Index
A Visionary Guide to Lucid Dreaming (Lee Adams)
When the brain is using more oxygen in specific areas of the brain, it indicates that those areas are being activated.
The hypothalamus controls the basic bodily functions of homeostasis. The midbrain and amygdala control the core self, or what we perceive as being the ego. The cortex is the autobiographical self, which contains language, speech, and memory.
if the unconscious mind doesn’t want us to be aware of the experiences in our dream, we never will. Most lucid dreaming techniques build a relationship with the unconscious so that we can become more aware of unconscious material in the dream state.
The Unconscious is not unconscious; only the conscious is unconscious of what the unconscious is conscious of. —FRANCES JEFFREY
How do we do this? Simply by noticing differences between the dream world and waking reality.
Mindfulness meditation asks us to allow thoughts to play out and be observed without attachment to any emotions that may arise in reaction to them. Practice nonattachment enough and your mind will learn that errant thoughts are not important, gradually becoming less preoccupied with mundane drama.
First, become attentive to your surroundings. That means smelling the air, touching objects, and, especially, focusing on things in the real world that may appear different in the dream world.
look for anything about it that seems strange, while asking yourself, Am I dreaming? This process is like reciting a mantra, a repeating system of words that brings us awareness.
To improve on this technique, immediately after you wake up from a dream, identify the differences between waking reality and the dream.
were like in the dream, and ask yourself how they compare with the real world. As you get into the habit of noticing how the dream world compares with waking reality, you can attain a higher level of awareness in both waking and dreaming states.
Ann Faraday explains that the unconscious is unable to read our minds or to know what we are thinking. We must audibly say things or write things down for our unconscious to get the message. The final part of The Talk makes a huge impact.
The hippocampus is essential to dreams because of its participation in converting shortterm memories (the experience of the dream itself) into long-term memories in other regions of the brain so that when we wake, we can remember the dream.
Acetylcholine and glutamate seem to be two of the heavy hitters when it comes to building new memories of all kinds. Further research points to hormones as another huge part of the equation.
Increasing Acetylcholine and glutamate seems reduce memory.
The balance of this oxytocin-melatonin-serotonin cocktail may contribute to the fluctuations in our ability to remember dreams.
Practices such as dream journaling, listening to binaural beats, and reality checks may also affect the cortisol levels in the hippocampus, which may be why these practices seem to improve dream recall.
High levels of cortisol can result in hippocampus dysfunction, which in turn can lead to memory issues.
Tell yourself that you are going to have a lucid dream. Tell yourself that you will remember your dreams and that dreams are important to you.
if you did have a dream and remember it, actively focus on the dream; imagine yourself in that dream and what you would have done if you had been lucid in it. Think about that dream as if you were lucid and set the intention to have a lucid dream while going back to bed.
Wake up from the alarm: When your alarm goes off, get up and go get some water, go to the bathroom, and do some activity for forty-five to sixty minutes, or whatever you feel comfortable with. Get ready to go back to sleep: Lie down in bed and relax. Set the intention again that you are going to have a lucid dream. Go back to sleep: This part is trickier, as you may be overstimulated at this point, and sleeping may be difficult. Just relax, and think about nothing. As you adopt this new sleep routine, your mind will automatically wake you up and allow you to go back to sleep pretty often. Every hour or so, your body will go through a phase of sleep, and you will wake back up. At this point, try your best not to open your eyes or move. You should notice that you’re awake, but try to imagine seeing yourself in the mirror of your bathroom or imagine a face or object in your mind.
physical dream journal is perhaps the most important item in your lucid dreaming tool kit. Dream journals help keep our long-term memory active. Journaling also increases our motivation to remember dreams and increases our dream retention and recall after waking
wake up during the night, recall their dream as it happened in their memories, and imagine what might have happened in the dream if they had been lucid. While focusing on that idea, participants would then go back to bed with the intention of having a lucid dream while simultaneously thinking about the past dream as if they had just had a lucid dream.
most important factor for MILD is to recall the previous dream as if you had been lucid during it.
Once you’re awake, make sure you become fully awake before going back to sleep.
supports awareness while awake. After
Useful in conjunction with WBTB or WILD techniques, active imagination is a technique that draws the dream to the dreamer rather than the dreamer chasing after the dream.
The key principle of active imagination is to follow the images where they arise rather than trying to pursue or manipulate them.
reality itself is a simulation inside our brains. Our brains take in information using our five senses and mix all this information together in our minds—creating our impressions and beliefs about the world. Because both dreams and reality are simulated in our minds, dreams can feel just as real as reality.
waking life and the dream life are closely related; one will teach you the importance of the other. Through mindfulness training in our waking life, we will see our dreams for what they are: a story. Eventually, we will see that our waking life is also a story.
dream symbol interpretations that were objectively true for everyone. And there is merit to the idea that many symbols operate on a macro level as widely accepted cultural tropes or memes, or as part of a collective unconscious.
It is your own perspective on your dream images that helps you understand their meaning.
We can also communicate to the unconscious through understanding those symbols. This deep conversation is where the magic of lucid dreaming happens.
Lucid dreaming is, at its heart, a practice of the imagination. It puts us in direct contact with the heady idea that our dreams are as real as waking life, and that waking life is as much a product of imagination as our dreams are. So in order for the whole practice to work, you have to believe the symbols will work.
