The four stages of competent lucid living

I believe learning how to lucid dream can make you radically change your life for the better and ultimately (hopefully) also the lives of everyone close to you. I will attempt to explain how and why, by using the model of “the four stages of competence” applied to lucid dreaming. Be warned that this is a rather serious (and long) first post, but for me, these were incredibly important realizations, so I invite you to join me on this trip down the rabbit hole…

The stage of “unconscious incompetence”: the sleeper

The first stage in this model is that of “unconscious incompetence”. Most people on this earth are just as deceived by their sleeping mind as they are by their waking mind. Their emotional reactions and the actions they take in life are completely controlled by their thought patterns – thoughts about the past, the future or about what others might be thinking about them.

This state makes them completely emotionally dependent on the reality they think they are experiencing. Their lives are ruled by determinism, random chance and the illusion of choice, rarely by free will. For a large part, society dictates what they can and cannot think. When they wake up in the morning, they feel like they had no control over their dreams. They might think they acted completely irrationally. They might be amused with (or scared of) what they dreamt about. What they don’t realize yet… is that the exact same thing applies to their waking lives too.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there’s anything “wrong” with living this kind of life, but… know that they are responsible for most of the misery and pain they will inevitably experience. As they are suffering, they will consciously and subconsciously make others suffer with them. I’m talking about “them” as if I’m not part of them, but of course I, like most others, am still partly in this stage. I never said mastering lucidity is a linear progress… Nevertheless, I believe it is possible to “free your mind” from these rigid thinking patterns and this process begins by acknowledging that we are very, very irrational beings capable of so much more than we are led to believe, which brings us to…

The stage of “conscious incompetence”: the dreamer

“You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.” That’s what Morpheus said to Neo in the beginning of the movie “The Matrix”. This movie beautifully exemplifies metaphorically what a person experiences during his/her “awakening”. Usually it starts innocently – for me it did at least. A person might discover lucid dreaming by watching a YouTube video or after seeing a popular movie like “Inception”. Driven by the allure of literally experiencing our wildest dreams, we explore and learn about all the technicalities: keeping a dream journal, looking for dream signs, doing reality checks, practicing prospective and retrospective memory, learning about WBTB, DILD, MILD and for the adventurous types among us, even trying the “WILD” technique…

All of this is part of the second stage of competent lucid living. Usually it takes about a month – sometimes a lot shorter, sometimes a lot longer. It takes effort and dedication, but most of all: passion! Eventually, everyone who keeps exercising his/her dreaming mind will experience that eye-opening experience (often literally…) of having a lucid dream.

The stage of “conscious competence”: the lucid dreamer

Once someone has realized it’s possible to be conscious while in an unconscious state and experienced it first hand, all doubt disappears and old beliefs are shattered. It becomes easier to recreate the experience from now on, but it still requires effort. This is the awesome stage of “conscious competence” – a stage of exploration and learning.

It might also be the stage of great disappointment. After the initial excitement, many dreamers will soon realize it isn’t always easy to create a lucid dream at will. Moreover, it’s especially not easy to control the dream environment without it getting unstable. Staying calm and in control of our primordial, ego-fueled desires becomes key at this point.

After a couple of lucid dreams, some of us will find the techniques we relied on just don’t cut it anymore. They won’t bring us to the next level and they never will. This is where we learn the most important lesson and this is what my first blogpost is actually about: the “lucid” in “lucid dreaming” is the key. It’s all about mastering awareness.

The stage of “unconscious competence”: the oneironaut

An advanced lucid dreamer realizes triggering a lucid dream happens by becoming aware of the present “reality”. The techniques are merely helpful tools in achieving this. The process of becoming aware has been delegated to the subconscious (or rather, higher conscious?), hence the fourth and last stage of “unconscious competence”.

