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Dreams
 Adventures in Dreamland
Learning to "wake up" in your dreams is more than just mind-
bending fun, say lucid dreamers. It can forever change the way you
look at life.
by Cameron Stauth
This woman! What a beauty! Indescribable! But wait a minute-he's
seen her before. Who is she?
Her blond hair shimmers like pure hot sun as she begins to step into a car.
She's leaving. But she looks back. Smiles. She seems to want him: Vance
Lehmkuhl, a thirty-three-year old Philadelphian, who is-of all
cumbersome conditions at this moment-happily married. Normally he
would pass up such a temptation. But . . . she looks so familiar.
Suddenly, her white, billowy skirt is lifted by the wind. It floats around
her waist. She beams at him. He's seen this pose before. Then she grasps
her skirt, holds it up, turns away, bends toward the car, and grins at him
over her shoulder. She's aching for him. She must have him, and him
alone.
Suddenly he knows who she is. She's . . . Marilyn Monroe!
But that's impossible. Which means only one thing to Vance Lehmkuhl.
He must be dreaming.
Here's where things get really interesting, for Lehmkuhl is an advanced
dream explorer, or oneironaut (from the Greek, meaning a "sailor of the
dream world"). Thanks to diligent practice at night and mental exercises
during the day, he is able to achieve what researchers call lucidity, an
elusive state in which a dreamer becomes consciously aware that he is
dreaming and can interact with and even influence the course of his
dreams. No, he doesn't do it by pinching himself. That's just a tired
clichi. Lehmkuhl has learned more-scientific methods for recognizing that
he's in dreamland. He might check a mechanical object-say, his wrist
watch-to see if it's functioning oddly, as often happens in a dream. Or he
might read a sign on a building, look away, and then read it again; if he's
dreaming, it's almost always different the second time. On this night,
however, Lehmkuhl has jarred awake his conscious mind by recognizing a
"dreamsign," any of the bizarre sights that are commonplace in the dream
world-in this case, a come-hither look from a long-dead starlet.
The intrepid oneironaut is now positive: This is definitely a dream-and
he's fully lucid within it. Therefore, he has nothing to worry about. Not
his wife. Not his reputation. Not even Joe Di Maggio. This is his world,
devoid of harm to anyone, and he can do whatever he wants.
So he does what most lucid dreamers do in this kind of situation. As
Marilyn backs up against him, he melts toward her.
Judging by the accounts of people like Vance Lehmkuhl, lucid dreaming
is clearly the second most interesting activity human beings can do in bed.
On any given night, in the privacy of your own mind, otherwise idle
sleeping hours can be used to explore a wondrous inner world of your
own creation, in a mental state that can seem just as real as-and often
more vivid than-waking consciousness. The scenes and sensations
awaiting you, lucid dreamers report, are truly limitless-everything from
the rush of flying like a bird to the peace of receiving spiritual
illumination. Part personal-growth tool, part sensual celebration, it's not
surprising that this intriguing and still largely mysterious phenomenon has
emerged from the darkened chambers of sleep research to captivate the
general public.
Thanks to the dozen or so self-help books that teach various lucidity-
inducing techniques, numerous workshops aimed at sharpening the skills
of committed explorers, and even high-tech gogglelike devices designed
to help neophytes trigger the state, interest in lucid dreaming is now at an
all-time high. Though the phenomenon tends to be viewed askance by
mainstream dream researchers (who often associate it with
parapsychology), its amateur devotees meet regularly in discussion groups
around the country, subscribe by the thousands to lucid-dreaming
newsletters with names like "NightLight," and avidly chat about their
nightly experiences on the Internet (info@lucidity.com or
http://www.lucidity.com). In August, The Lucidity Institute, in Palo Alto,
a supplier of information and merchandise to dream explorers, even
hosted a five-day "Lucid Dreaming Camp," where dreamers met to
discuss techniques and share experiences.
