Controlled dreams. Exercises to control dreams. Early sleep control

Sleep, a well-known state for everyone, is necessary for the physical body and mind to rest and recover. We can give the following definition of sleep.

Sleep is a naturally occurring, repetitive state of mind and body that is characterized by an altered state of consciousness, decreased sensory activity, suppression of almost all voluntary muscle activity, and decreased interaction with the environment.

Every person dreams, regardless of whether he remembers them or not. A person begins to dream in infancy and continues to dream until death. The average person spends a third of their life sleeping, which is between 25 and 30 years.

Every night we find ourselves in the unknown world of dreams. Moreover, in a dream we can be ourselves or someone completely different. We can see in a dream both familiar places and people, and places and people that we have never seen while awake.

And there is hardly a person who, at least once in his life, has not had fantastic or fabulous dreams that he could not invent in a waking state of consciousness.

Despite the fact that for the last 150 years psychologists, doctors and neuroscientists have been actively trying to unravel the phenomenon of sleep, this condition, familiar to every person, is still fraught with many mysteries.

At the same time, the secrets and possibilities that sleep brings with it have been known since ancient times. The Bible and other sacred books describe many stories in which miraculous or prophetic dreams had a great influence on the development of history.

The expression, prophetic dream, is present in every culture. In ancient times, people capable of interpreting dreams were in every royal or imperial court and were revered on a par with sages.

In the Western tradition, work with dreams is more related to psychology and is based on the interpretation of the plot and meaning of dreams. In this relatively modern tradition, the nature of the dream itself is rarely explored. At the same time, it is the nature and character of dreams that have a decisive influence on the plot, symbols and meaning of the dream.

At the same time, in eastern culture and in the traditions of many indigenous tribes of America, shamanic traditions, dreams were used as a very powerful tool for gaining knowledge, personal and spiritual development.

Eastern and indigenous Indian traditions have given modern culture the knowledge of lucid or controlled dreams. Some of the most famous techniques for consciously working with dreams are Tibetan dream yoga and lucid dreaming. And in the tradition of the Yaqui Indians. The latter gained its popularity thanks to the books of the famous anthropologist Carlos Castaneda.

In the Western world, one of the pioneers of the practice of lucid dreaming and out-of-body travel is Stephen Laberge and Robert Monroe. We want to talk about the above methods in more detail in our article.

But before moving on to their description, I would like to dwell in more detail on why you need to pay such attention to sleep. Some people may have a completely natural question: if sleep is, first of all, rest for the mind and body, then what is the point in continuing to do something in a dream?

Isn't it better to just make sure that your sleep is healthy and sound? Of course, healthy sleep in itself is a great benefit for the human body. But giving away 25 years of your life to just sleeping unconsciously is like keeping all your savings in a jar buried in the yard.

In this way, of course, you will preserve your wealth, but you will not be able to increase it. In a sense, this is a talent buried in the ground.

The truth is that lucid dreaming can not only be used to gain and more effectively use knowledge and skills, but it can also promote better rest and even healing of the body.

Even experienced dreamers learned the technique of mindfulness gradually. That's why they achieved success and became professionals. When the boundaries between sleep and reality blur, you suddenly realize that you are in a lucid dream.

In this article

How does this happen and why does it happen?

Once you have managed to look at the hands, the next step is to –. Don't stop there - practice and improve your technique.

Events that occur in a dream are the creations of the dreamer

The thought has never occurred to most people. It is believed that this is a reaction of consciousness to past events: echoes of conversations and situations in which we found ourselves during the day.

This is not entirely true. Dreams are human-controlled territory. By practicing, you will follow the path of self-development and learn:

• peace;
• meditation techniques;
• saving vital energy.

Your breathing should become smooth and deep. Take your time to fall asleep. Do auto-training:

1. Pay attention to your muscles. They slowly tense up and immediately relax. Start at your feet and work your way up until you reach the top of your head.
2. Use your imagination. Imagine how water, liquid metal or steam comes out of the muscles along with tension.
3. Imagine that your body fell and immediately relaxed. Keep this feeling.

Auto-training will help you relax and achieve lucid dreaming

To avoid falling into an uncontrolled sleep, do not turn off your consciousness. To do this, imagine that:

1. Rocking on the waves in a boat.
2. The phone is clutched in his hand.
3. You are in a pleasant place.
4. You move your arm or leg, but your body remains motionless.

This way, you will maintain a state of awareness and fall asleep easily. Don't forget to use visualization techniques when falling asleep.

Sleep control at the initial stage

Beginners have a harder time concentrating due to:

• strong emotions;
• loss of awareness;
• lack of habit.

Get used to the unreality of what is happening

To ensure that you remain in control of your dreams, remind yourself often that you are in a dream. Develop the habit of asking the question while you are awake: “Is this a dream?” This way you will get used to the unreality of the world around you.