Now, what do I mean by “awareness”? Being aware or “lucid” is basically attentively observing the reality you are experiencing both externally and internally right NOW, without judgment. It’s “letting go” and truly living in the present. It’s also what people do in meditation. Note that this is not about “not thinking [about the past or future]”, because our mind cannot think in negation.

Awareness is both the means and the end. You might not always be in control of your situation, but by becoming aware of your present state, you can let go of negative, harmful thoughts and emotions. This makes room for more clarity. You’ll be able to “see” the changes your body, heart, mind and soul demands of you, but which you may have been ignoring – maybe because they are too scary, too difficult, too crazy, too weird, … Only by ACTING on these changes, it’s possible to lead a more lucid and fulfilled life. This is what lucid dreaming thought me. Personally, I’ve started exercising vigorously for the first time in my life and gained nearly 15 kg of muscle mass in less than a year, I’ve started learning martial arts (krav maga), I’ve joined a local “Toastmasters” club to confront my fear of public speaking, I’ve started meditating daily, I’ve cleaned up my diet and haven’t gotten sick ever since… These are just some of the superficial changes which satisfy mostly the “ego” (the sense of “self”; identity). The main benefit one experiences is my most important point I want to make with this blogpost…

I believe a true oneironaut realizes the only way to always know when (s)he’s dreaming is to assume (s)he’s always dreaming. However, waking life is tricky… everything and everyone wants to convince us this life is REAL and SERIOUS! The oneironaut realizes these are ridiculous, limiting beliefs originating from an insecure Western culture that actively discourages spiritual growth. The oneironaut sees through the illusion of “self”. (S)he realizes everything that is perceived is part of the one who perceives – and vice versa. As a result, compassion and empathy are values that feel very natural to the oneironaut.

This is how I believe lucid dreaming can make a person rise to his/her true potential.

Is this making some sense to you?

I’m sorry if this blogpost was a bit too “heavy”, too long and/or too serious. I promise to make shorter and more practical contributions as well. ;-)

This was pretty much a summary of my beliefs about “lucidity”. Many of the elements I’ve touched upon were topics of discussion in several Lucidipedia forum threads. If you’re a beginner, I hope this post provided you with a decent overview of the exciting path of self-discovery that still lies ahead. Any questions are always welcome. If you’re an experienced lucid dreamer, I hope my view resonated with yours and if not, that’s ok. :-)

Also, if you have any suggestions for topics you’d like to see discussed on the Lucidipedia blog, feel free to PM me or contact me otherwise.

Super perfundo on the early eve of your day,
Lence

I don’t consider myself a “natural” lucid dreamer by any means, but I am living proof that by using the techniques outlined at this site, reading subject standards like LaBerge’s “Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming”, and above all, having some strong motivation will get you very far!

I picked up a book on lucid dreaming somewhere around ten years ago. To this day I don’t even remember how that came about, but I believe I was simply killing some time in a bookstore. When I read the phrase, “Learn to control your dreams” on the book’s binder, I was intrigued. Being an artist by trade, stimulating creativity is one of my life’s driving forces. Couple that with an active daydreaming mind, with wishes that yearn to be fulfilled that you’d swear came out of the mind of an adolescent…I thought that I’d found the perfect hobby! Unfortunately, I felt it wasn’t the right time in my life to integrate the learning curve for a new skill.

Fast forward to 2010…At the age of 40, I had a little more maturity in the “reading and learning department”, but still thankfully possessed the part of my psyche that begs to explore impossible fantasies as if the child and/or teenager that lives in there wants to take over.

