Lucid dreams are dreams that you can control. One of the main techniques for increasing the number of lucid dreams is to habitually reality-check. The most common one people are familiar with is pinching themselves. If you do this every hour, on the dot, then you will start to do this in your dreams, and you will become aware of how rich your dream-world is. See, we dream a lot every night, but in the process of waking up, our brains erase them.

The following is a story of an interesting lucid dream I had recently. I'm sort of working with @squidhelmet to turn these anecdotes into a fiction story or screenplay. A word of caution, though. This story mentions fantasy sex. This should be expected in an honest discussion about lucid dreams. For me at least, the two things I seem most interested in when lucid dreaming are flying and fucking.

So, in this dream, I was walking around the neighborhood where I grew up. I then walked behind this Chinese restaurant, and all of a sudden I found myself in an enclosed mini-Chinatown. "I don't remember this being here," is what I thought to myself. So I started meandering around, and the deeper I got, the more intricate and compact the Chinatown became. I saw floating Chinese lanterns everywhere and lots of families milling about. "Where did all these people come from?" The neighborhood I grew up in was definitely more quiet than this.

My pulse started racing. Whenever I get the drift I might be dreaming, I start to get excited. I also get nervous because I know that over-excitement will shake me out of the dream. This then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. So I started running around the mini-Chinatown, looking for my reality-checks. I wanted to be confident I was dreaming before going to town with the world, Grand Theft Auto-style.

The first reality-check that came to mind was the text-check. If you look at a string of text in a dream, and then re-look at it, often the words won't appear the same. So I started rushing around corners and around people, looking for something to read. I couldn't find anything and I became anxious.

So I ditched that reality-check and went to the next one: looking at your hands. If you look at your hands in a dream, often they won't appear right. And so I checked, and lo and behold, it seemed like I had four fingers! "Ah-ha!"

I only felt 80% sure, though, because I also thought, "wait, isn't this how hands normally look?" My sense of logic was corrupted in this dream.

But there was no more time. If I kept running around I'd wake up. And so I decided, "Ah, what the hell" and I just leapt and flew over a picnic table, landing on the hottest girl in sight.

Shortly thereafter, I woke up, ruing the brevity, but with a renewed interest in lucid dreaming.

Somehow, in December, I decided I wanted to bring lucid dreaming back into my life. These are the kind of dreams where you're aware that you're dreaming, and you can start to control them. Often in these dreams, everything looks and feels so real that you can't really tell if it's a dream or not.

This is not my first major attempt at lucid dreaming. I first started in 2004. There were two techniques that I focused on. The first was keeping a dream journal. The idea is that we have many dreams every night, and we simply just erase them when we wake up. By writing the dreams down, your recall will improve. This is important because if you don't remember a dream it's almost like you never had the experience in the first place.

The second technique is to habitually do reality checks. For example, light switches don't seem to work in dreams. So wherever you go, flip switches to check if you're in a dream or not. If you are consistent, then half of the time, you will realize you're in a dream and your world will become instantly plastic.

This is all fun when you're initially excited with lucid dreaming. However, once the novelty wears off, you may fall out of practice. You have to get to the level where lucid dreams happen with regularity to make it justifiably rewarding over the long-run.

In 2004, I think I only got half-way to that level. I eventually I got tired of writing in my dream journals; the last thing I want to do in the morning is start writing. Second, I simply fell out of the habit of dream-checking.

But now, in 2009, I think I've found a sustainable path into lucid dreaming. It involves convenience-hacks on those two techniques.

The first involves replacing dream-journals. Instead, while I'm lying in bed, I just try to recall 10 interesting features from my dreams, and then I try to cap it off by giving the dream a name. This isn't as strong as writing every detail down, but it does help jog your memory. Plus, it's a fun-enough exercise that you can do while cranky.

The second convenience-hack is a handy reminder to dream-check:

This is what my cell phone looks like whenever I turn it on. I created it by writing in the Notepad application and then taking a screenshot (hold down the power-button and press the home-button).

It's been a month now, and I haven't lost track of either techniques. Lucid dreams have gradually become more and more frequent. Eventually, who knows, I might keep this up and become a master lucid dreamer.

Did you know that you have about four dreams that last 5 to 45 minutes every night but you just don't remember them? (1)(2) While the subjective experiences of dreaming are much longer, usually the process of falling asleep and waking up feels instantaneous.

To explain my point, I need to switch to some heady concepts about life for a moment.

Here is one tricky concept to grasp: experiencing and remembering are mentally equivalent. You will only assume you lived through something because you've remembered it; you feel that you've never experienced any moments that you've forgotten.