And yet, as anyone who attempts it soon discovers, learning to
consciously recognize that you are dreaming while you are dreaming is no
simple task . Some people do have spontaneous lucid dreams, but most,
like Vance Lehmkuhl, achieve the state only after much deliberation and
practice. As one lucid dreaming newsletter acknowledged, "The training
process is still more of an art than a science." Among the more commonly
recommended induction methods are autosuggestion (during the day, you
remind yourself to have a lucid dream at night), visualization (during
nightly awakenings, you imagine yourself in a dream and remind yourself
to become lucid), hypnosis (a hypnotist gives you a verbal command to
have a lucid dream), and using various devices (such as guided-imagery
audio tapes and goggles that flash lights during dream periods).
Interestingly, research suggests that people who can more easily recall
their ordinary dreams may have an easier time with lucid dreaming.
Indeed, you may have already had a lucid dream and not realized it.
That's because lucidity is not, as one researcher put it, "an all or nothing
affair." These dreams, in fact, appear to fall along a spectrum, their degree
of lucidity depending upon what researchers refer to as the dreamer's
level of "self-reflectiveness." At a low level, you might simply realize,
"This is a dream," but still passively follow along with the dream events
as they unfold. At the highest levels-the most desired by lucid dream
explorers-you might be able to fully recall your waking life and, to a
great degree, shape your dream to suit your interests or curiosity. In an
ordinary dream, you're a member of the movie house audience; in the
fully lucid dream, you're more like the film's director.
The effort required in learning to "go lucid" has not dampened the
enthusiasm of oneironauts (pronounced oh-nigh-ro-nots). The payoffs,
they say, make it all worthwhile. Among the specific benefits reported:
better mental health, personal growth, improved physical and mental
performance, creative breakthroughs, physical healing, and even spiritual
awakenings. "This new dimension in dreaming can be likened to seeing
things in living color when before you saw only the lifeless shades
between black and white," writes researcher and Lucidity Institute founder
Stephen LaBerge in Lucid Dreaming: The Power of Being Awake &
Aware in Your Dreams. "Lucid dreamers realize that they themselves
contain, and thus transcend, the entire dream world and all of its contents,
because they know their imaginations have created the dream. . . .Thus
they freely pass through dream prison walls that only seemed
impenetrable, and venture forth into the larger world of the mind."
Scattered throughout the offices and conference rooms of LaBerge's
Institute are small battery-operated timers, much like egg timers, that
periodically begin to buzz. LaBerge refers to the devices as "PESTs"
(Programmable Electronic State Testers). The purpose of the PESTs is to
remind lucid dreamers to ask themselves, Am I dreaming now? By
frequently asking this question while awake, LaBerge believes, people are
more apt to ask it during dreams-the first step toward triggering lucidity.
There is, however, an important allegorical purpose to asking that
question. LaBerge believes that most people "sleepwalk" through much of
their waking lives, going through the motions of living without much
thought or consciousness-without "lucidity." And in the final analysis,
that's what LaBerge and most of the lucid dreamers are most interested in:
waking consciousness-in effect, "waking up" to life.
Lucid dreaming clearly had a pronounced influence on the waking life of
Paul Levy. The Portland, Oregon, man had been locked in a frustrating
battle of wills with his father, who vehemently opposed his son's desire to
become an artist. After Levy took a course in lucid dreaming in 1985,
however, he dreamed that he saw his father and decided to talk to him. "
Dad! Guess what? I'm dreaming,' " he recalls saying. "But Dad acted
like I was crazy. I began floating, and then I knew I really was dreaming.
Words burst out of me: Dad, I love you; Dad, I love you.' "
It would have been impossible, Levy later said, for him to have spoken
those words to his father in waking life. But, to Levy, the dream felt as
real as waking life.
In the dream, after expressing his love, Levy reported that "every level of
my being felt unbelievable. I realized that my dad, in the dream, was an
aspect of myself that I had judged, resisted, and felt separate from. So I
embraced that aspect of myself and woke up feeling filled with love and
compassion and joy. My relationship with my father changed. He didn't
change, but now we have a deep sense of love, and that incredible wound
is healing."
Author and dream researcher Patricia Garfield, who did much of the early
work on lucid dreams, tells of using lucid-dream therapy on a
posttraumatic-stress-disorder patient whose hand had been severely
injured in an industrial accident. The patient was depressed, anxious, and
fearful about other possible accidents. But by learning to have lucid
dreams about the accident, in which he changed the outcome, he began to
feel a much greater sense of control in his waking life. "It was the turning
point for him," says Garfield, whose 1974 classic on the subject, Creative
Dreaming: Plan and Control Your Dreams to Develop Creativity,
Overcome Fears, Solve Problems, and Create a Better Self, was recently
updated and reissued.
