It is a common fantasy in this culture to be able to control one's dreams. Many people envision being able to fly, and some even imagine they would be like Jim Carrey's character was in his movie "the Mask"--turning into a cartoonish character with superhuman abilities. What fun that would be!

Several novelty catalogs have sold gizmos to induce lucid dreaming. One, which sells for 249. dollars, consists of an eye mask with flashing red LED lights sewed into it. If you do not care to invest that much money into a flashing mask, not to worry; there is a better way!

It is a matter of psychology, not blinky gizmos. Here is a technique that is easy and really does work before long. Guaranteed...

1. First you must make a habit of something. Habits carry over into your actions when in a dream. So whenever you read something-anything- look away from it and then back to it. Re-read it. Do this many times a day until you are in the habit of it. See that pop bottle by you? Mountain Dew. Look away from it. Look back. What does it say now? Mountain Dew. Good. So simple. Just do that off and on all day, for like a week. Soon you will be at the next step.

2. Once this is a second-nature habit, you will begin to do it when dreaming as well. This is the neato part: for some psychological reason, when in a dream state, the words will never read the same twice. Absolutely never. Now the Mountain Dew bottle might say Made Doilie. Or Mshegf Dokjlll. Or anything but 'Mountain Dew'. You will go,"wait a minute- that ain't right...".

At this time, since you already know what you have just read here about this, you will realize you are in a dream! And once you realize you are dreaming, you have open license to do whatever you want!!! It really is that easy.

The only drawback is that sometimes, when having a really good dream(like finally hooking up with your hot coworker, for example) then you will realize it is just a dream, and that kind of throws water on the fun you were already enjoying. But usually, it is good to do some aware-exploring on the other side of consciousness.

This ability is also useful for quashing bad dreams. Nightmares are not so scary once you realize they are not real.

Try this. Be persistent with your self-training and it will work. Don't just read pop bottles either- utilize books, signs, box labels- anything written.

Sweet dreams!