How to Begin Lucid Dreaming

There are 2 essential elements to starting lucid dreaming: 

1. Chose a reality check: asking yourself at random, throughout the day if you are dreaming and looking at your hands, a clock, anything you chose, just keep it consistent. 

2. It's also extremely helpful to keep a dream journal. This will help you become aware of the landscape of your dreams, (common places, colors, objects etc). The way this helps with lucid dreaming is that it sets visual cues in your mind that you can use to let yourself know you're dreaming. For example, I don't have a horse or a friend with one that I ride, so if I find myself horseback riding I can assume I'm dreaming.

The journal also increases your general awareness of your dreams. As this happens while you're awake, you'll be come more aware of them when you're sleeping too.

The best way to keep a dream journal is to not only include narrative but the following:

* Keywords
* People, places, objects that are central
* Who, what, where
* Mood or tone
* Colors
* Level of lucidity
* Date and a descriptive titile

It can also be useful to:

* Keep the notebook and a pen beside your bed and write down your dreams  before getting out of bed.

* Wake up an hour earlier than usual, physically get up for 15 min - an hour, depending on how long you're able to fall back to sleep easily, then go back to bed.

* Look at pictures of things that were in your dream, (a schoolbus, a pink house, a restaurant etc) 

* As you fall asleep, tell yourself that you will remember your dreams and that you will be aware you are dreaming 

* Focus on the dots at the back of your eyelids, allowing them to form pictures, (these are called hypnogogic images, and sometimes you can go straight from focus on them to a lucid dream).

Next - maintaining lucidity and controlling your dreams so you can dream what you want!

How to Talk To Ghosts With Automatic Writing and Drawing

Automatic writing with a planchette, artist unknown.

Here is a basic overview of automatic writing and drawing from the recent seance workshop in Richmond, Va: 

1. You can use either cursive or print.
2. You may chose to look or not look at the page.
3. Some recommend doing something in addition to writing while you
practice to occupy your left brain, (have a conversation, watch t.v.,
etc.)

To practice automatic writing:

Just put pen to paper and, without thinking about it, move your had as if you were writing. Some recommend that you do this as quickly as you can, I've had better result with doing it somewhat slowly or a little slower than normal writing speed, try both ways.

Stop when it feels natural to stop. If you catch yourself losing focus at some point/losing track or flow, choose a letter beforehand to then begin the next sentence with each time that happens. Always use the same letter so that you can identify where you did so later on.

Go back over what you've written and circle words that have formed. It  helps to have someone else look at it too. I've also definitely found (usually obvious) words each time I've looked back over it - so def. look at it again.

It's ideal to write the date, time, location and method of automatic writing at the top of the page each time you do it. (Method meaning whether cursive or print, looking or not, doing something else or not etc).

Automatic drawing works the same way, the difference being that you draw rather than write.

You can also do this with a computer keyboard, (for me that works better/it's what I've always done). I've also found that adding bibliomancy, (open a book at random, putting your finger on a word at a time without looking), is extremely effective. Write the words your finger lands on on a different page, noting that that's what you're doing.

After the first few times that you do this/once you've gotten the hang of it, start focusing beforehand on a specific person you would like to talk to. Write ____________ are you here? Then attempt to answer with automatic writing. You can then write a series of questions and seek answers the same way.

It is NORMAL for automatic writing sessions to sometimes be scary/ disturbing. If this happens, think of it as working in a similar way that nightmares do - they can sometimes be completely incredible, made up of images we would normally not even think of. Automatic writing is similar, words are coming from your subconscious to your conscious mind, just as images do in dreams. If you feel uncomfortable stop. The next time you try it, vary the method and see if doing it another way works better for you.

My Tarot Articles from Suite101.com and BellaOnline.com

Mexican Fortune Telling Card

How to Read Tarot Quickly and Easily


Astrology and Tarot

Myth and the Major Arcana

Helpful Hints

Reversed Meanings

Understanding Court Cards

The Fool

Reviews:

Voodoo Tarot of New Orleans

The Buddha Tarot