Lucid Dreaming On The News!

It has been a while since I posted to this blog, but I still continue to have lucid dreams. I just really havent had the time to update!

While browsing through some videos about lucid dreams, I found this 5 minute long video from Fox News, showing the rest of the world about lucid dreaming, and proving to them that it is actually possible!
Check out the video! You will be smiling the whole time you watch it!

How A Piano Helped Me Control My Dreams

Usually, a piano is used to create beautiful music. It has been used in many different genres of music, from jazz to classic, but I would have never guessed that a piano could cause lucid dreams!

The funny thing is… I dont know how to play the piano. I’ve never owned one, and the only time I remember playing one was just messing around in school. The thought of learning how to play one has crossed my mind a few times, but I never pursued the dream. Or… did I?

“I never pursued the dream“….. The dream!

Thanks to the world of lucid dreaming, you can live out all of your dreams. While browsing through the forums at LD4all (a great lucid dreaming forum), I came across a technique called the FILD (Finger Induced Lucid Dream). Basically, the FILD technique makes you pretend that you are playing the piano! You go through the finger movements and everything! So far, this has been the most successful method that I have came across to induce lucid dreams!

Here is how to do it:

• When you are really tired, and ready for bed, set an alarm clock for about 5 hours from the time that you fall asleep. Waking up after 5 hours usually guarantees that you wake up after a REM stage of sleep.
• When your alarm clock goes off 5 hours later, and you wake up, remain in your bed. If you are not already on your back, roll onto your back. If you are already on your back, roll to your side. The reason that you roll is so that your body slightly wakes up.
• Once you are comfortable, put your hand to your side, and begin to slightly move your middle and index finger, kind of like you are playing the piano
• While doing this, put all of your focus on your two moving fingers. Notice the power of your mind and its ability to make them move. Do not even think about falling asleep. Think of nothing but your fingers.
• After an uncounted (do not count in your head) 20 to 30 seconds, do a reality check. In most cases, you will already be dreaming, and a reality check will confirm that you are indeed dreaming! Most of the time, I enter a dream where I play the piano, and instantly become lucid! I know I dont have a piano, so that is the perfect indication of a dream!
• If the reality check proves that you are not dreaming, just try to go to sleep normally. Most of the time, because lucid dreaming is on your mind, you will enter a DILD (Dream Induced Lucid Dream). If not, try again when you wake up in the morning. Most of the time, you leave the REM stage shortly before you wake up in the morning.

Any time that you wake up in the middle of the night, whether you set your alarm to go off or not, try to do this method. The idea of setting your alarm clock for 5 hours later is just to assure that you are in the middle of, or just finished with a REM stage of sleep. If you wake up without an alarm clock in the middle of the night, chances are, you were dreaming. Try the FILD technique then, and you will have a great chance to go into a lucid dream!

I can not finish this post without giving credit where credit is due. Hargart, a member of the LD4all forums came up with this technique. It almost guarantees me a lucid dream every time I remember to do it, so this person basically gave me lucidity in a box! Hopefully, this post will do the same for you! Post comments and let me know how it goes!

Until Next Time,

Happy Dreaming!

Want To Have More Vivid Dreams? Drink This!

The difference between a normal dream and a vivid dream is like a black and white television, compared to an HDTV. If you could choose which television you watched, wouldn’t you choose the HDTV? Wouldn’t you rather be able to see the beautiful colors, and feel like you are actually there? If so, then why are you choosing not to have vivid dreams?

Notice, I typed the word ‘choosing’ in bold. I did that for a reason! When you go to bed at night, and you don’t do anything to improve the vividness of your dreams, it was your choice! There are a lot of things out there that you can do to make your dreams more vivid, its just up to you to follow through!

The lucid dreaming community is constantly looking for ways to improve dream recall and the vividness of our dreams. In recent years, there have been a few major developments. For the sake of this post, I will mention the best in my opinion.

Next time you go grocery shopping, pick up a few bottles of V8. Yeah… I mean that nasty vegetable juice that you can feel going down your throat. It may taste nasty, but it is VERY good for you. Not only is it the perfect substitute for those of us that hate vegetables, but it contains a few things that will greatly improve how vivid your dreams are!

A bottle of V8 contains two of the major discoveries in the world of lucid dreaming. It contains both melatonin and vitamin B6. Vitamin b6 does wonders for our dream recall and the vividness of our dreams. Taking B6 will increase the production of serotonin, which is a chemical released from our brain that makes us happy, thus causing more vivid dreams. Melatonin is a chemical released by the pineal gland that makes our body naturally relax and become tired. The combination of the two have been considered the magic that creates beautifully vivid dreams.

