[From: S. LaBerge & H. Rheingold, (1990). EXPLORING THE WORLD
OF LUCID DREAMING. New York: Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-37410-X]
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CHAPTER 6: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF LUCID DREAMING
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HOW TO STAY ASLEEP OR WAKE UP AT WILL
So far you have learned how to increase your dream recall and
various techniques for inducing lucid dreams. Perhaps you
have succeeded in having a few lucid dreams, or perhaps you
know how to induce them more-or-less at will. Now that you
are learning to realize when you are dreaming, what can you
do with this knowledge? As discussed previously, one of the
most fascinating potentials offered by lucid dreaming is the
ability to voluntary control dreaming. It may be possible to
dream anything you choose, as the Tibetan dream yogis
believe. But before you can try it, you need to be able to
reamain asleep and retain lucidity!
Novice lucid dreamers often wake up the moment they become
lucid. They can recognize lucidity clues, apply state tests,
and conclude that they are dreaming, but are frustrated
because they wake up or fall into nonlucid sleep soon after
achieving lucidity. However, this obstacle is only temporary.
With experience, you can develop the capacity to stay in the
dream longer. As you will see in a moment, there are also
specific techniques that appear to help prevent premature
awakening. If you continue to apply will and attention to
your practice you should be able to refine your lucid
dreaming skills.
PREVENTING PREMATURE AWAKENING
Informally experimenting in their beds at home, lucid
dreamers have discovered various ways of remaining in the
dream state when threatened by early awakening. All the
techniques involve some form of dream action which is carried
out as soon as the visual part of the dream begins to fade.
Linda Magallon, editor and publisher of the Dream Network
Bulletin, and an intrepid explorer of lucid dreams, has
described how she prevents herself from waking up by
concentrating on the senses other than vision, such as
hearing and touch. She reports that all of the following
activities have successfully prevented awakenings from
visually faded dreams: listening to voices, music, or her
breathing; beginning or continuing a conversation; rubbing or
opening her (dream) eyes; touching her dream hands and face;
touching objects such as a pair of glasses, a hair brush, or
the edge of mirror; being touched; and flying. [1]
These activities all have something in common with the
Spinning Technique described below. They are based on the
idea of loading the perceptual system so it cannot change its
focus from the dream world to the waking world. As long as
you are actively and perceptually engaged with the dream
world, you are less likely to make the transition to the
waking state.
Magallon may be a dreamer with an unusually active REM
system; it may be that she has little trouble staying asleep
once she is in REM. However, many others are light sleepers
who find it difficult to remain in lucid dreams for long
periods of time. These people need more powerful techniques
to help them stay in their lucid dreams.
Harold von Moers-Messmer, a German physician, was one of the
handful of researchers who personally investigated lucid
dreaming in the first half of the 20th century. He was the
first to propose the technique of looking at the ground in
order to stabilize the dream. [2]
The idea of focusing on something in the dream in order to
prevent awakening has independently occurred to several other
lucid dreamers. One of these is G. Scott Sparrow, a clinical
psychologist and author of the classic personal account,
LUCID DREAMING: DAWNING OF THE CLEAR LIGHT. [3] Sparrow
discusses Carlos Castaneda's famous technique of looking at
his hands while dreaming to induce and stabilize lucid
dreams. [4] Sparrow argues that the dreamer's body provides
one of the most unchanging elements in the dream, which can
help to stabilize the dreamer's otherwise feeble identity in
the face of a rapidly changing dream. However, as he points
out, the body isn't the only relatively stable reference
point in the dream: another is the ground beneath the
dreamer's feet. Sparrow uses this idea in this example of one
of his own lucid dreams:
"...I walk on down the street. It is night; and as I look up
at the sky I am astounded by the clarity of the stars. They
seem so close. At this point I become lucid. The dream
'shakes' momentarily. Immediately I look down at the ground
and concentrate on solidifying the image and remaining in the
dreamscape. Then I realize that if I turn my attention to the
pole star above my head, the dream image will further
stabilize itself. I do this; until gradually the clarity of
the stars returns in its fullness." [5]
DREAM SPINNING
Some years ago I had the good fortune to discover a highly
effective technique to prevent awakenings and produce new
lucid dream scenes. I started by reasoning that since dream
actions have corresponding physical effects, relaxing my
dream body might inhibit awakening by lowering muscle tension
in my physical body. The next time I was dreaming lucidly, I
tested the idea. As the dream began to fade, I relaxed
completely, dropping to the dream floor. However, contrary to
my intention, I seemed to awaken. But, a few minutes later I
discovered I had actually only dreamed of awakening. I
repeated the experiment many times and the effect was
consistent--I would remain in the dream state by dreaming of
waking up. However, my experiences suggested that the
essential element was not the attempted relaxation but the
sensation of movement. In subsequent lucid dreams, I tested a
variety of dream movements and found both falling backward
and spinning in the dream to be especially effective in
producing lucid dreams of awakening. Here is a method for
spinning to remain in the dream state:
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THE SPINNING TECHNIQUE
1. Notice when the dream begins to fade
When a dream ends, the visual sense fades first. Other senses
may persist longer, with touch being among the last to go.