Portland art therapist Marlene King also frequently uses lucid dreams in
her work. "Everyone has defenses," she says, "so if I think they can work
through their problems better in dreams, I recommend it." She cites one
illustrative case: A Vietnam veteran she worked with used lucid dreaming,
combined with art therapy, to resolve many longstanding conflicts in his
personal life. Similarly, when Patricia Keelin's father died, the Portland,
Oregon, woman says that lucid dreams "helped me cope." Keelin visited
her father in lucid dreams, "and it didn't matter that it was in dreamland.
It inspired me."
Stephen LaBerge believes that lucid dreams can be extremely helpful to
people who suffer from recurring nightmares, since the course of those
bad dreams can be reversed. "It's what everybody ought to be taught as
children," the researcher and author says. "You should know that you can
face your fear, learn from it, and grow. It's especially valid compared to
standard therapy now, which typically involves the therapists saying
they'll help chase the fears away."
Another benefit of lucid dreaming is the apparent boost it can offer
toward peak performance in a variety of skills-anything from sports to
public speaking to singing. Because lucid dreams feel much more real
than even the strongest forms of visualization, people can use them as a
form of mental rehearsal.
Lucid-dream researcher Paul Tholey, himself an avid skateboarder, has
used lucid dreams to help many athletes. He believes that "sensory-motor
skills which have already been mastered in their rough outlines can be
optimized by using lucid dreams." Lucid dreaming, he says, actually
establishes "neural patterns" in the brain that can later be drawn upon
during competition.
Lucid dreamer Don Gaconnet, a black belt competitor in Tae Kwon Do,
recently used lucid dreams to practice an especially difficult maneuver
during a period when he was incapacitated by a knee injury. Gaconnet
even found that it was possible in his lucid dreams to "break down the
maneuver by stopping in mid-air, hovering there, and watching myself."
He also "stepped away from" his body and observed it performing the
maneuver. When he recovered from his injury, he says, "I'd made as
much of an improvement as I would have during waking training. My
instructor noticed it."
Even when not injured, Gaconnet continues to use lucid dreaming as a
training tool. "You have more access to the subconscious," he says, "so
you can remember things you might forget while awake." By the same
token, any activity that requires confidence, practice, and mental or
physical skills could theoretically be rehearsed in a lucid dream.
Similarly, lucid dreams might be used to achieve creative breakthroughs.
Dream therapists tout a number of historical examples of creative
achievements that came from ordinary dreams, including Elias Howe's
invention of the sewing-machine needle and the creation of the periodic
table of the elements by the chemist Mendeleev. Ordinary dreams,
however, are unpredictable. You can't force insight to come. LaBerge,
who says he used lucid dreams to help plan his doctoral dissertation, notes
that lucid dreams resolve that problem. "Instead of waiting for the muse to
visit," he writes, "the artist can call on her."
Lucid dreams may even prove to have some value in healing, given the
mounting evidence of a link between mental states and the immune
system. It's hard to imagine a more realistic visualization technique than
living out the imagined scenario in your dreams. Several anecdotal cases
of accelerated healing have been reported by lucid dreamers, but the
dreams were generally used to help heal only minor ailments, such as
ankle sprains. In one pilot study at the University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center at Dallas, there was some evidence that lucid dreaming
increased the level of "natural killer cells" in the blood.
Even before its many applications were known, lucid dreaming was
attracting the curious. Aristotle, in the fourth century B.C., wrote about
dreamers who realized in mid-dream that they were asleep. Saint
Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas also wrote about the phenomenon.
Around 800 A.D., Tibetan Buddhists were practicing a form of yoga that
helped produce the state. Other early lucid dreamers were Friedrich
Nietzsche and Russian philosopher Piotr Ouspensky. The first "how-to"
book on the subject was Dreams and How to Guide Them, published in
1867 by the Marquis Saint-Denys.
