My general experience with trying to do Lucid dreams

Quest for Lucidity
1

Okay, so, this is my first post on this forum. So, since I am not at all a forum guy and this one of my first topics on this website, I’m just going to try to explain why I want to do LD, how I tried to do it, and hope to find why it doesn’t work with your answers (btw, thanks for that in advance :wink: )

So, I learned about lucid dreams about 4 or 5 years ago, but I really tried to practice it 1 year ago. Since then I’ve only done 4 or 5 LDs wich is already fine, I mean, at least, I know this is real, wich is something my parents have some troubles to believe. I tried since one year, I had some periods were I watched some advice videos and learns about techniques, reality checks, dream journals, etc… But for me, it rarely works. I got some periods where I was dedicating myself to LD, some where I was passively practicing, and some others where I completely gave up and did nothing LD related. And, as I stated, I only did 4 LD or so during the year, none of them where vivid or lasted a long time (the latest, I believe is normal for a beginner like me). During my summer, at the start of June, I tried to practice LD with hope that I will have at least one during my vacation, wich ends in the start of October. I was more invested than before, I questionned some friends about it (even if they are pretty inexperimented, but they still know the subject like me), I bought a book about it, I listened to binaural beats before sleep, trying to practice, to regularly to reality checks, etc… Results : 0. I didn’t have a single LD during my vacation. The last one I made was in February. So now, after 3 month, I decided to take a break, and it’s about to end when I decided to talk about it to peoples online, and I ended today on this website.

Okay, so next, I’m gonna talk about what I was doing to become lucid. First, dream journal, wich everyone says it’s the most important thing to do LD. And so I did by downloading an app on my phone called “Lucidity”, wich allow me to write down every dreams I made. It works so far, but I wasn’t a big dreamer in the first place. I was able to quicly solve that problem by performing some Mnemonic induction, just saying to myself before going to sleep “I will remember my dreams tomorrow”, and it worked. So, next step to me was to become lucid. I never remember my reality check counts during the day, but I know it’s pretty inconsistent and that I don’t think to do it when I’m invested in something. And then, there is reality checks, the first thing that comes in mind is WBTB, it’s probably an important factor because many says it is, but I hate this technique, I feel like every time I do it, I just ruin my slumber and my awakening at the morning (and worst of all, even if I tried to stay awake and do a technique, IT NEVER WORKED). Every time I do it, I’m just extremely tired and just want to go back to sleep, and it’s also the case the morning, so I bypass it.

I tried other techniques before I sleep, and this is where troubles begins. I’ve already tried WILD, FILD, and even MILD to some extend, every time I’ve gone to sleep during my busy training, but again, it never worked. I think I have an idea to why that, I have the impression I must be totally relaxed and not think about anything to sleep, while the latest is required to do the technique. Idk but every time I do the technique, it is impossible for me to sleep, even worse, it excites me more than anything and after that, it becomes a pain to get down to sleep even if I don’t think of anything. I think this is the part where I need the most help. If there is a solution to help me relax and sleep with the thought provoqued by the technique, it would be awesome for me. Although, I remember having an awaken dream (don’t know if it is said like than, in french, we say “rêve éveillé”) in wich I imagined a world with specific characters before I slept, and I manages, idk how, to get myself in this world while falling asleep. Maybe it can be a clue?

The next thing I want to talk is what do my dreams look like. Trying to discern your dream signs is supposedly really important, the thing is… Idk, when I read my dream journal, I don’t find any. All of my dreams are pretty randoms, with differents characters, worlds, scenery, ambiance, themes, etc… There are some times where videogames appear in the story, even if its in some kind of medieval environment, but It’s like every 10 dreams or so… and worst of all, all of my dreams are very reality based and it’s harder to me to discern the difference with real life (and even if there is major difference, I can’t discern it) and even when it’s fantasy (which arrived often lately), I’m unable to do it. Hey, there is sometimes, when i don’t incarn myself, I am just some random movie, book or game character (one thing I’m pretty sure about this statement, is that I never became lucid when I was someone other than myself). Sometimes, I’m at first person or third person (also never got a LD while in third person), sometimes, it cut to other characters like a movie… And it’s never the same.

