How To Have Lucid Dreams

By Rebecca Turner

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You can learn how to have lucid dreams in days or weeks! It's true - if you are focused and use the right lucid dreaming methods, opening the gateway to the conscious dreamworld can become second nature to you.

Before I explain exactly how to wake up in dreams, I'm going to share a secret with you. It is the underlying principle of lucid dreaming. Simply put, you must set the intention to recognize when you are dreaming. This can involve:

* Learning about lucid dreaming
* Imagining what you would do in a conscious dream
* Repeating "I will lucid dream tonight" in your mind
* Reality testing (see below)
* Reading about lucid dreaming

The mere intention to have lucid dreams creates a pattern in your subconscious mind. Scientific studies show that your dreams reflect many of the thoughts, memories and events you experience during the waking day. And if you really want something on a conscious level, it will filter through to the subconscious. So having lucid dreaming on the brain really will help you wake up in dreams!

Reality Testing

Reality testing is the easiest way to trigger spontaneous lucid dreams. Here's how it works. I do reality testing multiple times throughout my waking day: when I wake up, when I open doors, when I look at clocks, and when I go to sleep (and any time it pops into my mind).

When reality testing, I briefly try to do something impossible in the physical world. I try to push my hand through the wall, levitate where I am, or look at the time (clocks are nearly always distorted in dreams). Sooner or later, I perform a reality test in a dream and this nearly always causes me to realize I am dreaming.

Reality testing is a great way to get started when you are learning how to have lucid dreams.

Lucid Dreaming Methods

There are some lucid dreaming methods that the experts prefer. These have evolved quite recently over the last few decades, and most are very easy to perform. Here are the best lucid dreaming methods:

* Keeping a Dream Journal
* Creating a Lucidity Anchor
* Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams
* Wake Induced Lucid Dreams
* Cycle Adjustment Technique
* Meditation CDs
* Self Hypnosis CDs

These are all very popular and effective techniques for beginners and experts alike. Read my step-by-step guide to these lucid dreaming methods at http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/lucid-dreaming-techniques.html

Lucid Dreaming and Meditation CDs

Lucid dreaming is all about entering altered states of consciousness on demand. What's more, there is a proven link between lucid dreaming and meditation. So if you want to learn how to have lucid dreams, you ought to take up a little meditation. That's where meditation CDs come in useful.

My favorite kind of meditation CDs use binaural beats technology, which is a form of brainwave entrainment. It safely lowers your internal brainwave frequencies to, say, a theta operating state - while you remain awake! This is a great way to both meditate and have lucid dreams at will, direct from a waking state. My top pick is the Lucid Dreaming MP3 by Unexplainable. You can read my full review here: http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/unexplainable-store.html

That's my broad overview of how to have lucid dreams. I urge you to practice a few lucid dreaming methods today - whether you start reality testing, create a dream journal, or take up meditation. They will all lead you down the path to lucidity, so you too can master how to have lucid dreams.