Speaking in front of a crowd, whether a handful of colleagues or hundreds of strangers, is a daunting prospect for many.

For best-selling author and teacher of lucid dreaming and shadow integration Charlie Morley, the moment he knew he was ready to teach large groups of people came after he gave a talk in 2008.

How it happened felt a bit like he was in a movie, he tells CNBC Make It.

A decade ago, around Halloween, Morley was giving his first public talk alongside his Buddhist teacher, an event he describes as one he'll "never forget."

"I gave my first talk and I had planned for it for months. I had a script and because I was an actor, I was like: 'As long as I learn my script, I'll be OK.' So, it was totally un-improvised, I knew exactly what I was going to say, even down to the pauses — I was way too over-rehearsed," he said, recalling a key turning point in his career, when he started focusing more on teaching and stepping away from his performance-based background.

At the end of this talk, however, Morley's Buddhist teacher, who was considered popular at the time in comparison to Morley, said to this big workshop crowd, and without asking Morley, "'Who thinks Charlie should run a six-week lucid dreaming course, starting next Tuesday?'"

"And then, everyone put their hands up," Morley told CNBC over the phone. "And he turned to me and smiled. And I was like 'Oh my God.' If you had put that in a film, you would say it was too cheesy — but it happened."