But I think what bother me the most about my dreams (and I think it is one of the reason I don’t do lucid dreams) is that they are almost never really vivid. Wich is a shame, because I feel like if I can’t control my dreams, I can’t at least live them to the max, being super invested in… But instead, I feel like I’m only watching a movie without any emotion whatsoever. Lastly (and frankly other time, but I got this a lot this times), I was able to feel emotions during my dreams, like some stress during an escape sequence or something, but nothing more than that, I almost feel never IN the dream, I feel like I’m in spectator mode, even if I feel, and this bother me.

Now that I talked about my regular dreams, I’ll talk about what my few lucid dreams looked like. First, they were never vivid and didn’t lasted very long (wich I think is normal). One of them was so blurry, that what I wrote in my journal was extremely vague and I didn’t even remember I did a dream like that. I’m still happy I was able to change something in some of them, one time, it was just some cosmetic I wore, another time, it was the whole scenery (I remember, I didn’t know that much about Lucid dreaming and I wanted to create a whole world from scratch, so I wanted everything to be just black, I blinked, it happened, I found it too scary, and I wanted everything in black, I blinked, it happened again, the rest is a blur). But something I noticed when talking to my few LD to a friends. He said that my subconscious really doesn’t like when I do LD, he said that because he noticed that in most of my LC, I was being chased by some dream character. And since they are somewhat the manifestation of my subconscious, I said to myself, maybe it’s true, it doesn’t want me to do lucid dream, but… Why?

I think I will finish by explain why I want to become lucid in the first place, so I will just copy-paste the things I already said in the presentation topic :
First, I want to communicate with my subconscious, I heard it can be very therapeutic and I want to help myself change some bit of my personality I find imperfect.
Second, I want to become the character I create. I create a lot of OCs with some kind of powers that are really close to me, I could even say they are me. I incorporate them into stories I write, but I think that my vision of them is “incomplete” because I don’t know what I feel when using the powers my OCs have (which is normal, because it’s real life dammit). And I feel like I must really put myself in their place to really know what they can feel like when I put them in different situation. Also, I just want to have fun with my powers, so why not?
And thirdly, I just want to let my imagination run wild with environments and situations. I’ve heard that lucid dream can boost your imagination and I totally want to do that, explore environment or species I’ve never thougt they existed, travel through a lot of locations with my (imaginary) friends. And then, when I wake up, get something out of it, new sights to exploit and have a story to tell to my (irl) friends.

If you read this whole thing, then be my guest. Sorry if my english is bad, I’m french :wink:
This is my current journey to lucid dream, I will be pleased if you tried to give me tips to become lucid, because I feel like it could be a really big thing that could improve my life on so many ways, and I don’t want to miss it, if I do become professional one day, maybe I’ll share my experiences on this forum :wink: . Thanks for reading me and double thanks if you comments back, I’ll be very content.

1 Like
2

I can see how you are very enthusiastic about lucid dreaming. The most important comment first: don’t ever forget to have fun. If you are not enjoying doing the techniques, for example, then you probably shouldn’t until you find some motivation again :wink:

I think you can abandon that belief. Maybe it is quite common for the first LD(s) to be on the shorter side, but that would be due to excitement or whatnot. There is no reason to belief that your LDs cannot be on the longer side, too, which is a much better prospect to keep in mind.

I think it was a good decision to take a break. Many people have more LDs during their breaks than during their active periods :joy: Everything needs to sink in properly, I guess. Anyway, just discussing the topic with other people is a great way to get back into useful habits and build up excitement :smiley:

Dream journal, yay :yay: I would agree that the dream journal is the one most important thing that dreamers should have. I am curious about your experience with using an app. Did you also try a notebook version before? I think a physical notebook might actually have a different effect on dream recall.

