Did you hear the story about the two old men who passed away on the same day?

They were both 92 years old, but they lived very different lives. They were chilling in heaven playing dominoes and a nice old lady walked up and sat down beside them. She said, “You guys are new here, can you tell me a little about your life down on earth?”

Bob says –

“I was a scientist and I worked for NASA. I’ve always been fascinated by space and I helped send a man to the moon. I loved my work and wouldn’t have been happy doing anything else.”

“My wife and I used to go on holiday to a beautiful Caribbean island every year and we would chill out on the beach drinking cocktails all day. I had a beautiful house and when I wasn’t working I would grow vegetables and cook lovely meals at the weekend.”

Simon says –

“I used to fly into outer space every night and visit strange and majestic planets. I would also walk through portals and travel back in time. I remember being chased by this crazy dinosaur who wanted to eat me alive, so I jumped off a huge cliff to get away from it.”

“I visited every country in the world. I climbed up the pyramids, I swam down the Amazon River, and I snowboarded down Mt. Everest. I had the power to do anything and went on a new adventure every single night.”

Dreams vs. reality

You might think I’m a little cuckoo, but I don’t think there is any difference between dreams and reality, or what we call ‘reality’ anyway.

If each of us were to look back on our life right now could you tell the difference? Would something that happened it the real world be more real than something that happened in the dream world? What makes the real world so special?

We see, hear, feel, taste, and smell things in the real world that turn into electrical signals and reach our brain. Our perception of reality comes from our senses.

We see, hear, feel, taste, and smell things in the dream world and the exact same electrical signals reach our brain in the exact same way. There isn’t a separate part of the brain that deals with dreams.

Our perception of the dream world comes from the exact same senses we use in the real world, which turn into the exact same electrical signals that affect our brain in the same way.

What about your memories?

Everything that’s happened in the past doesn’t exist anymore. It’s gone and it will never come back. The only thing you have from the past is your memories and it’s up to you what they will be. What do you want to remember 20 years from now?

Do you want to remember going to work every day and getting stressed out? That’s maybe unfair, so let’s look at the good times. Do you want to remember going on holiday and swimming in the sea? Do you want to remember getting drunk at a concert while listening to your favorite band?

I think I prefer my dream memories.

Can you tell the difference?

I can’t even tell the difference between my dream memories and my real life memories.

Can you? I’m not trying to say I’ve lost touch with reality. I just feel like my dream memories are as real as my normal ones.

Memories are memories. It doesn’t matter what world they came from.

Some people seem to think that lucid dreaming isn’t real. They would rather spend time in the real world as if it’s somehow better. It’s not. The real world is not better than the dream world because when you’re inside a lucid dream you can do anything.

The big difference between the both worlds

The ‘real’ world

In the real world you are not alone, or are you?

Other people are conscious beings. That’s the only difference, but what does that have to do with you? You live inside your head, behind your eyes. You are alone in the world. You came into this world by yourself and you will leave by yourself.

It doesn’t make any difference to you whether someone is a separate entity, or if they are just a part of your subconscious.

People love you, or they hate you. OR they might not care either way, but the only way the real world is different is if you care what other people think of you. I can see why your ego might love the real world.

Don’t get me wrong, I do think it’s great when other people care about you and I wouldn’t have it any other way, BUT, it’s still not a good reason to dismiss the dream world as if it’s somehow beneath the real world.

What I’m trying to say is: the only thing different about the real world is the fact we need other people to make us feel happy. The dream world still feels real except for the fact you are the only conscious being.

The dream world

Can the dream world offer us anything that the real world can’t?

Gee, let me think… I wonder if I can come up with anything. What about:

The fact you can do anything and you won’t die. You can race a car at a hundred miles per hour without being concerned for your safety. You can jump off a huge cliff, or you can spend 10 minutes under water minus the drowning part.

The fact you are not an insignificant little creature living on a tiny insignificant planet because you can travel to anywhere in space. Your subconscious mind can conjure up worlds that are 100 billion times more wonderful, freakier, scarier, and intense than our stupid little planet.

The fact you don’t have to eat, but you can if you want to. You don’t have to pay for anything and that means you don’t have to work. Why would you need to work when you don’t need money? You can just have non-stop fun.

You own everything and nobody can tell you not to fly that fancy looking helicopter you somehow found when you were exploring a massive ship. You don’t even know how to fly a helicopter, but you can make it up as you go along.

The fact that time doesn’t exist. You don’t have to wait on a bus. Trains don’t run late in your lucid dreams and you can get on them in the middle of a field. If you want to get off you can just fly through the roof. No more sitting around in stupid airports while they put fuel in the airplane.

I think I can safely say I’ve came up with a few good reasons why the dream world is better than the real world.

You don’t need to choose one

I’ve maybe been a bit harsh on the real world, but you don’t need to choose what world you live in. You can’t choose. You need to live in both worlds whether you like it or not.

We are conscious inside the real world for around 16 hours per day, so it’s very important that we enjoy it as much as possible. This much is obvious, I’m sure you’ll agree.

What about the dream world? We all spend a few hours inside the dream world every single night of our lives. Would you rather be Bob when you arrive in heaven? I would rather be Simon and I would rather have amazing memories I could never forget.

Maybe I am cuckoo

The dream world is real. You’re just alone when you’re inside. Memories are all the same. Yesterday’s real memories feel the same as yesterday’s dream memories.

I want to know what you think. Is there really a lot of difference between the both worlds? Do you understand what I was trying to say even if you don’t agree with me? Am I cuckoo? Should I call and get the guys in the little white van to come pick me up?

I’m going to spend a few hours every day working on the new book, so it should be ready towards the middle of May. There are just a few things I need to improve and it needs to be edited.

I just wanted to show you the cover so you’ll know what to expect. I think my designer has done a great job, but let me know what you think in the comments below.

Remember: the book will be FREE for one week once it’s released so please keep an eye on the blog, or if you enter your name in the box at the side of the page and sign up to my list I’ll send you a copy as soon as it’s ready.

I think lucid dreaming is soon going to be the most exciting hobby in the world.

There is so much to be explored and I think it’s going to blow up big time.

I’m getting pretty excited about sharing my new book with everyone because it’s going to dramatically increase the amount of lucid dreams you can have each week.

Now that you’re going to become lucid all the time there is so much you’re going to be able to do regularly.

My extreme version of the future

Have you ever seen the movie, Demolition Man? It was pretty popular and starred Sly Stallone, Wesley Snipes, and Sandra Bullock, so you’ve maybe seen it. The story isn’t important, but the way they had sex was.

