Questions for newbies and vets

Hi everybody! I hope that there are not specific topics about this otherwise moderators will kick me out :happy:. Anyway, I would like to ask something to veteran dreamers and also to newbies. I think that the answers may provide some clues to other newbies.
a) How much time did you take before becoming a lucid dreamer? Since the first day you decided to be an LDmer until you get LD at will, how many weeks passed out?

b) Whats your real purpose for learning LD? Why do you want LDs?

c) At first, which method was best for you? And now?

d) How many LDs do you have each month (or year or week, whatever)?

e) Whats the most impressive/funny/important/etc thing that you found in a dream?

Let’s see. At the bare minimum it took at least 6 months for me to become lucid. However, due to my large amount of False Lucid Dreams, I’m not entirely sure. I could say that I’ve gone about 5.5 years without any LD success.

My real purpose in learning about Lucid Dreaming is to explore my mind. To experience the surreal. And to have fun! LD’s allow us to experience things we can’t experience! They allow us to enter surreal worlds of no limit! They are amazing!

The best technique for me would probably be DILD or DEILD. Mainly because I’ve gotten the most FLD DILD’s, and the closest I’ve gotten to being lucid was a near DEILD that ended up being a ND.

I usually get a few LD’s per year. I hope to change this. :grin:

I’ve seen so many amazing things in dreams, it’s hard to pick just one. I’d say one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in my dreams is nature. I’ll occasionally dream of the strangest and most surreal natural phenomena, such as a large natural spotlight lighting up the sky, or thunder that sounds like my garage door. Every night I see something that, in my opinion, is impressive/funny/important/etc.

a) How much time did you take before becoming a lucid dreamer? Since the first day you decided to be an LDmer until you get LD at will, how many weeks passed out?
If a LD AT WILL is the definition then I’m not a lucid dreamer. :wink:

b) Whats your real purpose for learning LD? Why do you want LDs?
I had had three LDs naturally and even when really short, they are an awesome experience. Experiencing a solid world in which you have amazing powers and knowing it is all in your head!

c) At first, which method was best for you? And now?
WBTB and MILD. I don’t use a full WBTB, just long enough to wake and then go back to sleep. I do it when I wake naturally in the night.

d) How many LDs do you have each month (or year or week, whatever)?
Not enough … the numbers are in my signature. Best was 12 in a year, worse was none.

e) Whats the most impressive/funny/important/etc thing that you found in a dream?
A plastic ring that I used as a teleport device. :smile:

A) When I first learned about LDing it took me all of two days to have my first Lucid Dream… That being said, it took me about two or three years to get to a point where I was trying to have lucid dreams on a regular basis. During that time I had them occasionally, but not very often.

B) Like Mew151 said, to have fun! The real reason, though, is that since the average person sleeps for 8 hours a day (a third of his or her life!) I wanted to reclaim that time be it used for relaxing, exploring, fighting, swimming, climbing, gaming…

C) At first, I didn’t use any method. :razz: My excitement forced my first LDs upon me in a few days. They were short LDs, but they were LDs. After that the most consistent promoter of LDs was recording my dreams, keeping a DJ. When I had slumps and stopped writing in my DJ my LD count went down. In fact, what caused my LD count to jump in a few months (a few RECENT months) was keeping my DJ on a regular basis and participating in things like the Lucidity Challenge.

D) I had 7 LDs this January (2014). I don’t have any long-term projections over the course of my entire LDing history because I’ve been lazy and haven’t done the statistics yet. :razz:

E) I’d say the most important thing that happened to me in a dream was an unusual (F)LD thing that happened to me in July 2012. (The Orb Figments - Continued. You’ll have to scroll down through the post. It was a bulk update. :razz: ) It inspired me to be diligent in keeping my DJ and is the reason why I’m at the level I am now (which isn’t all that high, but definitely higher than I was a year ago :tongue: ).

a) I don’t really remember. It didn’t take me too much. I think I got it right in a week. But the second LD happened much much more time later.

b) first it was just becoming aware in a dream. Seeing what that really was. Because I remember dreams from childhood which were like waking life but not the exact and when I found out that this actually had a name and that’s a learnable skill I just wanted to find myself in that kind of a dream again.