I have now had over 180 lucid dreaming experiences, and each one is something special to me as if they are part of a cherished collection. If I had to say one thing in my first post about how I feel about lucid dreaming, is that I feel an urge to pinch myself (lol, not the most reliable reality check and yes, pun intended) that a phenomenon such as this even exists. Knowing that we have the power and complete freedom within us to experience ANYTHING is an indescribable feeling. No matter what boundaries the physical world or other people may put on us in our waking reality, it is not up to those entities as to how much fun we are going to have when the sleep comes. For those of you who have already had LDs, that is not news…but do you ever just sit and contemplate your skill with sincere appreciation? I am as excited today about this skill as I was the day of my first lucid dream. Sometimes it is the excitement of reliving my finer LDs, but more often it is the optimist in me that looks forward to the ones I have yet to experience. Occasionally when I am at the local gym, I look around at the people, assuming they have never even heard of the concept of dream control or even being conscious while asleep. I then almost giggle as I say to myself, “I know how to experience magic…and you probably just sleep.” Merely sleeping is no good for me anymore because the magic is just far superior, and worth every bit of training. My empathy for those who don’t even know what they’re missing (and even worse that the power lies useless in their brains) is what drives me to at the very least, introduce lucid dreaming to anyone I possibly can. I hope my blogs will be a source of inspiration, and to keep you motivated to keep training so you really get everything you want out of your lucid dreams.

Interested in rubbing elbows with some of the top dream experts today? The 10th anual PsiberDreaming Conference runs from September 25  - October 9. The con is entirely online, hosted by the International Association for the Study of Dreams. This year’s theme is “Perspectives on lucid dreaming.”

Keynotes include psychologist Fariba Bogzaran, founder of the Dream Studies program at John F Kennedy University, and Robert Bosnak, Jungian therapist and clinical psychologist. Integrating dream wisdom with modern life, both presenters have had a powerful impact on thousands with their books, workshops and trainings.

Two other notable presenters include Robert Waggoner, author of Lucid Dreaming: gateway to the inner self, and Jayne Gackenbach, one of the most prolific lucid dream researchers to date.

There’s over 25 presenters total, so this is just scratching the surface.

An Online conference – how does that work?
The PsiberDreaming team has been leading social spaces on the web for 10 years. That’s Before Facebook (BF).

Essentially, for each day during the two week conference, new papers and workshops will be unlocked. Participants can join discussions, and ask direct questions to the presenters.

Meanwhile, there’s a beehive of general discussion activity ongoing in the Dreamer’s Inn, and another area for dream sharing.

It’s not just text either: the conference will also display an online digital art gallery.

Contests too: including the popular annual dream telepathy contest, as well as contests for mutual dreaming and  other elements of paranormal dreaming.

I’m also excited to announce that moderators from LucidDreaming4all will also open a portal at the con. Five LD4all experts will be present to answer questions. In case you didn’t know, LD4All recently celebrated its 15th anniversary, and remains the oldest lucid dreaming forum in the whole wide net.

Attend for free
The International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) has made an offer that if you become a member before October 9, you can attend the PsiberDreaming Conference for free.

Members of the IASD receive a yearly subscription to the peer-reviewed research journal Dreaming and the popular magazine DreamTime. Members also can rev up their dream education by participating in online study groups monitored by dream experts and researchers.

The conference costs $45 for general public. $40 for IASD members, and $30 for students with a current ID.

Here’s where to learn more about the conference, check out the other presenters, and register.

What is it actually about lucid dreaming that makes it such an intriguing and valuable practice? Is it all just about mere pleasure seeking?

A lucid dream

For subscribers that are new to lucid dreaming, a lucid dream is a dream in which you know – while you are dreaming – that you are dreaming. Lucid dreaming is thus also referred to as conscious dreaming or dreaming while having attained dream awareness. You don’t wake up but continue dreaming while knowing that it is all a dream.

This dream awareness enables the “lucid” dreamer to direct and manipulate the dream experience – real time – to his or her every heart’s desire. Since dreams (the REM-sleep ones) are highly immersive and multi-sensory, a “lucid dream” is very much comparable to how it feels like when you are awake. The big difference to waking life is, obviously, that the lucid dream is complete fiction. It is your own anonymous virtual reality that you can use (free of charge) to induce any kind of immersive extra-ordinary experience that you would like to experience.

