Lucid dreaming technique with an overview of alternative techniques. How to become conscious in a dream? A simple exercise Mechanisms of awareness in a dream

"I'm going to teach you the first step to power right here," he said, as if dictating a letter to me. - I want to teach you how to tune your dreams. You should start by doing something very simple, today in your dreams you should look at your hands.Carlos Castaneda The most complex skills are most often described in the simplest words. Here, let's say "look at your hands in a dream" - what a simple wording! It would seem that there is no magic here: you don’t need to fly, teleport, or read someone’s thoughts. Just look at your hands. However, as practice shows, in a dream it is much easier to fly, teleport and read the thoughts of everyone in a row than to wait for a look at your own hands. In order to get used to being aware every night, getting comfortable in dreams and learning to manage them, you will have to solve this simple problem first.

FOR WHAT?

Let's figure out why it is so important to learn to see your own hands. There are several reasons.

First of all, this shows that you really realized in your dream. After all, if you remembered in a dream that you need to look at your hands, then you already realized that you were sleeping, thereby taking the first step into the magical world.

But feel like in a dream - this is just the beginning. It's like an entrance exam, which, for all its complexity, only slightly opens the door that hides new experience from us. In obtaining and consolidating this experience, the exercise of finding and looking at our hands will again help us.

Very often, waking up in a dream, a person is lost, not knowing what to do next. So much effort has been spent on achieving this realization, but after the first enthusiasm for the result, boredom sets in: it seems that returning to a dream and finishing it is much more interesting than maintaining clarity of mind. At this moment, you need to occupy yourself with some task.- not difficult, but requiring concentration. If you find yourself in this situation, start looking at your hands. Carefully, detail by detail: every mole, every scratch, every line on the palm.

And finally, after examining your hands, while maintaining a sense of awareness, move on to the next step: dream control. No need to set too serious tasks, start simple: put gloves on your hands or decorate them with a diamond ring, change the color of your nails, get an even and beautiful tan. Remember: this is your dream, it obeys you. Control what happens within the simplest task: control what happens with your hands.

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT?

As soon as you start experimenting with finding hands in your sleep, you quickly find that it is very difficult to remember the task at hand and concentrate on it.

Until the moment of awareness, there is no desire to look at the hands. The brain does not have such a task, and it does not solve it.

And after awareness, the thought most often arises: “I have already realized - why do I need my hands? I'll do something more interesting in my dream."

Any training is based on training: on the repetition of what is not very interesting, but important, on the development of skills within the framework of simple, model tasks. Controlled dream training is no exception. And here the modeling exercise is working with your own hands. It is very difficult to keep our attention on this task, because in a dream we like to relax and have fun, and not work.

WHAT TO DO?

If you want to achieve great results- will have to collect the will into a fist.

However, gathering your will into a fist in a dream is much more difficult than in reality, since the brain is set to rest and relax. A good solution is to make exercise a daily habit. If periodic inspection of the hands becomes a constant ritual for you in reality, then your brain will definitely add this ritual to your sleep.

I bring to your attention simple exercise to help you start experimenting with lucid dreaming. Try the following.

1. Examine your hands - right now.

2. Repeat hand exam several times throughout the day. You can even put yourself a reminder on your phone to look at your hands, for example, once every two hours.

3. Every time you look at your hands, ask yourself the question: am I dreaming? Think about the answer, even if it seems obvious to you.

After some time, your subconscious mind will come to terms with this habit, and you will certainly look at your hands in a dream, and asking yourself the question: “Am I sleeping,” you will be surprised to give a positive answer to it.

MAIN

Remember: as in any workout, here diligence and perseverance is important. Don't expect instant results. Most likely, if you diligently repeat the indicated exercise, you will be able to become aware in about a week, but the exact timing depends on the receptivity of the person. The main thing - do not give up, and your efforts will be rewarded.

Lucid dreams (OS) are a certain altered state of consciousness, when a sleeping person is aware of himself in a dream. Thanks to this, the events that take place become manageable, and the plots of sleep become changeable.

Such a pastime is quite funny, but not always completely safe, as some practitioners say.

However, from such an experience you can get not only pleasure, but also quite specific results. You will be able to play various life scenarios without harm to yourself and find a way out of them, get away from your fears and worries. Athletes can train in such virtual reality, artists and writers can look for inspiration for their works. Thus, unique inimitable paintings, fantastic novels and fairy tales are born.

