Most people have had the experience at least one time in their life of knowing they have to wake up at a certain time the next morning, and then finding that they wake up at exactly that time without an alarm clock.
By the time we are in our teens, we have gone through the cycles of sleep at least 5,000 times. It is no wonder then that our bodies and minds are well accustomed to those cycles, and that the mind can in some way influence those sleep cycles.
One thing I am experimenting with is refining my mind's ability to command myself to wake up at a certain time without the aid of an external alarm. Having this ability will be extremely helpful when using WILD or WBTB techniques that require waking up at certain intervals during the sleep cycles (at which time you will set your intentions for lucid dreaming and attempt conscious re-entry).
Basically at the beginning of the night, as I close my eyes to go to sleep, in addition to affirmations that focus on my resolve to experience my sleep states consciously, I have been setting very specific times that I wish to wake up at.
Example:
"I will wake up at 3:30AM"
I have just started a focused effort to master my internal alarm clock, so I don't have any consistent results to report. I often wake up in the middle of the night when I set those intentions, but I will be keeping track over the next few weeks to see what happens.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Add Some Color To Your Visualizations
One thing I have struggled to improve has been my visualization ability.
Visualization skills can be of enormous assistance in our lucid dreaming endeavors, especially when we try Wake-Induced Lucid Dreams (WILD). When falling asleep each night, I generally use a "silent" image streaming technique to get my visualization faculties warmed up.
Image streaming proper is the verbal description of the images, scenes and colors that you see or imagine when you close your eyes. Although the actual technique involves speaking aloud as you watch the images and scenes in your mind, my girlfriend wouldn't appreciate it if I talked loudly about the random (and sometimes racy) visions that appear in my head as I go to sleep. So I use a "silent" method, in which I internally describe the images as they appear.
This does two things:
1. It stays true to the core of image streaming, the purpose of which is to link your internal image streams to verbal representations. This creates a connection that will come in handy as you begin to become conscious in the dream world. By associating images with verbal descriptions (or, "commands"), you are more easily able to call up scenes and images in a lucid dream using the power of words.
2. It keeps your conscious internal dialogue connected to your imagery and imagination, which increases the likelihood that you will find yourself "awake" while dreaming.
Now, one thing that has always bothered me about my initial visualization warm-ups at the beginning of the night is that the images tend to be faint and somewhat lackluster. One thing that I have found to increase the vibrant color and detail of my imagery is to begin my visualizations by picturing solid colors for a period of ten to fifteen seconds each.
Generally I picture a large square that extends out of my field of vision, and go through a series of colors as pictured below (beginning with solid white):
What I've found is that I will go through these colors about 5-10 times, then focus again on actual images for about 3-5 minutes. Then I go back through the cycle of colors.
This has helped tremendously in enhancing the color and vibrancy of my visualizations.
Visualization skills can be of enormous assistance in our lucid dreaming endeavors, especially when we try Wake-Induced Lucid Dreams (WILD). When falling asleep each night, I generally use a "silent" image streaming technique to get my visualization faculties warmed up.
Image streaming proper is the verbal description of the images, scenes and colors that you see or imagine when you close your eyes. Although the actual technique involves speaking aloud as you watch the images and scenes in your mind, my girlfriend wouldn't appreciate it if I talked loudly about the random (and sometimes racy) visions that appear in my head as I go to sleep. So I use a "silent" method, in which I internally describe the images as they appear.
This does two things:
1. It stays true to the core of image streaming, the purpose of which is to link your internal image streams to verbal representations. This creates a connection that will come in handy as you begin to become conscious in the dream world. By associating images with verbal descriptions (or, "commands"), you are more easily able to call up scenes and images in a lucid dream using the power of words.
2. It keeps your conscious internal dialogue connected to your imagery and imagination, which increases the likelihood that you will find yourself "awake" while dreaming.
Now, one thing that has always bothered me about my initial visualization warm-ups at the beginning of the night is that the images tend to be faint and somewhat lackluster. One thing that I have found to increase the vibrant color and detail of my imagery is to begin my visualizations by picturing solid colors for a period of ten to fifteen seconds each.
Generally I picture a large square that extends out of my field of vision, and go through a series of colors as pictured below (beginning with solid white):
What I've found is that I will go through these colors about 5-10 times, then focus again on actual images for about 3-5 minutes. Then I go back through the cycle of colors.
This has helped tremendously in enhancing the color and vibrancy of my visualizations.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Are You Dreaming Now?
This blog is a forum for ideas, experiments, and artistic content related to dreams and more specifically lucid dreaming.
For anyone new to the ideas discussed here, lucid dreaming is the conscious experience of dreaming. Imagine what it would be like to experience your dreams with the same level of conscious awareness that you have right now as you read this blog. There is a continuity of awareness during the day that we commonly identify as "our" experiences, and it is this continuity that we seek to carry over into the dream state.
Many times when we are dreaming, our conscious minds are asleep with our bodies. As we encounter chaotic, bizarre, and sometimes frightening dream scenarios that would never occur during our waking hours, that critical part of our mind that would normally alert us to the absurdity of those scenarios is dormant. The main goal of lucid dreaming is to learn to activate this critical consciousness while dreaming, so that you essentially "wake up" while inside the dream.
This blog will discuss the techniques that can be learned to accomplish this, not only occasionally but each night that we sleep (if so desired).
For anyone new to the ideas discussed here, lucid dreaming is the conscious experience of dreaming. Imagine what it would be like to experience your dreams with the same level of conscious awareness that you have right now as you read this blog. There is a continuity of awareness during the day that we commonly identify as "our" experiences, and it is this continuity that we seek to carry over into the dream state.
Many times when we are dreaming, our conscious minds are asleep with our bodies. As we encounter chaotic, bizarre, and sometimes frightening dream scenarios that would never occur during our waking hours, that critical part of our mind that would normally alert us to the absurdity of those scenarios is dormant. The main goal of lucid dreaming is to learn to activate this critical consciousness while dreaming, so that you essentially "wake up" while inside the dream.
This blog will discuss the techniques that can be learned to accomplish this, not only occasionally but each night that we sleep (if so desired).
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