This seems very indicative to me that MILD is a very effective technique for you. You should seriously give it a try. It really is about setting intent, just like you did with your dream recall.

Well, WBTB is indeed very famous and gets a lot of credit for its effectiveness. But if you cannot make it, then simply don’t. And don’t beat yourself up over it. I think I like 4 or 5 times more LDs without WBTB than with WBTB, as I am also not doing it very often. If I want to do WBTB, I really need to set aside a lot of time and quietness. I definitely can’t do it like an everyday technique. I plan at least 1 extra hour for my main sleeping phase and make sure that I can go to bed properly the first time, so the timer goes off at the right time, and then plan it so that I can go back to bed in such a way that the remaining time is enough to get the dreams before the final alarm that forces me to start my day. It really is quite a big investment each time.

You have a good point. Relaxing when falling asleep so you can focus on the technique is quite valuable. I am also not really good at it. In general, I can only suggest to practice meditation. The relaxing kind. There are also a whole bunch of other relaxation technique, but most of them don’t seem to fit with me, and maybe you also have the same higher requirement. So I pretty much stick to semi-regular meditation exercises before falling asleep.

I think what you are referring to there is usually called dream incubation. There are various techniques for that, too, and they coincide a lot with lucid dreaming techniques. You can try visualization and auto-suggestion, for example.

I think this is the biggest point you are making with your post. I think you hit it spot on that you don’t even need lucid dreams to enjoy dreaming as a hobby. That is also exactly my attitude. So how can you make your dreams more interesting and more vivid? Try to memorize the following exercise: Stop your current train of thought, put away your phone or whatever you are currently holding, especially if it has a screen. Instead, take a look at your surrounding. Really look at your surrounding. Take in all the small details that you can see. The little cracks in the wall, the small dirt spots sprinkled over the floor, the pattern on the clothes that the people around you are wearing. You may very well be surprised by all the details that you can find, that you were completely oblivious of before. Do the same for hearing, smelling, sensing, feeling, thinking and the idea of your self (not “yourself”). In our modern day of constant distraction, most have unlearned how it is to live in the here and now, in reality. Curiously, this is important for being present in dreams, too. Do this little exercise maybe 2-3 times per day, or a little more, just whenever you think about it. You will not make huge jumps, but it will help you improve the quality of your dreams. Any kind of dream.

I am not a psychologist, but I am sure that is not how the subconscious works. Your SC will influence your desires, but it has no desires on its own. Or rather, it has no agenda, like not wanting you to dream lucidly. I recommend you talk this through with your friend again and try to assert yourself that lucid dreaming is not a battle of your conscious vs. your subconscious, but a reconciliation of them both. The latter metaphor is more accurate I think and definitely more desirable. In a lucid dream, both of these you’s exist at the same time and you want them to be friends, not enemies. :slight_smile:

I like the reasons you laid out. Sounds like lucid dreaming is indeed a suitable hobby for you. Also, people have been shapeshifting in lucid dreams for the longest time, but still I feel your intention is somewhat special and unique, I really like that. Having a proper vision is definitely useful. Let me ask you a question on top of what you described so far. If you become lucid tonight, what are you going to do? Please try to answer somewhat concretely.

Haha I think there are only very few “professional” lucid dreamers. You probably mean experienced or veteran lucid dreamers. Oneironauts is a term I really like (although I feel I may not yet call myself one).
Important final point for today: Don’t wait to share anything until you have a lot of experience. Sharing whatever you already know or what you are currently trying out and which results you get is actually much more important at an early stage in development. I train a lot of new people at work all the time and always encourage them to present something in our knowledge-sharing session, even if the old guys probably already know and maybe know it better. But this way, they can process the information much better themselves, plus there are a lot of other people on their level who can benefit from taking the first steps simultaneously. For example, consider opening a dream journal on LD4all, maybe with some commentary to spice it up :stuck_out_tongue:

3 Likes
3

Hey! Thanks for your kind and detailled response. I will try to answer the better I can.

