Lucid Dreaming - The Power of Being Awake & Aware in Your Dreams Quotes

“dreams are real while they last. Can we say more of life?”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“To go beyond the ego’s model of the world, the lucid dreamer must relinquish control of the dream—surrender—to something beyond the ego.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“Before feeling the sincere desire to “meet yourself,” you may find the fulfillment of your ego’s wants and wishes far more compelling. This is natural, and it would probably be counter-productive and frustrating for you to try to pursue more sublime aspects of yourself when part of you is still crying for the satisfaction of drives and passions unsatiated in waking life.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“you should not seek transcendence as a means of escapism. Remember van Eeden’s demon-dreams. You must first be willing to deal with whatever problems you may find on your personal level.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“The less we identify with who we think we are, the more likely we are to discover who we really are. In this regard, the Sufi master Tariqavi wrote, When you have found yourself you can have knowledge. Until then you can only have opinions. Opinions are based on habit and what you conceive to be convenient.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“With continuing practice,” Tarthang Tulku explains, ...we see less and less difference between the waking and the dream state. Our experiences in waking life become more vivid and varied, the result of a lighter and more refined awareness... This kind of awareness, based on dream practice, can help create an inner balance.[3]”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“Children tend to have more nightmares than adults, but fortunately they appear to have little difficulty putting into practice the idea of facing their fears with lucid dreaming,”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“I believe nightmares become recurrent by the following process: In the first place, the dreamer awakens from a nightmare in a state of intense anxiety and fear; naturally, he or she hopes that it will never happen again. The wish to avoid at all costs the events of the nightmare ensures that they will be remembered. Later, something in the person’s waking life associated with the original dream causes the person to dream about a situation similar to the original nightmare. The dreamer recognizes, perhaps unconsciously, the similarity, and thus expects the same thing to happen. Thus, expectation causes the dream to follow the first plot, and the more the dream recurs, the more likely it is to recur in the same form. Looking at recurrent nightmares in this way suggests a simple treatment: the dreamer can imagine a new conclusion for the dream to weaken the expectation that it has only one possible outcome.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“To encourage a good dialogue, it is best to treat dream figures as equals.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“If, on the other hand, you choose to stay in the nightmare rather than waking from it, you can resolve the conflict in a way that brings you increased self-confidence and improved mental health. Then, when you wake up, you will feel that you have freed some extra energy with which to begin your day with new confidence.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“Escaping from a nightmare by awakening only suppresses your conscious awareness of the anxiety-provoking imagery.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“Fear is your worst enemy in dreams; if you allow it to persist, it will grow stronger and your self confidence as well as your lucidity will grow correspondingly weaker.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“So how does one go about accepting Shadow figures in dreams? There are many approaches, all of which involve entering into a more harmonious relationship with the darker aspects of oneself. One direct and effective approach is to engage Shadow figures in friendly dialogues.[8] This will make a difference with most people you encounter in dreams (or waking life) and might have surprising effects when you try it on threatening figures. do not slay your dream dragons; make friends with them.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“the poet Rainer Maria Rilke surmised, “Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”[4] In Jung’s view the presence of shadow figures in dreams indicates that the ego model of the self is incomplete. When the ego intentionally accepts the Shadow, it moves toward wholeness and healthy psychological functioning.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“Yes, nightmares are frightening. But that does not mean they are bad or meaningless, or without positive value. On the contrary, nightmares contain a great deal of potential energy that can provide the impulse for psychological development. Reframing nightmares as opportunities for growth is an important key to learning from your dreams. With a flexible and lucid approach to life, there are no bad dreams.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“according to various surveys, the average dream is unpleasant. That average, of course, is of nonlucid dreams. As for lucid dreams, the opposite appears to be the case, with the typical emotional valence being unmistakably positive. Many lucid dreamers have remarked on the emotionally rewarding nature of the experience. The lucid dreamer is free to act out impulses that might be impossible in the waking state.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“It is clear today that the ecological and political situation of this planet will force upon humanity enormous changes within this coming century. Among the future alternatives are such extremes as have been phrased, “utopia or oblivion.” Certainly the planetary situation is one of unprecedented complexity. And just as certainly, what is needed is unprecedented vision: both to avoid catastrophe and to find the path to a better future. And it is the dream that holds the key to this vision, allowing us, in Dement’s words, “to experience a future alternative as if it were real, and thereby to provide a supremely enlightened motivation to act upon this knowledge.