What is Lucid Dreaming?

A lucid dream is a dream in which a person is conscious that they are dreaming. This means that the dreamer can actively participate and manipulate the dream world. It is possible to be lucid in a dream and not gain control of the dream, but when lucid dreaming it is pretty likely that a person can control at least some of the content of the dream.

There are two basic ways to become lucid while you are dreaming; you can realize you are dreaming while already within a dream which is called dream-initiated lucid dream (DILD) or you can enter the dream state from a waking state with no lapse of consciousness which is called wake-initiated lucid dream (WILD). I have had both experiences but the majority of my lucid dreams have been dream-initiated.

I’ve personally found it pretty difficult to initiate lucid dreams, even though I have been actively trying to increase their frequency for about 5 years now. I’ve dramatically improved my dream recall and dream clarity by keeping a dream journal and thinking about my dreams throughout the day. There are several well researched ways to initiate a lucid dream while already in the dream state. The most common are called reality tests, which need to be done both while awake and asleep. The theory is that if you test yourself while you are awake you will occasional test yourself while dreaming as well. In dreams, test and numbers are often jumbled and unreadable, so checking your watch or trying to read a sign and asking yourself “am I dreaming?” is an example of a reality test. Other things that don’t seem to work normally in the dream world are light switches, reflections in a mirror, the ability to breath when you shouldn’t be able to, pain response, the solidity of objects like a wall, the appearance of your hands and gravity. One of the most fun things about having a lucid dream is the ability to defy gravity and fly or float in the air.

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I’d like to describe both a DILD and WILD lucid dream that I have had as a couple of examples. They both had varying levels of dream control and I found both incredibly interesting. The dream-initiated lucid dream was interesting because I had absolutely no control over the dream at first. I was sitting in my parent’s yard but realized it wasn’t really my parent’s yard and the people there were unfamiliar to me. I glanced at my hands and noticed they looked distorted and decided that I must be dreaming. As soon as the thought entered my head everything around me began to crumble and break apart. A force came up behind me and threw me through the environment as if it was a brick wall and everything disappeared, revealing only a bright white “background.” There was no sky, nothing to stand on and no objects. The force began to battle with me but it was playful and fun. We were both without bodies but we could materialize objects and create things out of nothing. I wasn’t able to maintain lucidity for more than a couple of minutes, but it was interesting how much of a lack of control I had. It felt as if I was a student and the force I described was a teacher.

I have only had one wake-initiated lucid dream and it was incredibly strange. If I had not read about the process before hand I would have been incredibly frightened and probably would have been unable to enter the dream world without a lapse in consciousness. I was having trouble falling asleep that night and I would start feeling this dizzy buzzing in my whole body. It was like I was shaking at a really high vibration and I would suddenly snap back into being fully awake. I realized I was in a deep hypnagogic state, moving back and forth between being awake and on the very edge of sleep. I decided to initiate my dream programming and started a countdown to sleep. I keep feeling the buzzing and started hearing a ripping sound like saran wrap or tin foil. The top half of my dream body pushed its way out of my physical body and the tearing sound got louder. My physical body was in sleep paralysis and my dream body was partially stuck. I was afraid if I moved any farther I would wake myself up but decided to go for it and ripped myself out of my physical body. My eyes were still closed and I didn’t want to open them incase I opened my real eyes but when I did open them I looked down and say myself lying in bed. I knew at that point that I had successfully entered the dream world from a waking state without any lapse in consciousness.

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I decided to test myself anyway and fly up in the air and then back down to the bedroom. I was in my apartment but it was different than my real apartment and I went around to explore it. There was some incredible artwork on the wall that I knew was mine. I then slowly started to fade back into a waking state even though I tried to remain lucid. I just couldn’t stay asleep and woke up pretty excited. I fell asleep again about an hour later but did not have another lucid dream. It was quite an amazing experience, unlike any other, that I have yet to be able to repeat. If you want to know more about lucid dreaming techniques there is plenty of information online. I’ve found it difficult to learn but other people seem to find it very easy. It’s an incredibly exciting experience that I wish everyone could have on a regular basis.

Calea - A One Week Experiment

I finished my one week experiment with Calea and didn’t find it as helpful as I had hoped. I used Calea for 5 days straight and then missed one day by mistake and used it twice more before ending the experiment. The mild relaxation effects weren’t as strong as something like Valerian and although my dreams seemed to be more clear, there was no increase in frequency or lucidity. I was having a dreaming dry spell though and Calea brought them back the first night of use. Unfortunately, after a couple of nights I had a really hard time falling and staying asleep, which is something I almost never have a problem with.

I could not get used to the taste of the Calea, it was really unpleasant. I remember a long time ago trying it as a tea and no matter what I put in it, it still tasted awful. If this was something I wanted to use on a regular basis, I would have to find a way to make it more palatable. I tried mixing it with Tobacco but that didn’t help very much. I may end up cancelling my Calea tea experiment and move straight on to the sleep tincture.

Herbs work differently for different people and Calea has been reported to have better effects than I experienced. I was really hoping for something more powerful. In the long run I still think the best thing that can be done to improve dream clarity and lucidity is keeping a dream journal and taking time to evaluate your dream content. Dream programming seems to work well and hypnosis-like techniques can help with the process of falling asleep. Becoming an active participant in the dream world is important because on average it takes up about 1/3rd of our day. We can either fall asleep and treat it as something that just happens to us or we can become active participants and utilize this unique state that we all experience.

Calea - Sleep Fragmenter

After several days of smoking calea before bed I've encountered a problem. For three days I not only had trouble falling asleep but also had trouble staying asleep. The fragments of dreaming that I remember were still more vivid and clear but I woke up feeling like I hadn't slept at all.

