by Montalk from Montalk Website
Usually this entails lying down,
relaxing, and allowing the body to fall asleep while the mind stays
awake. Difficulties include falling asleep along with the body, or
the body staying awake with the mind. Decoupling the two is tricky
but possible.
Early on, sleep consists of delta brainwave activity and no REM (rapid eye movement) indicating consciousness is off elsewhere.
Most likely the soul is running its
astral errands while the body does its repairs. Later in the cycle
after these tasks are out of the way, or when taking a nap, the
delta stage is replaced by immediate onset of hypnagogic and REM
activity after mental relaxation. But these are passive dreams since
lack of lucidity in them implies impaired volition.
Why do we lose self-awareness when we go to sleep? Because as we let our thoughts wander, the subconscious starts to direct our consciously projected images while our conscious mind takes on a more passive and self-obliterating role. It does not take long for the subconscious to take over the role of projector as well, and that is when mere mental images become virtual realities.
The trade-off is that we have already
abandoned ourselves by the time the dream projection kicks in.
Inducing lucid dreams from a waking state therefore requires that the conscious mind retain its self-awareness and volition while the subconscious is given free reign to begin projecting the dreamscape.
One such method involves watching the phosphene images behind closed eyelids.
These are the glowing blobs of static noise patterns that always fill our vision but are more easily noticed in the dark. Contrary to passive dreaming, this keeps one’s visual faculties active and focused on real sense impressions instead of turning within and getting lose in consciously projected daydreams or visualizations.
You will notice that in dreams your “eyes” are focused on an environment existing “outside” you, seemingly as real as anything you might see with your physical eyes while awake. Staring out into the field of phosphenes involves an identically externalized point of focus, so one component of the dream experience is already established.
It therefore does not take long for hypnagogic images to start up, although these can startle one back into full consciousness.
With repeated exposure they become less
startling.
To counter this a second technique may be employed:
This allows enough real sense data to come in, and is so intentionally controlled, that the mind has better chances of staying alert.
And yet since this involves mere
movement of the eyelids, the rest of the body is not prevented from
doing its thing to fall asleep. One can keep this up until the hypnagogic state kicks in, then continue watching those and the
phosphenes.
For instance, after catching your body falling asleep, you can visualize and intend to roll out of bed. It is the intent combined with visualization that puts the subconscious fully online, and a dream begins.
Then you can do reality checks (flipping
a light switch, looking for inconsistencies) or astral checks
(seeing your body still in bed with correct clothes on) and lucidly
go from there.
The above technique does not use visualization until the final nudge, thereby allowing the subconscious to start projecting more easily because it does not have to wrestle that role away from the conscious.
Visualization is not necessary until the
final stage when the body is asleep, otherwise it might interfere
with the subconscious stepping into its role as projector.
Because it allows access to the dreaming
faculty at will and is therefore more reliable and replicable than
other methods involving autosuggestion, dream signs, periodic
reality checks, and so on. However it is also more difficult to
implement due to having to be conscious the moment the body falls
asleep. But like any activity that requires finesse, whether hitting
a golf ball or parallel parking, it can be trained with practice.
What we see while in this state, or at least the visual image of it, is not actually outside of us but rather projected onto our field of vision from within by the subconscious. The subconscious projector overlays upon the visual field an interpretation of the incoming data stream. It is like an internal HUD (heads up display).
Science attributes these to
hypnopompic hallucinations, but I doubt these images always have to
be delusions.
It is possible to do away with the visual aspect entirely and allow direct communion between yourself and the higher self, or at least between your consciousness and the true essence of things rather than their visually interpreted representation.
With eyes open, rather than seeing
interpretations of the data stream one could after sufficient levels
of development see the data directly - this would be equivalent to
seeing the “code of the matrix” so to speak.
Of course it is easier to hit a power
button than train to actively dream, but the thought that we carry
within us such untapped power does evoke awe.
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