The film was set in the future and they discovered a new way to have sex. In order to stop the spread of disease, if you wanted to have sex you had to sit opposite someone and both of you would wear a piece of headgear that simulated sexual feelings.

I know you’re probably thinking what on earth future sex has to do with lucid dreaming, but it wasn’t the sex part I was interested in. It was the fact there was a new way to do something that everyone in the world thought was normal.

When I first started this website my dream was that one day lucid dreaming would be like futuristic headgear sex. Everyone in the world would be doing it and they could also do it whenever they pleased.

I hope, and I’m confident, lucid dreaming will become something that everyone does, not just to fly around and have fun, but to improve their life in many different ways.

My handstand experiment

Before I talk about the future, I should give you an update on the experiment I set out to test. I wanted to see if it was possible to learn how to perform a handstand in the dream world.

I don’t have much to tell you because to be honest I haven’t put in the effort that was required. I only practiced it within the dream world a few times and it was only because I was thinking of something to do and I remembered about it. I don’t think I actually set my intention to do handstands at all.

I do remember 5 attempts I made in the few months after I wrote the article and the results were as follows:

• Twice I was able to perform a handstand and hold it
• Twice my forearms crumbled and I couldn’t do it
• Once I held the handstand then got lifted into the air by some unknown force

I’m going to start dedicating a little more time to it. Because it’s more complicated than I first imagined it would be, I’d prefer to perform it about 100 times before I attempt a handstand in the real world. I really want this one to work, so rushing it isn’t the right thing to do.

I’ll have the final results sometime later in the year. In the handstand experiment I’m only practicing in the dream world, but when I experiment with skills in the future it’s going to be a mixture of dream world and real world practice.

I don’t see why you would want to learn something solely in the dream world, but instead you should use the dream world practice alongside your real world practice to help you improve your skills quicker than ever before.

Exciting times lie ahead

What other exciting things can we expect to see over the next few years? Where do you think lucid dreaming is headed? I’m ready to perform hundreds of experiments over the next decade and beyond, but I wanted to discuss some crazy ideas that are sitting inside my head at the moment.

Please comment below and let me know whether or not you think they are possible. Some of them might not be impossible, but they are my visions for the future and I’m at least going to test them.

Manipulating time

Have you ever had a dream, lucid or not, that has seemed to last forever? It’s one of the best feelings in the world and I don’t think it happens by accident.

My plan is to find a way to manipulate time so you can stretch the amount of time you spend in the dream world each night.

Overcoming disorders

I’ve already spoke about this when I mentioned overcoming my fear of heights. I took a job where I was working on high roofs every day and I was petrified. After experimenting with height in my lucid dreams I became much more confident about working up on the roofs.

I strongly believe you can reprogram your thoughts inside a lucid dream and in the future I’m hoping it will be able to help people with:

• Depression
• Anxiety disorders
• Confidence issues
• Eating disorders
• Phobias

…Plus a whole load more. I’m basically hoping (and quietly confident) it will help anyone fix any mental problem they might have, or at least the ones that can be cured by changing your thoughts.

Learning new skills

We hear a lot about learning new skills inside the dream world, but there are not many examples to showcase. I plan to change that by experimenting with a few of my own:

• Learning to draw
• Learning to sing
• Learning to speak a new language
• Learning an instrument

Those are just a few examples and the list could go on forever.

Right-brain exploration

Some of the other lucid dreaming benefits you might hear about are:

• Problem solving
• Creative thinking

I think it’s amazing when I hear someone tell me they’ve thought of a great idea inside a lucid dream, and I’ve done it myself. When you wake up you really think you’re going to change the world. It’s also amazing when they tell me they’ve solved a big problem.

You might hear about things like this, but it’s usually just a random comment someone makes. I hope to go into a dream specifically to think of ideas and to solve problems then I’ll come back and report back to you.

Increasing your strength

This is just a hypothesis I made last year and I didn’t have any intention of experimenting with it until after the handstand experiment, but I do believe it will be possible to increase your strength inside the dream world.

It probably won’t be of any use to you, but I think it will help top-level athletes increase their lifts by a few kilos. I’m positive it will be part of the training program athletes follow to train for the Olympics in the future.

That’s not all

I won’t bother listing everything, but just know the experiments will never stop. They will consist of some you might expect, plus lots you wouldn’t have even thought of.

Lucid Ability results

You won’t really know if anything I tell you is the truth, or if I’m just making stuff up inside my head. When you hear about the results from some of my experiments it might blow your mind. You might not believe them, or you might just be very skeptical.

Everything happens inside my dreams and I can’t do anything about that.

The proof from my experiments will come from trying things yourself. Lucid Ability’s (plus my own) reputation is based on the articles I share with you. That means you can guarantee I won’t write about anything I’m not confident you could easily do yourself when you become lucid.

Your success is the Lucid Ability’s success, so please try to have an open mind in the future and test things out for yourself.

Photo by Cowgirl111

Learning how to lucid dream sucks!

At the start you have to put in a lot of effort without knowing when you’ll be rewarded.

What if that was all to change?

What if there was one technique that allowed you to become lucid on command?

Your life would change for the better

Now you wouldn’t need to keep working away night after night.

From now on you could choose when you wanted to wake up inside the dream world.

• You could choose when you wanted to fly like superman
• You could choose when you wanted to reprogram your subconscious mind
• You could choose to become lucid in order to work through a problem
• You could choose to do anything

I’ve found something that works

I believe I’ve found one technique that will solve your problems.

I believe I’ve found one technique that will let you become lucid on command.

The results I’ve been collecting from instant (WILD) and reentry (DEILD) lucid dreams have been almost 100%. It’s very encouraging and some things just need a little tweaking.

I’m now trying to determine how much impact the technique has on spontaneous (DILD) lucid dreams.

I’m writing a short book

I’m going to start writing 500-1000 words per day that will eventually form a short guide. It’s going to be easier than finding the information in multiple blog posts.

By the time I’ve finished, all the kinks should be worked out and the technique will be explained in such easy-to-follow detail that anyone can get started right away.

Everyone who reads the site will have a chance to download it for free for the first few days. If you’re on my email list you will get a copy sent to you.

There is something more out there

I don’t believe learning how to lucid dream needs to be such a big deal. I hate looking at forums and reading about people trying all these different things and not having great results. I hate people trying to enjoy a few lucid dreams per month.

