Read A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming Online
Authors: Dylan Tuccillo,Jared Zeizel,Thomas Peisel
2. Tigers, oh my! If simply visualizing your form doesn’t work,
try a shortcut.
Because your brain is used to cause and effect, work with your brain rather than against it. Try creating or looking for
a potion in the dream world. When your potion is in hand just
say to yourself, “After drinking this potion, I will become a tiger.”
Gulp! Gulp! Feel free to get creative. How about a magic curtain?
Enter a dark cave, get on all fours, and come out as your tiger. You
are, in essence, giving yourself a placebo pill, tricking yourself into
believing.
3. Mirror image.
No luck with the potion? Find a full-length mir-
ror. Then, looking at your reflection, project your shape-shifting
thoughts onto the reflection. Watch the reflection’s various body
parts change. When the reflection has turned into its new form,
just step through the mirror.
I dreamed I was running through the woods, not being chased,
just running. I bent down and grabbed the forest floor with my
fists and began running with all four limbs. All of a sudden I felt
myself changing into some sort of canine. I was amazed at how
fast I could run with four legs, how it felt. I was pushing with my
back legs and pulling with my front. My center of gravity was
completely changed, and I felt what it was like to change into a
dog. —MIGuel h.
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4. Sink or swim.
Take a leap of faith. Find a body of water, such as a pond, and jump into the water, thinking, “When I hit the water,
I’ll turn into a giant, golden fish.” Or do something really brave:
after you’ve made sure you are in fact dreaming beyond a doubt,
jump off a cliff and imagine yourself as a bird, flapping your arms.
Confident actions such as these are a sort of bold ultimatum to the
dream world. They prove to your subconscious that you are ready
and that you believe. Or you can try a shamanic tradition that’s a
bit more chill. Find a pelt of the animal you want to become and
wear it. If your goal is to become a jaguar, for example, wrap your
body in a jaguar’s hide and feel it becoming yours.
Telekinesis
It’s fun to imagine a world where everyone could move objects
with their minds. Imagine how easy it would be to clean your
room or organize your record collection. The opportunities for
practical jokes would be endless. Of course, in the waking world,
we lack the ability to do such a thing. This is hardly the case with
lucid dreams.
Your ability to move things with your mind will come with
focus and confidence. Since telekinesis is about mental power,
know that it can happen, and it will.
1. Start small.
Once you’re lucid, find a small and light object and try to move it a very short distance, so that you can get comfortable
and confident in your telekinetic abilities. We take much of the
waking world with us into our dreams, such as our understanding
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of gravity. We’ve grown to understand that a tennis ball is light,
while a car is extremely heavy. Instead of going straight for the
cement truck, try lifting a book of matches.
2. don’t stress.
There’s a chance that your mind won’t even make a light object move. Don’t get frustrated, you’re still becoming accus-tomed to dream world physics.
Have fun and make it into a noncompetitive game to take the
edge off.
3. extension of the mind.
The fabric of your dreams is really just a part of your mind. You use your mind to control your breathing,
to move your legs, to focus your thoughts. When you can envision
the dream world as a collection of elements, all intertwined with
your mind, then you realize that moving a car is just the same as
wiggling your pinky. There is no real separation between you and
the object. Once you’re comfortable with this thought, it’s time to
move a larger object.
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In the dream world, you can feel the connection between you
and the “outside world.” The entire dream feels alive and con-
scious, even the air around you pulses with a presence. Remember,
you’re not manipulating the external forces of gravity: You’re
manipulating yourself.
The Energy Ball
Controlling and harnessing energy is an incredibly fun skill.
Once you can harness energy, you can use it to battle giant
robot ninjas, fight monstrous nightmares, and tear down symbolic
walls. The idea of harnessing energy can be rather abstract. Most
of the time you don’t see energy, let alone take command of it. But
it’s always surrounding you, moving around in the air and through
objects. To make this skill less abstract, create an energy ball. An
energy ball simply gives you a visual, tangible representation of
that energy so that you can control where it goes.
1. Visualize the energy around you.
Trace the electricity that is
moving through electric-powered objects in the dream world. See
this energy as something visible, such as blue pulsations. If you
have trouble doing this, find something that you know has energy.
For example look at a light fixture and visualize the energy coming
from the wall socket to the lightbulb.
2. Touch the energy.
Reach out and stick your hand in the energy
that is flowing around.
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3. Turn the energy into a ball.
Using your hands as “energy
brooms,” sweep the energy toward you. As it comes at you, move
your hands in a circular motion, as if you’re bunching all the energy
into a ball. Swirl your hands around the ball to make sure that the
energy doesn’t get loose.
Focusing on the bike and envisioning what was about to happen,
I made a quick arm movement down to the ground, making the
bicycle fall over. Furthermore, I noticed a car driving down my
street shortly after that and decided I was going to lift it in the
air with my mind as it was driving. As it was driving by, I made
an upward motion with both of my arms and the car rose about
four feet, still in propelled motion, and quickly fell back down
again as I let go of my telekinetic hold on it. —BeN S.
4. Push the ball away from you.
No need to get all intense when
making your first energy ball. Simply push the ball away and see
what it does. Does it immediately break apart? Does it affect the
things it touches? Once this skill becomes second nature, you can
start using it however you please.
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