But the book that would have the most profound influence on the modern
understanding of the dream world would come some thirty years after
Saint-Denys'. Entitled The Interpretation of Dreams and written by a
Viennese psychoanalyst named Sigmund Freud, it established the
intriguing link between dreams and the unconscious mind, thus laying the
foundation for much of contemporary dream psychology. Though Freud
considered himself a scientist, his book had the paradoxical effect of
mystifying dreams, holding them as symbolic, sacrosanct messages from
the netherworld of secret desires. The function of dreams was further
mystified, and even elevated, by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, a
one-time disciple of Freud. Jung believed that dreams not only reflect
one's innermost wishes, as Freud asserted, but also tap into a mysterious,
metaphysical knowledge of life and the universe that the waking mind is
generally too shut down to perceive.
Although the theories of Freud and Jung have shaped our understanding
of dreams for much of this century, they have been challenged in the last
twenty years, largely as a result of advances in the technology that can
chart the dreamscape. Perhaps the most direct assault came in 1977, when
Harvard researchers Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley, using
sophisticated monitoring devices, asserted that "the primary motivating
force for dreaming is not psychological but physiological." The
researchers argued that the brain stem periodically bombards the more-
advanced cerebral cortex with random impulses, and that the cortex then
tries "to make sense out of the nonsense it is being presented with."
Freudians, of course, have long thought that the strange, nonsensical
nature of many dreams is a reflection of the mind's disguising
unacceptable thoughts that emerge from the subconscious. But the
Harvard researchers flatly rejected that idea. They argued that bizarre
dreams are simply the result of the cerebral cortex's "making the best of a
bad job" by sorting out the "relatively noisy signals sent up to it from the
brain stem."
Stephen LaBerge, at the time a young Stanford researcher just beginning
his own work on lucid dreams, couldn't help but notice the fire storm
touched off by the publication of the Harvard theories. But while the
mechanistic explanation of dreams answered some questions for him, it
failed to answer others raised by his own work and experience in lucid
dreams. "If your dreams were nothing more than the results of your
forebrain producing partially coherent dream imagery from the relatively
noisy signals sent up to it,' " he writes, "how would you be able to
exercise volitional choice in a lucid dream? How would you be able to
carry out a previously planned dream action? . . . The Hobson-McCarley
hypothesis cannot be the whole story."
Seeking a more-complete picture, LaBerge developed something of a
hybrid theory about dreaming: that dreams are not completely the product
of the unconscious, but are an interplay of the conscious mind and the
unconscious. LaBerge's reasoning was based on a relatively simple
premise: If the mind can become conscious that it's dreaming-if it can
become lucid-then it simply cannot be fully unconscious.
To prove this idea, though, LaBerge needed first to confirm that lucid
dreams do occur. In 1977, their existence was still clinically unproven. To
scientifically confirm lucid dreaming, he later recalled, "What I needed
was a dream lab."
Here it stands, just as it did then, the famous sleep research lab at Stanford
University, site of the world's most-advanced lucid-dream research. But
look at the place. It's a rat hole, a godawful mix of institutional blandness
and academic poverty that fairly shouts: We're scientists here! We're
nerds! We don't need the interior-design hype that you find in the offices
of $150-an-hour psychoanalytic hucksters!
It was here in January 1978 that LaBerge, acting as his own research
subject, crawled into the lab's research bed wearing electrodes to measure
his brain waves, eye movements, and muscle tone. After seven and a half
hours of sleep, he used autosuggestion techniques to became lucid in a
dream. Then, according to a prearranged plan, he held his hand in front of
his face in his dream and watched it as he drew a vertical line in the air.
When he awoke, he found two eye movements on the recording data that
perfectly matched the movements in his dream. Here, finally, was the
evidence he sought. From inside the world of a dream, he had consciously
communicated his condition to the outside world.
After this breakthrough, LaBerge began a series of hundreds of
experiments, carefully charting the landscape of the dreamworld. Over the
next three years, he personally recorded 389 of his own lucid dreams and
found that, by using a variety of techniques, he could increase the
frequency of his lucid dreams dramatically, up to twenty-six lucid dreams
per month. Over the next two decades, LaBerge would become the
godfather of lucid dreaming. He would author two popular books on the
subject and, in 1987, found the Lucidity Institute, located just down the
street, to further spread the word about the technique's many benefits.
