Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, Howard Rheingold

Have you ever had a lucid dream? A dream where you realize you are dreaming and take control of that dream? I have. I’ve actually done it twice. As a kid of the 90s, I was exposed to a lot of new age philosophy, and man, did I want to believe. I’ve been having nostalgia for the 90s lately, even wanting to revisit The X-Files. The thought of being able to control my dreams and unlocking unknown human potential excited me a lot as a kid. While I also devoured Star Trek and generally leaned into science, there was always a part of me that wanted to believe human potential was infinite, that with enough scientific knowledge, I could even develop telekinesis. That type of open-minded vibe recently led me back to Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold.

Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold is the book that taught me how to lucid dream back in the day. I just never finished it or kept up the practice. So, this year, I wanted to re-develop the skill and see how far I can take it. In my first lucid dream, I was in the back of a red convertible, but there was no one driving. I remember distinctly saying “I am dreaming,” and then the whole world opened up. I could feel my heart rate increasing because of the excitement. And what’s the first thing someone does when they realize they’re dreaming? That’s right, I opened up my arms and flew up out of the car and into the sky! It was so exhilarating that my lucid dream must have only lasted about a minute because I woke up, fully aware of my pounding heartbeat and a rush of adrenaline. My second lucid dream was much more NSFW – what can I say, I was a teenager.

LaBerge structures Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by first introducing the reader to what lucid dreaming is, then teaching how to train your mind and induce lucid dreams, and finally, how to navigate and apply lucid dreaming. One of the key takeaways I have from this book is the crucial role of mindfulness and setting clear intentions. Remembering and triggering lucid dreams seems to largely come down to setting these intentions before you fall asleep. When I was experimenting with lucid dreaming as a kid, I would repeat the mantra “I am going to have a lucid dream tonight” over and over as I was falling asleep. This is precisely how I was able to trigger my two lucid dreams. At that age, I had real trouble falling asleep, so repeating this eventually got boring, and I slowly gave up the pursuit of lucid dreaming. Nowadays, my kids have cured my insomnia problem; I can fall asleep within a minute of hitting the pillow and turning off the light!

The first stage to lucid dreaming is being able to remember your dreams. LaBerge lays out some practical advice on how to do this, such as repeating “Tonight I will remember my dreams” as you fall asleep, and then consistently keeping a dream journal. The dream journal creates a powerful feedback loop to help you better recall future dreams. It also sets the stage for inducing lucid dreaming by allowing you to identify recurring cues or ‘dream signs’ that you can use to perform reality checks *within* your dream.

Along with the use of autosuggestion, LaBerge details a process called MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams). This method involves waking up after a REM cycle during the middle of the night. After waking from REM, you’ll want to recall as much as you can about your dream, replaying it like a movie. This is where you actively identify those dream signs, strange moments that will awaken you to the fact you’re dreaming in the moment. Then, you’ll set your intention to become lucid the next time you are dreaming, just like I described earlier. You then fall back asleep while repeating this intention, and bam, you’re significantly increasing your chances of inducing a lucid dream. The reason this method works is because it uses prospective memory (remembering to do something in the future) combined with those identifiable dream cues to allow you to recognize you are dreaming while you are dreaming.

LaBerge uses the rest of the book to discuss navigating dreams and how you could apply lucid dreaming to your life. He shares fascinating anecdotes of how people have used lucid dreams to overcome real fears that were impacting their waking life. There were also stories of being able to grieve for a lost family member in lucid dreams. The most applicable to me was the discussion of using lucid dreams to increase muscle memory and motor skills. It made me wonder if more professional athletes are taking advantage of this than I realize. LaBerge talks about studies where people would repeat movements in their lucid dreams and then perform these actions in actual situations as if they had practiced for years. There was even a story about how a dancer was able to heal her injured ankle faster than expected by using a lucid dream to replay the scenario where she was injured, but instead of falling, she landed perfectly, without injuring herself at all.

I am excited to start lucid dreaming again. Even though I am just beginning on this journey, I expect to be lucid dreaming soon since I have done it before. At this point, I’m already remembering my dreams more than before. I’ve got my dream journal and am starting to identify themes that should trigger awareness that I am dreaming. For instance, I’ve been dreaming of my hometown a lot lately, but it’s never the town I grew up in. Also, my tattoos sometimes appear to move in my dreams, a strange dream sign that might be a residual memory from a Doctor Who episode that freaked me out as a kid. Have you ever had a lucid dream? Let me know in the comments below!