Learning to Fly
April 5th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
Email this article to a friend
Last night I had an interesting lucid dream. Lucid dreaming means that you become consciously aware that you’re dreaming. It’s like waking up within your dreams. Everything becomes more vivid and you feel just as awake and aware as you do in your waking world. In fact, sometimes it can feel like you’re even more awake because you’re aware of the fact that your physical body is asleep lying on your bed while at the same time you’re conscious within your own dream world. Often I can even feel the position of my body on the bed. When lucid dreaming I still have access to all my waking memories. I know what day it is, what I did the previous day, where I live, etc. — I feel just as conscious as if I’m awake.
Lucid dreaming is a skill like any other; with practice anyone can learn to do it. I first learned it in 1994, and I still feel like a total amateur at it. The first time I had a lucid dream, it only lasted 5-10 seconds. The experience of being awake inside my own dreams was hard to get used to, and I’d get too excited and wake up almost instantly. It took me almost a year to be able to stay calm enough to get my lucid dreams to last more than a minute. Now they typically last 10-15 minutes. At least that’s how long they feel — I don’t know if the perception of dream time matches with physical world time.
You might think that if you have a lucid dream, you can do whatever you want. But for me it isn’t that simple. Building dream skills takes practice.
I have a whole set of dream-world skills, and I improve at them year after year as I practice lucid dreaming. One of the most fun things to do in a lucid dream is to fly. For me this was a hard skill to master. The first few times I tried to fly in my dream world, it was like a scene from The Greatest American Hero. Anyone remember that show? I could barely get off the ground, I couldn’t go very fast (maybe 5 miles per hour), and I couldn’t turn easily. I was always crashing into stuff — fortunately crashing into a dream tree doesn’t hurt.
But after a decade of practice, I can fly pretty well now. I’m still not perfect at it, but I can go pretty fast, about as fast as a commercial jet. I can do barrel rolls and even fly backwards. I can turn intangible and fly through walls and buildings. I’d say my flying skills are almost as good as Superman’s right now. But it took me about 10 years to reach this level. Who’d have thought that learning to fly would take so much practice?
In my dream last night, I learned a new skill. Usually when I have a lucid dream, it starts out as a regular dream, and then I become conscious within the dream. This time when I woke up, I found myself within the dream world version of Los Angeles. I practiced my flying for about 5 minutes, then decided to work on my speed. Hmm… still maxing out around 600 miles per hour. Will I cause a dream sonic boom if I go faster? I decided to fly to Mexico City, but I realized I wouldn’t have enough time to get there before I woke up. So as I was flying, I tried to teleport myself there. I’ve tried to teleport many times before, and it never worked, but this time it finally did. I popped onto a dirt hill on the outskirts of Mexico City. I started flying again and flew over the city for a while before I woke up. My memory of the city is extremely vivid and detailed, but I’ve never been to Mexico City in real life. I’ve never even been to Mexico. So this morning I checked out some online helicopter photos of Mexico City, and it was pretty close to what I saw in my dream. I even saw the mountains around the city.
I’m not sure why, but my lucid dreams have a history of their own. My dream skills are always at the same level where I previously left off, and I improve a little whenever I practice. There are also persistent locations in the dream world which change between visits. For example, there’s an amusement park in my dream world with some pretty cool rides. I’ve been there dozens of times. It’s not a clone of anything I’ve seen in the real world. Each time I go back to the park in my dreams, it’s changed a little bit since my previous visit. Old rides are torn down; new rides appear. Some areas of the park are even under construction. There aren’t any food stands, since no one there seems to need to eat. But overall it’s the same park each time.
My wife is vastly more experienced at lucid dreaming than I am. And she also has these persistent dream locations, but they aren’t the same ones as mine. One of them she refers to as “Nap Town,” a place she visits often; she says it also changes between visits, as if time is passing there too.