My belief is that lucid dreaming will become one of the biggest things in the world, but in order for that to happen everyone needs to be able to have them on command.

Once everyone can become lucid multiple times per week we can move onto exploring the dream world and finding bigger and better things.

There is so much more out there and instead of discussing how to lucid dream we can now move onto the more serious business of changing lives.

What you should do

If you’ve been listening to anything I’ve been talking about over the last year you should know I strongly recommend awareness as a skill you have to develop. Along with a great dream memory it’s going to be the most important tool at your disposal.

The tactic I’m writing about will require you to hold your awareness while you enter the dream world, so I strongly recommend you keep practicing meditation using one of my techniques.

You will see the quickest results with the technique this way.

Even if you don’t have lucid results on the first day because your awareness is still too low you will definitely feel the powerful effects the technique has on your body.

This technique will work for anyone. I can’t wait to work out the kinks and write it in an easy-to-follow way so I can share it with you.

Please give me a month to prepare it.

Photo by Stuck in Customs

My favorite techniques are ones that are reliable and don’t take up too much time.

I know from speaking to lots of people those are both things that prevent them from becoming lucid on a regular basis.

I’m pretty happy to see that today’s guest feels the same way. If you don’t recognize the name yet you’ll definitely recognize the technique, because Cosmic Iron’s SSILD method is bringing people a lot of success.

You definitely want to read all the way through because there is some great stuff to take away from this interview.

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I’m here with Cosmic Iron today — the creator of the SSILD technique. You’ll see him around in the lucid dreaming community, plus he also has his own forum if you can speak Mandarin.

Hey mate, let’s start with your favorite thing about lucid dreaming?

To me personally lucid dreaming is a viable path toward true spiritual enlightenment. I also like how it enables average people to learn more about themselves, solve daily issues, achieve better mental health, and ultimately discover a vast, fascinating, and whole new aspect of self-existence.

Can you tell us about any struggles you’ve had since you got started?

I had my first LD when I was 7, and I always had them intermittently until I was formally introduced to the concept at 18. I had my first enlightening experience with higher state of consciousness when I was 20. In order to reproduce that experience I started pursuing lucid dreaming actively, and that’s when I ran into a lot problems and struggles. The frequency, stability, and lucidity of my LDs were simply not sufficient for me to reproduce that experience again.

I spent considerable amount of time to train myself with just about all major techniques, but found most of them lacking. At times it was downright frustrating. It wasn’t until 10 years and thousands of LDs later I managed to reproduce that same experience, and through that experience I learned a great deal about human consciousness and that also created a breakthrough for me. After that I was able to induce and manage LDs with much greater efficiency.

Looking back I think the hardest struggle was the amount of effort it took to induce LDs frequently, and reliably. Take WILD techniques for example. It always took so much time every night that after a while you really become exhausted. The effort to reward ratio is simply too high. For really motivated newcomers this may not be a big issue, but for someone who was attempting lucid dreaming on a daily basis for more than 20 years it was frustrating to say the least.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned from your time in the dream world?

Do NOT carry any assumptions, bias, preconceptions, prepossessions, and so on into your dreams! I always tell my students that they should have the mindset of a newborn baby — innocent, curious, devoid of any preconceived notions. The inner world is so vast and mysterious that any human being, no matter how knowledgeable and wise, is reduced to illiterate to say the best.

People from background of science and religions tend to have very strong opinions on things, and IMO it can be more a curse than blessing. Such strong opinions, when met with the fluid and highly volatile dream world, can create severe consequences and blind one from seeing the true nature of it. Even if we don’t approach lucid dreaming as some sort of spiritual pursuit, there might still be dangers when people end up perceiving what is illusory as real.

Do you take anything from your lucid dreams and apply it to real life?

Being able to interact directly with one’s inner-self is a privilege. I think that alone gives me more purpose, directions, and happiness which is every bit as real as other things in my life. While I do see other real-life applications of LD, I myself am not a big fan of them.

There are people whose only motivations behind practicing lucid dreaming are for earthly gains and benefits. It’s like giving someone a telescope and he uses that to stalk the girl next door. Having said that, I’ve successfully used LDs to aid my studies, learning skills, getting artistic inspirations, and even curing illness.

What’s the best lucid dream you’ve ever had?

Aside from reaching higher state of consciousness, one of my favorite lucid dreams was had during a traumatic period of my life when my relationship with my wife was going through a very hard time. It was a consciously entered dream and I rose from the bed. The room was dark and apparently was the old house where I grew up as a child. I looked through the window and there across the street was a small church. It appeared to be Christmas season and snow was falling down from the night sky.

People walked slowly on the quiet streets, and they were all very happy. The little town looked beautiful and almost glowing.  I looked back into the room and there in the corner is a small Christmas tree with a miniature merry-go-round. Under the tree there were hundreds of frames of varying sizes, and I discovered they all had my wife’s pictures in them! It’s a huge collection of memories from our near 15 years of marriage! In that moment I burst into tears and I knew what she really meant to me!

I walked out of the house and onto the street. I then shouted to the sky asking which path I should take. The first path, which I was contemplating really hard during the day, gave me a chilling wind from the sky, then a large empty candy bag, which has holes all over it, rolled across a dark and empty street. As I asked for the second path, suddenly an intense beam of light came from above and instantly turned night to day.

I was soaked in this almost blinding light, and feeling of happiness filled my entire being. I woke up from this and knew firmly where my heart belonged and which path I should take.

What is your favorite technique and why do you like it so much?

My favorite technique these days is SSILD (Senses Initiated Lucid Dream) which I developed two years ago. I like it for the following reasons: 1) it is highly effective and reliable. 2) It does not demand a lot of time and effort. 3) It is simple. Anyone can learn to do it quickly and it does not require delicate mental exercises.

Do you have an ultimate lucid dream you’d like to have?

No I don’t. To me they are all fascinating in their own rights. I try to approach them with as little prejudice and preference as possible.

What is the strangest land you’ve even wandered through in a lucid dream?

A village entirely made of black inks. It’s essentially what it feels like living inside a Zen brush painting (in 2-dimensions!). I myself was also part of it and it was actually raining (black inks too)! No, it’s not dirty, and in fact quite breathtakingly beautiful!

If you could go back to the start would you do anything differently?

Yes. I’d not have wasted so much time with many of the traditional methods such as building awareness during the day, non-stop reflections and autosuggestions, and so on. These, in my opinion, are based on many false assumptions. I hope one day more people will realize this. As of now there is simply too much misleading information on the market and they are bad news for beginners.

