Have you ever had a dream in which you realised you were dreaming and suddenly became more consciously aware without actually waking up? If so, then you may or may not already know that what you experienced is a lucid dream.
In the normal dreaming state, your activity in the dream is usually quite unthinking and automatic. This may be passively responding to dream events, or being vigorously active in a reactionary way. The point is that, in usual dreaming, critical thought and rationality is usually suppressed, giving an automatic quality to dream actions that is generally lacking in freewill.
Lucid dreaming, on the other hand, means continuing to dream with awareness of the dreaming state. With this comes a greater capacity to choose and think, and a certain amount of ability to control the dream itself. Lucid dreaming is an ability that you can develop for yourself with focus and training, and has potential therapeutic use as a way of seeking your own natural sources of wisdom, and of developing a greater capacity for awareness and choice during your waking life.
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