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Interview with Athena Laz
How can our dreams benefit us?
Every night when we sleep we are gifted with guidance, creative solutions and transcendental insights that come through dreams. Dreams help us to regulate negative emotion, link us to spiritual guides, and offer us opportunities for healing in our sleep. They can provide a level of closure and healing when grief takes hold of us, offer answers to problems that seem immovable during waking hours, and even help to resolve inner conflict. All dreams are abundant offerings. Now, this isn’t to say that all of your dreams will feel easy—a nocturnal narrative of bliss and pleasure. That is because our dreams help to guard against self-deception and in doing so they often pack a metaphoric punch, encouraging you to ask: What is the message I’m not hearing? The “thing” that I’m not seeing? The path I’m afraid to follow? The feeling I’m unwilling to feel?
What is the difference between a symbolic and lucid dream?
We all know what regular dreams are like. They are the symbolic adventures that we have nightly. In stark contrast, lucid dreams are dreams in which you become aware that you are dreaming while you are actually in the dream. In other words, you find yourself ‘awake’ in a dream even though physiologically your body is sound asleep. And because your consciousness is awake you can explore your inner-world and the dream world with greater clarity and conscious intent. You will discover that the more proficient you become as a lucid dreamer, that the easier it becomes to change your life, and the world for the better.
What are the spiritual benefits of lucid dreaming?
Lucid dreaming is an ancient dream practice spoken about in almost all wisdom traditions. From Shamanism to Tibetan Bön Buddhism lucid dreaming is a skill that can help you to:
- Creatively solve problems
- Regulate tough emotions
- Understand your own psychological patterns better
- Intuit the next right action to take in your life for greater well-being, love and ease
- Become privy to visionary guidance
- Resolve shadow aspects of your Self by consciously facing them in the dream
- Speak to dream guides who can assist you
- Resolve health issues in the dreamscape and see physical changes on waking (this has been verified by research studies and first-person accounts)
- Discover what dreamscapes, dream symbols and dream figures are showing you
- Practice the ancient art of dream (and eventually sleep) yoga for meditative, spiritual and meta-awareness
Can anyone learn how to lucid dream?
Yes! I believe that anyone can lucid dream if they apply their attention and focus on the practices that help trigger lucidity!
Why did you write The Alchemy of Your Dreams: A Modern Guide to the Ancient Art of Lucid Dreaming and Interpretation?
I wanted to offer readers a book that incorporated both a depth psychology and metaphysical perspective. So many dream books only focus on one perspective with the total exclusion of the other but when we look to gain insight, solutions, and creative wisdom from our dreams we need both perspectives! I also wanted to show people how incredible all of our dreams are: we can have pre-cognitive, healing, announcing, symbolic and lucid dreams! All of which offer us different insights and experiences – ultimately our dreams speak to our transcendental natures nightly!
Find out more:
Athena Laz is a psychologist, lucid dream teacher & intuitive. Her book The Alchemy of Your Dreams: A Modern Guide to the Ancient Art of Lucid Dreaming is out now. She helps thousands of people worldwide to discover the depths of their psyche’s and spirit through the medium of dreams, symbols, metaphor and image. That is the language of the soul.
www.athenalaz.com
www.athenalaz.com/membership
@athena_laz
Bookshelf
The Alchemy of Your Dreams: A Modern Guide to the Ancient Art of Lucid Dreaming and Interpretation by Athena Laz, published by Yellow Kite, illustrated hardback (256 pages).