I only had this happen to me a handful of times in several years and never several nights in a row. So I am assuming that it is calea related. I wonder if the calea is having some strange interaction with something else that I'm eating or consuming.

I plan on continuing the experiment and then switching to tea to see if it has a different effect. So far it has been interesting but the effects aren't noticeable enough to make it a daily routine and dream aid. I've had much better success with dream programming and meditation.

My next dream project is going to be a tincture creation of several sleep and relaxation related herbs. My wife and some of my friends have bad insomnia and I want to see if I can create something that may help them fall asleep and stay asleep naturally, with out the use harmful pharmaceutical drugs.


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Dream Programming

Dream programming is not as easy as it sounds. In its most simple form, it requires an idea or problem, which you would like to address in the dream world, to be held in one's consciousness while falling asleep. Anyone can try it and I think most people have had the experience of thinking about something in particular and then seeing it in their dreams. One of the most common experiences is thinking about a task that you do for work, falling asleep and then doing that task repetitively in your dreams. Recently this happened to me after several long days of refinishing a wood floor. In my dream I just kept sanding the floor, coating it with a sealer and repeating the process. Of course this dream was unintentional and, when I woke up, I felt like I hadn't slept at all because I was still at work in my dreams.

Programming a dream works very similarly. Choose something you'd like to dream about and think deeply about it while you are falling asleep. Tell yourself that you will dream about it. Don't just tell yourself that you would like to, but that you will. As you are falling asleep you will probably notice that your mind will wander completely off subject. Just keep catching yourself and bringing your mind back to where you want it to be. This is really a form of meditation and the ability to hold one thought in your mind for a prolonged period of time will increase with practice.

With enough intention you should be able draw that idea or problem into your dream world and work on or experience it on an unconscious level. The biggest obstacle to overcome is that the mind tends to wander easily and it is often difficult to stop the internal dialogue and maintain focus. It helps to practice meditation during the day as well. One practice I do almost daily is washing the dishing and maintaining my focus on only the task at hand and the sensory experience involved. If my mind wanders I bring it back to the sound or warmth of running water, the process of cleaning something that was once dirty or systematic approach that I use to get the job done.

My current dream programming is the same almost every night. My aim is better dream recall and an increase in lucid dreaming. Since I've started my dream program I've experienced a dramatic increase in dream recall and a small increase in lucid dreaming.

I've created an imaginary room with objects that represent certain programs. As I'm falling asleep I enter the room and close the door behind me. The room is filled with natural light and I walk across the wood floor to my bed. There are two night stands, one on the left with a couple of objects and one on the right that is empty. The objects help me remember triggers for lucidity with in the dream. The empty night stand is a place to put objects after I've had a dream so that I can check to see what has accumulated in the morning and use them to remember dream details.

There is a bottle of hand lotion that reminds me to look at my hands, if they look different I might be dreaming. There is a note pad which reminds me that it is often hard to read in the dream word. This notepad says, "you will have a lucid dream tonight." There is also a light switch which turns the sun which is shining through my large windows off. Light switches are also notorious for functioning improperly in dreams. I get in bed with Amee, who is already asleep and hit the light switch. The room goes dark and I begin a hypnosis countdown while envisioning my self descending a staircase into my unconscious. Along the way I tell myself that I'm getting tired and relaxed, my body and eyes feel heavy and other hypnosis techniques. If I reach the bottom and I'm still conscious I will just relax and let myself fall asleep. Often I fall asleep before I reach the bottom.

Dream programming may be difficult at first but the more you do it on a regular basis, the easier it will get. It's just like learning any new skill, it takes practice. I do believe that, after growing up with insomnia and a hyper-active internal dialogue, dream programming is well worth the effort. I really hope that more people learn how to use their dreams as a tool and have a healthy dream life.

The Calea Z Expirement - Day One

Last night I smoked some Calea Z right before heading to bed. I immediately felt very relaxed and slightly tired. I haven't been able to remember my dreams for about 2 weeks now, so I was eager to see if the Calea Z could help. I did not drink it as a tea because it is incredibly bitter. It's also very bitter when you smoke it, but it seems more bearable that way. I also placed a small amount in a bag with hops and lavender and placed it near my pillow in bed.

I fell asleep quickly and had a very vivid and long dream, which was easy to recall when I woke up several hours later. I was not able to sleep all the way through the night. I did feel better rested than usual in the morning but over the course of the evening I woke up three times and I usually sleep all the way though the night. I did not have any trouble getting back to sleep though. I will continue to experiment with Calea Zacatechichi and so far I have to report that it looks promising.

Calea Zacatechichi - Dream Herb

For the past 5 years I’ve been on a quest for the ever-elusive lucid dreaming experience. I keep a dream journal and attempt to program my dreams with the aim of becoming lucid (or in other words realizing that I am dreaming within a dream). Since I started consciously working with my dreams, I have only had a handful of lucid dreams but they have been amazing.

Calea Zacatechichi on erowid.org

When I first got into lucid dreaming, I stumbled across an herb used by the Chontal Indians of Mexico called Calea Zacatechichi. It’s leaves are used before sleep to relax, increase clarity and recall of dreams and promote lucid dreaming. It’s effects are not well documented but you can find many people experimenting with it and posting their experience reports in lucid dream forums. There is only one Scientific study that I know of but there are a lot of experience reports from individuals being posted online.

I used this herb for a short period of time, shortly after I quit smoking cannabis. Cannabis is well know for clouding a person’s dreams and reducing the ability to recall them later. I can’t really be sure if Calea helped me start dreaming again, but after I started to use it, my dreams came back in full force. Over a couple of weeks, my dreams also became more clear and easier to recall. I stopped using it after a couple of months but I plan on embarking on another series of experiments to see if it’s effects are noticeable enough to warrant further use.