By keeping your consciousness during sleep, you can do whatever you want. Just imagine what possibilities open up for your imagination! You can fly, travel the world, make your wildest dreams come true. Also, if you have nightmares, you can easily change the plot. However, in order not only to maintain consciousness during sleep, but also to change the scenario at will, a long practice of OS is necessary.

But where do events take place in a dream - in a different reality, or in our brain? There are heated debates about this, but one way or another such a state of consciousness is of great interest.
Many people have experienced a lucid dream at least once in their lives. Some dreamers are able to induce a similar state of consciousness at will. This is not always easy to do, sometimes it takes months and even years of practice to learn to consciously enter the dream world. The most difficult thing is to learn to maintain awareness during the transition to sleep itself. Sometimes it's easier to just remember in a dream that you are dreaming. To do this, there are many special techniques and techniques.

1. Try to remember your dreams. To do this, when you wake up, remember your intention, because in a minute you can easily forget what you just dreamed about. Also keep a diary where you write down your dreams. Remembering them is important, because if you have a lucid dream and forget everything in the morning, your efforts will be wasted.

2. During the day, think about whether you are sleeping as often as possible. Do this, not just remembering it, but really cheer up, look around, listen to yourself. You can try to pinch yourself, try to read a text in a book, even jump to try to fly. If you repeat this exercise several times a day for a long time, then it is quite possible that in a dream you will have a similar thought - but are you sleeping?

3. Think to yourself in the evening before going to bed so that you do not forget to look at your hands at night. This unsophisticated method often yields astonishing results.

4. Learn to stop the internal dialogue (the stirrer of words that is constantly spinning in our heads). This will be a useful skill not only for learning to see the OS.

5. Falling asleep, try to visualize various geometric shapes. Move them away from you and bring them closer, gradually you will fall asleep. The main thing is not to lose vigilance.

6. Waking up in the morning, do not jump out of bed immediately. It often happens that when we wake up, we still seem to see a dream, but we also begin to realize that we are already almost awake. Keep your attention on the moments from the dream, it is quite possible that you will slip into the dream again, but already in the waking state. You can also set your alarm for a couple of hours before the time you usually wake up. Falling asleep again, you will be more likely to see the OS.

7. Physical fatigue helps very well in this case. In practice, it has been noted that when your body is very tired, it is much easier to slip into sleep (perhaps in this case the body falls asleep faster than the brain).

8. Sometimes the simplest method helps. You just need to really want to become aware of yourself in a dream and go to bed with this thought. Thanks to this method, I saw the OS for the first time. So the main thing in this matter is your intention.

Sometimes, starting to become aware of a dream, the dreamer does not always realize that this is not reality. Several methods have been devised to check their condition.

Try to fly.
- Pinch yourself.
- Open the book, read the poster - in a dream the text will blur, or the letters will "jump".
- Try to get something out of the closet that is not really there.
- Look at yourself in the mirror - in a dream you will not see a reflection, or it will constantly change.
- Look at your arms or legs for a long time - in a dream they will begin to change.

Before you start practicing OS, think about what you will do when you become aware of your dream. After all, it often happens that when you get into a lucid dream, you cannot decide what to do next, and such a great opportunity is wasted.

OS practice will help you in your development. Also, lucid dreaming can be a launching pad for the practice of astral travel.

At the same time, you need to feel the world around you as if in a dream. Make a mental flash inside yourself: "Bah! Yes, this is a dream all around!" Look around as if you saw the world for the first time. Even the usual things look with surprise and delight. Then consciously, as it were, "dive" into the abyss of your affairs with the intention to remember to look at your hands again in 15-30 minutes.

When falling asleep

When the relaxation meditation is over, I turn over on my side and instruct myself to remember in my dream that I am dreaming. Or be aware of yourself in a prosleep state. I visualize it in my head. Then I let go and fall asleep.

Keeping a dream diary

Get a notebook to write down your dreams. To achieve lucidity in a dream, an important condition is to remember all your dreams well. I was surprised to learn that it turns out some people don't remember their dreams. Or they have some vague memories. This happens to me very rarely and in moments of general fatigue. I usually remember all my dreams during the night. Well, maybe not literally everything (there is a version that dreams even during the deep phase), but at least in every REM phase I remember all my dreams. And often quite clearly.

Sometimes I wake up with the feeling that I remembered the dream clearly and participated in it, but when I try to write it down, it turns out that I can’t remember many points. :)

So, to increase Attention to your dreams, get a notebook - from now on you will write down your dreams. Whether you woke up in the middle of the night or in the morning, take a minute to briefly write down what you just dreamed about.

