Read A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming for Free Online Page B

toward waking and away from
    deep sleep. Like a roller coaster, we climb back up to the level of
    stage two . . . then one . . . then . . .
    REM Stage: Finally! The fun stuff! Your brain is buzzing with
    activity, and it seems like you’re about to wake up, but the roller
    coaster plateaus and you enter the sweet spot—the dream zone.
    In fact, your brain activity is so similar to being awake that if a
    scientist was only monitoring your noggin, he or she would have
    a hard time knowing whether you’re awake or dreaming. You just
    entered the most important stage for the lucid dreamer—the very
    seat of dreams.
    All Aboard!
    It would be hard to catch a train if you didn’t know when it was
    leaving. But if you know the departure time, it’s easy enough to
    jump on board before it pushes off into the distance. Similarly, it’s
    = 48 <
    important to know when REM sleep happens because that’s when
    you’re dreaming the most. To a lucid dreamer, this information is
    pure gold. If you know when you dream, you can hone all your
    lucid dreaming energy at that one target, increasing your odds of
    hitting a bull’s-eye. Deliberately catching your last cycle of REM
    sleep is one of the best tools to inducing a lucid dream, one that
    we’ll come back to in the coming chapters. The last fifty-minute
    cycle, those dreams in the early morning hours, is where our jour-
    ney begins.
    �
    Summary
    Dreaming occurs mainly in what is known as REM sleep.
    •   When we enter REM, our brain shows patterns similar to 
    wakefulness.
    •   With no external stimuli shaping our reality, we turn inward, 
    creating our experience from our thoughts and memories.
    •   Knowing when REM occurs will be one of the most powerful 
    tools in inducing lucid dreams.
    = 49 <
    = 50 <
    5
    The Power of Intention
    <•=
    Who looks outside, dreams;
    who looks inside, awakes.”
    —Carl Jung,
    founder of analytical psychology,
    truly a modern-day shaman
    Some people are natural lucid dreamers. For them, being
    aware during the dream state is something they did as a kid
    and continue to do throughout their lives. For others, it
    must be learned.
    When we started teaching people how to lucid dream we were
    surprised by a reoccurring event: people would often have their
    first lucid dream just after discovering that lucid dreaming existed.
    It was as if once they knew to look for it, it was much easier to
    find.
    It makes sense doesn’t it? In the early 1950s, the world record
    for the mile race was over four minutes. It had been floating just
    above the 4-minute mark for over ten years, and the public didn’t
    = 51 <
    think a man could physically run a mile faster than that. But on
    a windy May day in 1954, Englishman Roger Bannister broke the
    record at 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Only six weeks later, an Aussie
    named John Landy broke Bannister’s record with 3:58. Then,
    later that same summer, Bannister and Landy went head-to-head
    in a dramatic race-off. Bannister narrowly won and reclaimed his
    record. Today, we’re still pushing the boundaries of what’s possible
    with a world record held by Hicham El Guerrouj at a whopping
    3:43!
    It’s tough to bushwhack through a dense forest. But once the
    path is cut, others can follow much more easily. Before you can
    achieve a goal, you have to know what that goal is and that it’s
    possible to achieve. You have to set an intention.
    The same holds true for lucid dreaming. Once you set an inten-
    tion to go to sleep and to wake up within your dreams, it becomes
    much easier to do. It’s all about cultivating this strong desire.
    This guide will teach you the tools you need to achieve lucid-
    ity, but nothing is more useful than having the burning desire
    to become lucid. Whether you want to remember your dreams,
    incubate a specific dream, induce lucidity, or master any other
    technique, intention is key. It is the foundation of lucid