Fascinating techniques to help you lucid dream
Have you ever suddenly realized you're dreaming?
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LIFESTYLE Sleep
The world of dreams is shrouded in mystery, as this phase of deep sleep brings vivid and fantastical stories which may or may not seem related to our real lives, but which can leave unforgettable feelings.
Everyone dreams, everyone has experienced that frustrating feeling of forgetting one right as you wake up, and yet not everyone has experienced a lucid dream—or at least remembers it.
Our dreams aren’t all random, even if we think they are. For instance, the people in our dreams may not seem familiar, but they’re all faces that we know, whether consciously or not. It’s the unpredictability of the subconscious that makes us feel like our dreams are uncontrollable, but dreams are actually laden with symbols and situations that reflect or highlight things from our real lives, and they’re an example of your brain trying to resolve your problems.
Many studies reveal that our minds are more active when we dream than when we’re awake, so there's a world of potential in learning how to control those surreal adventures.
Have you ever suddenly come to the realization that you’re dreaming? What you've experienced is the psychological phenomenon known as lucid dreaming, wherein the dreamer is conscious while unconscious. Lucid dreams often allow the dreamer to exercise some degree of control over the scenario, the environment, or their actions.
For those who have mastered them, lucid dreams can be a form of escape or a source of creative inspiration.
Famous artists and writers have practiced lucid dreaming to fuel their creativity. Director Christopher Nolan's ‘Inception,’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was reportedly inspired by lucid dreams and plays with the idea in its plot. Salvador Dali was influenced by lucid dreams when creating many of his surreal paintings, and even encourages the technique in his book ‘50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship.’
According to World of Lucid Dreaming, there is no magic secret, but rather a number of tried-and-tested methods, exercises, and techniques that can help train the brain to dream in this hugely rewarding, and potentially life-changing, way. After all, we spend a third of our life sleeping, so we might as well escape to a fantasy land while we're at it.
Check out this gallery for simple, fun, intensive, and bizarre things you can do to enter a lucid dream.
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