Charlie Morley
Autore di Dreams of Awakening: Lucid Dreaming And Mindfulness Of Dream And Sleep
Opere di Charlie Morley
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Informazioni generali
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Utenti
Recensioni
> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Morley-Reves-deveil/1009899
> Zuihô (Amazon) : https://www.amazon.fr/gp/customer-reviews/R2AOM5KNT76540/
> Voir un extrait : https://books.google.fr/books?id=R_6_DAAAQBAJ&hl=fr&printsec=frontcover&...… (altro)
> Zuihô (Amazon) : https://www.amazon.fr/gp/customer-reviews/R2AOM5KNT76540/
> Voir un extrait : https://books.google.fr/books?id=R_6_DAAAQBAJ&hl=fr&printsec=frontcover&...… (altro)
Charlie Morley is my favourite lucid dreaming author, and this is his best book ever!
It contains both Western and Tibetan Buddhist approaches to dream work and thus also teaches us about Dream Yoga.
First, we’re informed about what lucid dreaming actually is, i.e. dreams in which we become aware that we’re dreaming. Charlie stresses that we’re not actually controlling our dreams. He states: “You may be controlling your subjective experience of the localized dreamscape, but there is something much more powerful directing everything else.” He quotes the renowned lucid dream author Robert Waggoner as saying “No sailor controls the sea. Similarly, no lucid dreamer controls the dream.”
The author and Rob Nairn now hold courses entitled “Mindfulness of Dream & Sleep”. These teach both mindfulness meditation, lucid dream training, and conscious sleeping techniques.
Charlie aims to allow mindful awareness to “infuse all stages of our sleep cycle”. This will lead to “lucid living”, to wake up to life with more awareness.
So this book is much more ambitious than other books on lucid dreaming, We learn much about Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan Dream Yoga. The latter is “a collection of transformational lucid dreaming, conscious sleeping and --- out-of-body experience practices aimed at spiritual growth and mind training”.
We are taught about “bardo” which means “place in between”. The after-death bardo describes the intermediate states between death and rebirth. “If we can fall asleep consciously and then recognize our dreams as dreams, we may also be able to die consciously and recognize the after-death bardo state. It´s said that if practitioners can become fully lucid within the death and after-death bardo states, then they can recognize the nature of their mind and have the potential to reach full spiritual awakening.”
The practices of lucid dreaming and dream yoga are also intended to train practitioners to become lucid in their waking state. The author states further: “The lucid awakening within the shared dream of life is exactly what transformed Siddhartha Gautama into the Buddha. This is an awakening that is possible for us all.”
Both psychological and physical healing can be achieved in lucid dreams. Visualizations can “help to reduce stress, enhance the immune system and lessen pain”. “A lucid dream is the most vivid and complete visualization we can experience,” The author has himself healed ear infections and torn ligaments in lucid dreams, Visualizations performed in a lucid dream are far more powerful than visualizations in the waking state. Phobias and addictions can also be healed!
We can do anything we ever wanted to do in lucid dreams. But whatever we do we create and strengthen neural pathways while lucid dreaming, as in waking life; and harmful acts in a lucid dream will give negative karma as in waking reality.
Charlie explains about the Gnostics, who believed that we were “sleepwalking through the illusion of waking reality, unaware that it was all just as empty of inherent existence as our dreams”. In a lucid dream we become aware that the dream is not real but just a mental projection; similarly, if we could get lucid in our waking reality, maybe we could see that life is just a dream.
There is a chapter about lucid dreaming techniques which includes how to improve dream recall, the benefits of keeping a dream diary, how to spot dream signs (which are signs that you´re dreaming), reality checks, the MILD technique and the Wake up, back to bed method.
I must say that I would never confuse dreams with reality, since my dreams are not realistic, but always “dreamy” and visually unclear. Now, if I WERE conscious in a dream, then I could say “this must be a dream, because it’s so dreamy. The thing that’s a bit irritating about all lucid dream writers is that they seem to put the cart before the horse and ask you to do things in dreams in order to check whether you’re dreaming that you’re unable to do until you’re conscious in the first place.