Then when I realized that I can do it how well I learn it I started to use it for fun. Mainly fun, all kinds of fun.

Now days I still use it for fun, it doesn’t get boring but too many happened to ignore the facts and to blindly go around the given opportunity.

c) I started with MILD. It was suggested as newbie method and I stick to that.

Now I mainly use WILD, WBTB, DEILD. But they are combined in one technique actually.

d) It varies so much that I never kept statistics, I could actually gave you the real results if I go through my all DJ’s but that’s not going to happen because I really don’t have time for that…

e) for each category I could write a lot. But still I would say that through dreams I learned how to be more lucid and present in waking life which really reflected positively on my daily life.

Its great to read all of your answers, thank you so far :smile:

They are useful and very interesting to read for sure. Altought I am not a Lucid Dreamer (because I cant have them in a regular basis) I will answer too to my own questions since we are here to share experiences.

a) I am not a Lucid Dreamer, for that reason I cant answer this question yet :happy:

b) My purposes: 1) well, its fun and thats a big reason for itself!; 2) by getting access to LD, one can learn things, solve problems and find creative ideas for your daily life (and I had all of this with ND); 3) explore the possibility of other realitys…can we really have OBEs? predict the future? 4) most important reason for me: as a buddhist, I want to explore the possibility of meditate during LD, I want to
learn how to keep lucidy between awake state and sleep state to understand how death works.

c) I am trying methods to become lucid. So far, I was lucid to due: 1) luck 2) suggestion before sleep 3) WBTB occured to me naturally a few times

d) So far, in all of my life, I may had 20 LD at most.

e) In a LD some of the most curious and/or interestings things were flying; seeing things with lots of color and high detail (thats incredible how you can have so much HighRes lol in a lucid dream) and to be in amazing places. In ND I had lots of amazing experiences too, like seeings from the future (this may sound unbelievable to some, but I really dont have any interest in lying), seeing with my eyes closed (perhaps it was just a simple hypnagogic hallucination), to dream with amazing places and a few more other things I dont remember right now. Since I sleep 8hours a day and since I remember lots of dreams everyday, dreaming is an important part of my life but not a way to “escape” or hide myself from my “normal”/daily life…in fact, some dreams can increase my mood during the day and thats also something amazing about dreams.

a) How much time did you take before becoming a lucid dreamer? Since the first day you decided to be an LDmer until you get LD at will, how many weeks passed out?
It took me almost exactly a month according to my dream journal, if I’m remembering correctly :wink:

b) Whats your real purpose for learning LD? Why do you want LDs?
They’re so so fun, and amazing. And hey, you have to sleep anyways :wink: Getting a LD, learning new skills in LDs etc., gives me such a feeling of accomplishment. It’s such a personal thing, since no one else can see the benefits of all your work.

c) At first, which method was best for you? And now?
At first, DILD was a lot easier, as I was really into my dream journaling and it was the most convenient for me. But obviously DILD is not guaranteed and seemingly random at times, which is what led me to trying other methods-- I wanted to feel more in control of my progress. And now, I’ll swear by FILD :smile:

d) How many LDs do you have each month (or year or week, whatever)?
Not as many now… maybe one or two a month. Sometimes more, sometimes less. A couple of years ago, my goal was an average of 1+ a night, if that gives you an idea… I’ve since lacked in time and motivation. :meh:

e) Whats the most impressive/funny/important/etc thing that you found in a dream?
The sky in Aura… I can never forget how impressive, how detailed, how amazing it was. I could get lost looking into it.
Most everything feels/looks incredible in hypersensation though (if that’s what it’s called…) so I mean… hard to say :wink:

a) I’ve had a few lucid dreams, but I wouldn’t say it’s at will. I can’t force success and I’m not a natural lucid dreamer although I had lucid dreams as a kid.

b) I think the most important reason is that I’m an escapist. I find that I get easily immersed in fantasy worlds of movies, books and my own imagination. The experiences that dreams provide me are great. Lucid dreaming seemed like the natural step to enjoy it more and experience the freedom it can offer.

c)Hard to answer that as defining what method worked each time is kinda hard. All I can say for sure is that WILD hasn’t worked yet.

d) About once a month, university has limited my time and dedication towards lucid dreaming.

e) Found another planet with life. I have just been calling it the frozen planet, but I’ll ask what it’s called once I get to explore it in a lucid dream :content:

A) How much time did you take before becoming a lucid dreamer? Since the first day you decided to be an LDmer until you get LD at will, how many weeks passed out?