The first sign that a lucid dream is about to end is usually
a loss of color and realism in your visual imagery. The dream
may lose visual detail and begin to take on a cartoon-like or
washed-out appearance. You may find the light growing very
dim, or your vision becoming progressively weaker.
2. Spin as soon as the dream begins to fade
As soon as the visual imagery of your lucid dream begins to
fade, quickly, before the feel of your dream body evaporates,
stretch out your arms and spin like a top (with your dream
body, of course). It doesn't matter whether you pirouette, or
spin like a top, dervish, child, or bottle, as long as you
vividly feel your dream body in motion. This is not the same
as imagining you are spinning; for the technique to work, you
must feel the vivid sensation of spinning.
3. While spinning, remind yourself that the next thing you
see will probably be a dream
Continue to spin, constantly reminding yourself that the next
thing you see, touch or hear will very probably be a dream.
4. Test your state wherever you seem to arrive
Continue spinning until you find yourself in a stable world.
You will either still be dreaming or have awakened.
Therefore, carefully and critically test which state you are
in (see Chapter 3).
COMMENTARY
If I think I have awakened, I always check the time on the
digital clock beside my bed. This usually provides a
foolproof reality test.
Frequently, the spinning procedure generates a new dream
scene, which may represent the bedroom you are sleeping in,
or some more unusual place. Sometimes the just-faded dream
scene is regenerated in all its vivid glory.
By repeatedly reminding yourself that you're dreaming during
the spinning transition, you can continue to be lucid in the
new dream scene. Without this special effort of attention,
you will usually mistake the new dream for an actual
awakening--in spite of manifest absurdities of dream content!
A typical false awakening would occur if, while spinning, you
felt your hands hit the bed and you thought: "Well, I must be
awake, since my hand just hit the bed. I guess spinning
didn't work this time." What you should think, of course, is
"Since the spinning hand that hit the bed is a dream hand, it
must have hit a dream bed. Therefore, I'm still dreaming!"
Don't fail to critically check your state after using the
Spinning Technique.
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EFFECTIVENESS OF SPINNING
This method is extremely effective for many dreamers,
including myself. Out of the one hundred lucid dreams in the
last six months of the record in my doctoral dissertation, I
used this technique in forty percent of my lucid dreams. New
dream scenes resulted in eighty-five percent of these cases.
Lucid consciousness persisted in ninety-seven percent of the
new dreams. When spinning led to another dream, the new dream
scene almost always closely resembled my bedroom.
The experiences of other lucid dreamers who have employed
this method have been very similar to mine, but suggest that
the post-spin lucid dream need not be a bedroom scene. One of
these lucid dreamers, for instance, found herself arriving at
a dream scene other than her bedroom in five out of the
eleven times she used the spinning technique.
These results suggest that spinning could be used to produce
transitions to any dream scene the lucid dreamer expects.
(See Exercise: Spinning a new dream scene, later in this
chapter) In my own case, it appears that my almost exclusive
production of bedroom dreams may be an accident of the
circumstances in which I discovered the technique. I have
tried, with very little success, to produce transitions to
other dream scenes with this method. Although I definitely
intended to arrive elsewhere than my dream bedroom, I cannot
say that I fully expected to. I believe I will someday be
able to unlearn this accidental association (if that is what
it is). Meanwhile, I'm impressed by the power of expectation
to determine what happens in my lucid dreams.
HOW DOES SPINNING WORK?
Why should dream spinning decrease the likelihood of
awakening? Several factors are probably involved. One of
these may be neurophysiological. Information about head and
body movement, monitored by the vestibular system of the
inner ear (which helps you to keep your balance), is closely
integrated with visual information by the brain to produce an
optimally stable picture of the world. Because of this
integration of information, the world doesn't appear to move
whenever you move your head, even though the image of the
world on your retina moves.
Since the sensations of movement during dream spinning are as
vivid as those during actual physical movements, it is likely
that the same brain systems are activated to a similar degree
in both cases. An intriguing possibility is that the spinning
technique, by stimulating the system of the brain that
integrates vestibular activity detected in the middle ear,
facilitates the activity of the nearby components of the REM-
sleep system. Neuroscientists have obtained indirect evidence
of the involvement of the vestibular system in the production
of the rapid-eye-movement bursts in REM sleep. [6]
Another possible reason why spinning may help postpone
awakening comes from the fact that when you imagine
perceiving something with one sense, your sensitivity to
external stimulation of that sense decreases. Thus, if the
brain is fully engaged in producing the vivid, internally
generated sensory experience of spinning, it will be more
difficult for it to construct a contradictory sensation based
on external sensory input.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU DO AWAKEN PREMATURELY
Even if you find that despite your best efforts to stay
asleep you still wake up, all is not lost. Play dead. If you
remain perfectly motionless upon waking from a lucid (or non-
lucid) dream, and deeply relax your body, there is a good
chance that REM sleep will reassert itself and you will have
an opportunity to consciously enter a lucid dream, as
described in Chapter 4. For some people with a strong
tendency to REM sleep, this happens almost every time they
awaken from a dream until they decide to move. Alan Worsley
is one of the world's most experienced lucid dreamers. He has
been conducting personal lucid dream experiments since the
age of five. During the 1970s, he was the first person to
signal from a lucid dream in pioneering experiments carried
out in collaboration with Keith Hearne. [7] Worsley appears
to possess this felicitous sort of physiology, and offers the
following advice for dreamers who have just awakened but
yearn to return to their lucid dreams: "Lie very still--don't
move a muscle! Relax and wait. The dream will return. I've
had dozens of lucid dreams in a row with this method." [8]
USING INNER SPEECH TO PREVENT LOSS OF LUCIDITY
We have used language to control our thinking and behavior
since we first learned to speak. Our parents would tell us
what to do and how to do it and we were guided by their
words. When we first we did these things under our own
direction, we would repeat out loud the parental instructions
to remind ourselves of exactly how and what we were trying to
do. Now, having fully incorporated the role of parental guide
within us, we repeat the instructions silently to ourselves
when carrying out complicated new procedures.