The scheme is as follows: woke up, took a pen, found a more or less lit place (I had to write in the dark too! :) and start writing. Do not think about whether or not you remember the dream. Just write. Write whatever comes to mind about what you just experienced. You can make brief sketches of the general atmosphere of sleep. You can draw something. In general, leave such notes with a pen so that when you wake up in the morning, you could recreate, if not the complete plot of the dream, then at least the Feeling of it, the atmosphere.

Woke up again after a couple of hours? Amazing. Get up and write down your dreams. Well, you can go to the bathroom first. :)

public diary

Unique trick: keeping a public diary. With the spread of Internet technologies, it became possible to increase the frequency of OSes. You start your home page on the Internet with a description of your experience of "exits", realizations, and so on. Knowing that you need to refresh the page periodically as visitors read it will keep you having that experience, the "exits." You may not immediately upload it to the network. Accumulate in a file, and after a month, for example, put it on the Internet.

Meditation

Meditation before bed is relaxation plus special attention to something outside of the ordinary sensations. For example, the experience of entering a dream while falling asleep, immediately from a waking position, without falling asleep first, is considered especially valuable. I have to say that I haven't been able to do this yet. Although I have been trying to do this for several years every evening.

The very fact of trying to "out of the body" before going to bed can cause awareness at night or in the morning. I am very persistent, so I do not stop such attempts even in case of failure.

Self-awareness in a sleepy state

This is what worked for me most often. A sleepy state is a state when consciousness has already woken up, but the body has not yet had time to turn on all the channels of perception of physical reality and therefore does not interfere with the displacement of consciousness. I find myself in this state most often in the morning - when I have to sleep for a long time, or at night. The state of being in such a "transitional" state can be accompanied by various effects:

Buzz in the head
-vibrations in the body
- numbness in the body
- both together

When I feel this "hum" - I know that I am in a sleepy state and begin to use this good moment. At first, I increase the buzz in my head for a while. Sometimes its sensation reaches such an extent that it turns directly into a roar, and it seems that the eardrums in the ears will burst. Then I try to get out of the body. Holding this rumble, I climb sideways out of my head. Either back or up. Sometimes such exertion of pressure in one of the sides increases the discomfort in the head (it seems that the blood vessels will burst), then I change the vector of force in the other direction.

You can imagine me climbing an imaginary rope up to the ceiling. You can roll out to the side on the floor. This is what I found to be the most effective tool: you just need to imagine that you are ALREADY out of the body. It's like you're ALREADY standing in the middle of your room. In general, there is a large field for experimentation. It doesn't work like that - come up with other tricks.

Sometimes in a dream comes the realization that you are sleeping. Usually the plot and characters of the dream disappear immediately. Sharply increases the clarity of the picture. Sometimes, you can see the smallest blades of grass under your feet. There is a feeling of unusualness, some kind of alien atmosphere. You understand: "This is it, this is IT!" With admiration, you look around everything around, slowly moving forward. Each seemingly ordinary blade of grass causes sincere joy. After all, this is not a dream and not the physical world. It's something else. Same reality!

) For the first time I realized myself in a dream about three years ago. It was bright, unusual, emotions were running high and I was quickly “thrown” into reality. But I liked it so much that I tried to come back again and again ... but again and again it did not work. I soon abandoned my fruitless efforts. The opportunity to touch again this amazing experience - awareness of oneself in a dream - presented itself quite recently. A cycle of seminars on dreams was held at the Whole World Practice Center, led by Marina Strekalova, Candidate of Psychological Sciences. Marina has been studying the world of dreams for over 15 years and was happy to share her unique knowledge with us. Already after the second seminar, I had a lucid dream - a vivid, long and very deep one. After which I realized: the world that is “out there” constantly communicates with us, and we can either ignore it, or, finally, hear and understand these messages. In a lucid dream, understanding comes faster - because there all feelings and sensations are sharpened to the limit.

A few rules that will help you realize yourself in a dream

For some, the ability to lucid dream (they are also called OSes) is developed by nature, so it is not difficult for such people to become aware of themselves in a dream and start doing something there on their own. By the way, I’ll make a reservation right away that OSes are of two types: in the first, you realize that you are dreaming, but follow the dream scenario, and in the second, you change the dream at your discretion (this is already a controlled dream - downright aerobatics). But, unfortunately, this ability was lost by many in childhood. Often, parents, without knowing it, rejected some of our "superpowers", forcing us to fit into the accepted social framework, that is, in fact, "to be like everyone else." Any experience that did not meet these standards was classified as a child's fantasy, and therefore it was not given due attention. However, it is possible to develop the ability to lucid dream. To do this, there are a number of practices, as well as rules, following which, you will be able to realize yourself in a dream much faster.

