Mental State of Lucidity
Mental State of Lucidity (MSL) is a term I coined to describe the cognizant mental state commonly associated with lucid dreaming.
Other terms or concepts used to describe this state:
- awaken consciousness
- expanded consciousness
- being awake
- mindfulness
I prefer to describe this state as Mental State of Lucidity over those other labels for several reasons:
Those other labels have become buzz-words with watered down meaning due to those labels lack of descriptive power, they are vague. Because they are vague, people will hear those words and assign their own meaning to them, largely due as insufficient evidence procedure for objectively testing if something is or is not what the label describes. As a result, the meaning of such words gets watered down while at the same time gets charged up with hype and fanaticism, making it the mental equivalent of sugar-high (it's a word that gives you a buzz).
More so than the previous reason, I invented this term because I wanted to describe this state in such a way that can easily fit within the current nomenclature of the related 'spiritual disciplines' while at the same time be easily accepted among those (like me) who want a more concrete concept to grasp a hold of.
What's more important to me than coining this term is accurately defining this mental state in such a way that anyone can objectively measure it without the aid of external devices. Because once one has an accurate, concrete, measurable definition for something (i.e. a good evidence procedure), they can then test and measure different strategies for achieving it. This alone can save a person months, if not years of trial and error.
Defining MSL
The Mental State of Lucidity (MSL) can be measured (or defined) by the lucid quality of ones dream based on the scale described below.
This scale provides an useful and objective indication of quality of your mental state during the day based on the lucid quality of your dreams. 0 being the lowest quality and 4 being the highest quality. The assessment is answering one simple question: Based on this scale from 0 to 4, how lucid where you last night when you were sleeping?
- No awareness of dreams (as if you didn't dream at all)
- Recollection of dreaming but not remembering the dream
- Remembering your dreams yet not being conscious you were dreaming
- Becoming consciously aware you are dreaming (i.e. lucid dreaming)
- Being consciously aware and in control of your entire OBE experience from beginning to end
What you did the previous day, more specifically the mental state(s) you were in, resulted in the lucid quality of your dreams. This is a useful tool for identifying specifically what you are doing to increase lucidity and decreasing lucidity through pattern recognition and deliberate testing.
For mindfulness practitioners, this provides a measurable and objective test to know if you are truly being mindful during the day or not.