Do you have any words of encouragement for all of us?

Lucid Dreaming is NOT difficult and you don’t need to be gifted in order to master it. You need to have the right mindset, right tool, and a little bit perseverance. On my forum one of my first students spent more than a year without getting much result. After I started coaching him he gradually made progress slowly, but after I tweaked his routine, from which SSILD was born, he picked up speed dramatically.

By end of that year he recorded nearly 500 lucid dreams! He was hardly super bright, but always diligent and systematic. All he lacked was the right tool. I’ve kept the entire journal he wrote and it is a detailed, fascinating record of how a lucid dream rookie turned into a master in just a few months!

Today on our forum there are more than a dozen people who have learned how to induce lucid dreams on daily basis, nearly at will, all in much less time than my first student. To put it simply, if they can do it, then you can too! Don’t let other people discourage you and don’t let the ineffective methods/theories mislead you! Lucid dreaming skill can be obtained in systematic fashion by anyone. After all, such ability is inherent within all of us!

Thanks again for a great interview and one that will touch a lot of people.

Lucid dreaming techniques should be easy.

You should only need to do a couple of them in an ideal world.

You should be able to become lucid multiple times per week.

So let’s play a game…

Making something as easy as ABC

You know I believe the magic happens in the trance state, but getting into it is the hard part. I’m going to break down exactly how you can get into the trance state following these simple steps.

I thought it would be cool if you thought of it as a game to see how far they can push it. I already do it every single day and it works.

Preparing yourself

Lie down

Close your eyes

Turn the lights off

Make sure it’s quiet

What you need to do

Focus on the back of your head where it touches the bed/pillow

Don’t think of anything

Stare into the back of your eyelids

If your mind wanders bring your attention back to the back of your head

Little tip (the refocus technique)

Focus on the back of your head for any length of time and your mind will start to wander, so I’ve been using something I call the refocus technique.

Each time you breathe out refocus your attention back onto the back of your head. Instead of focusing your attention onto it once, you’re now focusing your attention onto it every time you breathe out.

How long should you do it for?

Until you get bored or too tired

Start with what you’re comfortable with and go for longer each time

Remember

Don’t have any expectations; don’t expect anything to happen

Just keep focusing your awareness onto the back of your head

Something is happening

Your body might go numb, your body might vibrate, and relaxation will start washing over your body…

What do you do now?

You need to try and go deeper. This is all about letting go and falling into the abyss. It’s actually hard for me to explain and it’s the reason why I tell you it’s important to experiment with your senses.

You need to let go of your body and I’m going to explain how to let go of the muscles. Just imagine you’ve fully tensed your bicep. This is the opposite of letting go.

Now relax it; this is normal.

To let go you have to go further than normal. You’ll know when it starts going numb because you have no control over it. It might take a while, but just keep trying everything you can to let go.

Now you need to do the exact same, but to your mind instead of your muscles. You need to let go your mind.

Imagine the feeling you get when you fall backwards in your sleep. All tension is gone and you just let yourself go. Almost like you know someone will catch you.

When can you do this?

This will take you into the trance state. You can use it before doing the lucid trance technique, but you can also use it for:

WILD / Wake Induced Lucid Dreams / Instant Lucid Dreams

DEILD / Dream-Exit Induced Lucid Dreams / Reentry Lucid Dreams

DILD / Dream Induced Lucid Dreams / Spontaneous Lucid Dreams

Am I the only one who hates stupid acronyms?

How long should you do it for?

Do it every day and work towards 30 minutes each time. Just concentrate on your technique and the magic will come. I promise it’s that simple.

Photo by Stuck in Customs

People who think dreams aren’t real are fooling themselves.

When you go to bed tonight try to think of two separate things: a memory of something you did last week at work + a memory of a dream you had.

Can you separate them both? Why is only one of them real? Are they the exact same? Does it matter?

In today’s interview you’re going to find out why they are the same thing, plus there are lots of other goodies too.

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I’m here with Sean Oliver today and he hails from Arizona, USA. He has some great tips and tricks for you and he loves talking lucid dreaming. Check out his website, Lucidity Saga. If you’re also into some metaphorical music for your soul then check out his side project, But Vessels.

Hey Sean, let’s start with your favorite thing about lucid dreaming?

I think I’m most fascinated with our perception of it. It’s this whole other half to life and a lot of cultures don’t place a lot of value on it; it’s something you cannot avoid doing, every human has dreams when they close their eyes. So it’s interesting to me that in some way we’ve pushed it off to the side, almost like a little kid with broccoli, we don’t understand how healthy it could be for us so we just kind of ignore it.

Can you tell us about any struggles you’ve had since you got started?

I think everyone deals with dry spells from time to time. I always try to view it as coming and going in waves. I think everyone should talk about dreams and be engaged in their dreams, but to the same token I don’t think it’s healthy to obsess about getting lucid. I often find my most potent lucid experiences have come when I’m not trying to force it.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned from your time in the dream world?

That when you are “there” it’s not that different than being “here.” Meaning: usually you are in a body looking out into a reality. The only thing that allows us to call this reality ‘real’ and dreams ‘fake’ is our agreement. The experience itself is just an experience and I don’t know if there is a lot of value trying to parse out if what happened to you really happened, ’cause it just happened! I’m trying to summarize this, and it’s very difficult.

-For example, at the end of your life when you reflect back all you have are memories, the past is not physically there to verify itself. And there isn’t a difference between a memory from your childhood and a dream from you teenage years. That imprint is the same, both chemically and emotionally. Both are experiences that you remember. So basically what’s ‘real’ for me is everything I experience before I die, including everything that has happened to me in dreams.

Ultimately, the most important thing I learned was that we don’t really know a whole lot about dreams, and in turn we don’t know a lot about life.

Do you take anything from your lucid dreams and apply it to real life?

I’ve always been interested in dreams and discussed them with friends, but I wasn’t consciously aware of it until I fell into a lucid dream back in 2009. Since that intense out of body experience I’ve started a web series with heavy dream themes called “Lucidity”, presented dream research at IASD 29 on dream-to-dream communication via the Internet (check out below), and am now responding to this interview about dreams. It’s crazy for me to try and imagine where my life would be without that first vivid WILD. The course of my life has been profoundly guided by an event that most scientist would say didn’t happen.

On top of that I do sometimes use dreams as inspiration for scenes or dialogue for Lucidity and other creative projects. I also often reach out to people who show up in my dreams. For instance, if an old friend makes a cameo I make it a point to say hi to them that day.