Bend the laws of nature. Experiment with new kinds of behavior. Overcome fears. Rehearse waking life events. Become more mentally flexible, self-knowledgeable and aware of your potential in life.

Going beyond happiness

It is interesting to notice how the word “happiness” has become increasingly more popular to describe people’s urge towards self-improvement. In ever more magazines, “happiness” is used as a powerful marketing tactic. Which is not a bad thing, necessarily. Being happy is very important. Especially in some corners of the world where not that many people can honestly say that they feel happy. Being happy is not a luxury.

Could lucid dreaming add to people’s happiness? Definitely. But it requires imagination and creativity on the part of the lucid dreamer to come up with the right kind of dream experiences that really induce and nurture happiness. I mean, you could not just command ‘happiness’ to be there in your lucid dream and expect to instantly become more happy (though this approach surely has some potential for other reasons). The lucid dream itself does not also necessarily induce happiness by itself. It all depends on the kind of dream experiences you would like to induce in the lucid dream. It is not the lucid dream that has potential, but the lucid dream experience; the things that you actually experience IN the lucid dream.

Creative imagination

To be interested in lucid dreaming in the first place, seems to require some level of self-insight and creativity: why do you want to lucid dream? Most could give you their answer in no time. This greatly characterizes lucid dreamers. We seem to share a distinct urge towards improving ourselves and knowing how to get there. Not everyone has this trait.

Perhaps that explains why still many (most of my friends at least) do not seem to “get” the awesomeness of the lucid dream. It is not that they do not clearly understand what a lucid dream means or do not know of the vast range of its applications … but most simply cannot imagine what concrete experiences would actually add to their personal circumstance. When I ask them “So, just let this sink in, if you could experience anything that you could ever imagine experiencing {after having given some personal examples}, what would you like to lucid dream about?” most have nothing to tell. Simply because they are already perfectly happy, self-realized and wise? I guess not. Fascinating.

A few studies have shown that lucid dreamers are significantly more reflective, intellectual, and creative than others and share a need for cognition (a need for mental activity). To be clear, this is not an effect of lucid dreaming but a prior trait that makes us interested in lucid dreaming.

Anyway, my point: to lucid dream seems to require a reflective mental skill set that allows for the right kind of creative imagination; imagining various concrete (dream) experiences that would add to your current state of being. If you have trouble doing this, chances are you would not see the direct benefit of lucid dreaming.

Motivations for lucid dreaming

A lucid dream provides for limitless opportunity to gain extraordinary experiences that are impossible or difficult to gain in everyday life: free from physical and social restrictions. Imagine using your lucid dreams to:

• Resolve nightmares or fears
• Rehearse waking life events
• Understand what reality means
• Explore states of consciousness
• Experiment with new behavior
• Study and solve (business) problems
• Perfect newly acquired sport skills
• Brainstorm on new ideas

Most of these avenues of lucid dream applications go far beyond mere pleasure seeking. While most novice lucid dreamers kick off their dream adventures with flying and dream sex, there is much more to lucid dreaming that just doing that.

Review your own lucid dream goals and think about new ways to use your dreams. In a lucid dream anything is possible. Do you truly know what that means?

But what if you would use lucid dreaming not to gain experiences, but new states of awareness or mental ability? What if you would then be able to induce those state in waking life?

Need inspiration? Go and see the Limitless movie!

Meeting Stephen LaBerge in Hawaii was awesome. It has really got me going, even after the trip :). Occasionally I find myself waking up from a morning dream in which I wondered around the Kalani retreat center, talking to Stephen or Keeling about their early days doing lucid dream research. I guess it all makes sense in my case, I have been living up to that meeting for about 10 years (I brought my edition of Stephen’s Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming with me to Hawaii for him to sign :D).

Anyway, I have figured out all my stuff to do, got myself a new part time job so that I can continue spending my time working on lucid dreaming and Lucidipedia, and am more ready than ever to get started.

