My Experience
When I was very young I had a nightmare and told my dad about it. I told him a monster was chasing me in the dream. My dad said, “Ok, I know just what you need to do about this. The next time you dream about any monsters, first I want you to tell yourself in the dream that there are no monsters. So you will know right then that it is a dream. Then, because you know it’s a dream, turn right around to that monster and start to chase him. You will scare him to death! He can’t ever hurt you. He is not real.”
Just the thought of that horrible monster running away from me was enough for me to almost look forward to the next bad dream. And it worked. It took a lot of courage the first time to turn and face the monster and run right at him. But just seeing a monster was a clue for me that I was dreaming. Through the years, I also learned other “keys” that let me see that a dream was a dream. Holding my hands in front of my face was one of the tests. If it took a while, and was hard to do, I knew I was dreaming. Another clue was trying to look down at my feet. If it was almost impossible, that was a sure sign that I was dreaming. When I was successful the shoes I was wearing would sometimes morph into different shoes as I watched them. Looking into a mirror is also a bizarre experience in most of my dreams. Is it because we are in spirit form? Parts of a face show up in pieces like a puzzle being assembled. Sometimes people report their face as being blurred and distorted. But looking at a couch or a rug, or another person is easy.
I have read that it is a universal occurrence for people to dream about flying after spinning. In my dreams as a child, it was the only way to achieve lift. I would concentrate on spinning round and round and suddenly I would begin to fly. That amazes me! What is it about spinning that causes this to happen?
Colors are another key. Sometimes cobalt blue is the only color present in my dreams. Or the blues are very vivid compared to the other colors. When I saw the movie, “What Dreams May” I was amazed that the author had pictured heaven in much the same way. As an artist, this is a very wonderful sensation for me, for I am profoundly affected by colors and will often watch a certain movie over and over because of the colors that the director uses and for the effect that the colors have on me.
I have also experienced many occurrences of waking a second or third time from a dream. It’s very frustrating when you are searching for the actual awakening. I have gone from one nightmare into what I thought was waking up and found myself in a really great, and fun reality only to wake up from that one into the real world where I was almost late for work.
I don’t have lucid dreams as often as I’d like to. I have found that if I wake up too early and fall back asleep, it happens more. I have learned to control some situations in dreams, but if I concentrate too much on controlling situations, I have too much “real” thought, and I end up waking myself up that way. Lucid dreaming seems to lie on the edge of consciousness and it’s a fragile little area that can easily be interrupted.
Have I sold you on how really awesome lucid dreaming is? Do you think that you would like to try it? Go on to the next page for a checklist.
Lucid Dreaming Checklist