How to Create Your Personal Dream Space

June 27th, 2007

This article is part of the series Mastering the Art of Lucid Dreaming.

Now that you have practiced controlling your dream environment and have become more skilled at creating objects within your dreams, it's time to put those skills to good use.

Spend time using your newly acquired skills to create your own personal dream space, a place within your dreams where you will always feel safe, secure, and in control. This can be a room, a temple, or even an outdoor location such as a secluded beach or a grove of trees.

When you create your dream space, select a setting that provides you with a deep sense of inner peace. Create your space from a blank canvas, adding only features that reinforce the sense of calm and tranquility. Be as detailed as possible, devoting attention not only to creating your visual surroundings but also to creating sounds, smells, and tactile sensations. Pay attention to the little details and make the space as inviting as possible.

Spend time reinforcing your dream space by visiting it often. Focus on a different feature each time you visit. During one visit, concentrate on the visual features, the overall look of the place, the spatial sense of it. Is it indoors or outdoors? Is it small and cozy or a vast expanse? What do the immediate surroundings look like? Give yourself a place to sit — a chair, a pile of cushions on the floor or ground, a tree stump, anything that feels comfortable to you and suits your personal space. Add any other features you desire — plants, books, a babbling brook — and then walk around in your dream space and just look. Look at things up close, look at things far away, and fix these details in your mind.

The next time you visit, focus on other details. What sounds do you hear? What do you smell? What does the air feel like? Is the temperature hot or cold or somewhere in between? If your space is outdoors, does the weather remain the same or does it fluctuate? Create the sounds, smells, and environment you choose, and fix those in your mind as well. On your next visit, focus on textures. What do things feel like to the touch? What does the fabric on your chair or cushion feel like? How about the walls, the bark of the trees, or the grass on the ground?

Be sure to give your dream space multiple entry and exit points. If your dream space is a room, add doors or archways leading in and out. If your space is outdoors, add paths that lead off in a few different directions. This will allow you to come and go from your dream space whenever and however you want, even during times when you're having trouble controlling a dream scene.

Your personal dream space is a location you'll be able to return to within your dreams at any time, whenever you want to collect your thoughts, whenever you feel a need for safety, or simply when you would like to spend a few moments in a calm and peaceful place.

Whenever you feel the need, use the technique of your choice to change the dream scene and move to your personal dream space.