When consciousness is brought to the dream world, LaBerge contends, we
can tap into "the most powerful form of psychodrama possible." In fact,
he and other researchers say, lucid dreamers can actually recognize the
symbolic meaning of their dreams while still asleep and can therefore
perform their own do-it-yourself, on-the-spot psychotherapy. "For
example," LaBerge says, "if a person were having a nightmare about a
tiger, you could say to the tiger, Who are you?' Then the tiger might turn
into your father, and you could talk. Then a transformation might occur,
where your father becomes part of you. This isn't really interpretation; it's
just dealing with things. It's an encounter with what's on your mind and
in your heart."
As LaBerge talks, you can almost hear Freud spinning in his grave.
LaBerge, for example, seriously doubts that all dreams even have a
deeper meaning-a central Freudian concept. "Dreaming is not strictly a
message from the unconscious," he says. "It's more like an improvised
interaction between unconsciousness and consciousness." The
unconscious mind may create the various dream characters and events, he
continues, "but it has the conscious mind interpreting it, responding to it,
and influencing it." In other words, even as we dream, according to
LaBerge, we're not fully in a state of unconsciousness. Therefore, the
"tiger" that LaBerge mentioned might indeed represent someone's
unconscious image of their father--or it might simply be a scrap of
memory from a nature show watched before bedtime. At the mention of
Freud's name, LaBerge shakes his head sadly, as if to say, "poor old
fool."
Like Freud, however, LaBerge has spent a great deal of time thinking
about sex, because sex is a favorite theme of lucid dreamers. LaBerge
and other researchers discovered much of the reason for this close
association: In the stage known as REM (or rapid eye movement) sleep,
when the vast majority of lucid dreams occur, a natural state of sexual
excitation is generally present. Men, for example, commonly experience
erections during REM sleep, even in the absence of sexual content in their
dreams. Researcher Patricia Garfield, whose books unabashedly present
her myriad dream couplings, says that as many of two thirds of her lucid
dreams involve sex.
Still, LaBerge views this aspect of the phenomenon as little more than a
calling card to lure people to the limitless possibilities of lucid dreaming.
"If someone wants to try dream sex, fine," says the researcher, who freely
admits to having had his share of nocturnal encounters. "Because then
there's a greater chance they'll say, 'Wow! How can this be?' It's an
occasion to spiritualize people."
By far, the benefit cited by lucid dreamers as the most satisfying of all is a
sense of spiritual transformation. Many lucid dreamers say that the
experience has changed their entire outlook on the meaning of their
existence.
Most commonly, they say that by realizing, during their dreams, that their
"dream characters" and dream situations are products of their own minds,
they therefore come to believe, while awake, that they are not necessarily
separate from the people and environments around them. "In a lucid
dream, you realize the things around you aren't outside objects, but parts
of yourself. That same thing is true, on a different level, in my waking
life," says Vance Lehmkuhl, Marilyn Monroe's former lover-in his
dreams.
Furthermore, when lucid dreamers see that their "dream self," or "ego
self" is just one of many "characters" in their dreams, they then recognize
that what they generally consider their waking "self" is just one element of
their complete being.
Because lucid dreams seem so real, some lucid dreamers eventually adjust
their concepts of waking reality. "After years of lucid dreaming," says
Patricia Keelin, "the two worlds-dreaming and waking-tend to blend.
I'm now more aware of the magical and the absurd in waking life."
Keelin is also better able to control her waking life by sometimes
approaching it as if it were a dream. "In a stressful business meeting,
where everyone is unhappy," she says, "I might ask myself, What would I
do if this were a dream? I'd go to the person who's creating the problem
and offer creative solutions-instead of just grumbling with my co-
workers, my 'dream characters.' "
Paul Levy, whose lucid dreams had the powerful psychological effect of
healing his conflict with his father, has found that lucid dreams have
totally altered his spiritual life. He now adheres to the Buddhist belief that
all of waking life is, in effect, a dream. "The dreaming process," he says,
"is the path to awakening. When you wake up in a dream, you realize
you're not just this body that you feel, but are part of what I call the
deeper dreaming self.' You become awake in this dream, the dream of
life."
