☆Oneiromancy Lesson 5☆

Lucid Dreaming

What is Lucid Dreaming?

The idea of lucid dreaming is one many people wish to accomplish. To be “conscious” in your
dreams can be extremely useful for fostering creativity, controlling nightmares, manifesting
things in the real world, and healing from your experiences.

It is an awareness of a dream taking place. This can be hard for some people to do and it may be
easier for others, but we will go over some tips on how you can achieve this in your dreams.

One of the people we have to credit for the lucid dreaming research in the past 40 years is
Stephen LaBerge. The majority of this lesson today will be based on his work and its tried and
true methods. Go check out his book in the UC library “Exploring the World of Lucid
Dreaming” if you are interested in doing more research.

Things to be cautious of
Lucid dreaming is not for everyone. It can take a long time to master it, and much like how going
into the astral in a bad state can be dangerous, the same thing can be said about lucid dreaming.
While it can be a useful tool to use to get out of nightmares, do remember that what you think
about can occur in the dream world and you need to be cautious of it. Lucid dreaming methods
also cause restless sleep and can seriously mess with your circadian rhythm so I do not
recommend trying to do this every night. I have also known to experience dysphoria because of
lucid dreaming so please make sure you are in a healthy state before you try this.

How to Lucid Dream

According to LaBerge, there are 5 different methods of achieving lucid dreaming.

1. Reality testing
By testing your reality in the waking life, it will be easier to tell you are dreaming when
you do these things in the real world. Ask yourself “Am I dreaming?” and ground
yourself, taking note of your surroundings. Some things people commonly use to do this
is to cover their nose and mouth to check if they are breathing, checking the solidity of
objects, looking into mirrors, looking at yourself or your hands, and checking the time
within your dreams. Do this in real life multiple times a day so you will program your
brain to do those things consistently in dreams as well. This is the method I tend to use
most, specifically the breathing method or asking a specific question to myself or
someone in the dream that they would know in real life.

2. Wake back to bed

Set an alarm for the middle of the night a few hours after you would go to bed. When that
alarm goes off, do an activity for a little bit, usually 30-120 minutes that is highly creative
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Lucid Dreaming
like gaming or reading, then go back to sleep. I personally don’t use this method but I
have found that I am able to better ludic dream after I wake up in the middle of the night.

3. Mnemonic induction of lucid dreams (MILD)

This is the more intuitive type of lucid dreaming where you set your intention to lucid
dream before you go to bed. It works extremely well if you are able to do things in your
dream that you cannot do in reality. A prime example for me is I am always able to fly in
my dreams, due to constant conditioning and practice. If I think really hard about this
before I go to sleep, especially in a particular dream, I will recognize I am dreaming the
next time I do this thing in a dream. Manifest that you will remember you are in a dream
the next time you fall asleep.

4. Dream journaling
Like I have said in previous lessons, Dream journaling is a great way to help remember
your dreams and can make it easier to recognize a dream when you go back into it,
especially when you consistently read that dream journal.

5. Wake-initiated lucid dreaming (WILD)

This is the hardest method to use, but it essentially connects with your senses deeply
enough that you can meditate yourself into a lucid dreaming state. This occurs when you
first enter a dream, you may experience sensations that you wouldn’t normally be able to
do so or they are disruptive in the dream that it causes you to realize you are dreaming.
This is heavily associated with hypnagogic theory which I will not be talking about due
to its triggering nature, but I will link sources below.

How to change your dreams

Alright, so you know that you are awake in your dream and you want to be able to shift the
dream. How do you do this? Here I will provide a method directly from the book by LaBerge
and my own method for achieving this.

The Spinning Method (from the book)

1. Notice when the dream begins to fade
When a dream ends, the visual sense fades first Other senses may persist longer, with touch
being among the last to go. The first sign that a lucid dream is about to end is usually a loss of
color and realism in your visual imagery. The dream may lose visual detail and begin to take on
a cartoon like or washed-out appearance. You may find the light growing very dim, or your
vision becoming progressively weaker.

2. Spin as soon as the dream begins to fade

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Lucid Dreaming
As soon as the visual imagery of your lucid dream begins to fade, quickly, before the feel of your
dream body evaporates, stretch out your arms and spin like a top (with your dream body, of
course). It doesn’t matter whether you pirouette, or spin like a top, dervish, child, or bottle, as
long as you vividly feel your dream body in motion. This is not the same as imagining you are
spin-ning; for the technique to work, you must feel the vivid sensation of spinning.

3. While spinning, remind yourself that the next thing you see will probably be a dream
Continue to spin, constantly reminding yourself that the next thing you see, touch, or hear will
very probably be a dream.

4. Test your state wherever you seem to arrive

Continue spinning until you find yourself in a stable world. You will either still be dreaming or
have awak-ened. Therefore, carefully and critically test which state you are in

The Foundational Method (personal method)

Start by finding a happy place in the dream you are in, a place where you can sit down and script
out the narrative. For some this may be a field or a beach or even their home. Whatever the place
is, you need to make sure you are relaxed and able to visualize and build the things you want to
achieve. Think of it as like a control room, like the white room in the Matrix. Using your
visualization, start to imagine a scenario, as if you are remembering a memory or a daydream.
Imagine yourself in that narrative and then once you are there, as long as you remember it is a
“memory” or a visualization, you can easily pull out back to the safe space if you find you are
having difficulty controlling things. Make sure you actively narrate it in your head, noticing all
the different colors and feelings of things.
This method can be very hard for people who cannot visualize things. If it’s hard for you to come
up with a scenario, start small and try to conjure up things in your safe space rather than trying to
transport yourself to a “memory.”

How to wake up
So a lot of the time, people will wake up from lucid dreams either because there is a loss of
lucidity or because they force themselves to wake up. We will be giving some methods of the
latter to help you get out of a dream completely.

● Blink really fast

● Call for help/scream in the dream
● Fall asleep in your dream
● Try to go back to the beginning/walking into a dream transition like a black void
● Attempting to do things that your brain cannot do in a dream state like reading a sign or a
book
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Lucid Dreaming
Sources
https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-sleep/how-to-lucid-dream#how-to-wake-up
https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep-health/hypnagogic-hallucinations#causes
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/lucid-dreams
Exploring the world of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge