The Most Honest Lucid Dreaming Video I've Ever Made

[00:00:00]Okay, so this is going to be the most honest video on lucid dreaming that I've ever made.

[00:00:06]And with that in mind, before we get started, if you're someone looking for some quick and easy tips on how to lucid dream, this video isn't going to be for you.

[00:00:15]But look around the channel, there's plenty of videos that do just that.

[00:00:19]But for those of you who are interested in my real thoughts on lucid dreaming after, I think it's about 45 years of lucid dreaming now, and from someone who is a lucid dreaming expert and lives and breathes this subject, then grab a cup of tea, get relaxed, uh, pop your headphones in.

[00:00:39]You don't really need to watch the screen.

[00:00:42]I'm gonna just ramble at you and tell you my thoughts off the cuff about what I really think of lucid dreaming, why I do this, what my thoughts about the lucid dreaming community and the world of lucid dreaming is.

[00:00:55]It's gonna be messy.

[00:00:56]There's no structure l- to this.

[00:00:57]It's unscripted.

[00:00:59]I don't know where this is going any more than you do.

[00:01:02]So I suppose let's get started.

[00:01:04]For those of you who don't know who I am, I'm Daniel Love.

[00:01:06]I'm a lucid dreaming teacher and researcher.

[00:01:09]I've written several books on the subject.

[00:01:12]I run this channel, and news companies in the media often reach out to me for my thoughts on lucid dreaming.

[00:01:19]So I kind of know what I'm doing.

[00:01:20]I've made a career out of this, and I've been doing it since I was five years old.

[00:01:25]And yeah, I know that sounds utterly bonkers, but as a kid, I had horrendous parasomnias, nightmares, you name it.

[00:01:34]If it could happen at night and it was unpleasant, that happened to me as a kid, basically.

[00:01:39]And as a result, I had to do something about it, and long story short, because I've made another video about this, I stumbled across how to lucid dream.

[00:01:51]I basically forced myself to lucid dream in order to end the nightmares, and it worked, and that set the ball rolling for a lifetime of being absolutely passionate about this subject.

[00:02:03]And as you can imagine, if you spend a lifetime with lucid dreaming, that being your companion throughout life, you go through many, many different phases, many different relationships with what lucid dreaming is.

[00:02:17]And every now and then, I'll make a video like this.

[00:02:19]It's ki- kind of as my mission statement, this is more for me than for anyone else, to remind myself why I do this, what I really think about it, and obviously, that changes over time.

[00:02:30]So this video is a little time capsule as to where my thoughts are right now about lucid dreaming.

[00:02:36]And maybe if you stick around with the channel for years, hit subscribe if you haven't done so already, then you'll probably see another video like this in the future with updated thoughts.

[00:02:47]Right.

[00:02:47]It's gonna be rambly.

[00:02:48]It's going to be a rambly one.

[00:02:51]So that was how I started with lucid dreaming, and as a result, I ended up basically turning it into a career.

[00:02:56]I started to teach workshops, um, do online tuition, write books, all of that sort of thing, and now I live and breathe the subject.

[00:03:03]It's what I do, basically.

[00:03:06]I'm one of a handful of experts on lucid dreaming around the world, which is honestly really quite weird.

[00:03:12]Um, so what do I think of the subject itself?

[00:03:16]Uh, well, le- let's first focus on lucid dreaming as a product, because that's how most people will first experience it.

[00:03:25]You'll be browsing a Kickstarter campaign or Facebook or something like that, and there'll be some kind of lucid dreaming device, or you might be on YouTube and there'll be some kind of lucid dreaming video.

[00:03:35]Um, and the vast majority of lucid dreaming content and products are essentially trying to monetize a really elusive and strange state of mind.

[00:03:49]And in order to do that, what people have to do is to make a caricature of what lucid dreaming is.

[00:03:56]So they basically pick all the best bits, all the sort of highlights of lucid dreaming, and then write a story, "This is what lucid dreaming is."

[00:04:05]So it's normally, uh, have complete control of your dreams, nature's virtual reality, um, long, highly controllable dreams where you can do whatever you want.

[00:04:15]Basically, a wish-fulfilling state of mind, essentially.

[00:04:21]And that's really appealing, right?

