Lucid dreaming

One of the biggest hurdles that some people encounter when learning to lucid dream is recalling what their dreams are about. This is easily changed and does not indicate an inability to dream, but simply means that the dreamer's brain does not focus any attention on memorizing them once they are over. The most effective methods of changing this are listed and detailed below:

• Keeping a dream journal

  Writing out any and all details within a daily dream log will drastically improve one's ability to recall their dreams. Preferably, this should be done first thing in the morning if possible, as it will quickly change one's memory into one which is attentive to its own dreams. The writing style should be in the first person and in present tense to further improve one's ability to recall the specific plot as it is written down. If there was no dream the previous night, simply write down "I did not dream last night," then continue with the journal as usual on the next day.

• Use memory signifiers

  If one is prone to waking up in the middle of the night, knowing that a dream will likely be forgotten the moment one falls back to sleep, simply arrange a random object so that it is clearly out of place in a way that will be noticed in the morning. This can be as simple as turning an empty glass of water upside down or putting a small object on one's computer keyboard. This may seem silly, but will act as a powerful memory trigger when it is seen the next day and will allow one to write the dream down in their journal.

• Stop smoking cannabis before sleep

  It is common knowledge among cannabis users that marijuana suppresses one's ability to dream; this effect has been backed up by scientific study which indicates that smoking marijuana inhibits REM activity during sleep and therefore suppresses dreams. Once a person stops smoking marijuana before bed, however, REM activity undergoes a rebound effect and dreams will temporarily become much more vivid than usual.

Reality checks

To determine whether or not one is dreaming, it is necessary to develop a habit of performing frequent reality checks. A reality check simply involves asking questions such as "Am I dreaming?" or "Is this a dream?" while performing a specific action which is capable of determining if one is awake or dreaming.

Because most people are not in the habit of asking themselves "Am I dreaming?" while in the midst of a dream, it is necessary to train oneself into the habit of questioning reality to achieve a state of lucidity throughout them. By training oneself to habitually question reality during waking life, the habit will eventually carry over to dreaming life and ultimately one will find themselves posing the question while dreaming. When this happens, the odds of realizing one is within a dream increase, as do the odds of achieving lucidity.

There are many simple reality checks that can be used to accurately determine whether or not one is currently dreaming and these are listed below:

• Pushing one's thumb into the palm of their hand

  During a dream, if one is to push their thumb into the palm of their other hand and exert pressure, it will pass straight through the hand and come out onto the other side. This can be used very reliably to determine whether or not one is dreaming.

• Double taking / rereading text and clocks

  During a dream, if one decides to read text or check the time on a clock, upon further examination it will be shown to have changed or be unreadable. This means that every time one looks away and looks back, the information will change repeatedly, appear as nonsensical, or never keep still. This can be used very reliably to determine whether or not one is dreaming.

• Counting fingers

  During a dream, if one is to look at their hand and attempt to count their fingers, they will quickly realize it is impossible. The amount of fingers may constantly change or simply remain somehow intrinsically uncountable. This can be used very reliably to determine whether or not one is dreaming.

• Pinching one's nose and breathing

  During a dream, if one tightly pinches their nose shut and attempts to breathe, they will find that they still can. This can be used very reliably to determine whether or not one is dreaming.

To gain the best results possible, these reality checks should be performed habitually every time the situation changes and on a daily basis. For example, every time one walks through a door or enters a new environment, every time one talks to a new person, or simply every time one remembers that they may well be dreaming, a reality check should be performed. If this is done 10 - 30 times a day, the habit will quickly spill over into one's own dreams.

An excellent way to remind oneself to perform reality checks is to put notes containing messages such as "are you dreaming?" or "perform a reality check" in places which one frequently looks at throughout the day. For example, putting a visible note by a frequently used computer screen, writing a message on one's hand, or changing one's desktop wallpaper to the image found on the right will greatly improve general lucidity.

Once lucidity has been achieved, the dreamer will usually have a tendency to become very excited as the realization that one is dreaming washes over them. This flood of emotions rapidly results in dream destabilization and quickly causes the setting to begin to collapse on itself, and the dreamer either wakes up or falls unconscious before losing lucidity and finding themselves back within another dream.

This can be extremely frustrating but easily overcome through the simple stabilization technique of maintaining sensory input through the basic action of rubbing one's hands together. When the dreamer begins to rapidly rub their hands together, the sensory input somehow keeps the dream perfectly stable and grounded. This can be further taken advantage of by continuously rubbing one's shoulder with their hand to maintain sensory input while walking around and admiring or exploring the scenery.

