Lucid Dreaming
Every time I give a talk about dreams I am asked about lucid dreaming.
It seems that there is a tendency to think that lucid dreaming is a separate category of dreams. Lucid dreaming is seen as the pinnacle of dreaming “prowess”, some kind of distinguisher between “advanced dreaming” and “all the rest”, as if “the rest” were child’s play. But to this idea I ask : If so, then what is the point, or the gain, of lucid dreaming?
Dreaming is meant to be used, dialogued and engaged with, as a tool for inner development. Rather than simply having a dream we are meant to participate in our dreaming. Dreaming is the language our True Self uses to talk to the daily self. As such, dreaming tells us where we are, what our potential is, where we want to go, what’s in the way of our getting there and expressing our greatest potential, and how to overcome these blocks to be our full, liberated, expressing selves. It’s only when we work with our dreams in this way that we progress in our interior world and step beyond our limited understandings. I can have lucid dreams every night, but if I don’t understand how to use them as a tool, and if I don’t use them, then all I’ve done is experienced something of a fun magic trick.
One of the big missing pieces in understanding lucid dreams is understanding that we dream all the time – you are dreaming as you read this. Dreaming is a bodily process that is 24/7. It is a holistic language, not a series of discrete events. Take nightmares for example. Nightmares are showing us a specific block – the anxieties, fears, and problems that are plaguing our inner worlds. If we have a nightmare, this means we are living an aspect of a nightmare in our waking lives. They are frightening in order to wake us up to something we need to repair. If we learn how to WORK with our nightmares we can then make this repair which, in turn, repairs our waking life. If one has a clear dream that gives a message, and the way through the block to manifest that message, and one WORKS with that clear dream to overcome their block and then manifests that message in their waking life then they have truly engaged in their dreaming. It is this work of cleaning up nightmares and manifesting the messages of our dreams in waking life that is the courageous, admirable dreaming work – more so than simply having a lucid dream that is exciting and magical.
All of that is not to say that lucid dreaming is not important – it is. So why and how do we lucid dream? Lucid dreaming shows us that dreaming is 24/7. It is the proof positive that we possess the ability to enter our sleep-dreaming with waking consciousness and bring conscious-dreaming into our waking realities. However, proof by itself is only part of the picture. The bigger step is to recognize this and to use the consciousness of lucid dreaming to move about in our dreams repairing the nightmares and overcoming the blocks IN PROCESS. Instead of simply “flying in a dream in which I knew I was dreaming”, the bigger move is to be conscious and say “I’m lucid in my dream and I can do anything – I choose to address this necessity.” The next big step is realizing that, because we can repair things in our dreaming, we can do this in our waking reality. When we realize this and then begin to implement this dreaming and waking consciousness then we’re using the gain of lucid dreaming. Then we’re being great dreamers.
Dreaming allows us to return to our own Source and create the path and person we have the blueprint for inside. If we do this, using dreams as our tools, then we are true dreamers. And this act is no less great if we are cleaning up a nightmare than if we are working with lucid dreams. The big step is deciding that dreams are important and choosing them as a tool for inner exploration and development. After that, every dream is a gift because every dream offers the possibility of transformation.
Below is a short video on lucid dreaming. To learn how to use your dreams as a tool see my dream classes here.
Happy 2015 – Dreaming and Living Lucidly!