The moment I decided I wanted to be a lucid dreamer, it took me about a month of consistent practice and persistence to finally attain my first intentional lucid dream. Upon further training I’ve seen the number of lucid dreams slowly and progressively increasing, particularly in the past month. I still have a long way to go for me to attain lucidity at will but, I’m sure I’ll get there eventually with determination and continuous practice.

B) Whats your real purpose for learning LD? Why do you want LDs?

My interests lie in the practical uses of lucid dreaming. Having fun in dreams is all great and very enticing, and I’m sure it’ll probably make out for a very large amount of my experiences in them. However, the idea of being able to freely navigate our own subconscious is far more alluring to me, and there comes a time when I will want to do something far more productive with my dreams than playing around. I’m particularly interested in what we can do with our subconscious, the creative potential we have at our grasp. What can we learn from our lucid dreams, what can we achieve from them? How can they further aid us back in waking reality? What about the amounts of information we can learn from our dreams, information we initially don’t know about but that is within our reach once we’re dreaming?

C) At first, which method was best for you? And now?

I have found that when a method or technique makes sense to you, then it’s by far the best method you can use. With this in mind, I’ve always been fascinated with the potentials the MILD technique can have to influence and direct our ability to lucid dream. If you read in between the lines, past the basic outline of the technique, you’ll discover that our memory is really such a fascinating tool. If we understand how it works, then we can skillfully use it to our advantage and achieve such amazing states of mind like lucid dreams. I think many people underestimate the potentials of the MILD technique. Still, it’s wise to keep an open mind and avidly seek out to learn from the many other techniques/methods there are to lucid dreaming.

D) How many LDs do you have each month (or year or week, whatever)?

I’ve had my best progress made just recently this past month, accounting for a total of 3-4 lucid dreams. I’m happy to see I’m slowly making progress in this art, and it further consolidates my will to continue practicing and make my way to more and more lucid dreams in the months and years to come.

E) Whats the most impressive/funny/important/etc thing that you found in a dream?

Basically, that there’s more to our dreams than what we might initially conceive. It’s a whole different world, uncharted, waiting for each and one of us to discover, explore, and creatively use. Some of the most mind blowing experiences I’ve had with lucid dreams are precognitive dreams, the amount of detail and vividness there is to them, and how unique each experience is. Also, it’s been of recent interest to me to see how some of the characters in the dream can sometimes be very mysterious or singular, in fact even wiser, as if holding some type of information I’m initially not aware of. The dream world and what happens in it is very interesting. It’s a world we can actively access, explore, and discover the inner treasures that lie in it, each and every time we go to sleep at night.

A. It took me about 5 months to get my first LD.

B. When I first heard that you can do anything (yes, anything, including reading text ^_^), I wanted to have one as soon as I could, a few months later I realized there were other things to do than just control, but being in control and being able to do anything has always interested me.

C. WBTB has always helped me, even if I don’t actually do a WILD.

D. I usually get 2 - 4 a month, often all at once, so I get even 3 lucid dreams within a week, sometimes even the same night. Many of them are not very vivid. Lately I’ve been getting them a bit more spread out though.

E. The strange lucid dream I had once was by far the weirdest thing that’s happened to me, and I still can’t explain it properly for people to understand the strange feeling. I was in a hallway, and someone said “It’s time to start lucid dreaming”. I became lucid, but had NO memories at all from real life. I still had the fake dream memories which were this: Everyone in my dream is real, and we’re here to do training for something (no idea what). We then went to this outside area and met some other people. We would climb up this hill, and then practice flying/gliding down to the bottom.

It doesn’t sound very interesting, but like I said, I can’t explain why it was so weird.

