Just knowing this and thinking about it can actually help you on your way to a lucid dream experience. An incongruity is one of the triggers to lucid dreaming. A trigger is that which begins or inspires lucidity.
Things in our dreams that are not “normal”. We must wonder, and many have, why our mind so readily accepts anything we experience within our dreams as being real. While we are dreaming we often forget these things and we believe what we see in the dream.
It is possible to be lucid and have little control over the dream. Becoming lucid in a dream is likely to increase your ability to deliberately influence the events within the dream.
Some people have objections to lucid dreams. Perhaps if all of our dreams were controlled and lucid there may be some harm, but with our lucid dreams spread out among many “normal” dreams we have plenty of time for non-lucid dreaming.
While we are in a dream our mind accepts what we feel and see as reality. We often find ourselves in very unusual circumstances when compared to our waking life. I know the sky isn’t supposed to be that color!’
Lucid dreaming means dreaming while you know that you are dreaming. The term was coined by Frederik van Eeden who used the word “lucid” in the sense of mental clarity. With practice nearly anyone can experience lucid dreams.
Here is an example of this from one of my own lucid dreams:
Several times a day ask yourself the question aloud. Many people will find them self asking that question or seeing the question written on a note while they are actually dreaming. This will trigger a lucid dream.
It is best to sleep with silence as music or other sounds can affect your dreaming. The second night I had a flying dream but I did not become lucid. On the fourth night I had another flying dream and at that time I became lucid.
I think it was a late 70’s model. I was giving him a ride because his motorcycle had run out of gas. In the dream I slammed on the breaks and held my hands up.
Make a list of questions that you have about dreams. Read the list often and look over it several times and concentrate on it before you go to bed.
If you have a common dream theme this is a great trigger. Just concentrate on the next time that you experience or see that you will be dreaming.
My first lucid dream, that is the first one I had when I was trying to achieve lucidity, was triggered by a flying dream.
A recurring dream or nightmare can also be used as a trigger. If you have a recurring dream make a conscious effort to realize that you are dreaming the next time you are in that situation. If the dream involves a certain person or place try to think as you go to sleep, “The next time I see that house I will know that I am dreaming”.
Can you read text in a dream? Can you add numbers in a dream? I had read in a dream book that it was not possible to read text or to calculate numbers in a dream, but I didn’t believe it.
Lucid dreamers often comment to themselves in dreams. You may say aloud, “This is a dream! I know that I am dreaming.”
Keep a Dream Journal
Lucid dreaming means dreaming while you know that you are dreaming. Becoming lucid in a dream is likely to increase your ability to deliberately influence the events within the dream. Perhaps if all of our dreams were controlled and lucid there may be some harm, but with our lucid dreams spread out among many “normal” dreams we have plenty of time for non-lucid dreaming.
Keeping a dream journal is one of the most effective tools to achieving lucid dreams. Keeping a dream journal will also help you a great deal in understanding your non-lucid dreams. As you continue to write in your journal and re-read your previous entries you will begin to see parallels with your dreams and your life.
Once lucid in a dream, people can often choose their actions and exert some deliberate control over the dream content. Proof that lucid dreams occur in REM sleep was achieved by having subjects give a prearranged distinct signal with deliberate eye movements to mark the points in time when they realized they were dreaming.
Keeping a dream journal is one of the most effective tools to achieving lucid dreams. Once lucid in a dream, people can often choose their actions and exert some deliberate control over the dream content.
