There are herbs that can encourage lucid dreaming. I’ve experimented a bit with hyssop flower, also known as ezov, but it didn’t change my experience of dreaming much, except I woke up feeling like I had been sorting things through and having insights in my sleep. I didn’t recall what I had figured out, but I had the feeling of figuring things out. But I could lucid dream before I started taking it, though I don’t do it often, and I remember my dreams often and write them down. Keeping pen and paper by the bed and writing down dreams can be a way to start if you want to work up to lucid dreaming.
I don’t usually feel pain while dreaming, but I sometimes wake up from too much pain, so that is not always the case.
Many years ago, I did some meditation techniques to shut off pain when I was severely ill, and it worked for a little while, the technique was successful and I didn’t feel pain. But then I moved around and lived my life as if the pain weren’t there and I ended up hurting myself, and being in a worse condition than before. The pain had been stopping me from doing things that my body couldn’t handle. So, I’ve been reluctant to mess with the pain signalling system since then.
I guess I’m telling you these stories because neither lucid dreaming, nor shutting off feeling the pain were answers for me. But that’s me. Different people have different experiences and different bodies, which makes exploring these options not something that one can outsource, and anecdotes and stories are not reliable guides.
I learned techniques for lucid dreaming and dealing with pain from what was called at the time the Silva Method course, taught by Marilou Seavey and Gerald Seavey.
I also sometimes use a Tibetan Buddhist technique called tonglen, explained by Pema Chodron in her book When Things Fall Apart.
The Silva Method used to be a collection of useful techniques taught in a secular context. However, at some point after I took the course, the organization that coordinated the Silva Method courses became more religious. So a lot of people who were teaching the Silva Method courses and who weren’t happy with the religious direction the organization was taking continued to teach the techniques, but called their courses by different names.
Marilou and Gerald Seavey have a website. They travel to various places around the world to give workshops, and it looks like their focus has shifted to NLP and coaching. However, it looks like they still teach a Silva-Method-like course, and that they are calling it Essential Mind Power Training. http://mindbridgetraining.com/nlp-training/essential-mind-power-training
Jose Silva, who came up with the Silva Method, wrote some books, but they are not a very good introduction to or explanation of the techniques. The workshops are superior.
I’m glad I learned those techniques, and also a bunch of others, including the ones to help memorizing long lists of things, from the workshop. However, these techniques may not be the best way to do lucid dreaming, or deal with pain, or the various other things taught in the course. I haven’t done a comparison with other techniques for lucid dreaming from other traditions, for example. There may be superior ones out there. I’m telling you the way I learned how to do it, since you asked, but I’m not saying it’s the best way to learn it.
At the workshop, I feel like the limitations of the techniques were not discussed, or what to do when you run into problems, or guidance on the nuances that arise after mastering the basics. There wasn’t a support system of community or teachers. I was pretty much on my own after the workshop. I don’t know if that has changed over the years. Also, the incentives of someone selling workshops to make a living don’t necessarily line up with the best interests of the people taking the course, and there is a lot of hype, and a tendency to focus on the benefits, not the drawbacks, and to be less careful than a scientist would be in making claims.
In all, I think I do not wholeheartedly recommend it, but on balance it made my life better, so I recommend it with caveats.
I get the impression that Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns know a lot more about meditation techniques than I do, but it’s rare that they write down what they know. It may be that they would teach more in person. I think finding a good teacher for this stuff would be helpful, but it is not straightforward to find such a person.
This is the hyssop flower aka Ezov extract that I was taking for a while. I don’t like their marketing claims, particularly the way that website talks about it, but it did seem to have some small effect on my dreams, as opposed to no discernible effect, which is the case with most herbs and foods I consume.
http://www.nutramedix.ec/ns/ezov
There are herbs that can encourage lucid dreaming. I’ve experimented a bit with hyssop flower, also known as ezov, but it didn’t change my experience of dreaming much, except I woke up feeling like I had been sorting things through and having insights in my sleep. I didn’t recall what I had figured out, but I had the feeling of figuring things out. But I could lucid dream before I started taking it, though I don’t do it often, and I remember my dreams often and write them down. Keeping pen and paper by the bed and writing down dreams can be a way to start if you want to work up to lucid dreaming.