What’s the best lucid dream you’ve ever had?

Very difficult to answer!  There will always be a huge soft spot in my heart for my first WILD. This one wasn’t a lucid dream but I was still very aware and it’s one of the craziest dreams I’ve ever had:

I’m watching a young girl, pre-teen age, walk down a hallway. She is sad. I then witness her dead father begin to contact her. The hallway walls morph into beautiful memories between her and her Father. The girl knows what is happening and gets happier and happier. Eventually I realize that I am talking to the girl and that I am her Father. We exchange words and I assure her that everything will be alright. The girl keeps on talking and I’m listening happily, the scene slowly fades and the girl is no longer speaking to me, nor standing in a hallway of memories. She is spinning in circles in a living room holding a picture of her father and talking to it. Her older sister walks in and tells her to stop because their parents are dead and can’t hear her. The girl then asked, “What if they could.”

Did I visit my yet to be born daughter from beyond the grave? Maybe…maybe….

What is your favorite technique and why do you like it so much?

The Wake Back To Bed is the Holy Grail in my bible. I’ve had the most success with it and I think it is effective because your consciousness isn’t “tired” and is able to slip away while the body rests. I also strongly support external cues that manifest themselves as metaphors in the dream. A simple example is from a dream I had when I was a kid. In the dream I was walking across a room and every time I stepped, spikes came up out of the floor and hit my foot. After a few steps I woke up and stayed motionless for a moment, and then suddenly I felt the spikes again. I took off my blanket and discovered my sister’s cat batting at my feet. I guess I like the external cues (typically lights and sound, not cats) because it is so interactive with the waking world.

Do you have an ultimate lucid dream you’d like to have?

This is a bit of a Lucidity spoiler, but I would like to speak with a child version of myself. I don’t entirely understand why, but it’s something I’ve felt I could get a lot out of. I’d also really like to visit a memory from my past in a dream. At the moment my first choice is returning to 4th grade and witnessing myself and a good friend beat The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the first time. It was a truly religious experience and I would like to have it again. Perhaps it was so meaningful because at the time my future self was visiting from a dream.

What is the strangest land you’ve even wandered through in a lucid dream?

Funny enough, a lot of my dreamscapes are very stable and similar to the waking world. A lot of people always talk about how “out there” or crazy dreams can be, but it’s important to note how normal they can be too. In fact most people are being tricked into alternate realities every night without ever catching on.

One of my theories is that a dream is weird because it wants you to realize the truth of the situation; that the inconsistencies in dreams are clues left by you to enhance your awareness and control. A girl I know once gained lucidity after being trapped in a wooden elevator in the middle of a shopping mall. Now think about it a moment, the dream world can create an entire mall, have you walk through it, populate people, but for some reason forgets that wooden elevators have no place in a 21st century mall?

Furthermore, the wood was exactly what made my friend realize that she was in a dream and if her dream was created by an aspect of herself, should not that aspect be aware that she would know that a wood elevator would be out of place? Not to mention that the dream locked her inside of the elevator until she recognized it as a dream and only then did the doors open and let her out.

If you could go back to the start would you do anything differently?

I’d be a fool to fight against the synchronicity of my life.

Do you have any words of encouragement for all of us?

Dreams are still one of man’s most mysterious mysteries. We all do it, yet no one knows why. It’s as confusing as being alive and as perplexing as death. But dreams can be explored. In fact you already do every night.

You have the ability, simply by being alive. You don’t require a spaceship or a submarine, just the desire and the will. I don’t believe the key to dreams will come from strapping diodes and wires to brains, the answer is within and waiting for you. You need only search for it.

Hey Sean, thanks a bunch for the interview. I’ll post the trailer for your lucidity trailer below for people to check out. These guys write the music for the show.

I’ve got a good idea why you can’t become lucid, or at least not regularly.

You might not believe the same thing as me and that’s OK, but I’d love to know what you think of my hypothesis.

The reason it’s only a guess is because who can really know for sure why some people find lucid dreaming easier than others?

I’ve been trying to explain this for so long, but I just couldn’t get the words out. I know I find it hard to understand what someone is trying to say if they can’t communicate it correctly.

That’s why I’ve decided to draw pictures even though I’m the worst artist in the world.

Random bouts of awareness

Have you ever eaten a Mars Bar when you’ve been hungover after a rough night on the town?

I have, once, and it was the single greatest Mars Bar I’ve ever tasted in my life. I’ve tried many times to capture the taste in my mouth again, but due to not wanting to eat Mars Bars all the time I have failed.

The reason I’m telling you is because I don’t think I’ve told anyone before, but it also relates to today’s article about awareness.

Why does awareness matter?

Without awareness you can’t become lucid. It makes sense, right? To become lucid you need to become aware, but without awareness you won’t be lucid.

So why are you not trying to increase your awareness? You might think differently after you’ve seen my drawings.

Someone who finds lucid dreaming difficult

Some people think they can’t become lucid because there is something wrong with them, but there is nothing wrong with anyone. They just haven’t built up much awareness during their lifetime. They then come along and decide to give lucid dreaming a shot.

Can you see how high Average Joe needs to jump if he wants to become lucid? He really needs something huge to help him get up there. It’s why some people can’t become lucid for months and even when they can it’s once in a blue moon.

Someone who has a decent amount of lucid dreams

These people have a higher level of awareness. For some reason they have improved their awareness over the course of their lifetime and it’s sitting at a level higher than Joe.

When these people want to jump into lucidity they have a much shorter distance to travel. That’s why lucidity is a little bit easier for them. They can’t become lucid all the time, but they are lucid a lot more than Joe.

Someone who has regular lucid dreams

Now we get into the really interesting stuff. When these people were born they were the same as you, but they have trained to increase their awareness. It doesn’t really matter how they did it because the only thing that matters is how high their level of awareness is. They only need to stretch up to become lucid.

If they are determined to have a lucid dream they will have a much better chance of becoming lucid because their awareness is so high. They hardly need anything to make the jump and their awareness will automatically switch on a lot.

Then you have monks

Monks reach Nirvana when they are lucid 100% of the time. That means they are fully aware when they are awake, dreaming, and sleeping. They actually do lucid dream, but they call it dream yoga.

Experienced monks have such a high level of awareness that they can pass into dream and sleep without even losing consciousness. I don’t know if they are fully conscious 100% of their life, but I doubt they’d have trouble becoming lucid if they wanted to.

