front of your eyes starts to shift subtly. Keep focusing on it. You’ll hopefully start to see vague moving geometric patterns appear that gradually become more and more distinct. These patterns are reminiscent of the peyote and mescal induced designs on Mexican rugs. If you start seeing tunnels, try and move toward and through them. You might start to hear rushing noises, or popping noises like a balloon being burst. This can be detrimental, as can anything that causes a shock, as it can wake you from your state. It’s also worth stating that if you get this far in one night, and then wake fully, it’s very hard to get back in the same night. After a while, the geometric tunnels start to turn into images – faces, places, anything really, which change rapidly. Then one image usually becomes persistent, usually starting in the middle of my vision, and then growing until it takes over my whole vision. And then I’m there. Totally lucid. I know with 100% certainty that it’s a dream and not reality, so I have no need for reality checks. The shock of lucidity is often just too exciting, and it wakes me up – this is the hardest thing for me to overcome, but if you can, the dream kind of stabilises and can last for ages. I’ve just read the FAQ, and it’s great to know that this is a common problem!! The location can be totally random, although it can be based on what I was thinking about when I start off. I estimate that it takes somewhere between 5 and 30 minutes to go lucid, and I probably have a 1 in 3 success rate, and probably attempt this 2 or 3 times a week.
-
Ending a dream. Sometimes, I don’t remember how a dream ended. Other times, I can just command myself to either wake up or go to sleep. Fortunately, I’ve never had any problems since the first one.
I’ve had all sorts of experiences during ld’s. I usually don’t have total free will during dreams – some things I try just don’t happen. Mostly they just involve floating / flying around both strange and familiar landscapes. Large houses and parks often feature too. I’ve met many characters, although this does not happen that often, and my interaction with them extends from the mundane to the bizarre. I’ve had sex, although the first time I attempted this, I just tried to take the clothes of a young lady I encountered. She slapped me across the face and ran off! (I figured that people generally react in ld’s the same as they would in rl.) I also often find messages – say on the cover of a book or in a letter that I’ll find somewhere.
Another common type of LD I get is when I’m lying in my bed looking around my well lit bedroom, when in fact I know for certain that the light is out and my eyes are closed. These LD’s aren’t deliberate, and usually come in the morning. I’m always astounded that every detail of the room appears to be correct.
I don’t believe that there’s anything supernatural going on with lucid dreaming. I’ve heard stories about people meeting up, but not seen any convincing evidence, and I would have thought this would be easy to prove. I’m with James Randi on anything supernatural (see randi.org/research/index.html) - so if anyone can really prove shared dreams, then there’s $1M up for grabs.
QUESTION 2
If also just found out the the geometric patterns I described in 5 above are called phosphenes / entopics. This is something I’m fascinated in. Sometimes I can get locked into seeing these and not going into a dream. They get increasingly more complex and well defined, and I have a theory that what I am seeing is the inner workings of my brain. The reason I say this is that the patterns switch in time with my thoughts. If I hold a train of thought the patterns are consistent, however, if I think about something else the patterns change. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
