Lucid Dreaming Will Be Next Year’s Super Skill

Rediscovering humanity’s most underrated ability

Learning to lucid dream is by far the most important thing I did this year.

And that’s saying a lot, considering that I practiced my French for over three hundred days, grew my chess rating by 400 ELO points, studied my way to becoming a high school salutatorian, and got my first real job.

C’est super, non?

Coming to terms with my dreams has given me a gift—a sort of preternatural clarity—that I will forever be grateful for. It’s a superpower, one that I’m still figuring out how to use.

And that is the premise of this story. This year, the collective human mind was pushed to its limit once again and as a result, many of us unlocked a superpower that lay hidden. I have glimpsed the future, and it belongs to the lucid dreamers.

What will your life look like next year?

Well, it depends on what category you are in on January 1st, 2022:

1. The (literal) millions of people with New Year resolutions. It’s a tradition now; write some arbitrary goals for the year with no concrete plan in place for achieving them, then gorge yourself on self-help in August when you realize how little progress you’ve made.
2. The people that don’t really care. For most people, next year will not be that much different from this one. The new variant of COVID-19 (Omicron) will ravage the worse-off countries for a bit, and people will go on being vaccinated. These people are still waiting for things to go back to normal. Fun fact: this is the new normal — deal with it or die.
3. The ones that will take over the world. Yeah, I mean it. Next year the world will still be in hibernation — the ones that wake up first will dominate. Here’s how it’ll go down.

The truth about lucid dreaming

Most people know that you can fly in lucid dreams and it’ll feel real. Yeah, you can actually. But the real power in lucid dreaming is simply being aware.

Clarity is the key.

Think about it. The real world is full of endless distractions, a million opportunities to miss out on seeing the big picture. In a lucid dream, you can make the world stand still — and then look at it.

If you can lucid dream already, I want you to try something this night. When you attain lucidity, imagine the busiest moment of your day. Feel the confusion you must have felt as the scene played out around you — the muffled feet stomping around, the phones ringing and the conversation flitting about in the air.

And then press Pause. (You can do that in a lucid dream).

Sit and think; what did you miss here?

Ask questions when you’re ready — you can do that, too. What you’ll hear are responses from your own subconscious; the very assumptions that you unconsciously live by.

When you understand yourself, the world becomes a little clearer.

That is the power of lucid dreaming.

I’ve done that every day for the past two weeks now. I’m a little sleep-deprived, but I think I understand things a little better now. I have plans to take my dreams further next year, but unlike most people, this isn’t a resolution. Hopefully, by mid-September, I’ll be emperor of the world.

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