Dream signs are anything anomalous or bizarre like flying pink elephants, walking trees, or seeing one’s dead grandmother. If you experience any of these things, it should help you to realize that you must be dreaming. Charlie tells us: “If you spot a recurring dream sign, firmly resolve to use it as a lucidity trigger by saying to yourself before bed: ‘The next time I see my dead grandmother, I’ll recognize that I’m dreaming and become lucid.’”
He gives us both a mindfulness meditation entitled “Let’s do nothing” and a walking meditation, both valuable.
The hypnagogic affirmation technique requires that you fall asleep while mentally reciting a positive affirmation of your intent to gain lucidity, for example, “When I dream, I know that I´m dreaming”. The great master Guru Rinpoche said that we should “bring forth a powerful yearning to recognize the dream state”: you should “imbue your sleepy consciousness with the fervent aspiration to gain lucidity”.
We are provided with innumerable valuable techniques by which to gain lucidity, one of these being prayer. Pray, for example, to Buddha or Jesus whom you imagine in your heart or throat area as you are falling asleep: “Bless me with your grace. Let me dream with full lucidity for the benefit of all beings.”
There’s an inspiring and important (well, all the chapters are important) chapter on what to do when lucid, for example, interact with our higher self, meet our subconscious, talk to our inner child; we can ask “big questions”, walk through walls, heal ourselves (one of my main motives for learning to lucid dream), receive spiritual teachings from an enlightened master, integrate the shadow (that’s a big one!) or engage in spiritual practice – “just one moment of spiritual practice in the lucid dream state is worth a one-week meditation retreat in the waking state!”
In a lucid dream we are at one with all things: Oneness is reality both in our dreams and in the waking state too.
Two valuable appendices give us accounts of the author´s own insightful lucid dreams, “clarity dreams and hypnopompic insights”.
This is the best book on the subject I´ve encountered, because it also teaches us about the interconnectivity of life and about how lucid dreaming “trains us to recognize the Oneness of waking reality” and for the awakening of enlightenment. We realize that most of reality is a dreamlike illusion; the more we experience that we are the co-creator of our lucid dreams, the more can we perceive waking reality in a similar way. “ --- seeing through illusion – forms the crux of lucid living.”
I highly recommend this book.… (altro)
It contains both Western and Tibetan Buddhist approaches to dream work and thus also teaches us about Dream Yoga.
First, we’re informed about what lucid dreaming actually is, i.e. dreams in which we become aware that we’re dreaming. Charlie stresses that we’re not actually controlling our dreams. He states: “You may be controlling your subjective experience of the localized dreamscape, but there is something much more powerful directing everything else.” He quotes the renowned lucid dream author Robert Waggoner as saying “No sailor controls the sea. Similarly, no lucid dreamer controls the dream.”
The author and Rob Nairn now hold courses entitled “Mindfulness of Dream & Sleep”. These teach both mindfulness meditation, lucid dream training, and conscious sleeping techniques.
Charlie aims to allow mindful awareness to “infuse all stages of our sleep cycle”. This will lead to “lucid living”, to wake up to life with more awareness.
So this book is much more ambitious than other books on lucid dreaming, We learn much about Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan Dream Yoga. The latter is “a collection of transformational lucid dreaming, conscious sleeping and --- out-of-body experience practices aimed at spiritual growth and mind training”.
We are taught about “bardo” which means “place in between”. The after-death bardo describes the intermediate states between death and rebirth. “If we can fall asleep consciously and then recognize our dreams as dreams, we may also be able to die consciously and recognize the after-death bardo state. It´s said that if practitioners can become fully lucid within the death and after-death bardo states, then they can recognize the nature of their mind and have the potential to reach full spiritual awakening.”
The practices of lucid dreaming and dream yoga are also intended to train practitioners to become lucid in their waking state. The author states further: “The lucid awakening within the shared dream of life is exactly what transformed Siddhartha Gautama into the Buddha. This is an awakening that is possible for us all.”
Both psychological and physical healing can be achieved in lucid dreams. Visualizations can “help to reduce stress, enhance the immune system and lessen pain”. “A lucid dream is the most vivid and complete visualization we can experience,” The author has himself healed ear infections and torn ligaments in lucid dreams, Visualizations performed in a lucid dream are far more powerful than visualizations in the waking state. Phobias and addictions can also be healed!
