Lucid Dreaming

Excerpt from The Path

© Raissa Publishing 1999

There are quick and easy methods of transcending the paradigm of our mind but, as you have learned, without Balance, these journeys often result in yet another movie. Each of us has given a lifetime of attention to the development of our programs, and they are the foundation of our "reality." It is for this reason that I do not encourage practices that are designed only to gain access to the transpersonal realm. This awareness may arise naturally as we gain Balance, but is not necessary for full Balance to evolve. And transpersonal awareness is not something we should seek without Knowledge and Integration, and the resulting Balance.

There is, however, an active method of gaining access to a hidden potential in our mind that is available to almost everyone. This is the state of lucid dreaming -- the ability to become awake while remaining asleep and dreaming. It is one of the most powerful tools available to us in our development. Lucidity gives us an opportunity to explore reality from an entirely different prospective, one that is beyond many of the limitations we accept in our consensus dream. Our Path remains with us, even in our dreams. Because of this, lucid dreaming can be a useful aid in walking our Path.

It is possible to achieve the state of conscious awareness, to gain cognitive ability, while you remain asleep and involved in a personal dream. When this happens, you become aware that what you are experiencing is nothing more than a personal dream. You could say that you "wake up" while you remain dreaming, or that you arouse your conscious awareness while in the personal dream state. Remember, the active state of awareness when you are involved in a personal dream is normally sleep awareness, and that sleep awareness is replaced with conscious awareness when you awaken. During the lucid dream state, both sleep awareness and conscious awareness are active.

To become lucid, your conscious awareness is aroused while you remain asleep and dreaming. It is then that the sleep awareness that provides your dream as well as the conscious awareness of the waking state are both active. The whole of the movie of the personal dream is then projected onto the view screen of conscious awareness. You have a feeling of becoming wide awake and alert while you remain asleep and dreaming. You are awake, yet you know that you are dreaming. This is an exhilarating experience, and it is filled with an immediate sense of total freedom from the dream. This is the lucid state.

One of the first things that you notice when you become lucid is that the reality of a personal dream varies little from that of consensus reality. Many proclaim: It was so real! Solid objects remain solid as long as we accept the projection of our mind. A cool dip in a stream will give us all the sensations of "reality." When someone touches us, we feel it.

The next thing that impresses the lucid dreamer is the flexibility of the dream. The reality of the dream remains only as long as we accept it as real. While lucid in the personal dream state, your projection of thought is not supported by The Magic of Agreeing. You, the dreamer, are the only one holding the dream reality together. You may look at a scene, look away, and return your attention to the scene only to find that it has changed. The scenes are the product of your mind only, and your attention is drifting. Because of this, you can manipulate the dream in any way you desire. Having realized that what you are experiencing is a creation of your mind, you can now walk through walls or even dissolve them completely. You can fly through the air. You can learn to change the course of your dream, change dreams, and even move from dream to dream at will. This sounds a lot like what the Masters call Dream Time.

You can learn to become lucid by applying your knowledge of how your attention effects your paradigm. You know that the focus of your attention is the driving force in creating your paradigm, and that your paradigm follows you wherever you go. This is the knowledge that you will apply in developing lucid dreaming. You will develop an aspect of your paradigm, while in the state of conscious awareness, that follows you into your dream awareness.

The first step in accomplishing this is to make dreaming a more important part of consensus reality. You should begin now to make an effort to recall your dreams in as much detail as possible. To accomplish this, keep a record of every dream you have. When you awaken in the night, ask yourself: What was I dreaming? And record it then. It is not necessary to recall the entire dream at that time. Just make notes of the highlights of the dream. Keep a pen and pad at your bedside, and a light to write by. When you awaken in the morning, ask yourself the same question, and record your dream immediately before it slips away. Again, it is not necessary to record your dreams in detail as they happen. Just make notes about the things you recall at that moment. This practice lets your mind know that you have assigned importance to your dreams. Your paradigm now expands and includes more and more memory of your dreams presented in your conscious awareness.

Now, some time during the day, assign a time of attention to your dreams. Review your notes and expand them, this time in as much detail as you can recall. Make this a daily discipline. Assign time for attention to the process, and take the time to do it. Tell yourself that this is important to you. Give it attention. Work on your paradigm. As you perform this task, your paradigm begins to accept the importance that your attention is giving to dream recall. This practice improves your ability for dream recall, but you still need a method of bringing conscious awareness into the dream world. This may seem like a simple task, and it is. But it takes practice and must be performed properly to be effective. For this reason, we will break it down into two steps and combine them into one process.