Sure, you could buy each of these things separately at your local pharmacy. In fact, this is what a lot of people do! Personally, I don’t really like taking a bunch of pills, just to try to improve my dreams. By drinking V8, I can get the same effect, without swallowing huge pills!

So, about a half-hour before you are ready to hit the hay, grab a bottle of V8 and down it. If you really hate the taste, just hold your nose and gulp! I learned this as a child when I had to drink cough syrup, and it is a very effective way of not tasting anything at all.

If you decide that you want to give this a try, I would really like to hear about your results. Leave me a comment, and let me know how everything went. Remember, don’t expect results on the very first night. If your dreams are not more vivid after the first night, try again the next night. Your body may need more B6 or melatonin than other people. After a few days of drinking this stuff, you will be amazed at how much more vivid your dreams are, and how much of them you can actually remember!

Until Next Time,
Happy Dreaming

Jump-Start Your Dream Life – Shortcuts To Lucidity

Shortcuts… We all love them! We wish there were shortcuts for every task that we are faced with on a daily basis, but we don’t have that kind of luck. The good news is: when it comes to dreaming, and becoming lucid in your dreams, there are a lot of shortcuts that you can take.

I want you to remember… shortcuts are in no way guaranteed to get you where you want to go. If you are driving and decide to take an unfamiliar shortcut, and you don’t have a map, you run the risk of getting lost. The same logic applies to these shortcuts. These are not guaranteed to help you become lucid, but if done correctly (you take the right roads), you will have a lucid dream much quicker.

Also, there are no shortcuts around keeping a dream journal. If you want to become lucid in a dream, it is absolutely necessary to keep a journal! Think of the dream journal as your map. It tells you what to look for while you are taking your shortcuts, so that you can go in the right direction.

If you are not already keeping a dream journal, I suggest you check out this post on keeping a dream journal. It doesn’t require a lot of work, and keeping one will almost guarantee your success.

Now, here are a few ways that you can jump-start your lucid dream life:

Brain Wave Generator

The BrainWave Generator software is a must have for any lucid dreamer wanna-be! Not only does it help you relax while laying in bed, but it also has presets that will greatly improve your chances of having a lucid dream.

From Download.com (click to go to download page)

BrainWave Generator is a brain-stimulation application that creates sounds with binaural beats. It can be used for relaxation, meditation, enhancing learning capabilities, sleep induction, self-hypnosis, and more. You can add a wide variety of new effects, including background voices or noise, up to four independent sound channels, and sound waveforms. Version 3.1 includes a visual stimulation feature that flashes the computer screen at a set frequency. It also includes several more sound parameters than previous versions.

Vibrating Watch

If you have read any of my other post’s, you probably know the importance of reality checks. Sometimes, we get too caught up in reality to remember to do reality checks, and this is where a vibrating watch comes into play. If you set the vibrating watch to go off every hour, and you do a reality check every time it goes off, you will train your mind to recognize that vibration = reality check.

You can leave the watch on while you sleep, and every hour (or whatever increments you make it go off at), your watch will vibrate. If you are in a dream, and you feel the vibration, you will do a reality check and realize that you are dreaming! Now, you can become lucid!

The Vibralite 3 Vibrating Watch is the perfect watch for this task. Personally, I set my watch for 45 minutes. Most watches wont allow you to set your watch to continuously go off in those increments (usually only every hour), without resetting it. In my experience, I found that I have a better possibility of being in the REM stage (The stage where you dream) every 45 minutes, instead of every hour.

You could also get a watch that beeps, but sometimes you wont hear the beep in your dream. Sounds are sometimes distorted, but the feeling of vibration can not be mistaken for anything else, unless you are dreaming of being on a roller coaster or something like that.

Dream Inducing Foods/Vitamins/Supplements/Herbs

While there has been no scientific evidence that says these things will make you have a lucid dream, if you look around the forums, you will notice that most people strongly believe that they help them become lucid in their dreams.

(Click for more information)

Vitamin B6

Banana’s

Chocolate

Melatonin

Calea Zacatechichi

Tumeric

Lucid Dreaming Kit

I started lucid dreaming before it was as popular as it is now. There wasn’t any “all-in-one” kits that helped me become lucid. Now, because of so much interest in lucid dreaming, there has been a lot more scientific study. When there is scientific study, methods of doing things become much easier. If you are looking for a kit that will help you become lucid, you should check out this lucid dreaming kit. They have a guarantee that you will have your first lucid dream within 7 days, or you will get a full refund. Thats a pretty solid guarantee if you ask me. I think it might be worth a try if everything else fails for you.

Well, Thats all I have for shortcuts right now. Subscribe to this feed, because I will be regularly updating it with new shortcuts and tools that I run into. Also, if you know of any other shortcuts or tools that you would like to share, please feel free to leave a comment.

Until next time,

Happy Dreaming!