We can do anything we ever wanted to do in lucid dreams. But whatever we do we create and strengthen neural pathways while lucid dreaming, as in waking life; and harmful acts in a lucid dream will give negative karma as in waking reality.
Charlie explains about the Gnostics, who believed that we were “sleepwalking through the illusion of waking reality, unaware that it was all just as empty of inherent existence as our dreams”. In a lucid dream we become aware that the dream is not real but just a mental projection; similarly, if we could get lucid in our waking reality, maybe we could see that life is just a dream.
There is a chapter about lucid dreaming techniques which includes how to improve dream recall, the benefits of keeping a dream diary, how to spot dream signs (which are signs that you´re dreaming), reality checks, the MILD technique and the Wake up, back to bed method.
I must say that I would never confuse dreams with reality, since my dreams are not realistic, but always “dreamy” and visually unclear. Now, if I WERE conscious in a dream, then I could say “this must be a dream, because it’s so dreamy. The thing that’s a bit irritating about all lucid dream writers is that they seem to put the cart before the horse and ask you to do things in dreams in order to check whether you’re dreaming that you’re unable to do until you’re conscious in the first place.
Dream signs are anything anomalous or bizarre like flying pink elephants, walking trees, or seeing one’s dead grandmother. If you experience any of these things, it should help you to realize that you must be dreaming. Charlie tells us: “If you spot a recurring dream sign, firmly resolve to use it as a lucidity trigger by saying to yourself before bed: ‘The next time I see my dead grandmother, I’ll recognize that I’m dreaming and become lucid.’”
He gives us both a mindfulness meditation entitled “Let’s do nothing” and a walking meditation, both valuable.
The hypnagogic affirmation technique requires that you fall asleep while mentally reciting a positive affirmation of your intent to gain lucidity, for example, “When I dream, I know that I´m dreaming”. The great master Guru Rinpoche said that we should “bring forth a powerful yearning to recognize the dream state”: you should “imbue your sleepy consciousness with the fervent aspiration to gain lucidity”.
We are provided with innumerable valuable techniques by which to gain lucidity, one of these being prayer. Pray, for example, to Buddha or Jesus whom you imagine in your heart or throat area as you are falling asleep: “Bless me with your grace. Let me dream with full lucidity for the benefit of all beings.”
There’s an inspiring and important (well, all the chapters are important) chapter on what to do when lucid, for example, interact with our higher self, meet our subconscious, talk to our inner child; we can ask “big questions”, walk through walls, heal ourselves (one of my main motives for learning to lucid dream), receive spiritual teachings from an enlightened master, integrate the shadow (that’s a big one!) or engage in spiritual practice – “just one moment of spiritual practice in the lucid dream state is worth a one-week meditation retreat in the waking state!”
In a lucid dream we are at one with all things: Oneness is reality both in our dreams and in the waking state too.
Two valuable appendices give us accounts of the author´s own insightful lucid dreams, “clarity dreams and hypnopompic insights”.
This is the best book on the subject I´ve encountered, because it also teaches us about the interconnectivity of life and about how lucid dreaming “trains us to recognize the Oneness of waking reality” and for the awakening of enlightenment. We realize that most of reality is a dreamlike illusion; the more we experience that we are the co-creator of our lucid dreams, the more can we perceive waking reality in a similar way. “ --- seeing through illusion – forms the crux of lucid living.”
I highly recommend this book.… (altro)
This is the first book I´ve read by Charlie Morley, and I trust it won´t be the last.
Lucid dreaming is having a dream where you realize that you´re dreaming and thus wake up in your dream!
Once you´re lucid, you can choose to do whatever you like - fly, teleport, meet a “personification of your higher self” and so on. But the author points out that to control our dreams is often “to subjugate, to dominate and to suppress”, so instead we should aim to “choreograph, influence and direct the dream”. The dreaming mind is our unconscious and we should refrain from controlling it but instead befriend it.
We must set an intention to recall our dreams before bed. We should recite over and over “Tonight I remember my dreams. I have excellent dream recall.”
It is important to keep a dream diary in which we report all the dreams we recall.
We are told about dream signs – any “improbable, impossible or bizarre aspect of dream experience” that can indicate we´re dreaming.
