Meditation and Lucid Dreaming

[spanishflea]

Do you think that through using meditation that you can perform the WILD (wake induced lucid dreaming) technique? This technique is usually done a half an hour upon waking from a full nights sleep. The idea is to interrupt your REM cycle and rouse yourself for a while so that you're mind is more aware. Then you go back to sleep and try to keep your mind awake while your body goes back to sleep and your brain re-enters REM. I think that through using your mantra that you should be able to keep your mind awake fairly easily and dive into your dream completely aware. I have yet to try it, but it seems like it would work rather well. When I was meditating this morning I felt like I was slipping into sleep. Instead of staring into the darkness that usually comes with my eyes closed it seemed like halfway through the session that the darkness was vibrating with color. Like I was staring deeper into the darkness than usual, kind of like when you're slipping into sleep and your thoughts are racing, but you're still partially awake and are still aware of what's happening in the room. This is what made me think about the lucid dreaming possibility.

Post your thoughts

[Edwin]

Wow.. I have no experience what so ever with that.

Even tho it sounds kind of cool, I would be tempted to advice you to wait with experiments like this until you meditate a bit longer. You are just beginning, and your brain is allready processing heaps of stuff with your meditation.

As soon as the habit settles in, you might want to try your little experiment.

On a side note, I have fallen asleep numerous times during meditation, and don't recall any lucid dreaming.

[Fergusclan]

Hi guys,

I'm no expert on sleep, but have been a shift worker for about 10 years and can say from experience that taking yourself out of REM is very hard on the body and disrupts the circadian rhythm. REM is your most important time of sleep for body recovery.

Having said that, I believe that continuing with your meditation practice will bring you down into the same waves that are in REM eventually. I'm just piecing things together as I write, but what you're describing might occur later in the more advanced stages of meditation. Maybe these dreams are the reality, your ego/identified self stripped away completely, leaving just your being as a connected part to the universe.

I am a beginner as well and haven't experienced what either of you have, but then again, maybe that's the point too. At any rate, please post if you do give it a shot and what your experience was.