dreams...

How long does it take to have your first lucid dream?
One study showed a group of committed students were able to have their first lucid dream, on average, within 3-21 days. They were equipped with the right tutorials and practiced mindfully every day.
This is a guide only. Some people already possess the skills and have their first lucid dream the same night they discover the concept. Others may take months to learn the skill, especially if you're only making a half-hearted approach.
If you are struggling to have your first lucid dream, ask yourself:
• Are you dream journaling every morning?
• Are you spending at least 20 minutes a day on mindful meditation?
• Are you raising your self-awareness during waking life?
• Are you practicing your reality checks frequently and mindfully?
• Have you planned out what you'll do in your first lucid dream?
• Are you unconsciously incubating the desire to lucid dream?
• Have you mastered any in-depth lucid dreaming techniques?

How do I know when I'm lucid dreaming?
In Dream Initiated Lucid Dreams, the moment you become lucid is the moment you suddenly realize you are dreaming.
In many movies, fictional characters often realize they're dreaming and make funny comments about it but otherwise allow the dream to continue of it's own accord and nothing changes. Lucid dreaming is nothing like this :)
In real life, the effect is quite different. Saying (and knowing) "This is a dream!" results in a rush of clarity of thought. Your surroundings zoom into focus and become much more vivid. You have far greater awareness of your body and it is more like a waking experience, having the opportunity to move freely and take in much more sensory information.
The features of conscious dreams can spontaneously change just like a normal dream. For instance, you may manifest a group of bear cubs which later change into a pile of boxes. Of course, you can easily call the bear cubs back again. But don't be surprised if you notice these subtle changes beyond your control. It is a co-created experience and your unconscious mind still plays a key role.

How can I stay lucid for longer?
Beginners often find their lucid dreams end prematurely. Sometimes, the sheer excitement causes you to wake up. Other times, you may simply forget you are dreaming and the unconscious mind regains full control. In this case, the dream loses its intensity and become just like a regular dream again.
To prevent this, cultivate a calm and focused mind set in the dreamworld. Remind yourself that you are dreaming often to stay mentally grounded.
A simple way to enhance your lucidity and thereby prolong your dream is to rub your hands together while saying "I'm dreaming". This kinetic sensation stimulates the conscious brain, while drawing awareness to your dream body and away from your physical body lying asleep in bed.
These techniques have helped me experience lucid dreams as long as an hour.

How can I change the scenery?
Making the dream scene morph in front of your eyes can sometimes be difficult - mainly because you simply don't expect it to happen. This is typical of the results beginners complain about because they lack the anticipated dream control.
If you're having problems with dream control (and I should stress that not everyone does have such issues) the best way to change things is to work with your unconscious dream logic. For instance, to change the scenery:
• Locate a dream door (a door that stands randomly in the middle of any landscape) and step through to another world.
• Pass through a mirror portal (a liquid-like mirror that leads to another dimension) and emerge in any scene you choose.
• Change the channel on a TV, then jump into the screen and allow the image to become 3-dimensional around you.
• Turn away from the scene, imagine a new location emerging behind you. When you turn back - lo and behold - it is there!
• Spin around and imagine a new scene appearing when you stop spinning.
As you can see, there are many creative solutions to issues of dream control. The most important thing to remember is that your conscious expectation plays a major role. If you question your own ability to manifest new scenes, then your abilities will falter. But if you remain confident and learn from your experiences, you'll soon find that absolutely anything is possible inside a lucid dream.

How can I have flying dreams?
Learning how to fly in lucid dreams is something we all want to master first.
However, it's not like you've had any practice in real life, so the concept can be a little difficult on the lucid dreaming mind. While some people take to the sky like Superman, others can get stuck in power lines, bump into buildings, or waver as if gravity is acting against them (which of course it isn't!)
Think of the movie The Matrix, when Morpheus asks Neo how he beat him in a virtual reality fight. Was it because he was stronger, faster, or fitter in this simulated world? No. It was because he truly believed he was better.
It's the same in lucid dreams. See how to have lucid flying dreams which explains the expectation principle and a three-step flight training program.

