Lesson 1: What Is Lucid Dreaming?

**zebrah** · 05-16-2011 02:54 AM

If you haven't already, go read the http://www.dreamviews.com/f131/intro...llabus-115705/.

In this lesson I will cover:

Lucid dreaming history
Are there any risks associated with lucid dreaming
A brief introduction to DreamViews
The lucid dreamer's dictionary
Keeping a dream journal
An overview of techniques

What Is Lucid Dreaming?

A lucid dream, is a dream in which you are aware that you are dreaming.

That's it. Anyone can learn to lucid dream every night. It just takes dedication and time.

Now to dive into the lesson. If you are multitasking or distracted I would recommend waiting for a better time to read this. Most of the info here isn't critical for you to know, but other aspects are very important.

Lucid Dreaming History:

Here is a very brief lucid dreaming history. If you would like to read more visit this page. Lucid dream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

People have been lucid dreaming since humans first walked the earth. Anyone can lucid dream. Part of the population naturally has lucid dreams.

The term lucid dream was coined by the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik (Willem) van Eeden.

The first person to prove lucid dreaming is real was Dr. Stephen LaBerge.

The movie inception is based on lucid dreaming.

Every day more and more people want to learn how to lucid dream. That is my main reason for teaching this class.

Are There Any Risks Associated With Lucid Dreaming:

On January 8th 2011, Jared Lee Loughner shot nineteen people, killing six of them. It was later discovered that Loughner was a lucid dreamer. This brought lucid dreaming into the news. Many people wanted to find out what caused his shooting spree. Some blamed lucid dreaming and articles like The Troubled Life of Jared Loughner - TIME popped up. Time made lucid dreaming appear dangerous. This is a complete lie.

The only type of person that shouldn't lucid dream is someone who doesn't have a firm grip on reality. Rarely, lucid dreamers who aren't mentally stable can think the real world isn't real. You can imagine how this would turn out.

As long as you have a firm grip on reality lucid dreaming will not harm you in any way.

For more information on the Arizona shooting read you can visit this page. 2011 Tucson shooting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Brief Introduction To DreamViews:
If you are already familiar with the forum with will not be important. Feel free so skim or skip this section.

DreamViews is the worlds largest Lucid Dreaming website and forum. With over 1.6 million posts, and more than 44,000 members, it tops all others. DreamViews has a large and helpful community. This section will help you find your way around the forums.

The Rules:

If you haven't already please read the rules. DV Rules - Dreamviews Lucid Dreaming Community & Resource

By following these you can ensure your stay on DV will not be cut short by a ban you didn't expect.

The Staff:

DreamViews has a large staff team dedicated to making the forum organized and enjoyable.

Dream Guides: DGs are the forum's welcome wagon and lucid dreaming help team. The dream guide team also runs the dream views academy. The job of a dream guide is to welcome new members and help anyone with their lucid dreaming problems.

Moderators: Mods are the forum police. Their job is to enforce the rules and keep the forum clean and free of spam. You can help them do their job by reporting and posts that break the rules. To report a post click the triangle in the bottom left. Please only report rule breaking posts.

Administrators: Admins are the government of DV. The ones who create forums, appoint new staff, and take care of technical details.

The Owner: Alex is the owner of DreamViews. Think of him as your president. He purchased the site in late 2009 and has been rapidly making improvements.
A full staff list can be found here Show Groups - Dreamviews Lucid Dreaming Community & Resource

The Wiki:

The wiki, found here Wiki - Dreamviews Lucid Dreaming Community & Resource is one of the new additions to DV. It contains many definitions and tutorials. As well as forum feature guides.

If you are interested you can lean about forum features like the community hall and dream tube there.

The Chat:

By clicking the chat button you can connect the the dream views Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

You use your regular name and password to log in.

If you are looking for quick answers to questions the IRC is a great place to visit. Although it isn't always active.

The main channel #DV has no set topic so lucid dreaming wont always come up. If you have a question just ask.

The channel #LucidDreaming is all about lucid dreaming but not very active.

Dream Journal:

The dream journal tab provides a free place where you can post your dreams. Anyone can read them and there is no need to censor the text of your journal. Although posting rule breaking pictures or ads will not be tolerated.

I will cover this more later in the lesson.

The forum:

There are several forum sections. On Topic, and Off Topic. On Topic is any of the forums related to dreaming. Dream Guides tend to frequent on topic.

Off topic is the area for forums like extended discussion and help. Moderators tend to frequent this section because of the amount of spam and off topic posting.

There are also hidden forums regular members can't access. Called the lucid task club, and deep dreaming.
You can gain access to the task club by completing lucid tasks Task of the Month here.

Deep dreaming is a section of beyond dreaming where questioning the reality of topics isn't allowed. You can apply for access here http://www.dreamviews.com/f19/deep-d...s-forum-78664/

Hopefully this has cleared up any possible questions about the forums.

The Lucid Dreamer's Dictionary:

Some terms on DV can be very confusing. Like DILD WILD MILD ADA RC and DJ. If you are unsure what these mean go to this wiki page.

DV Dictionary - Dreamviews Lucid Dreaming Community & Resource

Keeping a Dream Journal: <---- important

Now to lucid dreaming. The second most important step to lucid dreaming is keeping a dream journal. I'll tell you the most important step, the key to lucid dreaming, at the end of the lesson.

Keeping a dream journal helps you improve your dream recall. Everyone dreams every night. The problem is we don't always recall our dreams.

You can write on your computer, on DV, or just in a journal. The key is you will want to go back and read these dreams later. The reason you want a record of your dreams is to detect things called dream signs. I will talk more about these next lesson. It is also fun to go back and read old entries.

An Overview of Techniques:

There are two main types of lucid dreams. DILD and WILD. DILD stands for dream induced lucid dream and WILD stands for wake induced lucid dream.

A DILD is a lucid dream that starts non-lucid but you become lucid.

A WILD is a dream where you go from waking to dreaming with no lapse of awareness.

The only other category is EILD, or externally induced lucid dream. Although some use the term electronically induced lucid dream. We will talk about these in another lesson.

Next week we will start on the DILD technique.

HOMEWORK

Your first homework assignment for this week is to start your dream journal. The second is to post one dream into your workbook.

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Now for what you have all been waiting for. The number one key to lucid dreaming. It's just behind this spoiler.

Spoiler for the key: