I believe that I’ve already had 2 LD’s, but I had no more control over them than a regular dream. I’ve heard that the base definition of LD’ing is just being aware you’re dreaming and does not have to include any control whatsoever. I believe this is what I experienced because I performed a RC and saw my surroundings more vividly. I became aware, and instead of the dream having a random plot, it was centered around me performing typical LD actions, like flying and giving out commands out-loud. After becoming aware, I lifted off the ground and started flying and hovering up and down. However, I did not feel consciously in-control of what I was doing and could not use any of my senses, like taste or smell, etc. It just felt like a movie that was centered around me and about what you would dream of doing while lucid. I’m not confusing myself with dreaming about LD’ing because I have done that before and it’s different. When I was about to wake up, the dream faded to black, then I realized that my eyes were closed after becoming conscious. I’ve been keeping a DJ online and writing in it only when I remember a dream, which is quite often and more than one dream sometimes. I try to record every part and any details I can remember. I seem to have amazing luck having my first LD already, but had no consciousness beyond being aware.
You say it’s not dreaming about LDing, but all the previous descriptions of it feeling like a movie with no active control really don’t sound like a lucid dream. I haven’t experienced a lucid dream where I was unable to at least try something out of my own conscious intent.
I have read everywhere that the definition of LDing is just to be aware you’re dreaming and implies no control over the dream whatsoever. I also felt during these that the dream was more vivid than usual.
Also during the time I had my two supposed LDs, around the same time of each other, I wasn’t keeping up with my DJ regularly but I was still keeping the idea on my mind and performing RCs.
I don’t know whether I was LDing or not now.
Welcome to the forum Clandestine.
You are completely correct in saying a lucid dream is a dream in which you are aware you are dreaming. So if you know you were really aware then you were lucid.
I once had a LD where I wasn’t sure and had to think back to inside the dream and what I was really thinking. I decided it was a lucid dream.
Once you have a few LDs under your belt, you can then practice using some control in the dream. For myself, I just appreciate knowing that it is a dream, can walk away from the dream scenario and make my own decisions.
Thank you for the welcome.
I just had another LD which I felt most aware in so far. I never performed a RC in the dream but at some point, I just felt like I was watching the dream and then suddenly became aware. I don’t know what caused it to happen. I started in some type of house. I wanted to leave so I jumped out of the house through the roof. Then I was outside at night, raining, and I saw a forest. I wanted the rain to stop and for it to be day time so I closed my eyes, thinking that it might wake me up because the dream seemed unstable, but I wasn’t aware enough to try stabilizing it. Luckily it didn’t wake me up, so I flew up into the sky and looked over a huge town… Then these random people (or things) that looked very blobby and unrealistic started chasing me. It was mildly disturbing so I closed my eyes and said in my head “Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up”.
That sounds a lot more like a lucid dream. Congrats!
Lucid dreams also come in different “levels”, I find. Sometimes you are barely lucid and still sort of tired/sleepy and not fully there to take control of it. But sometimes it’s like waking up in the dream. Previously you were stumbling in the dark and someone turned on the lights. The feeling is quite unique and unmistakable.
That was my most lucid LD yet. But now I’m wondering, isn’t it possible to be so lucid that you have full consciousness, so you can think about whatever you want to do in the dream? And also have senses, like taste and smell? How do you achieve that level of lucidity? I feel that is the ultimate goal of LDing.
Yes. In dreams your mind can create everything you can feel/sense in waking life: pain, visuals, sounds, taste, touch, smell etc. Lucid dreams can also exceed what you feel in waking life, since there is no limit to the experience when it’s ultimately “fake” (Made in your mind, not limited by anything real). So you might hear people talking about hyper realistic dreams and stuff like that.
How do you get these fully lucid dreams, where you feel like you are fully “awake” in the dream? Practice increasing your awareness and test different times for lucid dreaming attempts. If you get lucid in the first hours of sleep, your mind is still too tired to be fully there even when lucid. Or usually that is the case. I’ve experienced this tiredness in later cycles as well, then it’s just unlucky timing and chemically your brain is not prepared for the level of focus and activity lucid dreaming requires.
