What is lucid dreaming? Before answering this question, try to imagine that you are in a world where you can overcome fear, go anywhere you want, have extraordinary experiences that have never been experienced before, and even have a relationship with someone you can’t have.
In the world of lucid dreams, the laws of physics don’t apply. So dream explorers will discover things never imagined before, but before that let’s understand what lucid dreaming really is.
What is lucid dreaming
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The definition of lucid dream is actually very simple, lucid means conscious and dream means dream, so lucid dream means conscious dream. It means you are aware when you are in the middle of a dream.
Try asking yourself if you are currently awake from sleep? Are you aware that you have woken up from sleep? If yes, then you are in a conscious state. If you ask these questions when you are dreaming, when you are in the middle of a dream, and you realize that’s when you are in a lucid dream.
A lucid dream is a condition in which a person is aware that he is dreaming.
This term was first proposed by a writer and psychiatrist named Frederik Willem van Eeden (1860–1932), a Dutch national.
1.Dream Initiated Lucid Dreaming (DILD)
The first way is DILD, which is a person’s conscious state when he is in the middle of his dream. Usually this happens more often to many people, one could say a coincidence.
2.Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming (WILD)
The second way is just the opposite, it happens on purpose. That is by doing certain ways to achieve a lucid dream state such as the use of certain drugs, tools, or methods/techniques.
Lucid dreams have been scientifically researched and have indeed been acknowledged by experts to be true.
Usually a person experiences lucid dreams actively or passively. most often actively which means you are able to create something and control the dream. This can be a lot of fun and adventure, which is what most people think of when they hear the word “lucid dream.” If lucid dreaming is passive, then you are only aware that you are in a dream but can only witness dream events but can control yourself or make things happen.
Dr. Keith Hearn (University of Hull) in 1975 conducted a study of several people regarding lucid dreams, the study revealed that there are different dream conditions from ordinary dreams, namely the emergence of continuous eye movement patterns (REM) during sleep.
The research tool shows that there are active brain signals and the conscious mind while asleep. From there research on Lucid Dream continues to grow until now.
Not only that, hundreds or even thousands of years in several traditions such as Tibetan, African Sangoma, Toltec Mexico, to agnostics have discussed this lucid dream. Each tradition has its own term but has the same explanation.
Lucid dreams that develop in the western world are now more directed to;
- Explore the subconscious mind for self-therapy,
- increase creativity,
- develop self potential,
- Practicing energy healing
Keep in mind that the subconscious influences our daily behavior. By doing Lucid Dreaming is the best way to get into the subconscious compared to other methods. Because in the Lucid Dream state where our physical body is asleep but our mind has a very high awareness.
What happens when we start to wake up in the middle of a dream?
Welcome to the new world!! We enter our subconscious mind in a real dream. Everything we see and feel is like the real world, the difference is that lucid dreams are projections of the subconscious, so we are free to do anything without restrictions in the world of lucid dreams. The subconscious mind actually stores a lot of information that we can explore through lucid dreams.
It is different with ancient traditions in various places. In Tibet, Lucid Dreams or commonly referred to as dreams for yoga are more used as a way to achieve enlightenment, spiritual practice, meet beings who have been enlightened to practice preparing for death and the like.
Of course, Lucid Dreaming is not exactly the same as dream yoga, but Lucid Dreaming is a good starting practice in learning dream yoga. However, dream yoga in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition is part of the teachings of tantra or so-called secret teachings where the teachings given are not arbitrary.
