A Brief Background
How does a normal dream differ from a lucid dream?
When we dream, we usually have little control over what happens in the dream. It is as though we are being swept along in a story and we have very little say in what happens in that dream. In addition to this, crazy things may happen within the dream and we just carry on as though nothing is out of the ordinary.
We tend not to rationalize anything or if we do, it gets explained away.
For example, recently I dreamt that I was talking with a centaur, a mythological creature that is half horse and half man. We were sat quite happily chatting away on a park bench. Initially in that dream I didn’t question the fact that I was chatting with a centaur! Soon after, the same skills that you are going to learn enabled me to see the dream for what it was. At that point I became lucid and had a wonderful experience.
Now imagine if I hadn’t become lucid at that point in the dream. I would have carried on chatting away with this mythological creature! Only when I awoke the next day would I realize how silly I was for accepting such a weird situation.
That is the key to lucid dreaming. When you become lucid, the consciousness and realization that you feel when you awake the next morning actually happens whilst you are still in your dream!
This ‘in dream’ awareness that you will feel enables you to exist in a dream world with the full awareness that you have in your everyday life. The ability to be totally aware whilst still dreaming is what we call a Lucid Dream.
Why would I want to have a lucid dream?
I have been asked this question many times by people who have never experienced a lucid dream and I always have a simple answer for them and that is “because it is without doubt one of the most exciting experiences that you will ever have!”
Take a look at this section on the exciting things you can do when lucid dreaming, to see what you may be missing out on.
The ability to have a lucid dream is in all of us, yet so many of us do not even know how or why. They are missing out on one of life’s great experiences. I have lost count of the friends who have come to me after learning these techniques, had a lucid dream and then said “Now I know what you were talking about.”
It can often be quite difficult to express in words how exhilarating lucid dreaming can be but after reading this website, you will be able to discover for yourself what a fantastic life changing experience it is.
Imagine a world as real as the one you are in now. You can see, touch, smell, hear, talk, walk, and run. Everything in this imaginary world is exactly the same as the ‘real’ world but there is one major difference. In this imaginary world you can do anything.
There are no rules, no limits. You are limited only by your imagination. If you can imagine it, you can experience it, as realistic as the real world is to you now. Just take a moment to think about what you would like to do given the chance. In a lucid dream you could do those things.
Is lucid dreaming harmful?
This is quite a common question. Be assured that lucid dreaming will not cause you any harm at all. In fact, it can be quite the opposite and may help in many aspects of your life.
I have been lucid dreaming for many years and it has always been an exciting and fun experience. Not once has anything negative happened to me in a lucid dream.
Will lucid dreaming affect my normal sleep?
Absolutely not. Not any more than normal (boring) dreaming. In fact, after you have had a lucid dream you will often feel invigorated because it is such a fantastic experience.
Leave a Comment at the Bottom of the Page. Older Archived Comments are Here.
We tend not to rationalize anything or if we do, it gets explained away.
For example, recently I dreamt that I was talking with a centaur, a mythological creature that is half horse and half man. We were sat quite happily chatting away on a park bench. Initially in that dream I didn’t question the fact that I was chatting with a centaur! Soon after, the same skills that you are going to learn enabled me to see the dream for what it was. At that point I became lucid and had a wonderful experience.
Now imagine if I hadn’t become lucid at that point in the dream. I would have carried on chatting away with this mythological creature! Only when I awoke the next day would I realize how silly I was for accepting such a weird situation.
That is the key to lucid dreaming. When you become lucid, the consciousness and realization that you feel when you awake the next morning actually happens whilst you are still in your dream!
This ‘in dream’ awareness that you will feel enables you to exist in a dream world with the full awareness that you have in your everyday life. The ability to be totally aware whilst still dreaming is what we call a Lucid Dream.
Why would I want to have a lucid dream?
I have been asked this question many times by people who have never experienced a lucid dream and I always have a simple answer for them and that is “because it is without doubt one of the most exciting experiences that you will ever have!”
Take a look at this section on the exciting things you can do when lucid dreaming, to see what you may be missing out on.
