The whole process of lucid dreaming is achieved by training your awareness. The idea is to increase our daily awareness in order to benefit from the carryover effects it will have on our dreaming awareness. If you are more aware during the day, you will become more aware while dreaming.
There are many ways to increase our awareness and as you exercise your awareness, you may realise that you are not usually aware of how unaware you are most of the day.
How conscious are you?
For many people these reflective questions go unasked and in turn they remain unanswered. They were never taught that there are differing levels of awareness nor were they ever taught how to cultivate a heightened sense of awareness.
Becoming aware of your thoughts and thinking patterns is just as important as identifying your dreamsigns and dream patterns. Changing your thoughts will change your awareness, and the idea is to have your awareness programmed and locked on self-observant aware mode instead of running on an non-reflective autopilot mode.
Try to remain aware of your awareness as if you were a bystander just watching where it goes and how it flows. The longer you can sustain this level of awareness, the better. But it isn’t as easy as it sounds, and if you think it is, try sustaining it all day long and then realize how often you lose your mindfulness. The fact is that we aren’t in the habit of being aware, but this is a habit that must be changed.
Practicing meditation is an excellent way to exercise your awareness. Studies done by Jayne I. Gackenbach, a notable lucid dream researcher, show a direct correlation between meditation and lucid dreaming. If lucid dreaming and meditating can have these beneficial effects on our waking self, imagine what can be accomplished by practicing both of them symbiotically.
Some reality tests:
Common Sense Test
Examine your surroundings for anything out of place. Look for inconsistencies, ask if this could happen in your waking life. These type of questions can kick start your lucidity.
Reading Test
Look at a paper or text, look away and look back again and try to read it again, do this several times.
If you are dreaming, the text or numbers will usually change after several glances. It may become garbled or may have changed completely or it will not remain stable while you are reading it. Anything containing words or numbers will work: a book, a street sign, an address. Many people use the dial on their dream watch.
Flying or Levitation Check: This is another very effective check. See if you are able to fly. If you are not able to fly, try to levitate or hover slightly above the ground. As you become more skilled at lucid dreaming, this may become your favorite check as it is mine.
The only down side is that at times you may try this and be unable to fly or levitate, yet you still may be dreaming. Always remember to use this in combination with other checks unless of course it works, which in most cases it will.
Light Switch Check: This is usually a quite reliable check. Find a light switch and turn it on and off. If it malfunctions then the odds are you are dreaming. Try it several times and pay close attention to when it should be on and when it should be off. It usually will not take long before it malfunctions or operates correctly while in the wrong position.
Memory Check: This is a very effective but largely unknown method. Simply backtrack in your mind where you have just come from and what you have been doing. Keep thinking back as far as you can and eventually you may find that there are inconsistencies in your memory. By backtracking your dream memory, you may also become aware of something illogical that has happened which you overlooked at the time. You also may find that you have an amnesia-like block that prevents you from remembering accurately. In all of these cases, you can safely assume that you are dreaming.
Mirror Check: This is not only an extremely effective method but as an added bonus, it usually results in quite a remarkable experience. Find a mirror and while gazing at yourself, ask if you are dreaming. You may become startled by your reflection. You may be younger or older or have different hairstyle and hair color or you may even be someone different entirely.
Self Observation Test: This is also a very useful check. Just take a look at yourself. Examine your hands, arms, legs, and clothing. Usually you will immediately be tipped off that are dreaming because you will be wearing clothes that you do not own. Other times, simply looking at your dream body will spark your lucidity.
Penetration of Matter Check: This is not the most reliable method but it has helped me on many occasions. Simply try to push your finger through something solid like a wall or a door or a glass. At first, it may not work but if you believe that you can do it, you eventually will be able to pass your finger right through any solid. As an added bonus on this check, you are also developing your ability to allow your beliefs to directly influence your experience.
Gravity Check: This is a somewhat reliable check. Find something that you can throw into the air and catch safely. Start tossing it up and down and you may just find that it isn’t obeying the laws of gravity as it should if you were in “reality”. To maximize the success of this check, while tossing it into the air try to effect the object’s rise and fall with your mind.
Questioning of Dream Characters Check: This may not be the best thing to try while awake but sometimes it can be effective if in fact you are dreaming. In “reality” if you asked people if we were in a dream, their response would be to accuse you of being insane, yet in the dream realm, it is sometimes a different matter.
Usually the dream characters will deny that it is a dream, but they deny it with an air of denial. They usually never question your sanity, and in some cases, they don’t even understand what you are saying and disregard you entirely. Also, on rare occasions, someone in your dream will admit that it is in fact a dream.
As mentioned earlier, these reality checks should be practiced regularly throughout the day. The more they become embedded into your daily routine, the sooner they will appear in your dreams. If there were one word that sums up what you need to develop in order to speed up the lucid dreaming process, it would be awareness, awareness, awareness.
Working on your awareness will have direct carryover effects into your dreams, and once you become more skilled at lucid dreaming you will realize that your awareness combined with your intent is your passport into the dream realm. Learning how to manipulate your dream and the events within the dream is the same thing as learning to actually revise your reality.
If you are in London why not book a Dream Interview with me, One 2 One.
Admin: +44-7935741353
Skype: dream.therapy
" Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream. so shall you become.
Your vision of the future is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil" - James Allen
