Lucid Dreaming

[Apech]

Just read this book

 

http://www.amazon.com/Dreaming-Yourself-Awake-Tibetan-Transformation/dp/159030957X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411038455&sr=8-1&keywords=alan+b+wallace+lucid+dreaming

 

Dreaming yourself awake ... alan wallace.

 

Not bad I thought though I skim read the philosophy parts.

 

been keeping dream journal for a few nights ... I've had lucid dreams in the past but a bit random and didn't really focus on them too much. But after two nights of following some of the suggestions in this book had a brief and very nice lucid dream last night.

 

Anyone know a good method or a better book?

 

Any accomplished dreamers here? I'm sure there are and I know its been discussed before.

[doc benway]

I follow the method outlined by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in his book and I did an online course with him which was quite good.

He has another online course starting very soon - if you can afford it, I highly recommend it.

It includes access to a number of streaming videos and other resources and an opportunity to interact with many other participants and the teacher in an online forum so you can get questions answered and share experiences.

Rumor has it that this will be the subject of his 2 week summer retreat next year.

 

That said, I suspect that the method is less important than the devotion and consistency.

I haven't read Wallace's book so I can't compare the practices.

 

I don't consider myself accomplished but I practice regularly.

The daytime practices, nighttime preparation, and allowing the body to fall into a more natural rhythm of sleep and waking (e.g. not so distorted by electric lighting, late night use of computer and other electronics, etc...) seem to be the most important aspects of the practice.

I am much more successful when on retreat and living with less external stimulation and much more devotion.

Things like mantras, prayer, and meditation before sleep (and throughout the day can be very helpful, IMO), if you resonate with those sorts of practices.

[Apech]

Thanks Steve I'll check that material out.

[C T]

A friend of mine can dream of cooking up a grand feast on one night, and enjoying the same feast the following night. Plus he can do this at will with other dream-activities too, like journeys he would take, from the initial planning, to starting out, going to certain places on certain nights, and then continuing the same theme over a period of a few nights. Being a devoted Vajrayana student, he loves working his dreams around pilgrimages to holy places he reads about, like Mt Kailash, Bodhgaya, etc. and meeting saints and sages along the way. He told me he can now do the Ngondro systematically over a few nights. Amazing feat!

 

This looks like an interesting book to explore: http://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Dreaming-Dying-Exploration-Consciousness/dp/0861711238

[BaguaKicksAss]

There is another lucid dream thread here on TTBs, I added some methods which help to it awhile back .

[Apech]

There is another lucid dream thread here on TTBs, I added some methods which help to it awhile back .

 

 

Link?

[CloudHands]

here

[Apech]

here

 

 

ha ha in your dreams.

[silent thunder]

I highly second the recommendation of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's book The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep.

Very concise book with practical exercises.

 

Couple of short threads on the topic here:

http://thetaobums.com/topic/34079-dream-and-qi/

http://thetaobums.com/topic/32042-dream-work-cultivation-in-the-dream-state/

 

Happy Hunting!

[thelerner]

My sensei was a 'serial' dreamer. He'd be mostly lucid and live in the same dream world/scenario each night. As a child if I was awakened I could go back to the same place in a dream. I've lost that ability.

 

How many people revisit the same places over and over in there dreams?

[Daeluin]

How many people revisit the same places over and over in there dreams?

 

As a child, all the time, and sometimes be able to go back to the same dream after stirring. And flying. As an adult not so much. As I get better at this cultivation stuff I hope that will change.

[C T]

Serial dreaming... thats the exact phrase i was looking for. Thanks.

[Infinity]

For a very short time years ago with lots of conscious awareness work and self hypnosis I was able to just fall directly from waking consciousness into a conscious dream. Jung apparently could do this too and he met archetypes and spirit guides directly.

 

 

Anyway I would loose body consciousness and see images which would be before me and then would envelope me if I focused on them. I was young and would scare myself shitless encountering parts of myself in an unknown world where my projected mixed up feeling and emotions where very intense. I spent a night on my back on top of mount Sinai in Egypt bouncing in and out of dreams all night long.

 

 

I think if you can go into emptiness just set up your intent verbally or willfully like a laser beam for lucid dreaming and off you go (requires full one pointed focus).

 

 

Obviously you have to get the mind out the way and I think it can help by editing/reframing the mind with self hypnosis, positive affirmations to help facilitate your goal the deeper those suggestions go in the more beneficial. It's my view that with the right mind/open minded thoughts all barriers can be removed permanently. Am thinking of creating hypnosis tapes and then going into emptiness as far as I can then playing them.

 

 

About 9 months ago I was getting up in the middle of the night and standing like a tree for 15 minutes then going back to bed. Practically every time in went back to sleep I had a lucid dream.

 

 

Other people I have known used Jungian active imagination techniques and gradually built up their internal senses until ther imagination was like real and they could access their subconscious/archetypes that way anytime. Practice makes perfect I guess.

 

 

In my view to cultivate lucid dreaming without having to go unconcious first (sleep) is the better way to go and in its seems logical to me both ways are going to require having energy and consciousness as opposed to being in an unconcious pattern.

 

 

The other technique is the Carlos Castenda one where you look at your hands and ask your self are you dreaming. You make this a pattern of behaviour and then one day in your dreams you look at your hands and your realise that you are dreaming and hey presto your lucid.