There’s a ton of guides on awareness. Just increasing the details in your dream journal posts already helps. Performing RCs increases your awareness of your state. Mindfulness is something that I have found to work very well. It’s bringing your attention to everything happening in the “now” in waking life and not getting lost in thought. Paying attention to everything you can feel/sense, making note of them and letting them go without further thought. Normally you would not pay attention things like gravity for example.
After I had my first couple of lucid dreams and my general awareness had risen, I really noticed how I had been pretty much been sleepwalking through life. When you question the realness of the world around you and develop a critical mindset, you start to pay more attention to the world around you naturally. This is pretty much what Mindfulness is.
Edit: I’m also assuming you are using WBTB and some LDing technique.
Thank you, that gave me a good understanding. I recently learned about ADA and I’m attempting it.
No, currently I’m just working on my DJ and performing RCs regularly. I would try WBTB but my sleeping pattern is unpredictable so even if I tried it, I might not even be near REM when I wake up and then go back to sleep. Also, whenever I wake up after being asleep just in general, I find it extremely difficult to get back to sleep.
You do what you can. Just letting you know that WBTB is a huge help in lucid dreaming. If you wake naturally, it’s almost always at the end of a cycle, which is good. But it doesn’t even really matter what stage of sleep you woke up from, because WBTB sort of resets you. You’ll fall asleep and start with NREM, followed by REM. The benefit here is that after those 5-6h of sleep, the NREM part will be a lot shorter and the REM part longer. NREM can make you forget your intention of becoming lucid, so it helps when it’s as short as possible. (Although, in WILD you’ll just ride through NREM already lucid.)
Hello FanStar here,
I believe using powers in your dreams is a lucid dream just light form of it. Even not being totally conscious. Also using powers in your dreams drains you of consciousness and of your lucidity. That will speed up the fading to black because you ran out of power.
Tips: No day dreaming while your awake. It will drain you of mental power that you need for your dreaming practice at night. Try to make a conscious effort not to use too many of your powers. Flying/Hover flying is ok they don’t deplete power to fast. Anything more you do on top of flying will drain you faster. Especially if your still fairly new.
I believe building up recall and the length of the dream is super important. By doing this it will give you more opportunity to recognize your dream sign more often. By knowing what your dream sign is you can start to set up your intent to watch out for them in dreams. Dream Signs, super triggers for lucidity!
This is nonsense. There is no set amount of “mental power” to be used in lucid dreams. There’s so much false info thrown around like “You can’t read in dreams.” Of course you can. Anything you believe, you can do. As long as it’s something within the dream. You can’t affect real life. Within the dream, it’s just you and your thoughts creating the playing field. You make the rules and thus there is nothing set in stone.
And the lucid dream WILL fade to black and be lost if you believe it will. It doesn’t have to be like that.
How is metal fatigue nonsense. That’s obviously what I’m talking about. If your wasting the day away daydreaming, wishful thinking on top everything else your doing in your waking life. It will effect how much consciousness you can achieve in the pursuit of dreaming. Yes anything you believe you can do. That’s what intent is. However, People who dream have awesome imagination. They create amazing worlds not only in dreams but in daydreams as well.
What I’m saying is why not reserve some of that imaginative energy for night time dreaming. I think it will help along with believing you can do it. We’re talking about the threshold here people. The line between just a dream and lucid dream. and saving mental energy/power is having an edge. That I believe all dreamers should have in the pursuit of lucidity.
I think Letaali has made some very good points here. My own thoughts won’t add much, but sometimes hearing the same thing phrased differently can help.
