Lucid dreaming: Magic, mundanity, and motivation.

Lucid dreaming is a magical thing. By that I mean magic as in something special, something beautiful, not something illusory or dishonest. But it’s also scientifically grounded, it can be proven and shown to exist. For this reason, I think it’s important to maintain the magic of dreams while keeping in mind the scientific and factual parts of it. Lucidity is, after all, the critical examination of reality and cutting through illusion to find truth. But, along with all of its magic, lucid dreaming comes with a certain degree of mundanity. The reality tests, dream journal entries, and induction techniques can all be a bit boring at times. That’s the reality of life. When people feel bored and don’t get immediate results from boring practices, it can be demotivating and discouraging. The important thing is to try and find magic in the mundanities of life, which can increase motivation and make every moment magical. It’s similar to the alien meditation video (https://youtu.be/JohRD1a7hrc ) on the Lucid Dream Portal channel about looking out on the world as if you are experiencing it for the first time. This practice could help to instill a sense of wonder about the universe and build a sense of presence, of being in the moment. Although focusing on yourself is vital, having a strong lucid dreaming community to connect with is very good as well. It’s important to acknowledge how having a community to share experiences with greatly increases motivation.

One of my favorite videos (or streams) on the Lucid Dream Portal channel is the “World’s first Live streamed Lucid Dream” stream (https://youtu.be/e_GcRI2noO8 ). Although it wasn’t that exciting during the sleeping part, the WBTB part in the middle and updates in the night were great interactive features. It felt like everyone watching were scientists in a sleep lab, monitoring a dreamer. It’s really fascinating how a lucid dream looks just like normal sleeping on the outside, but to the dreamer, it’s a whole world of adventure. Overall, it was a very real and honest look on how basic and mundane lucid dreaming can appear. With the awkward sleepiness in the early hours, the journal recording, and the reality tests often, it showed a clear view of many tedious parts of lucid dreaming. It was also nice to imagine dreaming at the same time as others, and to imagine meeting them in the dream. Most YouTubers that make LD content record videos or streams in the daytime hours, which is often very far away from the time of dreaming and lucid opportunities. This is understandable, as most people would prefer not to have others watch them sleep. However, the stream was an interesting look into a sort of homemade and basic sleep experiment, and was lots of fun to watch live. The best part, perhaps, was getting an insight into the subjective experience of lucid dreaming. For me, that video brought more fun and mystery into the night hours, and was a reminder that lucid dreaming is the here and now, which is emphasized by the live stream format. It was one of the most motivating community based videos on the channel last year for me. Dream reports and experiments like this are some of my favorite things about lucid dreaming.

Lucid dreaming motivation has been on my mind a lot lately. I was curious as to what was making me lose motivation, and I think it was the lack of new objective information about lucid dreaming. I love learning facts, and they are important to pursue. Learning new objective facts gives a sense of progression and accomplishment in one’s knowledge. But in the end, lucid dreaming is a very subjective experience, and should be explored in a personal way. What I mean is that because there aren’t many objective facts on the subject, it can be hard to feel a sense of learning more about your dreams if you think in more of a logical manner. Of course, subjective experiences will let you learn facts about yourself, but over a longer time. I think the best way to continue staying motivated with dream practices is to focus on the self improvement aspect, putting in the hard work of self improvement and getting lucid dreams as a bonus reward. It’s key to remember that any self improvement should be measured by looking at how far you’ve come, not how far you’ve got to go. It’s very easy to give up, much more than continuing for a long time, but I’m sure many people can attest that it’s worth it.

When we set overly high standards for ourselves in the form of dream control or length, it can make even a lucid dream seem not worthwhile. Every dream, every reality test, every day is different. If dream practices seem too mundane, changing that might be a matter of changing mindset. So, to create motivation, to create excitement, it’s important to create interest in all dreams, and learn something new every day.

So those are just some thoughts I had recently, feel free to disagree with or add to points that I said. Share your moments of magic or mundanity. Share thoughts on lucid challenges or games. And as always, stay lucid!