I’m going to tell you how I came to understand and eventually have a LD. I have a few questions as well after you read on. Thanks .
I was first introduced by a friend in college who claimed he had lucid dreams very regularly. His techniques involved heavy supplemental techniques, such as Valerian Root, Melatonin etc etc etc. He told me about the infinite possibilities he could achieve whilst dreaming which have been talked about in this forum frequently, flying etc.
Well that was November of 2007 and now its February 2008 and I have actually become interested in LD. I’ve been researching online frequently, any down time i have i’ll just surf the web looking for more information. So for the past 2-3 days i’ve been trying to successfully have a LD but couldn’t seem to grasp it. I even had a dream where a Danny Devito personality in one of my dreams was arguing with me whether lucidity was possible or not, and i still didn’t realize i was dreaming! I woke up after that and was laughing because it was sort of my mind playing tricks with me.
So today i woke up at 7 to go to class and came home around 11. Throughout the day i kept asking myself “is this a dream or is this reality” and i was also turning on and off lights and looking at my hands for RC. After i got home around 11 i decided it was going to take a little nap with hopeful thinking that i might be able to have a LD. I went to sleep had a dream about me playing some sort of video game with ramming real car into others, and realized “Holy shit, this is a dream!”. I got so excited. This is where lucidity was apparent. I became so overwhelmed that it felt like my body began to shake. (I’ve never felt anything like it). And coupled with the shaking was a euphoric drug like state but somewhat amplified. So after realizing i was dreaming I tried to calm myself down and not slip out of the dream. I then flew out of the house and into the sky and soon then woke up after.
So yeah. I had a LD just simply by questioning reality frequently.
Now i need some help:
How can i not get too excited once the realization takes place?
How can i stay in a LD for as long as possible?
Thanks for the read .
o yeah i take melatonin when i sleep usually but for this nap i didnt take any at all…so maybe i’m going to stop taking it and see how it goes.
Welcome to LD 4 All! And congratulations to LD 4 All.
I would like to point some facts. LDing doesn’t require any drugs neccessarily in order to attain. The skill and experience is much more important. RCs are good things to do. They help a lot. Another factor which enchances your LDing, is how much your thoughts are LD related when you go to sleep. Motivation, excitement, you decide.
Well. The more LDs you have, the less excited you become. It kinda settles itself, but some things that might help, is to make a list of what you want to do in your dreams. I think it helped me a bit.
Well. This also grows with experience I think. Not really sure. But you can try and yell like: " This LD will last for 4 hours. " But I don’t really think it will last that long, but someone said he could extend his LDs like that.
Yeah i agree i don’t think drugs really have much to do with LD. Maybe for general mind expansion though . People talk about beautifully scenery and stuff in there dreams but i’m not sure if thats the case with mine. Does anyone else have this?
I think that your all LDs won’t be so cartoonish. Maybe some cartoonish theme was in your mind at the moment you fell asleep, or maybe you had something to do with cartoons during the day? No?
My sceneries are beautiful, especially the sky.
And if your scenery stays cartoonish, you could try to force it to normal. Maybe yell like: “Realistic scenery/landscape!” But remember. In order to get anything to work in dreams, you have to really believe in it. You must have no doubt in your mind. It’s like in The Matrix, really!
Hi! Don’t worry about getting to excited, it happens to lots of people (myself included). But, as MaximumLD said, you get used to LD’ing after a while, so knowing that you are dreaming gets you less excited, I think.
I’ve had dreams that looked really real and others that didn’t. I think it may vary from dream to dream and will get better in general with experience. You can try to focus your eyes and attention on something and try to make it look better. Saying commands out loud may help to. Although, one time I did this I woke up because my real lips moved I find it works better for me when I think the command.
yeah videogames are a big thing for me. but the scenery isn’t so much cartoonish rather than hazy and unrealistic. instead of a lush landscape its more so a general feeling of what outside is. imagine a Picasso or something along those lines but with a bit more realism.
Haha, I know what you mean about the first LD experience being “euphoric”; when I woke up after my first one, I seriously just sat in bed for 10 minutes giggling to myself because of how awesome it felt.
It’s like everyone else said, stability comes primarily with experience (something I’m still learning, unfortunately). As for extending the length of LDs, I personally find vocal commands like, “Increase dream time, NOW!” work really well, though a lot of people use the “lucid pill” technique.
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They help a lot. Another factor which enchances your LDing, is how much your thoughts are LD related when you go to sleep. 
Motivation, excitement, you decide.
It’s like in The Matrix, really!
I find it works better for me when I think the command.