How To Lucid Dream

Just this year I have been exposed to a deeper interest in Lucid Dreaming. To understand Lucid Dreams, we first need to know the differences between three types of dreams that exist within our human experience:

• Dreams: Mental experiences during sleep, often a mix of images, thoughts, and emotions.
• Vivid dreams: Dreams that feel extremely real, detailed, and intense.
• Lucid dreaming: Being aware that you are indeed dreaming while still in the dream, sometimes allowing you to control, and interact with it, creating internal memories and experiences.

What I noticed is that a lot of people are curious about Lucid Dreams, but these conversations are not something that people usually talk about openly with those around them. Even though the experience can feel very individual, it is actually more collective than we realize. Many times when you share your REM (Rapid Eye Movement) experiences with someone else, they end up describing something very similar to what you have experienced.

So while it can feel personal, there is also an alignment happening. It becomes about holding space for people to express their internal conscious states and the experiences that occur within them.

During our F.O.C.A: Foundations of Cosmic Awareness meeting (created by Jorge Rodriguez in Springfield, Massachusetts. It started as a club at Springfield Technical Community College, then expanded into a program at the YMCA called FOCA: Youth Lab, and is now in the process of becoming a non-profit organization. The program focuses on fostering curiosity, cosmic awareness, and exploration among youth and college members, encouraging both scientific understanding and personal growth.) we discussed the idea that consciousness exists both in the waking state and during our cerebral state of REM. We talked about the significance of both and how we navigate each experience. In our waking state we are more fixated on physical reality and material presence. In REM, however, everything feels more fluid. The way we experience the universe seems to move differently, almost like it is based more on frequency, energy, and thought, allowing us to live through different scenarios instantly.

Based on my studies, research, and self experiences, I have come to the conclusion that Near Death Experiences share many similarities with REM states. There are traits that many people overlook. For example, the ability to manifest things almost instantly. In human form this could feel like happening in the blink of an eye, but in a conscious dream state it can feel like it happens at the speed of thought.

For example, imagine you are standing in front of your home and there is a stop sign down the road. Simply by thinking “I am standing next to the stop sign,” suddenly you are there. Just writing this now I can visualize myself standing next to the stop sign, staring at it, examining it, touching the pole, and feeling the materials that create it: the atoms, photons, and particles that make up everything on Earth.

This led us to an interesting thought: the things we manifest in our waking state,  through perspective, imagination, and even materialism, also appear in REM experiences. It raised the question of whether the states we live in might actually function like quantum dimensions that we enter and interact with.

Anyways, this leads us back to the topic. I wanted to briefly explain what we spoke about during our last meeting so you can better understand why we are about to go through the simple steps of becoming consciously aware during your Rapid Eye Movement state. The goal is to reach the moment in your dream where you realize that you are in your deepest uninterrupted state of conscious sleep.

HOW TO LUCID DREAM:

STEPS:

1. Do not drink alcohol or take any substances the day you want to attempt this experience.
2. Do not eat right before going to sleep.
3. Drink water about four hours before you plan to sleep so that you can use the bathroom before going to bed and avoid interruptions.
4. Lay in bed and position yourself  comfortably. Close your eyes.
5. Give yourself a goal. This can be a location you want to visit, an exercise you want to try, or a mission you want to complete in your dream. (Lucid Entry Mantra)
6. In your head, repeat your L.E.M. (Lucid Entry Mantra) about fifty times or until you fall asleep.

You Should Now Have Entered Your REM state

1. Look at your surroundings. Try to say out loud what you are looking at. In dreams we often communicate more telepathically than verbally.
2. Remind yourself that you were just in bed not long ago.
3. Hold that thought. Take a moment and tell yourself: “You are in a dream. I can do anything.”
4. This is where you activate your frontal cortex and begin interacting with your REM state the same way you interact with your waking reality. Remind yourself that you are in REM.
5. Find your location. Manifest your exercise. Complete your mission.

When You Wake Up:

1. Use the voice memo on your phone to record your experience.
2. Text a friend, family member, or someone you trust and tell them what happened. Speaking about it helps bring the memory to life.
3. Write it down in your dream journal.

Repeat these steps until the process becomes natural and second nature, and you no longer need to go back and read these steps.

NOTE: You can use this experience to your positive and kindest advantage. Think of it as your own field of experimentation, where you are able to explore different realities and apply what you learn to your waking state. Through your REM experiences you may encounter emotions, possibilities, and situations that you have not yet experienced in your waking life. By experiencing them in your dream state first, you may begin to understand how you would feel if those situations were to happen in reality. Your REM state can also become a space where you ask questions that exist in your waking life. You can place yourself in different scenarios within your dream world and observe how you respond to them. In doing so, you may discover new perspectives on how to navigate certain situations when you are awake. Use this space wisely. Choose your experiences with intention, curiosity, and awareness.