Can I get stuck in a lucid dream?
If you are imagining getting stuck in a lucid dream that way a child gets stuck in a painting in a horror movie, then no, that's science fiction.
You can no more get stuck in a lucid dream than you can get stuck in a regular dream or nightmare. "Dream limbo" is just a plot device for the movies.
In fact, lucidity affords you the opportunity to wake up on demand. Many people learn to start lucid dreaming naturally by using it to wake up from nightmares. Just open and shut your dream eyes firmly while saying "WAKE UP!" You can use the same moment of clarity to transform your nightmare into a guided dream.
While it is possible to become engrossed in a lucid nightmare or false awakening, this is not the same as being trapped in a dream forever. Perhaps frustrating, perhaps enlightening, they are no different in length from typical periods of REM sleep, which max out after a certain period of time.

How do I talk to my unconscious in a lucid dream?
As the lucid dream is a co-created experience, you can find profound communication with the unconscious arising from dream events or the fabric of the dream itself. The easiest way is to start a dialogue with the dream: just ask questions out loud.



DREAM JOURNALS

Keeping a dream journal is an important part of lucid dreaming. Fortunately, it's easy and fun - and ultimately improves your awareness of the dream state, making it easier to wake up in dreams.
The average person has five sleep cycles per night. At the end of each cycle, there is a period of REM sleep. Most people dream for 100 minutes each night. The closer it is to morning, the longer your REM sleep becomes.
So you are more likely to remember dreams as you wake up in the morning - the best time to write in your dream diary...

Find a Lucid Anchor
If you have trouble remembering dreams, you can use a lucid anchor. Anchoring comes from the fascinating branch of psychology called Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). Just before you go to sleep, choose an object that you can see clearly from your bed. This is going to be your anchor.
My anchor is a picture of a big grizzly bear stuck on the wall. I look at this picture when I go to sleep, wake up during the night, and first thing in the morning. When I look at it I think "I will remember my dreams".
The phrase acts as a trigger for my unconscious brain to relate to. It reminds me to focus on my dreams and plants a unconscious intention: to associate the bear with remembering dreams. And I look at that bear multiple times each night.

How To Keep a Dream Journal
How to keep a dream journal may seem obvious. But there are a few things worth remembering. So here we go...

Step 1 - Find a notebook or journal specifically to record your dreams in. Keep it within arm's reach of the bed. Dreams fade quickly on awakening so you need to write them down as soon as you wake.
If you get up, walk around and start talking about other things, it will cause motor neurons to fire in your brain. This is what "overwrites" the memory of the dream. So be ready to jot down a few details first thing.

Step 2 - Note down the date of your dream. Then write down everything you can remember. Write everything in the present tense (eg "I am walking down the street when a frog jumps out of the bushes"). This helps with remembering dreams by putting you in the moment.

Step 3 - Identify dream themes. Think about the location, characters, sensations, sounds, objects and emotions of the dream. Underline key themes that may help with interpreting dreams (eg, "the frog is sad because he knows a drought is coming").
You may want to analyze the themes and fully interpret your dream. Otherwise, continue to write down all the memorable details in your dream journal.
Anything that you can associate with established neural patterns is also important (eg, you feel protective over a puppy). This may be a dream symbol or concept that represents a real life issue.

Step 4 - Don't worry about spelling, punctuation and grammar. As long as you can read it back later and it still makes sense, you are fine.

Step 5 - Sketch any strong images from the dream. It doesn't matter if you're not an artist. A sketch is just to help you visualize the dream later on.



Step 6 - When you have finished, jot down any major life issues that are going on right now. For instance, you may be suffering from a broken heart. Over time, you will be able to link your unconscious dream symbols with real life issues.

Step 7 - Give the dream an appropriate title. Nothing flashy, just something to remember it by. If you became lucid at any point in the dream, write "L" for lucid in a circle by the title. Identify what caused you to become lucid (unless it was a WILD).

Dream Journal: FAQ
How often should I write in my dream journal?

Write down your dreams whenever you get the urge. It doesn't have to be every day - a few times a week is usually enough. (But obviously, the more you remember, the better.) Sometimes you won't feel bothered because real life just seems more important. A wise choice! In fact, I would be worried if you did put your dreams before real life.

How can I improve my awareness of dreams?

If you have difficulty remembering dreams, your journal may look a little bare. Don't worry. Start by writing down little snippets - anything at all - and watch your dream recall improve over time. Try listening to self hypnosis recordings which remind you to remember your dreams. It may help to sleep in for an extra half hour on weekends. Just before you wake up, you are flirting on the border of consciousness and REM sleep. This is the best time for remembering dreams... and having lucid dreams!

