How to lucid dream?
Lucid dreaming means you're aware that your surroundings aren't real when dreaming. Oneironauts are people who often have lucid dreams, create dream worlds, can shift realities, and sometimes dreamwalk. There's more to it, but to begin with it all, you've got to know how to lucid dream. How does one have a lucid dream? Everyone, or most people, will lucid dream at least once in their life. It happens when you're in the deepest stage of sleep, the Rapid Eye Movement stage. To get there, you need to sleep in the right enviroment: No sounds can disturb you. The room has got to be as dark as possible, since light can also disturb your sleep. And you need to sleep in a comfy position. If you're used to sleeping on your back, then it can be good for you. But, if you're not used to sleeping on your back, it could lead to you having nightmares. That's why it's better to avoid that position. (And, if you have nightmares even when you're used to sleeping like that, try changing your sleeping position and in a few days you might stop having nightmares as often). Now, you've got to know what you want to dream about. You can't just sleep thinking "Yeah, I want to have a lucid dream" and expect it to happen. You need to think about what you want to dream. You also can't go on a dream world immediately if you don't have experience lucid dreaming (if you create a dream world without knowing how to control your dreams, all you'll get is stressful dreams, the characters in the world won't be consistent and it's very likely the dream world won't last long). So, once you know more or less what you want to happen in the dream, start meditating. By meditating I mean close your eyes and focus on the place where the dream begins. Picture how you will look like; the surroundings; the people you will see in them; etc. Make sure to limit yourself to thinking about that dream itself and don't think too much about the whole lore or story because it's not a dream world. You'll feel yourself slowly drifting off, but you've got to keep thinking about it, just not too hard or you'll be back to stage 1 of dream (being awake). You'll also have hypnagogic hallucinations and that's normal, they won't stop you from lucid dreaming. Eventually you'll be asleep in the dream you wanted to be in. From then on, do whatever you want to do. But here's a few advices: Don't think too much in your dreams. Don't think, "Oh, I'm finally lucid dreaming! I know this is a dream!" or you'll wake up, or even worse, the dream will turn into a nightmare. And also don't say it out loud in the dream. Expect bad things to happen if you do. It's very adviced you bring a reality check object. If the object is related to sleeping or the night, then even better. It could be a necklace pendant, a star shaped object, anything. If it's small and you can carry it around with you all day, then that'd be amazing. The more often you have it with you the better. You also need to sleep with it so make sure it can't hurt you accidentally. For reality objects to work you need to check on them every once in a while. If you check them and they look different, then you're dreaming. If it looks normal, you're awake. By different I mean it being bigger, smaller, less colorful, more colorful. Whatever your mind understands by "different". Advanced oneironauts don't need to follow most of these rules, like meditating, or avoiding doing/saying things in dreams because we know how to control our dreams and modify dream worlds. Anyway, it can fail at the first try. You've got to desire to lucid dream very str0ngly and be willing to be consistent, or otherwise doing this is a waste of time. The point is, giving up is the only way to fail. Unless trying to lucid dream is disrupting your hours of sleep or causing you nightmares, don't give up. It is worth it in the end :)