First you must become consciously aware, while you are dreaming, that you are dreaming. This can be accomplished by identifying a specific characteristic of your dream reality that is not consistent with consensus reality. And the task is simple.

In your dream reality, you have no recent past. Stop right now and ask yourself: How did I get here and what was I doing half an hour ago? Your mind is able to recall events leading up to your present experience. When you ask this same question while in a personal dream, your mind is not able to recall the events leading up to your dream experience. There are none. You simply arrive in an experience that is created by your mind for this moment in your personal dream state. Your mind may attempt to construct a recent past for you, but it does not matter. As long as you have asked the question, you are in a position to determine if you are dreaming or awake. But how will you know to ask this question while you are asleep and dreaming? Again, you can work with what you already know about your mind.

Anything that is the focus of your attention during conscious awareness has a good chance of appearing in your personal dreams, as well as anything that you do habitually. When your attention is highly focused on your work, it often surfaces in your dreams. Planning a vacation, which is an experience filled with excitement, has a good chance of appearing in your dreams. For this reason, the practice of recalling the recent past throughout the day is an excellent method of stimulating lucid awareness in your personal dreams.

Recall of the recent past should be a constant practice throughout the course of your consensus movie. You do not often pause and allow your mind to drift back to the events that lead you to your current experience, but this constant reflection serves as a reminder that you are not involved in a personal dream. When you have made it a habit and practiced it properly, it happens in your dreams. It becomes a part of your paradigm that follows you into your personal dreams.

You may schedule times for recall, but performing it during specific sensory situations is the basis for our method.

Sensory situations that are the most beneficial are those that require your mind to search for different programs. Remember, your mind has different programs for different situations in consensus reality. You have programs for different social situations and for different physical situations. These situations arise during conscious awareness as well as during sleep awareness.

Sensory situations in which to initiate recall of your recent past should include any major change of location. Each major change of location forces your mind to reach for different programs. You have different programs for home, work, sports, driving the car, and even for sitting and watching television. Your personality, as your paradigm adjusts to your new experience, undergoes a subtle shift with each change of activity. As an example, when you leave the house and get into your car, your mind begins your "Driving the Car" program. The moment you are seated, recall how you got there. Ask yourself: How did I get here and what was I doing half an hour ago? Take a moment to reflect and recall the events leading up to your current experience. When you arrive at your destination, recall again. When you find yourself in the bathroom, ask the question. When you open a door or go from one room to another, or from indoors to outside, recall your recent past. When you learn to practice this in your consensus movie, it becomes a habit that soon surfaces in your personal dreams. The fact that you have developed the habit of recalling you recent past, and that you attempt to recall it in your personal dreams, is an opportunity for you to gain lucidity.

Sensory situations that initiate recall should also include any emotionally charged event. This includes emotions that your mind has labeled either positive or negative. Each emotionally charged event causes your mind to search for different programs. The moment you feel your emotions undergoing a change, recall the recent past. Ask yourself: How did I get here and what was I doing half an hour ago? Every time you answer the phone, you are confronted with a different individual. Ask the question. When your lover, your children, or your pet enter into the scenes in your movie, recall the recent past. Each time you feel upset, at a loss, aroused, or depressed, perform the task. Take the time to reflect on your recent past and recall the events leading up to your current experience.

Once you have learned to perform this task throughout the day, and have made it a habit, you have a very good chance of doing the same thing in your personal dream. When you perform this task while in your personal dream, you have an opportunity to gain a state of lucid dreaming.

This seems like an easy task, but it cannot be taken lightly if it is to be effective. You may recall your recent past any time the thought crosses your mind, but be sure to perform it during changes in your physical environment as well as during changes in emotional situations. These very same conditions arise in your personal dreams. Practice until it becomes a habit. I apologize for the redundancy, but I cannot overstate this: The amount of attention you give to the process while awake is carried over into your dream state. Without a good focus of attention, you will not know you are dreaming.

Do not let it become just a moment’s reflection. Remind yourself as you recall that this is the process you will perform in your dreams. Take time to pause and reflect. Give it cognitive thought. Never skim over it. Recall events leading up to each daily experience in detail. See yourself doing the things that led up to your experience. Recall things that were said, the names and faces of people that were there, the feelings you had, and details of each situation. Resolve firmly in your mind every time you perform the task that you will do the same thing in your personal dreams. Developing this habit follows you into your personal dream state. This is the first step in our process.

