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10 Steps to Lucid Dreams

Rebecca Turner

Step #1 - Your Dream Journal

This will require your commitment for the next few weeks. Any lucid dreamer can
assure you that the results are worth it. I encourage you to read through each step on
the day you receive it and be sure to follow through on all the instructions.

When the course is over I expect you to have had your first lucid dream - or three... If
it hasn‟t happened by then, don‟t worry, because I‟ll point you to further resources to
expand your knowledge and work on any weak spots in your technique.

My #1 goal is to turn you into a proficient lucid dreamer - so you too can explore the
mind-blowing world of lucid dreams.

Now... let‟s begin!

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The first step to becoming a lucid dreamer is keeping a dream journal.

It sounds simple - and it is! But don‟t let that fool you...

Regular effort is needed to maintain the frequency of your lucid dreams. It‟s
especially important for beginners to enhance their basic dream skills.

It should take you about 10-15 minutes to write down your most vivid dreams in the
morning. Try to do it on at least five days per week, especially in these early stages.

A dream journal is a powerful way to achieve three things:

1. Improve your dream recall - by converting short-term dream memories into long-
term memories that will stay with you for years.

2. Increase dream vividness - by paying more attention to your dreams day-by-day,

you will naturally become more focused and self-aware in your dreams.

3. Increase your chances of lucid dreams - by remembering your dreams vividly,

you will pick up on lucidity triggers and entrain your mind for conscious dreams.
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Getting Started...

Today, grab a blank journal and set it beside your bed with a pencil.

(I don‟t recommend keeping a digital dream journal. It takes too long to start up a
device in the morning, there are too many distractions like checking email or
Facebook, and all electronics eventually die, meaning you risk losing your fantastic
dream records.)

Set your alarm clock 15 minutes early to give you enough time to reflect on your
dreams.

Now, jot down in your journal my five tips for dream journaling:

1. Priority - Write down your most vivid dream(s) immediately upon waking. If you
get up to use the bathroom or move around, motor neurons will start firing in your
brain, making you fully alert. The fragile, short term memory of the dreams will be
overwritten and probably lost forever.

2. Title - Write the date and title of your dream to help you identify it later. Write a
capital “L” for lucid in a circle if you became lucid at any point in the dream.

3. Tense - Write in the present tense (eg, "I am flying high when the sky opens up
and transports me to another dimension") as this will help put you back in the
moment of the dream.

4. Dream Signs - Underline your dream signs (any unusual cue or trigger which tells
you that you are dreaming). I‟ll explain exactly why in our next lesson!

5. Visualize - Sketch the most vivid scene from your dreams. You don‟t have to be
an artist; these images just help underpin your visual recall.

Troubleshooting...

What if you can‟t remember ANY dreams at all when you go to your dream journal?
What if you wake up every morning with a blank slate?

First off, know that everybody dreams, every night. However, if you‟re a deep sleeper
or haven‟t placed much significance on your dreams before, you may not have any
memory of them.

Fortunately, there are many ways to quickly boost your dream recall. Here are a few:

 Eat dream enhancing foods before bed (cheese is one)

 Take dream enhancing supplements (vitamin B6 is one)
 Ingest known dream herbs (Calea Zacatechichi is one)
 Adjust your wake-up time (to rouse you from REM sleep)
 Incubate your desire to recall your dreams (self-hypnosis is one way)
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I explain all these methods in detail in The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track - a massively
extended e-book version of this free e-course. It has many more detailed tutorials,
step-by-step techniques and hypnosis audios for the wannabe lucid dreamer. Pick it
up if you would like more insight than that provided here or wish to seriously
accelerate your lucid training today.

Final Thoughts...

Starting a dream journal is your first big commitment to lucid dreaming. And it‟s an
important one. In fact, I guarantee that if you ignore this step, you will dramatically
reduce your chances of having lucid dreams. Period.

So, try recording your dreams every day, just for a couple of weeks (at least for the
duration of this e-course). Even if it doesn‟t lead to lucid dreams immediately, you‟ll
be amazed at just how much color it breathes into your regular dream life...

Step #2 - Dream Signs

Now you‟ve got your dream journal underway, I‟m going to show you how to harness
it to have lucid dreams on a regular basis. We‟ll do this by identifying dream signs.

Dream signs provide clear lucidity triggers, sparking your higher conscious brain to
chip in with the realization: "Hang on - I must be dreaming!"

Talking animals, deceased people, flying cars, and even subtle differences like the
color of your front door can all make perfectly good dream signs.

The trouble is, you currently dream on through these obvious clues without becoming
lucid. So I‟m going to teach you how to become aware of them - while you‟re
dreaming - prompting spontaneous lucidity and conscious dream control.

