Peter Torok
Lucid Dreaming Expert, Teacher
About me
Achievements in Lucid Dreaming and Meditation
Ability to consciously transition from meditation into lucid dreams and OBEs on demand (Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming)
Dream Yoga initiation & Permission to teach from Chogyal Rinpoche (Kagyu Buddhism)
Over 700 documented lucid dreams since 2010
12 years` experience: dream interpretation, dream control, dream work, dream herbs
Best-selling author
Professional Qualifications
PGCE, MSc Mathematics teacher
MSc International Finance and Banking
BA Business and Economics
BIO
When I was 25, a deep spiritual experience profoundly changed the course of my life. In the summer I went to a Buddhist retreat. On the third day, an unexplainable feeling took hold of me, which I can only describe as unconditional love, that is not comparable to anything. The feeling stayed with me for three weeks. My new job was lined up for me for September, I was about to begin my career in investment banking, for which I`ve been studying in the previous five years. It didn`t happen. I could not begin, because I got fully engaged in reading books and doing meditation. The next few years were devoted to understanding and integrating my transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Lucid dreaming and meditation became my most important spiritual practices. These are truly hands-on phenomena, because through them anyone can experience mind-expanding states of consciousness without the need for drugs or religious faith.
I feel lucky because my passion is the same as my work: lucid dreaming, reading, teaching, helping and creating content. If I never had to work in life, I wouldn`t be doing anything differently. In one sense, I am always working and in another, I am never working. In my experience, this kind of freedom can be achieved if a person is able to take deliberate actions even in midst of fear and doubt. This was very important to me. Not to give up. Moreover, one has to constantly improve their self-knowledge and mindset. Well, what kind of mindset? For example:
We strive to be able to look at things from more and more viewpoints. We systematically examine the way we react to things – what and why do we feel? We try to love people more. (Psychology: perspective thinking, metacognition and compassion).
Our past, our environment and other external factors constantly affect us, often strongly unfortunately. The biggest lesson from my psychological and spiritual research is, that those things actually affect us much less than we would think so! The true realisation is that the extent of our free action depends mostly on the level of our self-knowledge, our state of mind, and our effort – and not on external factors. The person who can incorporate this insight into their life is lucky because life will support them. (God helps those who help themselves / law of attraction / good karma).
Introspective work, coaching, therapy, meditation and making an effort to connect with others – these things gradually free us from our mind`s limiting, not-yet-recognised defence mechanisms, schemas and binding expectations of others. This is what `transcending our Karma` actually means.
My main spiritual way; lucid dreaming helps us step out of our patterns and our unconscious reactions in the form of both a psychological and a mystical experience. It helps us to see ourselves from a higher point of view. It helps us to remember again and again, that we are the sculptor creating our lives as our masterpiece and it reminds us that we are able to change. (Not to mention that it is one of the most exciting things we can experience in life).
For me, thinking about my thinking (which is good) and rumination (which is not good) stems from my youth. Something went wrong in secondary school. I craved for discovering the world, yet school was unbearably boring for me. My mind frequently turned off and I often could not study at all. My family`s expectation of me was to be a great student, but no matter how I tried, I could not fulfil that expectation in that setting. I was not allowed to express my opinions or emotions regarding this matter. Instead, I was left with shame and anxiety, which made me unable to express my creative self. There was a constant feeling of a void inside me and the depressive experience of being disconnected from life. I couldn`t take it any longer, I had to quit. At age 19 I left everything and moved to The UK to look for a new way of life.
While self-searching, I read a lot on psychology and I developed learning methods for myself, thanks to which, I became able to study. The more openminded environment also helped. It is faith`s irony that later I became a teacher. Me, the bad kid with attention deficit disorder. I enjoyed parts of my teaching work a lot, however again and again I encountered students who had similar issues as I used to have. They were not listened to; they had no motivation. The education system was not working out for them. What I used to feel as a teenager, but not understand, I could see properly as an adult: Our education systems are outdated and for many people, they limit the development of our ability to self-actualise. Because of this, we have to take our development into our own hands (or our children`s).
If we desire freedom and success, then we have to discover our areas of interest, the talents inside us, and we have to ask for help to become able to turn those into making a living. The most beautiful aspects of our life are experiencing meaningful relationships and finding our life`s purpose. On this path, anything that increases our self-knowledge can have life changing effects: increasing our emotional intelligence, interesting things in Psychology, help of professionals, meditation and lucid dreaming…and many other things.
With my work, I would like to contribute to seeing ourselves from an increasingly expanded perspective.