Verbal commands are an effective way to drive the dream in the direction you desire.  Today, I woke up at 4 Am.  Read and meditated for about 40 min and then went back to sleep.  This is a sure-fire way for me to have a lucid dream.  In this dream, I walked around with my daughter.  The first verbal command I issued was “increase lucidity.”  The colors became more vibrant around me.  I saw some Christmas lights and they started to flicker as if additional electricity was flowing through them.

We continued walking through the town street we were in.  I didn’t recognize it, but there were lots of buildings and lots of people milling about.  On my list of “to dos” in a lucid dream was to try this verbal command:  show me something amazing.  I tried it and when we turned a corner I saw a beautiful white marble statue.  It is very hard to describe, but it was in the modern art tradition, with interesting faces of child-like faces carved into the marble on one side.  In the middle, it spiraled up to the sky.  I wish I could “print out” what I saw.  But it lived up to expectation.

Try a verbal command in your next lucid dream.  For me, next up is “show me unconditional love.”  I read about this one in a book and the author said he had one of the most amazing lucid dreams of his life.  For the theists out there, will I be experiencing unconditional love from outside of me?  The Bible is full of dreams where God speaks to people.  For the non-theists, will this be an effective form of self-love?  I’ll let you all know how it goes…

It’s been about 2 months since I wrote saying I would get an extra 30 min of sleep a night to see how it would affect my lucid dreaming.  I’ve had 13 recorded LDs since Oct 26th when I decided to increase my sleep.  This compares to 8 LDs in the prior 2 months without any additional effort in sleeping.  62% increase in lucid dreaming and a bit more energy for the day – seems worth it!

I will need to look at my Zeo data to see exactly how much extra sleep I received (one of the nice things about having one).  However, I can tell you I’m convinced and will continue to focus on getting plenty of sleep in 2013.

Since most of the tips and tricks I know for lucid dreaming induction have been shared in my 7 part series, for 2013 I will focus on advanced topics in lucid dreaming.  You can look forward to learning how to prolong your lucid dreams, summon one you wish to meet and teleport from one dreamscape to another.  The journey has just begun…

A group of us meet for lunch at Google to chat about our lucid dreams, new methods of attaining lucidity and the possible areas of research and discovery.  Last Friday we met and a good friend talked about how we had a brief lucid dream where he was flying over water and realized it was a dream.  His next thought was how amazing it was that his mind could simulate what it felt like to be flying and to have water splashing in his face at the same time (he must have been flying right above the water).  That night, I had a lucid dream where I was in a boat with people I didn’t know and became lucid.  Influenced by my friend’s sharing that day, I decided to get out of the boat and try something I had never done before – barefoot water-skiing.

It was an amazing experience.  First, I haven’t had the chance to go water-skiing in 20 years.  Second, I never tried barefoot skiing.  In this dream, I was able to do both all without a boat in front of me!  It was quite surreal, cruising over the water as if I were being pulled, feeling the water hit my feet and enjoying the experience all the same.

Without chatting with my friend about his dream, I would never have had mine.  This is something we’ve found to be true in the group – the more you talk about lucid dreams the more you have them.  If you want to have more dreams, consider forming a group of people at work (or if you work at Google, find ours on Google groups).  Or you can just bring it up as a topic of conversation when you meet someone and they ask about your interests.  This is another step that will aid you on your journey to lucidity.

This weekend I had 4 lucid dreams.  If you have been practicing alongside me with the methods and have had some success, you’ll know how exciting it can be to have your efforts rewarded with some solid experiences.  I would say that the focus on extra sleep (see Step 1.5 – Extend Your Sleep) as well as an increased focus on lucid dreaming has stepped up the number of dreams I’ve had this past month.  The MILD method I used this morning was almost text book.  I woke up around 2 AM with a fairly vivid dream (thanks to taking 2 AlphaBrains – lucid dreaming supplement around 5 PM.)  I took the time to write down the dream, about 1 min.  Then I went back to sleep, but as I did I focused on the desire to remember I was dreaming the next time I was dreaming.  I entered into a very similar dream, but this time it triggered the recognition that it was a dream.

The WILD (Wake-Induced Lucid Dreaming) method is very similar to the short-cut method I presented a few posts back.  With this method you shorten the time of your sleep to about 5 hours (if you normally sleep 7 to 8 hours).  You rouse yourself awake by doing some activity that ensures you are really awake.  For example, you might pull out a book on lucid dreaming or visit a website like Dreamviews.com.  You do this for 30 minutes or so.  Then, you attempt to fall back asleep, however you try to maintain consciousness as you fall asleep.  If this sounds weird, the experience is even more bizarre

I first experienced this phenonmena when I would take naps in college.  Sometimes as I was falling asleep, I would hear a loud buzzing sound and then feel a strange tingling sensation throughout my body.  Then I would experience a sense of falling.  At first, I would wake myself up.  Over time, I learned to give into the experience to see what would happen.  Once I was able to just let it happen, I would notice that pictures would start forming in my mind.  I knew I was still “awake” so it was quite surreal.  I actually wondered if I was seeing “visions” as reported in various wisdom literatures throughout time.

Now I know this to be a very common experience for those who wish to lucid dream.  This is the WILD method.  You pass from consciousness with your body awake to consciousness with your body asleep.  Some of the strange sensations have to do with your body falling asleep and becoming paralyzed (so you don’t act out your dreams).   On Saturday AM, I had the opportunity for this.  I woke up at 5;30, but decided to stay in bed to see if I could have a lucid dream.  I kept my body very still and eventually started to feel that heaviness that comes with sleep.  I kept my mind semi-alert and noticed that if I started to picture myself doing a flip, I would actually experience it.  Even though I had no pictures forming, I could tell that my body was falling asleep.  I kept this “spinning” going and eventually the dream landscape appeared.  It was quite a cool experience.

I hope you have had your first lucid dream.  If not, stay motivated.  It will happen and it will be worth it!