Assistants

Don't be upset if the practice didn't bring you results quick results. Use light alarm clocks.

Set it to work at night

Place it next to your bed and set the trigger interval. Most often it is an hour or two. Its soft and , but will remind you that you are in a dream.

Calling up desired images

In a dream you are able to meet any person. These could be:

• familiar;
• fictitious personalities;
• celebrities;

Who is the person you would like to meet?

To meet them, imagine the desired image before you fall asleep. If you already have control skills, you can create it during a dream.

Don't be afraid to give your subconscious mind tasks. All your wishes will definitely find a response.

In a lucid dream you can meet yourself and. Some dreamers claim that the subconscious knows the events of the distant future.

Change of scenery

Having taken their first steps, beginners get lost. It seems to them that it is impossible to influence the world around them.

It's all due to a mental block. If you are accustomed to being aware of reality, then when you fall into a dream, it will seem that this is a continuation of reality. It is possible to overcome the block, but to do this you will need:

• strength;
• perseverance;
• wish;
• practice.

It is important not to deviate from the intended goal if something does not work out. By breaking the block, you will gain the ability to change the scenery of your sleep at will.

Mental block is not a problem for an experienced dreamer

To do this, try the following techniques:

1. Imagine that in front of you is a door behind which is what you need. Imagine it in front of you and open it.
2. Create a magical portal that will take you to your destination.
3. Turn away from what you don't want to see and imagine the image you want. When you turn back, expect to see him.
4. This method is recommended by experienced dreamers: thinking about moving, spin around your axis.
5. Imagine a window behind which you will see the place where you want to go and step towards it.

How to do the impossible

Novice stalkers are not yet fully aware of their powers and are capable of losing control of their dreams. For example, falling from a height, they remember with horror that they cannot fly. The same mental block is to blame. Over time it will weaken.

Master flying little by little, otherwise you will be thrown out of sleep due to fright

Perform techniques that are impossible in reality gradually. For example, when learning to fly, make sure that you can easily soar in the air. Developing a sense of control, take long flights and then a habit will develop.

How to repeat a dream again

By simulating dreams, you can return to created worlds. How events will develop and what will happen to their inhabitants depends only on your imagination. You are able to create the same world day after day and change it at will.

To repeat a dream, imagine its plot before you fall asleep. Think about the characters, places and key moments in the dream.

Pleasant dreams can be watched countless times

It may not work on the first try. Don't have the despair that a newbie doesn't have. With each lucid dream, creating worlds will become easier, and one day you will achieve the mastery needed to repeat.

Control over other people's dreams

To do this, throw away extraneous thoughts and focus on the person whose dream you want to visit.

Imagine that the target is shrouded in clouds of white smoke. You go towards her and pass through the smoke. To improve visualization, it is recommended to use incense.

Getting through the smoke will increase your awareness

In someone else's dream, you have two roles available to you: observer and architect. In the first case, someone else's dream may seem dull and uninteresting to you, even if its author is passionate about what is happening.

When your reserves of personal power grow, you will be able to influence someone else's dreams. The other person will most likely not remember your presence. In his memory only a dream will remain, vivid and filled with the events that you created for him.

Pros and cons

Lucid dreams are full of surprises, secrets and revelations. Benefits include:

1. Unforgettable emotions. By creating the world, you will feel like a creator.
2. Self-development. Practice will teach you discipline and improve your relationship with the real world.
3. Getting rid of fears. When you come face to face with the source of your phobias, you will be able to overcome your fear.
4. . In a dream it is easier than in reality to establish contact with your own subconscious.
5. Discovery of new knowledge. By exploring the world of dreams, you will discover the secrets of human nature.
6. . You will get used to the fact that consciousness operates independently of the body.

The first disadvantage is exhaustion of strength. , which you thoughtlessly spend on worries and negative emotions. But once you master the “Controlled Stupidity” practice, you will become calmer.

If you have already learned to understand in a dream that you are dreaming, do not miss new opportunities! Namely, the ability to control what you see in a dream, go to any place, become a participant in the desired events and receive answers to exciting questions.

Lucid Dreaming: How to Manage Your Sleep

Anyone who experiences lucid dreams has certainly wondered: how to control the dream? And is it even possible to control sleep in a dream? Otherwise, such a precious experience as self-awareness in a dream simply does not reach its potential. What is the point in all this if the self-aware one still submits - suffers from a nightmare, sees and experiences an unpleasant event for the hundredth time?

This state is between REM sleep and awakening.

Origins: The practice of lucid dreaming was introduced in the monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism and the Bon religion.

The experiments and work of Patricia Garfield and Stephen LaBerge answer this crucial question positively: yes, dream control is possible - and even in some cases necessary (if a person is tormented by fears, is it wise not to try to cope with them?).