Training IN a lucid dream

As most experienced lucid dreamers know, learning lucid dreaming does not only involve practicing how to induce lucid dreams. Once you have one, the next thing is to get good at lucid dreamING: the ability to voluntarily and deliberately apply a full range of dream control techniques.

In today’s blog post, I would like to address this underestimated part of training.

After years of perfecting my flying skills, changing landscapes, overcoming fears and many other interesting dream control practices, I devised a really fun and extremely effective way to train in a lucid dream. A methodology that I follow in almost all of my lucid dreams today.

The problem of focus

A common problem reported by numerous lucid dreamers is the problem of focus. Once you become too absorbed into a particular dream activity, chances are that you lose touch with the main event in the (lucid) dream; resulting into unwanted dream shifts, or even worse, (false) awakenings.

One of the underlying principles – that we avidly discuss on in our online classes on dream control – is the necessity of participation in the (lucid) dream. You HAVE to continuously “merge” with the main event in the dream to provide it with enough input to keep on dreaming. If you don’t and turn your attention inwards (like when focussing on training for a particular skill that has no direct function to the main event of the dream), chances are you mess up the dream and lose it.

Dream characters as students

This is my solution: start training a dream character. Dream characters function as extremely helpful agents to (1) keep you focussed on the dream (i.e. they are obviously part of the dream) while at the same time turning into your personal “hub” that you can explain your progressing techniques and applications to WHILE lucid dreaming.

Like teaching. Involve dream characters with your lucid dream activities. To me it is like the power of “self-explaining” my techniques through interacting with dream characters while lucid dreaming.

Also, you will never know how dream characters will react to your training! I have had wonderful insights and tips from DCs who were very eager to join me in my training. Start teaching your dream characters tonight and post your findings here!

Congratulations, Clinton! Your (excellent) question won!

As a lucid dreamer, with many years of experience, has it become difficult to challenge yourself and continue to grow?

Stephen replied by telling about – in his view – the ultimate application of lucid dreaming. Though many lucid dreamers start with having all kinds of fun in their lucid dreams (e.g. flying, sex, sports, etc.), dream reality allows for much more deep experiences that go beyond the typical and popular lucid dream experiences.

He mentions the movie “Groundhog day” as a perfect example that illustrates this point (go watch it if you haven’t seen it yet!). What is life truly all about?

To Stephen, challenging himself through lucid dreaming is not about having more lucid dreams or more prolonged lucid dreams. He had thousands. It is much more about exploring the nature of the Self, of Consciousness and Reality. With the right attitude, a lucid dream can lead to opportunities to find guidance and self-transformation in life.

To him, that is his final frontier.

Check out our video of Hawaii:

I was invited to support Stephen at some point during the program, which is such an honor. And I have so many interesting conversations with other participants that I find myself chatting for a whole afternoon before realizing it is already time to prepare for dinner. Which surely is a good thing.

Cool conversations

Among the participants, two cool university graduates (or almost graduated; one seems to be a big Lucidipedia fan which is so encouraging) are interested in doing research in some way or another within the field of lucid dreaming. Most other participants have no academic background at all, so naturally, the three of us easily connected.

It is kind of weird to (finally) have full blown in-depth discussions and conceptual explorations on the subject. We are talking about big stuff. One educational psychologist (me), one philosopher (he) and one neuroscientist (she). Same age, same interest. I mean, we feel like the new bright young minds that are required to steward lucid dreaming (research) up to the next level. What we talk about is: “how to do just that”.

The matrix has me

At the same time, Stephen’s training program is progressing. He is so cool: at one time talking about the big question “What are dreams? What is consciousness?”, his subtitle on the screen was “What is the Matrix?” ;-)

The most I learned through listening to Stephen during his lectures on the science of lucid dreaming. Also during lunch, when we occasionally meet. Learning about recent studies on lucid dreaming, forthcoming ones and archived experiments from the old days. It is great to get a sense of Stephen’s history with regard to lucid dream research. The guy has over 25 years of personal and professional experience: he has tremendous deep understanding. He is the real thing.