You have a problem

The easiest and best way to increase your awareness can be found in a state of consciousness which lies behind a locked door. The only way you can open that door is by switching off your stupid inner-voice that keeps popping up in your head.

That voice stops your mind from being at ease. It makes your mind work in overdrive. You need to change this and the quickest way is by meditating, but for anyone who is skeptical of meditation I’d like to try explaining it in a different way because most people have the wrong impression of it.

You need to focus your attention on something specific. When you focus your attention on something specific you can’t hear the inner-voice and it disappears. That’s essentially what meditation is and not sitting cross-legged repeating a mantra.

I’m going to make it easy for you, I hope, because I’m going to share some techniques I’ve used over the last 18 months while practicing it. I’m not going to speak about focusing on your breath/nostrils or focusing on the back of your head because they have been covered.

My easy meditation techniques

For all these techniques I’m going to assume you’re already lying down with your eyes closed. But don’t do it until you first read what the techniques are.

Playing with a football

Focusing on something perfectly still is hard, so this technique is the exact opposite. First you have to imagine a ball. It can be a football, soccer ball, tennis ball, or whatever PG rated ball you can think of.

I’ll use a soccer ball since I’m Scottish. When I was younger we used to play this game called ‘keepy upy.’ If I translated it into English it would mean ‘keeping the ball up.’ So we would keep kicking it up and count how many times we could do it before the ball touched the ground.

When you’re lying down with your eyes closed you would just imagine you were kicking the ball trying to keep it off the ground. You can look into the back of your eyelids and imagine seeing the ball coming up and down. You can even kick it high in the air and look into the sky (don’t move your head) to watch it coming down then kick it up again.

The basic idea is to totally immerse yourself in something to stop you from listening to the inner-voice. I used this technique the first time I really fell into a deep trance where my body melted away. I think it took me about 45 minutes of kicking the ball up and waiting the trance out, so it does take time.

Playing with a cube

This time there is a cube in your hand, but you can see it when looking at the back of your eyelids. Feel each side of the cube with your imaginary hands and really try to imagine you can feel it in your real hands.

What does the surface feel like? I bet it’s super smooth. “Oh wait, what’s that?” You’ve just felt the other side and this time it’s covered in carpet. Really feel the texture in your hands and also in your mind. Turn it around again and this time it’s bumpy. Run your hands over the bumps and really try to feel your fingers going up and down.

Now give it a knock. Can you hear what it sounds like? Start playing the drums with it and make up a beat. Now turn it around and hit it again. Can you hear a different sound? Throw it up in the air like the football and carefully watch it until it lands in your hands.

You’re basically just playing around using your imagination and your senses until you are concentrating 100% on the cube and the inner-voice eventually disappears.

Playing with the alphabet

Now imagine there is a letter ‘A’ in front of you. Try to actually see it (it’s a lot easier if you use your third eye). Now swap it for a B, then a C, D, E, etc. Go all the way up to Z then make your way back down again.

Start again and this time use AB. Then swap it over for BC, CD, DE, EF, etc. Go all the way up to YZ before making your way back down ( ZY, YX, XW, WV…).

This one is really good because it’s hard and it takes effort to think, at least it does for me. It doesn’t leave much room for unwanted thoughts.

Investigating a candle flame

This is another one you can imagine looking at with either your eyes, or your third eye. There’s a candle flame in front of you and it’s burning brightly. At first you’re only watching it from a distance. Move in closer and you will notice the flame flickering.

Try moving your finger close to it so you can feel the heat, but not too close because you don’t want to burn yourself. Take your finger and move it back and forward through the flame and watch really closely as it follows your finger then reverts back to normal.

Make up your own

These are merely techniques I’ve used in the past and think are effective, but at the end of the day there’s nothing stopping you from experimenting on your own. There is a very good reason why this is important and it’s not because the techniques won’t work for you.

The only reason I know this works is because I lay down and didn’t stop trying until I seen results. You are more than capable of finding your own path. I was able to find my own path because I did it on my own without anyone telling me what to do. I didn’t have a choice.

The difference between me and you is that you’re reading this article, so you’ve read what to do and how to do it. To make it easier on yourself you might just follow my advice to the letter. You can’t do that because you won’t grow.

It will stop you from experimenting and finding an even better way than I’ve found. I’m depending on you to find a better way of doing it and telling me about it. Maybe you can write an article for Lucid Ability and share it with us all. The point is: it’s all about exploring your own consciousness, but using my techniques to get you started.

If you follow my script to the letter we’ll all be at the same level and nobody will grow. You have the power to find an amazing way to become super aware, but you need to experiment. Don’t care about how long it takes you because I was trying for months.

You have total freedom to try doing things that are more effective for your body and mind.

Taking it further than ever before

You’re in the trance state and your inner-voice is switched off. So what? What do you do now? I’ve found a way to mimic a lucid dream in real life that means you won’t need to try and become lucid. It will just happen spontaneously.

Mimicking a lucid dream in real life

I’ve been trying to think of ways to best explain why my lucid trance technique is so effective and I tried something on Reddit that seemed to work, so I’m going to explain it here.

Inside a lucid dream you are fully aware + you manipulate things with your mind.

Inside a lucid trance you are fully aware + you manipulate things with your mind.

You can read about the lucid trance in more detail here, but you’re essentially using a meditative technique to get yourself into a trance state (when the inner-voice is gone) then you manipulate your senses using your mind. Things like:

• Imagining you’re moving up and down on the waves
• Imagining you’re swinging back and forth on a hammock
• Imagining you’re spinning around in circles

I say imagining you are doing those things because that’s how you initially trick your senses, but you actually do physically feel like you’re doing all three of those things while in a trance, once you get it right which takes a little time.

After the lucid trance

You should be doing the lucid trance before bed because I’ve found that makes you have more spontaneous lucid dreams without trying. After you’ve finished you can do what you want, but your most important job for the night is done.

You can go to bed and give yourself lucid affirmations, and you can also visualize the dream before falling asleep. I suppose there is no harm in doing as much as you can, but I’ve personally found it’s not essential. That doesn’t mean it won’t help speed up your results.

This will kill your chances

You won’t have much success without being really motivated to become lucid. You won’t have much success if you tell yourself you can’t do it. Never stop thinking about lucidity and let it engulf your mind.

When you’re trying to get into the trance state you can’t think about anything apart from the technique you’re performing, but once you’re in the trance state you can think without coming out of it. This means you are free to explore your mind and think about lucid dreaming as much as possible.

