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I was in my bed and I noticed two plastic objects in my right hand. I thought it was weird for them to be there so I got up and threw them on the floor. The first one did not make any kind of sound. The second did, likely because I started expecting it after noticing that the first one didn’t. I thought it was odd so I went to the light switch near the door and tried turning the light on. It didn’t work. I had two thoughts: “very strange… could I be in ‘lucid dreaming’?”; and, “did the power go out?”

I left the room and went into the hallway, walking towards the living room, but it was very dark (which would be normal if the power had gone out during the night). I was thinking about how this was all somewhat odd, but felt too “real”. I started to worry and tried calming myself down by thinking that if something really strange and/or scary happened, I could be sure I was in lucid dreaming, and shouldn’t worry. I vaguely remember a weak yellow-greenish light starting to appear from the living room, but I did not see anything.

Moscow, Russia

I seemed to me that my deep morning slumber had been interrupted by the discomfort and mild pain of numbness in my left arm, which my head had been lying on while I slept. The desire arose within me to get rid of that discomfort. I moved my numb arm in front of me and opened my eyes. But I couldn’t see the physical arm in front of me, even though I clearly felt it there and could curl and uncurl my five fingers and bend the arm at the elbow. This all made me somewhat confused. I clearly understood that something like this could not happen in the normal physical world. I decided that this was a very realistic dream, and that in order to wake up, I would simply need to close my eyes and strain my brain with the desire to awaken. That thought was followed by action. I opened my eyes shortly thereafter, thinking that I had finally woken up.

Before me was the daily reality that I always observe upon awakening: a large window through which sunlight pours onto my bed in the center of the room, a desk and chair, a bookcase of academic literature, and a wardrobe with clothing in it. Just like always. I decided to spend this weekday-off (I had a lot of days off that week) getting calm, easy rest.

I sat up Indian-style in bed with my elbows on my knees. I squinted, enjoying the rays of May sun massaging my face. It was warm, and the air was fresh. And I felt a sense of peace pour through my body like a sort of unearthly sweet nectar. I turned to look around. And suddenly, that state of relaxation abruptly changed into cold and shivering, the sense of peace transformed into terrible fear – my body was lying behind me! Panic. I glanced at those hands in front of me that I could feel but not see. They were lying peacefully on the bed alongside my body. I touched them and felt their velvety skin, yet not feeling the sensation with my physical hands. I tried to return to my body. I lay down into it, closed my eyes, straining in an attempt to wake up. I opened my eyes and got up, but the body was still lying there. Fear, otherworldly mortal fear. Tears. Perplexity. Incomprehension. The question, "what next?" And all around me was that bright and sunny day.

I became more and more afraid. The desire to leave that state grew exponentially. All of my attempts to return to my body brought no result. Frightened and scared, I sat on the bed like a figurine. Suddenly, out of the silence, I heard steps in the room. But I couldn’t see anybody. The fear grew worse and worse. I began to scream at that invisible man wandering in my room, bidding him to stay away from me. I then asked the question, "Who is he and what does he want here, and why can’t I see him?" I got an answer: "Don’t be afraid, this is all normal". He appeared a moment later, standing beside my bed. He was about 6 feet tall and a little over 30 years old, with a stocky muscular physique. His hair was dirty-blond and cut short, his eyes were gray-blue. He was wearing only a black bathing suit. Around his neck was a thick gold chain. He began to explain something to me about a certain city, calling it a transfer point. Then he said that many go through such a state and that it was a normal thing. He took my hand and said, "let’s go." A moment later, we found ourselves on some sort of old-town street. The house that we stood in front of had a blue rectangle on its corner with the name of the street and house number. I was easily able to read everything, and was surprised at what I saw.

We stood almost naked in the middle of the street, but passersby paid us no attention. I realized that they didn’t see us. I didn’t stop looking around, shocked and scared by what was happening. My head was filled with what was at the time a terrible question: how to return?

The young man abruptly ran towards the corner of the house in front of us. Entering through its wall, he said that it was time for him to return, as his friend was due to arrive. He disappeared. I stood in same place for some time, watching people pass me by. I didn’t know how to get back to my room, because the place from which we entered the street turned out to be a wall. What a bad break, how was I to go through the wall? I closed my eyes thought about my room, and recited, "whatever will be, will be," stepped forward, and found myself on my bed.

Sweeping my eyes over the room, I discovered that nothing had changed in it. The sun shone into it just as it had before. Breathing in a sigh of relief and closing my eyes in great hope that I would wake up, I rushed to open them. To my horror, I instead found a table with medical instruments on my bed. Waves of fear swept over my body with renewed intensity. I gulped that I would not make it through if they put me under the knife. I closed my eyes once again, and started to pray. The fear gradually receded, I calmed down….. and finally woke up. The first thing that I did was to make sure that the table with the medical instruments was not there. I jumped up and started knocking on the dresser, the wall, and on the window in order to make sure that it really was all over.

