Getting Started in Lucid Dreaming

Another inescapable life characteristic is sleep and dreaming. We can choose to view dreaming as a basic life fact or as an opportunity to gain further insight into meaning and enjoyment of our existences. One of the most ideal ways to take advantage of sleep is through lucid dreaming. Fortunately for us dreaming is most likely already a part of our daily routine and getting started in lucid dreaming is relatively easy. After we learn about some of the more prevalent lucid dreaming concepts we can review some simple steps we can take to begin our lucid dreaming journey.

Anytime we are diving into a new and unfamiliar subject it is best to gather as much information and background on the subject as possible.  Although lucid dreaming is somewhat easy to practice and learn, it still takes a lifetime to master.  Some will be better at it than others and those that truly internalize all that the art and science has to offer will much better set to find success after they get started.

Lucid dreaming is a very personal experience and will mean something different to each individual.  Despite being such a genuinely unique adventure, our dreams are still very much connected to the real world and those around us.  When we are getting started in lucid dreaming we should really try to begin to understand what our purpose of trying the exercise is.  Historically people have found an interest in lucid dreaming for reasons such as, confronting fears, discovering the dream world, for the ability to responsibly engage in sexual fantasies, as guidance to mysteries and scientific problems, composing music, contacting others and as deep meditative practice.

People have also been introduced to lucid dreaming for therapeutic purposes like dealing with emotionally attachment, developing peace for assault victims, bodily freedom for quadriplegics and the handicapped, conquering Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and copping with nightmares.  Regardless of why you decide to get started in lucid dreaming or to make the plunge into your dream world and states, knowing what is out there might greatly influence the lucid dreaming decisions you make.

Lucid dreaming is a very available resource to all of us.  Once we learn about lucid dreaming induction techniques and devices, the signs and signals of our dreams, how to stay lucid, what to do when we our falsely awakened, reality checking, mental control and navigation during sleep and keeping a dream journal, we will be much more prepared to get started and much closer to achieving success. 

When just beginning there are many lucid dreaming undertakings we can originate within ourselves.  If we are serious about establishing lucid dreaming within our physical and mental repertoires, embracing the following will create a viable foundation.  Some items to focus on and latch to from the outset are dream recall and remembrance, heightened daily awareness, meaningful symbol identifications, deliberate napping and sleeping and making sure you are strongly convinced of the possibility of lucid dreaming.  People have been discussing and trying lucid dreaming for hundreds of years now and there is no reason why you should not as well if it interests you.

Aristotle, in the 4th century BCE, within his Treatise on dreams stated “If the sleeper perceives he is asleep, and is conscious of the sleeping state during which the perception comes before his mind, it presents itself still, but something within him speaks to this effect: ‘The image of Koriskos presents itself, but the real Koriskos is not present.’”

Even Sigmund Freud commented in his 1909 Interpretation of Dreams that “There are some people who are quite clearly aware during the night that they are asleep and dreaming and who thus seem to possess the faculty of consciously directing their dreams.”  Great thinkers of our time were keenly aware of lucid dreaming’s possibilities and powers.  The only way we can find out about what they discovered is to get started in lucid dreaming ourselves.