Identifying Dream Signs...

Dr Stephen LaBerge, a worldwide authority on lucid dreaming, classifies dream signs

in four ways:

1. Inner Awareness - There is something unusual about your in-dream thoughts,

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emotions, sensations or perceptions. Example: When I think about lifting off the
ground, I get excited and start floating upwards into the night.

2. Action - Some physical activity seems wrong - either performed by you, other
dream characters or inanimate objects. Example: As I drive down the road I realize
that neither the steering or brakes have any effect on the car's movement.

3. Form - The shape or appearance of a person, object or place is unusual or even

impossible. Example: The man has a really small, shrunken head which looks
comical sitting upon his massive broad shoulders.

4. Context - The situation you're in seems unusual or impossible and contrary to real
life. Example: I'm living in a futuristic Martian colony, and feel as if I have been here
for many years.

By putting your dream signs into one of these four groups, you‟ll learn to see the way
your dreaming mind works - and hone in on the most common dream signs personal
to you.

Getting Started...

Open your dream journal and go to last night‟s dream.

Read through the details and underline all the dream signs you can find. Next to each
one, categorize them by writing IA (inner awareness), A (action), F (form), or C
(context). It can be tricky deciding at first but this will soon become second nature.

Now do the same for the previous dream. In fact, go back as far as you can,
identifying all dream signs in your journal and categorizing them into LaBerge‟s
system.

Which category of dream sign is most common to you personally?

Once you figure it out, you can study that aspect of waking life. For example, if your
dreaming mind presents lots of erroneous forms (F), study the way things look in
waking life.

A form-based dream sign can be as subtle as a different hair color, or as obvious as

having seven fingers on one hand. Acknowledge these potential differences in
waking life and you will find they start to jump out in your dreams, prompting lucidity.
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Here‟s one more example. Let‟s say your most common dream sign comes from
inner awareness (IA). Every time you feel extremely happy, sad, stressed, excited,
drunk, in pain - or any other unusual perception, question your reality. Ask yourself:
“Am I dreaming now?”

This self-reflection is also the basis of reality checking, which I will cover in our next
lesson.

If you can‟t wait till then - or want to intensify your lucidity training right now -
remember to download my complete beginner‟s course The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track
for detailed tutorials.

Final Thoughts...

Paying attention to dream signs is not just an exercise in outward observation - it‟s a
way to promote inner self-awareness. The moment you begin questioning the nature
of your waking reality, you‟ll become habitually prone to questioning the nature of
your dreams too.

And for many, this is the fastest way to spontaneous, in-dream lucidity.

So give it a go now. Start looking for (and playfully imagining) anomalies when you‟re
awake, and this will tune you in to lucid dream signs when you‟re asleep...

Step #3 - Reality Checks

What‟s the most popular way for beginners to become lucid in dreams?

It‟s to spontaneously realize that you‟re dreaming - while you‟re dreaming.

You might be having high tea with David Hasselhoff, when a fleet of flying pigs begin
circling overhead. The sky turns purple and cracks in two, as The Hoff suddenly looks
like your mother.

“Oh my God. This isn‟t real! I‟m DREAMING!”

Upon this mind-bending revelation, all the elements of the dream snap into focus. It
becomes as vivid as the reality you perceive right now. You have the clarity of mind
to decide what to do next and the dream world populates itself according to your
every whim.
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Now you‟re lucid dreaming.

But how did this realization come about? What prompted the insight? Why should
you become lucid tonight, when every other night you accept your bizarre dreams
without a second thought?

The answer is... you‟re not used to questioning your reality.

It‟s all too easy to sleepwalk through your days, fulfilling basic physical and
psychological needs through work, family, friends, relationships, hobbies and other
activities.

You never stop and sit and simply observe reality. Like a contemplative monk.

That‟s right, I‟m getting existential on you...

Today‟s lesson is all about asking the question: What is reality?

Getting Started...

“What is real? If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then „real‟ is simply
electrical signals interpreted by your brain.” - Morpheus, The Matrix

When you dream, your brain simulates electrical impulses that give you a sense of an
artificial reality; an inner world which only you can perceive.

You may be walking barefoot through a park, listening to birdsong, feeling the sun on
your skin. Out of context, it is hard to tell whether you‟re awake or dreaming, because
both dreams and reality can deliver the same type of experience to your brain.

We are so distracted that even when something bizarre happens in a dream, we

sleep right through it! We don‟t stop and think.

That‟s why we need reality checks in order to consciously “think” in our dreams.

What Are Reality Checks...?

Reality checks are impossible actions which, in reality, prove themselves to be such.
However, in dreams, you can do anything... and the check becomes proof that you
are dreaming.

