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Below is an account
taken from this paper Applications
of Lucid Dreaming in Sports by Paul Tholey an is specifically about
a martial artist improving his style through lucid dreaming. The whole
article is worth the read. Thesis
2: New sensory-motor skills can be learned using lucid
dreaming.
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illustrate this point I will first present the case of a competitor
in the martial arts (Tholey & Utecht, 1987, p. 208). For years this
man had studied the so-called "hard systems" (karate, tae kwon do,
and jujitsu). Then he decided to learn the "soft" system of aikido.
Over a period of two years, however, he failed to succeed in this
because the previously learned movements stubbornly refused to be
superseded. He considers the following to be the key experience that
put him on the right path: |
On
this particular evening, after still not succeeding in wearing down
my attacker and taking him to the mat, I went to bed somewhat disheartened.
While falling asleep the situation ran through my mind time and
again. While defending myself, the correct balancing movement collided
with my inner impulse to execute a hard defensive block, so that
I repeatedly ended up unprotected and standing there like a question
mark . . . a ridiculous and unworthy situation for the wearer of
a black belt. During a dream that night, I fell down hard one time
instead of rolling away. That day I had made up my mind to ask myself
the critical question in this situation: "Am I awake or am I dream-ing?"
I was immediately lucid. Without thinking very long about it, I
immediately went to my Dojo, where I began an unsupervised training
session on defense techniques with my dream partner. Time and time
again I went through the exercise in a loose and effort-less way.
It went better every time.
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| The
next evening I went to bed full of expectations. I again achieved
a lucid state and practiced aikido further. That’s the way it
went the whole week until the formal training period started
again. . . . I amazed my instructor with an almost perfect defense.
Even though we speeded up the tempo [of our interchanges], I
didn’t make any serious mis-takes. From then on I learned quickly
and received my own training license in one year. |
My
experience of lucid dream martial arts is limited
to just one time as my lucid time has been focused on the
Lucid Crossroads upto now, after I complete this site I will
change my focus to the Lucid Dojo but I've detailed the experience
below.
I'm
a green belt at the moment but I had this lucid dream when
I was an orange belt. In my dream I was in a sort of weights
room/dojo that I didn't recognize, a blue belt from my waking
life dojo turned to me and bowed and formed an attacking stance,
I became lucid in an instant just before he attacked. I don't
really remember too much of what I did as my mind was still
a little fuzzy from waking into the lucid dream from my regular
dream, but it was something like I defended myself against
his lunging punch by palming away his punch. In a flash I
retaliated stepping in and performing an odd palm strike with
my other hand that sent him reeling back and through an open
window. I've since seen that sort of strike performed by martial
artists that do Wing Chung and it could have been in my mind
from a film or somewhere else.
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| My
mind became fully aware and awake after that and I turned to
another blue belt from my dojo and asked if he wanted to spar.
I settled down into my Sanchin stance ready to fight a stance
that I have many problems with mainly in the form of relaxing
certain muscles and sinking into the floor ready for swift movement.
In the lucid dream however I felt completely different, my dream
body obeyed and my feet felt welded to the ground the leg muscles
and other muscle groups from my feet to my fists fell under
my control. The feeling was indescribable as I felt fully switched
on and ready for my opponents attack..... then the postman shoved
a load of mail through the door which clanged the letter box
and brought me instantly out of of my lucid state! |
Has this short lucid experience helped my karate? I believe
it has made me more aware of that one aspect of relaxing into
that stance. My sensei makes no bones about repeating principles
and precepts that we need to absorb and put into practice
but in my practice up till that point I only understood what
was required, rather than really feeling it expressed in my
GoJu. Now, occasionally, when I practice, I get a flash back
to the feeling, I have to say that I think that my body isn't
strong enough yet to translate the feeling of relaxed but
primed muscles. I got the feeling a few sessions ago in a
set sparing exercise and blazed away switched on and super
fast feeling the principles of body movement come to me easily.
This was great while it lasted, about 40seconds after which
time my muscles which had adopted the correct postures and
motions burned from the lack of practice in these lower stances
and smaller muscle movements, and although I don't consider
myself too unfit but I was definitely burnt out for the rest
of that sparing set.
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Click
right to goto the next page which tells you how to lucid dream |
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The
quick guide to lucid dreaming and Lucid Dojos site map |
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