Secondly, you should develop a test that will prove to you that you are in a personal dream. The reason for this is that lucid dreaming is a very subtle state. When you attempt to recall your recent past in your personal dream, your sleep awareness is still quite active. Your mind may attempt to tell you that it is not important, or that you can do it later when you have more time. Your mind wants to continue the dream, and activating lucid awareness is not a part of its dream program. Your personal dream is filled with experience, and reflection on the question of your recent past is not much of an experience. It is at this point that you will perform your test.

Your test should be something that you actually perform while in a state of conscious awareness during recall but, when performed in the personal dream, serves as proof that you are dreaming. The test is based on the fact that only you are holding your personal dream together. We know that the consensus dream is held together by the laws of The Magic of Agreeing, and we know that the personal dream is held together only by the focus of your attention on the dream. Because of this, certain qualities in the personal dream are very unstable and flexible. To develop your test, we will use these unstable qualities of a personal dream. One of the flexible qualities of personal dreams is mechanical devices.

Mechanical devices do not function well in personal dreams, and oddly enough, the newer the device, the less well it functions. Mechanical devices rely on the laws of The Magic of Agreeing in order to function properly when individual attention is not placed on them. In the personal dream, when the attention of the dreamer shifts away from the mechanical device, its ability to operate begins to fall apart. One of these devices is the digital watch. Digital watches do not keep time well in a personal dream. Analogue watches -- the ones with hands -- seem to do far better at keeping dream time. They have been around a lot longer.

When you look at a digital watch in a dream, record the time in your mind, look away for an instant and look back at the watch, the time changes tremendously. When you look back at the watch, it may not even appear as the same watch you saw just a moment ago. Or, it may be a different watch than the one you know is yours. Remember, the only thing holding the mechanical device together in a personal dream is your attention. When you look away, your attention shifts and the mechanical device receives none of your creative attention. When you look back, it is difficult for your mind to re-create the device exactly as it was.

Knowing this, simply add the process to your recall of the recent past to prove you are or are not involved in a personal dream. Once you have completed the recall process, whatever the outcome, look at your watch, record the time in your mind, look away for a moment, and then look back at your watch. The proper time on your watch serves as proof that you are involved in the consensus dream and not in a personal dream. Changing time or conditions of the watch proves to you that you are probably in a personal dream state, and an opportunity to become lucid presents itself. Of course, to perform this test, you must have a digital watch.

Remember, when you are involved in a personal dream, your mind will attempt to continue the dream just as it does while you are involved in the consensus dream. You may not find your watch when you look for it in the personal dream, and your mind may give you the thought that you have forgotten it. Or, when your watch will not keep time in a personal dream, your mind may attempt to convince that it is broken and that’s why it will not keep time. For this reason, the practice should be a part of your recall process each and every time, both when your are involved in the consensus dream and when you are involved in a personal dream. You must know that your watch is there and that it should be accurate. To insure that it is an effective test, you should take the time to do it every time perform your recall in consensus reality. And again, don’t skim over the process. The amount of attention you give the process in conscious awareness is the amount of attention available in your personal dream.

Another flexible quality of personal dreams is written text. When you read something in a dream, look away for an instant and look back again at the text, it changes. Again, it is the laws of The Magic of Agreeing that keep the words on the pages of this book in place while your attention is elsewhere. In your personal dream, only your attention holds the dreamed book together. Knowing this, you can add the process to your recall. Make a small card for pocket or purse with a different phrase or saying on each side. Keep it with you and, when you perform recall, take it out and read one side, hold that phrase in your mind, then turn it over and read the other side. Now, turn it back and read the first side again. The text on each side of your card remains in place each time you turn the card in consensus reality. When you are in your personal dream, the text changes every time you turn the card and read. It does not matter if you have memorized the text. Your mind must create it on the card while you are involved in your personal dream, and written text is very unstable in the personal dream state.

Remember again, your mind will attempt to continue the dream. You may not be able to find your card, or it may be a different card than the one you carry with you in consensus reality. The text on your dreamed card may be unreadable and confusing. It may even appear to be in a foreign language. For this reason, the practice should be a part of your recall process each and every time. You must know that there is written text on your card, and that it is with you. You should actually perform the process each time you recall the recent past during consensus reality. Read one side of your card, turn it over and read the other, and turn it back to read the first side again. Perform it as if it really matters. Tell yourself that this is the same process you will perform in your personal dreams. The attention you give to the process while in conscious awareness follows you into your personal dream reality.