And here is a second concept. People spend a lot of time trying to expand the biological length of their life, i.e. they want to increase the number of hours that they exist on Earth, when really they should be focusing on something else. The notion of age is merely a socially inculcated concept of life's length. One can adopt an alternative perspective, wherein life's length is the number of moments that one has lived through. Using this metric, the life of an adventurer experiencing novelty every day is longer than the life of the routinized cubicle tenant.

Since experiencing and remembering are equivalent, an easy way to extend your life is to remember your dreams. I've been practicing dream recall on and off for the past two years, but have been really getting into it these past weeks. It's gotten so good that this morning I remembered five distinct dreams. Each dream was in a unique setting, with an odd assortment of characters from my past, and canvassed with bizarre events. As a result, as I'm sitting here typing this, and as I reflect about my life since 8pm last night, I feel like I've gone through a lot! Last night doesn't feel like last night, but rather maybe like last week. For in between last night and this morning I did the following: I went to a Stadium, I lived in a Monte Carlo villa, I took a final on Simpsons 101 in the rain, I took a lady-friend of mine to a luscious Miami mall, and I hosted a Reality TV show. And the best part is, I'm not tired, my wallet is not empty, and no important physical time was lost.

Continue reading...

This is what I'm talking about when I say "pursuit of passion."

I'm working on lucid dreams which are dreams that you can control.

Today, middle of Spring Break, middle-of-the-day nap, I had one of the trippiest semi-lucid dreams. I dreamt I was falling asleep in class, and that I was lucid dreaming, which led me to a new, nested level of dreaming. Then when I woke back up in the class, I start spreading the good word about lucid dreaming while skirting over topics of metaphysical goop.

More details follow, including side notes to fellow oneironauts (explorers of the dream space).

Continue reading...

I'm trying to improve my ability to recall dreams as a prerequisite to lucid dreaming.

The following note is from an afternoon nap where I dreamt an old acquaintance telling me about his new f**k-buddy he found in London.

Continue reading...

Lucid Dreaming is when you become aware that you're dreaming which then allows you to control what happens in those dreams. One of the strategies for becoming an expert in iniating lucid dreams is to become good at recalling dreams--you likely have lucid dreams but forget them! The Lucidity Institute's suggestion for this is to keep a dreamlog. Hence, hence, hence...

Continue reading...

Lucid dreams are dreams where you are aware that you are dreaming. Below is a journal entry about a recent weak lucid dream. More lucid dreaming information can be found in my Lucid Dreaming Archives or from the Lucidity Institute

I was half-awake, half-asleep for a noon nap, and I was fading in and out reality. I became aware of this, and so I tried controlling my dream.

Continue reading...

I'm experimenting with Lucid Dreaming. Lucid dreams are dreams in which you become aware that you're dreaming. In that state you can control your environment and retain a memory of the dream that carries on into the waking life. A prerequisite of becoming an oneironaut (as lucid dream travelers are wont to call themselves) is establishing consistent dream recall. Being able to remember your dreams assists you in becoming aware that you're dreaming.

Below is a strange happening in today's first morning nap.

I'm holding in my hand a piece of paper with numbers from 9 through 12. These represent the various hours in which I have class. There is one entry per line, such as 9 - Biology, 10 - Physics, etc. However, there are two number 11's and next to the second 11 is a 12 scribbled out. This makes sense, though, since we have rotating schedules each day. So this indicates my 11 o'clock switches between the two classes.

The curious part is the scribbled-out 12. Somehow my dream knew that I would be hastily jotting down my schedule and would put the wrong number for my rotating class. However, I never went through this process in my dream. I just opened up the paper and there it was, my mistake reflected.

I felt weird because I was seeing evidence of something I did, yet had no recollection of having done so. It was simultaneously familiar and surprising. My thoughts were both, "Oh, how funny, I do that all the time" and "But how odd, I don't remember writing down this schedule." The "I" in "I do this all the time" was like I was referring to myself in the 3rd person, such as "Phil does this all the time." It was almost like I had inserted myself into the timeline of a Doppelganger Phil from a parallel universe.

This strange discordance, should it occur again, can maybe remind me that I'm dreaming. This can now serve as a trigger to assist my entrance into lucidity.

I'm experimenting with Lucid Dreaming. Lucid dreams are dreams in which you become aware that you're dreaming. In that state you can control your environment and retain a memory of the dream that carries on into the waking life. A prerequisite of becoming an oneironaut (as lucid dream travelers are wont to call themselves) is establishing consistent dream recall. Being able to remember your dreams assists you in becoming aware that you're dreaming.

