Lucid dreaming is the art of becoming more self-aware in our dreams. Although lucid dreaming has been practiced for centuries, it only recently became recognized by science in the late 1970s. Recently, lucid dreaming has seen even more popularity thanks to a few favorite herbal supplements that claim to growth the potential of becoming aware that you are dreaming. These supplements, known as "lucid dreaming pills" have promise, but they are not unmistakably the quickest and most productive way to learn how to lucid dream. I'll discuss why in this article, and make suggestions for studying how to lucid dream the natural way.
Lucid Dreaming Supplements: A Quick narrate
Galantamine is by far the most favorite lucid dreaming supplement today. This is a chemical synthesized from a few plant sources, notably red tiger lily. Galantamine is a legal supplement, and seems to work by modulating brain chemicals that in turn modulate our waking and sleeping cycles.
Calea zacatechichi is someone else highly prized lucid dreaming supplement. The leaves from thisflowering plant have been used as a cure-all medicinal herb in Mexico for centuries. new blind studies show that calea increases dream recall significantly, which is an foremost part of inducing lucid dreams. While there is no scientific evidence yet for calea's supervene directly on lucid dreaming, there have been many self-reports claiming a correlation.
Brain vitamins In general, contemporary medicine provides a cocktail of vitamins that are touted as increasing mental action while sleep, and also enhance concentration, mood, and even anti-aging. This long list includes the B vitamins, as well as inescapable enzymes and proteins. Some supplements contribute raw material for neurotransmitters, aiding in cell-to-cell communication, and others, such as the antioxidants, clear out free radicals, which promotes the growth of wholesome brain cells.
Taking the Red Pill Is not enough
However, lucid dream beginners may be disappointed to learn that taking a pill is not going to make them more "aware." Galantamine and the other oneirogens (drugs that promote dreaming) may supervene brain chemistry in a way that promotes self-reflection, but in and of themselves they mostly act as placebos.
And here's why: becoming self-aware is not a switch that is "flipped" by taking a pill. Like performance-enhancing drugs known about in the sports world, lucid dreaming pills may unmistakably enhance your abilities.... But you still have to go to custom everyday.
Self-awareness, and the potential to perceive "hey, I am experiencing this occasion right now" is the product of mental discipline. If we are not tuning into our daily waking lives with qualified moments of self-awareness, why do we expect to have such epiphanies in our dreams? Waking life is a dream in itself, after all, in which we go about our daily habits and routines, and spend most of our time whether engaged in tasks or "checking out."
Popping a lucid dreaming pill is not going to do much for those of us who are unaccustomed to self-inquiry, meditation, or habit awareness checks. Developing the Mind
Learning to lucid dream is easy if approached from the uncomplicated truth that, to become more self-aware, we have to train our minds. That is how the Tibetan Buddhists and Hindi Yogis viewed lucid dreaming over a thousand years ago. To these masters of consciousness, lucid dreaming was plainly a signal that their mental exercises were paying off.
Similarly, many Indigenous peoples around the world, including some Native American groups and South American shamans, custom lucid dreaming as a technique to compose the mind's power of attention and imagination. Some of these groups use supplements as well - the dissimilarity being, of course, that the supplements are just that: supplements to a mental practice.
There are many sources for studying how to lucid dream on the Internet, and I won't go into to much detail about definite practices. The undisputed authority site for studying lucid dreaming is Dr Stephen LaBerge. Briefly, here is my personal list for the most productive ways to compose self-awareness in waking life in order to have more lucid dreams. These practices, along with a judicious use of herbal supplements, are an productive path towards increasing the dreaming mind.
7 Ways to plainly Promote Lucid Dreaming without Supplements
- Reality Checks compose a "habit" of becoming self-aware. Some use a timer on their watch so that every hour they are prompted to think, "I am aware right now. This is happening, and I am not my emotions, or my hunger, or my irritation of my boss while this boring meeting." I am a big fan of using doorways. Every time you walk straight through a door way, try to remember "I am aware, I am entertaining from one room into another." This custom is harder than it seems! Yet, soon enough the custom will bleed into your dream life, and you will think, "I am aware.... Hey, this is bizarre, why am I in my middle school cafeteria? This must be a dream!"
- Dream Signs If you have a repetitive dream, teach yourself that the next time you sense the plot of that dream, you are dreaming. This works well with outlandish dreams such as staring in the mirror and having to pull out a tooth because it is loose. As adults, this just doesn't happen often in waking life! Soon you will derive many "dreamsigns" that cue you into the dream state.
- Meditation No doubt about it, the safest and most direct way to learn how to lucid dream is to take up a formal mindfulness practice, such as sitting meditation. These days, it's easy to find introductions to sitting meditation, also known as concentrative meditation, no matter what your background is.
- Body custom Lucid dreamers statistically have an exquisite sense of balance. So developing your body's balance straight through yoga or tai chi is a great way to tune the mind and the body at the same time. This is also foremost for mental condition in general; lucid dreaming is only one advantage to having a regular body practice.
- Read at Night One of my most productive tricks for incubating lucid dreams is to wake up in the middle of the night, turn the light on, and read something entertaining for 10 to 15 minutes. This custom stimulates the parts of the brain that also handles self-consciousness. Try meditating for 10 minutes in the middle of the night too - I propose getting out of bed for this practice! When I resolve back to sleep, I often slip immediately into a lucid dream.
- Refrain from Alcohol Alcohol can dampen the dream state; scientists have noted this for years. Even one alcoholic drink in the evening can statistically kill all your efforts of having a lucid dream. And taking some brain drugs after a night of binge drinking will just give you a nasty sick on top of your hangover.
- Take a Nap! Usually, an afternoon nap helps us catch up on our dream sleep. So the chance of having a lucid dream is quite high if you go to sleep with the intention of knowing you are dreaming.
So, like I've recommend above, lucid dreaming supplements are not all they are cracked up to be. At best, they should be engaged in carefully in conjunction with these excellent tactics for developing lucid dreams. A much safer and sustainable path towards lucid dreaming is to focus on mind development, the old fashioned way.