But this will kill them even more

It took me a long time to feel like I was in a trance because my mind hated me. I eventually succeeded because I stuck it out. You will succeed to, I guarantee it. We can all reach higher states of consciousness. It just takes time.

Don’t think about reaching the trance state. Know you will succeed, but don’t have any expectations. Don’t care about results. If you analyze everything while trying to reach the trance state it will end in disappointment. No expectations!

The only thing you need to think about is getting a little better each day. You do really need to wait it out. You might start feeling strange sensations after 20 minutes, or if you’re like me it might be 45 minutes. You need to stick with it and keep lying their focusing on something until it works, and it eventually will even if it takes you weeks.

If you want to test whether you’re in the trance state or not, check out the article about meditating lying down and you can use one of the techniques to try and manipulate your senses.

Now go forth and attempt to meditate as much as possible. Do it when you have any time to spare. When you do get into the trance state you can start practicing the lucid trance.

Photo By Stuck in Customs

Walking around in the dream world can be a scary place.

You could run into things you might not like and there’s a chance you’d be scared stiff.

Maybe it would make you feel better if you had a dream guide who went around with you and protected you from everything.

You’ll find out about that, plus why morphing into an animal can turn into your greatest lucid dream ever.

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Today’s interview is with Annie and she has some amazing experiences to share with you. If you want to know where you can find her then check out miss-march-wanders.tumblr.com

What do you think is your favorite thing about lucid dreaming?

I can realistically explore my imagination and sub-conscience.

Do you mind telling us about any struggles you’ve had since you got started?

I can’t lucid dream at night on call, I am better at it during the day, or where there is light. Sometimes, very rarely, I’ll go deep into a lucid dream without a guide. For me this is very dangerous, without a guide I am at the mercy of all of my hidden fears and nightmares.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned from your time in the dream world?

That everything and everyone is interconnected (I know that sounds sappy, but it’s true)

Do you take anything from your lucid dreams and apply it to real life?

I don’t have any lessons…never mind I guess I have one; to let things be, but I’ve mostly taken paintings and writings from lucid dreams.

Is there a lucid dream you would consider your favorite?

When I was ten I dreamed I was an eagle (or hawk or raven, it was a while ago), I actually felt like the bird too. It was a very surreal experience.

What’s your favorite technique and why is it great?

I wake up in my dreams, and if I don’t feel like I’m deep enough in the dream to fully grasp it; I put my dream body to sleep and wake up in a deeper level of dreaming. I have a hard time staying in a lucid dream if I don’t have a buffer. I can’t seem to focus enough on the other techniques to be able to use them as quality lucid dream methods.

Do you have an ultimate lucid dream you’d like to have again?

I would like to experience being another animal again, that was pretty sweet!

What is the strangest land you’ve even wandered through in a lucid dream?

This one land was actually very recent, and it sticks out because it didn’t have a basis in the other lands that I was familiar with. It was very surreal; like a cross between Dali/Dr. Seuss, so it was very light hearted and kid friendly, but very warped. It was by far the strangest, even more so than the Mall in the swamp or the space station that orbited my wonderland. In the Dali-Seussland, I did have a guide, she said that I would “enjoy this land”, and I did!

If you could go back to the start would you do anything differently?

No, I am very happy with where things are in my dream world, and I wouldn’t have started lucid dreaming if it wasn’t for the eagle dream!

Do you have any words of encouragement for all of us?

It’s all in your head. Even astral projecting, you can still feel your physical body, if anything dangerous arises then return is instant. It would also be wise to have/create some sort of guide or imaginary dream friend that you trust. This figure always helps me navigate the dreamscape.

Hey Annie, thanks a lot for sharing your time and experiences with us.

Photo by Stuck in Customs

Lucid dreaming teaches us we don’t need anything. Pretty possessions might be nice, but we already own them, physical or not.

About 6 months ago (complete guess) I was reading about this guy who let go of everything and became homeless because he wanted to build a business from scratch.

At the start he was into extreme camping, so he would pitch a makeshift tent on an abandoned building then blog about it. These days he tours the country staying in Buddhist temples and learning about some cool things.

Today he’s going to share some very cool stuff and I’ve learned a ton reading it.

(Reader Story, By Omar Von Gimbel)

In Buddhism there are different aids to enlightenment; the four establishers of mindfulness, the four right strivings, the four bases of power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven enlightenment factors, and the eight noble path factors.

Right now I want to talk about the four bases of power or “iddhipada”. The Pali language (the language spoken by the Buddha) doesn’t always translate perfectly into English. In this case iddhipada is no exception.

Iddhipada is a combination of two words. “Iddhi”; power, success, accomplishment, potency, and prowess, and “pada”; base, basis, or constituent.

In the context the Buddha was using, the word was referring to super-paranormal powers. Now I don’t know how you feel about levitation, walking on water, teleportation, clairvoyance, remembrance of past lives, and mind reading, but it really doesn’t matter.

In Buddhism, these are considered to be far less important than the base mental qualities needed to achieve these powers, but you might be interested in learning more about iddhipada.

The mental qualities that achieve these powers

The four base mental qualities that help you achieve lucid dreaming are:

• energy or effort
• intention or desire
• consciousness or mind
• wisdom or investigation

The key to developing these mental qualities is placing concentration on each one.

Energy

The Pali word this comes from is “viriya”. Viriya is commonly translated as energy, diligence, enthusiasm, or effort.

Basically, you are not going to achieve lucid dreaming if you don’t do the work. It is often said that “knowledge is power”, however that isn’t really true. APPLIED knowledge is power.

For example, if you were stranded in the wilderness in freezing conditions, would knowing how to start a fire save your life? Absolutely not!

What will save your life is actually applying that knowledge. You have to put in the effort of gathering firewood, creating the friction to cause a spark, and physically maintaining that fire so it doesn’t go out.

This is probably the least favorite, but most essential element to achieving lucid dreaming. You have to actually do the exercises to see their results.

Intention

“Chanda” is defined as intention, interest, or desire to act.

This mental quality is a psychological “yes”, a choice, not some sort of pathology. You obviously have the intention to learn lucid dreaming or why else would you be here?

Often, in the beginning, the desire to act is based on faith. You might have read about lucid dreaming, or maybe you know someone who has done it. Later as you begin to experience results for yourself this intention grows.

The desire to act becomes stronger and more exciting at this point. Go with it. Use your increased interest to put more effort into your practice and get even more results.