In the video, Youtube blogger Artur Sharifov talks about how he came up with the idea of ​​​​working with lucid dreams: where it all began:

How to learn to control dreams?

In a dream (conscious or not), we can act in four ways:

1. Reflex (we move calmly on two legs, use our hands, breathe).
2. Instinctive (when something threatens us, we run, hide, dodge).
3. A habitual person (a person who knows how to ride a horse in reality will calmly do the same thing in a dream - and someone who has no idea about horse riding will experience the same thing as in life: fear of getting on a horse, awkwardness... And these are not fully conscious actions - a person is habitually drives himself into a box, not realizing that in a dream he can ride a horse!).
4. Intentional (something scares us, but we intend to overcome fear, and therefore we no longer run away or try to hide, but look our fear in the face and offer it candy).

Intentional actions in a lucid dream - highest level awareness, which gives extraordinary freedom of action and opens up an important opportunity: sleep control.

The question arises, how far can you go in dream control? LaBerge believes psychological factors play a role:

• previous experience - if a person has been watching OSes for a long time, most likely, he will be more effective in controlling them;
• the psychological maturity of the individual in everyday life (a person who prefers to shift responsibility to others and loves for someone to solve his problems may be “stuck” before the need to make a decision even in a dream);
• expectations of the person himself regarding his behavior in the OS (“I will see my father again and will not be able to look him in the eye...”);
• psychological state at the time of the OS (a depressed person, experiencing a depressive state in reality, will obviously have worse control over himself in a dream).

And yet - how to learn to control your dreams? First of all, you need to decide how you want to do this. According to LaBerge, there are two answers to the question of how to control dreams - that is, there are two types of control:

1. "Magical manipulation of characters" other than our ego. Not all lucid dreamers succeed in this. Looks like magical effect: a person’s consciousness in a dream transforms objects, furnishings, living beings into the desired form or creates them as if “out of nothing.”
2. Controlling not objects and “living” creatures, but exclusively oneself, that is, self-control. You make decisions and implement what you want.

LaBerge warns against being carried away by the first type of control, as it contributes to the formation of a false attitude that can influence you in reality.

Accustomed to the fact that in a dream everything changes according to your wishes, you may be disappointed when trying to act this way in life. If you can turn your humiliating boss into a little rat in a dream, how will this help you solve a problem in life? If in a dream you try to find an approach to him, to cause him to have a different attitude towards you, the chance that the problem will be solved in life increases significantly.

Dream management techniques

How to control sleep throughout its entire duration, from immersion in it to awakening? Several techniques have already been found and tested: you just need to familiarize yourself with each in detail and choose the one that suits you best.

Sleep management

Patricia Garfield offers techniques borrowed from ancient peoples, Indians, and the Senoi people from Malaysia.

• intentions ( main role plays a role of concentrating on the intention to definitely see a lucid dream and working with this intention);
• mnemonic entry into a lucid dream, or MVOS;
• self-hypnosis.

All the methods of controlling falling asleep that he describes relate in one way or another to these three techniques. It is worth familiarizing yourself with each of the mentioned practices in the author’s presentation - this will help you choose your own.

Dream management (dream plot)

Remember there are two types of control! You can use both, keeping in mind that the first is not the best for solving serious problems. But it will work great if you need to change the environment or introduce new characters into the dream.

Steve LaBerge recommends the rotation technique to change the “scenery” and the plot of a dream: when you feel that the OS is fading, blurring, tactile sensations will be the last to disappear. Don't allow this to happen - make the body you have in your dream rotate! It doesn’t matter what exactly it will remind you of - a child’s top, a spinning coin, or even a teenager raging in slam at a rock concert, but this will help you feel the dream body again, but everything around will have time to become completely different!

Also suitable for changing the plot is your waking experience, even if it is read from a book or seen in a film. LaBerge talks about how he wanted to participate in the plot of a book he was reading. While in a lucid dream on the tower, he remembered that one of the characters in the book, a sorcerer, jumped from the tower and turned into a hawk. He did the same thing in his dream - and also turned into a bird. Experiment!

Wake Control

If you do not come out of sleep as a result of external influence (an alarm clock, a voice, any sounds that can wake you up), then a lucid dream:

• will fade away spontaneously when you naturally move into another - slow - phase of sleep;
• can be interrupted at your request.

Many oneironauts (people who see lucid dreams) find their own ways to control awakening: most often these are some actions that contradict the “logic” of the dream or simply have nothing to do with it (squinting the eyes, blinking the eyes, jumping from a height and even shouting “Mom !"). Steve LaBerge also advises "switching off" from active OS events to wake up. He suggests focusing your gaze on some point that is not directly involved in the action of the dream. And active actions, in his opinion, on the contrary, help prolong the dream - for example, the technique of rotating in place personally helped him change the environment of a lucid dream to another. But a single instruction for everyone here is, of course, impossible. Everything is individual.

