Lucid Living Topic - part II

Quest for Lucidity General Lucidness
81

Hey DustMote I read your Lucid Living Part 1 and 2 and I think I will try it out. I do know a bit about lucid dreaming because I was on a different forum before I ended up here. I really like your idea and I will try it out and see how it works. I’m thinking If I can get enough sleep ( right now my insomnia is messing up my sleep schedule, and well I can’t LD if I don’t sleep right?) and practice Lucid Living maybe within a week or two I might be able to have a Lucid dream with your technique. That’s just my guess though.

In your Part one you had some questions. I’ll copy ,paste and answer them ( in case you needed the information for your research…

  1. Have you ever had a Lucid Dream?
    A: Yes I have through different techniques.
  2. Approximately when did you have your first Lucid Dream?
    A: Exactly a year and 4 days ago. I recorded the date…
  3. Approximately how long have you been working on Lucid Dreaming?
    A: 13.5 Months
  4. Approximately how many LDs have you had?
    A: 10. I would have had more but there was a big gap in which I gave up on lucid dreaming
  5. Approximately how often do you have an LD?
    A: Um It’s hard to answer this question
  6. Approximately how long does a typical LD last?
    A: Average is about 15 Minutes ( that’s what it feels like any ways). Some dreams were about 25 while others were maybe 5 or 10.
  7. Approximately when did you have your last LD?
    A: July 2nd

I will keep you up to date with any results!

One question though.

Basically through out my day I try to “heighten” my awareness as If I were in a lucid dream and try to live like that through out my day. I pay attention to things more and actually think before I do certain things instead of how just natural reflex right? Is that all?

82

Well everything here in this topic seems to be inactive but I will just post my results.I did guess that within a week or two I may be able to have a lucid dream with your technique and you know it’s worked out. I guess I have done WBTB on some nights but it was never done to try and induce LD’s as well. It was me waking up and not being able to fall asleep… Any ways it took me 6 days since my last post to get a lucid dream. I think this may be my technique from now on as no other technique i have used has been able to work so quickly.

Any ways I think though I have to try and be more “aware” with Lucid Living because in my dream last night out of no where ( like I don’t remember anything strange happening) I said wow this is a dream ( i usually do this through out my regular day). I realized I was dreaming but I guess when I pratice LL i need to be more excited or just pause for 10 seconds to really take it in. Looking back, In my dream I don’t think I “took it in” as much I would want to. I did start shooting Kai/Fire blast at something or some one similar to the ones in Dragon Ball Z. I remember trying to get them stronger but I don’t think I had luck with that.

but yea just sharing some of my progress with some people who might be interested. But yea when I " take it in" I am going to try and recall my lucid dream goals so that way I actually accomplish something and not stray and do other things…

83

I wrote this explanation of Lucid Living a while back:

[i]You know when you’re reading a book and you become engrossed in the book to the exclusion of the outside world? That is what we are like normally, unaware that we are thinking, just running on autopilot.

Do you sometimes notice that when you are thinking there is actually a little voice in your head? It is like being aware of that. Another way of explaining it is that when you think about your breathing you suddenly need to take control of it, it has become conscious.

Next time you are out walking, really look around you. Be conscious of the act of looking. Listen and be aware that you are listening. Think about what you are doing and experiencing. Take notice!

I try to maintain awareness as often as possible, but eventually (often quite quickly) I slip back into autopilot, often for long periods of time. I also try to spend ten minutes a day walking around my neighbourhood concentrating on maintaining this level of awareness.

Hopefully awareness practice will have an impact on your dreams in the same way it has mine. I am more likely to question strange things that happen and say, “Hey this is not the way reality is!” I’m sure it will be more effective when combined with reality checks, but so far I have never actually done one in a dream. I always realise that it is a dream based on the circumstances and then wake up.[/i]

Recently I started practicing Lucid Living again, after taking a long break from dreaming. Last night I had my first LD in months. I didn’t use MILD or WILD. The LD came simply as a result of a few days of Lucid Living. I can’t guarantee it will come that easily at first for other people, but so far this has been the most effective technique for me.

Good luck!

Merged from similar topic in Quest. :dragon:

84

I love the unifying concept, connecting both worlds with an underlying similarity in consciousness.

85

Yay, I do this too, but I didn’t know there was a word for it :tongue: And it works rather well for me: my dreams get much more vivid by being aware of my surroundings, but I can’t be aware so long. Works better than RCs, to be honest. For me.

86

I do this sometimes! But I rarely remember :sad: That’s my biggest problem, simply remembering to do it

87

Ill try this. Maybe it will work for me too :smile:

88

Lucidly living right now. It’s a way of being more than living. Not really a method, more of a philosophy.

