During an ordinary dream, the untrained person is not aware of any other plane of existence than the dream. In becoming lucid, however, he becomes aware of another plane, the one he calls “reality.” This awareness allows him to become lucid, because he remembers himself in the higher plane of the waking. If he manages to remain conscious of both, as a shaman does even when in the waking, the dreamer becomes not only aware of another plane of existence, but he also acquires power over the dream he experiences.

What is a higher plane, for the purpose of this manual? The difference between an ordinary dream and what most people call “reality”, is that the experience in the dream, as real as it can feel at times, is not as saturated with reality as the world of the waking. For the shaman, all planes of existence are real, but some are more real than others. Some planes have a stronger gravitational pull on our essence, and they seem to have a denser force about them. A higher plane, therefore, is for the shaman a plane of existence that feels more real than the lower plane.

In this way, the shaman seems to have powers ordinary people do not.

Read more in my book, Dreaming’s Gate: A Key to the Higher Dimensions.