I’ve been trying to have lucid dreams for a while now and I may have actually taken a step towards that.
Maybe…
The problem is, in my dreams, the subject of Lucid Dreaming often crosses my mind but to no effect! I can clearly remember saying to someone in one dream “Hah wouldn’t it be weird if this was a dream?” and in another dream someone asked me “Why do you want to have a lucid dream?” just like that. (I didn’t know how to answer, I just was like “well… I…”)
When these things happen, I wake up the next morning and remember that part of the dream and it makes me feel stupid. I said it right there! What if this was a dream?
What am I doing wrong that these moments aren’t pulling me into lucidity?
This is so, so common. I know you feel so stupid when it happens. You think, Why didn’t I just do a reality check right then and there? But like pasQuale said, make sure that you’re doing RCs every time you think, talk, hear, or read about anything involving dreams or sleep.
Don’t be concerned about this. Certainly don’t go thinking that you have a permanent block against lucidity–after all, this happens to most people who are interested in LDs. Just keep going with the RCs and induction techniques. Sooner or later, you’ll become lucid.
I’ve a lot of FA, RCs don’t work properly… and I feel stupid almost every day when I get up.
My dreams seem very real and I can even think about that could be a dream! (I’ve had many LD but most times I don’t believe it could be a dream).
You should try again. Don’t try to change your way of dreaming, keep learning about it, and you would notice what’s a constant in that world.
Fact: My dreams are mostly started by FAs… hehe I’m must be a “natural Fake Awaker” huh…
Ah, this is a good sign. It shows that you are on your way to having a lucid dream. Which is good. And so a good sign. Um, yeah. I’m tired. Should probably go to sleep now. Sleeeep.
coughs
Anyways, where was I?
Ah yes. That is a state I too often find myself in. I wonder if I’m dreaming… and then dismiss the possibility. Or else the subject comes up - but I don’t consider the possibility that what I was experiencing right at that point could be a dream.
Those who have read my DJ may know of my sometimes over the top persuit in discovering whether or not I’m dreaming (running backwards and forwards, trying to find some clue to show that I’m dreaming, even after my RC’s have failed). However, this is rather rare - more often, my RC’s fail and that’s it. Or I don’t even take my RC’s (‘it’s to realistic to be a dream’).
I love FA’s. I discovered that if I got into the habbit of taking RC’s everytime I woke up (yes, everytime) I could catch them, and they would be an LD.
Anyways, I feel that I’m rambling a bit, so I shall end my post here.
Thanks a ton! Those are some really good ideas. I have to sleep on a school schedual most of the time, waking up at 6:00 but usually I wake up at 5:00 then fall back asleep. This is usually when I have FAs and tricky dreams like this. I’ll try doing RCs when I wake up too.
Hey mate, no need to worry. Iv been LDing for a while now, and I STILL make those mistakes sometimes.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I pulled somebody out of a mirror and said “Isnt it amazing, if this was a dream I’d be able to jump through the mirror”. The dream character said something like “Why on earth would you want to do that?” and I started explaining the things Iv heard you can do jumping into a mirror.
When I woke up, I felt like SUCH an idiot. I actually reached INTO a mirror and pulled somebody out, and then had a conversation with them about dreaming and didnt realise it. If thats not a missed chance to LD, I dont know what is.
I remembered a fragment of a dream where I was in a bookshop (From a dream I had a few weeks ago.), and I was looking for a book on LDing. The logical part of your brain isn’t very active in normal dreams, so I missed both DS .
I wouldn’t worry, at least the thought of lucid dreaming has imbedded itself in your consciousness. In my experience I only started recognising dream signs after my first unintentional LD, it seems alot easier after that.
Don’t lose sight of your goals and you can’t go wrong.
This has happened to me a few times…it’s seems almost like I have such a passive state mind in some of my dreams that when RC’s work I don’t believe them. In one dream I looked back and forth at a book about Ted Bundy; the words change, I didn’t do ****. Same thing happened the other night, I looked at my hand and counted 7 fingers and I thought it was blurry because of some problem with my vision…so I count my fingers a few times until they come out five, and convinces me that I’m IRL I also tried the jumping RC and that worked to, I think, I was just to delirious-listless to really notice it or pay attention. It seemed to real to me for some reason.
