As long as I could remember, I loved living. I loved living so much, that during my younger years, I was in denial that one day our life & the life of everyone I knew would come to an end. And we spend 1/3 (approx. ~26 years) of it unconcious? That’s BS! I saw lucid dreaming as a way to extend the amount of time we have on this strange planet. Or at least the amount of time we spend it conscious. I went down a lucid dreaming rabbit hole. I started lurking on the r/luciddreaming subreddit almost on a daily basis.

Nowadays, I have come to terms with our limited time here. However, I’ve found a different potential use for lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is simply just realizing you are in a dream. This unlocks magic powers to be able to start controlling everything in your dream. It makes a dream indistinguishable from real life! This makes it possible to improve on your skills! I have been able to do things such as practice meditating and chinese learning while lucid dreaming. This blew my mind! Despite starting so long ago, I am far from being a lucid dreaming expert. Even when I was the most consistent with my practices, I never got to more than lucid dreaming 1-2 times a month. But each time, it was was mindblowing! And was enough to keep the interest going. These are the steps I took to get me there. Consistency is key though. I’ll explain below.

Step 1 Absolute first step is to start keeping a dream journal. There is no way around this. This is the most important part. I don’t want to hear “Well I never remember any of my dreams! How can I keep a dream journal?” Because I was exactly there before too. When I first started a dream journal, I would write down absolutely any little thing I could remember. Often times, it was just ONE word, or a feeling, or a person I remember dreaming about but couldn’t remember at all the dream. Write down absolutely anything! There were some times all I had to write down was a shape. Nothing else. Point is, just write something. My one word entries soon turned into 1 sentence entries, then a couple. I got to a point I was writing 2 pages worth of dreams on a daily basis. This is what I meant about consistency above. Currently, because I was not consistent with it, I am back down to writing 2-3 sentences per day of my dreams. It’s increasing again though! Ok, on to next step.

Step 2 Next step is probably the hardest to keep consistent with. It is to perform “dream checks” irl. This means asking yourself in real life if you are dreaming. (But really asking yourself! Actually pause and think hard about it even if you are certain you are awake). Some dream checks include:

1. Pinching your finger & seeing if it hurts

2. Counting the fingers on your hand & making sure they add up to 10

3. Pinching your nose & seeing if you can breath or not

My favortie is #3. I’ll pinch my nose & see I cannot breath & only then I can conclude I am awake. The idea is to make your irl self get used to performing dream checks so you start doing so in dreams too. It works! I myself have noticed that when the pandemic started, I started wearing a mask in my dreams too. Same concept.

Tip: I would tie a little rubber band around my finger. Everytime I noticed it or felt it, it would prompt me to do a dream check. Ok, next step!

Step 3 One of the reasons to keep a dream journal is to start recognizing your dream signs. For example, some of my dream signs include:

1. Personified animals

2. irl rooms looking a little off, a bit morphed

Over time, dream signs would also promt me to do dream checks in my dreams

Some of the times I became lucid:

Here is an example of a time I became lucid in a dream after performing a dream check. It went something like this. I was at a picnic with my family. I got a feeling I was in a dream. I am not sure what prompted me to feel this. I remember trying to talk myself out of not performing a dream check! I remember thinking: there is no way this is not real life. I continued to perform the dream check #3 anyway. I could still breath! In that instant I knew I was in a dream & became lucid. Here’s the thing though. Once you become lucid. It is extremely difficult to stay lucid. This is a whole other part to master. I’ll include tips on how to stay lucid for longer below. But of all the times I’ve been lucid, no one time has lasted more than 5-10 minutes. It requires an incredible amount of focus to stay lucid. Some people are natural lucid dreamers & have no problem having lots of lucid dreams or staying lucid for long periods of time.

Another time, I was in a random room with a bed. I don’t remember what prompted me to do a dream check, but when I became lucid, it went something like this: “Shit, shit, I am in a dream. Okay, don’t get too excited or you will wake up. Okay, shit. Okay. Focus. Focus. Shit, I’m in a dream. Holy shit, everything looks so real!!. Shit. Okay. Do something cool.” The second I start walking within the room, the lucidity begins to become “fuzzy” like I feel myself losing it. In this lucid dream, I remember staying next to the bed most of the time and pressing down on it being amazed at how the touch felt SO real as well. Indistinguishable from real life. 

