Lucid Soul Dreaming By Dylan Haddock Have you ever been in a handstand, or headstand, away from the wall

and delighted at the freedom of being on your hands, or forearms, with the rest of the body in the air? The sense of freedom which I experience through my regular Hatha yoga practice gives me great delight. What if you could take this to another level, to even greater freedom - to fly, travel out of body, or meet great yogis of the past, present, or future without leaving home? For me this temptation was great, a few years back, when I learned that this was possible through a practice called Lucid Dreaming. So I studied and soon was dreaming consciously more frequently and intensely. With patience I learned some control and I flew many times with full awareness of the action and scenery, inspired with awe and delight at what is possible. Initially I assumed Id progress quickly. Then there was a time of laziness when I recognized it would take more effort to go deeper, and my focus drifted. I kept an interest though, and recently started reading again. I have learned that this practice of Lucid Dreaming is ancient and has been used for centuries as a practice towards liberation. Yoga is described by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras as the cessation of the fluctuations of consciousness. This is one of the benefits that the ancient siddhas of India discovered possible through the practice of being conscious in sleep. It has been found that all meditations and visualizations can be strengthened through doing them in a Lucid Dream. This is known as the Yoga of the Dream State. Its been practiced in all of the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism along with the other five yogas of the Six Yogas Tradition since having been introduced to Tibet by the great Indian master Padmasambhava about 1,300 years ago. The Yoga of the Dream State has two essential elements, daytime practice and nighttime practice. Through dedicated practice, one is able to maintain consciousness throughout the day, through all the different transitional stages, including waking, sleeping, and the after death state. By learning to maintain consciousness in dreams one can learn to control the content and outcome thereof, and this will help to improve waking reality and the after life. This type of conscious dream is the same as the Lucid Dream of Western Psychology. Practicing Lucid Dream Yoga can bring many benefits. Lama Surya Das, an American man and highly trained Tibetan Lama teaches Dream Yoga. He says it can: remove obstacles to spiritual progress; relax and heal; reveal the process of death and rebirth; provide spiritual guidance; and quicken the path to enlightenment. (I recently bought his CD set called Tibetan Dream Yoga, which provides good oral instruction on starting to learn this practice and an electronic study guide.) Somewhat similar to Tibetan Dream Yoga is psychologys interest in Lucid Dreaming. Author and researcher Stephen LaBerge PHD, one of the foremost proponents of Lucid Dreaming for personal development, uses Tibetan techniques and his own methods and technologies, to induce and research Lucid Dreaming. He lists in a FAQ on his website the following reasons for lucid dreaming; adventure and fantasy, overcoming nightmares, rehearsal, creativity and problem solving, healing, transcendence. To me, the lucid dream researchers from modern psychology have much to offer, as well as the Lamas of old and today. The parallel worlds of Lucid Dreaming and Dream Yoga are both now being popularized and can be learned by anyone. There are the basics that everyone can do like learning to be conscious in sleep occasionally, and then there are more intense practices, like sleeping sitting in the lotus posture to induce lighter sleep and easier access to conscious dreaming, and dark retreats. Whatever your level of interest, Im sure you can have some fun with it.

I plan to continue learning Lucid Dreaming, and to deepen this into an integral part of my Yoga practice. If you would like to explore this path more, I recommend studying the topic online. At www.lucidity.com you will find Stephen LaBerges website with much information about, and techniques to start having Lucid Dreams. Also try Google. For Tibetan Dream Yoga it returned the following, www.plotinus.com/zhine_tibetan_dream_yoga_part2.htm, an article by Lama Surya Das. Also search for books from www.yesasia.com and enjoy free shipping to Hong Kong. For now try this, borrowed directly from an interview with Lama Surya Das: When you are ready to go to sleep, relax and close your eyes. Now, concentrate on the subtle inner light behind your eyelids. Meditate into that light as if it were a vast sky or moon. What you're trying to do is "brighten" your awareness as you're going to sleep, rather than darkening it. While you do this, silently repeat a firm and strong intention to awaken within the dream, such as: "May I awaken within the dream tonight for the benefit of all dreaming, dreamlike beings." Be patient with yourself. Just do it every night, or as often as you can, and see what happens. May your dreams tonight be sweet and lucid.

Photo caption: There are some postures recommended for dream yoga. Though this is not one of the ones Dylan's heard of, Yoganidrasana means Yoga Sleep Posture. Dylan thinks it could be useful.