This process of verbal direction of conscious behavior can
also be used to regulate your behavior in the lucid dream,
for instance to maintain your awareness that it is a dream.
Until becoming and staying lucid is a well developed habit,
we are all too likely to lose lucidity anytime our attention
wanders. The moment we take a bit too much interest in some
facet of the dream, lucidity vanishes. If you are a novice
lucid dreamer who has problems maintaining your lucidity, the
temporary solution is for you to talk to yourself in your
lucid dreams. Continually remind yourself that you are
dreaming by repeating phrases like "This is a dream!...This
is a dream!...This is a dream!" or "I'm dreaming...I'm
dreaming...I'm dreaming...." This self-reminding can be
spoken "out-loud" in the dream, if necessary. Otherwise it's
better to say it silently to avoid the repetition becoming
the predominant feature of the dream.
Sparrow recommends the same procedure, advising dreamers with
shaky lucidity "to concentrate on an affirmation which serves
as a continual reminder of the illusory nature of the
experience." [9] Sparrow considers it essential that the
affirmation (e.g., "This is all a dream") must be learned by
heart and cultivated in the waking state in order for it to
be an effective aid in the dream state.
After you have acquired some experience, you will learn to
recognize the situations in which you tend to lose your
lucidity (i.e., the presence of strongly attractive or
repellent elements), and find that you can maintain your
lucidity without conscious effort. Learning to do this can
happen fairly rapidly. In my first year of studying lucid
dreaming, I lost lucidity in 11 (18%) of 62 lucid dreams; in
the second year, I lost lucidity in only 1 (0.9%) of 111
lucid dreams, and in the third year, only 1 (0.5%) out of 215
lucid dreams. [10] In the following 10 years, the rate of
lucidity lost has stayed at less than one percent.
AWAKENING AT WILL
"My first lucid dream arose from my discovery as a child of 5
that I could wake myself from frightening dreams by trying to
shout 'Mother!'" [11]
"I have found a paradoxical sounding, but simple technique
for waking at will: 'Fall asleep to wake up.' Whenever I
decide I want to awaken from a lucid dream, I simply lie down
on the nearest dream bed, couch, or cloud, shut my dream
eyes, and 'go to sleep.' The usual result is that I
immediately wake up, but sometimes I only dream that I wake
up, and when I realize I'm still dreaming, I try again to
wake up 'for real', sometimes succeeding at once, but
sometimes only after an amusing sequence of false
awakenings.' [B.K., Palo Alto, California]
"When I was a little girl, about six years old, I came up
with a method for awakening myself when dreams got too
unpleasant. I don't recall how I came up with the idea, but I
would blink my eyes hard three times. This worked well for a
while, and got me out of some pretty horrific and
surrealistic scenarios, but then something changed, and the
method began to produce false awakenings. When I once used
this technique to end a mildly distasteful dream, only to
find myself awakening in my bedroom just before the arrival
of a terrible hurricane, and certain that the experience was
real, upon actually awakening I decided to abandon the
practice." [L.L., Redwood City, California]
If the secret to preventing premature awakening is to
maintain active participation in the dream, the secret to
awakening at will is to withdraw your attention and
participation from the dream. Think, daydream, or otherwise
withdraw your attention from the dream, and you are very
likely to awaken.
When five-year-old Alan Worsley called out for his mother in
the physical world, he was directing his attention away from
the dream as well as possibly activating the muscles of
vocalization in his sleeping body, which could awaken him.
But nothing could provide a better illustration of the
principle of waking by withdrawing attention from the dream
than Beverly Kedzierski's formula "go to sleep to wake up."
After all, what does sleep mean but withdrawal of attention
from what is around us?