These two tests are effective because the laws of physics are held together by The Magic of Agreeing and, even though the laws are in your paradigm, the other actors giving attention to them are not. You can develop other tests. For instance, if you jump into the air in a personal dream and attempt to hold yourself there with a thought, you will overcome the "laws" of gravity. If you walk up to a door in a personal dream and will yourself through it, it will happen. You can change any aspect of a personal dream with the slightest amount of cognitive thought and the focus of your attention. But your daily practice should be something you will be comfortable performing while other actors in consensus reality are present. Walking into doors to prove that you are not involved in a personal dream would not be considered one of them. But you can do it when you are alone, just to prove to yourself that you are not involved in a personal dream. Or, you can jump into the air and attempt to hold yourself there. Anything you do to add a sense of importance and the energy of excitement to the daily test follows you into your personal dreams.

Now, here is the entire method. With each major change of location and each emotional change, take a moment to recall the recent past. Do not just skim over it and let it go. Make an effort to recall specific events that led up to your current experience, and satisfy yourself that you have a congruent recent past. Next, regardless of the results of your recall, perform your test of proof. Again, perform it consciously and give attention to it. This is the very act that will, while you are involved in a personal dream, give you proof that you are dreaming. Continue this practice whenever the thought crosses your mind throughout the day, but be sure to do it with each major change in location and each emotional change. Practice until it becomes a habit.

When you find yourself in a personal dream, and your test proves to you that you are dreaming, you immediately experience total freedom within the dream. As I mentioned, it is an exhilarating experience, and one you will want to continue. But, like any new experience, it takes practice.

Lucid awareness is a very subtle state between the awareness that you are dreaming and experience in the dream. It is a state of balance between sleep awareness and conscious awareness. In order to continue the dream, you must remain involved in the dream. Reach out and touch something. Look around. Find your voice and give a shout. But you must not become too involved in the dream. When you become too involved in the personal dream, you lose awareness of the fact that you are dreaming and sleep awareness takes control of your dream. When this happens, you simply go back to sleep and continue your dream. But when you do not participate in the experience of the dream, you either awaken into conscious awareness or drift into a different dream. Does this scenario sound familiar, like Balance?

Many people practice lucid dreaming to enhance their abilities in consensus reality. While in a lucid state -- while you are awake yet asleep and dreaming -- your conscious awareness and cognitive ability are activated along with your paradigm. In the lucid state, you are using the same energy pathways in the mind that are active in consensus reality. These energy pathways are the same pathways that the physical body uses while awake. Therefore, anything that you practice in the lucid state effects your abilities in consensus reality. You can practice physical skills in a lucid dream without the limits of your physical body. Because of this, your skill level in the state of conscious awareness improves.

You can improve any aspect of your life by practicing it in the lucid state. As an example, if I practice the piano piece while in a lucid state, one that has been challenging me in consensus reality, I notice a marked improvement in my performance in consensus reality. I actually play as if I had practiced more. I have. I have practiced in my lucid dream, using the same energy pathways in the mind that are active while I am awake in consensus reality. Remember, while lucid, you are using the same patterns and pathways that you use while awake. You are in a state of conscious awareness even though you remain asleep and dreaming. You can even solve problems and improve your memory. If your desire is only to enhance the aspects of the consensus dream, this is a wonderful place to practice your skills. It is not the purpose of this book to discuss these techniques, but they are well covered in Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, by Stephen LaBarge and Howard Rheingold. * The book includes a wealth of techniques for gaining and maintaining the state of lucid dreaming that are not discussed here.

Footnote: Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, by Stephen LaBarge and Howard Rheingold, along with full training course in lucid dreaming and electronic aids that can assist in its development are available through: The Lucidity Institute, Box 2364, Stanford, CA 94309.

It is a good idea to fully enjoy the lucid state before you go on to the task of applying it to development. Your mind still wants to present you with experience during your lucid dream, and it will cooperate with you if you are having fun. Begin by simply enjoying the state of lucid dreaming. As mentioned, flying is an excellent idea. Another may be visiting a favorite area of the country, or enjoying the company of a close friend. You may have any experience you desire, and all fantasy is available.

For most, the first experiences in the personal lucid dream are pure fun and fantasy. You can do things in your personal dreams that you feel uncomfortable doing in consensus reality. There is a benefit in this. In expressing your desire for experience while dreaming, you find that your sense of limitation is overcome. Full enjoyment of the state of lucid dreaming is the same as taking little steps. And you are practicing Balance while doing it. You are maintaining the ability of cognitive thought in a state of awareness where it is not normally found.