Pushing your hand through a solid object is a reality check. Try to do it right now
(seriously).

As you do, ask yourself, “Am I dreaming? Is this real?”

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Ok great - you‟ve just done your first reality check. It took all of 10 seconds.

From now on, I want you to perform 10-20 reality checks per day. Really try to push
your hand through the desk, wall, or even your own arm, imagining how it would look
and feel if you actually managed to do it. All the while, ask yourself if this experience
is real or a dream?

Some people like to use reminders (such as doing a reality check every time the
phone rings, or when they climb a flight of stairs). Others just get on with their day
and naturally pause to do reality checks when the thought crosses their mind. Both
ways are effective.

Soon, you will perform reality checks habitually throughout the waking day. And when
this habit becomes ingrained into your waking life, it will filter into your dreams too.

Your heightened sense of dream awareness will give you the clarity of thought to
stop and say, “Hang on, this isn‟t real!” You‟ll perform a reality check and the
impossible will happen.

Combine this with your dream sign recognition from our last lesson, and you have a
sound strategy for having spontaneous lucid dreams from here on.

Final Thoughts...

Are some reality checks better than others? You bet.

My complete lucid dreaming course details the best known reality checks (from my own
experience - and from the research of leading oneironauts around the world).

It also teaches the fundamental mindset of a lucid dreamer doing reality checks, so
that they occur in your dreams on a nightly basis.

Start right now - check your reality. Do it again in another hour. Don‟t let up!

Step #4 - Total Relaxation

Today I‟m going to teach you an essential lucid dreaming technique that you‟ll come
to use in many different ways, for the induction of:

 Dream-Induced Lucid Dreams (aka DILDs or spontaneous lucity)

 Wake-Induced Lucid Dreams (aka WILDs or deliberate lucidity)
 Out-of-Body Experiences (aka OBEs; an optional extension of lucid dreaming)

You may already be very familiar with this skill. Or you may never have experienced
it in your life (in which case, you are in for a treat!) It‟s called total relaxation.
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The kind of total relaxation I‟m talking about isn‟t slouching about watching TV. It‟s
not lying in the dark going to sleep at night. It‟s not even getting an amazing back
massage from your partner.

It‟s about complete physical and mental detachment (dissociation) from the real
world. We‟ll use it to achieve deep states of meditation within and conscious entry
into the dream world.

Getting Started...

When you feel like relaxing, lay down on your back in a dark, quiet room. Take some
deep breaths in and out... and start to feel the tension drain away from your muscles.

1. Physical relaxation begins by systematically visualizing each muscle group and

letting it relax into the bed / go invisible / float away. (Use whichever metaphor works
for you.)

Start with your toes: let them drop out of reality first. Then your feet. Then your
ankles. Focus your full attention on each body part and let it go before moving up...
all the way to the top of your head. Remember to fully relax your face and jaw.

As you do this, sigh away the tension and allow your breathing to become gentle and
rhythmic. Once a body part has “left reality” don‟t move it; it‟s gone. (If you must
move to cough or scratch an itch, start over until you feel you‟re back to where you
were before.)

This should take about 10 minutes, by which point you‟ll be feeling pretty darn
relaxed. And this is only the beginning.

2. Mental relaxation comes from observing hypnagogic imagery (which starts with
floating or swirling patterns forming against your closed eyelids). Let it take you away
from your physical body... into a primitive yet hypnotic dream world.

If you don‟t see or sense any emerging hypnagogia, that‟s ok - we‟ll do some sensory
visualization instead.

Imagine your arms or legs have completely disappeared. What does that feel like?

Now imagine you‟re floating a few feet above your body, or are trying to swing your
awareness out. Feel the sensation, recalling the last time you were on a swing in a
playground.
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This classic OBE technique could lead to interesting results - just remember it‟s all in
your head!

After another 10 minutes following your increasingly complex hypnagogia or

visualizing yourself leaving your physical body, you should be deep in a state of total
relaxation:

1. Your body is so relaxed, it sends few (if any) real sensory signals to your brain.
This makes it easy for you to create false signals with your mind. Any physical
sensation you imagine now can feel very real - and can even tip you into the lucid
dream world quite easily.

2. Your mind is focused inwards, far away from the trivial stresses of waking life.
You may keep your mind clear and open to spontaneous insights - or, if you prefer,
visualize a simulated inner world which again can tip you into the lucid dream world in
a matter of seconds.

Troubleshooting...

The most common hurdle in total relaxation is just switching off your inner
monologue. Most people just don‟t know how to switch off from reality.

Focusing on the systematic relaxation of your body is one way to distract your mind
from thinking about school or work or other niggling issues of the day. Another simple
focusing technique is to count slowly backwards (in your mind) in threes, starting
from one hundred.

