How to Induce Lucid Dreams

For those wondering how to lucid dream, there are a few great ways to learn quickly and effectively. As with all skills in life, it requires some practice and effort, but once mastered is well worth the work that went into it. The best plans for beginners are those that take all the knowledge surrounding lucid dreaming and distill them into something simple.

The preparation for dreaming is vital to success for an aspiring dreamer. Among these techniques affirmations, dream journals, and self education stand out as the best techniques for attaining mastery at dreaming. Affirmations are beliefs that a dreamer will carry into a dream. They are sentences a dreamer will write out about a particle dream he or she would like to have or a belief about abilities within a dream. A sample affirmation would be, "I have the ability to fly above the clouds in any dream I choose." I have not seen this technique repeated throughout the culture, and is a powerful technique I have adapted from NLP. A dream journal is a little notebook a dreamer should keep within arm's reach to write down dreams in a vivid detail as possible. These books enhance recall and understanding of our own personal styles. Self education requires reading the literature that is available and drawing from the wealth of knowledge to improve your own experience.

Supplementation is another great tool for those learning how to lucid dream. Many natural herbs have been used throughout history by monks and tribal leaders to have powerful and profound dreams. These supplements help to create incredible complexity and detail and have been responsible for many of the most memorable dreams in my life.

The three dreaming methods that best facilitate dreaming are the following: the Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dream (MILD), Wake Induce Lucid Dream (WILD), and the Wake Back to Bed method. The MILD involves repeating affirmations to oneself immediately before sleep. This is a very simple technique and should be the first the first method for anyone learning how to lucid dream. The WILD is the most potent method to but requires a deal of experience and patience. It is achieved through meditation and the conscious creation of the dream world you wish to step into. The Wake Back to Bed method is a complement to either of the previous methods and simply involves waking up when your REM cycle is best optimized for a dream and then inducing a lucid dream.

Learning how to lucid dream with any precision is not any easy thing to do. It requires perseverance and discipline. My best advice is to have an effective program, supplement wisely, and educate yourself as best you can.

For more information on comprehensive lucid dreaming programs, articles, supplements, and literature, visit my blog at http://induceluciddream.com/

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Dream Interpretation and Greek Mythology

Initially, as I was trying to decipher the mysterious language of the dreams, I examined Greek mythology. I understood how it related to the meaning of our dreams because the stories and themes that comprise the mythological stories are actually archetypes.

Archetypes are dream symbols immensely powerful. We find them in the artistic and religions manifestations of all civilizations across eras, in addition to finding them in dreams of many different people from different places in all historical times.

By translating the symbolic meaning of the archetypes contained in Greek mythology, we decipher the hidden message present in these images and stories, parallel to the meaning that can be understood by our conscious mind.

There are many meanings in a symbol because it simultaneously represents many things, and therefore, the relevant definition depends on how it appears in a dream and in artistic or religious manifestations.

While Homer speaks of only one "Moira" (Destiny), Esiodos mentions three "moires" (destinies). Each part does something in order to change the luck of the human being: one of them weaves life, the other one rolls the yarn, and the last one cuts it.

The three destinies of humans are the symbolic representation of the three destinies one's life has, depending on which of the three parts of the psyche one chooses to follow.

The part that gives one life (weaves one's destiny) is the wise unconscious that produces dreams to protect from the craziness inherent in the anti-conscience and that tries to help one completely develop one's human conscience so that he may live peacefully and happily.

The destiny that rolls the yarn is the conscience, which decides one's actions but frequently makes many mistakes because it is ignorant, selfish and a big victim of the person's ego. The ego is connected with the anti-conscience that wishes to destroy the conscience through craziness.

The destiny that cuts the yarn is the demoniac anti-conscience: one's primitive conscience that never evolved and still exists in one's psyche, provoking many problems with its invasions in the conscious realm. This dangerous part has to be tamed and transformed into a positive part of the conscience; otherwise, it causes depression, neurosis and several worse psychic diseases that cannot be cured when the destruction of the conscience is complete.

