According to Osho, lucid awareness grows by recognizing that dreaming is continuous, deliberately quieting outer activity to perceive it, and practicing witnessing (self-remembering) through meditation. Relaxation and turning inward let you observe the dream-film without identification; sustained awareness dissolves inner dreaming altogether. When the inner sky is clear of dreams, one is truly awake—the essence of enlightenment.
Notice your inner movie all day, relax and watch it without getting lost, and keep remembering yourself until the dreams fade and clear awareness remains.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Will you please explain to us what are some of the other factors which can make one conscious while dreaming?
This has been one of the oldest Indian methods. That is why we have insisted on the world being unreal. We do not mean it philosophically; we do not say that this house is unreal so you can pass through the walls. We do not mean that! When we say that this house is unreal, it is a device. This is not an argument against the house. So Berkeley proposed that the whole world is just a dream. One day, in the morning, he was walking with Dr. Johnson. Dr. Johnson was a hardened realist, so Berkeley said, "Have you heard about my theory? I am working on it. I feel that the whole world is unreal, and it cannot be proved that it is real. And the burden of proving it is on those who say that it is real. I say it is unreal -- just like dreams.…
But if every night, continuously, you go to sleep with the same thought—that when the dream comes, I will remain aware that it is a dream, I will remain the witness—then one day the event happens. Between three and six months of steady effort, if each night you fall asleep soaked in this resolve—to see the dream and recognize it as dream, to recognize within dream that it is dream... Waking, all recognize; in the morning everyone knows it was a dream. There is no adventure in that; it is ordinary. The adventure is: while the dream is unfolding at night, you shake yourself in the middle and remember—it is a dream. The day this happens, you will be astonished: a revolution has occurred. It does happen. By remembering each night as you fall asleep, the remembrance slowly enters your sleep. As you sink toward sleep, keep thinking, keep remembering.
Beloved Osho, when I go to sleep at night, I am swept away by such incredibly surreal dreams that I wake up in the morning surprised I am in my same bed. Osho, is there a way to channel this phenomenal energy that goes into dreaming at night, into watchfulness?
The phenomenon of dreaming and watchfulness are totally different things. Just try one thing: every night, going to sleep, while you are just half awake, half asleep, slowly going deeper into sleep, repeat to yourself, "I will be able to remember that it is a dream." Go on repeating it till you fall asleep. It will take a few days, but one day you will be surprised: once this idea sinks deep into the unconscious, you can watch the dream as a dream. Then it has no grip over you. Then slowly, as your watchfulness becomes more sharp, dreams will disappear. They are very shy; they don't want to be watched. They exist only in the darkness of the unconscious. As watchfulness brings light in, they start disappearing. So go on doing the same exercise, and you can get rid of dreams. And you will be surprised. Getting rid of…
For people who have been so clouded by lies and deceptions in the waking state, can remembering dreams, re-enacting and experiencing them in the waking state, be a useful method -- the first step on the path of higher consciousness and truth? Can this method hasten the thirst for god until the point comes when the dreaming mind is dropped?
You will remember the dream, now the mechanism has to be understood. The dream is a message from the unconscious to the conscious because the conscious is doing something which the unconscious feels is unnatural. And the unconscious is always right, remember; the unconscious is your nature. The conscious is cultivated by the society, it is a conditioning. The conscious means society inside you. It is a trick of society. The conscious is doing something which the unconscious feels is too much against nature, so the unconscious wants to give a warning. In the morning, when you remember, again you will remember from the conscious, again the conscious will interfere. Whatsoever is against it, will not be allowed; whatsoever is sweet will be allowed. But that is not the point. The bitter part was the real message. But try it. What they do in psychodrama can be useful. Rather than…
How to be alert in sleep and dream?
The person who has asked says that whenever he tries to be aware, he cannot sleep. Or, if sleep is coming and suddenly he remembers that he has to be alert, the sleep is broken, and then he cannot sleep -- it is difficult. Awareness with sleep cannot be worked out directly. First you have to work with the waking. Don't try that, otherwise your sleep will be disturbed and your whole day will be disturbed and you will feel depressed, lazy, sleepy. Don't do that. Remember always there is a chain and one has to move from step to step. The first step is to be aware while waking. Don't think about the sleep at all. First you be awake while waking in the day. And when you will gather enough energy of awareness, then only the second step can be taken. Then there will be no effort really.…