If you fall asleep while counting backwards, you‟re probably just too tired. The aim is
to fall asleep physically (ie, shut down those sensory signals) but remain awake
mentally (ie, stay lucid and conscious as you play with your dreamy hypnagogia and
visualizations).

Learning how to relax and meditate deeply takes time and practice - and I‟ve barely
scratched the surface with our tutorial today. For more detailed tuition, see my
complete lucid dreaming course which includes my e-book Guided Meditation for
Lucid Dreamers. You‟ll learn how to relax completely, visualize vivid landscapes and
enter the lucid dream world from this state.
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Final Thoughts...

For the next few nights, go to bed a little earlier than usual and perform the total
relaxation technique described here. Open yourself up to a blissful meditation
experience -- and maybe even some surprising insights and dream onset
phenomena.

Step #5 - Hypnagogia and Visualization

For at least 1,000 years, Tibetan Buddhists have explored a ritualistic form of lucid
dreaming called Dream Yoga.

Today we‟re going to lay the groundwork for inducing lucid dreams the same way
these yogic monks have been doing for centuries.

It involves walking your mind directly into a lucid dream state.

And it begins with exploring your hypnagogia and visualizing your way into the
dream reality.

Getting Started...

The hypnagogic state marks the onset of sleep and dreams. It happens to everyone -
and you‟ve probably been aware of it many times before as you drift off to the land of
nod...

Hypnagogia is most commonly marked by visuals behind your closed eyelids -

starting with slowly swirling lights and geometric patterns, advancing to familiar faces
and entire landscapes.

If you‟ve ever stayed awake that far into your hypnagogia, you‟ll have an idea of how
complex and impressive these visuals become.

If you stay awake long enough (and allow your body to fall asleep), you‟ll see they
can take you all the way into the conscious dream world!

Bizarrely, the hypnagogic state can also include physical sensations (like floating),
sounds (people calling your name), and even fleeting imaginary sensations of taste,
smell and heat.
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Hypnagogia is just one more gateway to your lucid dream world - so how are you
going to access it tonight?

1. Starting Hypnagogia - Start by performing the total relaxation technique

described in our last lesson. Allow the fluorescent hypnagogia to emerge from the
darkness. This happens when you are truly relaxed or tired and ready to start
dreaming.

When the hypnagogic imagery appears, follow it for a minute and then try to will it
into different shapes. Play with it. In your mind, tell the shapes to become horizontal
lines, circles, squares, hexagons or grids. It really does bend to your will.

Now try for something more complex. Summon the face of a loved one or an animal.
As you focus on these drifting visuals, you will be hypnotized into a deeper meditative
state...

When you feel your awareness is fully detached from the real world, go for the Big
One:

Shape your hypnagogia into an entire landscape, one that you would like to explore
in your lucid dream. This will require some visualization.

2. Starting Visualization - My favorite visualizations are scenes of nature. Stand on

a beach, for instance, and visualize looking out across the sand. Now have your
hypnagogia shape itself to this image.

Intensify every aspect of your visualization. Scan the horizon, pick out vivid shapes
and colors, really put yourself in the moment and relish the intensity of the imagined
scene.

Do it correctly and your awareness will soon “pop” into the landscape, so that you are
no longer imagining a scene but are fully immersed in a lucid dream world.

The transition can be exhilarating. And, though it may seem elusive at first (requiring
a good number of trial attempts) when it does happen it will seem almost totally
effortless...

Congratulations! You have achieved what is also known as a Wake Induced Lucid
Dream.
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Troubleshooting...

If you can‟t summon your hypnagogia, or have trouble inducing that half awake / half
asleep state from which the dream imagery develops, help is at hand:

1. Listen to brainwave entrainment. For years, I have used entrainment audios to

induce deep states of meditation in the early morning, from which I can induce
multiple lucid dreams. I recommend Meditation Power‟s Lucid Dream MP3 to attain a
relaxed hypnagogic state in minutes.

2. Take a Galantamine supplement. Identified by the Ancient Greeks for its

powerful effects on dream intensity and recall, this Red Spider Lily extract stimulates
the visual imagination. Take a Galantamine pill around 4-6 am to create an optimum
mental state for hypnagogic WILDs.

Final Thoughts...

As you continue to explore the borderland sleep states, assume the mindset of an
intrepid explorer of the inner realm. Meditation can open up some strange new
pathways, so be prepared for some new experiences, remain fearless and keep
probing...

Step #6 - Self-Hypnosis

Have you ever been hypnotized?

I guarantee you have.

I‟m not talking about being the unwitting star of stage hypnotism - but the simple act
of becoming mentally entranced by a particular person, thought, image or sound.

