Stanford psychophysiologist Stephen LaBerge studies how people can learn to control their dreams through the use of lucid dreaming, a state of dreaming in which you are actively aware that you are dreaming. Besides helping you to overcome nightmares, LaBerge believes that lucid dreaming can help with many waking issues, including self-confidence, and improving mental and physical health. LaBerge has developed a technique called MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams), which is described in his book Lucid Dreaming. Before going to sleep, tell yourself that you will remember your dreams, and that while you are dreaming you will be aware that you are dreaming. Think about recent dreams you’ve had and characteristics that made them uniquely “dreamlike,” as opposed to your day-to-day reality. Now imagine what you would like to be able to do in your dreams (I’ve always liked the idea of being able to fly).
While LaBerge is a pioneer in lucid dream research, the idea of controlling your dreams and using them to enhance awareness and well-being is not new. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, dream yoga focuses on developing one’s ability to be fully aware during sleep. Practiced for over 1000 years, dream yoga has used lucid dreaming to break down our illusions and help us to attain enlightenment. Buddhism posits that reality arises from our perception of it rather than existing as an separate, objective physical reality. Because of this, Buddhists feel that there should be no distinction between dreaming and waking reality, and when we can learn to control our dreams, we can learn to overcome our attachments and illusions in our waking lives.
There is an excellent book on this topic, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, founder and president of Ligmincha Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia. Here is a quote from it:
"Being distracted by a cloud of concepts is a habit and it can be replaced with a new habit: using bodily sensual experience to bring us to presence, to connect us to the beauty of the world, to the vivid and nourishing experience of life that lies under our distractions. This is the underpinning of successful dream yoga."
While LaBerge is a pioneer in lucid dream research, the idea of controlling your dreams and using them to enhance awareness and well-being is not new. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, dream yoga focuses on developing one’s ability to be fully aware during sleep. Practiced for over 1000 years, dream yoga has used lucid dreaming to break down our illusions and help us to attain enlightenment. Buddhism posits that reality arises from our perception of it rather than existing as an separate, objective physical reality. Because of this, Buddhists feel that there should be no distinction between dreaming and waking reality, and when we can learn to control our dreams, we can learn to overcome our attachments and illusions in our waking lives.
There is an excellent book on this topic, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, founder and president of Ligmincha Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia. Here is a quote from it:
"Being distracted by a cloud of concepts is a habit and it can be replaced with a new habit: using bodily sensual experience to bring us to presence, to connect us to the beauty of the world, to the vivid and nourishing experience of life that lies under our distractions. This is the underpinning of successful dream yoga."