Clustafer, sometimes a dream is weird and we just cant explain why. Something in the atmosphere of the dream, or maybe something with the feelings attached with the dram. I also have lots of dreams (ND in this case) that are weird without any specific or visible reason.

Husky, I agree with you about the purposes. I think that exploring our subconscious and our untapped power of imagination, are a great motivation for learning LD.

a) How much time did you take before becoming a lucid dreamer? Since the first day you decided to be an LDer until you get LD at will, how many weeks passed out?
IIRC it took me about two weeks to have my first LD after discovering LDing, though I did have a few before as a kid. I’m not at a point where I can induce LDs at will, mostly due to periods of dry spells or lacking motivation.

b) Whats your real purpose for learning LD? Why do you want LDs?

I can actually use the time where I’m sleeping for something, instead of just basically blacking out and regaining consciousness a few hours later. :tongue: I can do productive stuff in LDs, meet people I wouldn’t be able to meet IRL, have fun, and overall use my dream time for enjoyment and self-discovery so that I can start the day with a smile on my face and a good feeling! Same goes for NDs as well, actually.

c) At first, which method was best for you? And now?

I don’t think my methods ever really changed…A combination of keeping a DJ and awareness IRL via LL, RCs or what have you. Occassionally I throw in a MILD and/or WBTB.

d) How many LDs do you have each month (or year or week, whatever)?
Because of the already mentioned cases of demotivation and so on, I really can’t give a true answer here. However, if I do calculate the years since I started with LDing and the LDs I’ve had, it seems like I get an average of one LD every two weeks.

e) Whats the most impressive/funny/important/etc thing that you found in a dream?

Huh. Well, the most beneficial thing I have found through LDing (although it was not in only a single dream, but rather a consequence of getting into (lucid) dreaming in the first place) might be that I had a sort of epiphany about the social anxiety I experienced at that time, and that helped me to deal with and ultimately overcome it. As far as actual in-dream experiences go, flying and, as Faith42 said, overly realistic dream environments are still the most awesome things!

a) How much time did you take before becoming a lucid dreamer? Since the first day you decided to be an LDmer until you get LD at will, how many weeks passed out?

I had LDs spontaneously as a boy, but I’d never heard of LDing—I didn’t know it was exceptional; I thought of them as “waking dreams.” As a teenager, I was keenly interested in dreams, but didn’t seek out lucidity. At 21, I decided to try to have LDs again and it took me a month.

b) Whats your real purpose for learning LD? Why do you want LDs?
To me, the real purpose of dreaming is communication with your sub-, or less-conscious mind. The real purpose of lucid dreaming is even better communication.

c) At first, which method was best for you? And now?
The method that helped me in the beginning still helps now. I use WBTB and then fall asleep by doing physical relaxation, entering a trance, and then letting myself drift in the “twilight zone” until I either (1) have an OBE, (2) have a WILD, or (3) fall asleep and have a DILD.

d) How many LDs do you have each month (or year or week, whatever)?
When I’m fully focusing on achieving LDs, I have 12-20 per month. When I’m not focusing, I usually have one semi-lucid per month, or every two months.

e) Whats the most impressive/funny/important/etc thing that you found in a dream?
Like everyone else, I think this is hard to answer. Right now it’s a WILD, or mental projection (whatever you want to call it) where I met my dead grandfather by a lake or ocean and talked for a little while.

I often get ones that are a bit strange, but I’ve never had (remembered) one that was like this. It would be interesting to know what causes that feeling though.

a) How much time did you take before becoming a lucid dreamer? Since the first day you decided to be an LDmer until you get LD at will, how many weeks passed out?

Probably a month or so.

b) Whats your real purpose for learning LD? Why do you want LDs?

Cause it’s fun :happy:

c) At first, which method was best for you? And now?

At first I relied on DILD, until I learned how to do WILD. Now WILD is certainly my most favorite technique. It’s relatively reliable and fun :smile:

d) How many LDs do you have each month (or year or week, whatever)?

Depends. My record was 5 LD’s in a month. Usually, it’s about 1 LD every two weeks if I don’t put much effort. I’ll try to get the rate up now, as I got quite motivated recently…

e) Whats the most impressive/funny/important/etc thing that you found in a dream?