[00:04:22]That's an easy product to sell to people.

[00:04:25]Um, unfortunately, it's not anywhere near the reality.

[00:04:30]So there's endless devices and pills and the courses and all sorts which promise that caricature of lucid dreaming.

[00:04:39]And I'm not saying you can't have lucid dreams like that, but that is not the average lucid dream by a long shot, and there's certainly no way to guarantee the sort of peak lucid dream experience every time by simply strapping a device to your face or taking a pill or doing a specific workshop or something.

[00:04:58]That's absolutely not possible.

[00:05:00]That is, I don't wanna say a scam, but it's definitely misleading.

[00:05:05]It's, it's misrepresenting what lucid dreaming is, because it makes it much easier to sell when it sounds that good.

[00:05:13]Weirdly though, I would say that lucid dreaming is actually better than that for a whole bunch of reasons.

[00:05:20]So if the product version of lucid dreaming doesn't exist, what is the real experience?

[00:05:27]Well, the real experience is far more gritty and natural and challenging, and it forces you to, um, look at yourself in new ways to develop new personality traits.

[00:05:40]It is absolutely chock-a-block with frustration.

[00:05:44]Um, less so if you understand what it really is and you're not chasing the, uh, caricature version.

[00:05:51]So one of the reasons I complain about the, the products and stuff is because it gives people a misrepresentation of what they're trying to get, and then that increases their frustration, so they're more likely to give up if that's the case.

[00:06:05]Right.

[00:06:05]So there's no way I'm gonna get all of this into one video, but the, the real experience of lucid dreaming, let's say you're a complete beginner right now, what can you expect between, for now up to the next five years?

[00:06:18]Well, for the first year or two, you're going to be feeling like you're banging your head against a brick wall.

[00:06:25]You're going to be trying all of the techniques you find online and in books and in workshops and all of that stuff, and sometimes they'll work amazingly.

[00:06:33]Most of the time they won't.

[00:06:35]Some techniques will work for a bit of the time, then stop working entirely.

[00:06:39]Um, most of the information out there is gonna be confusing and overwhelming.

[00:06:43]Um, and the results you get aren't ever going to really be anywhere quite near what you expected because probably for the first, at least the first year, most of your lucid dreams are going to be impressive in the sense that you find yourself standing in what is essentially an alternate dimension.

[00:07:06]I mean, that in itself is, you know, you're living the sci-fi dream.

[00:07:11]But your dream control, the length of the dream, um, all of those things are going to be absolutely up in the air.

[00:07:19]Sometimes you'll have some dream control.

[00:07:21]You might be able to do certain things, but not others.

[00:07:24]Um, most of your lucid dreams are going to be incredibly short.

[00:07:27]Um- It's, it's a very, very, um, humbling experience, frankly.

[00:07:36]Um, and that will continue for most of your experience of lucid dreaming.

[00:07:43]As you get better, as you start to realize what matters and what doesn't matter, um, your, your practice will become more effortless, and you'll still continue to have the frustrating short lucid dreams with the mixed dream control.

[00:08:00]But you will get more and more longer, more controllable lucid dreams.

[00:08:05]But what's more important is that the process of developing this skill over essentially decades changes how you think about yourself and reality.

[00:08:19]How you think is going to be rewired, and honestly, it's really, really close to a lot of Eastern philosophy and mysticism.

[00:08:30]And not to go completely off on a woo path here, um- The only way that you can recognize that you're dreaming when you're dreaming, unless it's luck or forced through some technique, is to understand yourself and how you think.

[00:08:50]Because that's, that's what we're doing, right?

[00:08:52]A lucid dream is not a different kind of dream, it's a different kind of you.

[00:08:58]You change within the dream, and that makes it lucid.

[00:09:03]So in order to be a lucid dreamer, you need to be a lucid individual, and in order to be a lucid individual, that requires quite a lot of self-work, self-analysis, and understanding.

[00:09:16]And almost all of that work is identical to the practices you find in Buddhism.

[00:09:22]Very similar to that.

[00:09:23]Uh, the mindset you need to take with this is very similar to the practices and philosophy of Daoism.

[00:09:31]They're not identical, but there is a huge amount of crossover.

