I had the opportunity to attend this particular workshop at Tara Yoga Centre in London. I had heard of lucid dreaming before and I experienced it personally. Many nights I was aware that I was dreaming and I would wake up just after having realised that I was doing so. I did not know that this state could be trained so that one could enter it whenever they wished. Having had many vivid dreams where I was aware I was dreaming all my life – later I would find out they were called lucid dreams, when the opportunity arose to attend such a workshop, I immediately took it.
Our teachers were Maria and Morgan, both experienced in the field. Maria had been experiencing lucid dreaming since she was a small child, and Morgan said that every single one of us on the planet dreams, reassured me that I was in good hands. What followed was a very interesting history of how lucid dreaming has been represented throughout history. I found out that numerous ancient cultures from the Chinese to the Hindus recognised this special state, and many aspired to reach it when sleeping for numerous benefits such as clairvoyance, therapy and improving spiritual practice.
We were taught about the sleep cycle, deep sleep, REM sleep, hypnogogic states and when lucid dreaming is more likely to occur.
We learned that in the modern day in the West, lucid dreaming was first researched in 1975 and expanded upon in 1980 and most importantly in 2010. This was when modern brain scans proved lucid dreaming scientifically, and numerous experiments showed that people were conscious even when they were not awake.
Morgan and Maria taught us the 3 main ways to lucid dream:
- DILD: Dream Induced Lucid Dream
- WILD: Waking Induced Lucid Dream
- MILD: Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dream
The day also included numerous practical aspects of lucid dreaming. We did an experiment on awareness and concentrating on the five senses, as well as two lucid dream experiments based on the WILD method, for around ten minutes and thirty minutes. The second experiment gave the best results for me, in that I could actually feel myself falling asleep and start to dream, but I was also completely conscious of this happening, and could bring myself back into a waking state. I found it was very new to me and completely amazing!
I also learned ways to document and keep track of dreams, from keeping a journal by the bed, to specialised phone apps and sleep friendly screen lights, to alarms that can wake you at night periodically so that you can document your dreams.
Over the weekend I met people who had very wonderful testimonies on their lucid dream states, and we all shared from our experiences. I would definitely do such a workshop in the future! It taught me many useful things that will enrich my spiritual practice, help me overcome fears and allow me to have wonderful all night adventures in my sleep.
Happy lucid dreaming everyone!