You probably fall into a hypnotic trance state every day. Whether you‟re gazing out
the window on the train - or absorbed in the dramatic plot of a movie. You‟re focused
on one specific stimulus, ignoring the rest of the world and totally immersed.

That‟s hypnosis.

And now I‟m going to teach you how to perform a simple self-hypnosis routine as
way of incubating spontaneous lucid dreams tonight.
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Getting Started...

Like meditation, hypnosis draws on the same relaxation response that helps calm
your body, reduce stress hormones and focus your mind on affirmative thoughts.

All the while, you can use this suggestible state of mind to plant the seeds of lucidity:
to teach your subconscious mind that you want to recognize when you‟re dreaming.

Remember, self-hypnosis is a safe and natural way to direct your thoughts and
achieve your goals. You remain fully self-aware during hypnosis, stay in complete
control and can awaken from the trance when you choose - it is impossible to get
“stuck” in hypnosis!

So let‟s begin...

1. Get Comfortable. Sit or lie down with an open, relaxed body posture. Take some
slow, deep breaths and allow your eyes to close naturally. Observe your thoughts
briefly then sweep them away without any interaction. Allow your inner monologue to
be silenced.

2. Release Tension. Just like our total relaxation method, systematically release all
the tension from your body, starting from your toes and working up. Visualize gold
light or warmth to help cement your intention to be completely and totally relaxed.

3. Visualize a Staircase. Imagine you‟re standing at the top of a staircase. This

represents your consciousness. Starting from 10, slowly count and move down the
steps, going deeper and deeper into the trance until you reach the bottom: your
subconscious.

4. Begin Auto-Suggestions. At the bottom of the staircase is a dark, quiet room with
a large comfortable couch in the middle. Take a seat and then go through the
following hypnotic auto-suggestions in your mind:
"My dreams are vivid"
"I find it easy to remember my dreams"
“I often recognize when I‟m dreaming”
“I find it easy to have lucid dreams”
"I can control my dreams"
You can adapt these auto-suggestions as you like; just remember to keep everything
positively phrased and in the present tense.

5. Wake Up Gently. You can, if you feel like it, stay in the trance for longer, explore
the space in your subconscious and see where the visualization takes you. If you
can‟t feel your physical body at this stage, it may even lead to a lucid dream...
Otherwise, return to the staircase, count your way to the top and awake feeling
refreshed and alert.
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Troubleshooting...

If you‟ve never done any self-hypnosis before, you may not know what sensations to
be looking for (or what says you‟re sufficiently “deep enough” to plant the auto-
suggestions).

That's why I created two Lucid Dreaming Hypnosis MP3s. They use hypnotic,
dreamy music and narration by a professional voice artist to guide you into a trance,
down the subconscious staircase and into a peaceful dream garden - before planting
the lucid auto-suggestions.

Both of these hypnosis sessions are available as part of my beginner‟s lucid

dreaming course. So give them a shot tonight - I achieved my first lucid dreams as a
teenager with self-hypnosis tapes and can‟t emphasize enough the value of hypnotic
induction...

Final Thoughts...

I hope you enjoy your self-hypnosis sessions. Try this technique before you go to
sleep each night this week. It‟s ok if you fall straight to sleep after planting the auto-
suggestions. In fact, I recommend it.

Otherwise you can practice this routine any time you have 20 minutes to spare -
when you wake up, on your lunch break or just before an afternoon nap.

Step #7 - Dream Herbs

In today‟s society, we love to pop a pill for an instant fix.

Many of us are just too busy to spend the time exercising our minds and bodies, to
become healthier, smarter, sexier and all-round better versions of ourselves.

So we seek the easy solution: diet pills, pain killers, energy supplements, muscle
builders...

But does such a thing exist for lucid dreaming?

Well... no. If there was, I‟d be the billionaire owner of The Lucid Dream Pill Inc and
the whole world would have access to instant lucid dreaming.

So what, then, do lucid dream herbs and supplements actually offer us?

Today I‟m going to uncover the true benefits - and side effects - of lucid dream herbs
and pills, so you can decide if and how you want to use them on your lucid quest.
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Types of Dream Herbs...

There are many natural supplements that can measurably increase your:

 Dream intensity (vividness, realism and tangibility)

 Dream awareness (capacity for thought and sense of self)
 Dream recall (level of detail in waking memory)

Some of the most popular dream supplements are Calea Zacatechichi, Silene
Capensis, Mugwort, Galantamine and Choline. However, achieving a highly
meaningful or intense dream does not directly equate to lucidity. So they are not
guaranteed “lucid dream pills”.