Another way of withdrawing your participation from the dream
is to cease making the usual rapid eye movements so crucially
characteristic of REM sleep. Tholey has experimented with
fixation on a stationary point during lucid dreams. He found
that gaze fixation caused the fixation point to blur,
followed by dissolution of the entire dream scene, and an
awakening within four to twelve seconds. He notes that
experienced subjects can use the intermediate stage of scene
dissolution "to form the dream environment to their own
wishes." [12] Artist and dream researcher Fariba Bogzaran
describes a very similar technique called "Intentional
Focusing," in which she concentrates on an object in her
lucid dream until she regains waking consciousness. [13]
However, the examples here show that using methods to awaken
from dreams may lead to false awakenings. Sometimes, the
false awakening can be more disturbing than the original
dream you were trying to escape. In general, it is probably
best not to try to avoid frightening dream images by escaping
to the waking state. Chapter 10 explains why and how you can
benefit from facing nightmares. An example of a good use for
techniques of waking yourself at will from lucid dreams is
for awakening while you still have the events and revelations
of the dream clearly in mind.
TWO KINDS OF DREAM CONTROL
Before we go on to discuss ways in which you can exercise
your will over the images of your dreams, consider the uses
you can make of your new freedom.
When faced with challenging dream situations, there are two
ways you can master them. One way involves magical
manipulation of the dream: controlling "them" or "it," while
the other way involves self-control. As it happens, the first
kind of control doesn't always work--which may actually be a
blessing in disguise. If we learned to solve our problems in
our lucid dreams by magically changing things we don't like,
we might mistakenly hope to do the same in our waking lives.
For example, I once had a lucid dream about a frightening
ogre, whom I confronted by projecting feelings of love and
acceptance, leading to a pleasurable, peaceful, and
empowering resolution in my dream. Suppose I had chosen to
turn my adversary into a toad, and get rid of him that way.
How would that help me if I were to find myself in conflict
with my boss or another authority figure whom I might see as
an ogre, in spite of my being awake? Turning him into a toad
would hardly be practical! However, a change in attitude
might indeed resolve the situation.
A generally a more useful approach to take with unpleasant
dream imagery is to control your self. Self-control means
control over habitual reactions. For example, if you are
afraid and run away, even though you know you should face
your fear, you aren't controlling your behavior. Although the
events that appear to take place in dreams are illusory, our
feelings in response to dream events are real. So when you're
fearful in a dream and realize that it is a dream, you fear
may not vanish automatically. You still have to deal with it;
this is why lucid dreams are such good practice for our
waking lives. We're free to control our responses to the
dream, and whatever we learn in so doing will readily apply
to our waking lives. In my "ogre dream," I gained a degree of
self-mastery and confidence that has served me as well in the
waking world as in the dream. As a result of such lucid dream
encounters, I now feel confident that I can handle just about
any situation. So if you'd like to enhance your sense of
self-confidence, my advice is that you'd be wise to "control
yourself, not the dream."
FLYING
"I read about your work and the techniques you suggested for
having lucid dreams. I practiced noticing whether I was
dreaming. The first night, after several non-lucid dreams, I
suddenly remembered to ask myself tf I was dreaming. As soon
as I answered "yes," something happened that your article did
not mention. Everything in the dream became extremely vivid.
The visual aspects were like someone turned up the contrast
and the color. I saw everything in great detail. All my dream
senses were amplified. I was suddenly intensely aware of
temperature, air movement, odors, and sounds. I had a strong
sense of being in control. Even though I had not planned to
fly, something in the dream made me think about flying, and I
simply leaped into the air (Superman style) and flew. The
sensation was the most exhilarating and realistic dream
experience I have ever had. I used to have flying dreams when
I was younger, but they were more of the floating variety,
and never higher than tree-top level. I never had the degree
of control that I experienced in my lucid dream. I flew down
a canyon of tall buildings, gradually gaining altitude. The
buildings gave way to a park, where I embarked upon some
aerial acrobatics. It was my last dream of the night, and the
feeling of exhilaration lasted all day. I told everyone who
would listen about the experiment and theΚsuccess I had."
[G.R., Westborough, Massachusetts]
"One night I was dreaming of standing on a hill, looking out
over the tops of maples, alders, and other trees. The leaves
of the maples were bright red and rustling in the wind. The
grass at my feet was lush and vividly green. All the colors
about me were more saturated than I have ever seen.
Perhaps the awareness that the colors were 'brighter than
they should be' shocked me into realizing that I was in a
dream, and that what lay about me was not 'real.' I remember
saying to myself, 'If this is a dream, I should be able to
fly into the air.' I tested my hunch and was enormously
pleased that I could effortlessly fly, and fly anywhere I
wanted. I skimmed over the tops of the trees and sailed many
miles over new territory. I flew upward, far above the
landscape, and hovered in the air currents like an eagle.
How the dream ended I don't recall, but when I awoke I
felt as if the experience of flying had energized me. I felt
a sense of well-being that seemed directly related to the
experience of being lucid in the dream, of taking control of
the flying." [J.B., Everett, Washington]
Flying dreams and lucid dreams are strongly related in
several ways. First, if you ever find yourself flying without
benefit of an airplane or other reasonable apparatus, you are
looking at a fine dreamsign. Second, if you ever suspect that
you are dreaming, trying to fly is often a good way to test
your state. And if you want to visit the far corners of the
globe or distant galaxies in your lucid dreams, flying makes
an excellent mode of transportation.