LaBerge, from his more-rational, scientific perspective, holds an outlook
similar to Levy's. "Frequent lucid dreamers," he says, " wake up' more
frequently in the waking state and realize, Oh! This is what's happening to
me." As a simple exercise in remaining "awake" during life, LaBerge and
other lucid dreamers at The Lucidity Institute try to remember to touch the
door frame every time they walk through a door, while they ask
themselves, Am I dreaming? The exercise also helps them become lucid
when they walk through doors in dreams.
If you think you, personally, are not "sleepwalking" through life, try
touching door frames. It's almost absurdly difficult.
Lucid dreaming does have its critics. Freudian analysts-a relatively rare
breed these days-are understandably antagonistic to the concept. Some
even doubt that lucid dreaming occurs. The primary criticism of lucid
dreaming is that it obliterates the rich mine of insight that dreams offer, by
allowing the dreamer to control the dream.
"I think there's a danger in excessively controlling one's fantasies,
especially one's spontaneous fantasy life," says psychologist Stanley
Krippner, professor of psychology at the Saybrook Institute and former
dream laboratory director at the Maimonides Medical Center in New
York. Lucid dreaming, he says, can be beneficial if used in moderation
but "might be deleterious to a person's knowledge about one's
unconscious processes."
Adds psychotherapist Fred Graywolf Swinney, director of the Aesculapia
Foundation, a Wilderville, Oregon, group that studies the nature of
consciousness and healing processes: "In a lucid dream, people change
the surface of the dream to make themselves feel better. But the surface of
the dream isn't much more than a map. We need to change the territory,
not the map. When we do that, the map changes on its own. It seems
ludicrous to me to take that one last place where some of our deeper
wisdom comes through and start manipulating it with our egos, which are
generally flawed."
Jungian psychoanalyst Robert Bosnak, author of A Little Course in
Dreams and the forthcoming Tracks in the Wilderness of Dreaming, calls
the use of lucid dreaming to change the dreaming environment "a form of
ego imperialism," a technique that if misused could threaten "the
autonomy of the unconscious." However, the issue is how specifically the
technique is used: If the dreamer uses it to face a fear-say, a monster-
by consciously turning himself around to confront it, Bosnak says that that
could be very therapeutic. "But it's not a good idea to change the monster
into a butterfly," he says. "That would not be helpful, because there truly
is a monster."
Lucid dreamers, however, say that the degree of control they have is
frequently misunderstood. "Your control can waver," says lucid dreamer
Patricia Keelin. "It's a balancing act. You can say, I want this or that, but
you may be surprised by what you get."
"In a lucid dream," adds Vance Lehmkuhl, "you can influence things, but
not control them."
The most essential control over dreams, say lucid dreamers, is not the
controlling of events, but the controlling-because the dreamer knows it's
just a dream-of one's reaction to events. For Keelin, this is perhaps the
greatest lesson of lucid dreaming, that it offers us a chance to practice
meeting challenging situations with "creativity as opposed to habitual
reaction."
Late at night on the first day I was assigned this article, I had a lucid
dream. Beginner's luck. I dreamed I climbed a ladder, higher and higher,
and then suddenly realized I was dreaming. I looked down. Let go.
Soared.
It was absolutely extraordinary.
Ever since, I've been trying to return to that state. So far, no luck.
So . . . Marilyn, if you're out there, come to me tonight. Forget Vance.
He's no good for you.
Meantime, I'll be touching every door frame in sight.
Sidebar
How to Have a Lucid Dream
Lucid dreaming is a skill that requires practice, mental focus, and
motivation. The average person has less than one lucid dream a year but,
with effort, some lucid dreamers can have several each week.
Here are some tips:
1. Remember your dreams. You may be having lucid dreams but
forgetting them. Keep a dream journal; preferably, write down your dream
immediately after you wake up, even if it's at night.
2. Use "intention techniques." During the day, affirm your nightly
intention to recognize that you're dreaming. Visualize yourself in a lucid
dream. Imagine performing a specific action, such as flying. These
"autosuggestion" techniques are the foundation of triggering the lucid-
dream state, and the more motivated you are the better. A particularly
good time to visualize yourself in a lucid dream is when you become
partially or temporarily awake at night or early in the morning.