Step 4 Okay, so now you are lucid in a dream. Don’t freak out! Key is to focus on your breathing & stay focused. Here is an amazing tip that has worked wonders for me. Once I start feeling like I am losing the lucidity, I will look at my hands & just focus on my hands. I’ll put them right up to my face & for some reason, that helps me stay lucid. Once I feel I have control again, I’ll go back to whatever I was doing. Whether thats flying, practicing a language, exploring a new world! The possibilities are endless & way better than current VR tech. Since you can see, touch, smell, taste, and hear just as you would irl. Oh btw, meditating is also a good way to stay lucid if you feel yourself losing it.

Other random stuff

1. It’s easier to become lucid while taking naps in middle of the day since you are not in a very deep sleep. This is the same reason I become lucid more often when it is early in the morning & I have already woken up but then have gone back to sleep.

2. One time while my sister was napping, I started whispering in her ear “you are dreaming” repeatedly. When she woke up, she said it caused her to become lucid! Perhaps this is something to try out with a friend. (Sounds irl often infiltrate & influence my dreams)

3. Setting an alarm in the middle of the night just to write down my dreams has helped me remember a lot more dreams in that moment

4. I’ve had dreams before where it was completely black but was having auditory dreams? Auditory hallucination? This blurs the line between dreaming and hallucinating. No idea what was going on there. The human brain is so interesting!

5. This doesn’t happen every time but sometimes while waking up in the middle of being lucid feels so weird!!! It feels like someone grabbing hold on your shirt & lifting you out of water. Feels like being “transported”. Very strange & awesome.

To think about: The fact that we can start controlling our dreams only once we become aware we are in a dream has made me question if this applies to real life too. This is not something new in philosophy & there are lots of variations to this theory. Such as: The law of attraction/power of assumption, believing our subconcious controls our reality, multiple universe theory, chaos magic, etc. etc. Stay tuned for my next topic: “Schrödinger's Cat, Law of Attraction, and Entropy” & how physics may be used to back some of these ideas. :D

Angel # 111: Your thoughts shape your reality, imagination creates reality

Closing remarks There is so much more information online on how to induce lucid dreams! r/luciddreaming is not a bad place to start. Not one method works for everyone! Find your special recipe that works for you. <3

As long as I could remember, I loved living. I loved living so much, that during my younger years, I was in denial that one day our life & the life of everyone I knew would come to an end. And we spend 1/3 (approx. ~26 years) of it unconcious? That’s BS! I saw lucid dreaming as a way to extend the amount of time we have on this strange planet. Or at least the amount of time we spend it conscious. I went down a lucid dreaming rabbit hole. I started lurking on the r/luciddreaming subreddit almost on a daily basis.

Nowadays, I have come to terms with our limited time here. However, I’ve found a different potential use for lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is simply just realizing you are in a dream. This unlocks magic powers to be able to start controlling everything in your dream. It makes a dream indistinguishable from real life! This makes it possible to improve on your skills! I have been able to do things such as practice meditating and chinese learning while lucid dreaming. This blew my mind! Despite starting so long ago, I am far from being a lucid dreaming expert. Even when I was the most consistent with my practices, I never got to more than lucid dreaming 1-2 times a month. But each time, it was was mindblowing! And was enough to keep the interest going. These are the steps I took to get me there. Consistency is key though. I’ll explain below.

Step 1 Absolute first step is to start keeping a dream journal. There is no way around this. This is the most important part. I don’t want to hear “Well I never remember any of my dreams! How can I keep a dream journal?” Because I was exactly there before too. When I first started a dream journal, I would write down absolutely any little thing I could remember. Often times, it was just ONE word, or a feeling, or a person I remember dreaming about but couldn’t remember at all the dream. Write down absolutely anything! There were some times all I had to write down was a shape. Nothing else. Point is, just write something. My one word entries soon turned into 1 sentence entries, then a couple. I got to a point I was writing 2 pages worth of dreams on a daily basis. This is what I meant about consistency above. Currently, because I was not consistent with it, I am back down to writing 2-3 sentences per day of my dreams. It’s increasing again though! Ok, on to next step.