How to repeat a dream

Is it possible to experience the same plot more than once in a dream? Yes. Sometimes this is actually done intentionally, wanting to somehow change the unsatisfactory plot of the dream. For example, they repeat a frightening dream in order to overcome fear in the end. Or they reproduce a creative dream in order to relive the inspiring sensations.

Here you can apply Stephen LaBerge’s incubation method: only you are incubating not a new dream, but an already experienced one, which makes the task much easier. Operate with intention, visualize the dream environment to which you want to return. Imagine everything you saw as vividly as possible. Describe everything that you consider necessary, step by step and in the present tense - and by combining this technique with MVOS, you can return to the desired dream.

If you have a desire not only to be aware of yourself in a dream, but also to control the world of dreams, try to do this. The main thing is to be confident that you can achieve this.

Dreams come to us during rest, when we are immersed in a certain state, which gives us the opportunity to explore our inner world. All people sleep, but not everyone can remember their dream, much less control the events taking place in it. Everything that we see during the period of night rest is considered beyond our control.

Most of us consider those bizarre fantasies, incredible events and scary characters to be nothing more than a simple reaction to the events that happened during the day. In our dreams, we are accustomed to acting as an ordinary spectator who accepts everything he sees at face value. Only in the morning comes the surprise of waking up in your own bed. However, this concept is the result of a lack of awareness and low levels of free energy. If we wish, we can always learn to have controlled dreams. How to achieve this and why?

Do we need lucid dreams?

This is the first question that arises in a person who encounters this topic for the first time. Do we need guided dreams, and are they harmful to our mental and physical health? There is nothing to worry about here. Consciously managing your sleep is completely normal for anyone. This phenomenon is often observed in young children who create new worlds for themselves, which they then explore with great interest. But do adults need controlled dreams? Yes, and there are a number of reasons for this. Among them:

1. The emergence of new sensations. These amazingly beautiful landscapes and flights during a night's rest are worth mastering the technique of sleep management.
2. Self-knowledge. During sleep, a person finds himself in conditions of permissiveness. This gives him a reason to behave completely differently from how he does it in life. And there is a reason to think about newly discovered character traits.
3. The departure of the fear of death. According to Buddhists, sleep is a transition to another world. That is, a little death. Most of those who fall into controlled dreams (the methodology and practice of this phenomenon have already been mastered) are not afraid of death. They managed to make sure that consciousness is preserved even in cases where the body switches off.

You should not be afraid that you can “get lost” in a controlled dream. This chance is zero. The human physical body is not able to suffer from the fact that its owner sees controlled dreams. There is only a chance of accidentally falling out of bed. But sometimes those who sleep in a “normal mode” also suffer from this.

However, practitioners often face one significant problem - excessive enthusiasm. Those who are not going well in real life especially suffer from it. Such people tend to immerse themselves in the world of dreams. A certain dependence arises, which can be compared to a computer one. However, the emergence of such a problem is most likely facilitated by a weak psyche and one’s own dissatisfaction.

What is a lucid dream?

The possibilities that control gives us during a night's rest are simply endless. Guided dreams allow you to interact with your own subconscious, improving existing skills, working on eliminating bad habits and getting rid of fears. Ultimately, this helps restore mental health.

How to achieve controlled sleep at night? The technique of this method can be mastered within two to three weeks. At least half an hour should be allocated for this daily.

Phases of lucid sleep

Everything we saw during the night's rest can be divided into 3 stages. In order to master the technique of lucid dreaming, you need to start with the very first of them, then move on to the second and add the third phase at the end. Let's look at all three stages in more detail:

1. Entering into sleep. This phase is based on auto-training and self-hypnosis.
2. Being at the stage of controlled sleep and working with the subconscious according to a pre-planned plan.
3. Coming out of sleep, combined with motivating psychosuggestion.

There are a number of features of entering controlled sleep, and they are taken into account without fail. First of all, a person must be in a rested state. This will allow him to control everything that happens.

In addition, very important point is the position that the practitioner assumes during sleep. It is advisable to take a sitting position. Ideally, this is the so-called coachman pose. If you lie comfortably on soft sofa cushions, then most likely, instead of controlled sleep, regular sleep will come to you. It will also be difficult to control nighttime events if you were under stress or had excessive physical activity before the rest.

What else do you need to know to answer the question “How to manage your sleep?” The instructions given by psychologists advise choosing a time for this when there are no external stimuli. However, this is only necessary at the initial stage. Further, when it becomes a regular practice, no one will be able to disturb you.

In addition, psychologists who have studied all the ins and outs of dreams have been able to develop the most effective techniques that allow you to begin to control nighttime plots. You can find these recommendations below.

want to see

Many people believe that they do not have dreams every night. However, this is not true. Dreams come to us every day. Thus, children dream during 80% of their nightly rest. In adolescents, 65% of the time is allocated to this, in adults - 50%, and in the elderly - 35% of the time.

