(From the May 22, 2010 The Erratic Oneironaut, the Mortal Mist community newsletter.)

I recently joined up with a couple other dreamers in a sort of three-way cooperative effort to share goals and results on a daily basis.  We’re using PM and chat and trying to help one another stay on track by reporting our goals and results to one another for a while.

During the conversation leading up to this arrangement, we were discussing the basics – those things absolutely necessary if we hope to enjoy the amazing experience of lucid dreaming.  We’ve all seen that short list what seems like a million times; you must be able to recall some of your dreams, you need a technique or two to work on, and you need to be able to stabilize and remain in the dream once you are lucid.

Then the rather abstract subject of intent came up.  Intent is more than just knowing why we want to experience a lucid dream – it is acknowledging that desire and committing ourselves to the goal.

If you think about it, just about every worthwhile achievement begins with intent; from learning to play musical instruments to successful relationships to completing college degrees and landing jobs to building lucid dreaming communities.  It is the initial setting of intent that really starts us on the journey to realizing our dreams.

Like any other art or discipline, Lucid Dreaming requires commitment, dedication and effort to achieve and master.  Before commitment, dedication and effort, however, comes intent.  We need to want it badly enough to set our intent.

Intent is probably the most fundamental requirement for successful lucid dreaming – the intent to stick with it long enough to achieve the goal, and each and every night the intent to achieve lucidity and then remember it.