Hey everyone; long time no post! I have a question for you all. I’ll try my best to explain.
So, let’s say someone starts getting better and better at Lucid Dreaming, and they are able to do it multiple times a week. Since they are just beginning to get used to these controlable dreams, would that mean that no matter what they wouldn’t be good at making things happen? In other words, you know how everyone says “I tried flying in my LD last night, but I couldn’t do it.” or “I teleported for the first time!”. Well, you also know how usually that takes some practice? Pergaps, loooong practice? I was wondering, if one were to simply believe they can control their dreams exactly how they’d like, even in the beginning or on a first try, would that be possible? To skip all the repetitive frustration of trying to make your intentions a (dream world) reality?
Sorry if I’m not making much sense. I’d just like to hear your thoughts on this, maybe even eexperiences.
I wonder the same thing. If anything is possible in dreams, why do we need practice before we can achieve what we want?
Some skills and goals are pretty simple (changing clothes) and I got them on the first try, others I’ve tried since the start (transformation) and haven’t gotten them yet. I count it all practice, and I always believe that in the next LD I will be able to transform completely.
I don’t think we can get around practice. I’m sure there are a gifted few with powerful imaginations who can just skip it, but for most of us, we have to try for a while. Compared to other skills though, LDing can be very quick to master.
Personally I think that its all about your confidence and will. If you know that flying is possible, and you had absoloutly no doubt that you could do it, then you would fly.
It’s all about your confidence in your dream, if you go in with the attitude that you can do anything, then you will be able to do anything.
It’s only when there’s doubt and you think, ‘hold on, i haven’t done this before, it’ll take practise’ So the dream responds by making it harder so you have to practise.
So far, I’ve managed to boil down the skills sufficient to accomplish anything in a dream to confidence, and visualization.
Yeah, that is also a very good point, the difficulty of a thing in a dream will depend greatly whether we want to do that thing, or rather we want to learn it.
Ever experienced beginner’s luck? On first try, we can already do a great job on any task; but if that happens every time, can it really be called luck?
Yet, we stick on thinking there’s training needed for anything, even after we did so good the first time; consequently, in order to be eligible for training, the only solution is toning ourself down. It can become a nasty habit, and there’s nothing like dreams to prove it.
In dreams, if you really want to do something, even if you don’t know how, it will be pretty easy, even the first time; the method can come as an inspiration, or an advice of any sort from the dream itself, and then it’s just up to you to trust your abilities, and get moving.
Not many people believe in their amazing possibilities, but let me tell you that: each one of us has done as much as learning your first language (the most difficult one!) without anyone teaching him/her, just by sheer observation.
When you see someone doing a certain task, and you understand what they’re doing, it means you’re recreating their actions in your head (since what you’re observing are not just blobs of colour, but a couple dancing, an artist sculpting, and whatnot), and if you can jokingly copycat all the movements a friend of yours does, you can as well copy some more elaborate one, with a little more observation, especially in dreams, that are such a benevolent and possibility-packed environment.
Dreams take place in your mind, and that means, if you can see it in your head, it can be recreated in your dream, isn’t it?
And there’s where imagination comes from: a fervid, vivid imagination means whatever you can conceive, you can see yourself doing it, and that means you’re more than halfway there in effectively accomplishing your goal: the next step is just being there when you imagine that.
I used to have no trouble walking through walls or sinking through floors in LD’s, but in a recent one, I flew to a door, believing I would able to fly through through that door and I couldn’t. I doubt it was a matter of practice, too. But I also doubt it was a matter of confidence, because I was already very confident that it would work.
Some lucid happenings, I do chalk up to experience (not necessarily practice.) The way I usually fly is slow and not very responsive to sharp turns, for example, so I’ve taken to manifesting objects that will assist me in flight. There’s this one DC whose presence has fairly regularly turned my LD’s into ND’s, so I learned to deal with her.
I guess it’s a balance of learning to work one’s conscious mind, and harmonize it with the subconscious mind. Supposedly I could just fly faster and with more control, but the last time I tried that something popped up in the dream that I didn’t consciously manifest, and it became a bit of a hindrance to that. Maybe I was out of “harmony” with my SC.
Or, that I still can’t teleport in LD’s, but have little trouble doing so in ND’s-- maybe that’s lack of familiarity with how my own conscious mind handles. It’s not practice or confidence, it’s having creativity “click”?
My problem is that I always doubt slightly that I’m dreaming. Since all my ld’s seem to be in my bedroom I doubt the fact that I’m dreaming and think I don’t want to walk into this door in case I’m not dreaming and I have done the rc wrong.
Anyone know any rc’s that would prove beyond doubt I’m dreaming without the risk If I’m not dreaming. I didn’t think it was worth another thread so I wonder if you have any answers.
Nose plug RC fails evertime it is tried IWL, and succeeds everytime in the dream world. It has never let me down and I use it just about any time I need reassurance that this is a dream (like before doing something risky or dangerous in a dream).
Back to the topic, I’d like to start some type of training program where certain skills can be further tweaked in the dream state. Maybe create my own facility that can be revisited that has a flying obstacle course to sharpen my navigation. Or have a spawning chamber that I practice creating objects or people. And once I have a repitoire built up, those objects or skills could be at the ready anytime i am lucid anywhere in the dreamworld.
I agree with all of you. I think the same thing- that most of it is a matter of your confidence and doubt. The next time I’m lucid, I want to practice this and take into consideration all of your guys’ insight you’ve shared with me.
So with that being said, to avoid letting this topic die, I have another request. (Not to be pushy!) I’ve been trying to stick with a few key techniques lately, but I’d like to try something a little different perhaps. I really like autosuggestion and the visualization technique, but techniques similar to the one where you imagine you’re hitting two keys on a piano I find interesting. Anyone have ideas, or techniques you came up with yourself?
P.S. If anyone else comes across this thread feel free to comment on either topics!
I’ve recently got into lucid dreaming as a study and practice. A couple weeks into it I had my first lucid dream, and in this dream I was able to fly. Once I realized I was dreaming, I decided to try flying, and on the first try I couldn’t.
Then I decided to push all doubt aside and tell myself that because it’s MY dream, I should be able to enjoy it how I see fit. I was then able to fly any which way I chose, and it was incredible.
So to answer your question, I believe you can pass all the frustrating elements and achieve whatever you believe you can. The hardest part for me will be learning to hold on to my lucidity!
Same here, I think all you need is a good imagination and the believe that you can.
I flew in my first LD, no problem (Peter Pan style I guess, just think where I want to go and I go), Then I read in Robert Waggoner’s book “Lucid Dreaming:Gateway to the Inner Self” that you can call out to your dream to ask for something like “show me my dream-guide,” and because I believed one could do this I could. So yes, it is a matter of believing it to be possible. The last time I asked the dream to let me be lucid for an hour a rooster woke me up. but I am working on believing that when I ask it, it will happen.
I just finished that book, and absolutely loved it! It touched on so many topics that I had in mind when deciding to start my journey into lucid dreaming.
Haha! Well I guess I chose a good book to start my lucidity routine on. I started to read Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, but stopped halfway once I picked up Robert Waggoner’s book. Going to get back into it now, because I finished the book today.
Ahh, good ol Chico. I just moved here from Washington with my fiance. So far it’s great!
I think practice is just a way of gaining confidence. If you believe that you’ll get better by practice, the more and more you try you will get better because you are confident the practice works (in a way it does, but actually you’re building confidence).