A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming (2 page)

Contents

FOREWORD
ix

PART ONE:
STARTING
the
JOURNEY
1

1 A New Discovery

3

2 What Are Dreams?

17

3 A History of Dreaming

27

PART TWO:
PACKING YOUR BAGS

39

4 The REM Stage

43

5 The Power of Intention

51

6 Remembering Your Dreams

61

7 Keeping a Dream Journal

71

8 The Reality Check

83

PART THREE:
ARRIVAL

95

9 Becoming Lucid

99

10 Staying Lucid

109

PART FOUR:
EXPLORING a NEW WORLD

121

11 Transportation

125

12 Creation

141

13 The Natives

153

14 Superpowers

167

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PART FIVE:
MASTERING the TERRAIN

179

15 Defusing Nightmares

183

16 Healing and Wholeness

195

17 Dream Incubation

205

18 WILD

217

PART SIX:
THE NEXT FRONTIER

229

19 Know Thyself

233

20 Waking vs. Dreaming

241

21 A Future Vision

253

NOTES 263

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

272

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

274

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FOREWORD

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

—T. S. Eliot,

poet, playwright, aka “old possum”

For as long as there have been blank spots on the map,

there have been pioneers—those unafraid of the fringe,

who relish the untamed, the unknown, and the undiscov-

ered. These individuals are inspired by the adventurous impulse

to survey new ground, to chart new territory, or to discover new

ideas. They are the innovators, creators, visionaries, and explorers.

Today we find ourselves on the brink of yet another frontier.

You, holding this book, are about to enter this unknown world.

Where are you going? What’s left that hasn’t already been mapped

out? The only blank spots left are in the depths of the sea and in

the vastness of outer space, but you won’t be going to either of

these places. This journey is a tad different. You won’t find this

place on any map.

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You’re not a stranger to this land. In fact you’ve traveled there

every night of your life, whether you realize it or not. You leave

your familiar world and experience this place, which has its own

rules, customs, laws, and native population. You can traverse this

frontier just like you’d walk through a forest. Here, you can learn,

discover, heal, and awaken to different realities.

If you’ve read the cover of this book, you know what we’re

getting at: dreams! The goal of this book is to help you explore

your dreams using the art of lucid dreaming. We will explain what

lucid dreaming is and how you too can use it to survey the ground

floor of your own subconscious. We will teach you how to become

an
oneironaut,
a word derived from Greek that means “dream

navigator.”

Lucid dreaming is the ability to know you’re dreaming while

you’re dreaming. A lucid dreamer is able to go to sleep at night and

wake up within his or her dream. With this unique awareness, you

can generally behave like someone who is awake, exercising the

free will, imagination, and memory of waking life. Once lucid, you

can explore and even change elements of the dream.

If you were to travel down the Amazon River you’d need a

field guide to tell you which plants to eat, how to navigate the ter-

rain, and what to do when dealing with the natives. Consider this

book your field guide to the dream world, a map to navigate

through your subconscious. If you’re a newcomer to lucid dream-

ing, the idea of exploring your subconscious may seem crazy or

daunting. Don’t you worry, we searched for the best techniques out

there, made some improvements, and then boiled them down to

their simplest forms. For those of you who have already experienced

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lucid dreaming, this guide will help you master this ability while

traveling beyond what you thought was possible.

We’ll teach you:

1. How to reconnect with your dreams

2. How to have a lucid dream

3. What to do once you’re lucid

This book is filled with step-by-step advice, stories from the

dream world, and wonderfully maddening ideas. It’s based on our own

experiences with a decade of lucid dreaming as well as the real-life

experiences of many other lucid dreamers, writers, and scientists.

Our goal was to report back from the dream world and write about

the things that we actually observed and experienced.

Unlike other field guides, this book is designed to be read from

start to finish, just as if you were to travel down a jungle trail.

Information from the first chapter will be used in the second chap-

ter; tips from the second chapter will pop up in the third chapter,

and so on. So try and hold off the urge to jump around.

Here’s an important note to remember before embarking on

this inner journey: while dreaming is a skill that can improve with

practice and focus, it’s not something foreign to you. You dream.

You do so every single night, whether you remember it or not.

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Ready to start? Here’s your first lesson. The icon of a com-

pass, seen above, will appear many times throughout this book.

TRy THIS:
Every time you see a compass, ask yourself the question

“Am I dreaming at this very moment?” Look around you and really

try to answer this question.

It may sound ridiculous to doubt your reality (of course you’re

awake, after all, you’re reading this book). But for reasons you will

soon learn, this reality check is the first step in waking up in your

dreams. If you’re able to master this technique you’ll have no prob-

lem with lucid dreaming.

So take a moment now and ask yourself this seemingly bizarre

question:

“Am I dreaming?”

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P A R T O N e

starting

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Journey

1

A New Discovery

It’s April 12, 1975, in the Department of Psychology at the

University of Hull in England. Researcher Keith Hearne is

trying desperately to stay awake. He sits alone, monitoring a

man named Alan Worsley as he sleeps, watching the monotonous