Consciousness

“Citta” is one of three overlapping terms in Pali to refer to the mind, the others being manas and vinnana. Each is sometimes used in the generic and non-technical sense of “mind”, however their primary uses are more distinct.

Citta is more of a heart/mind word. The emphasis would be on the emotional aspects of the mind. In psychology, they sometimes refer to this part of the mind as the “mammalian” brain.

This refers to the quality of your mind, as opposed to the mind as an entity or process.

Have you ever heard the expression “that kid’s got heart”? That is what we are talking about here. Basically, your mindset has to be in tune with your goal to experience lucid dreaming.

It will do you little good to do all the practices if you have a bad attitude about lucid dreaming. I’m not saying that a healthy skepticism is bad, and I will get into that more in the next mental quality. However, the universe is a curious place. If you set out to fail at lucid dreaming you will fail.

Wisdom

“Vimamsa” means investigation, inquiry, pondering, contemplation, and discernment.

This skillful wisdom is where we get a sense of whether we are doing a successful practice or if we are just spinning our wheels. If there is just exertion, we don’t know if it’s right or wrong.

A teacher can only show the way to lucid dreaming. It is up to you to do the practice, and constantly check in with yourself to see if it is getting you results.

This is the healthy skepticism I was talking about. If you’re spending months and years in an attempt to experience lucid dreaming with no results, don’t keep doing the same things.

Question your teacher. By that, I mean dig deeper. Ask if there is something you are missing. Find out if you truly understand the process. Maybe there is an important detail in the practice you are missing.

Faith is not meant to be blind. Rather it grows from confidence. Confidence comes from experience. Use your inherent wisdom to check what you are doing with your personal experience and trust your own judgment.

Developing these mental qualities

What good would an analytical discussion be if I didn’t offer a tool to help you get started?

Meditation comes in different forms. Typically meditation is used to develop concentration and tranquility. From this concentration comes the meditative “trances” or states of rapture. In Pali these altered states are called “jhana”.

This type of meditation is called “samatha” meditation. However, I am going to teach you a different meditation this time. The meditation practice known as “vipassana” or “insight” meditation.

Vipassana is about being aware in the present moment. Even though it is considered an advanced meditation to samatha, paradoxically, it can help you train to achieve the deeper levels of concentration.

Vipassana is cool because it can be done at any time, not just when sitting cross-legged on a meditation cushion. You can practice mindfulness while walking, sitting, lying down, eating, doing the dishes, or whatever.

For this practice, you are not trying to exclude your thoughts by focusing on a single point of concentration. However, you don’t want to let your thoughts carry you away either.

The reason it’s considered an advanced meditation practice is not because it’s harder to do, but because the rewards gained are greater than just deep concentration.

Even though deep concentration will help you achieve lucid dreaming, present moment awareness will help you develop the mental qualities I have been discussing. These mental qualities are what lead to skills like lucid dreaming.

How to practice vipassana meditation

Sitting can help you get into the right mindset a little better, because it’s more often associated with meditation. Sometimes these stronger associations set the tone for our practice.

However, if you want to sit, stand, lie down, or walk that’s OK too. The only thing I would stress is to have a straight back. Not a stiff and rigid one, but a good, straight posture in the back.

Now simply start by paying attention to your breath. Notice you are breathing in. Then notice you are breathing out again. Simple enough, huh?

Don’t force the breath, just let it happen naturally. Speaking of naturally, thoughts are a natural part of having a mind. When you are new to meditation, they will be like a wild monkey: all over the place.

The difference between vipassana meditation and samatha meditation is that you’re not trying to force your thoughts out of the practice.

Simply acknowledge your thought without judging it and return to your breath. At first it may be difficult to keep them from carrying you away, but as soon as you notice you are thinking again just make a mental note of it.

Simply acknowledge to yourself that you’re thinking again and return your attention to your breath.

It doesn’t matter if you are thinking good thoughts, horrible thoughts, thoughts of the past, or thoughts of the future. Don’t judge them. Just respectfully acknowledge them and return the focus to your breath.

This goes for feelings as well. Sometimes vipassana will bring up certain emotions like joy, or even anger. Don’t judge them as good or bad. Simply acknowledge them and return your focus to your breath.

If you get an itch, or perhaps you notice a pain in your body, that’s OK too. If it becomes too unbearable then scratch it or make an adjustment before returning to your breath. However, these can be great tools to keep you in the present moment.

In this case, simply focus on the unpleasant feeling instead of your breath. Study the process like a scientist.

What is this pain? Where does it come from? Is it real, or just another state of mind? Will it go away on its own? How long does that take?

Sometimes you will notice it goes away by itself and you can simply return to your breath. Sometimes you get another thought and forget about the pain. Instead the thought is more powerful at holding your attention.

When you realize this, acknowledge your thought, and – you guessed it – return your attention to your breath.

The benefits of vipassana meditation

Not only will you develop the mental qualities necessary for lucid dreaming from vipassana meditation, but you will notice a few other side effects with time.

Insight meditation actually dissolves mental hindrances like greed, jealousy, anger, and stress. In exchange character traits like wisdom, compassion, and patience grow in their place.

My favorite benefit is what psychologists call “observing ego”. People with observing ego are what others refer to as “cool”.

It’s an ability to be aware of your thoughts and actions as they happen. Instead of having moments where you look back and think “I should have said ‘this’ instead”, or “I wish I did ‘that’ instead”, you develop the ability to check yourself in the moment.

You begin to see other people’s actions for what they are. Instead of reacting to them, you are able to choose to act or not to act. You become the ’cause’ of the ‘effects’ in your world instead of the ‘effect’ of the ’causes’.

What do you think?

Are you willing to put in the effort to experience lucid dreaming? Do you have the desire to see it through until it happens? Do you got heart, kid?

What about vipassana? Is this a meditation you can practice? Do you already practice vipassana? If so, what are some of the benefits you have gotten from it?

Is this all too much? Did I just make all this up? Are you just not cut out to reach your goals?

Leave me a comment and share your insight on the subject, and if this was helpful be sure to share this article on Facebook or Twitter too.

Photo by Stuck in Customs

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Omar Von Gimbel is in search of the Dhamma.

Wandering from sangha to sangha learning the difference between what the Buddha taught and Buddhism, he writes about the wisdom he gains, the different cultural traditions in Buddhism, and how to apply these lessons to modern life at kinesthetictiger.com.

You can also find Omar on Facebook, and Twitter.