Poseidon, the god of the Sea, was one of the most important gods in Greek mythology. He ruled the ocean and had his empire there. His older brother, Addis, possessed the world of the depth and his younger brother Dias was the god of the sky and earth.

The symbolism we find here is similar-Dias is the wise unconscious mind trying to help humans transform their lives on Earth, so that they may forever live happily in the sky, in the perfect world of sanctity, which is paradise.

Poseidon is the god of the sea, which represents craziness. Therefore, Poseidon is in the place of the conscience, which is also absurd, even though it has transformed through consciousness. It has to be completely developed; otherwise, it leads the human being to the labyrinth of craziness because it is dominated by the evil anti-conscience.

Addis represents Satan, the god of hell, since he rules the depths. If the human being doesn't fight the domination of the anti-conscience, one becomes its victim and ends up imprisoned forever in the labyrinth of craziness, which is the worst fate for anyone.

Craziness represents terror and terror brings despair: this is the worst destiny for a human being. This tragic destiny is psychic hell, the most unbearable misfortune that exists.

Only craziness prevention can save humanity from the hell of poverty, prostitution and violence that facilitate the poisonous destruction caused by the anti-conscience. Only through the exact interpretation of dreams according to Carl Jung's method, which I have simplified, can everyone overcome depression and all existent mental illnesses with certainty, acquiring mental, emotional and psychic health for life.

This is how you will control your destiny and never be a victim of the anti-conscience's traps, replacing what could potentially be negative in the future with something that will bring you joy and satisfaction instead.

Bibliography:

Encyclopaedia of Mythology-Gods and Heroes of The Ancient World

Viteh Zamarovski

Editions Tambaki

Athens - 1981

Prevent Depression and Craziness through the scientific method of Dream Interpretation discovered by Carl Jung and simplified by Christina Sponias, a writer who continued Jung's research in the unknown region of the human psychic sphere.

Learn more at: http://www.scientificdreaminterpretation.com and http://www.booksirecommend.com

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Beating Depression and Craziness

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How to Lucid Dream - Your Own Journey

How to Lucid Dream? For most this question would seem to appeal to a beginners only. I found there are different types of beginners that start off within different stages in there Lucid Dreaming journey. Let me explain. I know people who recently discovered what lucid dreaming is only to realized they have been doing it for all their dreaming life. These people typically can give you a detailed five minute rendition or blow by blow version of last nights dream. This they can do every day. Well lets just say this was not the case with me and I had to start right at the beginning. You'll also find that if you talk to them about techniques for practicing dream awareness, while awake in order to achieve dream awareness while in a dream, they are successful without much effort at all.

If this last sentence did not make sense let me try and explain in another way. The first goal with lucid dreaming is to realize or to become conscious that you are dreaming and that you are not awake. So you are consciously aware of the fact that you are dreaming while you are asleep. Now to achieve this you have to practice checking or testing whether you are in a dream while you are awake. This can be done in different ways but one example is to have a set routine. For example every half an hour ask yourself "Am I dreaming", pinch yourself (and feel it) and look at the time on your watch twice a couple seconds apart.

The main idea involves conditioning yourself to test if you are dreaming, so that your subconscious mind keeps on requesting you to do this test. Eventually while you are in a dream the answers change FROM "no I am not in a dream"," ouch that hurt" and 10:10am & 10:10am TO "yes, I am in a dream", wow that did not hurt and 10:10am & 05:28pm.

Typically in lucid dreaming, otherwise known a conscious dreaming, if you look at your watch twice a few seconds apart, the time with each view is totally different and you do not feel being pinched and you just somehow know you are now dreaming.

Typically people need to practice this for days and weeks before they get it right. The naturally talented lucid dreamer mentioned above was able to tell me, the day after a conversation we had about double checking the time, that the previous evening they where "practiced" enough to remember to do this test in a dream. We had one conversation about it and they were able to try it in a dream and succeed within hours. Their starting point in the lucid dreaming journey was not the same as mine.

