Transformation
Transformation is probably the toughest of the advanced dream activities. It needs very vivid imagination since it is not only your appearance that changes but also the feeling of your body and the world perception.
Unlike transportation, transformation doesn’t seem to have any immediate practical purpose. So why would we want to shape-shift anyway? Because it’s fun, obviously. A good enough reason for anything we do in dreams. However, transformation is also a very good training for mastering control over lucid dreaming. It needs imagination, good visualization skills and certain mastery of dream stabilization.
This complicated skill can be approached and learned in four simpler steps.
Step 1 – Hands
In dreams we are mostly unaware of our body. We can hardly tell in the morning how we looked or what we were wearing in a dream unless our appearance is a part of the dream plot.
Hands, however, are usually visible. We concentrate on our hands to stabilize dreams, and they are the easiest part of our body to manipulate.
As you look at your hands notice how unstable their form is. You can pierce your hands (a common dream-check), change their size or colour. You can grow your nails, extend your fingers. Transform your hands into paws, grow claws or membranes. Whatever shape-shifting you are doing, try to feel it physically, don’t just watch it.
You may even insert gems or flowers into your hands or try on a tattoo.
Once this step is mastered, which means you are able to go through any transformation, achieve the result you had in mind, while your dream is stable and the level of lucidity is high, proceed to step 2.
Step 2 – Mirror Image
Most of the times when we do remember how we looked in a dream, it is because we saw our reflection.
A mirror in dreams is much more than a reflecting surface. What it shows is almost never a reflection
but rather an image, a symbol, an inner state or a message.
In dreams, we are pretty much what we see in a mirror. The reflection determines the shape of our dreaming body. Change the reflection, and you change yourself.
So, the next step is the alternating of our reflection.
After becoming lucid find or create a mirror. A big wall mirror that shows your entire image works best.
Start with simpler adjustments: change your clothing, your hair – length and color; recolor your eyes, make them bigger or smaller.
Next, try to change your features, copy some other face – a celebrity, a movie character, a friend. Then change your age, grow huge muscles or a beer-belly.
When you can easily change into another human being, get creative. Grow some fur, extend your teeth or try to be an alien. Experiment with all kinds of fantastic features and shapes. When you feel comfortable enough with humanoid transformations move to step 3.
Step 3 – Advanced Shape-Shifting
Start shifting without a mirror. Go through the transformations you’ve learned so far. Train yourself to be aware of your body and all the changes it’s undergoing.
Ones your shape is stable, start changing your height. It may look simple after all the previous training, but it is not. A giant and a Thumbelina perceive the world in very different ways. The surroundings suddenly getting huge or very small is not to easy imagine or feel. The ability to see the world differently from usual humanoid creatures is important for the next step.
Step 4 – Animal Shape-Shifting
Changing into animal forms may be trickier than the previous transformations. You will have to change your entire world-perception. Imagination and good visualization skills are vital at this stage.
You may divide the process and start with something more human-like, adding details and changing your size and posture. For instance, you may start from a werewolf shape on the way to the wolf form.
Practice visualization even if it is not a part of your usual routine. Reading about shape-shifting may help too. After all, what you need is not a real first-hand experience but a plausible description that you may “try on”.
Mastering transformation make take months or years. But the learning is fun and will help you to sharpen other dreaming skills. Even though I list transformation among advanced lucid dreaming techniques, that doesn’t mean a beginner can’t practice it.
Experiment, have fun and good luck! Share with us your experience!