Since you’re discussing reality checks…Is doing RCs frequently IRL the most guaranteed way that eventually you’ll have a LD? I mean, does everyone on the forum who’s ever been lucid, have you all gotten that way by doing RCs with perseverance? I always forget to do them and I think I still don’t have enough faith in myself that I’ll ever get lucid again (I did once, low-level) even if I did remember to do RCs all day long…could that little bit of self-doubt be stopping my subconscious from getting lucid? (Obvious answer is a resounding ‘yes’.) Is there any other way besides RCs to “train” one’s brain??
Are you using another induction technique together with RC’s?
Cynster, you surprise me. Have you never heard about MILD, autosuggestion, etc?
Autosuggestion is the same technique than the one which is used for remembering dreams, that is repeating a sentence before falling asleep: “Tonight, I’ll realize I’m dreaming” for instance.
MILD is almost the same, but you also remember your last dream and you imagine what could have make you lucid in it and then you imagine that you’re lucid and you do what you planned to do in a LD. There is a good explanation of MILD on the LD4all main page (yellow button “How”). In this explanation, it’s used with WBTB but you can practice it without indeed.
There are also other DILD techniques, like finding your hands in a dream. You intent to find your hands (or any other object) in a dream, that’s all.
And of course there are the WILD techniques in order to fall asleep consciously.
About RC’s, it can be used as a standalone technique though many LD’ers use it together with another induction technique. The main point - and this can be useful for you too NecroGS - is not to perform RC’s IRL automatically, but you have to sort of question reality. You ask yourself deeply: “Am I dreaming?” then you perform your RC while imagining it will work.
From what I said, you both can see that in order to become lucid, people have to anchor something deeply in their brain (or, say, their unconscious), whether it is a questioning about environment (RC’s) or an intent (realizing you’re dreaming, finding your hands) so that it may appear in dreams.
That’s probably why you don’t believe your RC’s, NecroGS. By the way, it’s not really important cause this passive mind is the natural state of dreams, so it happens to many people, especially to beginners for who this questioning is not yet set up. It requires a certain time. So you can be happy if you already perform RC’s in your dreams, it means you are close to a LD.
This all sounds very helpful to me. I usually try to MILD every night (though without success yet) and sometimes I try to WILD, also to no avail.
I hadn’t heard about imaging the initiation of a lucid dream in a previous real dream though. It sounds look a good idea…
How exactly does your ability to recall dreams effect your ability to have lucid dreams? I wake up on a school schedual, 6 AM every day and almost always right in the middle of a dream, so every morning I wake up and think about my dreams clearly, yet I don’t seem to be getting closer to LDs.
WILD seems near impossible for me. Probably because I’m always really sleepy at the end of the day. Should I be really sleepy when I try it, or is it better to try straight from being awake (like if I did it during the day)?
Thanks for all the help!
To BW, I guess I didn’t really clarify what I meant, of course I know about all of the techniques (even the foil method, LOL). I mean do you absolutely have to do RCs? Can I just do other techniques or do I still have train my brain with RCs IRL so that I’ll do them when dreaming? I know about all the techniques, I guess I just haven’t persevered enough with any one technique to make it stick.
I fall asleep soooo fast and my schedule doesn’t allow me to go to bed much earlier than I already do (or get up in the night for WBTB) so lots of nights when I say, okay, tonight I’m going to MILD myself to sleep, I fall asleep too fast or even on the nights I do manage to do some things like “1, I’m dreaming, 2, I’m dreaming”, etc., it doesn’t work. I really wonder if I did manage to do something like that every single night in a row if eventually I would be lucid or if I’ll ever get this lucidity thing at all. I know I’m not that bad because of the one LD I managed to have not long after I started learning about it but I feel like I’m an expert at the “book learning” part of it but an idiot at the “practice” side of it. Maybe that shred of self-doubt is stopping me but even when I tell myself, this is easy, I can do it and truly believe in myself, it still doesn’t help.
No, you don’t. It may be used as a standalone method or as a lucid helper. People generally practice it because it makes you think about lucidity also during the day, and not just before going to sleep.
About MILD, I don’t think that falling asleep very quickly is really a problem cause autosuggestion works better if you are near to sleep IMO. So you just suggest yourself by repeating every night that you’ll realize you’re dreaming and I’m sure it will end up in entering your brain.
About WILD, you should just try once to go the further you can into WILD. Not necessarily practising it every night, but just when you feel you have some time to spend and try to experience HI or WILD stuff for the fun of it. It won’t probably give results, but it will familiarize you with the whole process.
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Have you never heard about MILD, autosuggestion, etc?
Mwhahaha! 