If you think you are dreaming, push off the ground and see if
you can float into the air. If you are indoors, after you fly
around the room, look for a window. Go out the window, and
strive for altitude. Curiously, more than a few dreamers
(most likely city-dwellers) have reported that they sometimes
find an obstacle in the form of electrical power lines that
seem to prevent their passage. And some of these oneironauts
report a surge of energy, often accompanied by a burst of
light, when they fly through the "power" lines. Beyond that
barrier, oneironauts have flown around the earth, to other
planets, distant stars and galaxies, and even mythical realms
like Camelot or Shangri-la.
Flying is fun, and therefore worth doing for the sheer joy of
it, even if you aren't determined to reach a specific
destination. People seem to be able to fly in just about any
manner imaginable, according to the hundreds of reports we
have received. Many people fly "Superman style," with their
arms extended in front of them. Also common is "swimming"
through the air, probably because the closest experience we
get to flying in the air, is "flying" in the water. Others
sprout wings from their backs or their heels, flap their
hands, or straddle jet-powered cereal boxes, or flying
carpets, or supersonic easy chairs.
One way to challenge yourself and to begin to fly is to jump
off tall buildings or cliffs. Uncontrolled falling is a
common theme of nightmares, and the following anecdote
suggests the potential usefulness of lucid dream flying as a
means for overcoming this terror:
"My attempts at flying lucidly were the most interesting
adventures I've had in lucid dreams. I have a great fear of
heights, so falling in dreams, while not nightmarish, is
common for me. I always wake up before I land. But attempting
the exercise I read in your article, I flew over places which
would have terrified me in a dream before--open water, snowy
mountains.
One night I was soaring in outer space and coming back to
earth. No fear involved. But coming eventually to a small
ledge in a mountain, I was afraid to land and almost woke up.
Using your techniques (especially spinning), I forced myself
to deliberately land on the very edge. I could see the
mountains below, feel the cold, even smell the fresh air. It
was really a great feeling to know I could not be hurt;
because if I started to fall, I could just fly away again."
[N.C., Fremont, California]
EXTENDING YOUR DREAM SENSES
"I gained conscious control in one of my dreams. I took a
bicycle ride because I decided I'd like to broaden my sensual
experience. As I pedalled, I called out the senses: Hearing!
And I heard my own heavy breathing. Smell! And I smelled a
whiff of cigarette smoke. I touched a big, rough-barked tree,
heard the flapping of sparrow wings, saw much greenery, felt
the wooden handles of the bicycle. My senses were so alive,
just as good as if I were awake. Yet I knew I was dreaming.
This excited me incredibly! I pedalled furiously to get back,
to wake up, but I woke up feeling refreshed." [L.G., San
Francisco, California]
Most people are astonished to discover that they are
dreaming. The astonishment stems from the realization that
they have been fooling themselves in a colossal way. It is
definitely a surprise, especially the first time, to learn
that your normally-trustworthy senses are reporting to you an
absolutely flawless portrayal of a world that doesn't exist
outside the dream. Indeed, one of the most common features of
first lucid dreams is a feeling of hyper-reality that happens
when you take a good look around you in the dream and see the
wondrous, elaborate detail your mind can create.
First-time lucid dreamers often note a marked, pleasurable
heightening of the senses, particularly the sense of vision.
Hearing, smell, touch, taste can intensify instantly, as if
you had found the volume control knob for your senses and
turned it up a notch. Give it a try. Play with your senses,
one at a time, as you explore the dream world. During daily
life, we all have good reasons for tuning out our senses so
we can concentrate on getting our jobs done. In your dreams,
however, you can learn how to turn them back on again.
Senses are marvelous instruments for providing continuous
data about events inside and outside our bodies. Our brains
structure this data into the models of the world we
experience. We all have learned how to think, perceive,
believe, and model the world in a certain way, and the
greatest part of this learning took place when we were
infants. The world-modeling process was automatic long before
we were able to think about it. Therefore, it comes as a
surprise when we discover in lucid dreams that the drama we
perceive as real might only be a kind of stage set, and all
the people in it but mental constructions. However, once we
get used to the notion, it is natural and empowering to begin
to take conscious control of our senses in the dream state.
THE DREAM TELEVISION
In the early 1980s, continuing his dual role as lucid dream
explorer and researcher (like many in the field), Alan
Worsley developed an interesting series of "television
experiments." [14] In his lucid dreams he finds a television
set, turns it on, watches it, and experiments with the
controls to change such things as the sound level and the
color intensity. Sometimes he pretends that the T.V. responds
to voice control, so that he can ask it questions and request
it to display various images.
Worsley reports that "... I have experimented with
manipulating imagery, as if I were learning to operate by
trial an internal computer video system (including
'scrolling,' 'panning,' changing the scene instantly, and
'zooming'). Further, I have experimented with isolating part
of the imagery or 'parking' it, by surrounding it with a
frame such as a picture frame or proscenium arch and backing
away from it ('windowing')." [15]
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EXERCISE: THE DREAM TELEVISION
Before bed set your mind to remember this experiment. When
you achieve lucidity, find or create a large, ultra-high
resolution, total surround sound, television set. Make
yourself comfortable. Turn it on. Find the volume,
brightness, and color saturation controls, and slowly
experiment with them. Turn the sound up an down. Tweak the
color. When the picture is right, imagine the smell of your
favorite food wafting right out of the picture tube. If you
are hungry, allow it to materialize. Savor a sample. Conjure
up velvet pillows and satin pajamas. Give all the senses a
controlled workout. Observe what is happening in your mind as
you adjust the color or contrast control on your world-
modeling television monitor.