Step 2 Next step is probably the hardest to keep consistent with. It is to perform “dream checks” irl. This means asking yourself in real life if you are dreaming. (But really asking yourself! Actually pause and think hard about it even if you are certain you are awake). Some dream checks include:

1. Pinching your finger & seeing if it hurts

2. Counting the fingers on your hand & making sure they add up to 10

3. Pinching your nose & seeing if you can breath or not

My favortie is #3. I’ll pinch my nose & see I cannot breath & only then I can conclude I am awake. The idea is to make your irl self get used to performing dream checks so you start doing so in dreams too. It works! I myself have noticed that when the pandemic started, I started wearing a mask in my dreams too. Same concept.

Tip: I would tie a little rubber band around my finger. Everytime I noticed it or felt it, it would prompt me to do a dream check. Ok, next step!

Step 3 One of the reasons to keep a dream journal is to start recognizing your dream signs. For example, some of my dream signs include:

1. Personified animals

2. irl rooms looking a little off, a bit morphed

Over time, dream signs would also promt me to do dream checks in my dreams

Some of the times I became lucid:

Here is an example of a time I became lucid in a dream after performing a dream check. It went something like this. I was at a picnic with my family. I got a feeling I was in a dream. I am not sure what prompted me to feel this. I remember trying to talk myself out of not performing a dream check! I remember thinking: there is no way this is not real life. I continued to perform the dream check #3 anyway. I could still breath! In that instant I knew I was in a dream & became lucid. Here’s the thing though. Once you become lucid. It is extremely difficult to stay lucid. This is a whole other part to master. I’ll include tips on how to stay lucid for longer below. But of all the times I’ve been lucid, no one time has lasted more than 5-10 minutes. It requires an incredible amount of focus to stay lucid. Some people are natural lucid dreamers & have no problem having lots of lucid dreams or staying lucid for long periods of time.

Another time, I was in a random room with a bed. I don’t remember what prompted me to do a dream check, but when I became lucid, it went something like this: “Shit, shit, I am in a dream. Okay, don’t get too excited or you will wake up. Okay, shit. Okay. Focus. Focus. Shit, I’m in a dream. Holy shit, everything looks so real!!. Shit. Okay. Do something cool.” The second I start walking within the room, the lucidity begins to become “fuzzy” like I feel myself losing it. In this lucid dream, I remember staying next to the bed most of the time and pressing down on it being amazed at how the touch felt SO real as well. Indistinguishable from real life. 

Step 4 Okay, so now you are lucid in a dream. Don’t freak out! Key is to focus on your breathing & stay focused. Here is an amazing tip that has worked wonders for me. Once I start feeling like I am losing the lucidity, I will look at my hands & just focus on my hands. I’ll put them right up to my face & for some reason, that helps me stay lucid. Once I feel I have control again, I’ll go back to whatever I was doing. Whether thats flying, practicing a language, exploring a new world! The possibilities are endless & way better than current VR tech. Since you can see, touch, smell, taste, and hear just as you would irl. Oh btw, meditating is also a good way to stay lucid if you feel yourself losing it.

Other random stuff

1. It’s easier to become lucid while taking naps in middle of the day since you are not in a very deep sleep. This is the same reason I become lucid more often when it is early in the morning & I have already woken up but then have gone back to sleep.

2. One time while my sister was napping, I started whispering in her ear “you are dreaming” repeatedly. When she woke up, she said it caused her to become lucid! Perhaps this is something to try out with a friend. (Sounds irl often infiltrate & influence my dreams)

3. Setting an alarm in the middle of the night just to write down my dreams has helped me remember a lot more dreams in that moment

4. I’ve had dreams before where it was completely black but was having auditory dreams? Auditory hallucination? This blurs the line between dreaming and hallucinating. No idea what was going on there. The human brain is so interesting!

5. This doesn’t happen every time but sometimes while waking up in the middle of being lucid feels so weird!!! It feels like someone grabbing hold on your shirt & lifting you out of water. Feels like being “transported”. Very strange & awesome.

To think about: The fact that we can start controlling our dreams only once we become aware we are in a dream has made me question if this applies to real life too. This is not something new in philosophy & there are lots of variations to this theory. Such as: The law of attraction/power of assumption, believing our subconcious controls our reality, multiple universe theory, chaos magic, etc. etc. Stay tuned for my next topic: “Schrödinger's Cat, Law of Attraction, and Entropy” & how physics may be used to back some of these ideas. :D

Angel # 111: Your thoughts shape your reality, imagination creates reality

Closing remarks There is so much more information online on how to induce lucid dreams! r/luciddreaming is not a bad place to start. Not one method works for everyone! Find your special recipe that works for you. <3