[00:09:35]And this is why, for me, I have found lucid dreaming so utterly enthralling for a lifetime.

[00:09:43]Because what you're essentially experiencing is kind of a pure form of philosophy and self-exploration.

[00:09:51]It's not accrued centuries of baggage like many religions have, right?

[00:09:56]If you, if you become a Buddhist, even though there's the Dharma and all the original texts, there is also an awful lot of cultural baggage, um, social expectations, and, you know, bits that have been added on.

[00:10:13]And if you peel all of that away, right at the bottom, at the core of Buddhism, are practices that are essentially identical to the practices you will be performing as a lucid dreamer.

[00:10:27]So I would absolutely say that lucid dreaming is, if you want it to be, a philosophical or spiritual path.

[00:10:36]And, and actually, it's, it is that even if you don't want it to be, because just the, the nature of what you're doing, if you're doing it right, you can't help but change how you think.

[00:10:50]Because if you're not changing how you think, you're not gonna have the lucid dreams, right?

[00:10:54]And, and that's not a surprise, because if you think about it, a lucid dream itself is kind of a microcosm, a little reflection of the Buddhist story of enlightenment.

[00:11:05]So in, in Buddhism, the, the Buddha wakes up to the illusion of reality.

[00:11:11]They essentially turn waking life, this world, into their lucid dream.

[00:11:17]They become the … Buddha is the awakened one.

[00:11:20]That's essentially what it means.

[00:11:22]And in a lucid dream, you are the awakened one within the dream.

[00:11:26]You are the only person in the dream that knows the true nature of it So of course, when you think of it in those terms, there is just this deeply philosophical aspect to lucid dreaming, and it's, it's near impossible to avoid unless, uh, I suppose you're really not that way inclined.

[00:11:46]Um, that said, I'm absolutely not dismissing people who want to do this as just a little bit of fun and to live out fantasies, because that is one of the phases that people go through with lucid dreaming.

[00:12:00]I've certainly been through it back when I was a kid.

[00:12:02]Um, right.

[00:12:05]So, there, there's so much to cover and I, I, I don't really know where to start.

[00:12:09]Um, so for me, the, the true wonder of lucid dreaming is essentially just the reflection of the, the, the true wonder of living at all.

[00:12:21]So The, the crossover between Buddhism and lucid dreaming and this idea of waking up to reality or waking up to dreams becomes so much more apparent the longer you, you do this subject.

[00:12:37]Because let's think about it realistically.

[00:12:40]Subjectively, and, uh, it's important that you hang onto that word subjectively, but your subjective experience of life is essentially no different from your subjective experience of dreams.

[00:12:57]Um, I think it was Henry Havelock Elo- Ellis who said, "Dreams are real while they last.

[00:13:03]Can we say more of life?" And That, that really gets, gets real the more you do this.

[00:13:14]Because once you've woken up in a thousand dreams, and you've really got this sense of, okay, dreams are this transient, uh, transient illusion, yet they feel entirely compelling at the time.

[00:13:28]And non-lucid dreams are as compelling.

[00:13:30]The narratives draw you in as much as any narrative in waking life.

[00:13:35]You feel the emotions, you have the, the fears and the loves and all those things in your non-lucid dreams.

[00:13:41]And when you wake up to them, you realize, okay, well, those narratives are just an illusion.

[00:13:46]In fact, the entire world is illusion.

[00:13:48]In fact, I'm an illusion.

[00:13:50]It's all a dream And then you wake up from that dream and you find yourself in a world where you popped into existence out of nothingness.

[00:14:01]You exist for a finite amount of time, and then you vanish.

[00:14:07]The only subjective differences between the dreams of night and the dream of life is duration.

[00:14:17]Life is certainly considerably longer than your average dream.

[00:14:22]Um, stability, dreams are a little bit more bonkers than waking life, but not by much.

[00:14:29]And, and I suppose consequence, but you, you could also say that consequence plays its role in dreams, and, uh, I suppose Buddhists and Hindus would call that karma, essentially So then you, you find yourself walking through life regularly questioning the nature of reality.

[00:14:53]Is this a dream right now?

[00:14:55]And you find yourself more and more often stumbling across the answer yes all the time.