Although called by other names, many Shamanic practices include lucid dreaming as a part of their teachings. There are also established belief systems based entirely on the practice of lucid dreaming. For our purposes, lucid dreaming is an opportunity to practice Balance and walk our Path.

One of the most beneficial experiences you can have in lucid dreaming is the experience of your Path. You know that your Path is always before you but, when you focus your attention on it, it arises to fill your view screen of reality. In the personal dream, this can be quite an experience. You can develop an intention to experience your Path and include it in your daily recall practice. While in a state of conscious awareness, and after you have fully performed your recall test, simply add the experience of your Path. Imagine that your Path is arising before you. You can imagine it any way you are comfortable with. Some may want to stand alone before the tunnel of transition, while others may be more comfortable in a classroom with a teacher. Whatever method you choose, you should develop an intention to do it in your lucid dream state. Take a few moments after your daily recall and test to actually daydream the experience. Close your eyes and imagine it in your mind. That is where it is presented during lucid dreaming. Develop and intention to do it in your dreams. Tell yourself that the next time you realize that you are dreaming and become lucid, your Path will arise before you.

In whatever you choose, remember that your mind is presenting your Path through its paradigm. Therefore, you may develop expectations of the manner in which you wish to experience your path, but you should never develop expectations of the Path itself. Allow your Path to arise naturally, as in meditation. And remember that Balance is the only requirement throughout the presentation, just as it is in consensus reality.

You know that your Path includes emotionally charged landmarks. These landmarks, when they arise in your personal dreams, may be so overwhelming that they cause you to lose your state of lucid awareness and become deeply involved in the experience. This is not a setback. You have learned Balance -- both in standing and falling. And you have developed an ability to recall your dreams. Recall your experience, write it down, and review it in the light of Knowledge and Integration. Do not assign meaning to it, simply acknowledge it as a landmark on your Path. Then, travel your Path again. Do this consistently, and you will travel your Path to freedom from the limits of your paradigm.

Although it is possible to do so, I do not recommend the use of lucid dreaming as a method of entering the transpersonal realm. As you have learned, entering into transpersonal awareness without Balance results in yet another movie being played out on the view screen of our awareness. Use your ability of lucid dreaming only to explore the possibilities within consensus reality, and as a means to fully enter your Path. Transpersonal awareness is a natural result of an evolving spiritual being. Allow it to come naturally to you.

You can see how this practice in your personal dreams can integrate itself into your movie of consensus reality. You begin to recognize, as you travel your Path, that all experience is dreamlike in nature. Eventually, you gain freedom not only from the personal dream, but from the dream world of consensus reality.

My Master was once asked: Why do we need to sleep? Her response started a dialogue that continued off and on for some time over a number of meetings. Her teachings are in agreement with the concept of dream time and the Sky Heroes.

We created our body to live forever, and it does not need sleep or rest. Our physical body is energy. It is a projection of our mind, and when our mind and Mind are in Balance, so is our body.

We are spirit -- unlimited, holographic energy. Immersion in an illusion, any illusion, is not our natural state. We can spend about three hours in a cinema before we start feeling the need to express ourselves. We can spend about sixteen hours in our illusion of consensus reality without feeling the same need. Our consensus reality is like a cinema. While in a cinema, we are experiencing an illusion within an illusion. Our abilities of self-expression are very limited there. We must follow the paradigm of the creators of the movie. While in consensus reality, we are also limited. We must follow the restrictions of the laws of The Magic of Agreeing. We must limit our self-expression to an agreed upon paradigm.

Sleep is our outlet for self-expression without these restrictions. We are actually awake in our dreams. Even though we carry many of our limitations with us into sleep, we are able to create and express ourselves in our dreams any way we wish. This freedom of self expression is our natural state as spirit.

As we learn Balance, we require less sleep. In Balance, we are able to free ourselves from the restrictions of consensus reality and express ourselves as the spirit we are.

Dreaming, it seems, is a natural outlet for our creative energy. Perhaps that is why the old ones call the beginning of consensus reality Dream Time.

Copyright (C) 2000, Raissa Publishing, P.O. Box 295, Port Angeles, WA 98362 - http://WWW.Skyhero.com

This document may be reproduced and distributed by any means, freely or included in paid for material as long as this notice is preserved. You may edit, add to or delete from this document, but you may not restrict access to the base material.

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