But whenever I do so, or derealize, I always, always lose the game. :sad:

89

I tried-didnt work

90

As mew said above, it’s not really a method, more of a philosophy. So it’s not really something that will necessarily work over night. It’s like a way to become more aware in general, and that might take some time to give perceivable results. :wink:

91

mattias already said it, but repetita iuvant: it’s a way of living, an attitude, not a 2- or 3-day technique. Moreover, the very moments you are practicing it are moments worth it and worth living, so just stick with it and enjoy a life more in control; dream controlling will follow.

92

This method works if you stick to it ( or should I say life style) how ever after awhile if it just becomes words and you don’t take any meaning to it , it starts to slip into your dreams. The first LDs i had i really was like WOW im lucid dreaming better start jumping off buildings! but when it just became words I had dreams where " This is a dream" but unconscioucly just went along with the dream and didn’t bother doing anything cool…

93

I’d better have read it completely before. Now I have the whole topic on txt file, every single part of it. Seriously, this is easily the most interesting and innovative topic of the whole forum.

The whole discussion here about why the effectiveness of LL / its various forms, its explanations - all of this was really interesting and full of thought, i actually congratulate with every previous poster :clap:

If I only think how much of my life i’ve spent in laser focus mode, ignoring all that surrounded me (if i were involved in something, i wouldn’t even hear the shouts of people calling me not farther than 3-4 meters away) :sigh: . Since i got seriously interested in LD’ing and what comes with it (dream yoga, zen, meditation… all that kind of stuff you can relate to LD with a google search or another), i really started getting more and more control of my life and living it more fully.

When i think of how the world is viewed, i see so much poetry and truth in it:
the world itself is real, and Buddhists say that too, with all the reincarnation and karma laws (there is indeed an external reality, independent form our existance), but still, our perception of the world is completely illusory, with the senses being only a mere representation of what stands in our surroundings (and i see Kant here, too, in all his glory, with his phenomena and noumena), the same kind of illusion of the senses that we percieve when we dream.
When I stop and think I’m dreaming, it’s actually stunning how our perception shifts so automatically and quickly to a higher consciousness of what we were doing and what we were percieving - I’m almost scared every time i do it.

When i go on with consciousness in my daily life, simply being aware of what happens inside and outside myself, i can find so many oddities that would be usually dismissed by my mind with a simple acceptance. Just today, i noticed the layout of the fruits/vegetables part in the store i usually go shopping to had changed since last week. I heard my mind saying “Well, ok”, while i actually stopped and thought “Wait a minute”; if anyone had seen it in a dream, the morning after he/she would have it surely classified as a dreamsign, so why don’t we usually react to it IWL, where we are most conscious? :uh:
My toughts would be, our mind is used to justifying, or at least accepting every happening that it witnesses, for the simple fact that we are used to live in reality: how can you think something is impossible if it is happening right in front of our eyes? How can you question reality if you constantly live in it?
If it has happened, there must be an explanation of it, and if it’s something big, maybe you’ll hear some big scientist talking about it on the radio or in some talk show and he’ll put every oddity in its place, no need to waste your time thinking of an explanation by yourself. And that’s what we want to dismiss, in every single aspect of our lives.

I wondered if this practice could be tiring, until i saw this topic; for achieving a LD, you can recreate the feeling of “happy awareness” before going to bed, and real awareness is indeed happy. When you are truly aware of what’s happening, you find peace in observing in detachment, because you are now in control. You are a lot less likely to get run down by a car, if you have been keeping an eye on it, even just passively; and with control, comes the dropping of the fear of the unknown, the release of that tension we always keep inside, ready to react to the unseen; and with control, you can finally stop that unending chatter going on on the surface of your mind, and finally get peace in silence. I find that’s more than enough a reason to be happy :content: , and if you’re happy doing something, why would it bore you?

Sorry for the randomness of toughts, I have so much running through my mind, i’ll actually need to split my posts for a more confortable read.

EDIT: Nevermind, i just read the Stop trying to dream topic, and i need to claarify a lot of things.

MORE EDIT: I actually posted my thoghts there (in part 2), and I think they could be relevant (mostly the last paragraph), so feel free to look.

94

I have enjoyed reading this topic so much, so thanks to all its contributers!

The concepts of lucid living are not new to me, but it was until this moment I heard a word for it.

