Lucid dreaming is a form of mind training in which we learn consciously to recognize our dreams as dreams while we are dreaming. As with all forms of mind training, the aim is to be more aware and more awake, to switch off the autopilot and to wake up to life. To dream lucidly is to live lucidly.
Does this mean lucid dreamers stand to lose touch with reality? No, in fact quite the opposite – once we can penetrate the persuasive reality of the dreamscape and know it as an illusion, we become better equipped to recognize self-deception in the waking state. This makes us more grounded and more aware.
Essentially, during a lucid dream the mind is creating an incredibly detailed three-dimensional projection to form the functional reality of the dreamscape, while another part of the mind is consciously interacting with this projection in real time. So, in a lucid dream we are both the creator and the created, the projector and the projected.
This mind-boggling process reveals the infinite potential of the brain in a way few other states of consciousness can, because through lucid dreaming we become conscious within our unconscious. This opens up the possibility of directly interacting with psychological aspects and archetypes at a seemingly tangible level.
(Lucid dreaming as conscious mind training and illusion recognition)
In a letter to a mourning friend Albert Einstein once wrote, ‘A human being… experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness… To try to overcome this delusion is the way to attain true peace of mind.’5
Waggoner says, ‘No sailor controls the sea. Similarly, no lucid dreamer controls the dream.’6
The implications are huge – our neurological system doesn’t differentiate between waking and lucid dream experiences. In other words, for our brain, there is no discernible difference between lucid dreams and waking life. Dreaming lucidly about doing something is not like imagining it – it’s like actually doing it.
The potential benefits of this finding are profound. In the waking state, if we imagine happy scenarios, we usually only induce a slight increase in neurologically measurable happiness. In the lucid dream state, however, if we engage in an activity that bring us joy and happiness (whether it’s flying, swimming with dolphins or playing bass for the Beatles), the synapses in the parts of the brain associated with happiness light up and release feel-good chemicals in exactly the same way as if we were experiencing these activities while awake. To our psychophysical system, a lucid dream isn’t just a visualization – it’s a reality.
(Neurological equivalence of lucid dream and waking experience)
Charlie says ‘My audio CD, Lucid Dreaming, Conscious Sleeping (Hay House) contains a great 20-minute guided hypnagogic mindfulness practice based on this technique.’
For many people, mindfulness meditation applied in the hypnopompic can be one of the most refined experiences of pure consciousness that they have.
It should be noted that the enhanced clarity of the hypnopompic also means a lack of self-censorship, which often shines light into the dark corners of our mind and sometimes reveals our deepest fears and neuroses, which we unconsciously repress during our waking hours. But if we can learn to rest in this state with non-judgemental awareness, simply witnessing, we will naturally begin to integrate these neuroses into the wholeness of ourselves. As the great Krishnamurti once said, ‘The seeing is the doing.’
(Hypnopompic clarity as a gateway to pure consciousness and self-integration)
not. Back in my early 20s, I tried using the voice recorder on my mobile phone as a lucid dream induction device by recording myself saying (in a rather pseudo-spiritual voice), ‘Charlie, you are now dreammmming. What you are experiencing is just a dreammmm…’ and then setting this voice recording as a 4 a.m. alarm in the hope that it would penetrate my dreaming consciousness as I slept. That night, however, my girlfriend stayed over unexpectedly, and I was awoken at 4 a.m. not by the alarm but by her mocking laughter as she heard my voice recording!