The ability to have a lucid dream is in all of us, yet so many of us do not even know how or why. They are missing out on one of life’s great experiences. I have lost count of the friends who have come to me after learning these techniques, had a lucid dream and then said “Now I know what you were talking about.”
It can often be quite difficult to express in words how exhilarating lucid dreaming can be but after reading this book, you will be able to discover for yourself what a fantastic life changing experience it is.
Imagine a world as real as the one you are in now. You can see, touch, smell, hear, talk, walk, and run. Everything in this imaginary world is exactly the same as the ‘real’ world but there is one major difference. In this imaginary world you can do anything.
There are no rules, no limits. You are limited only by your imagination. If you can imagine it, you can experience it, as realistic as the real world is to you now. Just take a moment to think about what you would like to do given the chance. In a lucid dream you could do those things.
Is lucid dreaming harmful?
This is quite a common question. Be assured that lucid dreaming will not cause you any harm at all. In fact, it can be quite the opposite and may help in many aspects of your life.
I have been lucid dreaming for many years and it has always been an exciting and fun experience. Not once has anything negative happened to me in a lucid dream.
Will lucid dreaming affect my normal sleep?
Absolutely not. Not any more than normal (boring) dreaming. In fact, after you have had a lucid dream you will often feel invigorated because it is such a fantastic experience.
If you enjoyed this article, please support the site and add us to your favorite social bookmarking site. Thankyou
Digg! Reddit! Del.icio.us! Google! Live! Facebook! Technorati! StumbleUpon! MySpace! Yahoo! Free social bookmarking plugins and extensions for Joomla! websites!
Comments (14)
How lucid?
Tuesday, 21 June 2011 09:49
Rin
I think I’ve been having lucid dreams since forever, but I’m a bit confused reading your descripton of lucid dreaming. Usually I’m awared that I’m dreaming if I am “myself” in dreams. It is a “fixed” self with certain abilities and I often try to force out my abilities but I rarely question the logic of the situation or try to manipulate the flow of events.
My dreams can be completely unfamiliar but as long as I’m “myself” I’ll just play my role in it without asking. Sometimes I do reality check just to confirm if I can take risks or not. I’m conscious about who i am and I act with reasons but I don’t control the dream or try to compare normal logic to it. Is it lucid enough?
Sometimes I am not myself in the dream, but switch between different people’s viewpoints. It’s like watching a movie, the details and plots are also great, I even experienced emotions which are not mine. I don’t even know how to describe it. In just one moment it’s like the whole memory and passion of another person pouring into you. It can’t be normal dream, what type of dreams is that?
Some of my dreams are also connected. Many of my dreams have “previous events” which would be loaded into my “memory”, sometimes it is from, or related to another dream I had before, thus creating some “series”. My biggest series is what I consider my second life, so when I’m in lucid state I would hope to continue it to meet the loved ones that I can only meet there, instead of trying to take control.
So I guess my dreams are lucid but not so lucid? 
Anyway great site 
I love my dream life much more than real life and I have always wanted to talk about dream experiences ^^ So thank you ^^
If I could turn everything I’ve dreamed into movies I must have become famous LOL
follow up..
Friday, 18 February 2011 01:17
mike
*different reality when dreaming*
general
Friday, 18 February 2011 01:16
mike
i love lucid dreaming. to the guy who wants his dreams to be bound by earths laws of nature: your in a different reality which I doubt you would understand based on the fact that you would even leave such a comment.
Confined to Reality
Monday, 04 October 2010 04:10
Doesn’tMatter
I sporadically have lucid dreams and I want my lucid dreams to be exactly like real life. I have absolutely no desire to fly, walk through anything, or have magic powers. I want my lucid dreams to be just like real life and they never quite are. For example, in my last lucid dream I drove up a hill with my car and I flew into a huge jump that was unrealistically high which bothered me. In my lucid dreams I want to skateboard down huge sets of stairs, I want to get in a high speed chase with the police, and I want to jump off of buildings and splat on the ground. I hope that in the future my lucid dreams are bound by the laws of nature, physics, and legality.