[00:15:01]Yes, it's always a dream.

[00:15:04]The real question is what kind of dream is it, and what does that mean about how I think about the dream, and, and what is included in that dream?

[00:15:14]Because it's not just the world.

[00:15:17]I think this is a really easy Sort of mistake to fall into is thinking of the dream as that which you perceive e- seemingly externally, right?

[00:15:30]So it's the external dream and you're in the dream.

[00:15:33]Um, but whether you're awake or dreaming, whichever kind of dream you're in Draw that question a little closer to home.

[00:15:46]Question that is, so in a dream, your b- in, in a lucid dream, your body is part of the dream.

[00:15:52]It is not your physical body.

[00:15:54]It is a dream body.

[00:15:57]But so are your thoughts and emotions.

[00:15:59]They're dream thoughts and dream emotions.

[00:16:01]Your personality is not quite identical.

[00:16:04]It's the dream version of you.

[00:16:06]Your brain is operating on different levels during REM.

[00:16:09]Um, and you apply that to waking life, and suddenly you realize, well, most of what I experience at all times is constantly shifting, impossible to, to find any solidity to it.

[00:16:24]It is intangible.

[00:16:26]Be that my body.

[00:16:27]Certainly I, my body has changed dramatically over the decades.

[00:16:32]I am no longer physically what I was 10 years ago or 10 years before that.

[00:16:38]So the body is transient.

[00:16:40]Thoughts are very obviously transient and dreamlike.

[00:16:44]Um, the narratives you buy into, the stories in your life are transient.

[00:16:51]All of these things start to feel very, very much like an illusion.

[00:16:54]It's what the Buddhists call maya So to me, that's why I find this subject so, so utterly compelling because on the surface it looks like a bit of, a bit of fun, a little bit of fun you can have with your mind.

[00:17:13]But if you really pull on that thread and you continue to pull on it, you end up kind of facing the biggest mysteries of reality directly.

[00:17:23]You're staring into the void and it stares back at you.

[00:17:27]And And I love that it, that it isn't imbued with, with sort of cultural baggage or the necessity to have specific beliefs.

[00:17:38]It doesn't contradict science or anything like that.

[00:17:42]And And the experience is utterly subjective and utterly unique to you, so you're not answerable to a priesthood or monks or some kind of authority figure.

[00:17:54]Your lucid dreaming journey is your relationship with reality on the most primitive, basic, real level So that's why I teach this, because that journey over 45 years has been utterly personally transformative.

[00:18:16]Um And it, it also explains why I, I try a- a- and am currently less likely to discuss purely… sort of the, the knick-knacks of techniques, because really those are a bit of a red herring.

[00:18:36]Anyway, uh, I'm going off on various different tangents, so there are more things that I want to discuss here.

[00:18:41]So you might think that what I'm saying sounds like I'm turning this into a purely spiritual endeavor.

[00:18:49]But then you might say, "Well, Daniel, I've seen videos you've made where you've criticized things like astral projection, and surely that's a, a spiritual thing, and you should be more open-minded to that." And I suppose what I want to say about that really quickly for any- anyone who's watched this far is I find the concept of astral projection rather demeaning to, um, philosophical and spiritual inquiry.

[00:19:19]Because whether it's in Buddhist, Taoist, uh, Hindu philosophy, or whether it's just the conclusions you've drawn through lucid dream practice I spoke earlier about how the nature of, um, your body and self and mind are all parts of the illusion, all parts of, um, the, the ever-shifting sands of samsara essentially.

[00:19:43]And so therefore, when you look at astral projection accounts, what you're generally reading, and I need to make, make it very clear here, I'm making broad sounding statements and there will be exceptions, so it's important that I don't want you to take it absolutely as gospel.

[00:20:03]Um, but virtually every astral projection account I've read is someone leaving their body to go to the astral realm.

[00:20:15]But the important point that sticks for me, which doesn't ring true or at least feels like a caricature, is the personality goes with them, or what Freud would call the ego.

[00:20:36]Um, but if you're seriously practicing the philosophies that I'm talking about today, you soon realize that the, the true nature of self is not the ego.

[00:20:51]The ego, the personality is part of the illusion.

[00:20:55]It's part of the mask that the deeper reality of yourself wears.

