By Rauf Fadzillah 

Pix Credit: documentaryden.com
What is the dream realm?
Conventional science tells us that dreams are a collection of images, sounds and other stimuli that we receive during the day. But people have been able to foresee future events, communicate with departed loved ones and discover things that they never would have known through harnessing the power of their dreams. 

So what is the dream realm? 

The dream realm also sometimes known as the astral realm has been featured many times in fiction, literature and drama.  

It has been speculated on by science. Pioneering psychoanalysts such as Sigmund Freud analysed dreams to heal and diagnose patients. 

The Australian aborigines believed that the Dreaming is a sacred era in which ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings formed The Creation. They believe that every person exists eternally in the Dreaming, before they were born and after the physical life ends. 

Many people have met and spoken to each other in dreams. Some have dreamt of events only to have those very same things happen to them in waking life. 

There are even those that say the dream realm is where we return to when we die. Others say that our entire lives are nothing but a short dream.  

The dream realm can be a treacherous place populated by benevolent as well as monstrous beings such as the legendary cuckoo (that lays its eggs inside your mind as you dream). The dream realm can drive you mad, you may never return.

But imagine if you could be in complete control of your dreams. 

Imagine if you could use it to study for that big exam tomorrow. You could jack around the whole day, go to sleep, study for your exam in the dream and wake up completely refreshed! How awesome would that be? 

A Guide to Lucid Dreaming 
The first step to becoming a conscious dream walker is to master the skill of lucid dreaming.

A lucid dream happens when you are completely aware that you are dreaming.

- Dream Journal- The first step to lucid dreaming is to keep a dream journal, and jot down your dreams as accurately as you can immediately after you wake up. Referring to your dream journal also allows you to return to previous dreams.

- Visual and audio aids- There are many sources of binaural beats or subliminal videos that help in inducing the right frame of mind for lucid dreaming. Here’s one.

- Reality Checks- Once in the dream, train your alertness by repeating reality checks.  Dreams do not display as much detail as reality. There are no numbers, or wrinkles on palms.  Some dreamers use a reminder – a mark or a word on the hand – for reality checks.
Frequent reality checks help to ascertain that you are indeed lucid dreaming. You can put your finger through your palm, pinch your skin, close the nose and look for the mark of word on your hand. In a dream, the finger would go directly through the palm, the pinches wouldn’t hurt, the mark or word would be absent and you can still breathe with your nose closed. 

Lucid dreaming requires patience and perseverance and can take months for even a simple breakthrough. 

Pix Credit bstoursworld.net
We’re not really choosy when it comes to constructing dreams.