3. Sleep late. Most lucid dreams happen during the later periods of REM
sleep, which occur in the morning, just before getting out of bed. One
helpful technique is to wake up early, stay awake for about an hour-or as
long as possible-and then go back to sleep.
4. Get in the habit of testing your mental state. Ask yourself several times
daily, Am I dreaming? Check your watch to see if it's functioning
normally. Read something, look away, and read it again. If you were
dreaming, say researchers, chances are your watch wouldn't work
properly, and you wouldn't be able to read the same thing twice. Try to
establish "targets" that remind you to ask yourself if you're dreaming;
your "target" might be every time you drink something, every time you
open a door, or any other act you're likely to do during a dream. This
daytime habit may then carry over to your dreams.
5. Learn to recognize "dreamsigns." When odd things happen-
everything from a simple coincidence to seeing a giraffe fly-don't
rationalize it; ask yourself if you're dreaming. In your dream journal, keep
track of the odd dreamsigns that you notice in your dreams. If the same
dreamsign occurs frequently, remind yourself to become lucid each time
you notice that dreamsign in a dream.
6. Try a WILD: a "wake-initiated" lucid dream. It's possible to "fall
asleep consciously" and go directly into a lucid dream, says Stephen
LaBerge, simply by concentrating on having a lucid dream as you fall
asleep. It's easiest during temporary awakenings at night or early in the
morning.
7. Buy a NovaDreamer. These computer-programmed sleep masks,
available from The Lucidity Institute (800 GO LUCID), recognize REM
signals in the eyes and cue you with a flashing light that you're dreaming.
They cost about $275; less for students. Users report very good results.
Often the flashing light will become part of the dream, but the
experienced lucid dreamer will recognize that a flashing light is a
dreamsign.
Box
Adventures in Dreamland
OK, so you've mastered the art of Superman-style flying and gotten to
know (ahem) all your favorite movie stars. What's left to do in
dreamland? In his book Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming,
researcher Stephen LaBerge suggests a number of intriguing exercises to
keep you entertained night after lucid night. A sampling:
The Spinning Technique. A lucid dreamer's worst nightmare is waking
up in the middle of a wondrous dream. LaBerge and other dreamers have
discovered, however, that by carrying out certain dream actions, you can
actually preoccupy your perceptual system so it can't change its focus
from the dream world to the waking world. So when a lucid dream starts
to fade (loss of color and visual detail is a first sign), "stretch out your
arms and spin like a top," he recommends, making sure you vividly feel
your dream body in motion. As you do, remind yourself that the next thing
you experience will be a dream. When you find yourself in a stable world,
you'll either still be dreaming or will have awakened. Test to see if you're
dreaming (ask, Am I dreaming?, look for oddities, etc.). LaBerge reports
that when he repeatedly tested this technique, it produced new dream
scenes 85 percent of the time.
The Dream Television. Dream explorer and researcher Alan Worsley
gave LaBerge the inspiration for this exercise. Once lucid, create a large,
high-resolution, surround-sound television set. Make yourself comfortable
and then start playing with the various controls to create a wondrous wash
of sensory information-sound, images, color, light. "Imagine the smell of
foods wafting right out of the picture tube," writes LaBerge. "If you are
hungry, allow it to materialize. Savor a sample."
Lucid Dream Workout. According to sports psychologist and dream
researcher Paul Tholey, lucid dreaming can help you improve your skills
at any number of athletic pursuits. During the day, think about what
you'd like to practice in your lucid dreams and how it would feel to do it
exactly right. Study the performances of experts. While dreaming, make
sure you are set up to practice, traveling to the gym, field, or ski slope if
you have to. Then practice, concentrating on achieving perfection.
"Lucid-dream practice is ideal for working on the feel of the skill, how it
all fits together, and performing it smoothly," LaBerge writes. Go on and
try more-advanced skills that you've never tried before. Remember, you
can't get hurt. By learning the feel of a new skill, LaBerge suggests, you'll
be prepared to learn it faster when you're awake.
Writer Cameron Stauth is the author of several books, most recently The
Bountryhunter [FC]. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
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