The Discovery Channel Enters The DreamZone

If you are fascinated by the power of dreams, or you are looking to learn more about the meaning of your dreams, the Discovery Channel has a wonderful treat for you!

As a lucid dreamer, I couldn’t have been more excited when I heard about an upcoming series that will be aired by the Discovery Channel. They are calling it the “Dreamzone“. Here is what their website has to say about this series:

“This series examines, in some depth, but in a fast moving style, our inner universe as dreamers. Everybody dreams. Some people remember their dreams, some don’t. But we all dream several times per night. And we are all fascinated by what they might mean. Are they the remains of the day? Could they be foretelling the future? Or could they be our subconscious helping us sort out life’s problems? Dreams are a very mysterious, yet common everyday experience.”

Tell me that doesn’t sound interesting! You know the Discovery Channel only delivers quality programming, so this is something that dream enthusiasts should not miss!

If you haven’t had a a lucid dream yet, watching this show will probably greatly increase your chances of having one that night. In my experience, when I read about lucid dreaming, or watch shows about dreaming right before I go to sleep, my dreams are much more vivid, and I recognize that I am dreaming much easier.

Until next time,

Happy Dreaming!

3 Steps To Turn Your Nightmares Into Lucid Dreams

Nightmares…We all have them! Sometimes, they scare us so bad, we think about them for days upon days! We can picture each and every detail of the nightmare perfectly, and it haunts us every night before we go back to sleep!

The bad news:
There is no way that you can stop nightmares from happening. The exact cause of nightmares is still unknown, and until that is figured out, there is no way to prevent them.

The good news:
Through lucid dreaming, you can turn your nightmares into wonderful dreams!

Next time you go to sleep, and find yourself inside of a nightmare, think of this post and this blog. Think of the technique that I am about to tell you, and your nightmare will go away, and you will become lucid!

1. Recognize you are dreaming

Recognizing that you are dreaming can sometimes be the hardest part for most people. Check out this post on reality checks. Reality checks are the best way to recognize that you are in fact dreaming

2. Face your fears

Each and every person has fears. It is natural, and there is nothing wrong with being afraid of something! Sometimes, you subconscious uses dreaming to give it a chance to face its fears.

Take advantage of this opportunity! Whatever your nightmare is about, whether is it a monster chasing you, or a flock of killer birds flying over your head, stop, turn and face what you fear, and yell “This is my dream, get out!”

Most of the time, in my experience, the thing that I am fearing turns into something that would be very hard to be afraid of. One time, I was being chased by a wolf, I told the wolf to get out of my dream, and it turned into a deer (resembling the cute cartoon character, Bambi). Other times, it just turns into dust, and disappears.

3. Control the world around you

Now that you are completely in control of your dreams, you can do whatever your mind feels! You can fly through the skies, turn your surroundings into your dream vacation destination, and even talk to the mean thing that you just turned into Bambi! (Bambi will probably talk back, so don’t freak out!)

Lucid dreaming opens up your mind to experience things that in reality, you will never experience! Every time that you have a nightmare, think of this post, and take advantage of the opportunity to become lucid!

15 Things To Do In Your Next Dream

When you have the ability to control your dreams, you can do anything, and go anywhere you want! Sometimes, lucid dreams seem more realistic than actual reality!

Everyone has their own favorite things to do in their lucid dreams. Below, I have listed 15 things that I have tried, or plan on trying in the future in one of my dreams! If you are a lucid dreamer, and you have not done one of these, please feel free to try one of them some time, and tell us about what happened by submitting a comment. Also, if there is something not listed here that you want to recommend, please submit it in the form of a comment, so we can all see it!

Without further ado… here is my top 15 things to do in a dream (This color means I tried it. This color means I plan on trying it)

15. Leap from building to building (like Spider-man, but without the webs)

14. Drive your dream car

13. Walk through walls

12. Go on a top secret sniper mission to kill Osama- And succeed!

11. Visit the Niagara Falls

10. Go down the Niagara Falls in an inner-tube

9. Kick George Bush in the face

8. Set up a meeting with -insert your favorite person of all time here-

7. Create your own colorful sky

6. Join Scooby Doo on a mission – in a cartoon world!

5. Win the lottery

4. Spend all the money you won in the lottery

3. Make love to your dream lady/guy

2. Find your spirit guide

1. Fly

As you can see, once you learn how to control your dreams, the possibilities are endless! Use your mind to its full potential, and create your own world! If you are not a lucid dreamer, and you would like to become one, check out the other resources that I have listen on this blog. Until next time, happy dreaming!

Listen To Your Dreams And Improve Your Life

To some people, a dream is just a dream. They think that dreams occur regularly and have no meaning at all. Some people even believe that they don’t ever have dreams period! The truth is, a dream is your conscious talking to you. It is your mind’s way of acting out your inner-most desires.