Moscow, Russia

I did indirect techniques. While peering at images, I caught sight of the same dream episode that I had been watching until I first woke up. The picture was very realistic. It seemed to me that I could change everything in this dream. I tried to get out of my body, and immediately flew through my head right into that dream. I landed at the door of the home that I grew up in. I then found myself at a window on the second floor.

Having remembered about the deepening techniques, I quickly began to scrutinize the window itself. My attention then shifted, and I peered out through the window. Everything was in its place, like in real life. Some man approached the door. I don’t know why, but I was sure that I needed to watch what he was up to. I instinctively took off from the second floor window, going right through the glass. I lowered to the level of the ground floor. The man walked in through the front door. I followed him, flew in through the door, and began to pursue him.

I then remembered that I had a plan for lucid dreaming. At precisely that moment, lucid dreaming space began to fade and disappear. I realized that I should apply the maintaining techniques, but did not manage to do so in time. Within a moment, I woke up to myself lying in bed. My body temperature went up. My breathing and heartbeat became more frequent. A second attempt to separate was of no use.

Surely, any creative person reading this textbook has had ideas occur more than once regarding the broad possibilities of using this phenomenon for artistic and cultural purposes. And indeed, it is difficult to imagine any limitations in this field. In addition to there being no boundaries from a technical standpoint, there are also no limits regarding the type of creative output. The artist, the musician, the sculptor, and the designer will all be able to apply the practice of lucid dreaming to their purposes. The experiences offered by the practice of lucid dreaming are sufficient in and of themselves. They indeed allow one to gain access to the gushing fountain of inspiration that is the human imagination.

Creating works of art: Using the methods of object finding or translocation, an artistic practitioner can purposefully seek an object in lucid dreaming that may be composed in real life. If necessary, it is possible to easily return to study an object in lucid dreaming. For example, a painter may find a stunning landscape and put it to canvas in the real world while periodically returning to the same landscape in lucid dreaming.

Viewing future completed works of art: If an artist is in the process of realizing an idea, then a preliminarily look at the end result of a design may be seen in lucid dreaming. A painter can examine a painting in advance; a sculptor may see a completed sculpture, and an architect will be able to wander through a house that is still in the early stages of design. Any creative work can be simulated in lucid dreaming.

A source of inspiration and fantasy: lucid dreaming practice imparts ideas and desires that positively affect creative endeavors. Furthermore, the realization of desires and travels through unusual spaces evoke great emotions, which provide excellent inspiration.

The idea of employing lucid dreaming to model creative output is obvious, as absolutely everything may be created in this state. The artist may create a landscape that he is only just preparing to paint, or has already partially sketched out. This gives him an opportunity to assess the result in advance, and introduce any changes as necessary. Or he may review all of the landscapes that he intends to paint, and then choose the most promising one to start work on. Or, he can simultaneously examine all the landscapes that he has ever seen, as lucid dreaming space easily reproduces them for him in fine detail.

This possibility offered by lucid dreaming is quite useful for the musician, as it allows him to create musical scores of any complexity, including those making use of an orchestra or chorus, whose members can led be easily and freely, without worrying about how difficult it is to do this or that, and without having to avoid over-straining those musicians who must comply to his every demand. Also, he does not have to worry about whether the orchestra, for example, will able to immediately play the notes just as he wants, because the output will always comply with his wishes. Naturally, to this end the student must first master how to control lucid dreaming, but is that really an obstacle?

A sculptor or an architect can easily create anything in lucid dreaming and review it in every detail, and thus have an advance opportunity to uncover any weak aspects of his design. There’s no point in describing how artists of every medium can make use of the properties of lucid dreaming, because such people can figure out those uses for themselves. Undoubtedly, an artist working in any medium can find something there for himself.

It must also be emphasized that works of art created in lucid dreaming state won’t disappear anywhere. That is, there is no need to worry about recasting works of art already created in previous lucid dreaming experiences. They are preserved there forever, and can always be found there again. In other words, any and all information can be stored with perfect fidelity.

The only thing a creative person may have to worry about is how, in the real world, to reproduce those wonderful masterpieces that he creates so easily in lucid dreaming. The fact is that lucid dreaming space is much more powerful than our waking conscious awareness – that is, our capabilities are much reduced during waking life. However, there will always be a chance to go back into lucid dreaming and work out the details. In essence, everything is limited only by our primitive memory, which is often unable to recall such large amounts of information during waking life.

All translocation techniques are also applicable to object finding techniques since the use of both techniques requires altering the surrounding space. Instead of concentrating on a location, the practitioner is to focus on the specific detail of a space that is to be found or changed. As a result, finding the necessary object (provided this technique has been mastered) is guaranteed, but maintaining the original location where the action begins is not guaranteed.

If the goal is to find an object while remaining in the present location, use the specialized techniques described later on: techniques that change only a portion of lucid dreaming space.