Question

Recently I have become interested in "lucid dreaming". That is becoming aware of what one is dreaming and then taking control of what happens in the dream. Do you see any benefit or harm from my practice of doing this?

Answer

Absolute no harm, absolute benefit. If you can be aware while you are in your dream, then great, you are working on what generally is called a subconscious level. Once I had a dream of going off the cliff in a truck. I started meditating, I was in control of myself in the dream, even when going under the water. It could have been a double nightmare, so to speak, for average people. But I was in control when I was drowning. The very first time this ever happened to me, before I was a Buddhist, we were trying to sell a home up in Queensland, we had painted the roof, it was quite difficult, a home on higher poles - high set. It was done and I have this dream of coming out in the front yard, looking up and somebody had ripped parts of the roof off! Horrifying, right? This is a long time ago, 30 years now, it was horrifying with parts of the roof ripped off and then it was the first time in my life that I thought, "Hey, this is a dream." Then I waved my arms back and forth and I woke myself up.

I thought, "Oh, that's nice". I had more dreams similar to that since then, but the first time it ever happened - it was nice, it was good. I was more in control on a subconscious level. So, I don't know the exact term "lucid dreaming", but if you can be more in control in your dreams, we see that as a benefit.

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