I am practising art and have done classes. when you try to draw an object in front of you, you have to stare at it and really understand the object. The ball is not a 2d thing, imagine you can see the back as well. And you can see the silhuette because you can see what is behind it etc. When you spend hours looking at a thing you see new things in the details. Very much like when meditating you concentrate you thought on a small thing, maybe the old “a drop of water in the ocean” and the more you think about it the more you become aware of it.
I feel there is a strong connection with this visual practise of lucid living, althou it´s not the same thing.
One very important visuall property is light. And it´s quite a complex thing to understand.
There is a video that helped me very much:
thegnomonworkshop.com/store/ … t-and-Colo r
It´s not cheap, but it´s amazing :content:
And there are always other ways to obtain things like this…

When I look at the world around me the knowledge of light increases the quality of what I see because I can understand it, and if you can understand only then can you really question it.
So, this knowledge have very much increased my ablility to live lucid!
I also believe knowledge can increase the complexity of your dreams - as an example I was never able to get a clear look at the garments in my dreams. But as I studied their construcion in reality I could pick up a garment in my dreams and see every stitch and fold…and even learn. I could not have done this before. It´s a bit off topic but I just wanted to express how important I think knowledge is to a for me heightened awareness, and how you can use it. (however knowing something can also take away the curiosity and the creative process of imagining…but that´s a whole different topic) :tongue:

95

Good knowledge will never, ever rob you of the wonder, of the amazement torwards the beauty of the subject. If you really are fond of something, no matter how mch you know about it, you can always go for more, curiosity will always bring you to discover, to abstract, to amaze yourself.
Also, imagining is all the better if you know something in detail (and then you know variations of it too ^^ so it’s something new every time you look at it, or a similar one)

EDIT: Also, I’m very glad my 200th post was in the LL topic ^^

96

well that was not really the point of my post, but to give another example, I dreamt that I took a drug and it was one of my most surreal non LD experience. Some time after when I had actually tried the drug (mushrooms) I again dreamt that I took it, but this time the knowledge of what it would be like made the dream experience much duller, following my knowledge rather then my imagination. anyway this is another topic like I said, if you want to discuss Im happy if you PM me :smile:
oh and I agree what you said by the way :content:

97

If you were in a dream, right now, what would you do? Would you continue going your way, doing the same things as ever, always looking in the same direction, thinking the same thoughts as yesterday?
Next time you walk, in a street, in a park, anywhere, look around you; to the left, behind you, upwards: do you see something new, that tree, that house, that children, that cloud, that you really didn’t notice before? Good; now, if that thing was part of your dream, wouldn’t you look at in awe, stunned by its sheer existence? Wouldn’t you contemplate every leaf, every brick, every movement, every minuscle and general shape, and amaze yourself contemplating the power of your mind? After you wake up, wouldn’t you write every single detail down in your DJ, for the only fact that you saw it, you heard it, you smelled it, you touched it, you felt it?
Good news, your mind is doing every single one of these things even now.

When you’re in a station, waiting for your train, surrounded by other students, buisnessmen, tourists, goths, hobos, and whatever else, what if it was a dream, right now? Wouldn’t you embrace all this heterogeneous mass in a single stare, struck in awe, and wonder how can you brain keep track of all their clothing, all their movements, all their characteristics? But now think: the moment you thought it was a dream, you were doing it as well: their clothes, their faces, their positions and movements were all in your mind at once.

Reality is just a bunch of molecules moving about, colliding with each other, every single one going his way, unaware of the others until collision occurs; it’s you that sees the bridge, the oak, the rainbow, the festival, the children playing in the open; it’s you and only you that can listen to the bird chirping, the book falling, the old woman laughing. Reality doesn’t contemplate itself. It’s you that must do it in its place.

And if you think others can interpret reality for you, look at yourself: you even have different ways of looking at the same thing, so how can you pretend different people can look at things, contemplate works, wonder about events, the same exact way as you? Your personal vision is precious as it’s unique, so don’t waste it: use it as much as possible, feeding it and exercizing it as you use it, so that it will grow bigger, wiser, more aware and all-encompassing, each time you wonder, each time you contemplate, each time you really stop and take your time to give a good look at things.

We live our ordinary lives, and look in amazement at our dreams; but in dreams, you are still interpreting what sensory input is given to you, you are still living what happens around you, so you should be no more amazed than IWL, or better, you should be as amazed while going through your ordinary life.
What we gotta do, is stop living our lives, and start living our dream instead.

Thanks for reading. :content:

98

Thanks, Tosxychor. That actually helped me understand better how to Live Lucidly. Although I feel I’ll have a hard time reaching that feeling of awe while awake, but now I think I know how to start :happy:

99

Wow, now I really understand the whole idea of lucid living.
Thanks Tosxychor :content:

100

two calibration tools for lucid living are tai chi and yoga
both have the property of allowing you to be immersed in the sensation of sensing, rather than in the confines of the known, which is grey