How can dream themes help me become lucid?

Finding common themes and symbols will also help you create lucid dream triggers. Over time, see if you can find any recurring themes, such as running away from something. Remind yourself to become lucid every time this happens. The next time you are running away from something in a dream, you may be pleasantly surprised by a conscious realization!

Your Lucid Dream Journal
Let's not forget that the main reason for keeping a dream journal is to have lucid dreams! These can be recorded the same way in your normal journal.
Make sure you mark them as lucid dreams and describe the moment you became lucid (if it was a Dream Induced Lucid Dream, or DILD). Decide what it was that made you realize you were dreaming. This could be a useful trigger for having lucid dreams in future.
Then go on to describe your lucid dreams in as much detail as possible. How you felt, how you achieved greater clarity, and how long you thought the experience lasted for in real time.








Reality checks represent a simple lucid dreaming technique to increase your self awareness by day and penetrate your dreams by night.
When you're practicing other lucidity techniques, daily reality checks can further enhance your efforts. Or they can produce lucid dreams on their own, simply by creating the mental habit of asking: "Am I awake - or dreaming?"

What Are Reality Checks?
To learn lucid dreaming, you must be able to spot the difference between a dream and waking reality.
Normally when you dream, you accept it as real life. It's only when you wake up that you realize something was strange.
By integrating reality checks into your waking life, you will soon do them in your dreams. This will snap your conscious mind to realizing: "I'm dreaming!"

What Makes a Good Reality Check?
What makes a consistently realiable reality check that works in the surreal, illogical nature of the dream world? Let's think this through for a moment.

How do you know that you are awake right now? You might say:
Because I can see
Because I can feel
Because I am aware
Because I just am!
Unfortunately, this all applies to the dream world too. That's why seeing, feeling, awareness and knowledge of your existence do not help you become lucid. (Remember that your dreaming mind lacks clarity of thought and can't draw the same logical conclusions as your waking mind.)

In order to recognize when you're dreaming, you need to spark that "Eureka!" moment of realization with a definitive test:
A simple question, and
An "impossible" pre-determined action.

How to Do a Reality Check and Become Lucid
My preferred reality check is pushing two fingers from my right hand into the palm of my left hand and willing them to pass straight through.
In waking life, this discreet method always yields the same resistance. In a dream, willing mu fingers to pass through my palm causes it to happen 90% of the time.

Then I know... I'm dreaming.

Upon this realization, my conscious brain ignites. My environment surges into focus and I have a real sense of who I am, where I am, and what I want to do next. To learn more about the sensations of lucidiy, see What Do Lucid Dreams Feel Like?

"Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, flittering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly ...suddenly I awoke... Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man."
~ Chuang-tzu

When I practice this technique during the day time, the action of trying to push my fingers through my palms is not enough on its own.

I also need to ask the question "Am I dreaming?" and truly mean it.
I need to look around my environment every time I do a reality check, and consider "Is this real?"
At this point, I like to question the solidity of my surroundings.
For instance, I might look at a cup on my desk and wonder does that really exist or am I imagining it? Does it go away when I stop looking at it?
How about the air - can I see the air? Is it warm, cold, dense, sparse, colorful, invisible? This is how you build self awareness: questioning your own feelings and perceptions in the moment by experimenting with their reality.
Perform your chosen reality check a dozen times a day (you can leave notes and make memory cues to remind yourself) and allow each check to take anything from a few seconds to few minutes.
Be sure to come to a well-informed decision each time. Don't just ask the question and forget about it. Truly mean what you say, and reach a conclusion.
Soon you will ask this question in a dream.
Bingo. Your mind will be jogged into critical thinking mode and you'll conclude that you're dreaming. Lucidity awaits.

Top 10 Reality Checks for Lucid Dreams
Use the finger and palm check if you like, or try out these other reality tests:
Breathe - Can you hold your nose and mouth shut and breathe?
Jump - When you jump, do you float back down?
Read - Can you read a sentence twice without it changing?
Look - Is your vision clearer or blurrier than normal?
Hand - Can you push hand through a solid surface?
Time - Can you read a clock face or digital watch?
Fly - Can you will yourself to fly or hover above the ground?
Palms - Do the palms of your hands look normal close-up?
Mirrors - Does your reflection look normal in the mirror?
Math - Can you add up two numbers for a correct answer?