Those who want to control their dreams need to realize the fact that we see night scenes regularly, we just need to remember them. This is the only and most effective method, which psychologists recommend for beginners.

Ask a question

Also, in order to start managing your sleep, you need to remember a problem for which no solution has been found in the real world. 10 or 15 minutes before your night's rest, experts recommend starting to ask questions to yourself. Thoughts should be concentrated on the unsolved problem until the very moment of falling asleep. It may seem surprising, but most successful people have found answers to their questions in their dreams. For example, in real life, Mendeleev could not create a table of chemical elements for a long time. The answer to the question that tormented him came in a dream. The table of the famous scientist is still used by schoolchildren and students.

Psychologists say that dreams can do a lot. They show the future, allow you to solve complex problems, present answers to difficult questions, etc. This is why dreams must be respected. Only in this case will they benefit you. For example, psychologists advise those who consider themselves unhappy today to ask their subconscious about the reasons for this. Surely at night you can get the right answer.

Preliminary preparation

Those who do not yet know how to control sleep and have not applied this technique in practice should start with the following:

1. Supporting the desire to enter controlled sleep. In this, as in many other cases, the success of the plan depends on the strength of intentions. That is, the more a person thinks about how he wants to see a lucid dream, the more likely it will be that he will fall into it. However, there is a nuance here too. Excessive desire is sometimes more detrimental to the success of an event than complete disinterest in it. Here you need to maintain a golden mean, that is, constantly experience interest in this topic and maintain it, but not so much that each of the ordinary dreams leads to despair and disappointment in your capabilities.
2. Reading specialized literature. How to make sleep manageable? Methods for entering such a state can be found in books devoted to this topic. Specialized literature will allow you to maintain your interest in this practice at a certain level. Thus, the book of R. Webster, the works of M. Raduga and C. Castaneda and T. Bradley will teach you how to manage sleep. At the same time, not only serious literature will be useful. Various forums and blogs that provide information will help you achieve your goal. practical advice and describes users' own experiences.
3. Keeping a dream diary. Not only a paper notepad is suitable for this, but also a Word file. Dream description is an indispensable attribute of a “successful dreamer.” A record of your night's adventures should be kept daily, describing all the details in detail. At the same time, it is important to write down those emotions, thoughts and sensations that arose during the “meeting” with the characters in the dream. Or maybe, before a night's rest or after waking up, unusual physical phenomena arose, for example, trembling in the body, pressing pain in the chest, dizziness, etc.? Then this should also be recorded in the diary.
4. Regular practice. Is it possible to control dreams the first time? Not everyone achieves this. Usually people begin to control their nocturnal adventures only after a week of active practice, after a year or several years. It also happens that the first time a controlled dream comes is when a person has already considered this topic hopeless and abandoned it completely. This is why beginners need to constantly train and try not to lose heart.
5. Avoiding stimulants and following a diet. Is it possible to control dreams without adjusting your diet? No. It is believed that a practitioner’s diet should be free of meat and meat products. Drinking alcohol, drugs and smoking tobacco are also not recommended.

Mindfulness training during night rest should be similar to sports activities. The result in both cases cannot be seen immediately, but it is still there. Even if there are no signs of controlled sleep, certain shifts in consciousness are sure to occur. Over time, the necessary changes will be accumulated in such a volume that the dream will cease to resemble a film and will allow the sleeper to correct the events taking place.

Basic methods for logging into the OS

How to manage sleep? The instructions given by psychologists recommend relaxing the body as much as possible without letting the mind fall asleep. Relaxation techniques that include relaxing muscles and observing your breathing will help you achieve a similar effect.

First of all, the practitioner should retire to a separate room, close the curtains, turn off the phone and lie down in a comfortable position. This will serve as preparation for managing sleep. The technique allows you to light candles and play soft music. However, the above can only be done if there is confidence that it will not distract from the main goal.

What needs to be done next and how can you manage your sleep? For a few minutes after taking a comfortable position, you just need to lie down and breathe evenly. It is important to monitor the sensations that arise. Only after this should you begin to relax your muscles. For this there is large number technician, but the most widely used methods are:

1. Mentally tell yourself that this or that muscle is relaxed. At the same time, it is important to feel that this is actually happening. You need to start with the muscles of each toe, then gradually move up and describe each small area of ​​the body.
2. Visualize, imagining that in each of the muscles there is a small amount of some substance (water, metal, etc.). Once you get a feeling of heaviness, you should immediately get rid of it. To do this, it is recommended to simply imagine how water or liquid metal is gradually flowing out of you.
3. Imagine that your body fell from a great height and instantly relaxed. It is important to prolong such sensations as long as possible.