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MANIPULATING LUCID DREAMS
"I dreamed of falling down the side of a building, and as I
fell I knew I was still unprepared to face the fall, so I
changed the building to a cliff. I grabbed onto foliage and
shrubs that grew down the side and began climbing confidently
down. In fact, when someone began falling from above me, I
caught him and told him to think of footholds and plants to
support him because 'it's only a dream and you can do what
you want in it.' And I enjoyed a totally new excitement and
headiness of purposely facing danger and risk. It was a
deeply gratifying and proud moment in my life." [T.Z.,
Fresno, California]
"In this dream I was at my mother's house and heard voices in
another room. When entering the room, I realized without a
doubt I was dreaming. My first command was ordering the
people in the room to have a more exciting conversation,
since this was my dream. At that moment they changed their
topic to my favorite hobby. I started commanding things to
happen and they did. The more things began to happen, the
more I would command. It was a very thrilling experience, one
of the most thrilling lucid dreams I've had, probably because
I was more in control and more sure of my actions." [R.B.,
Chicago, Illinois]
"Two weeks ago I had a dream of being pursued by a violent
tornadic storm. I was on a cliff high above a beach and had
been teaching others to fly, telling them that this was a
dream and in a dream all you have to do to fly is believe you
can. We were having a great time when the storm appeared,
coming in from the ocean. Tornados and I go way back in
dreams. They are some of my pet monsters of the mind.
When this one appeared, it was announced by exceptionally
strong winds and lightning and high waves. A young boy, a
puppy, and I were together for some time running and seeking
shelter, but then we stopped, poised on the very edge of the
last great cliff before the open sea. Panic was bringing me
close to the point of losing lucidity. But then I thought
'Wait! This is a dream. If you choose, you can keep running.
Or you can destroy the tornado or transform it. The storm has
no power to hurt the boy or the puppy. It is you it wants.
Anyway, no more running. See what it is like from within.'
As I thought this, it was as though some exceptional force
lifted the three of us, almost blurring our forms as we were
pulled toward the tornado. The boy and puppy simply faded out
about midway. Inside the storm there was a beautiful
translucent whiteness and a feeling of tremendous peace. At
the same time it was a living energy that seemed to be
waiting to be shaped and at the same time was capable of
being infinitely shaped and reshaped, formed and transformed
over again. It was something tremendously vital, tremendously
alive." [M.H., Newport News, Virginia]
Taking action in dreams can mean many things--you can command
the characters, or manipulate the scenery, as in the examples
quoted above, or you can decide to explore part of the dream
environment, act out a particular scene, reverse the dream
scenario or change the plot. Although, as explained above,
the greatest benefit from lucid dreams may come not from
exercising control over the dreams, but from taking control
of your own reactions to dream situations, experimenting with
different kinds of dream control can extend your powers and
appreciation of lucidity. Paul Tholey mentions several
techniques for manipulation of lucid dreams: manipulation
prior to sleep by means of intention and autosuggestion,
manipulation by wishing, manipulation by inner state,
manipulation by means of looking, manipulation by means of
verbal utterances, manipulations with certain actions, and
manipulation with assistance of other dream figures. [16]
Chapter 3 showed how intention and autosuggestion can
influence lucid dreams. Manipulation by wishing is amply
illustrated by oneironauts who have written of their ability
to transport themselves and change the dream world simply by
wishing it to happen. Manipulation by inner state is
particularly interesting. Tholey says this about it,
referring to his own research findings: "The environment of a
dream is strongly conditioned by the inner state of the
dreamer. If the dreamer courageously faced up to a
threatening figure, its threatening nature in general
gradually diminished and the figure itself often began to
shrink. If the dreamer on the other hand allowed himself to
be filled with fear, the threatening nature of the dream
figure increased and the figure itself began to grow." [17]
Manipulation by means of looking plays an important part in
Tholey's model of appropriate lucid dream activities. He
cites his own research in support of the hypothesis that
dream figures can be deprived of their threatening nature by
looking them directly in the eye. Manipulation by means of
verbal utterances is explained thus: "One can considerably
influence the appearance and behavior of dream figures by
addressing them in an appropriate manner. The simple question
'Who are you?' brought about a noticeable change in the dream
figures so addressed. Figures of strangers have changed in
this manner into familiar individuals. Evidently the inner
readiness to learn something about oneself and one's
situation by carrying on a conversation with a dream figure
enables one to...achieve in this fashion the highest level of
lucidity in the dream: lucidity as to what the dream
symbolizes." [18]
Spinning, flying, and looking at the ground are two examples
of manipulation by certain actions: these are actions that
stabilize, enhance, or prolong lucidity. Other dream figures
may be able to help you manipulate dreams to find answers,
resolve difficulties or just enjoy yourself. Reconciling with
threatening dream characters can help you to achieve better
balance and self-integration. This application of lucid
dreaming is a key topic in Chapter 11.