For good measure, perform two reality checks each time. If the first one doesn't work for any reason, you have a failsafe. I combine fingers with the palm check.
Sometimes I try to push my hand through the desk or wall. It is a wonderful feeling when you actually can push your hand through a solid object in a lucid dream. Your lucidity makes this feel real - and, naturally, very weird.

Edge of Perception by Eon Works

Why Build Self Awareness?
Your brain creates neural constructs based experiential learning: patterns of thinking based on your real life experiences.
For instance, since you have had the experience of gravity your whole life, you don't need to repeatedly question it. You simply know that you can't float or take off.
And so most adults mosey on through life without ever questioning the world around us. We know that the sky is blue, that we can't control objects with our minds, and that walls are too solid to walk through. We become so accustomed to our reality we forget to question it. And this applies in the dream world too.
However, if you do decide to question your reality on a regular basis, it increases your level of self awareness in the real world. It pulls your consciousness into the moment. And when this becomes second nature in waking life, it will become second nature in dreams too.
And this is a direct line to lucid dreams.
Permanently improving your self awareness doesn't happen overnight. But it's a fast learning curve. A beginner's progress could well be exponential.
So pay attention to your surroundings. Study them in detail. And most importantly, question their nature.

Do your hands belong to you?
How would it look if you had 12 fingers?
Can imagine them melting into the furniture?

Have fun with visualizations and tricks of the mind. You're aiming to edit programming that has been in place for decades...

Troubleshooting Reality Checks
As this is a very popular lucid dreaming technique, I get a lot of questions about how to do reality checks and why they don't always work. I've summarized the most common questions and answers below:

How can I remember to do more reality checks each day?
Reality CheckSet up triggers that remind you to perform a reality check, such as a note on your computer screen, telephone, bathroom tap, schoolbooks, or write an L for lucid on the back of your hand.
You can also mentally set up trigger points that relate to your day. Do a reality check every time you walk up or down stairs, hear your digital watch beep, receive a text message, unlock a door, hang up the phone, and so on.

I've been doing reality checks all week but haven't had any lucid dreams. What am I doing wrong?
First, ensure you're doing your checks mindfully and coming to a reason-based conclusion every time. Every check should hold real personal perspective.
Second, make sure you're keeping a dream journal and recording at least one dream per night. You may well have performed a reality check in a dream (and even become lucid) but just didn't remember it!
Third, combine reality checks with other lucid dreaming techniques, such as meditation and dream incubation. They work well in combination.
Fourth, be patient. You are entraining a new habit into your daily life and it may take days or weeks for it to filter through to your dream life. Rest assured, like most of our daily habits, you will dream about it eventually.

I did a reality check in a dream but it didn't work, I just kept on dreaming. Why did this happen?
The most likely explanation is that you're not performing your waking reality checks with enough mindfulness. When you attempt the impossible action, make sure you're really trying to do it and not just kidding yourself. And when you ask the question - "Am I dreaming?" - be sure to truly ponder that concept. Imagine what a dream feels like, what you would do if you were dreaming right now, and then snap yourself back into reality to compare the feeling.

Occasionally a reality check fails through no fault of your own. You may simply be having a vivid dream that is all too normal to accept as a dream. It's a weird mind space, and particularly common in false awakenings (which is why you should do a reality check every time you wake up).

The best solution is to perform a second reality check as a fail-safe. If you still can't validate your dreamstate, but have some basic level of dream control, then simply explore the dream until it gives itself away. Something irregular will eventually pop up if you keep pulling at the thread. Full lucidity will ensue.



Self awareness: the mental ability to recognize who and what you are - namely that you are distinctly separate from other people and your environment.
This knowledge enables you to consciously realize your own personality, feelings and desires - allowing you to have abstract thoughts about who you are, and things you have done in the past or will do in the future.
Humans have a high capacity for self awareness - though we are discovering that more animals qualify for self awareness too. It's especially helpful in lucid dreaming; converting the passive dreamer into a consciously thinking individual, with the power to explore and manipulate their dream world at will.
To be habitually self aware in waking life means to be more self aware in your dreams. This will produce many more lucid dreams because you'll be able to recognize when you are dreaming (that it is a separate place from waking reality). What's more, those lucid dreams will be more vivid and intense, more malleable and long-lasting, thanks to your heightened sense of self awareness.
Developing a more self-aware mind set doesn't happen overnight but can have a significant impact on your lucid dream life over time.
Here are five ways to improve your self awareness and become a more thoughtful observer of your reality, both while awake and while dreaming.


