# <center>***Lucid Dreaming: The Art of Summoning Dreams to the Surface of One’s Mind and Know That You are Dreaming.***</center>
## <center>(Part II)</center>

![01 Eric Boucher'S Photography 02.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQ5qdrDoon22WpPPTjJqERfyWCasDLcfiFprsd9RvP2F3/01%20Eric%20Boucher'S%20Photography%2002.jpg)
><sub>(Over the years, in life as in dreams, I have learned to pay attention to stirring images and symbols tending to be recurring in my life. I store them along with the thoughts and emotions they are connected to. The owl, for instance, is a symbol that has always been very close to me and often relates to emotions and thoughts concerning drastic changes in my life as well as thoughts of alertness in these important movements in which I find myself.)</sub>
## <center>***Step two, asserting to one’s mind the fact that one is dreaming.***</center>

### What would prevent your dreams from falling within the realms of a language hard to decipher? If there are recursive forms imbued of meanings that keep on rising to the surface of your dreams for you to become aware of, how do you find out? Information permeates reality under all its forms carrying intrinsic meaning in the form of symbolism. The language or codes, sometimes hidden codes, found within reality can be transferred into all kinds of forms. For examples it can be drawn or painted, written and sometimes simply spoken or sung… What would prevent your dreams from falling within the realms of a language hard to decipher? If there are recursive forms imbued of meanings that keep on rising to the surface of your dreams for you to become aware of how do you find out?
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After reaching the point where one sees dreams, it is time to assert to oneself that one is actually dreaming.

Using the same kind of idea as the “I will remember my dreams tonight.” mantra, you can propel your mind to becoming aware within the dreaming.

Prompting your mind to give yourself a code as you are within the dream, a specific and very unusual action or words, will allow you to take full control of your awareness level and ascertain the fact that you are fully aware within the dream you are experiencing. It allows you to come to the same level of awareness you would use on your everyday life… Examples of mantra that I used to that effect over the years were “I will tell myself out loud that I am dreaming in the dream.” In terms of strange and unusual actions “I will do a front flip.” or “I will do a 360 up in the air as soon as I know I am dreaming.”. Really, you just have to give yourself a starting point, any code that will trigger your awareness to its full capacity in the fact that you are dreaming, slowly becoming fully aware that you are now in a limitless world where deathlessness is law. From there, the potential is equally bountiful beyond measures. I’ll share to that effect a bit later. 

![02 eric Boucher's Photography, "Am I Really Dreaming".jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZqgoSPvqUGappKujgn2xTt1UxPias8jBafdFQVnZ7eE3/02%20eric%20Boucher's%20Photography%2C%20%22Am%20I%20Really%20Dreaming%22.jpg)
><sub><center>(Looking at our own feet is a very powerful way to ground oneself and institute stillness and a stronger state of self-awareness.)</center></sub>

Still on the subject of becoming aware in our dreams, there are countless tools one can use and methods that have been around for millennia.

The very first point of entry, your body has all the tools necessary to teach one person to grow and evolve and strengthen themselves to use and it starts with your 5 senses.

Food is the number one medicine and, whether it is eaten, smelled, inhaled or simply touched or seen, every plant has its own medicine and it is only up to us to find out what medicines they have the potential to readily share with us. Herbal dreaming aids come in multiple forms and names and, throughout the ages of our history and cultures, have been used in countless different ways to help in our dream work.

Also known as *“The flying Herb”*, the Chinese have used Tian Men Dong, a.k.a. *Heavenly Spirit Herb*, is commonly known in English as  wild aspergus root. It allows one to “open the heart” as the shamans, monks, yogis and dream practitioners would say…

Valerian roots, commonly used for deep sleep has also been used for centuries in teas and tinctures to induce lucid dreaming.

In Mexico, the favourite Dream Herb tea has been the *Calea Zachatechi*. It has been proven scientifically that it increases reaction time  as well as the frequency of dreams while encouraging lucid dreaming.

Over the past few years, many of you might have came across the beneficial memory improving powers of *Ginko Biloba*. Taken in tinctures or capsule, it is also known to boost alertness and  lucidity.

Any herbal aid will carry with it emotional markers to which you may relate to allowing you to set specific emotional conditions within the dreams. Though diuretic, the all too common mint tea, also taken in the form of tincture, helps in this fashion. Where mint provides for “prophetic” qualities, passionflower calms down the dreams. especially good for people suffering from consistent nightmares.

![03 Eric Boucher's Photography, "Garuda-Garou!?!".jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmY66XQt4u6DT8HMhcZZt33mroVNxUnMW5ueDfRtohwGte/03%20Eric%20Boucher's%20Photography%2C%20%22Garuda-Garou!%3F!%22.jpg)
><sub>(In some cultures, carving drawing or imagining a fearsome wrathful monster is a way to scare away bad spirits and demons... Embodying one of those is intended to scare away an array of beings beyond our earthly realms.)</sub>

Herbs have also been used externally for the same purpose I’ll only name but a few classics here and will let you do your homework in relation to them, if you are so inclined to want to know more about any of them: Anise, Burdock, Clary Sage, Datura flowers, romantic Jasmine, Lemongrass, Mugwort, the almighty Mullein, Sage and the amorous Rose Petals,… You see the picture and it can be applied to your food use for the purpose of specific dreaming this evening too. You know how smell and taste can’t be disconnected, that is a deep well worth venturing into.