There are indeed “levels” of awareness in dreams, though, of course, they are not strictly segregated as in a layer cake. Varying awareness is a given of human consciousness - IWL, you can sleepwalk through a boring lecture with no idea of what was said, or you can avoid a car accident with every fraction of a second scored into your memory forever. Dreams are just the same as waking life, only without the external data. In fact, they do use external data; it’s just not simultaneous external data. So the difference is even less. No wonder that varying awareness features there, too.
To increase you awareness in dreams, increase your awareness in waking life. Practise by concentrating on all of your senses in turn, then on combinations of them, until you can “record” an entire experience using the full human sensorium. I particularly like to do this while out on a walk or during a meal. Being able to remember the course of the path you just took, all the way back to where you started, or the gradually shrinking shape of a steak as you taste your way through it, is an excellent exercise in awareness. Focus on memory. Really practise thinking back through the last five minutes, remembering the impressions made on every sense during that time. Try to connect the events of the day in a continuous sensory narrative. The reason dreams can feel so disconnected is that the way we go through waking life is usually disconnected. Grounding yourself in recent memories will do wonders for the solidity and consistency of your dreams.
Increased control is really just greater awareness that you are, in fact, in a dream, and the elimination of any doubt that our surroundings can resist our willpower. You can lay all the groundwork for that during daily life (you can see my tutorial “The Master Key” for a more detailed exploration). In your original dream, you say you “couldn’t” use your senses. I say you could; but you didn’t. Who filed off your tastebuds? Who stole your nose? It’s your dream, your world and your mind. Remember that, and you can do anything you can imagine, as well as some things you can’t.
Concerning “mental fatigue”: yes and no. As Letaali points out, lucid dreams don’t come with a “mana pool”. Your powers are unlimited and inexhaustible. What may vary is the mental attention you can bring to setting your intentions and incubating your dreamworld before you go to sleep. If you’ve been daydreaming about lots of different things during the day, you may find it hard to bring your attention back to the lucid dreams you want to have, simply because your mind is elsewhere. If you use your daydreams do think about a specific LD you want to have, to imagine that specific dreamworld - rather than thinking randomly about successes or social interactions you want to have in the real world - you will be more “in the zone” when you go to sleep. But I’d strictly limit the idea to that.
Metal fatigue, on the other hand, is very real and should be treated by a competent blacksmith.
You’ve only ever dreamed of things you’ve seen, atomized and recombined, just as a great painter, even a surrealist, can only break down reality and recombine it in inventive ways. Change the way you experience reality, and you change the way you experience dreams.
Metal fatigue Haha I got that. I’ve been getting back to my dreams as of recent. Recall been getting stronger and having 1 to2 LD a week. I’ll check out “Master Key”. I’m needing something new to read. Thanks
I used the term “powers” in my earlier reply, and I’ve probably done so in other posts. In fact, I want to abandon the word altogether. It’s unnecessarily limiting.
Creating a city through an outpouring of song, rewinding time and playing a thousand years backwards, smashing up planets and recombining them into a ringworld are not of a different order than eating a biscuit or opening a door, when you’re in a lucid dream. You will them and they happen; it doesn’t require any extra exertion or any special technique to achieve fantastic results.
There are no such things as “dream powers”; if you can scratch your nose, you can put a galaxy in your pocket. A rigid mental division between “free actions” and “special powers” is very detrimental to the development of full lucid control. I’ve understood that for a long time, but I only just noticed I was still reinforcing it with my own choice of words.
I’m starting to see your point. I stepped away from my dreaming practice and lucid dreams for over 3 year. Been fogged out in the mind for a while but no more. My clarity is returning in both my worlds. I guess my old ways of thinking about lucid dreams should stay in the pass.
All this feels brand new again, I love it. Limiting myself is the last thing I want to do. Stepping back into the dreaming field is cool. I have no intent right now. Theres nothing I want to do with my LD’s at this moment other then be the Observer. One thing I do fine myself doing in dreams now is engaging DC’s in conversation. I’m looking for somthing and boy o boy I found some DC’s that have had alot to say to me, scary stuff.