Read A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming Online
Authors: Dylan Tuccillo,Jared Zeizel,Thomas Peisel
the practice spans back not only to Greeks but also to the ancient
Egyptians and dozens of other cultures throughout the world.
=
196
<
Using lucid dreams
to heal is a very practical,
commonsense practice. Cut off
from all outside world distractions,
the dreamer has the opportunity to
communicate directly with his or her
subconscious and heal through it. Modern medicine tries to heal
us from the outside in, while dream healing mends from the inside
out. As with hypnosis, the power of your subconscious is being
tapped. In this chapter, we’ll separate dream healing into two cat-
egories: mental and physical.
Healing the Mind
According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, the main goal of
all therapy is integration. Integration means coming together
or fusing. In psychological terms, it’s the process whereby the
psyche becomes whole. Even if we don’t need to see a psychologist,
many of us do not live to our fullest potential simply because we
lack unity within. We are held back by the nagging voices of our
fears, doubts, and criticisms. A block forms, preventing us from
expressing who we really are and from living a rewarding life.
Many mental problems seem to happen when we’re repress-
ing parts of ourselves. If a traumatic event occurred when we
were young, we may lock that experience away in order to cope.
Psychologists call this disassociation. Shamans throughout the
world have called it soul loss.
A healthy person is a united, integrated person whose memory,
=
197
<
emotions, social functions, body, etc., are all connected as a united
system.
We become unhealthy when one or more of these aspects
become disconnected from the system, and we become detached,
numb, anxious, or depressed. You can go to a therapist for help in
these matters, nothing wrong with that. But in addition to ther-
apy, lucid dreaming can be a powerful tool.
Becoming Whole in Dreams
In Old English, the word
healing
means “to make whole.” Dreams
often alert us to our problems and guide us toward integration.
Think of dreams as an intuitive, concerned mother, putting the
back of her hand to your forehead to see if you’re okay.
Read over your dream journal entries and ask yourself,
After a hard breakup, for months I didn’t feel like myself. I was
depressed, confused, and bitter over the way things had ended.
knowing I could ask the dream to heal me, I set out to incubate
a dream in which it would heal me of my suffering. A couple
days later, I had the most vivid lucid dream. I was with my ex-
girlfriend at the time and we were sitting on a park bench. she
took my hand and with a gentle voice said, “I guess it’s time I
forgive you, huh?” I nodded as I looked into her eyes. “I think so.”
I woke up feeling incredible. I had the closure I needed to move
on. From that day on, I have felt nothing but warmth and accep-
tance toward the entire situation. —MARTY M.
=
198
<
I found myself talking with a man in a room. Not sure what we
were talking about but something out on the balcony caught my
attention. I walked out onto the balcony and instantly an orb, or
what I took to be an actual sun, whizzed by above my head. A
second sun followed, and the two danced in the sky. I watched
as the clouds began changing above me. These weren’t earthly
clouds, these were cosmos clouds and I could see within them
millions of stars. The sky changed again: this time revealing an
enormous whale made of light. The whale swam through the cos-
mos like water. Then I saw the most beautiful light in the world.
It was the purest white but at the same time it gave off the most
incredible hues of greens, blues, and pinks. I watched the sky in
complete awe, humbled at the magnitude of what I was seeing.
It was incredible, and it brought me to tears. The man hugged
me from behind and let me cry. I felt like I was healing. The
dream changed and I asked where we were and someone said,
“san Pablo.” I then heard a voice that told me something very
profound: “All matter has its origin in spirit,” it said. I woke up
with a renewed sense of energy and excitement. —THOMAs P.
“Do any of these dreams contain advice on how I can be happier
and more whole?” We can record and interpret our normal dreams
in order to decode the messages from our subconscious. Sometimes,
however, interpreting our dream journals can be tough. It’s not
always possible to know exactly what your subconscious is com-
municating. This is where lucid dreaming comes in. You can find
lost parts of yourself while actively exploring your inner world.