Rule One : keep a dream diary and write down your dreams Why is this needed? Firstly, in this way you learn to communicate with the world of dreams not only when you sleep. Contact with the world of dreams is important to maintain even after waking up. Remembering a dream, you seem to be laying a "bridge" from this world to that one. And secondly, how do you know that you had a lucid dream if you do not remember it? By writing down dreams, you learn to remember them. And this means that you will most likely not miss the OS if you have one. You can read about how to keep a dream diary and write down dreams correctly.

Rule Two : learn to relax and maintain attention without straining Why is this needed? The mistake of most beginner dreamers is too strong a desire to become aware of oneself in a dream. Because of this, tension arises, which either does not allow you to enter a lucid dream at all or quickly “throws you out” of it. Attention is the key to OS. After all, in fact, it depends on him how long you can stay in a lucid dream and what you can do there. By learning to maintain attention, you will be able to move from the waking state directly to the OS, bypassing periods of sleeplessness and normal sleep. Or make your OSes longer.

Rule Three : learn to be aware of yourself in everyday life How consciously are you living your life? Do you do everything “automatically” or do you try to feel every moment? Are you awake? The ability to "wake up" in everyday life will help you wake up in a dream. To do this, for several days, when performing ordinary household or work duties, when you are walking or driving somewhere, stop and ask yourself the question: “Is this not a dream? I am not sleeping?" And give a completely conscious answer. At this point it is important to take your time, look around and really realize that you are not dreaming. For these purposes, so-called "alarm clocks" are sometimes used. For example, you can ask yourself the question “Am I dreaming?” every time you walk through the door. Or look at the clock. Or buy something in the store. It does not matter which “alarm clock” you choose, the main thing is that when you contact it, you become aware of yourself in this reality. Then it is quite possible that when you “bump” into your “alarm clock” in a dream and ask yourself the same question, the answer will already be different: “Yes, I am sleeping!”. And this is the first step to becoming aware of yourself in a dream.

Rule Four: develop your energy body Our energy body is dreaming, which can be developed both through special practices (for example, yoga, meditation, qigong, etc.), and through synergy. Synergy is when you see sounds, hear sensations, feel objects with your body. For example, when you inhale a smell, will you feel where it is in the body? Try to intensify these feelings. At first, it will seem to you that nothing is working out for you, but later you will develop such a non-standard feeling - this, by the way, will help you not only in dreams, but also in real life.

Techniques for entering a lucid dream while falling asleep

There are a great many practitioners of entering the OS. They are described in the writings of Castaneda, LaBerge, Patricia Garfield, so it makes no sense to list them all here. I note that different people have different practices - so you should choose the method you like the most and practice it for at least 3-4 days. If you don't like it, switch to another one. In no case should you try several methods at the same time - otherwise, you may not achieve a result, and even disrupt your sleep.

Preparatory stage: Any practice should be started in a state of total deep relaxation. It is better to start relaxation from the head. The most difficult thing to relax is the eyes, the back of the head, the back of the neck and shoulders - it is worth walking through them with attention several times. When relaxing the eyes, as it were, “screw” the attention into the center of the head, go inward. Those who practice yoga may recall this state from Savasana.

Image Entry Technique There is a possibility that in this state of relaxation, images will begin to appear. You can choose one of them and either bring it closer to you, or you can approach it yourself and immerse yourself in it. Here it is important to let go of yourself, daytime consciousness - it is quite possible that at some point something will click, and you will realize that you are already in a dream.

Sensation Entry Technique Some people find it easier to work with body sensations. Focus on the feet, at the level of the genitals, on the stomach, on the chest, on the throat (in fact, you pass through the main energy centers or chakras in this way) and begin to intensify the sensations that will come. For example, you can sort of expand your throat. At the same time, drown in the feeling, dissolve in it. You can diversify the technique and start expanding your body to the size of a room, house, city, etc. – while continuing to focus on the sensations. Remember one of the rules: you need to do this without straining.