We seem to be through with the basics and are currently practicing and applying the MILD technique. I have had 3 lucid dreams so far. Just merely thinking and talking about lucid dreaming each day is a great inducer for lucidity.

Cool trips

We went snorkeling yesterday at some place nearby Kalani. Made lots of underwater video’s and enjoyed myself quite a lot. We also visited a hot spring just in front of the ocean, which was awesome (and bizarre)(dreamsign!).

To me – and it seems that I will not get over this soon – the silliest thing was swimming with Stephen while listening to him talk about the underlying principles of psychopharmaceuticals :-). Never mind.

Today

We will be visiting the volcano soon and maybe spot some flowing lava. Would love to see that! Would also like to have some free time (again) to be by myself and just wander around, go to the beach, or sunbathe. After all, this is Hawaii.

After the program I have some additional days left to visit Stanford University and explore San Francisco. Seems so far away :-)

Dream recall techniques

Yesterday was pretty basic. We talked about dream recall and how to know the difference between dreaming and being awake; dreamsigns. It is great to listen Stephen lecture. Especially because his answers are so elaborate; he has acquired an enormous amount of knowledge and insight with regard to – not only lucid dreaming – but sleep, dreaming, consciousness, philosophy.

Each time he replies to a question, you feel a gentle dissatisfaction to every of his answers, in that he really needs a full lecture to give each question proper justice. The topic is so complicated. Yet again he inspires all through addressing key issues, sharing his deep understanding of the dream stuff, and guiding us on our path to become more skilled oneironauts.

Getting to know the others

I am also getting to know the other attendees much better. Learning about their backgrounds, their driving questions and goals. It is kind of weird to so easily find so many lucid dreamers around to talk with during the day; so many who are interested in the topic; talks at breakfast, lunch, dinner; even in between breaks.

Got to talk to Keelin a lot, learning about the history of the Lucidity Institute, the development of the program and research from the early days. I love to hear about stories of Stephen and his research. We all stand on his shoulders, for lucid dream induction is concerned.

I was wonderfully delighted to learn that both Stephen and Keelin were actually having their eyes on us (Lucidipedia) for several years now; loving our video tutorials and the way we promote lucid dreaming in Europe. We both love to partner up. There is a lot in store for Lucidipedia these next few years.

I did not go on any site seeing tour adventure, yet. Pretty excited to go snorkeling at a beautiful hot natural pool nearby. With the lucidity group we will also go out on two organized trips. It is great to see how quickly the group is already bonding. The atmosphere is much more comparable to that of a group of informally related friends “staying over” at Kalani rather than being it some sort of a formal conference.

Preview of the NovaDreamer 2

That evening I was honored to use the new NovaDreamer 2 that Stephen and his team are working so hard on to perfect and finish. I had never used any lucid dream induction mask before, so I could not wait to get my hands on one to try. The others will start using one tomorrow night.

The idea is simple: you wear a computerized dream mask during the full night, which starts flashing bright red lights on the inner side of the mask once you are in REM sleep; affording for reliable and predictable dreamsign incorporations (i.e. light related dream events) for becoming lucid much more quickly. Though I cannot elaborate on the new features (it is still in development), I will sure buy one as soon as Stephen releases one. So be sure to keep in check with Lucidity.com to stay updated if you are as interested to get one yourself.

Today

This morning I spend time to talk with Joey and Trevor while eating breakfast at the Lanai. It did not leave me with enough time to blog, so I did that later in the day (now at 5pm). After the morning session I had my first talk with Stephen on opportunities to contribute to lucid dream research. There is lots for me to do.

I feel quite passionate about supporting and improving on ways to help people interested to become lucid much more reliably and easily. All known techniques of today are reasonably effective, but it has not yet reached that level of where it could (should) be. I would like to steward that change together with Stephen. And that is what we will do.

