LUCID DREAMING: A CONSCIOUS WALK THROUGH OUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND

Lucid dreaming

‘Once a child was dreaming of dragons, fairies and monsters. He chased the beautiful fairies, but was chased by the monsters and his demons – but the funniest part is, the hero of this story could be you and me’. Majority of dreamers mostly have weird dreams like never ending roads and oceans, keep on falling

Francisco Goya- The sleep of reasons produces monsters

from height, etc, even if they don’t remember it on the very next day. Our brain loves to play games with us because our conscious part taught us about non-existing creatures; yet again we are scared and run for our lives from the very same creatures in our unconscious world. Then how is it possible for some people to have control on their dreams?

When you dream about a vicious creature, rather than running away from it, have you ever tried to take control over and thought -‘NO! This is just a dream’. A group of people around this world can control their dreams. This awareness of a dreamer that he/she  is dreaming is known as Lucid Dreaming (LD). 

The term ‘lucid’ was coined in 1913 by a Dutch

psychiatrist and author, Frederik van Eeden in his book ‘A Study on Dreams’, where he recorded some of his own dreams. In late 1970s LD became a focus point among researchers and psychologists. Studies says that any dreamer can develop lucid dreaming by persistence and constant trying. Developing a consciousness within our unconscious dream helps us in many ways; personally and professionally.

Every man is scared of one thing or the other. Some may be scared of heights, ocean, beasts, fire, darkness, and other horrors, while some others are scared of needles, public speaking, or even mathematics and organic chemistry!! But, are you sure that this is what we are really scared of? What if our unconscious mind knows the exact reality??

Scientists and experts in lucid dream claims that through lucid dreaming, we can not only find our inner hidden fear, but also can overcome those easily without going for costly therapies. LD is not a new term and approach from scientific level, instead it has been a sacred practice discussed in Buddhist Texts. Similar to meditation, they used to practice lucid dreaming to find themselves and develop their inner strength. In this present world, regardless of race and culture, people exercise LD as a part of their life-style

Zhi-Khro mandala, a part of the Bardo Thodol's collection (The Tibetan Book of the Dead) originated with guru Padmasambhava in the 8th century.

Many studies states that LD is safe and help us improve our problem solving and creative skills. To certain extend, it assists in psychological healing. Like a coin has two sides, some reported that realization of dreaming in the middle of sleep and lucidity in dreams containing trauma can induce some problems like anxiety disorder in people with psychological problems and mental illness.

Apart from pros and cons of lucid dreaming, the power we get on our dream is never insignificant. If a simple involuntary action like dream can help us find who and what we are in future, who knows what power we will be able to acquire. So next time rather than hunting down what we dreamt about, realize what is real and fantasy, because are you sure that we are not in a maze of dream!!!