By Craig Sim Webb

Every night when you close your eyes, a transformational opportunity awaits — in your dreams! Dreams can offer yogis, yoginis, and other students of life important practical guidance and creative insights and act as a nightly portal to inner learning and profound spiritual experiences. In dreams, lucid (conscious) dreams especially, where the world may avail itself to the suggestions of the dreamer, adventures and revelations are almost guaranteed because the laws of physics and society no longer apply, and apparent limitations set by age, sex, race or religion simply fall away. In dreams, we can face fears and become the hero of our own story: we can fly, converse with great masters, breathe under water, and perform feats free from embarrassment, peer pressure, monetary constraints, and physical handicaps.

We can even follow in the footsteps of Tibetan monks who master lucid dreaming as a valuable stepping stone on the path to spiritual illumination. Here are a few examples:

Pure Love/Life/God

“In front of me, I see my ex-coworker Hardy (who left for Germany last week) and it hits me: this must be a dream! I know exactly what I want to do next. I try the dream experiment Craig suggested to move my hand through my body. There is nothing, no resistance until my hand moves closer to my heart area, where my attention is drawn, so I zoom in closer. There is all this beautiful light everywhere and a warm, cozy feeling. I see all the light around my heart. I’m drawn in even more, a magical moment like being drawn in to ‘real life’ for the first time. Everything is so vivid! The feeling is so intense that it starts to awaken me and the dream state starts fading. I cannot hold on to it and finally wake-up. How beautiful! I lay perfectly still in the afterglow of this intense moment.

The next day I remember the dream and re-live it. It feels to me as if I have glimpsed my true, beautiful self/soul. Completely unconditional — pure love/life/God. Veils of illusion have been lifted for a short moment, and what an intense moment — tears stream down my face. I feel one with myself and start to realize what it could mean to really be connected to this powerful source within me and how it could change everything — my priorities would change completely. The contrast of my day-to-day life, all in a sudden, becomes so obvious. Who is this other person I usually am when I’m caught up in life’s illusion — this person that feels so heavy and stuck in constant thoughts and worries? Could I just leave this person behind if I can stay connected to the true Self within me? It seems doable in this moment.

I realize that all other people must have the same beautiful essence within them. How could I ever be mad at them, even when they act inconsiderately, if I can remember their true inner-selves in those moments? The memory of this lucid dream is still with me after a couple of days. The intensity fades but there still seems to be a channel open that connects me to this awareness.”

—S.P., Mountain View, California

Acceleration

“I am heading up this passage to get refreshments ahead of a crowd of friends. I fill up this large glass with milk and notice a head of lettuce floating in it. This is odd and I wonder if I’m dreaming. To check, I catch someone’s eye nearby, and he smiles and nods without me having to say anything. I consider taking off to fly, but the dream seems to be tugging at my chest with quite some force. It doesn’t hurt, but it feels as if I should follow, so I give my mental okay and let it take me. I begin zooming horizontally and then down to the left, in some kind of rich darkness, accelerating until I’m really, really moving — faster than I’ve ever flown before. I hesitate, afraid that if I go any faster I won’t survive. Reminding myself it’s just a dream, I urge myself past this fear. Immediately, my arms sort of ‘snap’ outwards a bit and I instantly accelerate to some tremendous velocity such that I seem to become nothing less than the quality of pure speed itself. After a short while, I slow and feel myself being ‘brought back together’ to view where I have just been. There’s an electronic component in a circuit of some kind and I realize I was just an electron! Slowly, I awaken buzzing with energy, and my hands tingle for quite some time afterwards.”

—C.W., Montreal, Quebec

An Ocean of Grace

“Falling asleep, I remember wondering what truly ‘knowing myself’ would be like. Dreaming, I become aware of this incredible, indescribably powerful ‘Love Light.’ The thought comes that there is no power like it — it’s absolutely non-judgmental, and dwarfs every worry or desire I’ve ever had. It is peace and simplicity and well-being. Basking in what feels like ‘an ocean of grace,’ I soon realize that I’m not looking at it, but rather that I AM it, recognizing myself.”

—W.C., Palo Alto, California