However, how can you manage sleep if falling asleep occurs as a result of relaxation? Yes, this happens quite often, and such a reaction of the body is considered normal. Then you can try the following ways to relax:

1. Rocking. This method involves mentally imagining yourself in a boat on the waves or riding on a swing.
2. Visualization of an object in the hand. It's easiest to imagine mobile phone. After the sensation of an object clamped in your palm appears, you need to mentally raise your hand.
3. The idea of ​​being in a pleasant place. In this case, consciousness has a chance to latch on to the picture and move into it.
4. Trying to separate from your body. The feeling of pressure on the head helps you “fly” out.
5. Movements performed by a non-physical body. Simply moving your arm or leg will allow you to achieve the desired effect. The physical body must remain at rest.

The techniques described above may cause confusion. However, in the near-sleep state, performing the above actions is not particularly difficult.

Another very effective method helps to “enter” a lucid dream. It involves setting an alarm for early in the morning. This can be 4 hours or 5. Having woken up, you need to get up, go to the toilet, preferably drink water and immediately return to bed. All of the above manipulations should not take more than 5 minutes. After this, you should use one of the methods of getting into controlled sleep.

Rules of conduct

In order to adapt to controlled sleep as easily as possible, it is important:

1. Don't be afraid. Emerging fear is the main obstacle to success. Any event occurring in a dream will not affect real life. There is no need to be afraid of the state of complete immobility during waking consciousness. This phenomenon will indicate that the “entrance” to controlled sleep is already open.
2. Use the power of your thoughts. In a controlled dream, you just need to think about something and it will appear immediately. This will allow you to move in space, create your own worlds and modify characters that are unpleasant to humans.
3. Move. Beginners can easily “fall out” of controlled sleep. This can only be prevented by constant movement. Attention must be fixed on any object.

Control over other people's dreams

You can also control a person in a dream, that is, his night visions. However, this practice is only available to those who are able to control their own plots.

How to control other people's dreams? To do this, first of all, you need to focus your thoughts on the right person. Next, you should relax and put aside all extraneous thoughts. Lighted candles in white, blue or blue, as well as incense. Next, you need to imagine a cloud that surrounds the person you want and walk through its white clouds. This method allows you to appear in a stranger’s dream. Only after this can you bring any picture, sound, action or image into someone else’s story. But it is worth remembering that a person will see the ordered plot if all manipulations are carried out after midnight.

Works by Elena Mir

This author is well known to those interested in the topic of lucid dreams. Elena Mir is a psychic, psychologist, parapsychologist, spiritual healer, artist and past life traveler. In addition, she is the author of a number of books on controlled dreaming, having been practicing it for over twenty years. The most popular is her work “Guided Dreams.” Elena Mir points out in it that during a night's rest, which lasts a third of a person's life, we learn new information about ourselves. In this book, the author introduces his reader to all possible methods conscious transition to new worlds that come to us in dreams. Based on personal experience E. The world says that each of us can be aware of our “I” not only during the daytime. This is easy to do at night, during dreams.

This practice, according to the author, will expand life experience and fill life with new events. E. The World indicates that every person can live a second life in their dreams, and reveals to its readers parallel worlds, which can be seen by stepping over the boundaries of space and time.

Some time ago in Western society rehabilitated meditation, which was previously considered an activity more suitable for hippies than for serious people. Today it is mastered using mobile applications, recommended for educational institutions and actively studied as part of research into the functioning of the brain. Perhaps other mindfulness practices await us further - not only in reality, but also in dreams. There is a concept of lucid, or lucid, dreams - those in which a person understands that he is sleeping and can, to one degree or another, control what is happening. Let’s figure out what science says about such dreams, whether it’s true that you can cause them purposefully, and whether it’s worth doing.

Text: Alisa Zagryadskaya

Controversial reputation

Traditionally, dreams and human behavior in them have always been given great value. This also affected religious traditions. For example, in the Tibetan Bon religion they practice “sleep yoga” (it is described, for example, in the teachings of Lama Tendzin Wangyal Rinpoche), and in Taoism there is a direction “sleep mastery”. Shamanism even considers dreams and borderline states of consciousness to be the main tool for communicating with spirits. Many religions in the past, in principle, did not know the division between the “real” waking world and the “fake” world of dreams.

In the West, lucid dreams have become more talked about amid interest in Eastern religions and mysticism. In many ways, the popularization of the topic is associated with the name of the thinker and writer Carlos Castaneda. In The Art of Dreaming, he describes practices that can be performed in dreams, stemming from Native American shamanism. According to Castaneda's teachings, lucid dreams are a way to comprehend “absolute energetic reality.”

The fact that the topic of lucid dreams can often coexist in conversations with extrasensory perception, reality transurfing or dianetics (pseudo-scientific and, according to many, the teachings of Ron Hubbard) gives it an ambiguous reputation. Nevertheless, today this phenomenon is being studied by advanced sciences about the brain and consciousness - and many people passionate about the question are seeking this experience for personal purposes.