I wonder though… are these places simply created by our individual imaginations and stored in our long-term memories? Or do they actually exist in a way that other lucid dreamers could visit them?
It’s amusing to me that I still pursue personal growth even when I’m asleep. When I was a kid, I always thought it would be cool to learn to fly. And that desire actually manifested for me, but in a very weird way. Perhaps it can’t manifest in the physical world just yet, but the dream world isn’t so limited. And with lucid dreaming it feels just as real as if I were doing it while awake. I still retain the memories of flying just as if they were real-world memories.
If you’ve never experienced a lucid dream, how sad for you. Get started by reading Stephen LaBerge’s Lucid Dreaming and Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming. If you’re going to spend so much of your life sleeping, you might as well put the time to good use. Learn to fly. Walk through walls. Have some fun. It’s totally learnable.
Any other lucid dreamers out there in cyberspace?
April 5th, 2005 at 1:09 pm
Steve,
Sometimes I feel that you should let your brain relax rather than keeping it to work all the time!
JD
April 5th, 2005 at 1:22 pm
Plenty of time for that when I’m dead.
April 5th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
BTW, Steve I read some stuff on Lucid Dreaming on Internet. Pretty interesting, I must say. But to be honest, I am not convinced about what will be the use of Lucid Dreaming. Whatever I can do/learn in my dream does not have any meaning in real life, anyway. So what’s the point?
JD
April 5th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
That’s like saying what I do during my free time has no bearing on the rest of my life. You can do just about anything in a lucid dream with practice, including using it as a resource to solve your real-world problems. You can say to the dream world, “Show me the solution to X,” and then watch it appear. I haven’t practiced that skill much, but some people appearently have gotten interesting results with it, as documented in Laberge’s books.
Besides, what makes you think that your dream world is any less real than your waking one? When you’re lucid both seem just as real, although each have different physics. So why not explore and experience both? Neither world comes with built-in meaning — it’s up to you to provide that.
April 5th, 2005 at 2:05 pm
Once when I was younger, in high school, I was studying for a biology exam on photosynthesis. When I went to sleep that night I became lucid and said to the dream, “Hey, since I’m here, can you help me with my test tomorrow on photosynthesis?” Suddenly a guy in a lab coat appeared with a chart and a stick and started teaching me about photosynthesis. Because I was lucid I was able to retain most of what he said. Did it help me on my test? I believe so. A little extra studying couldn’t hurt right?
I’ve also used lucid dreaming to work out problems I am dealing with in life. Talking things out inside a dream with someone you have conflict with in real life can be helpful.
What I love most about lucid dreaming, however, is making myself into a superhero and using telekinesis and shooting lighting bolts from my hands, and of course, flying. Nothing in the real world can give me that same feeling, that same experience. I would be committed to practicing lucid dreaming on that basis alone.
April 5th, 2005 at 3:05 pm
Steve, good post. I also “learned”, rather scared myself, into the lucid dreaming… I was kid, perhaps 10 or 12 and had this recurring nightmare where I was falling off of the cliff into the emptiness. Scared hell out of me for long time. Later I read that it is normal to have “falling down” dreams are result of maturing… There was also another recurring nightmare of somebody chasing me in the woods
Anyway, then I don’t know how, I became aware that I am actually dreaming. Oh, boy first night I realized that I relaxed… Let’s see where I actual fall… Nah, splat to the ground, woke up… Next night I started flying around. Did not manage to do much before I woke up, as you say it is short. Couple of nights after that I had that chasing nightmare but this time I turned around and kicked-butt of some guy that was chasing me.. Funny
Had not have lucid dreams for long time, got to look into that again it’s fun.
On another note what I found much more useful is the ability to solve problems during sleep. It also started when I was I think 14 and I was trying to solve a programming problem for whole day… My mind was so much wrapped around it that after I went to sleep I was somewhere between sleep and real world and still working on the problem. I “woke up” in the morning with problem solved, but I was tired. Did that intentionally couple of times since then but it is very tiring for me.