Below is a synopsis of a dream I had during today's third morning nap.

Think anime noir. Think plastic people and locations. Think silent brooding action.

Cruising down a dank alley, hand in my pocket, I exit the shadows. The sight of fanfare at a major intersection overwhelms me. This is a metropolis it seems, but not one in America. This place and pace is too relaxed to be America.

I take a quick left out of the alley, hop over a small sweaty street, and enter a gargantuan building teeming with people. This place must be a train station as it reminds me of Victoria or Grand Central.

I walk inside this populous cathedral and gauge the crowd. Everybody is packed and sprawled all over booths and chairs that riddle the floor. The people are chewing gum, reading magazines, lifting up babies, and churning time. Their races are multi-ethnic, their gist sub-cosmopolitan, yet their attitude pleasant.

There is a faint glimmer of dustiness enveloping this whole scene. The sun is shining straight down and bouncing off the beige floor. The rays then reflect back in the same exact direction. This bathes the dust in double the amount of usual light plus illuminating it from all directions, hence the faint day-time glow. This informs me that it's high noon.

I find what seems to be the only vacant seat. I wedge between some groups of people, and lean forward, shoulders on knees, so as to give extra room to breath mentally.

My equipose is hammered by a dour interruption of yelling and clanking. A young asian man is being wrestled and chased through the station. He is carrying a music CD and the general idea is that he is committing theft. A few people join to help bring him down, but for the most part, people just kind of observe calmly.

While this cloudy tussle approaches the exit, it slowly cruises my way.

Should I act? Why not? I get up join the wrestling as a way to solve this problem. This is not so easy, and in the process a piece of my hat gets torn off. Frustrated, I grab the man and yell, "Just download the mp3s!"

He then immediately, and silently, releases the stolen goods, and scurries out the exit.

The noise and activity settles and I sit down back into my seat. I'm half expecting an applause from the crowd, but instead, I speculate that I'm receiving silent respect. Either way the silliness of what just happened makes me smile.

I lean back, feeling semi-champion-like. Unfortunately, this fades as I realize just how tattered I am. My hat is ripped, and my ankles and elbows are sore. I then murmur that I'm going to leave, and so I get up and go.

I exit the Station, and the sun is still high. The bright outdoor light pierces my eye. I then cross the intersection.

(Progress on my attempts at lucid dreaming (LD). You're reading in reverse order. WILD == Wake-Induced Lucid Dreaming. Also, attempting to find creative and more appropriate ways to relate dreams--i.e. stories and narratives aren't exactly fitting, esp. given the large deficit of clarity)

After writing down the previous dream around 9AM, I tried again with the same techniques, same position, same everything. And, as would be fitting of repetition, I got the same results, no WILD, but still, a dream that I could recall

The back of the kitchen area was damp and grey. Two steps and a guard-rail provided the stage for Steve, or Jose, or a generic Mexican. He was handling girls, guys, bus-boys, workers in a jovial manner and seemed likeable. People would go, "Aye Steve" in the way that they likeable people tend to get.

I thought he was retarded. No really, I did. You never know these days. He was happy, but possibly too happy. He had on the happiness that one could only get if they enjoyed the legend of "ignorant bliss."

He wasn't retarded. Or rather, he wasn't as retarded as I expected, but still relatively dumb. His mental incapacities and capacities seemed to arrive and depart like the disturbance and calm of a secluded pond.

I left this corridor for the sunny day. Next stop was a cafeteria bench with my best friend from high school, Chris Khosravi. Chris was like the opposite of a politician. So, to refresh your memory, a politician is like the social frat-guy in college who says, "yeah, yeah, yeah, totally let's meet up" and never follows through. Chris was the opposite in that he would rarely smile, or look you in the eye, but would help you out if you needed it or support you in times of distress.

Sitting next to an anti-politician, then, reverses the order of feelings one gets around a politician. At first, I sit there, appraise Chris's poker demeanor, as he fails to look at me, and feel frustrated that there sits my best friend. This is how one feels after realizing the politician was just putting on a show. Then, after I start talking to him, I feel comfortable and calm and realize that indeed, all is well, and that Chris is solid. Following with the reverse order of a politician, this would be the feeling you get from seeing Joe Senator's glowing initial "hello."

I leave and come back, and then Chris tosses onto the table a plastic bag of what looks like wet clothes. The bag lays there and oozes into a flatter shape like I assume a bag of fish would do. I ask him what is this show, this package. He says, "Here's the stuff I borrowed."

