How to Lucid Dream.

Step#2-Dream Signs

Now you've got your dream journal underway, lets look at how to harness it to have lucid dreams on a regular basis. We'll do this by identifying dream signs.

Dream signs provide clear lucid dream triggers, sparking your higher conscious brain to chip in with the realization: "Hang on - I must be dreaming!" This creates an immediate state of lucidity.

Talking animals, deceased people, flying cars, and even subtle differences like the color of your front door can all make perfectly good dream signs.

The trouble is, you currently dream on through these obvious clues without becoming lucid. So here's how to become aware of them - while you're dreaming - prompting spontaneous lucidity.

Identifying Dream Signs

Dr Stephen LaBerge, a leading authority on lucid dreaming, classifies dream signs in four ways:

1. Inner Awareness - There is something unusual about your in-dream thoughts, emotions, sensations or perceptions.

Example: When I think about lifting off the ground, I get excited and start floating upwards into the night.

2. Action - Some physical activity seems wrong - either performed by you, other dream characters or inanimate objects.

Example: As I drive down the road I realize that neither the steering or brakes have any effect on the car's movement.

3. Form - The shape or appearance of a person, object or place is unusual or even impossible.

Example: The man has a really small, shrunken head which looks comical sitting upon his massive broad shoulders.

4. Context - The situation you're in seems unusual or impossible and contrary to real life.

Example: I'm living in a futuristic Martian colony, and feel as if I have been here for many years.

By putting your dream signs into one of these four groups, you'll learn to see the way your dreaming mind works - and hone in on the most common dream signs personal to you.

Getting Started

Open your dream journal and go to last night's dream.

Read through the details and underline all the dream signs you can find. Next to each one, categorize them by writing IA (inner awareness), A (action), F (form), or C (context). It can be tricky deciding at first but this will soon become second nature.

Now do the same for the previous dream. In fact, go back as far as you can, identifying all dream signs in your journal and categorizing them into LaBerge's system.

Which category of dream sign is most common to you personally?

Once you figure it out, you can study that aspect of waking life. For example, if your dreaming mind presents lots of erroneous forms (F), study the way things look in waking life.

A form-based dream sign can be as subtle as a different hair color, or as obvious as having seven fingers on one hand. Acknowledge these potential differences in waking life and you will find they start to jump out at you in your dreams.

Let's say your most common dream sign comes from inner awareness (IA). Every time you feel extremely happy, sad, stressed, excited, drunk, in pain - or any other unusual perception, question your reality. Ask yourself: "Am I dreaming now?"

This self-reflection is also the basis of reality checking, which I will cover in our next lesson.

Final Thoughts

Paying attention to dream signs is not just an exercise in outward observation - it's a way to promote inner self-awareness.

The moment you begin questioning the nature of your waking reality, you'll become habitually prone to questioning the nature of your dreams too.

And for many, this is the fastest way to spontaneous lucid dreams.

So give it a go now. Start looking for (and playfully imagining) anomalies when you're awake, and this will tune you in to lucid dream signs when you're asleep...