For instance, let‟s say you are practicing lucidity techniques regularly. Enhancing
your dreams with a herbal pill can certainly trigger your dreaming mind to reach full
consciousness. In these circumstances, they can increase your chances of having
lucid dreams.

However, if a non-lucid dreamer takes a dream herb, the result is often different.
They will experience a night of highly vivid and memorable dreams with intricate plots
- but not necessarily anything with true lucidity. It relies on little more than pot luck to
achieve the same goal.

So, dream herbs can deliver spectacularly meaningful dreams in their own right - and
I do actually recommend experimenting with them just to see what the human mind is
capable of. There‟s a big wow-factor with many dream herbs.

But there is a distinction to be made between dream-enhancing pills (which exist) and
lucid dreaming pills (which, technically, do not).

Getting Started...

Today I‟ll highlight one particular dream supplement which has had a major impact on
me.

Calea Zacatechichi is known as The Dream Herb and has been used by Mexican
shamans for millennia. It has been widely demonstrated to increase your dream
recall (even if you never remember your dreams) and give you intensely vivid and
meaningful dreams.

Calea Z, as it‟s also known, has given me both lucid and non-lucid dreams. All of
them were intense and compelling, lasting much longer than the average dream.
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My favorite Calea Z dream involved living as another person in an advanced alien

civilization. I felt like I lived there for years, in the way an epic movie can tell the
stories of generations. It was awe-inspiring to live in their future world which I still feel
lives on in me today.

When I woke up, I couldn‟t believe it had all been “just a dream”...

You can experience Calea Z dreams for yourself, wherever you are in the world.
Arena Ethnobotanicals is an online store that sells the dry extract internationally from
$9.99 per ounce.

Pack the dry leaf extract into empty gel capsules (available from your local drugstore
or Amazon) and take 1-2 capsules at least half way through the night for maximum
REM interaction.

Side Effects...

There is a misconception that “natural” substances are automatically good for you.

Heroin is derived from a naturally-occurring opiate. Cocaine comes from the Coca
plant. Magic mushrooms grow in the ground. Yet they can all have significant side
effects.

So bear in mind when you‟re taking any dream herb that it is physically altering your
brain chemistry and may have side effects on your mind and body.

In particular, Galantamine (used to treat Alzheimer‟s patients) is a powerful dream

intensifier and can produce more micro-awakenings in the night. This may trigger
episodes of sleep paralysis if you are already prone to it.

This is of course a good thing if you know how to transform sleep paralysis into lucid
dreams. This is bad if you consider sleep paralysis an unwanted sleep disorder and
don‟t relish its onset.

Equally, in rare cases, herbs like Calea Zacatechichi may cause an allergic reaction.
To be sure, take a very minor amount in advance to check for any side effects. This
is the same with any vitamin or nutritional supplement, but I would be remiss not to
mention it here.
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Final Thoughts...

I hope I busted some myths about dream herbs today.

They don‟t guarantee lucid dreams for anyone - but they can be great fun and even
enlightening when taken sensibly and sporadically. A couple of times per month is my
personal limit.

And, when coupled with your lucid dreaming training, they can lead to some intense
lucid dreams. It‟s pretty special when that happens :)

Step #8 - Wake Back to Bed Technique (WBTB)

The technique is really simple and can have immediate results, which is why so many
beginners love it. You can perform WBTB every morning or just on weekends to fit
your work schedule.

Getting Started...

1. Go to bed as normal and sleep for six hours. Set your alarm or have another
early riser wake you up. If you go to sleep at 11pm, this means waking at 5am. But
don‟t worry, this isn‟t about sleep deprivation (I love my sleep!) and you will go back
to bed shortly.

2. Get out of bed and become fully alert. Write in your dream journal, read a book
or website about lucid dreaming, or otherwise occupy your mind with something
dream-related. You must get out of bed and wake yourself fully to be effective.

3. After 20-60 minutes, go back to bed and relax. Take your lucid dreaming pill(s)
now if you have any. They typically induce vivid hypnagogia within about 10-20
minutes. Without herbs, you‟ll need to wind down mentally again so try practicing
your total relaxation routine, listening to brainwave entrainment, and/or visualizing
your desired lucid dreamscape in detail.

That‟s all there is to it!

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The Wake Back to Bed method will significantly increase your chances of having
lucid dreams during your remaining sleep cycles.

How It Works...

The WBTB technique plays on the manipulation of your sleep cycles around a crucial
time of increased Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, when your most vivid dreams
occur.

Your premature awakening after six hours of sleep tricks the body into thinking it will
be REM-deprived. When given the chance to return to sleep, your mind will dive
straight into long periods of REM sleep, lapping up the “bonus” REM time essential to
healthy brain function.

It really helps to spend the alert-time thinking and reading about lucid dreaming. This
conscious focus will carry on into the dream world, reminding you to become lucid.