As you call up more and more symbols for examination, you will increase your facility in navigating your own dreams, improve your meditation practice, and likely begin to have out-of-body experiences.
an attempt to interpret someone else’s dream, especially that of a stranger, and without context, is a waste of time and money at best and interferes with the dreamer’s development at worst. Dream content is unique to each dreamer in specific ways that are not intended for outsiders to access or understand in the way the dreamer should.
a practice is built one step at a time with equal parts tradition and direct personal experience.
first writing down and then recounting vocally every possible detail from the dream, and then repeating the dream from the beginning until it feels like a story from which we can derive some meaning. Last, recall how specific points in the dream and its content affect you emotionally. Look at the direct, overt, or more universal nature of the symbols and their emotional context in your own life. Dreams do not refer to the past—they convey messages relevant today—so the dream symbols and content should be relevant to what is currently happening or to what may be happening soon.
Your dreams are unique. Others’ dreams are unique to them. The best person to understand a dream is the dreamer. Being honest with yourself and willing to listen to what a dream has to say is key to dream interpretation.
Mozart’s Brain and the Fighter Pilot, by Richard Restak,
An Introduction to the Psychology of Dreaming, by Kelly Bulkeley,
The Dream Game, by Ann Faraday—Faraday’s
Inner Work, by Robert A. Johnson—
Dream Studies Portal, dreamstudies.org—
“taileaters.com/discussion,”
“Dreams are the space in between reality, where others’ unconsciousness can meet and interact with each other in a version of reality.”
We are painting a picture that’s constantly changing. No one version is the real or final version, but each iteration has something new to tell us if we are willing to listen. Investigating those new angles and versions to understand aspects of the self can guide us toward understanding who we are and reaching who we want to be.
Tell the dream once through in the present tense
according to Jung, while many dream images and experiences are universal, the concepts we associate with them and our emotional reactions to them can be subjective and personal.
we have to expose ourselves to the animal impulse of the unconscious without identifying with it and without “running away”; for flight from the unconscious would defeat the purpose of the whole proceeding. We must hold our ground, which means here that the process initiated by the dreamer’s self-observation must be experienced in all its ramifications and then articulated with consciousness to the best of his understanding.”
The journey is inevitable. You are making progress. The sooner you recognize that and learn how to work with rather than against the synchronicities, symbols, and dreams all around you, the faster and further you can progress on your journey.
These dreams and experiences don’t need external validation; they’re there for you alone. Talking to others may provide some guidance or encouragement, but there is enough in the dreams themselves to work with. From this point, you can embark on the adventure of exploring the nature of your dream world.
That awareness—that you are dreaming and so have some control over your actions and over the trajectory of the dream, and yet at the same time have to surrender to the laws of a new world—is where the learning resides.
Much like how giving up control in our own lives can be a path to happiness, it is when we’re willing to relinquish some control over our dream narratives that we become open to the wisdom of the unconscious.
“The passage of the threshold is a form of self-annihilation. Instead of passing outward, beyond the confines of the visible world, the hero goes inward, to be born again.”
Campbell wrote, “The passage of the threshold is a form of self-annihilation. Instead of passing outward, beyond the confines of the visible world, the hero goes inward, to be born again.”
Failing repeatedly is the way to learn and eventually move forward. Dream trials focus more intensely on the dissolution of the ego and sense of self:
Coming into contact with death and our fears of dying helps release us from the illusion of control over our lives, and in doing so we release ourselves from fear and anxiety. The courage this release brings will enable us to overcome even bigger obstacles—the Mother and Father—as we continue forward.
trust the process and the self.
we are responsible for independently making difficult decisions in the dream world just as we are in waking life.
the world of the unconscious is vaster and more powerful than any conscious understanding. “The unconscious is an autonomous psychic entity,” Jung wrote. “Any efforts to drill it are only apparently successful, and moreover are harmful to the consciousness.” He warns anyone trying to control the creative aspects of their minds that “we can listen but may not meddle.”
truly look at the dream world, you will quickly realize that you cannot control it, just as you cannot control the waking world.
So wherever we go in a dream, our unconscious mind has already been there. Because of that, the narrator or observer of the dream world knows what, where, and who we will see before we choose to manifest or move forward. The result is the illusion of control over the unconscious. But the dream is always one step ahead of us. Jung said it best in his essay “General Aspects of Dream Psychology” when he implied that we are all parts of the dream simultaneously. “This whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is the theater where the dreamer is at once scene, actor, prompter, stage manager, author, audience, and critic.”
Setting the intention of a willingness to transform opens the door for transformation to arrive.
dreams are here to help us find our true selves.
A key component of what makes this moment of pause remarkable and invaluable in life is its ability to help identify emotions from moment to moment.
Fear is powerful; there’s a reason that “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” is such a popular Bible verse. Humans are mammals hardwired for safety, so we are highly attuned to danger and fear. This is a primal force that lives deep within our collective and individual unconscious. Fear isn’t something that humans can simply eradicate, so it’s important—but difficult—to learn how to manage it.
We’re all fundamentally selfish and capable of inflicting incredible damage in the right (or wrong) circumstances. To ignore those darker aspects of ourselves is like having an alternative personality hidden from everyone’s view—including our own. That shadow will inevitably demand to be seen. Again, it’s a case of let go or be dragged along.
“We simply accuse our enemy of our own unadmitted faults.”
in order to achieve greatness, you also need darkness. By destroying or ignoring one, you limit the other.
In order to get past the illusion of reality, you must go on the journey—past our ideas about reality, past our symbolic representations of ourselves, and into the heart of the true self.