How does this work for you Steve? Any tips?
April 5th, 2005 at 4:27 pm
Could Lucid Dreming or semi-lucid dreaming explain some of the described biblical experiences?
April 5th, 2005 at 4:36 pm
Dennis, waking up with an answer to a problem is very common, especially if you intend for it to happen.
Ted, do you mean is it possible to mistake a lucid dream for physical reality? That seems doubtful.
April 5th, 2005 at 5:33 pm
Steve, have you ever experienced a “dream within a dream”? My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure I’ve had it happen that I was falling in a dream, and then I woke up within the dream when I hit the ground. I rarely actually wake up because of a dream I’m having unless it’s something really scary. Waking up within a dream would technically make it lucid, but I don’t remember what happened after I hit the ground and woke up.
I do have lucid dreams sometimes, but a lot of the time they conform to my waking reality. At least people act the same way. I can’t use mind control on them or make them do whatever I want. I do remember trying to fly though. I was only able to run, jump, glide a little and then fall back to the ground. I think since the brain can’t draw on real memories of flying, it has to figure out its own interpretation of it. Perhaps someone who had done hang gliding or parachuting would have an easier time flying in a lucid dream.
April 5th, 2005 at 5:45 pm
Hi Steve, I’ve had Lucid dreams as a kid, I did all that flying around stuff as well. I find it interesting that you thought that mexico city would be too far away to fly in your dream world. What you needed is a different perspective. Physical distance can be irrelevant in the dream world.
As a kid, I didn’t think about distances between places so if I wanted to fly somewhere, I believed it was just over the hill or something, and then it would be there!
Congratulation on the teleporting. Have you tried time travelling? I haven’t either… at least not purposely
April 5th, 2005 at 5:48 pm
Hey dennis, I’ve had those falling dreams as well. I kept falling and falling with no end in sight so I had plenty of time to switch into Lucid dreaming mode. Come to think of it, I think thats where my taste for sky diving comes from!
April 5th, 2005 at 6:09 pm
I used to lucid dream all the time. Only very short ones, where just about the time you figure out in your in a dream world, you wake up and you’re ticked off that you didn’t get to play around like you would have wanted to.
I don’t remember having any dreams in the past year or so, but last week, Steve mentions lucid dreaming one time, and I have and remember, dreams for the next 3 consecutive nights! These were deep and interesting dreams, but not lucid. It was neat example to see how quickly and intensely something can come to be, just by thinking about it.
I bet money I’ll manifest me up some dreams tonight.
April 5th, 2005 at 6:38 pm
Remembering your dreams vividly is often recommended as a precursor to lucid dreaming. And usually that will start happening just by intending it. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has a lucid dream within the next week as a result of reading this post, since just thinking about it is often enough to trigger it.
I’ve had a dream within a dream many times, and at least once I had a dream within a dream within a dream. I often experience these “false awakenings” where I wake up within a dream, but I’m still dreaming.
It’s interesting that dream skills need to be learned just like physical world ones. I started learning to fly by running along the ground and then trying to lift off just a few inches above the ground, basically gliding — I couldn’t steer at all. It felt like I was falling forwards, as if gravity was pulling me straight ahead instead of down. It’s amazing how many years it took to master this skill.
I’ll have to remember that idea of dropping the belief about dream geography needing to match real-world geography. Sometimes it’s hard to even fathom all the possibilities. I have gone to other dimensions in lucid dreams — that’s fun. Try visiting heaven when you get a chance.
Dream fighting is a lot of fun too. But for some reason my punches and kicks are terribly slow, much slower than in the physical world, as if I’m moving through water. Anyone else have that problem too?
My dream characters seem to be immortal — no matter how much I pummel up or pump them full of bullets, they just keep on going. The fighting can be a lot of fun, since nothing hurts, but the fights never seem to end until I wake up. Also, I haven’t found dream characters to be very good at offense; they mostly just defend themselves (and not very well). Dragons are pretty fun to fight though.
