New to LD, unsure if it was an LD

Quest for Lucidity
1

I prefered to split your question from the “Useful hints for aspiring LD’ers”. And I changed you title too. Old title was: “New to LD, unsure if dream or reality”. I suppose it wasn’t what you meant. :wink:

Lately I’ve been attempting LD. When I was first told about the site, I read the first part (just about LD) and would repeat to myself “I am going to dream, and I will know it is a dream” before I went to sleep. One night I was dreaming and I said “hey, this is just a dream!” then I was flying around. The thing is, I’m not sure if it was an LD or not, by definition it was… but it still didn’t feel like I was in control.

2

that is what some peoples first ld’s are like you kinda have to learn to tap into it never stop reading up on it

3

If you are unsure then it wasn’t a lucid dream, most likely it was ‘prelucid’. It is a very good sign though. When you’re completely aware and lucid you know.

4

It is annoying to have nearly-lucid moments, but if you’ve never had a LD before, it’s definently progress! I had a nearly-lucid experience in a dream earlier this week:

I was getting help from my Spanish Teacher for a test coming up. The test was going to cover Adverbs of Frequency. I knew that the word “siempre” meant “always.” For some reason, my DC Spanish Teacher said “tiempre” instead. I remember thinking in my head after she said “tiempre,” Tiempre? Doesn’t she mean siempre? She never makes mistakes like that… That’s really odd. That wouldn’t happen in my reality…

The fact that I mentioned “reality,” in theory, should have made me lucid. I didn’t tap into that though. I focused to hard on my “Dream Spanish.” :tongue:

5

I’ve had prelucid moments several times, and it’s frusterating. I’ve never been fully lucid, but at least prelucid moments tell you that you’re doing it right.

I’ve had dreams where my dream self actually was trying to do LD tecniques. Unfortunatly I never stopped to ask myself “Why am I doing this?” It would have been a prime time to go lucid.

I’ve had two occasions where my dream self says it knows it’s a dream, but it doesn’t fully register.

A few nights ago I had a dream I was in a futuristic base. The dream wasn’t very vivid nor long. However it was following a decent WILD attempt (the first I can say where I made any real progress). As soon as I started dreaming, I was thinking about dreaming. My dream self said “I’m dreaming.” Yet nothing really stood out. I walked up to a wall to feel it; I didn’t feel anything yet I knew that me touching something was being registered. It really didn’t appear any more significant than a normal dream; there was no “Oh! I’m dreaming!” moment. It was just like it was just part of the dream that my dreamself would say he knew. And very shortly after I forgot about it and the dream carried on.

It’s frusterating but encouraging.

6

are you dreaming right now?

have you ever been so wrapped up in thinking, that while you were washing the dishes, it was like you were hardly even washing the dishes in the first place?

that’s the same kind of thing like saying “hey this is a dream” and going flying.

one thought leads to next leads to next leads to next.

it’s kind of like being in a hurry while you’re awake, or being sidetracked, or simply not paying attention.

fundamentally you absolutely will have more vivid and present, and focused, and “lucid” lucid dreams…

but one thing is that, it’s a reflection of your attention in general! if you eat a dream hamburger and it doesn’t “taste” real, for instance, it could be becuase you dont’ pay enough attention to what food tastes like.

see… there is a world of difference between eating a hamburger mindfully, and chowing it down while watching tv and not paying attention to the fact you are eating.

it’s called minfulness in relatoin to Buddhist meditation concepts

if you want supreme clarity, the best thing you can do for your dreams (and life) is to perhaps be really observant… i would recommend practicing meditation.

and at least once a day, making a deliberate choice to really DO something and experience it fully… drink a cup of tea really slow, and really explore the taste, learning new things that you haven’t before.
galactichardwarestore.com/burrito.htm
or kind of this concept.

the mind can get very dull when stuck in habits.

a little much based upon what you asked, yeah… but this could super accelerate your dream process.

if you’ve seen Waking Life, it basically addresses this, are we sleep walking through are waking life? i forget how the exact question goes, but yeah.

seems like you were lucid but not satisfied with the level of attention that you were paying to the fact that you were lucid. kind of like, how aware you are of being “awake” right now, it’s just a normal thing right? just scanning along reading, probably thinking about other things that what I’m saying.
I do it all the time!

hope this helps and is relevant to your immediate present.

7

ive also had a LD where i fell like i wasnt in control. I knew i was dreaming, i even gave myself commands like ‘increase lucidity’ and told myself that when i turned the next corner (i was walking down a forest path) i would meet my spirit guide. I did meet a DC, not sure if he was my spirit guide, but as i was talking to him i just lost the lucidity.
This dream was still pretty cool. The ‘spirit guide’ i met was an african man with a monkey on his shoulder and when he asked me to give the monkey a banana thats when i lost lucidity.
I am new to LD’s so maybe it just takes practice.