[00:21:01]So to me, the ego going on a little trip out of the body doesn't match up to the majority of these philosophies.

[00:21:14]I'm absolutely not saying that whatever the true nature of self is cannot exist beyond the body.

[00:21:23]I don't want to make any statements on that because that's something everyone has to draw their own conclusions about.

[00:21:29]But I have my own beliefs and experiences with that that make me believe that there is more to experience than meets the eyes But the idea of the ego taking a little road trip away from the physical world, I mean, ironically, is very egotistical, right?

[00:21:53]It, it's the ego having a re- m- trying to make itself feel important.

[00:21:58]And that really, especially if you're interested in Buddhism, that is kind of one of the main hurdles you have to overcome, is the ego, the personality absolutely deludes itself to think that it is the final and true self.

[00:22:13]And that, according to the Buddhists, is the root of all suffering.

[00:22:17]Because that ego, that self, it grasps, it needs, it wants, and, and it is transient, as are all the things that it is grasping, and needing, and wanting.

[00:22:28]So it is set up to fail because it is an illusion grasping at illusions, wanting stability in a universe where there is none.

[00:22:38]Whereas the, the truer nature of self, which is the, the ground of being, the, the godhead, the underlying essence of what is, um, is, is beyond those trivialities.

[00:22:56]It, it is unifying.

[00:22:59]There is no dichotomy.

[00:23:01]Um, I told you this was gonna be a rambling video.

[00:23:05]But, but these days, these are the questions that my path with lucid dreaming have Well, they've, they've led me to it.

[00:23:14]They've always been there, frankly.

[00:23:15]So ev- even as a very small child, um, you know, here's a, here's a story that I, I haven't told many people, but now it's going on the internet.

[00:23:25]When I was the age where you're learning to tie shoelaces, um, I had this experience.

[00:23:32]I, I couldn't.

[00:23:33]I found it really difficult.

[00:23:35]But my little child brain had this strange moment of clarity.

[00:23:41]It was like, "Okay, here I am trying to do this very simple but complex to me task, and I can't do it, and I'm frustrated, and it's so simple, and other people do this without thinking, and I'm just a child."

[00:23:55]But ahead of me, spanning into the rest of my life, are a near, an uncountable number of similar, far more difficult chores to, to learn and s- skills to develop.

[00:24:08]And for a moment, I had this, the, the weight of the responsibility of my entire life was embedded into the, the attempt to tie a knot in some laces, and I could see it all span out in front of me.

[00:24:24]So even as a child, I was already thinking along these lines.

[00:24:28]I had sort of slightly philosophical thoughts, which I suppose are … I don't think they're particularly common for children.

[00:24:36]Um, along with strange recollections of previous lives, which I still can't fully account for.

[00:24:44]Um, but that's something for another video.

[00:24:47]Um- Where was I?

[00:24:52]So I think philosophy is, is the, the big boss when it comes to lucid dreaming.

[00:24:59]It's the, the, the core premise, and I use the word philosophy rather than spirituality 'cause spirituality is so loaded.

[00:25:07]But I'm, I'm using them interchangeably.

[00:25:09]What I really mean is the, the mystery in which we find ourselves and how we interface with that.

[00:25:17]The, the questions we ask when we're, when we're seeing beyond the, the, the most outer simple layer of existence.

[00:25:26]Beyond making a cup of tea, beyond paying the bills.

[00:25:29]In those moments of transcendent thought where you remember that you are a part of the universe looking at itself, whether you call that philosophy or spirituality, whatever you want to call it, I would say that the subject of lucid dreaming, at least as I teach it, is, is one of the, the most direct and purest ways to interface with that question.

[00:25:56]And that is why I have found it endlessly fascinating, because then every challenge that you face with this subject, every frustration that you have, is just a new flower of understanding unfolding before you.

[00:26:15]Frustration is either a thorn that gets stuck in your foot and makes you limp along getting… as you collect further thorns until you finally give up on the journey, or it is a series of flowers waiting to blossom from which you learn things All right.

[00:26:37]Is there anything I'm not covering here?

[00:26:39]Because like I said, this is a very rambly video, and ho- hopefully you're finding it somewhat interesting I guess another aspect to this, um, it's very easy in our lives to start to take the mystery for granted.