The point being that learning how to lucid dream is a journey and each individual will have a different starting point. Not to mention also a totally different paths. This is important to understand in order to know where you are on this journey to help you focus on the next techniques to practice for you. This journey's life cycle could involve the following phases.

· not being aware of any dreams

· conscious awareness practice while awake

· successful dream recall

· successful dream control

· create and experience amazing adventure and fantasies

· use lucid dreaming for self discovery and personal growth

· out of body experiences

· personal healing

· spiritual awareness and growth.

· and much more.

Not only is it important to understand where you are in your journey but also to know where you want to be. There are many end destinations and they keep on changing as you reach some successfully.

Note that the above list is only a rough guide and that each phase can involve lots of ground work and practice while awake. The trick is to first learn about conscious dreaming, understanding more about each phase and then deciding what you want gain from it. Then it is simple to know where you are and what you need to do to get to your destination. From there you can easily find out exactly what lucid dreaming techniques and exercises you need to do. As you start your journey and become more experienced you'll soon notice that there are many other benefits and usage of lucid dreaming that can to be discovered and help you to archive your goals, basically you can tailor make a journey for you.

To really make the most of conscious dreaming one needs to find ways to work on your creative imagination. After all everything you experience and create in your dream comes from yourself and you need to cultivate this gift with a creative imagination. But first things first, aim to understand the big picture as discussed above, then realize where you are in it and then figure out the detailed effort involved to get to the next step. So when learning how to lucid dream make sure you know what your first goal is, you need to be very goal focused to be successful.

And lastly remember to enjoy the lucid dreaming experience from the beginning. In this case the cliché of the journey is more important or fun than reaching the destination is so true as with most things in live.

If you want to learn more about how to lucid dream then we have lots of information for you at our website on lucid dreaming.

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How to Stop Having Bad Dreams and Understand The Unconscious Messages

Bad dreams indicate behavioral abnormalities and erroneous ideas. If you keep having bad dreams, this means that you keep making many mistakes in life.

The unconscious mind that produces your dreams is your natural doctor. It sends you bad dreams when you are making mistakes that affect your mental stability in order to open your eyes. If you want to stop having bad dreams you must follow dream therapy, so that you may stop doing what is generating emotional problems and sad situations.

Today this is very simple. I simplified Carl Jung's method of dream interpretation for you.

All dreams contain very important messages, even bad dreams or nightmares. When you understand the hidden messages of the unconscious mind, you understand the mistakes you are making. You also learn how to correct these mistakes and do only what is positive for you.

Don't be inconsequential. Never relax after having a nightmare for thinking that 'it was only a bad dream' (and not something that really happened in your daily life). Your dreams contain serious messages that protect your mental health and your safety. They are alarms sent by the unconscious mind in order to protect your sanity.

Your dreams reflect real psychological problems or sad life situations that will happen in the future. Or, they reflect the attitude you have today and the problems that are torturing you now, while you ignore their negative effect.

The unconscious mind criticizes your behavior in the dream images, showing you the way you react before various life challenges. For example, I will mention the dreams of a patient who kept dreaming that she forgot and lost something important somewhere.

She forgot her purse, her coat, her glasses, etc. in various dreams. After forgetting and losing something important for her in a dream, she had to face many problems looking for what she had lost, but without finding the object in the end.

These bad dreams were showing her that she has a negligent attitude in life.

Her purse represents her feminine identity. A woman will see that she lost her purse in a dream when she will be seduced by a man because he will force her to accept having a relationship with him. The dream about the lost purse was showing to the dreamer that she must be careful; otherwise she will get involved with the wrong person.

The fact that she forgot her coat somewhere in a dream and she lost it in the end, means that she lost a protection. The coat is a protection against the bad weather. In dreams the coat represents any kind of protection.

For example, the dreamer could have lost her capacity to be diplomatic. Diplomacy is a social protection. The dreamer cannot be rude and reveal her personal opinion without caring about how others will feel after listening to her words. She must pay attention to various details and protect her social image.

The fact that she forgot her glasses means that she cannot see many things. Her vision is limited. She must open her eyes and pay attention to various details that she keeps neglecting.