What‟s more, when practiced over time, you are teaching your brain to release its
“wake up” hormones after six hours of sleep. So on the days you don‟t practice
WBTB, your conscious mind will start to rouse when you are still enjoying blissful
REM sleep. This also creates greater awareness in your dreams.

For more techniques like this check out my complete lucid dreaming course. It offers
a range of lucidity techniques to try out - including sleep cycle adjustments that don't
require any complex visualizations, affirmations or induction of altered states of
consciousness.

Final Thoughts...

Some people perform a variation of the WBTB technique without even knowing it.

If you get up in the night to pee, are toilet training a new puppy, or have a young
baby to feed in the early morning, you are creating a similar pattern of disruption to
your REM sleep.

Of course, you must go back to sleep afterwards. The intention is not to create sleep
deprivation -- so if you find you can‟t get back to sleep, then WBTB is not for you.
And don‟t go crazy with it; a couple of times a week is sustainable for most people.

If you only ever sleep for six hours per night, you may decrease the initial sleep time
 19

to achieve the same effect. Toggle with the timing to see what works best for you.

But it‟s important not to let this exercise interfere with the amount of sleep you get
overall. Deliberate sleep deprivation is not healthy, not sustainable and not conducive
to lucid dreaming!

Step #9 - Stabilizing Lucidity

My first taste of lucidity was an INCREDIBLE experience - yet the dream itself
collapsed after about 30 seconds. I woke up stunned... elated... and kicking
myself I didn‟t make it last longer!

I made the rookie mistake of getting excited and running around in the virtual
dreamscape, telling complete strangers that I was lucid dreaming.

I got completely caught up in the moment and squandered the opportunity for a
seriously life-changing event. (There was, at least, more of it to come in the 15
years to follow...)

This is all too common among beginners. But there is a simple way to avoid it
happening to you.

Today‟s lesson demonstrates how to stabilize your lucidity for a longer, more
intense and more fulfilling first lucid dream... and many more lucid dreams to
come.

Getting Started...

When you have that breakthrough moment of lucidity, the following tips will help
you to:

 Keep your cool and stay grounded in the dream (no waking up)
 Heighten your lucidity (producing the most intense lucid dreams)
 Gain full dream control (so you can do whatever you want)

Here‟s what to do the next time you realize you‟re dreaming:

1. Stay calm - Don't run around telling everyone you‟re dreaming! Just get a grip
on what‟s happening and calmly observe your environment for a few moments.
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2. Rubs your hands together - This simple movement stimulates the conscious
brain and keeps you focused on your dream body (rather than your real body
asleep in bed).

3. Look at your hands - Focus on your hands close-up and notice the finer
details which aren't normally present in a dream. This produces greater self-
awareness.

4. Do a reality check - Push your hand into a solid object and expect it to go
through, while asking “Am I dreaming?” The result further cements your
conscious awareness in the dream.

5. Demand "Clarity now!" - Tell your dream you want more clarity. Say it out
loud and your subconscious dreaming self will respond instantly by creating a
more vivid environment.

Final Thoughts...

These stabilization tips work best for me personally - every time I lucid dream.

But there are others recommended by experts which may work even better for
you.

To learn more, check out my extended lucid dreaming course for beginners which
details many more ways to intensify your lucid awareness and take your
experience to higher levels. This really is worth learning if you are planning to
have frequent lucid dreams in future.

Step #10 - Active Dream Control

“I was lucid and I knew I was dreaming. But when I tried to fly, I couldn’t lift off the
ground, not even by a few inches. My dream refused to respond no matter how
much I wanted it. Why couldn’t I fly when I really wanted to?” - Amanda,
Gloucestershire, UK

If you‟ve ever had a similar experience as Amanda, you‟ll know how frustrating it
is to be lucid -- yet unable to feel in control your dream.
 21

Something strange is happening - but what?

Simply put, you have to realize that dream control is merely a by-product of lucid
dreaming. It is not always implied.

(In fact, there are many other amazing applications for lucidity that don‟t involve
dream manipulation at all... You may talk to and interact with your subconscious
self via dream characters, for example. Or you may observe your dreams,
passively, but with intensely heightened awareness. You may even partake in
“live” dream interpretation.)

But what if you desperately WANT to control your dreams? What can you do
about it?

Today‟s lesson is about mastering active dream control and overcoming the two
biggest hurdles that trip up beginners...

1. Lack of Lucidity...

What exactly is lack of lucidity?

Though technically lucid (aware that you‟re dreaming) you may struggle to
maintain sight of that fact. Your conscious focus slips away and you experience
only partial lucidity.