Techniques for entering a lucid dream upon waking up

The same techniques can be practiced when waking up, but then you will most likely not be able to wake up for a long time. In this case, you can try other methods. To begin with, choose a day when you do not need to run somewhere. When waking up, do not rush to jump up - run your attention over the body. This practice is useful for two reasons. Firstly, you will be able to remember the state of relaxation - it will help you when you fall asleep or when you want, for example, lie down calmly and disconnect from a state of stress. Secondly, experience shows that the sensations in the body after normal sleep and after OSA are significantly different. If there was a lucid dream at night, then you can feel vibrations, burning in the palms, a hum or something else. Even if you do not remember the OS, the body will signal to you that it was! You can stop there and go about your business. And you can “stand up like a compass” from this state (naturally, your physical body will not be able to do this, but the energy body will quite cope with such a task). That is, to rise, without crouching, immediately vertically. Some use the flip technique (turn their body 180 degrees) and then stand up. This is how you activate your energy body. In this position, feel the floor with your feet, go to the wall, touch it with your hand, explore it. And then boldly pass through it. Most often, it is a lucid dream that awaits you behind the wall. And finally, another technique that worked very well for me. Wake up in the morning two hours before your usual wake up time. Go wash your face (just wash yourself - no need to take a shower) or drink some water. Go back to sleep. You can try one of the above techniques for falling asleep - I, in particular, just fell asleep without thinking about anything. And at some point I realized that I was dreaming. The peculiarity of this method is that the state when the body has already had time to rest, but in general can still sleep, is most successful for wasps. A small interruption of sleep turns on your awareness, nevertheless you fall into prosleep - when you seem to have already risen, but still still asleep. This borderline state activates lucid dreams - as they say, verified by personal experience. And finally. Try to get enough sleep and get enough sleep. If you are too exhausted, you are unlikely to have a lucid dream, because the body will only recuperate. In addition, try to ensure that the practices also do not bring down your sleep, otherwise interest in OSes may disappear altogether - what kind of lucid dreams are there when you are tormented by insomnia! And don't stress too much. As in life, in a dream, all the most amazing things happen easily and naturally.

Anna Mizhueva

the article was written based on the materials of the seminar

Lucid dreaming is a state of consciousness when you are fully aware that you are dreaming. The realism of this state can be amazing as your brain is under the illusion of being fully awake while your body is actually asleep.
Common lucid dream activities include flying, exploring the dream world, interacting with dream characters, even asking your inner self to make sense of your life. In fact, the only thing that limits your options is your own logic.
There are two main approaches to achieving this state. The first method is used in the beginning, as the foundation of your practice in awareness, - you need to keep a dream diary near your bed and, as soon as you wake up, write down all the dreams that you can remember in it. By doing this, you focus your mind on dreams and may discover interesting dream themes and signs that may help your mind understand that it is dreaming.
Use reality tests, they work during your dreams, allowing you to understand that this is a dream, not reality. The theory is that if you regularly check to see if it is a dream during your normal daily life, then at night when you are sleeping, you will perform the same actions in the dream, and this will turn on awareness. The most popular checks include trying to take off, pushing a finger through the palm of your hand, and checking that electrical switches are working properly (because they don't work properly in dreams).
The following methods are more direct, try them after you have been keeping a dream diary and applying reality tests for some time. When you wake up, in the middle of the night or early in the morning, instead of turning over and falling asleep again, say to yourself mentally: "When I return to sleep, I will realize that I am dreaming." Try to remember the dream you just had, the sensations you experienced in the dream, the sounds you heard. Imagine yourself becoming aware that you are dreaming as you re-enter the dream. You can even set your alarm for an hour before you normally get up, get up for a short time, and then apply this technique.
Another technique is to directly enter a lucid dream from the waking state. The best time to try it is in the morning or in the morning after a meal. Sit comfortably in bed or chair, close your eyes and relax. Softly focus on the colored images and shapes in front of your mind's eye. Allow yourself to almost fall asleep, keep your mind relaxed but aware of the images that are forming. This is a difficult method, but if you choose the right point of balance in this intermediate state, the images will suddenly become vivid and you will be able to step into a lucid dream in the world that you see in front of you.
Achieved awareness can begin to decrease at any moment. To prolong the experience, try rubbing your palms together and focus on the realism of your imaginary world. Or ask out loud to "raise your awareness" and then twist around in place with your arms outstretched.
The existence of lucid dreams has been scientifically proven, but from time immemorial, reports of the transcendent possibilities of dreaming include astral travel - a state where the spirit freely roams the universe and beyond - dreaming together, encounters with spirit guides and other extraordinary experiences. But whatever happens to you in a dream, nothing can harm you, and you will enjoy the world created by your brain, like millions of others around the globe.