Each object in a dream has a symbolic meaning and represents one of the dreamer's mistakes.

If you are making many mistakes like her, you will have many bad dreams reflecting your erroneous behavior. In order to stop having bad dreams, you have to stop making mistakes.

Even if you don't believe that you make mistakes like this dreamer, you surely do. Your conscience is under-developed and one-sided. You are not able to analyze all aspects of your reality. You concentrate your attention only on the aspects that your favorite psychological function prefers.

In case you are a rationalist, you will completely ignore your feelings, which are the opposite of thoughts. Thoughts and feelings are contradictory psychological functions that cannot work together, unless you'll pass through dream therapy and learn how to develop all your psychological functions at the same time.

This is what you should do, without a doubt. Dream therapy will help you completely develop all your psychological functions and acquire total consciousness.

Only when you'll pay attention to your feelings, to your sensations and to your intuition the same way you pay attention to your thoughts, will you find balance. Only then will you have a total vision of the reality you are analyzing.

You will then be able to objectively judge your reality, while paying attention to all its aspects. Therefore, you won't make mistakes like you do now.

You'll stop having bad dreams. Your mind will open, and you'll become a wise human being.

Your dreams will have a totally different meaning. They will reflect your progress, instead of reflecting your mistakes. You will be able to make very important future predictions after seeing meaningful dream warnings. Instead of dreaming about dangerous situations and bad events, you'll see positive dream symbols, and learn many things you ignore.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung's research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.
Learn more at: http://www.scientificdreaminterpretation.com
Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).

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What Dreams Are Made of?

"All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams."

Elias Canetti

My mother has a simple but strong explanation for why we have particular dreams. She says "What ever we think during the day, follows us in the dreams." I don't know about others but with me its 60 percent true if not more. The remedy for the bad dreams which she prescribes is- remember God for 5 minutes before you go to bed. In case it fails the second thing would be- take the left shoe, touch it 7 times to the ground and put it upside down by your head side under your bed (along with a glass of water). You might call me a superstitious but it always works for me. I believe that dreams are suppressed fears or thoughts which we afraid or are hesitant to express. Or they are the ambitions we always had.

The national sleep research project reveals that an average human being spends one-third of its life sleeping. Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term memory, that is, we dream about things worth remembering. On the other hand, some physicians like Robert (1888, Hamburg) reckons that the dreams are to forget and clean the memory (to eliminate overlapping).

In 1952, Eugene Aserinsky identified a particular behavior of the eyes during the dreams, called REM or Rapid Eye Movement. REM occurs when a person is having a dream; it is similar as a person moves his eyes to scan the situation around while one is awake. Certain types of eye movements during REM sleep correspond to specific movements in dreams. Dreams also occur during the non-REM sleep, it might be to a lesser extent, but there is no such thing as sleep without dreams. Elephants, during non REM sleep stand, bur lie down for REM sleep.

The recalling of dreams is extremely unreliable, although psychologists believe that it is a skill that can be trained. Commonly, 95 percent of all dreams are not remembered. Women are believed to be better in recalling a dream than men. Mostly, a dream may be recalled upon viewing or hearing a random trigger or stimulus. A 'dream journal' can be used to assist dream recall for psychotherapy or amusement purposes.

There are so many cultures, communities and faiths in the world and so are the interpretations of the dreams. The Chinese people believed that the soul leaves the body to go into the dream world. If a dreamer is suddenly awakened the soul might not return to the body. For this reason some Chinese even today are suspicious of alarm clocks. One of the Hindu Scriptures 'Upnishads' (900-500 BC), emphasize two meanings of dreams first says that dreams are just expressions of inner desires and the second believes (like Chinese) that soul leaves the body but is being guided until it is awakened. The Mexican civilization and some Native American tribes (I am an Indian myself but from India) believe that the dreams are a way to visit and contact their ancestors.