"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." ~ Anais Nin

Self-Awareness Exercise #1
Observation
Let's start with a simple observational exercise in self awareness.
Go to a quiet place - indoors or outdoors - where you can be left alone for a while with no distractions. Sit down and take some slow, deep breaths. Allow everything to slow down while you attune yourself to the environment.
Focus on what's going on around you, as opposed to what's going on inside your own head. Most of us go about our days jumping from one distraction to another and pay little attention to our surrounding environment. Instead of ignoring the background noise let's tune it in and see what it's doing.

How to Improve Your Self AwarenessLook at any inanimate object that catches your gaze and that you can see clearly. Study its shape - is it flat, straight, jagged, curvy, round? And the texture - is it rough, smooth, rippled, soft, hard, solid? Notice how it is hit by the light; whether it is light or dark, dull or reflective, colorful or bland.
Now get a sense of its depth and position in space. Is it real or imaginary? In your mind's eye, isolate it from its environment completely. Imagine what exists behind the object in the space you can't see. Did it ever look different? How was it created? What will it eventually become?
Without even touching the object we now have a much more profound awareness of how it appears to us in waking reality.
This will come in very handy when you're dreaming tonight.
By paying close attention to even the blandest objects in your environment you are picking up on subtle but important clues that distinguish dreams from reality. To instinctively analyze the same object in your dream tonight would almost certainly yield a lucid dream.

Repeat this exercise with more features in your environment whenever you have a calm, reflective moment. There are no limits: you can do this exercise with a mug or with a cloudless sky. Test yourself.
For lucid dreamers, the palms of your hands are a good observational target simply because your hands are your own; they are always present in the dream world and provide the realization that you have a body - a self.
You can study your environment with any sense (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch... and beyond: temperature, pressure, weight, and so on). Use all your senses -- or use sight alone to retain your complete focus on the experience.
Sometimes though, different objects trigger different senses (eg, birdsong, distant thunder, the smell of home cooking, the touch of grass underfoot) so focus your awareness in the manner most conducive to exploring the object at hand.

Self-Awareness Exercise #2
Imagine The Impossible
This exercise is based on a well known lucid dreaming technique called reality checking or reality testing.
Take any object from the first exercise (eg, a glass of water) and, having studied and experienced it in full, now imagine the impossible. With your eyes open and looking directly at the glass, visualize it melting into the table.
Now imagine it shattering as if spontaneously fractured by a high pitched sound.
Imagine it levitating and floating an inch up in the air.
Now imagine the water coloring itself with a deep red dye.
There are countless ways to imagine the glass of water changing in unlikely or impossible ways. All these sorts of surreal events happen in dreams and by imagining them and analyzing them in reality, we trigger a level of awareness that causes us to ask the question: "This can't be real - am I dreaming?"


Self Awareness and Imagining The Impossible

This exercise provides a training ground for us to stop sleepwalking through our day, study and observe our reality, and question whether it is real or not.
And when you determine your world isn't real, you become lucid...
Here's a classic lucid dream reality check that involves the hands. After studying your palms in detail as per the first exercise, try pushing two fingers from your right hand through the palm of your left hand.
Now imagine the impossible: pretend to see your fingers passing right through your palm. How does it look? How does it feel? How is it possible?
In a dream, simply expect your fingers to pass through your palm, and they will... By imagining the impossible you are teaching your mind to expect the impossible, which is essential for your reality check to prove false in the dream world.

Self-Awareness Exercise #3
Observe Your Self
The first two exercises explore our perception of the external environment. Now we'll enhance our self awareness from within.
Practice this during meditation. If you don't meditate, try this while falling asleep tonight (it's about the closest thing without calling it meditation).
If you want to start meditating on a regular basis (and I recommend you do for lucid dreaming) try listening to brainwave entrainment specifically designed to aid lucid dreaming practice.