Once lucidity has been gained and the dream has been stabilized, the dreamer can now begin to practise taking control of the dream and exploring their own mind. Through the power of expecting an action or task to work, anything is possible within the dreamscape and this can allow for some truly incredible experiences in which the only limit is one's imagination. The most common of these actions and the techniques used to achieve them are listed below:

• Enhancing clarity and detail

  If the dream is blurred and low in clarity or detail (level 3), one can enhance and improve these factors (level 4) by verbally stating aloud "enhance visual clarity" and simply expecting it to work.

• Spawning objects

  If one desires to spawn objects such as vehicles, weapons, food, people, or anything else, this can be done through two different methods. The first is walking into a room and simply expecting to find the object in a particular location, and the second is drawing the vague shape of the desired object in the air with one's hands whilst verbally commanding the object into existence through expectant dialogue such as "A jetpack is going to appear in front of me." The more specific the detail of the request, the more accurately the object will fit one's desires when it spawns.

• Travelling to new locations

  If one desires to travel to a new location, there are two methods through which this can be done. The first of these is to spawn a door by drawing its shape in the air and stating clearly where one would like it take them before walking through it. A quick example of this would be the statement "this door is going to take me to my childhood home." The second is to verbally state where one would like to visit whilst spinning around in circles. Once one has stopped spinning, they should find themselves in the desired location. The more detailed the request, the more accurate the outcome will be.

• Flying

  There are different styles of flight that people use, each with a varied level of success for each individual. Methods such as swimming through the air as if it were water, “Superman style” (one arm outstretched), “Airplane style” (both arms out), and "bird style" (gliding through the wind, flapping one's arms to navigate air currents) are often used. There are a few methods of getting up into the air, such as simply jumping (dreamers can jump really high in dreams if they believe it) or simply willing one's body to rise into the air. Perhaps the easiest method of flying is to use a tool that the dreamer spawns in, such as a jetpack or a broomstick (Harry Potter style).

• Shape shifting

  Most people try to shape shift into animals or creatures by wilfully changing their body parts one by one. This is usually ineffective, as the body changes back quicker than one can complete the process. A much quicker and more effective route is to turn the transformation into an instant process by spawning a tool which will help one to transform. An excellent example of this would be to spawn a magical transformation pill which can be swallowed or a magical wand which can be waved in order to instantly transform one into their desired form.

• Having sex

  Many people learn to lucid dream purely for the sex it offers. This can be difficult, as it is often very challenging to maintain lucidity during the act of dream sex and the chosen partner may shift into an undesirable form half way through. In order to have sex within a lucid dream, all one needs to do is simply initiate it with a dream character; they will be perfectly compliant. Orgasms, which are far more powerful than those found within waking life, are completely attainable with practise.

• Body swapping

  To swap bodies with another person, simply climb into them from behind and wear them over one's skin like a wet suit. The most interesting application of this technique is the way in which it allows one to experience extremely convincing and detailed sex/orgasms as the opposite gender or within an entirely different body altogether.

• Taking drugs

  An excellent way to change the course of the dream is to ingest substances which one may or may not have tried in real life. This will result in inducing the expected effects without any real ingestion of the substance itself, but is extremely limited and incapable when it comes to psychedelic visual geometry.

• Eating food

  Another great past time or activity to explore within the dreamscape is eating food. This results in food which tastes even richer and more detailed than any food found within real life and is extremely pleasurable.

• Finger Induced Lucid Dreaming (FILD)

  FILD is defined as waking up from sleep, then doing light repetitive movements with the fingers as if one were playing the piano with their index and middle finger and allowing the body to drift off to sleep while the mind stays quiet, but conscious, until a dream is perceived. This process lasts usually between several seconds and a few minutes.

• Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming (WILD)

  This is a technique in which one maintains consciousness while their body falls asleep. It can be read about in detail here.

• Mnemonically Induced Lucid Dream (MILD)

  In short, MILD is telling oneself as they are in bed ready to sleep that they are going to become lucid when they dream, then visualizing oneself in a dream becoming lucid. This should be repeated until one falls asleep.

• All Day Awareness (ADA)

  This is a technique which involves maintaining complete mindful focus on the present moment, all day and every day. This allows one to remain completely aware even when they are dreaming, and is perhaps the most effective but effort-intensive lucid dreaming technique. It can be read about in detail here.

