The best way to start having lucid dreams: where are you right Now?
July 24th, 2008 by Kavi
Before I get to the technique let’s talk a bit about lucid dreaming first. Just what is a lucid dream? In the simplest sense, a lucid dream is a dream in which you are completely conscious and aware of the fact that you are dreaming. Essentially it is being “awake” in your dream and taking the reins from your subconscious. As for what a dream itself is, I honestly don’t know.
So what do dreams and lucid dreaming have to do with yoga? Well, a lot actually, as I will soon illustrate. There is even a type of yoga called Dream Yoga (often called Tibetan Dream Yoga), which focuses on various practices which are designed to give the yogi complete control over their consciousness while asleep (i.e. mastery of lucid dreaming).
The best way to begin having lucid dreams is to simply be more awake while you are awake in your physical body. What I mean by this is being aware of where you are. Stop for a moment and look around; where are you? Quietly observe your surroundings, really have look at something near you. Maybe hold your hand up and look at it. You are in a physical body, sitting in front of a machine that allows you to read text from around the planet.
This slipping into the Now moment, that feeling of “woah! I am here right now”, is the same thing that is experienced when one becomes lucid in a dream. It is simply becoming conscious of where you are, becoming conscious of right Now.
Try this next time you are in a busy place such as a supermarket or a mall: Stop and look around yourself, become aware of where you are, aware of the Now, then observe the people around you. It is interesting because most people are not even conscious of where they are in the physical realm. They are asleep, on auto-pilot, lost in a haze of thoughts that keep them scrambling from one place to the next, rarely aware of what is actually happening around them. Just like when one is dreaming and not lucid.
Start being more aware of where you are and what you are doing. Watch your actions as they unfold, become aware of your breath, of what is in your peripheral vision. Be here right Now. The more you do this the more likely you are to become lucid while dreaming. All of a sudden while navigating the dreamscape you will look around yourself and realize where you are: you will become conscious.
Then, as you are flying through the clouds, you might think to yourself about this other place you go to where you have a much denser body, and you might wonder about being more lucid there… Where are you right Now?
