Lucid dreams are those in which you are aware that you are dreaming and have some or total control of what is happening. You can control your surroundings in a dream and remember experiences that you had in your normal awaken state. When you do wake up your dream will be remembered as something between a memory and a dream. It will not fade away as fast as dreams do and your memories of it will resemble those of an actual event that happened in awaken state.

Ever since Aristotle, Galen of Pergamon, Saint Augustine of Hippo as well as ancient Hindu and Buddism, people were aware that dreams can be controlled. In recent history, Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) published "Religio Medici" in which he describes his ability of lucid dreaming and Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys (1822-1892) published "Les Rêves et Les Moyens de Les Diriger; Observations Pratiques" (Dreams and the ways to direct them; practical observations), but it wasn't until the 20th century that things began to be taken seriously. Frederik (Willem) van Eeden (1860–1932) used the term lucid dreaming in an article entitled "A Study of Dreams" published in 1913.

Among many kinds of research, two stand out, the one from Celia Green in 1968. and that from Stephen LaBerge in 1980. Here is a list of their work:

I do encourage you to read about it and check the research, as well as the history, since the continuation of this post will be based entirely on personal experience and with no reference to any published work. You can read more about the information, that I wrote in this part of the post, by following the link

Since I did say that the continuation of the post will be from a personal experience, I will avoid giving any "official" definitions and try to explain lucid dreaming in simple terms from a personal standpoint. When we usually dream, we are not aware that we are dreaming. It is when we wake up that we realise that what we experienced was not real, but it doesn't have to be like that. You can learn how to become aware that you are dreaming while you are dreaming. In those kinds of dreams, that are referred to and called LUCID, you have the power to observe and/or control your dream surrounding as you would those in real life but with one major difference. Rules from real life do not apply here. Physics does not exist, and nor does time. You can manipulate surroundings by changing your appearance, other peoples appearance, material objects and the very fabric of reality. Fire can be cold, metal rods can be soft as pillows when you touch them and there are no limits to your flying, disappearing or transporting abilities. Anything is possible and anything is probable. Imagine a world with no boundaries and no social construct in which your actions have different or no consequences. That is the world of your lucid dream.

When talking to other people, who have experienced them, I have found that there are those who did it by accident but they are a minority. Most of the people, including myself, have been practising for years and using different kinds of exercises to be able to achieve a state of lucid dreaming. The good thing is that as soon as you start, you will see progress. This does not take a lot of your time or your effort, only perseverance and a strong intention.

The first step is recognizing that you are in a dream, becoming aware of it. When I first started lucid dreaming I would wake up whenever I realised I was in a dream. Everything was going fine and normal and the second I had a realization that I was in a dream, I would wake up. My brain or my consciousness was not yet ready to deal with that. In time, I was able to stay longer and longer in a dream without waking up. I had to learn how to control my emotions because I realized that they were the trigger for waking up. I can feel anything now, except the shock. I can be happy or scared, sad or joyful but as soon as I experience a shock or a surprise, I wake up. The other thing I have to keep in mind is that a sudden loss of balance will also end the dream. This is experienced in normal dreams too. When you trip on something or fall, you will wake up. Do not think of this as a bad or negative thing. It has always been my way out. If I want to wake up, I just find a way to lose my balance in any way and I am back in the real world.

You can not recognize a dream just by seeing strange or weird things because they are not strange in dreams. They are observed as normal. You can dream about flying elephants or blue dogs and accept that as a normal reality. There are 3 exercises that I do, and that have become a habit of mine, that helped me recognize I was in a dream.

There is no time in dreams but there are clocks. When you look at a clock in awaken state and it shows a specific time it will be showing the same time if you look away and then look at it again. That is not the case in dreams. You can see a clock showing 11:15, look away and then return your eyes to that clock to find that it shows 15:48 or 02:00 or anything else. This is an excellent way to realize that you are dreaming. I have a habit of always looking at the time twice when I am awake and that habit transferred to my dreams. When I am asleep and see a clock in a dream I will always check the time twice and if it changes I will realize I am dreaming.

As time on clocks changes so does everything else. A person could be wearing a blue shirt in one moment and the red one in another. A picture can be on the left wall and then on the right one. You can be in one place and in a completely different one the next moment. Those are your clues that you are dreaming but to be able to use them your perception has to be trained in awaken state. While you are awake practise your attention to details. Observe the world around you by testing your memory. When you look away, try to remember what you saw in the previous setting, describe it and then look back and check how good your attention to details was. This also transferred to my dreams so I often find myself looking around a room or a person's clothes checking for clues of change. It is like that game where you get two pictures and need to find 20 or so differences except in this case, the first picture is in your memory.

I am not sure how this helps and if it helps at all but I did use to have a dream journal beside my bed in which I wrote my dreams as soon as I woke up. Since I don't do that anymore, at least not that often as I used to, I can say that you can experience a lucid dream without it. This is more of a tool that helps you remember those dreams that were regular and not the lucid ones since the lucid dreams will stay in your memory much longer, even those that are "freaky" like changing your skin colour and gender or flying and levitating experiences.

I have experienced two types of lucid dreams, I call them observe and create. I am aware that I am dreaming in both of them but there is a slight difference between them. In the observing dream, I can not change anything, I can participate and observe everything that is going on but I can't influence it. My explanation for this is that it is an important message from my subconsciousness or external energy source that I need to hear or see. These dreams are usually the ones that need some decipherment and have things in them that the real world does not like smurfs, flying pigs or blue dogs. Symbolism and hidden meaning are often a part of it and it can take me up to a week to figure out what the message that I needed to receive was. The other type, create dreams, are those in which I have complete and total control of everything. Those dreams are more realistic since I do not have the need to see blue dogs and flying pigs. In these dreams, I travel to different countries, talk to people, fly, visit space or my spiritual guides, play with breaking the rules of physics or experience things that I usually do not in the real world. I can be big or small and see things from a different perspective and I can use my senses in a different way by amplifying them. The most fun part is playing with the reality and mixing different things in one, like fire and water, letters and sounds. Imagination is my only boundary.

I have been able to lucid dream for about ten years now. Sometimes I do it every day and sometimes only a couple of times a month. It all depends on my daily activities and distractions as well as my intention and the will to do it but there were times I experienced it without any expectation. Meditation helps and the more I meditate the greater are the chances I would have a lucid dream.