Learning how to harness the information that your mind is giving you in a dream can be very beneficial to a lot of different aspects of your life. In this post from Dreamers United, Stephan Schumann talks about how he uses his lucid dreams to heal his body and soul.

“Our soul knows about health. When a part of the body, soul and spirit totality becomes unbalanced or when we have made a decision that could cause damage to us or others, this is revealed to us in our dreams. An imbalance that has existed for a long time, e.g., due to an unhealthy way of life or unresolved conflicts, can lead to somatic illness. A signal of our body – pain is the voice of the body – can provide an opportunity to return to oneself and to check if possibly a change is necessary. If we alter our habits, our dreams change, too. Actively occupying ourselves with our dreams will positively influence our health, family, relationships, professional, financial and mental/spiritual development substantially. Why? If we are honest and truly follow our life’s way, the soul gets to be ever stronger and more radiant. With time, we will discard all the old robes, patterns and convictions and come to experience the best that is in us. Dreams know the answer. They are healing for the soul.”

read more

Next time you are dreaming, even if you do not become lucid in your dream, try to pay attention to the messages that your conscious is trying to give you. For example, in one of my dreams, I was smoking a cigarette, and blew out dark black smoke. Since that dream, I stopped smoking! I actually quit the very next day (It took a little bit to decode the message). I realized that the black smoke was my conscious showing me exactly what I am doing to my lungs every time I smoke!

5 Ways To Tell A Dream From Reality

I’m sure that you’ve had a dream or two where you thought to yourself… “Am I Dreaming?” What do you think would happen if you realized that you were indeed dreaming? Would you be able to control your dreams?

Dr. Stephen LaBerge asked himself this same question. While he studied dreaming at Stanford University, he conducted many experiments to support the fact that a dream can be controlled, as long as the person dreaming recognizes the difference from reality and a dream.

Dr. LaBerge came up with a great way to tell a dream from reality. Whenever he thought that he could be dreaming, he would do a reality check. A reality check will tell yourself whether or not you are dreaming, by noticing things that are not real in a dream world!Next time you think you are dreaming, do one of the following reality checks. Different reality checks work for different people, so don’t get bent out of shape if the first one you try doesn’t work!

• The Hand Reality Check

This is the reality check that has worked the best for me. Whenever you think you are dreaming, take a look at your hands. Most of the time, in a dream, your hands will look completely different than they really do. In my dreams, sometimes my hands are super big, or they have 6 fingers! Sometimes, they are really small, or they have 5 fingers! Sometimes, they don’t even look like hands at all (I had dog paws once- weird)

• The Nose Squeezer

This check has worked for me a few times, but I usually forget to do this one. Next time you believe you might be dreaming, try to plug your nose by squeezing on both sides of it. In reality, you will not be able to blow out. In a dream, most of the time, you will have no problem blowing out!

• The Thirteen Hour Clock

For some reason, a clock always ends up in my dreams. It might be our internal alarm clock that everyone always speaks of, but I’m not sure of the real reason there is always a clock. Next time you are in a dream, try to look at a clock. In my experiences, sometimes there are thirteen numbers instead of twelve! Occasionally, there will be more hands on the clock too! If you look at the clock, and it looks un-real, it probably isn’t! You are dreaming!

• Run For Lucidity!

If you have ever tried to run in a dream, you have probably noticed that you feel really sluggish. It feels like you are moving as slow as a slug, and you cant get your legs to move any faster! This is a great way to tell a dream from reality! In a real world, you would be able to run as any other normal person! The best part is, once you realize you are dreaming because you cant run, you can become lucid and start to fly! Who needs to run, when you can fly wherever you want to go?

• The Blurry Sign

For some reason, if you try to read signs in a dream, they will be blurry. The words may move, or change right before your eyes! Pay attention to this, because it can be your ticket to lucidity! In reality, signs don’t usually have blurry, or moving words, and they definitely wont change before your eyes (unless its one of those flashy billboards).

If you want to start to train yourself to do reality checks, just do them randomly during the day, even if you know for a fact that you aren’t dreaming. If you train your mind to check for a dream while in reality, it will remember to check for reality during a dream! Throughout the day, randomly look at your hands and say “Am I Dreaming?” You can also buy a watch with the hands (not a digital one), and look at it regularly through the day. Once you become used to doing reality checks, they will become natural, even in a dream world!

The moment that you do your reality check, and you realize that you are in fact dreaming, your body will be filled with excitement! Colors will become very bright, sounds will become very crisp, and you will see everything with perfect clarity! At this point, you have a whole world, inside of your own mind, that you can explore! You can use your dream to fly, talk to that lady or guy that you have been crushing on, and even walk through walls!