I’ve had limited success with mind control on dream characters. It often works initially but wears off if I stop focusing on it. Creating dream characters is also a challenge for me, but I’m getting better at it and can usually do it about 50% of the time.
I haven’t tried shooting lighting or lasers, but I have materialized and thrown fireballs and small missiles — those are a lot of fun, especially when flying at the same time.
I’ve never tried time travel — that never occurred to me. I figured time would have no meaning there.
April 5th, 2005 at 6:53 pm
I’ve had about 4-5 lucid dreams in my life. All of them were before my teens. The last one I vividly remember was flying. I was in my own neiborhood and there was a good wind going (in my dream) I held the corners of my coat where the zipper starts and used it to form two “wings” by holding corners stright out from the sides of my body. I was then able to fly all around my neiborhood and even city with ease. I have no idea how my brain had all the information for my region but it sure looked real.
April 5th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
Hi Steve,
I can sort of relate to how your post about learning to fly / lucid dreaming ties in with you ‘Courage to Live Consciously’.
I too have had a lot of trouble learning to fly in lucid dreams, and don’t ever recall flying in any non-lucid ones. Similar to yourself, I can never go very high, far or fast - mainly more or less floating in place slowly drifting towards the ground. Another issue quite often is having to deal with electrical wires being around or in the way. This seems to be a very common ‘barrier’ for many people although I don’t have any clue as to why?
What’s interesting is that the only time I’ve really successfully flown was after becoming lucid in the dream, I convinced myself that I could imagine what looking at treetops would be like from above (i.e. whilst in flight) and after I’d decided that yes I could do that, I was able to successfully fly for a short while (until I woke up due to losing control given the excitement).
I suspect it might be a fear of my normally dominant ‘realist’ self not wanting to lose/pass control to other (presumably more creative) parts of my self which would allow dream physics to be different to ‘real world’ physics, but then I’m neither physicist or psychologist, so who knows…
April 5th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
I’m trying, I’m trying. I’m in the first steps, trying to overcome the obstacle that you rationalize the nonsense things that make you realize you’re dreaming (”dreamsigns”, right?). At least I’m remembering them now.
I’ve never had a lucid dream, but I did dream with flying many times, it’s like a recurring dream which I have maybe every two years. I hope to be lucid sometime to really enjoy it
April 6th, 2005 at 1:38 am
Dream fighting is always very fast for me. Like you say, guns have absolutely no effect. I’m not even sure if they shoot bullets. Usually I end up stabbing dream characters with a knife or pen. There is never any blood or gore. For some reason, dream fights are actually very thrilling.
April 6th, 2005 at 3:38 am
The only thing silly about this blog entry is this sentence:
“If you’ve never experienced a lucid dream, how sad for
you.”
I see a whole bunch of arrogance behind this sentence. If you are having an experience that seems extraordinary, good for you. Not everyone will agree that it is an awesome experience; and not everyone will want to experience it. I, for one, don’t think that it is all that great. And I feel that there are much greater experiences that lucid dreaming right here, while you are alive. For example, you say that when you don’t work as much as your are used to, sometimes it drives you “batty”.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/02/a-simple-productivity-tip/#comment-1066
It is relatively easy to be focused and have peace of mind when you work (do something of your choosing). But not that easy, when things happen beyond you control or in ways in which you don’t agree with. But living in the present even in those moments, for me, is a greater experience than lucid dreaming could be. And that is something you seem to lack, as stated by your own comments.
April 6th, 2005 at 6:09 am
Steve,
I have had some similar experiences, but I thought they were OBEs (Out-of-body experiences). Is lucid dreaming the same as an OBE?
Also, you said that your brain will have plenty of time to rst when you are dead. At the rate at which you are “grwoing” though, maybe you will also learn how to be immortal.