GETTING PLACES IN DREAMS
On a more basic level, to get the most out of lucidity, you
need to know how to get around in the dream world. For many
lucid dream applications, you may wish or need to find a
particular place, person, or situation. One way to achieve
this is by willing yourself to dream about your topic of
choice. This is often called "dream incubation." It is a
timeless procedure used throughout history in cultures that
consider dreams valuable sources of wisdom. In ancient
Greece, people would visit dream temples to sleep and find
answers or cures.
Dream temples are probably not necessary for dream
incubation--although they certainly would have helped
sleepers to focus their minds on their purpose. This is the
key: make sure you have your problem or wish firmly in mind
before sleep. To do this, it is helpful to arrive at a
simple, single phrase describing the topic of your intended
dream. Since for the purposes in this book, you are trying to
induce lucid dreams, you need to add to your focus the
intention to become lucid in the dream. Then you put all of
your mental energy into conceiving of yourself in a lucid
dream about the topic. Your intention should be the last
thing you think of before falling asleep. The following
exercise leads you through this process.
=============================================================
EXERCISE: LUCID DREAM INCUBATION
1. Formulate your intention
Before bed, come up with a single phrase or question
encapsulating the topic you wish to dream about: "I want to
visit San Francisco." Write the phrase down, and perhaps draw
a picture illustrating the question. Memorize the phrase and
the picture (if you have one). If you have a specific action
you wish to carry out in your desired dream ("I want to tell
my friend I love her."), be sure to carefully formulate it
now. Beneath your target phrase, write another saying, "When
I dream of [the phrase], I will remember that I am dreaming."
2. Go to bed
Without doing anything else, go immediately to bed and turn
out the light.
3. Focus on your phrase and intention to become lucid
Recall your phrase or the image you drew. Visualize yourself
dreaming about the topic and becoming lucid in the dream. If
there is something you want to try in the dream, also
visualize doing it once you are lucid. Meditate on the phrase
and your intention to become lucid in a dream about it until
you fall asleep. Don't let any other thoughts come between
thinking about your topic and falling asleep. If your
thoughts stray, just return to thinking about your phrase and
becoming lucid.
4. Pursue your intention in the lucid dream
When in a lucid dream about your topic carry out your
intention. Ask the question you wish to ask, seek ways to
express yourself, try your new behavior, or explore your
situation. Be sure to notice your feelings and be observant
of all details of the dream.
5. When you have achieved your goal, remember to awaken and
recall the dream
When you obtain a satisfying answer in the dream, use one of
the methods suggested earlier in this chapter to awaken
yourself. Immediately write down at least the part of the
dream that includes your solution. Even if you don't think
the lucid dream has answered your question, once it begins to
fade, awaken yourself and write down the dream. You may find
on reflection that your answer was hidden in the dream and
you did not see it at the time.
-------------------------------------------------------------
CREATING NEW SETTINGS
"Dreams of this degree of lucidity also let me change the
shapes of objects or change locations at will. It's lovely to
watch the dream images sort of shift and run like colors
melting in the sun until all you have all around you is
shifting, moving, living color/energy/light--I'm not sure how
to describe it--and then the new scene forms around you from
this dream stuff, this protoplasmic modeling clay of the
mind." [M.H., Newport News, Virginia]
Another way to dream of particular things is to seek them out
or conjure them while you are in a lucid dream. In other
literature about dreams you may find some objections to the
notion of deliberately influencing the content of dreams.
Some believe the dream state to be a kind of psychological
"wilderness" that ought to be left untamed. However, as
discussed in Chapter 5, dreams arise out of your own
knowledge, biases and expectations, whether or not you are
conscious of them. If you consciously alter the elements in
your dream, this is not artificial; it is just the ordinary
mechanism of dream production operating at a higher level of
mental processing. Dreams can be sources of inspiration and
self-knowledge, but you can also use them to consciously seek
answers to problems and fulfill your waking desires.
Changing dream scenes at will can also help you to get
acquainted with the full illusion-creating power at your
disposal. Seeing that the world around you can switch from a
Manhattan cocktail party to Martian canals at your command
will be much more effective than the words in this book for
teaching you that the dream world is a mental model of your
own creation.
The increased sense of mastery over the dream gained by
knowing that you can manipulate it if you wish will give you
the confidence to fearlessly travel wherever the dream should
take you. Your power here is precisely as large as you
imagine it to be. You can change the color of your socks,
request a replay of the sunset, or segue to another planet or
the Garden of Eden, simply by wishing. Here a few exercises
you can experiment with in trying to direct your dreams. Not
much is known about the best way to achieve scene changes in
dreams, so take these exercises as hints and then work out
your own method.
SPINNING A NEW DREAM SCENE
In my dream-spinning experiment, I wanted to go to the
setting of a book I'm reading. I wanted to solve the mystery
in the book. I reached my target. I started at the point the
book began, met the characters in proper sequence, and when I
went to the point in the book where I was with another
character in the book who is a wizard, he took a running
start, leaped off a mountain fortress wall, and turned into a
hawk, thereby escaping his enemies, I also jumped off the
wall and changed into a hawk. I dressed and spoke in the
manner of the characters and took an active part in solving
the mysteries in the book. [S.B., Salt Lake City, Utah]
Spinning during the course of a lucid dream may do more for
you than merely prevent premature awakening. It may also help
you visit any dream scene you like. Here's how to do it.
