But I must admit that when I have meditated in order to
acquire a lucid dream, I have failed consistently.
The unpleasant result has been that my dreams have
admonished me severely because of such confounded
motives! I am slowly learning to tread gently.
      Except on rare occasions when I have passed into a
lucid dream without a break in consciousness, most of my
lucid experiences have begun with a "normal" dream in
which something unusual has arisen to convince me that
I am dreaming. The situations in the dream which have
provoked lucidity with the greatest frequency are of two
basic interrelated types.
      The first and perhaps the most common stimulus
during the initial stages in the process has been a
stressful experience in which I have been confronted
with a threat in the form of a person, animal or unknown
force. In this type of dream the desire to escape has
usually resulted in aborting the stressful dream. But
sometimes the stress is alleviated through the arousal of
lucidity. In this case, I have been catapulted into greater
awareness out of apparent necessity. The fear itself
seems to encourage the development of lucidity as a
coping mechanism which enables a creative interaction
between myself and the feared situation. It is probable
that the resolution of such dreams has had a healing
effect in my waking life, as well.
      An example of this type of lucid dream is as follows:

     I am being pursued in the area of my freshman
residence by a group of men. As I run fearfully through
the neighborhood, dodging in between houses, I become
aware that I am dreaming and that the fear is
unnecessary. I realize that I have a choice either to go to
meet my pursuers or to meditate. I feel a need to return
and work through the conflict. So I try to fly to the area
where they are located. I will myself upward until I am
high above the earth. But before I get to the place, a
pleasant vibration courses through my body, and I
awaken.

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