The main cause of this is failing to become fully lucid in the first place. That‟s why
it‟s so important to perform the stabilizing steps described in lesson #9. (If you
forgot them already, go back and read them again now - and write them down to
help cement them in your mind.)

Indeed, sometimes you become so preoccupied by distractions in your dream

world (like chasing down sexual targets) that you may simply forget you are
dreaming altogether!

Sounds crazy? It‟s really not: dreamland is an entirely separate state of

consciousness and there are different rules at play. Memory, language, cognition
and self-awareness all function differently when you‟re asleep. It‟s easy to forget
that you‟re dreaming if you don‟t remind yourself regularly.

And as a direct result of this mental fogginess, you pass control of the dream
back to your subconscious dreaming self. This is the part of your mind that
produces all your normal dreams (and continues to co-create the experience even
when you‟re fully lucid).

In Amanda‟s example, her subconscious had other intentions for her dream.
 22

Flying was not on the agenda - no matter how much her conscious ego wanted it
to be!

Unfortunately, when you‟re stuck in the fog, the subconscious mind tends to win
over. You are in subconscious territory after all.

But you can overcome all this with a few grounding actions. The single best way
to attain active dream control is to fully stabilize your lucid dream and achieve
maximum conscious lucidity.

Only then should you attempt to employ The Expectation Principle:

2. The Expectation Principle...

This simple mindset defines the way you control your dreams.

As the name suggests, if you expect something to happen, it surely will.

If Amanda had been fully lucid, then her problem could have been that she didn‟t
truly expect to be able to fly. In the back of her mind, her learned awareness of
gravity in waking life may have blocked her ability to fly in her lucid dream.

All she had to do was genuinely expect herself to lift off the ground.

Notice, expecting is different from wanting. When you expect, you KNOW it’s
going to happen. There is no doubt in your mind.

This can be a little odd at first. That‟s why I encourage you to perform impossible
reality checks in waking life in which you fully expect your hand to pass through a
solid object.

Once you perform an impossible reality check in a lucid dream, it is much easier
to expect other impossibilities - like breathing underwater, teleporting across vast
distances, and running through walls. You can have a lot of fun finding out what‟s
possible :)

Here are some other ways to control your dreams using The Expectation
Principle:

 Change the scenery from a desert to a tropical rainforest -- by turning

away and expecting it to look like your desired location when you turn back.

 Travel through time 65 million years by stepping into a time machine and
expecting to greet friendly dinosaurs when you emerge.
 23

 Summon dream figures or personal heroes by saying to the dream “I‟d

like to meet X around the corner” and truly expect to see them when you
look there.

 Find any dream object by reaching into your pocket (and expecting to find
it) -- or even drawing a crude picture of it with your finger in the air and
expecting it to come to life!

Final Thoughts...

Take heed of this valuable lesson in dream control and use it the next time you
have the chance to be a master manipulator of your dream world...

If you enjoyed this free e-course, you may want to consider downloading my
extended digital course The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track.

Illustrated throughout by dream-inspired fantasy art, it is a deeply expanded

version of this e-course, with two detailed e-books and hypnosis audios to guide
your way:

 The Art of Lucid Dreaming - My ultimate guide to lucid dreaming for

beginners and beyond features many more strategic tutorials in lucid dream
induction and dream control. The e-book also includes lucid challenges and
inspiration, plus a lengthy interview with the advanced oneironaut, Robert
Waggoner, who teaches us how to interact with the subconscious inner
self.

 Guided Meditation for Beginners - This is my unique practical course on

using meditation as a tool for lucid dreamers. You‟ll learn how to access
altered states of awareness on demand, have vivid Wake Induced Lucid
Dreams and Out of Body Experiences, and become an intrepid explorer of
the borderland sleep states where the most exciting lucid journeys are
possible.

 Lucid Dreaming Hypnosis Sessions - Narrated by voice artist Gale Van

Cott, these deeply relaxing hypnosis sessions are geared for lucid dream
induction. Use them day or night for guided meditation practice and to plant
the seeds for ever more spontaneous lucid dreams.

See how you can advance your lucid dreaming skills starting in the next two
minutes - see the full details of this breakthrough course which comes with free
lifetime updates.
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Lastly, I want to thank you for following me on this journey of the inner realms.

I know lucid dreaming will have an impact on you because of the profound impact
it's had on my own life. I plan to keep lucid dreaming for as long as I live...

Keep an eye out for my free Lucid Dreaming Newsletter which I send out every 1-
2 months, offering you the latest collection of lucid dreaming articles, news and
research, tips, insights, product reviews, discounts and other dream-related
content to inspire your nightly adventures.

Sweet dreams :)

Rebecca Turner
Creator, World of Lucid Dreaming