The most fundamental component of any dream or hallucinatory state can be defined as some form of perceivable sensory input. This differs from that of everyday sensory input in the way that it is received from an internal source created by one's own mind, as opposed to an external source within the immediately perceivable surrounding environment. The dreamscape of a human being is capable of manifesting completely realistic, convincing, and detailed equivalents of all five senses across varying degrees of vividness and intensity.

These themselves can be broken into five differing levels of clarity which are broken down and defined below.

1. 01

   Imaginative visualization

   The lowest level of a dream is extremely common and occurs frequently during waking consciousness on a daily basis. It can be defined as the heightened state of mental visualization that one drifts into when simply daydreaming or using the imagination. This state results in a level of visualization that is mostly felt internally within the mind's eye, instead of visually perceived. It can be described as a short-term detachment from one's immediate surroundings, during which a person's contact with reality is blurred and partially substituted by a visionary fantasy. The generation of the details of this internal visualization are partially autonomous in nature but mostly controlled by the content of one's current thought stream.

2. 02

   Partially defined hypnagogia

   As one begins to fall asleep, the experience of daydreaming and general imagination begins to progressively heighten and form into what is known in the literature as "hypnagogia". This is defined as the experience of the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep, and generally consists of hearing indistinct noises and seeing faded imagery behind closed eyelids.

3. 03

   Fully defined hypnagogia

   As the vividness and intensity slightly increases, the spontaneous imagery becomes fully defined in its appearance/detail and is now seen within the person's direct line of sight under closed eyelids. Alongside of this, audible noises such as fleeting voices, music, and general auditory hallucinations are often present.

4. 04

   Partially defined dreams

   As the ability to hallucinate increases, random flashes of spontaneous hallucinatory scenarios begin to show themselves. At this level, the hallucinations no longer consist of fleeting imagery on the back of one's closed eyelids, but become sustained as all-encompassing settings which surround the dreamer in what feels like a sudden breakthrough into an alternate reality. In terms of sensory vividness, the dreams are not completely defined in their appearance or sound. This means that they often display themselves as partially to completely blurred and transparent. Alongside of this, the dreamer's physical body will also still feel at least partially connected to the real world. Other senses such as touch, taste, and smell seem to be extremely vague or entirely absent altogether.

5. 05

   Fully defined dreams

   At this level, all five of the senses are replicated perfectly as the dream becomes completely realistic and indistinguishable from that of everyday reality, in terms of the detail and sensory vividness which they provide. These sensations are equally capable of including both positive sensations, such as sexual orgasm, and negative sensations, such as pain.

Regarding the perspective in which dreams are perceived through, just like literary plots, dreams can be experienced through four alternate vantage points which are described and listed below.

• 1st person

  this is the most common form of a dream and can be described as the perfectly normal experience of perceiving the scenario from the perspective of one's everyday self and body.

• 2nd person

  this can be described as the experience of perceiving the dream from the perspective of an external source of consciousness, such as another person, an animal, or an inanimate object.

• 3rd person

  this is essentially an out-of-body experience and can be described as perceiving the dream from a perspective which is floating above, below, behind, or in front of the dreamer's physical body. It is worth noting that, for unknown reasons, many people consistently and exclusively dream in the third person perspective.

• 4th person

  this is particularly rare but entirely possible, and can be described as the experience of perceiving the dream from the perspective of multiple vantage points simultaneously.

At level 4 - 5, dreams consistently manifest themselves through the essential component of extremely detailed imagined landscapes, locations, and sceneries of infinite variety. These exist for the purpose of acting as the setting in which the plot of the dream occurs. The geography of these settings is capable of rendering itself as static and coherent in organization, but will usually result in a non-linear, nonsensical, and continuously changing layout which does not obey the rules of everyday physics. In terms of the chosen locations, appearance, and style of these settings, they seem to be selected at random and are often entirely new and previously unseen locations. They do, however, play a heavy emphasis on replicating and combining real life locations stored within the dreamer's memories, especially those which are prominent within one's life and daily routine.

Within the settings themselves, relevant and irrelevant objects or props will be placed in appropriate but sometimes inappropriate locations throughout them. These can be interacted with in exactly the same way that any real life object can, but can often react in unexpected and spontaneous ways (although they usually behave exactly as the dreamer expects them to).