April 6th, 2005 at 6:26 am
I wouldn’t define lucid dreaming as an OBE. That would be astral projection.
April 6th, 2005 at 6:30 am
The “how sad for you” phrase was meant in jest, Sri. If lucid dreaming isn’t your cup of tea, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.
Also, the comment you quoted came from the Feb 2005 version of Steve. You may be pleased to hear that the current upgrade doesn’t go batty anymore when he can’t work. In fact, he spent hours yesterday just playing with the kids.
April 6th, 2005 at 6:30 am
You’re about the first person I heard of to also have persistent locations in a dream world. I have a persistent dream world that extends at least back to when I was seven years old. It’s interesting - my dreams are not always lucid, but they are very nearly always in that same world. When lucid I can run very fast for a very very long time, fly, create force fields that stop bullets, and sometimes create objects out of nothing. I have tried to teleport, but it has never worked.
I did have a series of dreams over the course of a year that seemed to unfold backward. It was akin to Memento, now that I think about it. I spent quite a bit of time noticing how one night’s dream explained the events of the previous night, and so on. It was very odd - like a future me was trying to tell the past me something very important.
I can only recall twice seeing monsters that were definately not real - despite the impossibilities of flight, etc. One was about fifteen years ago, and the other was a couple months ago. Both times were very intense freakish experiences.
I’ve also done the dream-that-you-are-waking-up thing. Once it happened repeatedly so fast that when I finally woke up, I just gripped the bed and held very still to make sure it wasn’t going to happen again.
I’ve also had some very short, very realistic, terrifying dreams.
April 6th, 2005 at 7:40 am
Steve
In the past I thought that you were crazy — this last article just confirms it to me.
April 6th, 2005 at 8:12 am
“the comment you quoted came from the Feb 2005 version of Steve.”
I really like that idea of having a Feb 2005 version of yourself and continually releasing upgrades. With each new point release you can fix a few annoying bugs (like that “batty” bug) and add some new features (like more playing time with the kids).
You can maybe even have a current stable public release of yourself. And then have a more private “development branch” of yourself where you try out a few more unconventional beliefs.
April 6th, 2005 at 8:37 am
Yeah, it’s great having so many people help beta test me.
April 7th, 2005 at 9:56 am
Hey Steve,
Yesterday I had the lucid dream! I have a little problem with my car and I have been ignoring it for quite some time now. Yesterday in my dream, I saw that car finally broke up on free way. It was all snowy and I was wondering what to do. Then I realized that it’s a dream and I was still on Freeway. But I couldn’t really see any further as I just opened my eyes! But it was very wierd feeling. I am going to try this lucid dreaming thing now!
JD
April 7th, 2005 at 10:22 am
Congrats, JD. That’s the cool thing about lucid dreaming. The very suggestion of it is often enough to allow some people to have one.
April 8th, 2005 at 7:09 am
Steve, or anyone else that matter, do you have any experience with lucid dream induction devices such as the Nova Dremer or DreamMaker?
April 8th, 2005 at 7:10 am
I’m familiar with them, Jim, but I’ve never tried them.
April 8th, 2005 at 3:45 pm
Hi Steve,
are you using special techniques like the reality check during daytime to have lucid dreams often? I had a few but they are very rare. Also i sometimes decided to wake up inside a lucid dream cause i feared the lucid dreaming could be harmful to my mind or something. Any dangers of lucid dreaming? Like getting psychotic by consuming psychedlic drugs.
April 8th, 2005 at 4:16 pm
Yes, I use the reality check method. It also works well if I get up for an hour (like from 4-5am) and then go back to sleep for another hour or two; I often get a lucid dream in that second period. Mostly though it comes down to intending to have a lucid dream.
I’ve never heard or seen anything to indicate lucid dreaming could be dangerous in any way. If anything I’d say it increases the feeling of well-being.
