Lucid Dreaming

6 Pages 1452 Words

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Roughly one-third of our lives are spent sleeping, and a significant amount of this time is

spent dreaming. You have the ability to be conscious, awake, and well, lucid, in your dreams.

Lucid dreaming is dreaming while being aware of being in a dream state. The term

“lucid,” coined by Frederik Van Eeden in 1913, is used in the sense of mental clarity. Lucid

dreaming is nothing more than becoming aware that you are dreaming.

However, among these people, the amount of control and clarity varies greatly. A low-

level lucid dream is one where you know you’re dreaming, but that’s it. In experiencing a higher

level lucid dream, you have the power to control, influence, and react to various events and

contents of the dream. For whoever achieves this state of lucidity, the benefits are potentially

enormous. It gives you the chance to experience adventures unsurpassed in everyday life. You

can, literally, do anything you wish; the only limits you are bound to, are set by your imagination.

“Lucid dreaming gives us the ability to tap the power of the unconscious, and subconscious mind,

giving us a valuable insight into our daily lives“ (Gackenbach/Bosveld). By learning to make the

best of the worst situation imaginable, you can overcame nightmares and fears in the waking

world.

There are several techniques for inducing a lucid dream, and The Lucidity Institute,

Inc., founded in 1987 by lucid dreaming researcher Dr. Stephen LaBerge to support research

on lucid dreams and to help people learn to use them to enhance their lives, has created special

devices to assist people in achieving lucid dreams. Inducing lucid dreams takes concentration,

effort, and time, which some people may not be wanting to sacrifice to learn what they perceive

as a “pointless” skill. The key is perseverance, and you will be successful. Some people have

been able to...