oops
Thursday, 12 August 2010 19:14
christin dean harris
i probly wont come back to this page couse i an ideot… can’t even spell that right i think
but if you re to martal arts can you send a copy to harricd43@hotmail.com
password ******* XD and if you cant umm well… i guess thats cool to
martal arts
Thursday, 12 August 2010 19:08
christian dean harris
i reacintly found out about lucid (witch means someone toled me about it like 5 years ago and me and shoddy brain just figured out what the hell thay where talking bout) any way im in martal arts and honistly i don’t think i’m the best so i thought (this it a long comment) mabey i could get some technique training in a lucid dream state
mentle traning (like visulising not meditation) helped my bro out but it’s not going to well for me so do you think being in a lucid dream state will help me get my technique and moves down to memory or will it retard my ability to do it in real life
Drugs and lucid dreaming
Thursday, 12 August 2010 16:06
Fred
I don’t know if you condone the talk of drugs on the website but the first time I took LSD it was just like Lucid dreams i used to have when I was little (before it got really trippy). I have since started having really mad dreams that I can delve really deep into.
The only problem is when I wake up I feel like I’ve been answering math question for the 24 hours, my body feels well rested but my brain feels knackered.
I often find myself falling into lucid dreams while at work or on the bus. It seems so real but I have trained my self to be able to notice and quickly get out of them.
Brilliant website
How vivid is lucid dreaming?
Saturday, 31 July 2010 12:31
Jordan Parkash
Hello there, I am 16 and have been having rather disturbing nightmares for while now, also how vivid are lucid dreams, do they feel as real – as real life?
I have had dreams where I have felt physical pain and the water and wind blowing through my face
so is lucid dreaming as real as that? Also has there even been a case of two people in the same dream, because me and my sister coincidentally had the same dream once and the exact same thing happened to both of us.
P.S.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009 23:15
sarah
it is just your dreams your just realizing that your dreaming nothing wrong with it type another comment if you have any more questions a 10 year old can answer
re:paranoid
Wednesday, 15 July 2009 23:12
sarah
hi, you won’t be haunted by spirits (I have not lucid dreamed before) but if you did most people wouldn’t lucid dream P.S. to andrew s. not the same sarah I am the one that wanted dream interp. website
Afraid to try it.
Sunday, 12 July 2009 05:58
Sarah
This is really cool. I’m kinda scared to try this though. I’m religious. Am I going against God by doing this? Or am I gonna be like… haunted by spirits? I don’t know haha just paranoid I guess
question
Tuesday, 16 June 2009 22:40
sarah
hi, I just wanted to ask if you know of any really good dream interp. websites and no I don’t mean te ones that have keywords only ex. I look for meanings for the details in my dreams but most of the websites just give one thing like say that you have a dream that has many things and just the keywords might not be correct and also it would be cool if they told you why you dream one detail and then put all the details together to get the whole dream and I would think they would not be accurate if they are just detais
sorry to bother,sarah
@Alexis
Thursday, 11 June 2009 16:47
Andrew Strachan
Thanks for visiting the site Alexis, you’re quite right about the typo. I’ve corrected it just for you!
what if you have a nightmare
you will most likely be able to change it.
I have never had a lucid dream, although i am only 13, but from what i’ve read i suspect that if you start lucid dreaming in a nightmare, you will be able to take out the scary part and make it your own.
I love lucid dreaming! The first time I lucid dreamed that I remembered was when I felt like I was awake but I was feeling the dreamy feeling as well, then I tries to see what I could in the place I did not know… I was feeling excitement at first, and then I concentrated to have the ability to fly, and the next part is key for me to actually do anything- I BELIEVED that I could, I felt the gracefulness of flying and I soon was and it was AMAZING!! omg When I woke up I was like what just happened at first, then I was like I want back in!!! Lucid dreaming is amazing never doubt it’s abilities and don’t EVER doubt that you can’t do anything in your dream it takes time! I hope everyone experiences this feeling, I have so many lucid dreams that it’s awesome!
-Nick H.
Hey I’m fifteen and I’m a wrestler at my high school and I would never want to do something that could negatively affect my athletic performance. This website assures that there are no down sides to lucid dreaming, but I wondering Apr waking up from one with sleep paralysis. Sounds like a horrifying experience and I just want to make sure this isn’t likely to happen.