CALD Tutorial

Quest for Lucidity FAQs and Tutorials
1

CALD: Character Assisted Lucid Dreaming
[size=100]Warnings:
Do not blur the differentiation between physical, and non-realities-- Characters are not physical, and never can be.

While it is fine to let characters become highly developed to a point of realism, their existance should never come to a point where it will disrupt yours.[/size]

CALD is a lucid dreaming technique that uses characters who have been consciously created or dream characters who have been harvested from dreams who have been developed to a realistic point (i.e. no long “empty” or “puppet-like”)

The first step is Character Creation.
There are two ways to do this:

  • Create consciously through effort
    Inspire yourself from the things around you, and create characters from enjoyed concepts or feelings. (I.e. music, sensations felt, people around you, refer to the character creation tutorial for further help.) Or, use previously created characters, or otherwise another system that you are accustomed to.
  • Harvested (either recurring or not) dream characters from dreams
    If a dream characters pops up that you particularly like, you can use them as well.

The next step is Basic Development. You should have genuine interaction between the User, and the character in waking times, and with other characters through other people. (I.e. There is a character chat room in LD4ALL, and role play chat rooms are readily available through other sites, like DEVart.)

Next you are going to apply this to the persuit of lucid dreams. Though it has varied so far, the basic re-occurring way to go about this, is have the character (who at this point, shouldn’t feel as though you are a puppeteer, and they are your puppet) help with other lucid induction techniques (i.e. reality checks, internal alarm, reminders to practice certain techniques after waking.).
Or, think of, and interact with the character before bed. Hopefully-- this will lead to you having a dream that is lucid. It would have been the last thing thought about before bed, and talking about the subject is much easier than reminding yourself constantly.

Note: CALD is a fairly open-ended technique, everyone is free to their own interpretation of how to go about it.

If you have any questions left, feel free to post them here.

1 Like
2

The CALD Caveat (Cautions)

As CALD becomes more well-known, some common misconceptions have arisen that have been around since the creation of CALD. This page is to clarify on some common concerns about CALD, as well as suggest a general guideline to the technique.

Mental Illness:
To be clear, creating developed characters will not set up any form of mental illness in any healthy person unless taken to an extreme, as with all things.
It is important to remember that characters exist purely in a non-physical reality, and can never become a physical existence.
Character reality (that of the non-physical) and our own reality (the physical plane) are completely separate.

It is completely normal to develop realistic, in-depth characters. If it wasn’t than there would be no interesting T.V shows or books.
Letting a character come into sentience, or attain autonomy is a step to allow them to be more independent, and indeed interesting. However, precautions must be taken with this.

General Rules:
In having characters become self-driven, and having them exist in our conscious minds, we must take care that human mental health comes first.

In my own set of rules, I have made it clear that:
Should any character come to be a health risk in any respect, or pose a threat to any other facet of life, the character’s creator will be ready and willing to cleanse them from their system.

While this may seem harsh, it is logical too for those concerned for a character’s health.
A character’s reality is filtered through our own perception. A warped human mind pays no benefit to either party!

CALD is a fun technique, interesting and enriching to the lives of those who actively use it, and have an interest in character development. However, though it may be a useful and fascinating technique, as with all other things we must be wary that we don’t get carried away. It’s okay to be passionate, but it’s not alright to be blind to danger.

Any further questions? Try visiting the CALD Tutorial:
The CALD Tutorial
Or ask us at the CALD thread in the Pathways to Lucidity:
Pathways To Lucidity
If there any personal questions, feel free to contact Talon Arana for help and advice.