I think it was a good decision to take a break. Many people have more LDs during their breaks than during their active periods :joy:

Funny because one lucid dream I made in February was the FIRST DAY I decided to take a break. However, since the break I started in end auf August, nothing happened ;-;. Don’t know how this works XD

I am curious about your experience with using an app. Did you also try a notebook version before?

I dit it for ONE time, when I didn’t have my phone within reach, but I have a notebook and a pen, so I said to myself, “why not”? I’ve always had my phone within reach because I’m afraid that the time I take to get up, pick my phone, and open the app to write, I’ll forget the dream, so I always put it under my pillow. But I was able to remember this dream with all its details because it was more vivid than usuall.

I think a physical notebook might actually have a different effect on dream recall.

How exactly? Do you think I could recall my dreams more efficiently if I use a notebook?

This seems very indicative to me that MILD is a very effective technique for you. You should seriously give it a try. It really is about setting intent, just like you did with your dream recall.

This is my favourite technique because it is the least compicated to me. But again, I can’t do this and fall asleep at the same time, which is annoying T-T

Let me ask you a question on top of what you described so far. If you become lucid tonight, what are you going to do?

Well… I think since LD is somewhat hard to master for me, I want to do many things once in this state, but I think the first thing I want to do in it is just having fun! You mentionned a bit earlier that people have been shapeshifting for the longest time in LD, it’s funny because it’s exactly what I want to do. One of the versions of my selfOC (Just a therm I invented to talk about OCs that are just me, but with special abilities, and changed behavior in function of the story I put them in) is litteraly just me, but I have the ability to shapeshift into whatever I want, I feel like just that idea is a power trip to me and one of the reason I want to do LC is to know what it feels like, know every little details about the process, and then run wild with it! Y’know, what does the transformation looks like, how does it feel to know how your body change at high speed, gaining non-human ability and body parts, textures, senses, etc… And then, just enjoy my new form, feeling it, touching it, experimenting with new features. I think this is the first thing I will do if I end lucid (well, if it works. I already tried, materialize an electronic watch, and after 5 seconds, became a broken toy with a totally different shape. Guess I need training XD). And when I’ll become more confident and experimented, then I will start to f*ck with my brain and do therpay to myself!

You probably mean experienced or veteran lucid dreamers. Oneironauts is a term I really like.

Yes! That’s what I wanted to say :'D

Don’t wait to share anything until you have a lot of experience. Sharing whatever you already know or what you are currently trying out and which results you get is actually much more important at an early stage in development.

Thanks for all of your advice, especially this one. And I think I will try this relaxing meditation, as you said to me, also this exercice to make more vivid dreams, I’ve never heard of this exercice before, it feels good to talk with someone that is at least a little experimented. I will check your profile to see about your experiences, and check some others that I find interesting! Also hope you will still answer the few question I have in this post and commenting it in general!

2 Likes
4

I don’t actually know whether that’s the case or not but can imagine that it may be more effective. The exercise of handwriting is more immersive than writing digitally. However there are a couple of people who only keep digital DJs, be it on the phone or computer, and they are just doing fine. I think @Cornelia_Xaos is one such forum member. Maybe she can share her method. Her recall is definitely good enough to permit lucid dreams.

Oh haha, I always thought it is quite complicated. Took me a while to really understand it. :lol: How exactly does your MILD practice/application look like? You don’t have to fall asleep reciting your mantra. Doing it like the last thing before you allow yourself to fall asleep is also good, that much I can already say.

I get you. Your bringing up exactly why I was asking this and asked you to be concrete. I also always want to do so many things :mrgreen: I found it’s very helpful to do two things properly and seriously: plan and intent. I choose one or two (at most) things that I will do in my very next LD. It’s ok to change the plan whenever something more interesting comes up, but at every point in my life I’m absolutely clear what the current top priorities are. And then I frequently remind myself of doing those things in my next LD. I don’t do any technique without also refreshing this intent. In the past I had a bunch of LDs (especially the first few) when I was surprised by being lucid and then having trouble remembering what I really want to do. And then I always just ended up flying around, basically. Now I still often deviate from my plan once lucid, but at least I usually remember and it’s a conscious decision inside the dream to do something else. Makes me feel better :content:

If you find some good tutorial or figure out a technique that works well for you, let us know. I’m curious about learning from you, too.

