In my 20s, I wrote down my dreams almost every morning, studied Jung and symbolism, and read and re-read books like Ann Faraday’s Dream Game and Denise Linn's The Hidden Power of Dreams.
But not until a few nights ago had I ever lucid dreamed.
And, boy, was it worth the wait. It was amazing!
What is a lucid dream?
In my understanding, it is a dream where you know you are dreaming and
can therefore manipulate the experience.
The idea is that if you can get in that strange and wonderful
state where you are basically simultaneously asleep and awake, you can learn to
use those skills in your waking life -- manifesting, creating, and healing in a
deeper way.
To say this was a spiritual experience is an
understatement!
This first lucid dream was triggered by the fact that,
recently, a dear friend of mine and her partner (kundalini yoga teachers, Kewal
Nam and Atma, respectively) were experimenting with lucid dreaming
themselves. Atma’s Tibetan Buddhist
tradition teaches that many healing techniques can be strengthened and
practiced through lucid dreaming.
Cool, right?! Yeah,
Kewal Nam and I thought so too.
So when Kewal shared her latest lucid dream experience
with me, giving techniques on how to shift into that state, I declared my
desire to have it happen too.
Not two weeks later, when I least expected it, it did!
Here’s how to prompt a lucid dream:
1.
Set a “trigger.” I had read years ago that if you can look at
your hands in your dream, it is a way to know if you are dreaming. That is exactly what happened to me, although
Kewal had suggested that you could also elicit it by reading something (only to
look away and look back to different words) or by seeing your reflection. I believe that the “hands” notion worked for
me because it had been instilled in my psyche for so long, and also, my mind
was freshly prepared for lucid dreaming because of my recent intention to do
it.
2.
In
your dream, ask yourself if you are dreaming.
Because my trigger was set, when I saw my hands, I immediately said
to myself in my dream, “I think I’m dreaming.”
I looked around and realized that the scenario was bizarre, which
confirmed it. I got really excited,
knowing that I could now do whatever I wanted…because I was dreaming and I knew
it!
3.
Have
a goal. I now know that it’s really
nice to know what you want to do in a lucid dream before you go into that state,
because I was so excited to be lucid dreaming, I sort of didn’t know what to do
first. So I flew. It took a moment of getting through
self-doubt (can I really fly?), but soon I was off, soaring into a mystical
sky!
4.
Believe
in the magic of dreams. The
Universe is huge and mysterious and amazing.
To close yourself off to the power of your subconscious, or dreamtime,
or spirit guides or anything beyond logic is to certainly block yourself from
experiencing the powerful experience of a lucid dream. The next day, the world looked fresh and
clear and new, and I was filled with gratitude and wonder, and I experienced a
flow and knowing that was almost child-like.
So what happened in my dream? Well...
...while I was
flying, I looked over a city that I knew was the future. It was vivid green and submerged in a gorgeous
tree canopy with lovely sleek, silver buildings speckled throughout, peeking out above the trees, columnar-like. It was full of hope, and I believe it was a
reminder that this is the direction the world will go as we individually and
collectively develop a higher consciousness. It was nature and city in harmony.
The dream continued, with me going in and out of awareness,
and several times, I had the opportunity (including seeing my reflection, which
was smiling while I made funny faces at it) to remind myself I was dreaming. At one point, I remembered Atma’s learning,
and I beamed out some light to the world for healing.
After all….”Life what is it, but a dream?”
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