So Frustrating!

Quest for Lucidity
1

Arrrrrrggh… I’ve been doing WILD and MILD for months now, I’ve tried every technique in the book, I’ve listen to music, I’ve eaten every so-called ‘lucid’ food, I’ve gotten three months worth of journal entries, I’ve laid awake for hours on end… all becuase I just want to have at least ONE lucid dream before I die. What am I overlooking? What is my problem? Are you all liers and this whole forum is a way to sucker others into believing this? Maybe I want it too much? What is the secret?

Basically when I do a WILD, I lie down on my back, arms spread a little bit away from my body,feet about half a foot apart and my face straight up. Slowly I breathe in and out, imagining that I’m bouncing a small red ball against a wall, counting every time I bounce it. I breathe slowly in and out. I’m doing everything correctly, and sometimes I’m awake for what seems to be hours. But it never works.

So then I tried a MILD for a few weeks. I lie down like a normally do: basically like a dog, on my side with my arms and legs pointing away from my body. I tighten the muscles in my feet, then relax, and do the same with my legs, hips, torso, arms and finally head, then do the same thing in reverse. All this time I’m breathing slowly, chanting ‘I am in a dream, this is all a dream’ like a mantra, matching my breathing perfectly. As I do this, I also imagine I’m a superhero, shooting lighting out of my hands and flying around blowing things up. Again, everything’s right, nothing works.

So I try a little music assocciation. Whenever my mind is being creative, such as when I’m drawing, or when I’m reading about lucid dreaming online here, I listen to the same music CD, ‘Queen’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2’. Then when I’m going to sleep I listen to the music, relaxing my body, but keeping my mind awake. Once I was aware up to the fifth song. lo and behold, doesn’t work at ALL.

So what is it? What is the magic formula? I’ve never given up anything worth giving up and I’m not starting now.

2

Well, I think trying to WILD is pretty pointless, especially before bed.
Here is what has been working for me:
Try to be as lucid as possible while awake during the day. Basically question yourself, especially when something odd happens. Use lots of logic. This will eventually start to happen in your dreams. You’ll think “something isn’t right here…I’m dreaming!!” and then just do whatever you want! Waking up about 6 hours after falling asleep really helps too.

3

Hey StantheGarbageMan … I do pretty much the same WILD technique as you and I am convinced you can do it at night, even though it hasn’t worked with me upon going to sleep, but there are members on this forum that it has worked for and I am told that you require patience and practise hehe … I usually find WILD happens pretty randomly to me as I wake up in the morning and try to get back to sleep sometimes (I usually wake up a lot in the night) …its a pretty cool experience :content:

Sometimes trying too hard can be the cause of not achieving lucidity and some people find taking a break can induce a LD ! But they tend to happen to me randomly … but I don’t know my brains weird like that, I don’t even do reality checks… instead I try to remember the feelings of my previous LD (I suppose this is some sort of MILD or hypnosis tech) just before I sleep…

Anyways … Don’t give up StantheGarbageMan! and good luck :content:

4

To get HI, I do the following. I imagine myself walking on the street or something like that. When I feel some drowsiness setting in, I start doing some MILD (e.g.: “I’m going to have a LD”) and start from the beginning. This way, I get closer and closer to HI with a slow enough pace.

5

Oh yeah, forgot to add this one thing: As I’m lying down in a trance, one of my arms randomly do this weird jolt, where it shakes around for about two seconds, then stops. It’s rather distracting; is this normal?

6

Well, you should probably cool it for a while. Take a week off. then start over. You head is probably all stressed out over the results…Take a week off and do some relaxation meditations before bed instead.

7

WBTB

8

I completely agree with Redifin.

Different people have success with different methods. The lucid dreams I have had have all been induced using the WBTB and MILD method. I have had absolutely no results from WILD.

Unfortunately, WBTB is the hardest method (my opinion) because pulling yourself out of bed completely in the middle of the night can be such a difficult task. Though, you have to stay strong! :smile:

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you so that you might have better luck in the future. Just make sure to stay with it and never give up! I admire the fact that you’ve stuck with lucid dreaming even after three weeks of no results.

9

Yes, WBTB…and it sounds like you may be trying a little to hard. Trying to hard can hinder your success. If WBTB doesn’t work for you, take a break, and you may find your lucid dreams will start to come to you when you’re not really trying.

