Lucid Living

© Robin Easton – All Rights Reserved

From a Vaster View

Dreaming Our World

A while ago I read an article about lucid dreaming. The author listed techniques a dreamer should use to activate lucid dreaming. As I read, I thought, “Hmm, I did none of these things and yet I am an avid lucid dreamer. So, what triggered my lucid dreams?”

I thought back to my life in the Australian rainforests where my lucid dreams took on astonishing proportions. Without waking, I was able to rerun my dreams in the same way I’d replay a movie. With each new playback, I often changed plots, settings and characters until I was satisfied with the dream.  

Other times I reran a dream and consciously changed the outcome, just to observe my response to various situations. This helped me experience a myriad of emotions and come to better understand myself. It also allowed me to consciously decided how I might want to respond to life in general. I did all of this while still asleep. Yet, while asleep, I was as conscious as if I was awake. All of this happened effortlessly and I never felt worn out. I awoke fully refreshed, even inspired.  

During my dreams, I also held conversations with people, both living and dead. I saw future and past events, solved problems, flew, traveled, healed, and created art objects (often with a 'voice' giving me instructions). I even entered other people’s dreams and let them enter mine. I also started to dream original music almost every night.

More Than Just Dreaming

These dream experiences taught me that lucid dreaming is not something that only happens at night, nor is it merely a technique that we learn. It is a state of being which we can remember and allow ourselves to live every moment of our lives. I feel that it is who we really are.

One day, while hiking in the rainforest, I realized that I was dreaming twenty-four hours a day. I walked around in a lucid dream state while still having 'regular' thoughts, conversations, and going about my daily activities. I still dream like this.

Expand Your Life – Expand Your Dreams

I’m sure there are many useful techniques that can trigger lucid dreams until it becomes a way of life. There probably are dozens of books on the topic, yet this wasn’t my path. So what triggered my lucid dreams?

Facing Fear

We all experience fear at some point in our lives. We might fear hugging someone, speaking in public, losing control, flying, water, heights, intimacy, snakes, butterflies, spiders, small spaces, the dark, going out of the house, our emotions, the sight of blood, and so on.

However, facing fear not only increases lucid dreaming, it also changes every other aspect of our lives. When fear no longer limits our life experience, we become extremely expansive. There are no walls of fear defining our space.

Lucidity is Not Separate

Lucid dreaming is often approached in a way that is separate from the rest of our lives, a bit like learning to levitate or bend spoons. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it can be like trying to lose weight by taking diet pills and counting calories, rather than healing the whole body through healthy eating and refreshing exercise.

Facing our fears may not only help us experience lucid dreams, but it also can strengthen our intuition and increase our ability to love more freely. It allows us to feel emotions—our own or another person’s—without inhibition, fear, or shame, and it sparks refreshing spontaneity, curious exploration, and an adventurous spirit. 

Your Sacred ‘Vision’ Quest

Sit down today and make a list of your fears, or simply one fear. Since you don’t have to show your list to anyone, write it honestly. Then pick one fear and plan creative ways to move toward it, one step at a time, even small steps are huge.

No matter how afraid you feel, try to understand that you are embarking on a courageous adventure. You are embracing your magnificence, which lies within and through your fear. Trust that the intelligent River of Life will carry you where you need to go, and then back out into the Light of Day, back into Freedom. Remember that you embark on a Great Quest to take back your powerful, intimate Soul, something that is ALL yours. Only yours.

Facing fear is a personal initiation into life. It is your own sacred 'vision quest’, probably one of the most powerful vision quests you can ever undertake. You are opening yourself to clearer vision or lucidity. Honor that you are acting with great bravery. Remember that YOU are in control, only you. You set the right pace for you as you reclaim your highly valuable life, a life that may be riddled with mistakes, imperfections, fears, and shames, all of which will lead you to gifts of stunning wisdom and compassion.

You are allowing your humanity to breathe, to finally awaken and come to life. You are honoring your invaluable worth, “I exist. I am! I want to live…even though I am afraid.” Yes, and no matter what you feel, you are always and forever beautiful and loved.

Becoming Lucid

When fear no longer controls us, when we no longer have to control fear, we are set free and can relax. We no longer grow weary holding back the natural flow of Life. With time we grow into a greater vision (or lucidity) in every aspect of our lives. We feel adventurous and become excited about meeting new people, new places, and having new experiences, ideas and feelings. We hungrily seek them out.

Whether or not we desire to have lucid dreams, when we face our fears, our lives change. We become someone consciously initiating ourselves into the mysteries of the Great Unknown, a place of infinite dreams and miracles. We become lucid in ALL that we do and are.

(c) Robin Easton