I don’t usually feel pain while dreaming, but I sometimes wake up from too much pain, so that is not always the case.
Many years ago, I did some meditation techniques to shut off pain when I was severely ill, and it worked for a little while, the technique was successful and I didn’t feel pain. But then I moved around and lived my life as if the pain weren’t there and I ended up hurting myself, and being in a worse condition than before. The pain had been stopping me from doing things that my body couldn’t handle. So, I’ve been reluctant to mess with the pain signalling system since then.
I guess I’m telling you these stories because neither lucid dreaming, nor shutting off feeling the pain were answers for me. But that’s me. Different people have different experiences and different bodies, which makes exploring these options not something that one can outsource, and anecdotes and stories are not reliable guides.
That is a good point.
Still, it would be nice if I could do such things when I really need to. Would you mind sharing the techniques you used?
I learned techniques for lucid dreaming and dealing with pain from what was called at the time the Silva Method course, taught by Marilou Seavey and Gerald Seavey.
I also sometimes use a Tibetan Buddhist technique called tonglen, explained by Pema Chodron in her book When Things Fall Apart.
The Silva Method used to be a collection of useful techniques taught in a secular context. However, at some point after I took the course, the organization that coordinated the Silva Method courses became more religious. So a lot of people who were teaching the Silva Method courses and who weren’t happy with the religious direction the organization was taking continued to teach the techniques, but called their courses by different names.
Marilou and Gerald Seavey have a website. They travel to various places around the world to give workshops, and it looks like their focus has shifted to NLP and coaching. However, it looks like they still teach a Silva-Method-like course, and that they are calling it Essential Mind Power Training. http://mindbridgetraining.com/nlp-training/essential-mind-power-training
Here is another pair of former Silva Method instructors, who call their course Dynamind http://www.scienceofhappiness.com/page1/index.html
Jose Silva, who came up with the Silva Method, wrote some books, but they are not a very good introduction to or explanation of the techniques. The workshops are superior.
I’m glad I learned those techniques, and also a bunch of others, including the ones to help memorizing long lists of things, from the workshop. However, these techniques may not be the best way to do lucid dreaming, or deal with pain, or the various other things taught in the course. I haven’t done a comparison with other techniques for lucid dreaming from other traditions, for example. There may be superior ones out there. I’m telling you the way I learned how to do it, since you asked, but I’m not saying it’s the best way to learn it.
At the workshop, I feel like the limitations of the techniques were not discussed, or what to do when you run into problems, or guidance on the nuances that arise after mastering the basics. There wasn’t a support system of community or teachers. I was pretty much on my own after the workshop. I don’t know if that has changed over the years. Also, the incentives of someone selling workshops to make a living don’t necessarily line up with the best interests of the people taking the course, and there is a lot of hype, and a tendency to focus on the benefits, not the drawbacks, and to be less careful than a scientist would be in making claims.
In all, I think I do not wholeheartedly recommend it, but on balance it made my life better, so I recommend it with caveats.
Tonglen I learned from reading the book When Things Fall Apart, but it looks like there’s a more detailed book about Tonglen by the same author Tonglen: The Path of Transformation by Pema Chodron. https://www.amazon.com/Tonglen-Path-Transformation-Pema-Chödrön/dp/B000AN09FS/
I get the impression that Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns know a lot more about meditation techniques than I do, but it’s rare that they write down what they know. It may be that they would teach more in person. I think finding a good teacher for this stuff would be helpful, but it is not straightforward to find such a person.
This is the hyssop flower aka Ezov extract that I was taking for a while. I don’t like their marketing claims, particularly the way that website talks about it, but it did seem to have some small effect on my dreams, as opposed to no discernible effect, which is the case with most herbs and foods I consume. http://www.nutramedix.ec/ns/ezov