 

∞

Edited September 18, 2014 by Infinity

[tumoessence]

http://www.amazon.com/Lucid-Dreaming-Gateway-Inner-Self/dp/193049114X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411089089&sr=1-1&keywords=robert+waggoner

 

This book is absolutely incredible.

[9th]

Its really specific to each person. I think the best results come from relating to a method personally - tweaking it or adapting it to your personal style.

 

"Looking at your hands" comes up a lot these days, and although that was made famous by CC, its most likely referring to an ancient technique. I havent found any ancient teachings mentioning this in particular (although its worth noting that about 95% of tantric texts that have been recovered remain untranslated), but it has that sense of weight to it. The intent is well worn. I can confirm it works as intended, in the sense of "solidifying" a lucid dream. The idea is to bring up a known, fixed image, and then use it as a touchstone for stabilizing the dream environment by continuously returning to that image in a rhythmic way - and "looking at your hands" easily serves that purpose by being simple and instinctual. And in general, maintaining swift glances as opposed to staring is pretty essential to remaining lucid. In terms of generating lucid dreams, "looking at your hands" works through the element of recall - just basic remembering. If you can setup an intention that carries from the conscious into the unconscious mind, you can bridge awareness across it.

 

The best results Ive had involve maintaining awareness while drifting off to sleep. There is no discontinuity of awareness, although there is a discontinuity of sorts as perception withdraws from the senses and the mind springs to life internally. Those kinds of lucid dreams are by far the longest and most stable, in my experience. They also tend to have many levels - waking inside a dream, after waking inside a dream, after waking inside a dream, after waking inside a dream, etc.

 

The most successful (and quickest) version of that unbroken method actually occurs naturally for me whenever Im able to reside in ananda. There is a different frequency or resonance to the mind when it is suffused in bliss. This is directly related to the "buzzing" or "vibrating" or "roaring" phenomena some people describe before OBE. It also makes lucid dreaming as simple as walking down the street. You lie down, let the bliss expand indefinitely until you have no bodily awareness, and then when dreams begin to appear, you are still awake - so you experience them lucidly.

 

Its also possible to experience "deep sleep" lucidly as well.

[Creation]

The non-Tibetan influenced books that I have seen come most highly recommended are Waggoner's "Lucid Dreaming" and and Love's "Are You Dreaming?" For Tibetan influenced works, Charlie Morely (who is apparently endorsed by some Kagyu lama) has a book and a CD on the basics of lucid dreaming, and Andrew Holecek has a multi CD set that looks very thorough for dream yoga.

[RiverSnake]

I just received a long article on dreaming and lucidity last night. Then I came on here and saw all these threads in dreaming...perhaps a bit of synchronicity?

 

My 2 cents, Peace

Edited September 19, 2014 by OldChi

[Apech]

I just received a long article on dreaming and lucidity last night. Then I came on here and saw all these threads in dreaming...perhaps a bit of synchronicity?

 

My 2 cents, Peace

 

 

Want to share?

[RiverSnake]

DP

Edited October 30, 2014 by OldChi

[Apech]

Sorry, can't. Its part of a private course I'm taking. Its against the rules to share the material.

 

 

fair enough

[Ish]

So what kind of planes do you guys think are tapped into with lucid dreaming? Sub-conscious / Astral? Are those two linked ?

Edited September 19, 2014 by Ish

[Gemstone]

 

Great interview with Charlie Morley!

[Creation]

Great interview with Charlie Morley!

Thanks for posting! I will probably be getting his book and CD soon.

 

So what kind of planes do you guys think are tapped into with lucid dreaming? Sub-conscious / Astral? Are those two linked ?

This is a very interesting question. Astral explorer Kurt Leland has performed a sort of non-physical cartography and bestiary; he talks about the "Dream Zone" and "Afterdeath Zone" being parts of the astral plane. This is from his personal experience in having what he calls "adventures in consciousness" during his sleep, where he has learned to navigate these different realms and identify the beings he encounters as projections of his own consciousness, other dreamers, the recently deceased, non-physical guides, thought forms created by people's emotions, and more besides. His books "Otherwhere" and the "Unanswered Question" deal with this kind of thing. More recently, he came upon the Theosophical notion of multiple planes and bodies, and now talks about the path of spiritual development in terms of accessing the higher planes and devloping the abilities of the "bodies" (e.g. mental body, causal body) that operate on these planes.

 

Here is an account of his interacting with a "dream guide" - a being whose job it is to be of assistance to dreamers:

http://www.kurtleland.com/astral-projection-log/2004/115-diner-in-the-sky-astral-and-mental-planes

 

Like I said in another thread recently, there are very few authors who have changed my worldview so dramatically, and IMO much what he writes resonates with Michael Lomax's teachings.

[wallum]

Posted by 9th, on the 19th September;

 

The most successful (and quickest) version of that unbroken method actually occurs naturally for me whenever Im able to reside in ananda.

 

 

(Please excuse my ignorance) I thought ananda was a disciple of the buddha? Is it also a state of being?

[BaguaKicksAss]

So what kind of planes do you guys think are tapped into with lucid dreaming? Sub-conscious / Astral? Are those two linked ?

 

Depends on the dream, some of each. Sometimes the astral, sometimes the subconscious.