10

i can’t guarantee that this will have any effect on you, but here’s my recommendation. Screw it. yeah. screw it. just completely ignore all things lucid for a month, and whenever you get something about lucidity in your head, repeat that phrase. in more simple terms: stop pushing yourself. i have only had about 5 lds in the whole time i have known the phenomenon, and none of em were because of any technique. they came when they damn well wanted to. if techniques dont work, then try a new approach, namely to not do anything. if you dont get anything at all after a month, then go back to doing techniques, but only a little here and there. the idea isnt that you think more about it, but think less about it.

for example: when doing RC’s, you arent supposed to think “i should do an RC”, you should just skip the thinking. it should come naturally, without thought. thinking too much about it will just distance you from it. if you suddenly find yourself doing an RC in the middle of a store, and everyone is staring at you, and you dont realize it for at least 5 seconds, then you are on the right track.

now, one last time for you, just incase this isnt going through: it isnt YOU thats supposed to think about LD’s, its your SUBCONCIOUS thats supposed to think about it. get it?

11

I have been trying for 2 years and have had 1 lucid dream. You don’t know what frustration is.

12

And btw, it wasn’t that much of an LD because i woke up about 20 seconds after I realized I was dreaming, AND the only time it ever worked for me was on a saturday when I had slept till like 9:30 then woke up and gone back to bed, I got mad at myself and stopped trying for like two months and I havn’t remembered a dream since, i’ve probably had a lucid dream everynight, this sucks bad.

13

Hi Stanthegarbageman,

First of all, you can totally give up WILD, it seems you’re not gifted at all for it. It just discourages you and this is probably the reason why you haven’t had any success with the other techniques.

As you feel discouraged, if I were you, I would totally stop any practice. You cannot have results in this state of mind. When you’ll be more motivated, you can start again.

Don’t try lots of techniques in the same time. Focus on few of them. First of all, do you have a good dream recall? You NEED to remember about one dream per night. If you want to have your first LD, you NEED to have a dream journal and collect dreams. You NEED to read your dreams and find dreamsigns, prelucid dreams, in order to know if you’re making progress. Are you doing this?

Some people are very lucky, they try a technique and it works immediatly. It was not my case. I tried WILD during years without results, cause it was the only technique I knew.

When I found a lot of information about LD’s on the Lucidity Institute website and here, I decided to try again. I abandonned WILD cause I was so mean with it. At this time, I had zero dream recall. I build it up again with autosuggestion in one week. Next two weeks, I just payed attention to dreamsigns and prelucid dreams. Then I practiced autosuggestion, repeating “This night, I will realize I’m dreaming”. I was always writing down my dreams, in order to recognize when I should have become lucid. I noticed that I had more and more prelucid dreams. Then I had a lucid dream in the next two weeks and lots in the next months.

There is NO MAGICAL FORMULA. There is no magical pill. You just want to have LD’s - or you don’t. If you really want, you’ll understand quickly what is useful, what makes you closer to lucidity and what doesn’t.

So, first of all, stop trying for a while. When you’ll find your motivation again - it’s the main thing - you can start again. First focus on dream recall and study the content of your dreams. When you’ll find you’re good enough, then practice autosuggestion when you are going to bed. Try to find your hands in dreams, try to realize you’re dreaming, what you want, but focus on only one objective. And always remember your dreams to see if you are closer to lucidity, to see when you were on the verge of lucidity, what events or objects in dreams make you prelucid, etc. And when you practice autosuggestion, you must reach a state in which you’re sure you’ll have a LD.

If, after some weeks of trying to realize you’re dreaming, you notice a dream in which you are wondering whether you’re dreaming or not, go on, you’ll have a LD soon. But if after a month, there is still nothing and you have had no prelucid dreams, I think LD’ing is definately not for you.

14

I don’t think so. As far as I know EVERYONE can learn LDing. For some people it just takes more time. I had only 5 LDs in my life and it took my some time to have my first one. Making a break is a good idea. I did a break several times, because I just didn’t have the motivation to continue without good results. One day the first LD just happened.
So keep trying…

15

Like ilovelucid, I too think I have had some LDs I cant remember. I am very rushed in the morning because of school, and the one time that I felt sick and didn’t go to school this year I stayed in bed and remembered a dream where I tried to make something happen, but I dont know if I was lucid.

16

Weeks? Oh no, my friend. I’ve been at this for MONTHS. 13, count them, 13 FREAKIN’ MONTHS of FAILURE.

Yeah, I’ve given up a week ago.

Oh yeah, one more question: When I’m adding a new dream into my diary, but I can’t remember anything from it, is it OK to make up a dream, and write that down, or write down a dream you remember from before you started your diary? I did that once.

17

Stan, you beat me just by a few months! :tongue:

No. Really. I officially started sometime in July 2005. I still have to get lucid. But, who knows…

PS: If you’ve given up, you’re more likely to succeed, you know?

18

I know, that’s why I’m doing it. I’m also taking up meditation to calm myself down.

19

Stan, how many dreams do you remember each morning?

20

One, sometimes two. Why?