In our waking life, we normally experience various levels of consciousness. We can be totally self-aware and conscious, partially self-aware or unconscious. Just like in waking life, there can be different levels of consciousness when dreaming. The goal of lucid dreaming is to develop the ability to become conscious enough in a dream to realize that you are dreaming and to interact with your dreams to affect your desired outcomes. Having the ability to lucid dream creates positive effects in your waking life by feeling more empowered and self-assured to engage with the content and process of living in your daily life. Here are some lucid dreaming tools and a self-hypnosis process that you can use to program yourself to have and activate lucid dreaming abilities. You will combine these new skills with the basic skills to do the dream job. My previous articles on dreams, “Dream Work and Hypnosis” and “Self-Hypnosis for Dream Incubation,” will give you basic guidelines for remembering and journaling your dreams.
lucid dreaming skills
The first skill of lucid dreaming is mindfulness. He begins by wondering when in a dream, “Am I dreaming?” Here are some specific things you can do after asking the question “Am I dreaming?”
Look at a clock and look again. In dream time, the numbers or clock face may have strange numbers, images, or be distorted. Or look at your hands. In a dream they may not be recognizable as one’s own. Or look into a pool of water, a window, or a mirror to see your reflection. In a dream, the reflection is often distorted, blurry, or unrecognizable. Or reading something in a dream may have content or writing that changes as you read.
You can preset and hypnotically practice using a symbol in your dream as a sign that you are dreaming. A dreamer, Susan, uses her power animal, a butterfly, as a signal to realize that she is dreaming. An experienced lucid dreamer, Jay, uses the sound of his favorite instrument, a flute, as a clue to realize that he is in a dream. Pick a cue or cue for yourself and practice responding to it in your self-hypnosis for lucid dreaming.
If an abnormality occurs in your dream, you can use it as a sign that you are dreaming. For example, experiencing that your body is flying; groom a bear; exploring Saturn in a convertible; or playfully swimming in a pool with sharks; they would be good indicators that you are having a dream.
The second skill of lucid dreaming is being able to recognize the dream cues that let you know you are dreaming. One way to recognize your dream signs is to look carefully at your past dreams for themes or patterns, things that commonly reoccur in your dreams. For example, do you have dream themes of doing activities such as talking on the phone with someone you have passed, cleaning the house, planning a class you will teach, or playing ball on a particular beach? Recognizing the signs of your dreams will help you remember your dreams and can be a clue to ask yourself: Am I dreaming? Practice asking yourself this question throughout the day to become more lucid in your waking state and you will condition yourself to ask yourself the same question and become lucid in your dreams. By comparing your waking perceptions with those of dreams, you will begin to notice intrinsic distinctions between waking and dream reality.
Sometimes dreamers wake up prematurely from a lucid dream. Stephen LaBerge, a well-known lucid dreaming researcher, proposes two ways to prolong a lucid dream: The first is to rub your hands in the dream to activate the brain and produce the sensation of rubbing your hands instead of the sensation of lying on the bed. bed coming to consciousness. The second is spinning your dream body to engage the brain in rapid eye movement activation that can extend a phase of rapid eye movement sleep, the dream state of consciousness most directly related to lucid dreaming. In hypnosis, you can successfully rehearse skills using all of these lucid dreaming tools so that when you are in the dream state, they are more available in dream awareness and you can access the skills.
About self-hypnosis for lucid dreaming
Using self-hypnosis will help you expand your intention and cultivate your lucid dreaming abilities. In a hypnotic state, you can program mindfulness and rehearse the lucid dreaming skills you want to use to become interactive in your dreams. Using self-hypnosis before going to sleep, you can program your subconscious with suggestions and practice hypnotically asking, “Am I dreaming?” It can be programmed with the suggestion, “The next time I dream of ______________ (fill in the content of your common dream topic) I will realize that I am dreaming.” You can also have a hypnotic dream where you practice all the skills of lucid dreaming and experience what it will be like to be mindful and interactive in your dreams.
Before going through the self-hypnosis process, take some time to write down some suggestions for lucid dreaming that you will give yourself. Write the suggestions using the pronoun “I” and in the present tense. Keep the language of your suggestions positive and simple. Here is a basic induction and outline for self-hypnosis. Read the script several times to familiarize yourself with the sequence of the process, or record it in your own voice to listen to while in bed. When performing self-hypnosis, go through the process slowly to allow time for your internal responses.
self hypnosis for lucid dreaming
Be persistent and patient in using this self-hypnosis and you will cultivate the skills, benefits, and joys of lucid, interactive dreaming in your dream time.
Lie down in bed after getting ready for sleep. If you feel comfortable doing this, lying on your back is ideal because your body is open and receptive.
Close your eyes.
Take a few deep, clear breaths.
Imagine that you are walking on a path in nature. Each step will help you relax and let yourself go.
Take in the details of your surroundings. See, listen and feel as you go down the road. Have fun exploring with all your senses.
As you continue walking down the trail, notice a growing sense of relaxation and comfort.
At some point you discover a bench where you can sit and rest. You close your eyes while resting and as you relax further, you start to have a dream. Let the dream unfold.
You wonder, “am I dreaming?”
You look at your hands or use any of the other actions to check if you are dreaming.
The signs that you are dreaming are clear and you become interactive in your dream.
Once you realize you are lucid dreaming, you rub your hands together or begin to spin, knowing that these dream activities will help you stay in the dream state so that you can continue lucid dreaming.
You give yourself all the positive suggestion you desire to support this hypnotic experience as you transfer it into your dream time. The more you use self-hypnosis for lucid dreaming, the easier it will be to activate the abilities while dreaming.
Now, you move naturally from this hypnotic dream to the dream and to the lucid dream.
When you wake up in the morning, to reinforce your commitment and intentions to lucid dreaming, you write your dreams in a journal.