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“Most readers will probably have experienced instances of the rehearsal function of dreams. By dreaming about a significant, upcoming event in advance, we can try out various approaches, attitudes, and behaviors, perhaps arriving at a more effective course of action than we otherwise would have. We may also be forewarned of certain potential aspects in a future situation that we otherwise would not have imagined or considered.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“Given the fact that our laboratory studies have revealed a high correlation between dream behavior and physiological responses, it seems justifiable to hope that healing imagery during lucid dreaming might be even more effective. You could conceivably carry out actions in your lucid dreams specifically designed to accomplish whatever precise physiological consequences you desire. That leaves some fascinating possibilities for future research to explore: Can you initiate self-healing processes by consciously envisioning your dream body as perfectly healthy? If in lucid dreams you “heal” your dream body, to what extent will you also heal your physical body?”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“I determined that what stabilized the dream state was not relaxation but movement, or rather the sensation of motion. The best way to create a feeling of movement, especially if the dream scene has vanished, leaving nowhere to move to, is to spin like a top. You are not really spinning, but your brain is well familiar with the experience of spinning and duplicates the experience quite well. In the process, the vestibular and kinesthetic senses are engaged. Presumably, this sensory engagement with the dream inhibits the brain from changing state from dreaming to waking.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“Be aware that the expectation of possible awakening sometimes leads to a false awakening in which you dream of waking.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“This brings us to another class of lucid dream induction methods: falling asleep consciously. The second of the two main ways in which people become lucid is by briefly awakening from REM sleep and then returning right back to REM sleep without losing consciousness”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“A period of wakefulness interrupting the normal course of sleep increases the likelihood of lucidity. In fact, the “morning nap” or “sleep interruption” technique, refined through several experiments conducted by the Lucidity Institute, is an extremely powerful method of stimulating lucid dreams. The technique simply requires you to wake from sleep one hour earlier than usual, stay awake for thirty to sixty minutes, then go back to sleep.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“lucid dreams occur “almost exclusively” during the early morning hours. Our research at Stanford indicates that extended stable lucid dreams seem to occur exclusively during REM periods. Moreover, later REM periods are more conducive to lucidity than are earlier REM periods. Although it is certainly possible to induce lucid dreams during the first REM period of the night using MILD, it is much easier when practiced later in the sleep cycle, say after four and a half hours (REM period 3), or six hours (REM period 4).”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“lucid dreams occur “almost exclusively” during the early morning hours.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“3   See yourself becoming lucid. As you continue to focus on your intention to remember to recognize the next time you are dreaming, imagine that you are back in the dream from which you just awakened. Imagine that this time you recognize that you are dreaming. Identify a dreamsign, and when you see it, say to yourself, “I’m dreaming!” and continue your fantasy. Imagine yourself carrying out your plans for your next lucid dream. For example, if you want to fly in your lucid dream, imagine yourself flying. 4   Repeat until your intention is set. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until either you fall asleep you or are sure that your intention is set. If while falling asleep you find yourself thinking of anything else, repeat the procedure so that the last thing in your mind before falling asleep is your intention to remember to recognize the next time you are dreaming.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“3   See yourself becoming lucid. As you continue to focus on your intention to remember to recognize the next time you are dreaming, imagine that you are back in the dream from which you just awakened. Imagine that this time you recognize that you are dreaming.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“MNEMONIC INDUCTION OF LUCID DREAMS EXERCISE 1   Set up dream recall. At bedtime, set your mind to awaken from and to remember dreams. When you awaken from a dream, recall it as completely as you can. 2   Focus your intent. While returning to sleep, concentrate single-mindedly on your intention to remember to recognize that you are dreaming. Tell yourself, “next time I’m dreaming, I will remember I’m dreaming,” repeatedly, like a mantra.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“The verbalization that I use myself to organize my intended effort is, “next time I’m dreaming I want to remember to recognize I’m dreaming.” The “when” and the “what” of the intended action must be clearly specified.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

“we do this by forming a mental connection between what we want to remember to do and the future circumstances in which we intend to do it.”
― Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life