Dream characters

Across the setting of almost any dream, the scenery is inhabited and populated by conscious dream characters who can be spoken to and communicated with in extreme amounts of detail. These entities appear to be the inhabitants of a perceived independent reality -- they are expectant of one's appearance and interact with the dreamer in various ways.

Regarding their appearance, dream characters can show themselves as literally anything, but will usually display themselves as perfectly ordinary people. These people are equally likely to be complete strangers or randomly selected people which the dreamer has encountered throughout their life. The more prominent and emotionally significant the person is, the more likely they are to be encountered within the dreamscape.

There are distinctly different types of dream characters which one may encounter, each of which represent a particular subsection of one's own consciousness through both their visible form and their personality. These can be broken down into three separate categories and include:

• Representations of the self

  The simplest form of dream character can be described as simply a mirror of one's own personality. It can take any visible form, but clearly adopts an obviously identical vocabulary and set of mannerisms to one's own personality when conversed with.

• Representations of specific concepts or people

  This category of dream character is by far the most varied type in terms of its visual form and immediately perceivable personality. It can be identified as a simulated representation of any internally stored concept and adopts an appropriate personality to fit this to an amazing degree of accurate detail. For example, this specific concept could include people one has met throughout their life, fictional characters, or symbolic representations of abstract concepts such as emotions or key parts of one's own personality.

  • Representations of the subconscious

    This category of dream character can take any visible form, but adopts the personality of what seems to be a conscious controller behind the continuous generation of the details behind one's own dreamscape and internally stored model of reality. When conversed with, it usually adopts an attitude which wants to teach or guide the dreamer and assumes that it knows what is best for them.

When communicated with through spoken word, the level of coherency in which these entities can reply with is highly variable, but can be broken down into four distinct levels of communication:

1. 01

   Silence

   this level can be defined as a complete unresponsiveness from the side of the dream character and an incapability of speech, despite their obvious presence within the dream.

2. 02

   Partially defined incoherent speech

   this level can be defined as audible linguistic conversational responses and noises which sound like words but do not contain any real content or meaning beyond a vague sense of emotional intent.

3. 03

   Fully defined incoherent speech

   this level can be defined as audible linguistic conversational responses and noises which contain fully defined and understandable words, but often lack grammatical structure or general coherency.

4. 04

   Partially defined coherent speech

   this level can be defined as audible linguistic conversational responses and noises which contain fully defined and understandable words with a partially defined grammatical structure and general coherency, which conveys its point on a level that may not always be fully understandable, but is still capable of conveying a general point.

5. 05

   Fully defined coherent speech

   this level can be defined as audible linguistic conversational responses and noises which contain fully defined and understandable words, as well as fully defined grammatical structure and general coherency, which conveys its point on a level that is on par with the dreamer's own intellect.

Each of the above components are randomly shuffled and spliced into any number of an infinite variety of potential plots and scenarios. These may be positive or negative to experience and are difficult to define in a comprehensive manner, in much the same way that we cannot predict the plot of abstract literature and films. They can, however, be broken down into extremely basic occurrences which generally entail visiting some sort of setting, or a number of them, which contain within them interactive lone or multiple dream characters. Alongside these, unpredictable plot devices and events force the dreamer into becoming involved within the specific scenario of the particular dream.

These scenarios and plots can be linear and logical, with events that occur in a rational sequence which lead into each other through cause and effect. They are equally likely, however, to present themselves as completely nonsensical and incoherent, with spontaneous events that are capable of starting, ending, and changing between each other repeatedly, randomly, and in quick succession. The plots themselves can either be entirely new experiences that are unlike anything experienced within the real world, old experiences such as accurate memory replays, or a combination of the two.

Regarding the amount of time in which they are experienced, hallucinatory dream plots and scenarios usually feel as if they are being experienced in real-time. This means that when 20 seconds have been felt to have passed within the hallucination, the exact same amount of time will have passed in the real world. At other points, however, distortions of time can make themselves present, resulting in plots and scenarios that can feel as if they last days, weeks, months, years, or even infinitely long periods of time.

An important part of any dream that contains obviously unlikely and absurd scenarios is a strong sense of uncontrollable and powerful plot acceptance. This sense of plot acceptance allows the dreamer to accept any plot as it comes as a completely real event in which the results of one's own actions will have genuine consequences regarding the dreamer's life. This delirium motivates the dreamer to avoid danger, solve puzzles, and accept the scenario as reality even if it is clearly and undeniably more likely to be a dream than an event which could ever occur within real life.