Lucid Dreaming.

Whilst at a friends recently, I came across a concept which i'd never heard of before, called lucid dreaming. At first, I thought my friends were a bit crazy when they first started describing it, because it's such a strange concept. The simple idea is that you develop a skill which enables you to control what happens in your dreams. Usually dreams are all in the self conscious right? You can't control what happens in your sleep. Apparently, with practise you can. So I thought i'd try and begin the process, if I can anyway.

To start, you have to create some kind of log to record your dreams in. I've just decided to have a notebook and a pen beside my bed. Turns out, it's harder than you first think. Usually when I wake up from a dream, I forget it straight away, and then I end up getting incredibly frustrated, especially if the dream was immense. In order to lucid dream, you apparently have to train yourself to remember your dreams, hence the dream journal. I also don't seem to dream a lot either, so it's going to take me a lot longer to get used to the concept. So far, i've remembered about two dreams.. in about a week. Useless! If you ever manage to crack the concept though, imagine the possibilities? I could marry whoever I wanted, live in a huge house, fly or change my appearance. To put it plainly, if I can control my dreams it will be immense, and kind of like being in your own movie.

I was also told that I needed some sort of reality check, which I found incredibly strange at first. For instance, putting your thumb to the palm of your hand. If your thumb goes through your hand, you know that you're dreaming (or injured, one or the other). It sounds a bit messed up really, but I'm willing to give it ago anyway, just to say that i've done it.