"Ugh" my interior monologue goes. It's kind of disgusting. Is this my underwear, shirts, and pants that Chris borrowed that he is returning back to me all nasty and sweaty. Yuck. Well, that's Chris for you.

(Progress on my attempts at lucid dreaming (LD). You're reading in reverse order. WILD == Wake-Induced Lucid Dreaming. Also, attempting to find creative and more appropriate ways to relate dreams--i.e. stories and narratives aren't exactly fitting, esp. given the large deficit of clarity)

Around 8AM, I had woken up, wrote down the above dream, and then I went back to bed. This time, in addition to affirmations, I flooded my mind with random visual imagery. This was hard beecause I was tired, but it did start to carry itself forward. I was laying flat on my back with some blanket, and I was trying to have a WILD. I lost a little bit of awareness of my space, but I think I fell into the abyss of sleep before I ever met an aware state of transition.

The sun is beating down like a wild horse. I park in a park, and encounter my best friend. He is in the side of the parking lot opposite of me, while as a BBQ is going on to the left of me on my side. Apparently te BBQ is for a political rally, and the main guy is listing off various things in a manner:

"We used $ money for this building" and that building and so fort. Chaz and I are laughing at this guy, "what is this guy" kinda... simply because we feel that way toward politicians in general.

Then there is some talk about space programs and I walk over to the grassy area behind Chaz, and then I get into a spacesip.

For a second, I thought I was Luke Skywalker, or I was in that Star Tours ride in Disneyland. There was some physics concept that upon take-off they have to keep pushing some jets on one side to keep it away from hitting rocks or something, and so you'd be making a parabolic shot out of the atmosphere. I did this, and it was kind of cool, don't remember too much. Eventually I landed. Then I think I was either floating or hung out in the trees, where I saw one of the most beautiful things ever:

Imagine a hummingbird-butterfly combination with wings and a body that form the shape of a Spade in a deck of cards. The colors were the shimmering emerald green border and crystaline azure that you find in the eyes of peacocks' feathers. A swarm of about 35 of these characters snaked together like a magic carpet. The sight of these cascading around the trees from which I was perched filled me with butterflies of the stomach, and pleasure.

Somehow, these wondorous, docile creatures became associated with the dull and irritating windows icon. This is the icon of the flag-like red-green-blue-yellow window that may start cascacading across your screen in various screen savers.

(Progress on my attempts at lucid dreaming (LD). You're reading in reverse order. WILD == Wake-Induced Lucid Dreaming. Also, attempting to find creative and more appropriate ways to relate dreams--i.e. stories and narratives aren't exactly fitting, esp. given the large deficit of clarity)

I started trying to sleep at 3AM. To induce a LD, I repeated affirmations such as, "I will wake up in my dreeam."

I'm driving toward five half-way constructed housing projects. The houses are cookie-cutter 2-storied buildings staggered upon a hill like the hills on the side of I-15 in Mira Mesa. From afar, I can see the lattice-like wood beams already ready, waiting for the roofs to be installed. My mom and two construction workers are at the foot of a building site. They're actually underneath the shade of possibly an empty parking garage or other construction project. They're making fun of me, and I'm unsure why. I had come back with a long piece of wood for the building, and I take it withm y right hand, and toss it onto the dirt ground so as to give it to them.

They continue laughing. I look at the wood and the white paint has chipped off from it. I ask them why, and they make some hand-waving explanation about teen-agers and their hands being a certain way that makes it easy for paint to chip off.

I take the car that I was in away from the construction zone. The place was overcast. I end up toward a parking structure on a steep curve, similar to a part of Grand Teft Auto III with a hill, and some streets on the side. I take a left turn and give the car to a valet..

Somewere I brought cookies to my mom.

Lucid Dreaming, for those who haven't seen the movie, The Waking Life, is a special kind of dreaming where you're aware that you're dreaming. The obvious benefits of lucid dreaming are obvious: potential to control your dreams thereby achieving greater fantasy, the potential for transcendance, the ability to alleviate fears, etc.

I'm currently trying stuff out some of the techniques and I'll report back on them later. So far though, practicing the techniques for lucid dreaming helps to cultivate your imagination. This is good for many things, such as art, strategy, and creative thinking. It's also good for positive imagery. If you can truly imagine yourself as a certain kind of person, then your body reacts and supports that image of yourself. I knew a kid at Stanford who never got sick and he said he secret was that he alway had a positive view of himself as a strong, healthy person.