For many of us, dreaming is something that we do not pay much attention to. In fact, most of us don't even recall a single dream in the morning. We might have been chased down by a monster, been kissing someone who we secretly love or been flying like a super hero. As kids we all have experienced dreams that we can still recall today as grownups. Amazingly, after all those years, we have somehow stopped to recall what we loved to experience back then. It almost feels like we have stopped dreaming in a way.

Of course, we haven't. Up until now our minds have generated dozens of dreams every single night of our lives, independently of whether we have recalled them or not. And maybe that is why we have lost our interest in dreaming. It almost feels like they are not our dreams, but the dreams of our minds. If you are lucky enough to dream something special, it would probably only serve as a nice breakfast story, but surely nothing more than that. From what we have heard from many others, is that we might lose interest in dreaming because we somehow learn that dreams do not affect us, do not concern us. "The mind just dreams about itself", many say. Dreaming seems like a state in which you merely "observe" the mind experience all kinds of bizar events and circumstances. A state that has nothing to do with you.

This is far from what the real experience is like. In fact, dreams are experiences we have each night during certain stages of sleep in which you vividly experience a world just like you do in everyday life. Your behavior and actions as a dreamer direct the way in which your dreams unfold. If you have boring dreams, it is not because of your mind, it is because of you.

Dreams are worlds rather than a series of vivid impressions. A world where you can walk, run and jump around. A world where you can use your body and all of your senses: smelling, tasting, feeling, hearing, and seeing (just take a moment and really let this sink in!). A world that is as detailed as the waking world. Including color, textures, people, streets, buildings, happenings, and all other elements that your dreaming mind derives from your experiences of waking life. A dynamic world that is as alive as the waking world. Once you discover you are in a dream, you will be absolutely stunned by what you see.

And that opportunity is called lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is discovering that you are dreaming while you are still in the dream. Please allow me to introduce you to lucid dreaming personally in the video below.

Click on the Play-button in the movie screen to allow me to kick off the experiential description of lucid dreaming. By the way, I have produced another 9 high-quality YouTube movies on lucid dreaming that you will find across the website (see Learn-section). Enjoy them along the way when browsing around the Lucidipedia website.

In order to understand why so many lucid dreamers enjoy lucid dreaming, is first of all understanding that the (lucid) dream state is highly realistic and immersive. Unlike any computer game you have ever experienced before. For the most part because in contrast to a computer game, in a lucid dream you are really IN the game rather than merely looking at a "dream-screen". Dreaming is not like reading a cartoon or a series of imaginary impressions as a passive observer. A (lucid) dream is a world, a dynamic environment just like your reality when you are awake, in which you can actively jump around, meet dream characters and explore new terrain and experiences. It's pretty difficult to distinguish the dream state from the waking state actually, that's how realistic it is. This must be true to some extend, otherwise we would have lucid dreams all the time, which we cleary don't have.

For most people, their first lucid dreams leave them in awe. In a lucid dream, you feel present in another world that your own mind is able to create every single night of your life. A world that is completely your own.

A kiss in a dream would really feel like a real kiss. Meeting someone in your dreams would feel just like you would meet someone in waking life. Walk around, seeing cars drive by, hearing people talk, watching clouds drift by, feeling sunrays on your body; all would feel the same as for waking reality. The brain is paradoxically as active during dreaming as it is while being awake. It is this high level of brain activity that makes the realism and immersiveness of dreams possible. Once you start to understand how lucid dreaming could be used as a boundless life simulator where you can anonymously experience anything you can imagine, you start to feel how thousands of other lucid dreamers around the world practice, enjoy and make use of lucid dreaming to enhance their lives.

You might come to understand why many spend their first lucid dreams entirely to investigating the realism of dreams. Spending hours on feeling textures of doors, walls and holding objects in your hands, pinching dream characters in the face and have a conversation with them. The most fascinating thing about lucid dreaming is that once you find yourself in a dream, you feel present in a full-blown reality while you know that you are actually lying in bed with your eyes shut and without anyone ever knowing what you are up to. You know that you will wake up soon. It is amazing. Like everyone else, your first lucid dream will be one of the most awesome and memorable experiences you will ever have. A boost of consciousness. Even without knowing that there is a lot more to lucid dreaming than just this...

Once you know you are dreaming, you can actually voluntarily decide to magically change any element of the dream to your desire. You are able to learn how to fly, to let certain dream characters appear or dissappear, teleport to different locations or even script out entire experiences that you might desire. You can learn all of this at Lucidipedia. You could also decide to go with the plot, not changing anything, but simply changing your own actions and behavior accordingly. Like the sport of Freerunning, exploring your dream world by jumping from building to building, enjoying the scene without applying any dream control. Exploring new terrain in your dreams, meeting dream characters that your dreaming mind makes up, or dealing with challenging situations that might arise. As a lucid dreamer, you can simply decide to implement control wherever and whenever you desire. It is your mind, your world.

From superficial desires, novice lucid dreamers move on as they gain experience, to rehearsing situations in preparation for waking life. Like rehearsing presentations or interviews, overcoming fears, dealing with creative personal problem-solving situations, getting closure by meeting passed away loved ones, exploring new kinds of behavior, etc. Once you become lucid, it is completely up to you how you want to spend your time lucid dreaming. Most of us start with learning how to fly while others gradually move on to more meaningful and deeply rooted desires. Lucid dreaming challenges you to discover your inner longings and desires. By how you approach your practice of lucid dreaming, you can potentionally use lucid dreaming as a playground to get to know yourself on a deep level. Lucid dreaming is a fun way to get to know yourself and to explore the human mind.

And that is where Lucidipedia kicks in. Lucidipedia wants to support your lucid dream explorations. We like you to share your experiences and knowledge of lucid dreaming with others on the site. You decide how this story will end. If Lucidipedia wants to become a home for all the next-generation lucid dreamers around the world, users must create a community where knowledge and experiences of lucid dreaming are openly shared and cherished. We hope that Lucidipedia can provide this support to you all out there.

Thank you for visiting Lucidipedia. We are looking forward to read your first lucid dreams soon!

Tim.