Thread: 4 steps to conscious dreaming: a new system for beginners/intermediate/advanced

I teach a lucid dreaming workshop once or twice a year and just recently re-organized the material into a new systematic approach. I think the Dreamviews community, especially beginners, might find this helpful.

For more experienced dreamers, I hope you'll find this to be a concise and useful organization of the techniques you're familiar with. The one new technique is what I call 'Do Nothing', which we've discussed here before and that I consider indispensable for more advanced explorations of the dream universe.

You can read the original blog post here, and I'll also paste it in below. Good luck, dreamers!

4 STEPS TO CONSCIOUS DREAMING

Conscious dreaming is a set of disciplines, which, like other disciplines, will really take off if ample time is made for it. As with physical fitness, it’s fairly easy to get in shape — it just takes a little time to get there and perseverance to stay in shape.

Tackle these disciplines in the order given, working up to practicing all of them simultaneously. Each discipline is a set of techniques to be practiced at the indicated time-of-day. Have patience. The goal is to create a new set of habits, which takes some time. Persevere and you will succeed.

The four disciplines are:
Sleeping
Waking
Walking
Dreaming

1. SLEEPING – disciplines for night-time

Get Enough Sleep
Conscious dreaming happens when your conscious and subconscious minds are awake while your body is still asleep. It’s important to get enough rest so that your conscious mind can wake up easily. Go to bed early so you have plenty of unrushed time in the morning for the WAKING disciplines.

2. WAKING – disciplines for the moment of waking

Gentle Waking
Wake slowly and gently. Don’t rush out of bed to begin your day with your mind jumping to your concerns and to-do list. As soon as you realize you are waking, don’t move a muscle and don’t open your eyes. If you must turn off an alarm, move minimally to do so. Lie still and think only about the dream you are waking up from. Review it carefully, backwards and forwards, not skipping any parts, especially the interesting ones. Review as much detail as you can until you feel you’ve committed it to short term memory.

Dream Journal
Reach for your dream journal which should always be kept by your sleeping place. Write the date and your location. You may find it helpful to jot a quick list of key words or phrases as an outline. Then write as much of your night’s dreams as you can recall. Write in the present tense.

3. WALKING – disciplines to practice throughout the day

Dreams on the Mind
After you get up and continue your morning, continue to think about your dream. What emotions came up? Who else was there? If possible, share your dream with someone else. Throughout the day, reflect on your dreams from last night or any night. As a general rule, the more you think about dreams and dreaming while you are awake, the more likely you are to think about them when you are asleep, leading to more conscious dreaming.

Reality Check
Throughout your day, at random intervals, ask yourself sincerely: “Am I dreaming right now?” Don’t just robotically ask the question, knowing you’re going to say ‘no’. Sincerely give it consideration. It helps to associate reality checking with an external cue to remind you, like anytime you see a flashing light, anytime you hear a phone ring, anytime you’re paused at a red light, etc.

You Can Fly
Whenever you find yourself at a high place — a cliff, a balcony, up in a tree — imagine jumping off and flying away. This habit will lead to more flying in your dreams.

4. DREAMING – disciplines to practice inside of a dream

Grounding in the Dream Body
If you practice all the above disciplines you will eventually have a dream wherein you realize that you are dreaming. The immediate reflex will be to wake up. Resist this and instead focus on grounding yourself in the dream body. Two useful techniques: dream spinning (spin around with your arms out to keep your balance) and looking at your hands as you wiggle your fingers. Any sort of physical activity that requires balance and/or concentration should work to keep you grounded.

Do Nothing
Ignore all dream characters, situations and narratives. Do not get interested, engaged or frightened by anything happening around you. Dreams are very good at producing amazing, interesting, beautiful or frightful things to keep you engaged with the dream story — this will lead you to forget that you are dreaming. Instead, do nothing. Sit down and rub the ground with your hand. Listen to the birds. Be completely idle. This will settle the dream world and clear the stage for you to take charge.

Dream Control
Energy follows thought, in life and in the dream world. In dreams, clear thoughts and feelings are potent and will instantly manifest. So to control your dreams you must learn to control your thoughts and desires. If you want to fly, you must think only of flying, never of falling. You must completely exorcise all doubt in your ability to accomplish something. Any doubt that creeps in will neutralize any intention and you’ll manifest failure instead of success. It takes practice, but you’ll get the hang of it. Desire and emotion are very powerful in this regard for aligning and focusing your intention. Don’t just think it — desire it, wish for it, ache for it, yearn for it. It will come true.