I’ve been away for a long time, although I used to post on this forum as Ev. Maybe I’ll reactivate that username later.
My question is this: How would you describe the state of mind experienced just before the dream reentry?
Perhaps my question needs a bit of the explanation: Back in 2004, I’ve discovered dream reentry and have seen similar posts on this forum. Over the years, it seems that people have independently discovered the same phenomenon: in the few moments after the awakening it is possible to reenter or visualize another dream scene and consciously enter it. It’s fast, and when practiced correctly allows an almost at-will wake induced lucid dreaming with multiple episodes each night.
I was like that in August of 2004, when I had over 30 lucid dreams in a month. I used to wake up after each dream, reenter a dream, then reenter it again. Back then I was 18. Then I went to college and found it almost impossible to practice reentry. My lucid dreaming skills deteriorated significantly. Now, 7 years later I’m trying to learn the technique again. Since 2004, I had maybe 6-7 episodes of reentry, most of them lower lucidity.
Since my memory is spotty, I need your help - those of you who still practice that technique, can you describe your experience just before you reenter the dream? The thing that I’m not clear about is the amount of effort required. Do you try hard, do you just do it? Do you know how to do it at that moment? How long do you keep the image in your mind? Do you experience some kind of a white haze or how does your dream manifest itself?
The technique is so easy once I can grasp it, but I need help grasping it. I’m hoping that reading about the technique would trigger my memories from back in the day.
Here is one of the articles on DEILD, and there are a couple of others that simply call it “chaining.” I’ve used DEILD a lot recently, and really the hardest part I’ve had is training myself not to move. I don’t concentrate super hard or anything like that, though I might start to imagine my next dream. I’ll focus on feelings and other things like that until they actually begin to manifest.
Sometimes my mind does get a bit hazy, but I’ve found that simple mantras like “I’m dreaming” repeated over and over make it easier to keep up my concentration. Really the hardest thing for me is training myself to not wake up.
I hope that helped, let us know if you have other questions
What strikes me as odd, is that people find this technique by themselves, then it works for them 100% of the time or something ridiculous like that. They describe very much the same symptoms and advertise the same options (relax, don’t move, etc). I even wrote a quite lengthy tutorial on this subject when i was practicing the technique.
What I’m trying to do is understand if the technique is a consequence of a special state of mind or a special daily routine. Here’s my example:
in 2004 I went to sleep at 8 : 00PM and woke up at 5 : 45AM when I was practicing the technique. Most of my sleep was during natural darkness outside. I kept this schedule up very rigorously, rarely going to sleep after 10PM. I was taking 3mg melatonin every night at that time, sometimes combined with 50mg of vitamin B6. I was 18 years old. The success at the technique removed all anxiety about lucid dreaming from my mind, boosting the quality of sleep. The sleep was so good that after 4-5 hours I started to wake up after each dream, having crystal clear recall. My body was well rested, there was little grogginess and the attention upon awakening was rather sharp. Sometimes I became aware in the moments before I even woke up (something that I called the void). Having multiple lucid dreams each night totally justified sleeping for 10 hours each day. I was highly motivated to try and posted on LD forums every single day, keeping my mind on the subject. My diet was consistent and of very high quality home cooked food with lots of fruits and vegetables.
Right now, I’m 24 years old, I sleep erratically, going to sleep anywhere from 10Pm to 3AM. Quite a lot of my sleep rolls over to the periods of natural light. Quality of sleep is poor. Even with a sleeping mask, I’m exposed to natural light, which makes falling asleep significantly harder after awakening. On top of that, most of my awakenings are due to full bladder, and they are slow and groggy, making reentry very difficult. I wake up after dreams no more than 2 times a night, as opposed to 4 or so before. Not having success with techniques causes me to frequently lose motivation and skip trying for multiple days at at time.
Does the state of mind and environment affect people’s chances of dream chaning/reentry/DEILD? Are they similar to what I’m having in 2004? Is my current lifestyle preventing me from successfully executing the technique? Do people who discover and practice dream reentry wake up after each dream?
Any input is appreciated! Please help me restore my ability to LD
I think the state of mind greatly affects your chances of success. When I’m super tired or have a lot of stress I can’t seem to concentrate as well. I’m just now coming out of a dry spell which seemed to go along with me going back to school and being short on cash due to books and whatnot. There’s no reason to say you can’t do it, though.
If you’re out of practice, keep playing around with it until you can make it work. I’ve come to the conclusion that all techs need personalization based on who you are and your current lifestyle. There’s nothing out there saying you can’t have an LD because of x, y or z. Well, nothing correct anyway
I find that the biggest struggle for me is keeping my mind conscious long enough for me to be deep enough in the dream that I wont wake myself up when I RC. If I think about being in a dream too early I wake up. If I wait too long my mind is lost in the dream. Striking a balance between these two is how I am able to re-enter dreams in a lucid state.
Usually I’ll re-enter the dream, RC, and wake myself up, then re-enter again, wait a bit longer, RC, and as a result wake up again. Sometimes I do this 5-6 times in a minute before staying long enough in the dream that it wont dissipate if I think about it being a dream. By the same token sometimes I get too immersed in the dream and lose my conscious mind.
Thank you for the replies. I’m slowly recalling more and more of the technique, even though there are still details I don’t remember.
I tried again - I keep forgetting about the technique until it is too late. Before I used to be able to recall the technique immediately upon waking up.
spizzak, now I remember what you are describing. I had the same problem before. Some dreams took a while to visualize, and left me in an unstable state, where I feel both the dream and the waking body. In situations like this I found it helpful to make small motions with my fingers, like I’m grabbing something until I felt the dream body stable enough to move without moving the waking body. At the same time I realized that some of my “failed” attempts actually left me in the bed, dreaming that I was in the bed. In such cases, a digital clock RC was needed to determine the state. I will remember to terminate all my reentry attempts after 2-3 minutes and perform a reality check.
For a dry spell you could try the actors technique.
Before bed convince yourself that you are the “best lucid dreamer ever”
Get in character like an actor gets in character for his role in a movie.
This should help alot for your dry spell