Sleeping on your back, especially if you suffer from apnea, a temporary cessation of breathing often caused by someone sleeping on their back and snoring or swallowing their tongue for a few seconds, can constantly induce lucid dreaming as your sleep becomes shallow. The presence of your spirit near by, called by emotions of a body in distress, it stays by naturally thinking it will be better able to protect the body… Without an opposite experience of the spirit being far and still being able to protect the body, how could it know otherwise? Thus, the trigger becomes almost psychologically based instead of physically based. We’ll come back to this one after the 5 senses topic.

There's also an incredible array of music and specific frequencies to awaken the mind in sleep. A quick search on YouTube will give you access to at least one that will jive with your sensibilities. Give it a shot, it is well worth venturing into. This will give you access to a doorway of experiences maybe unforeseen yet. You might also notice how astral projection videos are also intermingling among these…  

This one is specifically shared for you to experience the effect of light on your own states. Notice how you physically fell, notice what kind of memories, images, thoughts and emotions rise to the surface. In itself, they’ll form a bit of an awaken dream:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAbUeZfZNOI
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If you delve into any of the links relating to lucid dreaming, as well as many meditation or chakra healing frequency generators, you will also often come across a set of imagery created to induce specific emotional and/or spiritual states. Light impulses have the same power as any sound frequencies. In fact, they are simply following the proportions/ratios of sound itself.
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![04 Eric Boucher's Photography, "Rainbow Portal Homing".jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmauLPsFvo8C2BLn6rUvUyWQmWPVR3yy2x96E1258jw9YX/04%20Eric%20Boucher's%20Photography%2C%20%22Rainbow%20Portal%20Homing%22.jpg)
><sub><center>(For generation and throughout countless cultures, the rainbow has been considered as a symbol instilled with the meaning of serendipitous blessings, a doorway to the spirit world, a witness to the divine.)</center></sub>

## <center>***Some insights into dreams and the mechanics of consciousness.***</center>


Information permeates reality under all its forms, it carries intrinsic meaning in the form of symbolism. The language or codes, sometimes hidden codes, found within reality can be transferred into all kinds of forms. For examples, it can be drawn or painted, written, sometimes simply spoken or sung… What would prevent your dreams from falling within the realms of a language hard to decipher? If there are recursive forms imbued of meaning that keep on rising to the surface of your dreams for you to become aware of, the question is how would you find out?

Creating a compendium, the traditional *Dream Journaling* is a great classic, in the cultures using writing. If you were to try it out, you’d quickly find out that this technique takes up a lot of time and while you are focussing on the writing, you loose a lot of details about your dreams. On the other hand, the audio recording of your dream onto a device properly positioned and readily available will propel your recording much further and faster than the use of the writing tools. The faster you recount the dream, the closer you are to the remembering of the experience. Thus, one can recall and bring back much more of the sensations and emotions relating to the dreams. There are also many secrets found in the details when one delves deeper into the study of dreams. Keeping records of these experiences will allow you to build a sort of library. Memories you can go back to to pinpoint fine details relating to specific locations or people seen in the dreams you have had over the years. Sometimes, it will refer to entirely different realms and, through them, links to other similar dreams will arise…

![05 Eric Boucher's Photography, "Moonset Waters".jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmfUiZfZ1W7X1Nm9tPeEjnVyrTQ7aynzJbs3YbDb8NQ3Z9/05%20Eric%20Boucher's%20Photography%2C%20%22Moonset%20Waters%22.jpg)
><sub>(Moonset picture on a summer solstice a few years ago, taken from my kitchen window. Out of the cover of the clouds came the moon beaming of its golden light over the ocean and straight inside the cabin where I lived. Meanwhile, the clouds that used to hide the moon from sight had dispersed and were at the right distance to allow for an illusive "moondog", a rainbow formation circling the moon. This ritualistic night of drumming came to an end in the silence of the night, resplendent glow of auric quality and very sweet dreams continued it...)</sub>
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***Well, what do you think, enough material for now? I will be posting more on the subject of lucid dreaming and consciousness when the time has ripened.*** 

***In the next article, we will be focussing on “sorting out and categorizing dreams”, basically learning to deal with the library of dreams we are building. Then, I’ll share with you some experimental exercises I have tried over the years, maybe some of you will want to try for yourselves…***

***Till then, stay tuned, keep your smile and taking good care, Steem on and thrive on!***  😃

<center>![NAMASTE.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTkWQeEi65NpPEkcjdWLHNMcHp8xWGoeyWDaNGSUae3xG/NAMASTE.gif)</center>