What is lucid dreaming and what is it for?

Lucid dreaming is characterized by being aware of dreaming. It can be given spontaneously or be induced through practice and exercises. 

What is lucid dreaming and what is it for?

The use of the adjective "lucid" as a synonym for "conscious" was introduced in 1867 by the French writer and specialist in dreams Léon d'Hervey de Saint-Denys, in his work Dreams and how to control them (in French Rêves et les moyens de direct them ).

Although the ability to recognize and control dream states appeared much earlier in Buddhist texts in the 7th century.

Dreaming awareness gives you the possibility to deliberately control not only your actions, but also the content and development of your dream.

What are the benefits of lucid dreaming?

I put here only some aspects that I have been able to experience:

Explore aspects of your subconscious that appear in your dreams, that is, start working with your own symbols. Your unconscious part can communicate with you with its own record of symbols. Learning to recognize them, feel them and give them your own sense will help you expand your vision of the world and of yourself.

Address emotional situations that we cannot resolve during the day. Lucid dreams allow you to be an actor in the dream and change the course of situations. From a conscious vision you will use infinite resources (all that allow you to sleep) that can inspire your daily life.

"Heal" in dreams. Dreaming is therapeutic and there are infinite ways to communicate with the unconscious to have results in conscious life. I have had lucid dreams where healings were performed, rites with deceased people from my family and I have been able to verify the change in my daily life and my level of acceptance of the death of these people.

Exploring endless possibilities beyond the limits we set in our daily lives... is to undertake a journey where we use our creativity and cleanse our psyches in a more conscious way.

Everyone can develop lucid dreams for a different reason.

In my practice, lucid dreams have given me more understanding about my emotional processes and my spiritual path. They have opened an infinite world to me where I am learning every day. It is opening up to the great mystery of life, of the psyche. 

My lucid dreams lead me every time to other ways of understanding the universe and expanding the possibilities of living in it. Sometimes I receive spiritual information and messages, sometimes I live complex situations where my judgment is put to the test, sometimes I clean all the shadow submerging myself in my deepest darkness... It is an infinite gift of Consciousness and it is worth dedicating time and intention.

I put a technique that can be a starting point... personally, I started working with intention and aiming the dreams when I woke up... then everything has gone through its own process...

MILD technique

The MILD technique (Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dream, or in Spanish, Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams), was developed, or rather made known to the general public by Stephen Laberge of Stanford University.

It is easy to apply, and is used when you wake up from a dream and go back to sleep. While this is happening you should:

Remember the recent dream

Before falling asleep again, remember your recent dream as best you can.

Develop intention

As you fall asleep, repeat the phrase to yourself: «I am going to fall asleep and I am going to dream. I am going to remember this and I am going to realize it when I am dreaming », or something like that with the same meaning. It is not enough to repeat it mechanically, you must truly "want" it; you have to put a lot of intention in what you say.

Visualize

Once you feel that intention is well "fixed", visualize the dream from which you have just awakened, and imagine that within it you realize that you are dreaming. It also helps to imagine that when you realize it, you do some "dream" activity of your own liking, such as flying.

Repeat the previous steps

While you fall asleep, your mind will start to go everywhere; you must "bring" it back to your object of attention, fix your attention and visualize, fix your attention and... until you fall asleep. This is why a parallel is drawn between meditation and dream lucidity - all forms of contemplation practice "bringing back" the mind to the present moment.

It is much easier to practice the technique during the last hours of sleep in the morning, due to the higher REM density after having slept for several hours.

This applies to all techniques; It is much easier to have lucid dreams during the last hours of sleep, so I recommend you sleep normally during the first part of the night, to start your practice early just before dawn.