Some religions e.g. Christians and ancient Hebrews believe that the dreams are of supernatural element and they might have a divine power to communicate or to warn. Even in Islam, Muslims believe that Prophet Mohammed received much of the writings of Quran from a dream he had.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) believed that the cause of dream is physiological activity and that the dreams are able to analyze illness and predict diseases. Hippocrates, similar to my mother, had a simple theory on dreams which suggests that during the day, the soul receives images; during the night, it produces images.

More recently Sigmund Freud revolutionized the study of dreams. According to Freud wish-fulfillment was the root behind most of dreams and that the dreams are reflection of the dreamers' deepest desires. Later a student of Freud, named Carl Jung gave his teacher's ideas a new horizon. Similar to his teacher he believed that dreams are related to the dreamer's wishes, which enables them to realize the things they unconsciously desire. Jung believed that the dreams were messages to the dreamer and should not be ignored. He described the dreams as capable to present the dreamer with revelations that uncover and help to resolve emotional problems. He said "Who looks outside, dreams; who looks outside, awakes."

Whatever is hiding behind the mystery of dreams, nobody can help dreaming. There are some people who dream black and white. Color or black and white, life is itself more or less a dream. For some it is more good dream and less nightmare, for others, vice versa. I believe there is a much permanent and happy place out there. A super-conscious state beyond the consciousness. But until we reach there, lets keep dreaming.

"Married or unmarried, young or old, poet or writer, you are still a dreamer, and will one time know, and feel, that your life is but a dream."

Donald G. Mitchell

Harmander S. Maan

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When Dreams Become Nightmares - What Nightmares Are And How To Deal With Them

Nightmares, like other dreams, occur most often during REM sleep (though we dream throughout the entire sleep cycle). Unlike other dreams, however, nightmares usually cause dreamers to wake up.

If you don't wake up, is it still a nightmare? Well, not technically. You might just want to call it a bad dream.

Nightmares are most often characterized by the following symptoms:

~ a sense of dream dread or fear that may stay with you for hours or even days

~ The physical paralysis, called atonia, that signifies REM sleep (as opposed to the physical arousal common in night terrors), but perhaps with more eye movements than usual and slightly elevated pulse and respiration rates.

~ The ability to vividly recall all or part of a frightening dream story.

~ The dreamer usually finds him or herself being threatened or harmed in some way

~ A recognition of personal dream themes, or a repetition of the dream itself for months, years, or even decades.

The main feature of a nightmare is that it's scary. It's often long, intricately detailed, and among the easiest of our dreams to remember. Nightmares aren't considered a sleep disorder, as night terrors are unless they become recurring nightmares. Frequent occurrence of nightmares becomes a disorder when it impairs social, occupational and other important areas of functioning. At this point, it may be referred to as Nightmare Disorder (formerly Dream Anxiety Disorder) or "repeated nightmares." "Repeated nightmares" is defined more specifically as a series of nightmares with a recurring theme that disturb the dreamer's sleep on a regular basis. It's interesting to note that while people with night terrors exhibit frightening physical symptoms such as screaming or kicking, and are inconsolable during an episode, they don't remember anything later if they're allowed to settle back into sleep.

Nightmares, however, are a different story. The dream content of nightmares has much to reveal to us, if we're courageous enough to take a closer look at what's scaring us. Though it's hard to believe, nightmares can be very beneficial. Often they will point out what we're really afraid of, rather than what we think or what we admit (even to ourselves) we're afraid of.

Some factors that seem to contribute to nightmare frequency are: illness (especially fever), stress (caused by situations like the difficulties of adolescence, moving, hard times at school or work), troubled relationships and traumatic events, like being mugged or experiencing a serious earthquake. Traumatic events can trigger a long lasting series of recurrent nightmares.

Post-traumatic stress nightmares (PSNs) are different from your average run-of-the-mill nightmare in that they're usually experienced by people who've lived through a traumatic event, and the dream content and story will closely resemble the event. So there's very little disguised imagery. Robert Van de Castle points out that the dream is recurrent with little alteration from time to time, except that elements from the dreamer's current environment may gradually be incorporated into the prescribed dream plot.