The term “lucid dreaming” is believed to have been coined in 1913 by the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik van Eeden. For a long time he kept a dream diary, as a result of which he achieved the experience of becoming aware of himself in a dream. He outlined his theory in the article “Study of Dreams.” The founder of a truly scientific study of sleep (which today helps to study lucid dreams) is already called the neurophysiologist Nathaniel Kleitman, who in the 1950s described polyphasic sleep - this is the name for the situation when sleep is unevenly distributed throughout the day and, for example, daytime sleep is added to nighttime sleep. He also developed the method of polysomnography - a hardware study of the sleeping state. By analyzing indicators (breathing, snoring, body position, its movements, and so on), the method allows you to create a hypnogram - a visual display of the structure of sleep.

Psychophysiologist Stephen Laberge took a close look at lucid dreams, and in 1987 he created a whole study to study them. He also confirmed that this phenomenon exists. During his experiments back in the seventies, participants gave signals using eye movements directly from sleep - the devices at this time confirmed that the person was actually sleeping. This happened, among other things, because during the REM sleep phase a person can move the eye muscles - unlike other, immobilized muscles of the body.

Research continues to this day. In 2011, scientists at the Max Planck Society for Scientific Research used MRI and electroencephalography to study the state of a sleeping person. The main goal of the study was to establish a connection between brain activity and the content of dreams. The search was complicated by the fact that sleeping people cannot report anything - so volunteers who said they were capable of lucid dreams were invited to participate in the study. They were asked to give specified signals during a lucid dream - to imagine that they were clenching their fists in a certain order. Brain scans showed that the participants' sensorimotor cortex, which is responsible for planning movements, was activated during the study - as is the case when a person moves his hands while awake.

It is known that normal human sleep is divided into two phases - slow and fast - which alternate with each other on average every 90-110 minutes. The rapid or REM phase ("rapid eye movements") is associated with dreaming - lucid dreaming is also commonly referred to at this stage. Brain scanning capabilities today make it possible to draw conclusions about what happens to the brain during sleep. In particular, science popularizer Michio Kaku talks about these studies in his book “The Future of the Mind.” During sleep, the visual part of the cerebral cortex is activated - while the dorsolateral part of the prefrontal cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex, which usually help maintain attention and “filter” thoughts, and are also responsible for self-control, are inactive in sleeping people. This is related to how often images jump around in dreams and how uncritical we are of what we see - the strangest plots can be perceived as something that goes without saying. During lucid dreams, the dorsolateral part of the cortex is active - its increased work distinguishes this state from the normal phase of REM sleep. This suggests that awareness does indeed persist in such moments.

How to achieve lucid dreaming

To talk about mindfulness, it’s a good idea to first understand what our “I” actually is - and this is not so simple. Science cannot yet find a solution to the “hard problem of consciousness” formulated by David Chalmers: it is not clear why we have sensory, conscious experiences and are ourselves at all. Simply put, it is not clear how we understand that we are really us, and where the “first-person” experience comes from.

Cognitive philosopher Thomas Metzinger suggests that we are unable to perceive the means by which we receive information. This means that consciousness is a simulation created by the brain: “We do not see the neurons discharging in our brain, but we perceive only the representation created by them.” The dream creates believable sensory impressions and seems very real. Lucid dreaming is a very interesting topic in the philosophy of mind. The experience of lucid dreaming allows us to find the catch and expose the simulation - to understand that we are dreaming.

There are also technical methods, and they are available not only in laboratories, but also for ordinary users. The Institute of Lucid Dreaming recommends the DreamLight and NovaDreamer devices (the latter, however, is no longer available for sale), equipped with LEDs and eye movement sensors - when the device detects eye movement, it turns on light signals to help a person feel and confirm that he is dreaming. There are also Reme masks, without sensors - if you wish, you can even purchase them on Ozon. The general idea of ​​such devices is to give the sleeper a sign that he is dreaming and help bring the dream into a lucid state.

Although Stephen Laberge recommends such masks, Thomas Metzinger left a rather disappointing description of exercises with NovaDreamer. According to the philosopher, the signals from the device did not help him realize that he was sleeping, but instead became woven into the narrative of his dreams. For example, red flashes of diodes brought a terrible dream where he was an astronaut whose emergency indicators lit up in the shuttle. In another story, he was chased by American police with red flashing lights.

Why do people strive for lucid dreams?

A “lucid dreamer” can understand that he is in a dream - which means he can influence the plot, taking advantage of the fact that he has not lost his sense of his own will. While researchers are figuring out how the process works, practitioners are concerned with how to enter the state of lucid dreaming and use the opportunities that open up.