=============================================================
EXERCISE: SPINNING A NEW DREAM SCENE
1. Select a target
Before going to sleep, decide on a person, time, and place
you would like to "visit" in your lucid dream. The target
person and place can be either real or imaginary, past,
present, or future. For example, "Padmasambhava, Tibet, 850",
or "Stephen LaBerge, Stanford, California, the present", or
"my granddaughter at home, the year 2050."
2. Resolve to visit your target
Write down and memorize your target phrase, then vividly
visualize yourself visiting your target, and firmly resolve
to do so in a dream tonight.
3. Spin to your target in your lucid dream
It's possible that just by the intention you might find
yourself in a non-lucid dream at your target. However, a more
reliable way to reach your target is to become lucid first
and then seek your goal. When you are in a lucid dream at the
point where the imagery is beginning to fade and you feel you
are about to wake up, then spin, repeating your target phrase
until you find yourself in a vivid dream scene--hopefully
your target person, time, and place.
-------------------------------------------------------------
=============================================================
EXERCISE: STRIKE THE SET, CHANGE THE CHANNEL
Think of this as the opposite of the kind of magical
transportation involved in spinning and flying. Instead of
moving your dream-self to a new, exotic locale, simply change
the environment of your dream to suit your fancy. Start with
a small detail and work up to greater changes. Change the
scene slowly, then abruptly, subtly, then blatantly. Think of
everything you see as infinitely malleable "modeling clay for
the mind." Some oneironauts have elaborated on Alan Worsley's
example of the dream television. When they want to change the
scenery, they imagine that the dream is taking place on a
huge, three-dimensional television screen, and they have the
remote control in their hand.
-------------------------------------------------------------
DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE
"I dreamed that I was at a party recently and having a boring
time when I stood back from the dream and knew it was a dream
and then had a great time projecting myself into being
whoever was having fun. At first I just tried being women,
but then I said, it's a dream, why not be a man and see what
that feels like? So I did." [B.S., Albuquerque, New Mexico]
In waking life we are used to restrictions. For almost
everything we do, there are rules about how to act, how not
to act, and what it is reasonable to try. One of the most
commonly quoted delightful features of lucid dreaming is
great, unparalleled freedom. When people realize they are
dreaming, they suddenly feel completely unrestricted, often
for the first time in their life. They can do *anything*.
In dreams you can experience sensations or live out fantasies
that are not probable in the waking state. You can get
intimately acquainted with a fantasy figure. But you could
also become that figure. Dreamers are not limited to their
accustomed bodies You can appreciate a beautiful garden. Or
you can be a flower. Alan Worsley has experimented with
bizarre things like splitting himself in half, and putting
his hands through his head. [19] Many oneironauts pass
through walls, breathe water, fly, and travel in outer space.
Forget your normal criteria, seek for the kinds of things you
can only do or be in dreams.
REFERENCES
[1] L. Magallon, "Awake in the Dark: Imageless Lucid
Dreaming," LUCIDITY LETTER 6 (1987): 86-90.
[2] H. von Moers-Messmer, "Traume mit der gleichzeitigen
Erkenntnis des Traumzustandes," ARCHIV FUR PSYCHOLOGIE 102
(1938): 291-318.
[3] G. S. Sparrow, LUCID DREAMING, DAWNING OF THE CLEAR LIGHT
(Virginia Beach: A.R.E. Press, 1976).
[4] C. Castaneda, JOURNEY TO IXTLAN (New York: Simon &
Schuster,1972).
[5] Sparrow, op. cit., 43.
[6] A. Hobson, THE DREAMING BRAIN (New York: Basic Books,
1988).
[7] K. M. T. Hearne, LUCID DREAMS: AN ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL
AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY (unpublished Ph.D. diss., Liverpool
University,1978).
[8] A. Worsley, Personal communication, 1982.
[9] Sparrow, op. cit., 41.
[10] S. LaBerge, LUCID DREAMING: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF
CONSCIOUSNESS DURING SLEEP (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University,
1980). (University Microfilms International No. 80-24,691).
[11] A. Worsley, "Personal Experiences in Lucid Dreaming," in
CONSCIOUS MIND, SLEEPING BRAIN eds. J. Gackenbach and S.
LaBerge (New York: Plenum, 1988), 321-342.
[12] P. Tholey, "Techniques for Inducing and Maintaining
Lucid Dreams," PERCEPTUAL AND MOTOR SKILLS 57 (1983): 87.
[13] F. Bogzaran, "Dream Marbling," INK & GALL: MARBLING
JOURNAL 2 (1988): 22.
[14] Worsley, "Personal Experiences," op. cit.
[15] Ibid.,327.
[16] Tholey, op. cit., 79-90.
[17] Ibid., 87.
[18] Ibid., 88.
[19] Worsley, "Personal Experiences" op. cit.
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