It might be a little to early to ask this, but I started to learn about lucid dreaming a few days ago and tried to do MILD combined with WBTB the last night for the very first time. Problem: I woke up a several times (between 4 - 6) and just one of them was because of the WBTB. I never had a lucid dream before at all and this night neither. Every time I woke up I tried to remember the dream before to use MILD, but I did not come into a lucid dream.
I’ll try WILD this night, but if youu can help me, it would be great.
So did you remember any dreams upon waking or not?
Also you just can’t expect any technique to actually work this fast. Even if you do have some results it’s more luck then actually feedback from learning technique…
Give it time. Don’t rush things. Give yourself credit. See everything as a success, because it is…
But I think you should slow down a bit. You’re going way too fast 0_o
You have to spend a week at least with each technique to make any progress at all.
Also, considering that this is your first post, how is your dream recall? Do you remember one dream per night?
If not, I’m afraid you have to practice your DR with a DJ or something similar. LDing is not a quick and easy thing, and there’s no easy way out. Patience and perseverance can solve just about every problem with LDs, but the opposite is true as well.
If you do have sufficient DR, then I apologize. Think of it as a customer support kind of thing: they ask the simple questions first just in case you didn’t know or forgot.
I can’t help much with techniques since I’m fairly new to LDing as well. Welcome again, and good luck!
@ Antylamon & dB_FTS: Because I woke up a several times this night, i can remember around 3 dreams maybe. I remember them just in some scenes, but I think, it is better than nothing. I also started to write them down.
… and okay, I’ll try to slow down my motivation a bit, but I really want to get a LD because it sounds so incredibly intersting and undescribable so I want to try it out as soon as possible.
That’s good. It means you are motivated and by all means do not slow down your motivation. I only meant that you should be real and expect real results. Because when people think that they can achieve lucidity easily in few days and that’s gonna be super awesome and when they don’t experience such thing then they loose all motivation and usually quit…
That’s why is important to have goals, goals that you can actually achieve…
Similarly to dB, although slightly different, my point was that you shouldn’t give up on using MILD and WBTB so easily. Trying one method for only a few days usually doesn’t work. It usually takes at least a week, possibly several. WILD takes the most amount of time to learn by far, to the point that it is usually only recommended for experienced LDers.
OK, so you suggest me to set some goals for myself, e.g. remember 15 dreams this week and have at least one LD? And why shouldn´t I try all the different methods first before using one a whole week or maybe a month?
I ask because I tried WILD the last night and I came quite near to the state of SP ( I used counting and I came to 95) and then I had a strange feeling… some kind of new energy or maybe a feeling of “now you can go” or something. Hard to describe. And those feelings I didn´t had with the MILD and WBTB combination the night before.
…
And I use WBTB now each night, so I have “a new try” for inducing a LD as by using WILD or MILD. Is that a good idea?
Yes, setting goals is very important, although I think that having at least one LD this week when you’ve just started with LD’ing is a bit too much. I’d also always go with quality, not quantity. This applies to everything, RC, DR and techniques. You should aim to remember rather one dream in as many details as possible than to recall three dream fragments. Dream vividness is something that can be trained and achieved quite easily and is very motivating and fun! And don’t forget to choose a LD goal, so that you don’t end up having in your first LD and not knowing what to do.
The reason why we say that you should take your time with every technique is because you most likely won’t be able to recognize any improvement when trying a technique only one or two nights. A technique like WILD takes practice, MILD on the other hand needs mostly patience. So if you choose MILD for example and use WILD the night after that, you might not even realize that MILD made you slightly more aware in your dreams. You have a bigger chance to succeed when you take your time with everything, immerse yourself in the technique and don’t rush things which can happen very quickly when you keep on switching between techniques in a short amount of time.
Also, experiencing SP consciously is a part of WILD, but not of MILD. Using MILD, you’re supposed to fall asleep just like you usually do, MILD does not require to enter a dream consciously and thus you don’t need to experience SP.
The idea about WBTB is a good one, WBTB can be used with almost every technique and will increase your chances of having a LD (and you might have better DR,too).
Yes, goals are good. They keep you motivated. And when you achieve them you will feel like you made some progress.
Well because you probably won’t be successful with a technique in one day. If you give it time then you might get real feedback, everything else is just luck.
What you felt is mostly normal and new because you weren’t conscious in those transitions before. Also you don’t reach SP before REM sleep(normally), so if you are in a SP you will most probably be dreaming. Everything else you might feel is HH which comes before SP/sleep and you are not in SP. You can try and move and you’ll be able to move. If you were in SP you couldn’t move at all…
That’s because you went to sleep as you usually do.
Thx for your advices.
I think, I´ll try out WILD now for one or two weeks and train at the same time my DR skills (maybe I change then to MILD, but I will see). Hope, it will be successfull and I let you know, what I did and what I reached, when time is over.
1 1/2 months ago I started my LD quest with trying WILD. I didn’t have a LD until then and last week I temporarely didn’t do my DJ. At the start of this week I restarted the project by using VILD now (WILD kept me awake over 1 h each time I tried) and I got problems this time as well:
By using VILD I fall asleep too fast so I can’t imagine my dream complete
Restarting my DJ: I had huge problems on remembering my dreams and i don’t know why
Hope you can help me now as well as 1 1/2 months ago ^^
I believe that the same applies for VILD as for WILD only you don’t stay awake through the whole process. So you need to stay awake longer when doing WBTB. Long enough to go through the visualization…
Dream recall is really a complex thing. Sometimes you do remember, sometimes you don’t. Changes in daily routine usually will mess with your recall and sometimes is just a dry spell. Well try to write in your journal as much as possible, no matter if you don’t recall much or anything at all. Write something. Write how you feel and make a record that you don’t remember anything and that just might trigger your recall and if it doesn’t you still kept recording in your DJ which is very important!
I think you should start with practicing you dream recall so you can remember your dreams in the first place;
otherwise there is a great risk that you might just forget any lucid dreams that you have.
Also, WBTB + MILD is an excellent combo, I highly recommend that you giv it some more time.
I’d also always go with quality, not quantity. This applies to everything, RC, DR and techniques. You should aim to remember rather one dream in as many details as possible than to recall three dream fragments. Dream vividness is something that can be trained and achieved quite easily and is very motivating and fun! And don’t forget to choose a LD goal, so that you don’t end up having in your first LD and not knowing what to do.
