”Dreams are real while they last. Can we say more of life?” — Henry Havelock Ellis
Oneironautics
~A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming~
Kickstarter
Twitter
Facebook
QUICK TIPS to begin Lucid Dreaming
Ask the Dream Team
Share your Dreams with us
Brenda is not only a dreamer, she’s a painter as well. Sometimes the two things go hand in hand and she paints the dreams she has. This dream/painting of hers points towards our ability to heal in a lucid dream:
“I had this dream the night after 9/11. I move toward the window and as I do I am sucked out! I begin falling into endless darkness! I feel like screaming, but then I remind myself I am dreaming. At this point I become lucid. I can see and feel everything slow, and I stop falling. I ask, “What is for me here?” I demand, “SHOW ME, SHOW ME!” Then, I begin to move upward. I see the stars as I am traveling up to the heavens. Then huge metal discs with alien writing start moving up around me. I yell once more, “SHOW ME!” — I even say this out loud in waking reality and I wake myself up.”
More of Brenda’s art here: http://brendaferrimanidreamart.com/
Space Pioneers, we all know just how you feel.
“We don’t know what new discoveries lie ahead, but this is the very reason we must go.”
(Source: battlebear)
I’ve been trying to do the wild method using counting or Guided Imagery. But every time my body starts to feel like stone my focus will snaps back to my body at which point I’ll get excited and/or my heart will race which will kick me out, any advice?
The WILD technique, for those who don’t know is a direct entry into a lucid dream without any lapse in consciousness. Instead of awakening within an already “regular” dream and becoming lucid that way, a WILD takes you from the waking state in your bed INSTANTLY into a lucid dream. Think of it like a radio that changes it’s frequency: turning it’s dial from “waking” to “dreaming”. This technique takes some trial and error but it’s very doable. All it takes is relaxation and some passive focus.
To your question: We’ve experienced something similar to what you’re describing and it really came down to us being too excited and overly anticipating to the point that we would be unable to fall asleep. It sounds like once you’re hitting sleep paralysis (when your body feels like stone as you described) you psyche yourself out because you’re too excited. Try this:
~ Lie down and relax. If you have a hard time falling asleep try to perform this in the early morning hours so you’ll fall asleep quickly.
~ Get to sleep paralysis by simply relaxing your entire body until it feels heavy (like stone as you put it). Do what you’re already doing such as counting, guided imagery, or any other relaxation techniques. At this point, you’re only minutes away (not seconds so don’t get too excited just yet)
~ This region of sleep you’re in is essentially the “Twilight state” (Think Rod Serling, not vampires) and it’s the liminal zone between sleeping and dreaming. That time where you may lose sense of your body and you begin seeing flashes of images and colors. You want to stay in this zone for as long as it’ll take- don’t try to force the WILD once you reach sleep paralysis. Instead, once you’re hitting SP, gently remind yourself, “Ok, I have about 5 minutes. Just relax. The next place I will be will be a dream.”
(Forcing a WILD is not possible. Doing so will likely wake you up more and you’ll have to start over)
~ So it really comes down to these next 5 minutes. Can you relax and passively wait for sleep to flood over you? If you can, you’ll begin to feel other sensations such as buzzing, vibrations, or sounds. Now you’re seconds away. Again, gently remind yourself, “Ok, I’m just gonna wait this out and I will come out on the other side in a dream…”
~ If you see an image, try to focus on it and make it clearer. The image will move towards you, or you towards it and engulf you. At this point you will be inside of a fully detailed, fully realistic world with complete self-reflective consciousness. Congrats you just did a WILD!
** Questioner, you are much closer than you think my friend so try again tonight. Just remember that once you feel the onset of sleep paralysis, you are only minutes away. Relax. Relax. Relax. The body will do all the work. All you need to do is stay gently attentive and let your body do it’s thing. Good luck dream pioneer!
Our splash page is up and active! Sign up to get first hand notification of when our site is fully live. We’ll also be sending out emails leading up to the launch for those eager to get a jump on some of our experiments as well as take a peak at our online training courses.
Dream Labs will be one of the first online sites that’ll combine strait forward lucid dream training with dream experiments never done before. As the site grows it will act as a social media hub for anything pertaining to dreams.
Check it our for yourself here!
Happy to say that we’ve been mentioned in Kickstarter’s Year In Review, summing up the “Most Memorable Moments” of 2011. Not only that, but we’re mentioned in the same breath as actor Colin Hanks, who gave that immortal performance in Orange County. Seriously we love that movie.
“ Tom Hanks tweets about son Colin’s project. Kickstarters learn to lucid dream and the +Pool becomes the talk of New York. The Eephus resurrects the baseball scorebook for Opening Day.”
Imagine testing the boundaries of dreaming. Imagine not only being an explorer, but being a pioneer, mapping out the unknown, the mysteries: what are dreams, what is lucid dreaming and how do we become lucid whenever we want? Can we share dreams? The list goes on and on, and nobody has definitively answered any of these questions.
Imagine a website that brings dreamers together, allows us to start to find answers to these questions in a community of pioneers… Guess what! This isn’t fantasy, and its got a name.
Dream Labs - coming soon.
Another sneak peak… one of our 37 illustrations in sketch form, by our talented illustrator Mahendra Singh.