People who teach controlled dreams to those who wish to do so believe that the technique has practical benefits. Among the bonuses they are called, for example, the ability to influence the physiology of the body, simulate meetings with “desired but unavailable or difficult to reach people” (for example, celebrities or deceased relatives), rehabilitation of people with disabilities, the opportunity to practice sports skills, study, have all sorts of pleasure and even promote adherence to diets - in a dream you can not deny yourself anything. “In lucid dreaming (lucid dreaming. - Note ed.) we feel everything the same as in real life: body weight, smell, touch, taste of food, and it is much tastier. This will be the most delicious food you have eaten in your life,” says one of the practitioners in the thematic group.

Despite the fact that the words about training or rehabilitation in a dream seem too loud, on resources and forums people who practice lucid dreaming claim that they achieve impressive results. But although the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends lucid dreaming in the fight against nightmares, the current research base is not yet sufficient to draw strong conclusions about the therapeutic effect. So it is difficult to say how true the success stories are - as well as, in principle, the stories about the frequency of controlled dreams. Stephen Laberge points out that when studying mental images, hallucinations and dreams, researchers inevitably encounter the fact that the data is difficult to verify. When the main source of information is subjective reports, we are more likely to be dealing with an “unreliable narrator.”

People resort to lucid dreaming for a variety of reasons. For some, the practice of lucid dreaming is a way to gain a new state of consciousness that is inaccessible in ordinary life. Some people play out real and hypothetical situations in this way. It should be mentioned that many practitioners perceive lucid dreams in an esoteric way - they believe that they come into contact not with their own psyche, but with “ subtle worlds"and their inhabitants.

Some people hope in the plot of a dream to restore contact with those structures of the psyche that are usually not in plain sight, but exist hidden from ourselves. But whether such an experience will be useful and safe is a big question. During psychotherapy, a person is accompanied by a specialist - here he finds himself alone with the products of the unconscious.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapist and clinical psychologist Margarita Kornilova criticizes the “healing power” of guided dreams as part of self-therapy: “There are reasons to doubt that these practices bring a real transformative effect. As a rule, psychological defenses are reactivated upon awakening and neutralize the result. And even in sleep itself, although their effect weakens, it does not completely stop. And not in vain, because to integrate the split-off parts of the psyche, you need some kind of transitional space, a container, another - someone who will help you digest and understand this experience. Without this space, the psyche is simply not ready for the cognitive-affective “hail” that floods it.” According to the expert, the practice of lucid dreaming can facilitate contact with split-off parts of the psyche, but then the received material needs to be integrated, and this will require a psychotherapist. Kornilova notes that in the absence of therapy in such a situation, three options are possible. Real contact with these parts of the psyche either will not happen, because the defenses will work, or it will happen, but in the form of a breakthrough that can lead to a state of psychosis, or upon awakening it will gradually be repressed, distorted and forgotten.

Are lucid dreams safe?

The main evangelist of lucid dreams, Laberge, takes an optimistic view of the issue, arguing, however, that the main thing here is personal responsibility. According to him, most lucid dreams are much more positively colored than simple dreams. “However, we recognize that there are people who may be frightened or greatly disturbed by lucid dreaming, so we do not recommend doing it for everyone. On the other hand, we are absolutely sure that for people of normal mental makeup, lucid dreams are completely harmless. Different people use lucid dreaming for different purposes and not always for the most in the best possible way, but this should not distract sleep researchers from working on the problem,” LaBerge writes.

At the same time, Doctor of Biological Sciences Vladimir Kovalzon does not recommend practicing lucid dreaming at home, despite its potential benefits. “This has been shown to be a very interesting model for a number of things and can be used in certain situations, particularly in victims of terrorist attacks, accident victims, and post-traumatic stress syndromes, which are also being studied intensively,” he says. Kovalzon adds that psychoneurologists object to the recommendations of this technique only for experiencing unusual sensations: “Lucid dreams are a special form of altered consciousness, not identical with dreams. If you constantly practice this state, you deprive yourself of normal sleep with dreams, and we cannot fully understand what this is connected with, what it is fraught with. But it is absolutely clear that there is nothing good in this.”

In such opinions one can see the desire to control what a person does with his consciousness, as well as the anxiety that any altered, borderline mental states cause in society. But there is still reason to be afraid. The dream fulfills a series important functions, including facilitating the transition of information from short-term memory to long-term memory - by depriving ourselves of it, we are deprived of these valuable properties. Another thing is that lucid dreams are not always purposeful - there is evidence that they also occur spontaneously. This means that this can also be a variant of the norm.

Whether to strive for lucid dreams is a personal matter for everyone. But their phenomenon itself is associated with important questions, the answers to which modern science about thinking and consciousness is just beginning to emerge. Is there a clear boundary between sleep and wakefulness? Is it true that a vivid, clear and vivid experience implies that we are experiencing something real? Where is our “I” hidden?