Once we´ve found our dream signs we should keep a lookout for them in future. Before bed we should remind ourselves again and again: “The next time I see Barack Obama (or whatever) I´ll know that I´m dreaming”.
The problem is that this author and all the authors of the other books on lucid dreaming say that you have to, for example, look at your hands when you´re dreaming or notice something anomalous, and then you´ll know you´re dreaming and become lucid. But this makes no sense to me, because in order to follow these instructions, you need to be conscious (lucid) to begin with.
And I can dream of Barack Obama, or my deceased parents innumerable times without thinking there is anything strange about this, and therefore never realize I´m dreaming.
Charlie instructs us to carry out reality checks when dreaming (which again can only be done when lucid or pre-lucid). 1) Look at your outstretched hand twice in quick succession and check that it doesn´t change in any way. 2) Read a text “coherently” twice without it changing. 3) Use digital or electrical devices without their changing or malfunctioning in any way.
In our waking life, whenever anything weird happens, we should ask “Am I dreaming?” followed by a reality check. When you keep doing this, the habit will appear in your dreams, thus helping you to check for lucidity.
Each time you act with courage in a lucid dream you´re strengthening the neural pathways associated with courage in the waking state.
It has been scientifically documented that practising sports within the lucid dream state can lead to remarkable increases in waking-state performances, since training in this state creates neural pathways that will carry over into the waking state.
Moreover, we can heal our psychological baggage within the dream state. For example, “gradual exposure to spiders within the lucid dream can be used to help overcome a phobia of them”. One young woman used her lucid dream to meet and forgive an abuser from childhood.
Charlie explains Stephen LaBerge´s Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams, the MILD technique, and we´re also given the Wake, back to bed technique, which increases our chances of having a lucid dream by 2,000 percent (or so he says!).
There´s a chapter containing advice about what to eat or drink to improve chances of gaining lucidity. Taking Vitamin B6 before bed certainly strongly improves my memory of all the dreams I have that night. One cup of mugwort tea lets me remember my dreams for two nights in a row!
However, Charlie fails to mention Guayusa tea, which one seller based in Thailand promotes under the name “Lucid Dreaming Tea”. Guayusa tea has apparently aided many to lucid dream, but not me personally, not one bit.
The mind is up to seven times more powerful in the lucid dream state so it is valuable to implant new habit patterns in our minds during lucid dreams. For example, if struggling with self-worth, you could call out “I am loved, loving and loveable in every single way, I am loved, loving and loveable every single day”.
We´re given an example of someone who cured himself of nicotine addiction during one lucid dream, by getting help from a dream character.
At the end of each chapter we find a “Tool Box”, which provides us with valuable advice and exercises. Throughout the book we are also given interesting and useful case studies with examples of lucid dream experiences.
To sum up, I can highly recommend this book. It is well-written and entertaining and presents us with innumerable techniques to improve our chances of gaining lucidity, together with much other information. In my view it will be a valuable addition to your lucid dream library!… (altro)
Lucid dreaming is having a dream where you realize that you´re dreaming and thus wake up in your dream!
Once you´re lucid, you can choose to do whatever you like - fly, teleport, meet a “personification of your higher self” and so on. But the author points out that to control our dreams is often “to subjugate, to dominate and to suppress”, so instead we should aim to “choreograph, influence and direct the dream”. The dreaming mind is our unconscious and we should refrain from controlling it but instead befriend it.
We must set an intention to recall our dreams before bed. We should recite over and over “Tonight I remember my dreams. I have excellent dream recall.”
It is important to keep a dream diary in which we report all the dreams we recall.
We are told about dream signs – any “improbable, impossible or bizarre aspect of dream experience” that can indicate we´re dreaming.
Once we´ve found our dream signs we should keep a lookout for them in future. Before bed we should remind ourselves again and again: “The next time I see Barack Obama (or whatever) I´ll know that I´m dreaming”.
The problem is that this author and all the authors of the other books on lucid dreaming say that you have to, for example, look at your hands when you´re dreaming or notice something anomalous, and then you´ll know you´re dreaming and become lucid. But this makes no sense to me, because in order to follow these instructions, you need to be conscious (lucid) to begin with.
And I can dream of Barack Obama, or my deceased parents innumerable times without thinking there is anything strange about this, and therefore never realize I´m dreaming.