I’m not the most expert lucid dreamer actually :rofl: Just one of the more verbose ones who’s active on here these days.

2 Likes
5

I read your post a little earlier in the week and I remember I had a lot to comment on, but @Marvin really touched on just about everything (and more) that I had to say :lol:

I find your motivations to LD quite compelling and it’s so good to have a strong motivation, it will help you a lot.
You will find everyone has a different philosophy on dreams and you may or may not agree with my perspective, but I thought I might share a little bit of my philosophy if it could possibly help you. It currently sounds like you don’t find your non lucid dreams very interesting or engaging? I would encourage you to challenge that perspective.
One of your goals is to communicate with your subconscious. Have you considered that your subconscious is already trying to communicate with you, perhaps through your non-lucid dreams? Communication is a two way street and starting by trying to pick up on the messages your subconscious may already be sending to you is a great place to start. (I suppose I’m just suggesting dream interpretation, really haha)

As a beginner I was only interested in my lucid dreams and as such I only really put effort into my journal when I had a lucid dream. It wasn’t until I concluded for myself that my subconscious sent me messages on a nightly basis (through non lucid dreams) that I really actually started to care about all my dreams, and the change in perspective was a major turning point for me as a dreamer. I started keeping my journal better (because I wanted to interpret my dreams for what my subconscious was saying), and having non-lucid dreams didn’t feel like defeat any more.

In summery, giving your non-lucid dreams more value and attention may make the process more rewarding and engaging as you work towards lucidity.

Put so eloquently! I wish someone had suggested this to me when I was a beginner.

You sound like quite the creative and imaginative type. If you enjoy OCs, have you ever considered giving CALD a shot? It’s a method you could do in combination with MILD; you could make a mantra like “When I am dreaming, X (character) will tell me I’m dreaming” or something like that.

2 Likes
6

Well, until now, for me, meditation has been limited to watching guided video and relaxing music online, so, I think there is no secret. But I can tell if I find something new :wink:

It’s not really that, some of my regular dreams can be pretty wild (even if full adventures with tense situation can be rare, even if it happened twice some days ago). I just don’t think I live them like I want to live them. I don’t think i’s really vivid and exciting and I find that annoying. But I think I can change that if I train myself enough…

I find your statement and philosophy interesting. Maybe you are relying this with dream signs? Or symbols?

I looked it up and it’s funny because, at some point, I tried to create some king of imaginary friend I would talk once lying in my bed and invented the way he responded to me and made myself believe he was the incarnation of my brain. It’s not an OC, and I never drew him, he never exited my mind in any way. And during my “Dream incubation” as @Marvin put it, I was able to talk to him (even if I wasn’t lucid). It only happened once tho. Does this correlate with this induction technique?

Anyway, thanks for your answers ^^

7

Yes, I suppose so. I see dreams like reflections. I believe they reflect our experiences and emotions, The past, mostly the present (but maybe sometimes the future too??? not sure), etc. I guess I see dreams as the subconscious’ commentary on our experiences, or something like that. But I keep in mind that they’re reflections, not photographs; things can be distorted.
If one views dreams as the language our subconscious speaks in, dream signs and symbols are kind of like words? Weather or not they make meaningful sentences is up to you, though. And that’s just my philosophy, so your mileage may vary and I would encourage you to seek a perspective that speaks to you. :wink:

I would say that’s consistent with some CALD strategies, yes. I sometimes write letters to my DCs and interact with (one of) them in a similar way to what you described, although I usually use this to incubate dream topics rather than spark lucidity.

1 Like