When you are fully relaxed, lying down and with your eyes closed, focus your awareness within and ask yourself: what does it feel like to be me right now?
The Thinker: Philosophical Self AwarenessJust as we did with the first exercise, start with very basic awareness, such as the physical sensation of lying in bed. Is the mattress soft or firm? Are the sheets cold or warm? Rough or smooth? Does your body ache or are you completely comfortable? Do you feel heavy or light?
Then move inwards. Take some deep breaths...
Do you feel calm or stressed? Why is that?
Can you remember a time when you were MORE calm or MORE stressed? What did that calm/stress feel like?
How would you describe the feeling if you were talking to an alien who had never experienced it before? Are there different layers to this feeling? Is it tangible? Can you move it around, build it up, or sweep it away? What might it look like if you could see it?
Direct your focus to whatever emotion or state of mind you feel is strongest and probe it in every way you can think. Like manipulating putty in your hands, try to manipulate any feeling (happiness, peace, amusement, boredom, even pain) to get a better understanding of how it affects your experience of reality.
To be self aware in the philosophical sense is to recognize your feelings as they occur, to understand the impact they have, and perhaps even put them to an effective use.
When dreaming, this improvement of your self awareness will help you to recognize unusual or extreme feelings and thereby trigger lucidity.
For instance, it's quite common to have your first lucid dream via a vivid nightmare which triggers lucidity. The feeling of intense fear from being chased or attacked (or whatever your nightmare fodder) can provoke the realization: "I must be dreaming!"

Self-Awareness Exercise #4
Visualize a Dream Scene
This is a lucid dream technique that invokes a stronger sense of self awareness.
If you spend every night visualizing a dream about riding on a giant water slide made of ice cream, you'll actually dream about it sooner or later. For accomplished lucid dreamers it happens quickly because it's second nature.
Children who lucid dream frequently use this method intuitively. They'll go to sleep thinking about the amazing Candyland they just witnessed on TV and it'll suddenly become their next dream reality.
Not knowing any better, they assume everyone does this...

Create Your Own Dreamscape (Candyland from Wreck It Ralph)
The technique of "daydreaming yourself to sleep" is straight forward in its essence but there are tricks to enhance the process and make it more effective.
So what's the best way to visualize a dream scene so it plays out sooner?
First, visualize in vivid detail, engaging as many senses as possible. Trick your brain into believing that the experience has actually happened.
To your brain, the neurons fired during the experience of eating a gourmet burger are exactly the same neurons fired when you vividly imagine or dream of doing it. And since our dreams are mostly replays of real-world experiences, we can program our dreams by simulating real-world experiences in our minds.
Tonight as you fall asleep, put your awareness inside a desirable dream scene and explore every element with your senses. Don't worry about planning the sequence of events so much as setting the opening scene.
To enhance the visualization further, attach an emotion to it. You are more likely to dream of an event if it was particularly emotional.
Unfortunately, negative emotions seem to penetrate our dreams more easily. Horror movies can so easily trigger nightmares in some people, but for most it takes extreme situations like grief or trauma to noticeably penetrate our dreams. The effect can be powerful and even lead to recurring nightmares. This all supports the theory that dreams are a psychological healing ground.
Nonetheless, many lucid dreamers incubate using only positive emotions, such as a deep desire to experience a particular dream event. There is no need to spook yourself or re-live bad memories for this exercise.
Here's an example of an effective incubation: visualize that you are standing on top of the Empire State Building with someone who means a lot to you. It is night time and the city is lit up. Observe the world below before jumping, weightless, into the air and soaring over the city. Fly!

Self-Awareness Exercise #5
Practice Self-Awareness in Dreams
So far all the exercises take place in the waking world.
This one is for when you're next inside a lucid dream.
Using a combination of outside observation, reality checking, and exploring your own inner awareness, you're going to maximize your self-awareness when lucid.
From the moment you become lucid, start exploring your dream world. Look around you, turning 360 degrees slowly, before selecting an interesting target. It may even be your own hands.
Study the object in detail, scrutinize its shape, texture, color, and so on.
Then expect it to grow or shrink (it will!)
Push your awareness into the object and observe it from the inside.
Expect the impossible... then see it happen.

Self Awareness in Dreams
Now ground yourself by observing your own thoughts and feelings within the dreamworld. Are you happy? Excited? Playful? Can these feelings become tangible?
Of course! You are dreaming...
There are an unlimited number of ways to probe your lucid dream world, to see how it reacts to you and vice versa.
By staying lucidly focused and in the moment you'll enhance your lucidity as you go, significantly prolonging your lucid dream and thereby training your mind to have more lucid dreams in future...