[00:26:58]And we, we see everywhere this sort of division between the spiritual and the mundane.

[00:27:06]And the mundane is your life right now, my life right now.

[00:27:09]It's, um, this can of drink, the, the mouse, the computer screen, the, the slightly clammy feeling of my body on a humid day, the fact that I've gotta go out and do chores later.

[00:27:23]It's all of those things.

[00:27:27]And then there's the spiritual, which is always just a little bit out of reach, right?

[00:27:31]It's always… It's beyond.

[00:27:34]It's… It kind of exists in an almost science fiction kind of realm.

[00:27:37]It's that, that wonder that we seek in reality.

[00:27:43]And to me, lucid dreaming is slap bang in the middle of those two, two things.

[00:27:49]But importantly, what it also does is remind you that those two things are a false division, that they're not true.

[00:27:57]There is not the mundane and the spiritual.

[00:28:01]There is just all of this, all of the time, and you have to stop grasping for the spiritual at the expense of the mundane, and realize that the mundane is the universe.

[00:28:17]It is the mystery.

[00:28:19]And you see this, um, especially in Zen.

[00:28:22]Zen Buddhism loves this kind of thing.

[00:28:24]When people go to Zen masters, the Zen master will often just hand them a broom.

[00:28:29]They'll, they'll, they'll ask a question like, "Master, teach me the answers of the universe." And the, the master will pass the s- the student the brush and go, "First, go sweep." And they'll just let the student sweep and sweep and sweep this utterly mundane task.

[00:28:49]And so for the student, they're thinking, "I came here for spirituality, but here I am just cleaning away the dirt." And as their frustration builds, as they start to challenge their own mind and do… ask difficult questions, at some point, or at least the Zen master hopes at some point this will occur, they will have the realization that that is the answer, that there is no division And I, I think in our modern world, because almost every student I talk to, one of the things they'll say, it's really common, they'll say… They'll be very self-defacing.

[00:29:28]They'll say, "My life's very boring.

[00:29:29]It's very repetitive.

[00:29:31]I don't have enough variety to look for dream signs and blah, blah, blah."

[00:29:35]And I think it, it's relatively common for most people to think that reality is, or their reality is pretty dull and normal and average and boring and, "Oh, goodness, I'm just me in the world and there's all this exciting stuff that I could be reaching for And that's not true.

[00:29:54]Th- uh, everyone who says that is, is essentially a piece of the universe talking to itself.

[00:30:02]So when I'm talking to a student, I feel like I'm, I'm, I am talking to the universe and they are talking to the universe.

[00:30:07]Um And lucid dreaming is a, a really good way to bridge that, that illusion, the illusion that your boring, mundane life is somehow separate from the, the ineffable mystery of all that is.

[00:30:23]Because that is what it is.

[00:30:25]It is the, it is the mystery.

[00:30:28]Every moment you … The, the divine, the spiritual, the mystery does not only exist in monasteries high on a mountain in Tibet.

[00:30:39]It exists when you're scrubbing your toilet bowl cleaning the bathroom.

[00:30:44]It exists when you're making a cup of tea and you surprise yourself with a big fart.

[00:30:50]Those things are all part of the mystery, even though we, we kind of don't want them to be And think about that.

[00:30:58]It's, it's funny, isn't it?

[00:31:00]Why don't we want those things to be part of the mystery?

[00:31:03]What are we doing when we sanitize the mystery?

[00:31:09]Right.

[00:31:10]This is in- incredibly rambly and, uh, and I'm enjoying the ramble.

[00:31:13]I hope you are as well.

[00:31:16]Is there anything else I need to, to mention here?

[00:31:20]No, I think, I think that's me done for now.

[00:31:23]I think if I ramble anymore, I might lose your attention.

[00:31:26]But right now, at this point in time on my path through lucid dreaming, those are my, my current thoughts, how I feel about the subject, and why I teach it.

[00:31:37]So if you found this fun, if you've enjoyed this, let me know in the comments, and you know the rest.

[00:31:42]Hit the like button, all of that stuff Thank you to my channel benefactors for making this possible, Murat Yilmaz and Command Baker