I want to know how many of you out there have used (or would like to use) lucid dreaming for actual enlightenment and what that experience was like. I personally believe dreams in general can be very enlightening and lead to genuine insight into real life problems. I believe lucid dreaming offers the potential to lessen the chance element of this process.

One real life passion of mine that poses many problems is chess. Many advancements I've made in my chess ability had some connection with the unfettered realm of dreams.

Throughout the years of playing chess I've had a few periods of dry spells where my skill level sort of "plateaus" (a common occurrence amongst chess players) and improvement becomes difficult. These plateaus were usually broken by a sharp incline of advancement and interestingly these advances where almost always preceded with several dreams about chess positions, patterns, etc. It's as if my mind was trying to make sense of all the random information it's absorbed and it starts to coalesce into something usable.

I hope that through lucid dreaming I can advance not only my chess, but how I approach my artwork, interactions with people, reality, and life itself. I hope that by sharing these experiences with each other that we can all gain something and learn how to benefit (beyond entertainment) from this awesome ability that many of us have invested much time and energy developing.