April 27th, 2005 at 9:45 am
Hi Steve!
I got to yor website because I have I “lucid dream” watch list in technorati. What a wonderful surprise! Your articles and your blog are very helpful and very inspiring. So I subscribe to your blog not because lucid dreaming, but because all the nice and insighful things you talk about.
And again lucid dreaming gave me plenty of joy; now not because lucid dream “per se”, but because your words and motivation stuff
Before learning about lucid dreaming I used to say (for 10 years) that the most powerful experience that I had in my life was skydiving. And I continue to talk to everyone that they must do at least one skydiving in their life. It’s an awesome experince.
But back to lucid dreaming. Now I do not thing the most powerful experience in my life is skydiving; it’s really lucid dreaming.
What I’d like to share with you Steve, is the level of learning that I have now and if do you know something to help to improve that.
I started to study lucid dream in january, 2005. Since then I recorded 242 dreams and had 16 lucid dreams. Not bad but I thing I having the “beginners luck” syndrome because the statistics show me that. In january I recorded 49 dreams and 5 of that were lucid; february I had 60 and 6 lucid; march 63 and 3 lucid and now in april I recorded (until today) 70 dreams and 2 of then were lucids.
It seems to me that I had a very nice start but slowed down since march. I continue to do the same things (reality checks, MILD at night and at every time that I wake up, etc, etc).
Do you have any advice?
And really thanks for your wonderful website! Keep doing that!!
June 21st, 2005 at 6:52 am
I’ve been flying (although not measuring speed :D), eating (chocolate), doing various things (like with a magical stick) and doing many conscious things… in dreams ever since I was a kid. More recently, dreams help me solve real life situations (reality simulations of possible situations I’ve been thinking about) thus helping me understand myself better and saving much time in wake state.
What’s interesting, until recently, I thought that’s pretty much common, i.e. to me was unusual and rare when not being able to control my actions in dreams, or when something unexpected happens. To me, dreams are vitally connected to reality, and if taken wisely, can significantly improve quality of one’s life; the people that ignore their possibilities are the ones that are losing.
Sometimes the action gets its closure, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes I can even control other people’s actions, or at least know what is going to happen.
As for my role, while dreaming, I recognize the ones when I am
a) just an observer,
b) observer and participant
c) participant.
I also noticed dreams that are
a) simulations of possible situations
b) reflections of my fears, anxiety
c) reflection of daily events
d) reflection of outer events
etc.
June 28th, 2005 at 9:51 am
Anyone seen the movie Waking Life?
In the movie, the main character says he can tell he is in a lucid dream if a light switch doesn’t work. Or the digits on a digital clock are scrambled.
I can say I have not had enough lucid dreams to even have a chance at developing it into a skill.
June 28th, 2005 at 11:30 am
I have flown in my dreams before.Un like you teens i belive it is posible to fly in real life.Me and my brother use to train in special combat.Before we learn of gravity, and the guy who whrote at the top of this page flew 600mph in his dream, I flew mack 8.When i was younger my brother climbed up a tree and fell when the branchs broke of but the branches hit the ground before he did and according to instines law of relivtility he should have hit the ground at the same time the branches hit,But he came down eight seconds later.
June 28th, 2005 at 8:14 pm
I had about a dozen lucid dreams as a child, and I still remember all of them quite clearly. In the last few years, I’ve stopped dreaming altogether. It never occured to me that whether or not I dream/lucid dream could be in my control. I’ll have to try tonight.
August 15th, 2005 at 4:40 am
On dream fighting… You’re lucky. I have the same “Punching through water” problem when it comes to me attacking them, but my foes do not seem to have the same problem. and their attacks hurt. By which I mean, I feel the actual physical pain of their ice picks in my throat gun shots to the gut. Not as much as the real things, I imagine, but still hugely unpleasent. Yet they don’t seem particularly bothered when I knife them in the throat… how fair is that?