Charlie instructs us to carry out reality checks when dreaming (which again can only be done when lucid or pre-lucid). 1) Look at your outstretched hand twice in quick succession and check that it doesn´t change in any way. 2) Read a text “coherently” twice without it changing. 3) Use digital or electrical devices without their changing or malfunctioning in any way.
In our waking life, whenever anything weird happens, we should ask “Am I dreaming?” followed by a reality check. When you keep doing this, the habit will appear in your dreams, thus helping you to check for lucidity.
Each time you act with courage in a lucid dream you´re strengthening the neural pathways associated with courage in the waking state.
It has been scientifically documented that practising sports within the lucid dream state can lead to remarkable increases in waking-state performances, since training in this state creates neural pathways that will carry over into the waking state.
Moreover, we can heal our psychological baggage within the dream state. For example, “gradual exposure to spiders within the lucid dream can be used to help overcome a phobia of them”. One young woman used her lucid dream to meet and forgive an abuser from childhood.
Charlie explains Stephen LaBerge´s Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams, the MILD technique, and we´re also given the Wake, back to bed technique, which increases our chances of having a lucid dream by 2,000 percent (or so he says!).
There´s a chapter containing advice about what to eat or drink to improve chances of gaining lucidity. Taking Vitamin B6 before bed certainly strongly improves my memory of all the dreams I have that night. One cup of mugwort tea lets me remember my dreams for two nights in a row!
However, Charlie fails to mention Guayusa tea, which one seller based in Thailand promotes under the name “Lucid Dreaming Tea”. Guayusa tea has apparently aided many to lucid dream, but not me personally, not one bit.
The mind is up to seven times more powerful in the lucid dream state so it is valuable to implant new habit patterns in our minds during lucid dreams. For example, if struggling with self-worth, you could call out “I am loved, loving and loveable in every single way, I am loved, loving and loveable every single day”.
We´re given an example of someone who cured himself of nicotine addiction during one lucid dream, by getting help from a dream character.
At the end of each chapter we find a “Tool Box”, which provides us with valuable advice and exercises. Throughout the book we are also given interesting and useful case studies with examples of lucid dream experiences.
To sum up, I can highly recommend this book. It is well-written and entertaining and presents us with innumerable techniques to improve our chances of gaining lucidity, together with much other information. In my view it will be a valuable addition to your lucid dream library!… (altro)
Statistiche
- Opere
- 10
- Utenti
- 83
- Popolarità
- #218,811
- Voto
- 3.8
- Recensioni
- 4
- ISBN
- 22
- Lingue
- 6
And you might be interested to know that Albert Einstein, Charles Dickens, Thomas Edison, Stephen King, Nikola Tesla and Salvador Dali are - or were - lucid dreamers.
Charlie Morley is somewhat of an expert on lucid dreaming with a number of books on the topic. I first learned of his abilities and teachings when listening to Sleeping with Baddiel by Geoff Jein, which I gave one star in my review.
In Lucid Dreaming Made Easy - A Beginner's Guide to Waking Up in Your Dreams, Charlie introduces the reader to several techniques to start lucid dreaming and the book kicks off from there. I thought I was an experienced and capable lucid dreamer, but it turns out I'm still a beginner. Apparently there's sooooo much more to lucid dreaming and I've only been scratching the surface.
Charlie researches the history of lucid dreaming around the world and across different cultures. He highlights the different ways in which it can be used to heal trauma, and advance spiritual awareness. And interestingly, he has practiced with and interviewed experts in the field from Eastern and Western philosophies.
Lucid Dreaming Made Easy is essentially a science self-help book and it can be heavy going at times. It's chock full of references to other dream scientists and religions practicing lucid dreaming, and will give the enthusiastic reader plenty of jumping off points to explore the topic further.
Some of the exercises and tips began to make me feel as though I was in the movie Inception and I don't think I'll ever aspire to the lofty heights of lucid dreaming that I now know exist.
However after listening to this audiobook, I am attempting to exercise greater control over my lucid dreams. Instead of continuing or changing an existing dream, I'm trying to choose a new topic altogether and form a dream directly from my imagination. I haven't been successful yet, but I'll keep on trying; until I fall asleep that is.
As Charlie says: "follow your dreams and dream on dreamers."… (altro)