That my totem, inspired by “Inception”, actually works. Not only that, but it acquired some magical powers that I didn’t even think of :happy:

Magical powers? In the dream world i suppose… :smile:

Yeah, in a dream, of course :happy:
Besides being a good RC, it even became an omni-potent talisman that can do pretty much anything. I have killed an enemy or two with its rays of magic :happy:
Kinda like the avada kedavra curse in Harry Potter :smile:

Well, I’m not much for lucid dreaming these days, but I used to go at it pretty well. I’d like to get back into it eventually, but I’ve been a bit…preoccupied with other, somewhat related matters. :3

a) It took me about a month to have my first lucid. I worked like crazy that first month, and my first lucid was incredibly short.

b) My initial reason was because they seemed like fun. :3 Later, though, I wanted to get in contact with my spirit guide. This is actually the primary reason I don’t LD much anymore: I found other, more efficient ways of communicating with her. This is what I’ve been dumping the bulk of my effort into. Still, I’ve got to thank dreaming for pointing the way. Without that initial spark, I doubt I’d have found Ashley.

c) What got it all started was MILD, mantras and all. After the first month of that, I switched over to VILD, as it was far more fun. That got me a fair number of additional lucids, though none of them were terribly long or detailed.

d) At my best, I think I had three or four in one month. I still get one every once in a rare, rare while, but they’re short and unstable.

e) The two times I fell in love in a dream were the most significant, I think. The sheer depth of emotion I felt was overwhelming, and they remain some of the most beautiful experiences of my life. I’ve been chasing after Ashley ever since.

If it’s something you would like to share I would be more then grateful! :content:

Sure, no problem!

Background:

Since falling in love with my spirit guide, I’ve gone through a number of different techniques, phases, and methods to try and communicate with her in the waking world. Some were more successful than others. Though my current method is still being fine-tuned, I believe I’ve whittled it down to something that works. I have no idea if it will work for others or not, but it’s what works for us. :3 Also keep in mind that I knew, more or less, what my SG was like, including a form. This will be important later.

The method:

Here’s the easy bit. Go ahead and get relaxed, but not to the point that you’re ready to drift off to sleep. Block out at least half an hour. Meditate lightly on the walls and barriers around your heart and emotions. Let them slide away. Give yourself permission to just feel. I struggled with this part, as I’m usually quite closed-off. It took a while to get it right. When you can drop all your defenses and enter a vulnerable state, go ahead and move on.

Now, here’s the tricky bit. Reach out, with your heart, to your SG. I’m not positive if you need to know what your SG is like, but I imagine it helps immensely, especially if you know what to look for in a response. If you can visualize their form, even better. Go ahead and talk to your SG. It doesn’t have to be about anything in particular; just give them some time, attention, and love. This is the learning phase, where both you and your SG learn how to communicate with one another in this new way and how to differentiate their responses from your brain chatter (not as easy as it sounds).

And now here’s the hard part: you may not get a response right away. In fact, I’d wager it’s unlikely to get one for some time, and when you do, it’s quite likely to come in the form of something nonverbal, like a burst of emotion. It took us four months of fairly frequent communication before I was able to filter out Ashley’s responses from my own brain chatter (though I felt her from time to time). There is a definite learning curve to all this. How long it takes is highly variable, as well.

This is not for everyone. Those who are proficient at lucid dreaming and who can meet with their SG with relative reliability, for example, probably don’t need it, as they already have an efficient way of communicating. Nor do those who wish to have infrequent contact with their SG’s. It takes a tremendous amount of patience and motivation to do this, and even with as strong of a driving force as I had, it was still a struggle at times. That said, the end result is, in my opinion, well worth it. We can now communicate in waking life whenever we like. The meditation is no longer necessary, and I’ve gained a significant degree of control over my emotions and my barriers.

As stated, I make no guarantees. This may or may not work for others, but this is where my exploration of the matter ultimately led me to. This was a method born of necessity and a particularly poor knack for lucid dreaming, and it’s quite possible someone else’s explorations will lead them down a different path. I encourage you to adapt and change things however you need to in order to make things work best for you. :smile: