I know RC’s are a huge part of it, and I tried to do RC’s for a while, but it never helped me a all during my dreams. I have been having very vivid strange dreams, and I have no idea how I can’t possibly realize it isn’t a dream!
I have been doing the SSILD method for a few days, and I haven’t had any results except for some very strange dreams. But I’m going to keep trying.
How can I figure out that I’m in a dream? I’m always like wow this seems normal you know as I’m standing on water. It’s just a little bit frustrating! So any help would be great, thanks
First of all you need to have a genuine interest for dreams in general, and it’s vital that you develop a good dream recall, because this is what allows you to remember your lucid dreams in the first place - do not worry too much about becoming lucid right now, first focus on training your dream recall.
Start with writing down your dreams with as much detail as possible, and look for themes that are common in them - in other words, events that you tend to dream about fairly often.
Then you can make it a habit to ask yourself if you might be dreaming whenever you see those events in real life.
For example, if you often dream about your family members then you can do a reality check everytime you see them in real life, and keep doing that until it becomes a habit - eventually you will question your surroundings the next time you see your family members in a dream, and this will make you lucid.
Also, by recording your dreams you will focus more on the dreamstate and your dreams will become a bigger part of your life, and this alone can develop lucidity, because your brain will be more and more like “aha, I’m about to fall asleep, soon I will have a dream and I am ready for that”.
One very effective technique, WBTB, is also ideal for beginners, because it involves interrupting a REM period (remember, REM is the period when you are dreaming), and then falling asleep back into it again a little while later with the conscious intention to recognize the dreamstate.
I have been doing this for months, I am not completely new to lucid dreaming. I have a dream journal. I have good dream recall, and I know what lucid dreaming is. No need to give me the newbie lecture.
I need help with the DILD technique, is what I am trying to ask.
Well technically you are still a beginner, so it’s important that you have a good foundation to start from.
You say that you feel a bit frustrated about lucid dreaming - first of all, lucid dreaming normally takes a few months for lots of people, so you just need to keep trying.
Secondly, frustration is always to your disadvantage, try to imagine how great it will be when you finally get a lucid dream and feel excited about it instead.
This brings me to my next question - what exact goals do you have?
Is there anything that you specifically want to experience when you become lucid?
This is very important to decide, because it gives you a more concrete idea of what the lucid dream would be like, and this increases your chances to recognize it and become lucid - and also, it triggers a feeling of excitement.
Also, try to develop a greater awareness in real life - pay attention to your surroundings with all your senses, and look for proof that you are awake right now.
Maybe you have had dreams where you have believed you are awake, and then woken up for real?
Can you prove to yourself in some way that you aren’t dreaming right now?
Never feel completely sure that you are awake until you have proved it to yourself - remember, when you dream you also believe that you are awake.
That’s because your logic center is mostly turned off while you dream - one good way to practice your critical thinking is to try to find natural explanations for anything that you have dreamed about.
For example, if you are missing a hand in one of your dreams you should ask yourself after you have written it down things like how you lost it.
Try to pretend that your dreams are supposed to be as logical as your waking life, and expect everything to have some kind of natural explanation.
This will activate your logic center and make you much more skeptical about everything that happens in your dreams, and eventually you will start to search for sensible explanations in your dreams while they are still happening - and if you can’t find a natural explanation for something, then you are very likely to be dreaming at that point.
Also, remember to appreciate any small steps in the right direction that you make.
If you are “almost lucid” in a dream then you should be super-happy about the fact that you are getting close, instead of feeling disappointed that you weren’t fully lucid.
I’m saying this because it is a little too common among beginners and novice lucid dreamers to complain about what they didn’t succeed with, instead of cherishing and embracing any successes that they have in fact made.
Yeah, make sure you actually enjoy practicing this, because in my opinion lucid dreaming should be all about sheer excitement.
Keep in mind that one of the main points of using a Dream Journal is to recognize your dreamsigns.
If you notice that a lot of your dreams have something in common then you should make it a habit to perform reality checks whenever you spot them in real life.
Also make sure that you really are skeptical, because this will eventually make you start to react the same way when you see those signs in your dreams.