One psychological theory holds that post-traumatic dreams are the body and mind's joint way of replaying the event in an attempt to master it within the "safe" context of the sleeping body and dreaming mind, where the event can be re-experienced without harm. Eventually the anxiety and stress associated with the traumatic event diminishes as the dreamer regains control and confidence in waking life.

It's also important to recognize that such things as a messy and vicious divorce can be experienced as trauma, especially by children. Although we may not have been prisoners of war, or survived a plane crash, there are still quite a few events in our everyday lives that qualify as traumatic.

The more standard scary dream (and what most of us consider a nightmare), usually consists of frightening images and symbols relating to work, school, or relationships, and are often stress or anxiety induced. The threat here isn't necessarily to one's life, but to one's sense of self and self-confidence. We awake from these kinds of dreams with our hearts pounding, perspiring profusely and often crying or screaming. These kinds of nightmares tend to be the ones that we're relieved to realize "was only a dream!

In my experience, the most common types of nightmares are ones of either being chased or ones of being hunted down. One explanation: Being chased or stalked as prey are primal memories from our human collective unconscious, and they refer to primitive times when our ancestors were chased by wild animals. Back then, being caught meant certain death. Another possibility is that we feel unable to escape a situation that we feel we have no control over.

I've found, time and time again, that nightmares are our unconscious mind's way of getting our attention. If we don't pay attention to our dreams, or we haven't figured out the messages in past dreams, we'll get one heck of a nightmare that forces us to pay attention, and more often than not, force us to make the effort to understand what on earth that dream (nightmare) meant.

For more information on nightmares and how to deal with them, click here.

Dream Well,

Terry Gillis

About The Author, Terry L. Gillis:

I have been researching and studying dreams for over 2 decades. What I have concluded is that dreams prepare us for what's ahead. By paying attention to our dreams and understanding their messages, we can decide on the best course of action to take to create the life we want.

To learn more about your dreams visit: The Dream Lady Online And don't forget to subscribe to our free newsletter, The Nocturnal Times.

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Understanding Recurring Dreams

Recurring dreams are collection of images and sounds that repeatedly occur in our sleep, rhetoric dreams with the same events of small variation or changes. It is not always the same, but the composition and settings remains the same. Sometimes they often include circumstances from the dreamer's accumulated knowledge or skills, and may take the form of a nightmare, but it is not always like that. A recurring nightmares stay with the dreamer for many years. Up to 70% of women experience recurring dreams, while only 65% of men experience this. Human psychology and dreams are greatly related to each other. Studies show that during an average lifespan, a human spends around two hours every night in dreaming. If we spend two hours every night in dreaming, that is six years of dreaming in an average lifespan.

Recurring dreams: a voice from within

What will you do if you want to create great emphasis on a certain matter? We tend to repeat them. The need for repetition in nightmares can signify important issue in your life. The need to understanding your rhetoric nightmares may lead you to self-realization and self improvements. Things that are unexplainable and incontestable need not to be negative aspects of our life; they can serve great advantages in our endeavor. Rhetoric nightmares may evolve very slowly, little variations at a time.

Why do we have rhetoric dreams?

Let us put it this way, your subconscious mind is showing you the right way to something. Oh please! Actually it has scientific basis, according to Sigmund Freud dreams are the means of one's expressions of his/her unconscious wishes, Dr. Freud who founded the discipline of psycho analysis said that nightmares allow the brain to take control over the emotions that are a result of undesirable experiences. Simply put, they are like nagging system that your mind uses. Nightmares are subconscious mind ways of communicating with the dreamer. Some theories claimed that dreams regarded one's inhibited feelings that are indulged in fantasies during sleep.

Rhetoric dreams can involve the following:

· Recurring dreams with the same person, need not be someone you know
· Certain place
· About your ex
· About your frustrations, let us say you want to overcome fear of flying
· Goal and ambitions

Repeated dreams tend to occur when you are...

Vulnerability to something, this may lead to recurring dreams. Once you have overcome this vulnerability; you'll reach a state of relaxation and these recurring dreams will stop, hopefully.

Do you want to know more about dreams?

I suggest you visit this site for more information about dreams

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