Firstly, it's great to be here and part of this new growing community, I know it's taken a lot of work to build this and it's coming along great. (I'm new here!)

I thought I'd write a fairly short post on how to control your dreams (through lucid dreaming) because it's something that has a huge practical use in the real world, and it can really give people an edge in whatever they're doing. for example, did you know that when you practice something in a lucid dream, the SAME neurons fire in your brain as if you were ACTUALLY practicing it? You really do improve at that thing.. Sort of.

What is lucid dreaming?

To start with, lucid dreaming is a very real, proven skill (proof and research summarised here) which millions of people all around the world do.

It involves becoming self aware of partially conscious in your dreams, allowing you to step in and CONTROL them to some degree. Some people are able to develop this skill to such an extent that they can stop having nightmares, sleep better, fly around the dream world like a superhero and directly talk to their subconscious minds through dream characters.

How to lucid dream

If you're a beginner and you know nothing about lucid dreaming, and you've just stumbled across this post on Steemit, then that's great because it can be fairly easy to learn as a beginner. There are lots of guides and articles, but to summarise them all, it comes down to this:

1: Start writing your dreams down MORE

You should write your dreams down more, not only to record the memories and relive them later, but to train your brain to remember them for you. If you never write them down you're sending a signal to your brain that you don't want or need to remember your dreams, and you never will!

Lucid dreaming can be very easy when you remember your dreams and you might even find that you've been lucid a few times without realising it, because you instantly forget all your dreams when you wake up! To get started just find a dream journal like this one for example, and keep it by your bed at night. When you wake up in the morning, just write down everything you can remember!

2: Do reality checks as much as you can in the day time

A reality check is when you question your reality by asking yourself 'Am I dreaming right now?' and then trying to PROVE that you are or aren't dreaming. I know, it sounds crazy but it's easier than you think. To start with, just look down at your hands and take one finger from your right hand, and try and PUSH it through the palm of your other hand.

Now, as you do this, EXPECT the finger to go through the palm, and as you're trying to push it, ask yourself 'Am I dreaming?'. Of course in waking life the finger will never go through, BUT if you do this reality check often enough during the day, eventually you'll do it in your DREAM.

What happens next is that you'll do it in your dream, and the finger WILL go through your palm (don't worry, it doesn't hurt) and you'll ask yourself 'Am I dreaming?' to which your answer will be, 'Of course, I MUST be dreaming because my finger has gone through my palm!'

At that moment, you become 'lucid' and can direct the dream and yourself to do whatever you wish. It will all feel very real, and it's like being awake but in another world where you're the creator or higher being. You can decide what to do. Now, there are MANY things you could do at this point, and it's entirely up to you how you choose to use this experience.

What to do once you're lucid

There are many people who choose to go after the more spiritual experiences in a lucid dream like talking to 'god' or their lost relatives etc, but you could really do anything. If you just want to fly around like a superhero, that's fine. Just fancy talking to the cow walking down the street, that's cool too!

Some tips and warnings

Make sure you write your dreams down! If you forget to do this, you might end up having the most incredible lucid adventure but then not remember it, and you'll be struggling for days trying to remember what you were doing, so just save yourself the pain and write them down from the beginning!

• Learn lucid dreaming techniques! There are actually lots of lucid dreaming techniques you could learn such as the wake induced lucid dream or the MILD method

• Learn more about lucid dreaming! There are plenty of great resources for learning lucid dreaming and the Wiki page has LOTS of information on it!

• The best time to lucid dream is in the early hours of the morning, at about 5-6AM. If you can't do this, then focus on techniques like the MILD or DILD (google search for more information)

• There is nothing dangerous about lucid dreaming, other than maybe the fact you'll enjoy it so much that you wont' want to wake up or go about your day, but this soon passes!

• Have fun! Lucid dreaming is all about becoming more self aware, enjoying your life (waking and dream) more and just being yourself, so have fun with it!