The Volcanic Beach

Once I had my usual breakfast at 7.30am (at the Lanai, where around this time a Kalani volunteer sounds a horn to let everyone on the terrain know that breakfast is ready), I blogged and then went straight down to the volcanic beach. I went there the other day, but did not get in since I did not bring along any swimming clothing. This time, I did.

Only a few people were around, which was lovely. The “sand” of the beach is black. Orio cookies black. I ran up to the ocean and like many others first gazed at the roaring waves that were rolling in. I mean, this were big waves. As a fairly skilled swimmer I felt a bit hesitant to go in. But I did and had a great time. The water was so warm. The tricky part was returning to the beach. Several times 8 foot waves were coming at us. If you would caught up in one of them, you would be smashed down onto the rocky surface of the beach. Because of bad timing, I swam towards the beach, got down on my feet, but got stuck in an undercurrent. I was pulled back into the ocean as a new big wave already crushed onto me. I tumbled underwater (literately “going with the flow”) until I managed to push myself off the bottom to catch air. All went OK, but I interpreted it immediately as a wake up call. Still it felt part of the ride and only attributed to my memory of the Hawaiian ocean.

While walking further down the beach, two kind ladies approached. “Are you Tim? Where were looking at you trying to get back to the beach and were praying you did not get hurt. We are both big fans of Lucidipedia.com and are here to attend LaBerge’s course on lucid dreaming. So cool that we finally got to meet you! We love your YouTube video’s!” So cool! They continued to say that each year, someone dies when swimming here at the beach, because of these big waves and currents. It amazed me that there were no signs or lifeguards anywhere. Will think twice about getting in that far a second time.

Living up to the evening

So once I returned to Kalani, I had lunch and decided to get my notes and prepare for tonight’s introduction session of Stephen. I reminded myself constantly of our encounter last evening: “I just met freak’n Stephen LaBerge!” I was so excited. Could not wait to see him kick off the course that evening.

I relaxed a bit, strolled around, and finally had dinner. Around that time about 10 participants had already arrived. Stephen, Lynn and Keelin were also joining in to eat with us. The atmosphere was quite informal, casual but while yet again still being real. We were all really interested in hearing about each other’s stories. Weirdest thing was hearing some promoting Lucidipedia.com and our online dream journal. Most weird was Melanie who liked me to co-sign her copy of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming together with Stephen :-)

Being in student mode, I have no intention at all to promote Lucidipedia in any way: I am here to learn new stuff and to occasionally challenge Stephen in justifying his training methodology to acquire deeper understanding of the course myself.

In general terms, there seemed to be a large variety in lucid dream skill. Some had never had a lucid dream before. Others had several, but would like to bump their skill level up to the next level. Age ranges between 18 to 65+ years. Different backgrounds, different goals.

Kick off

After dinner we all returned to our central common area at the lodge were plenty of chairs were set up. New people arrived. I could not wait to start. Once Keelin walked by behind me to get to hear seat she kindly tickled my back as to signal that we finally going to start the program.

Stephen opened the course by welcoming everyone to Kalani and asking us to imagine that our stay at Kalani would be something like a shared dream. Tonight we were not allowed to have any lucid dreams (LOL). A fellow from Kalani was invited to give a brief overview of Kalani’s activities and opportunities to travel around the area. We closed off and all went to sleep to start at 10am the following morning.

Today

It is 9.10am now and I am just finishing this blog. In a small hour we will start the day by reviewing last night’s dreams and doing personal introductions. Stephen is going to give his formal lecture on lucid dreaming (I am ready.). This afternoon we are free to do whatever we want to. After dinner tonight, we meet again to yet again enjoy a second lecture after which we will all watch a lucid dream related movie together before going to bed.

PS. Any questions YOU would like to see me pose Stephen during the remaining of this course? Check out Meeting Stephen LaBerge this month to participate! ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT.