Lucid Dreaming Makes Your Dreams Come True, Literally
Everyone dreams, even if they don’t remember; however, not everyone is aware of the dream while they are dreaming. Lucid dreaming is the ability to be conscious in the dream state and make willful changes. Tibetan Buddhists call this consciousness practice Dream Yoga, and it has the support of modern neuroscience. In an interview with Lilou Macé, Charlie Morley, a self-described Lucid Dreaming Teacher, explains the many benefits of lucid dreaming and offers simple techniques to begin this practice.
Charlie Morley, author of Dreams of Awakening: Lucid Dreaming and Mindfulness of Dream & Sleep, is a teacher of the holistic approach to lucid dreaming, within the context of mindfulness meditation and Tibetan Buddhism. In 2008, he became one of the first Westerners officially authorized to teach how to lucid dream within the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. This allows him the rare ability to synthesize both Western and Eastern perspectives on lucidity.
He shares his initial experiences of lucid dreaming when he was sixteen years old, and as you can imagine, boys that age often have only one thing on their mind. It wasn’t until some years later that he discovered the power of lucid dreaming to embrace the suppressed unconscious aspects of himself.
“You want a real psychedelic experience? Walk around in your unconscious!” -Charlie Morley
I love the way he calls it dream choreography, like dancing with your unconscious. If you saw the movie Inception, then you may recall the characters’ lucid dreaming experiences and how inception points were created and altered. Lucid dreaming, as Charlie describes it, is Self-Inception, very much like a virtual reality simulator.
When he asked one of his teachers one day about the most important secret of dream yoga, he was surprised by the teacher’s response, “You have to really want to do it. You have to be really fired up.”
Does it sound familiar?
It takes the desire to perform it, and then the willingness and discipline to practice on your way to mastery.
This is not airy-fairy woo-woo stuff. This requires training your mind to recognize the illusion and to be the interface in this reality experience. That means being willing to see all the rejected and disowned parts of yourself and recognizing the projections. That in turn ends the blame game, as it is all you.
So why would you lucid dream? It amplifies your intentions and visualizations a thousandfold.
Just imagine the power that might add to your manifesting! Imagine going into a lucid dream with the intention to rejuvenate your physical body. If you are in physical pain or are experiencing extreme discomfort, it can be quite a challenge to focus your attention elsewhere, but in lucid dreaming state, those distractions aren’t present. You can give your body the experience of being whole again. The body responds to this as if it were real and hence it is reflected in the awake state.
You can imagine the infinite potential and possibilities of what you might create in this state of awareness, and the kind of world we’d co-create when we recognize we are living this dream together.
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The Pineal Gland’s Spiritual Connection With the Third Eye Chakra
The third eye is our greatest gift to connect us to source and remind us of a universe much more mystical than we can perceive with our physical senses. It’s through the awakening of the third eye and its corresponding pineal gland that we’re able to attain supernatural feats of telepathy, psychic vision, and an intimate connection with God.
Rare is a conversation on higher consciousness without a mention of the pineal gland. Its prevalence is more than a fad; it’s an imperative first step to attaining our full human potential.
What is the Pineal Gland?
The pineal gland, often referred to as the “third eye” in Eastern esoteric religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism), is a pea-sized endocrine gland located deep in the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres. In Western medicine, it is an organ primarily recognized for its role in regulating the body’s circadian rhythms and melatonin production, which helps regulate sleep-wake cycles. The pineal gland also plays a part in the body’s response to light and darkness, influencing mood, energy levels, and overall well-being. While it holds significant physiological importance, some spiritual practices also attribute metaphysical qualities to the pineal gland, linking it to intuition, perception, and spiritual enlightenment.
The Pineal Gland and Third Eye Chakra
The chakra system is the way the spirit moves within the physical body—how the spirit animates form. The chakras can be imagined as wheels of energy to remain balanced and open for optimal human function. If stagnation appears within the chakra system, the physical body will be affected by unease, depression, and even illness.
Chakras are energy centers, whereas organs have defined locations. The chakras are ruled by the organs but are not confined to a specific location. The heart chakra, for instance, is in the center of the chest, while the physical heart is on the left side. Similarly, the third eye chakra is located in the center of the forehead near the pineal gland.
The pineal gland is known as the third eye chakra or ajna chakra in the Hindu system. A closed ajna (i.e. mind) is said to lead to confusion, uncertainty, cynicism, and pessimism.
Every esoteric tradition heralded the third eye as our connection to spirit. It’s the space between humans and God, moving us from the isolation experienced in the human condition—through an open and vibrant third eye, we find our highest source of ethereal energy. A return path to God is offered when one works to expand third-eye awareness.
