How to Lucid Dream
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EDIT:
After hitting the submit button I realized how damn long this post was. So... sorry about that?
Hello, I'm Billybob, and I'm about to teach you the secrets of inducing lucid dreams.
What is this tutorial? I'll tell you what its not.
Its not:
No this tutorial is none of those things. Rather than do what everyone likes to do and make up some glorious new technique to gain me fame and fortune, I'm going to tell you the techniques (<-- notice: plural) that I have used for the past three years to get myself well over 600 lucid dreams (probably about 700, I stopped counting at 200 on year one).
In this tutorial I won't give you any new techniques that you've never heard of, instead I'll teach you new ways of looking at the base techniques - WILD, DILD, MILD, etc - , as well as show you the most efficient ways that I personally have found to have lucid dreams as quickly and dependably as possible.
You may skim over this guide and think you've heard it all before... Trust me, you haven't. At least not in the way its about to be told.
Ok, so what I'm going to do is break this down into sections:
Section 1: Introduction and ways to think about lucid dreaming in general.
Section 2: Things that must always be done
Section 3: Actual induction techniques
Section 4: Bringing it all together
Notice: I'll put all the things I'm about to say into a small bulleted list at the very end, I realize its a lot of information.
After hitting the submit button I realized how damn long this post was. So... sorry about that?
_______________________
Hello, I'm Billybob, and I'm about to teach you the secrets of inducing lucid dreams.
What is this tutorial? I'll tell you what its not.
Its not:
- Some big secret people have been holding from you
- A technique that I thought up last week and have only done 3 times
- Easy to fully accomplish
- Hard to understand
No this tutorial is none of those things. Rather than do what everyone likes to do and make up some glorious new technique to gain me fame and fortune, I'm going to tell you the techniques (<-- notice: plural) that I have used for the past three years to get myself well over 600 lucid dreams (probably about 700, I stopped counting at 200 on year one).
In this tutorial I won't give you any new techniques that you've never heard of, instead I'll teach you new ways of looking at the base techniques - WILD, DILD, MILD, etc - , as well as show you the most efficient ways that I personally have found to have lucid dreams as quickly and dependably as possible.
You may skim over this guide and think you've heard it all before... Trust me, you haven't. At least not in the way its about to be told.
________________________________
Ok, so what I'm going to do is break this down into sections:
Section 1: Introduction and ways to think about lucid dreaming in general.
Section 2: Things that must always be done
Section 3: Actual induction techniques
Section 4: Bringing it all together
Notice: I'll put all the things I'm about to say into a small bulleted list at the very end, I realize its a lot of information.
________________________________
Introduction.
And ways of thinking about lucid dreaming.
The first thing one must realize is that lucid dreaming, when one goes about it the right way, is an extremely easy thing to induce.
Whats that you say? Lucid dreaming is hard and your experience of it proves it? The simple and hard to take truth is that your wrong.
The reason so many people on this forum think of lucid dreaming as "hard" is because of the warped way they try to induce them.
Your peers have taught you lucid dreaming is hard, I'm here to teach you its not.
That said, there are some things that will make it nearly impossible for you to lucid dream:
An example of fear affecting induction would be me trying to WILD after watching a horror movie. Though I might do everything right during the WILD I'll find it impossible to enter a dream.
Why?
Because my body is subconsciously protecting itself from the terrifying things it will witness when I enter the dreamworld.
(note: If the horror movie didn't scare me at all then of course it wouldn't have affected my WILD. One must be afraid of the dreamstate itself for this phenomena to occur.)
Drugs: Though its not 100% impossible to have lucid dreams on drugs, taking them can make it many times harder.
Why?
I'm not going to even try to go into the details, my guesstimation says its probably due to drugs effects on REM.
Drugs that have been known to in some way inhibit dreams or lucid dreams in general are Marijuana, and Alcohol. This information isn't so much from scientific study, just from many threads that have popped up around the forum.
Why did I just tell you that? So that you can see that those are the only reasons you wouldn't be able to induce lucid dreams as quickly as you wanted, other than going about it the wrong way.
If none of those three reasons apply to you then maybe now you see, your more than likely just trying to induce lucid dreams the wrong way.
Introduction.
And ways of thinking about lucid dreaming.
The first thing one must realize is that lucid dreaming, when one goes about it the right way, is an extremely easy thing to induce.
Whats that you say? Lucid dreaming is hard and your experience of it proves it? The simple and hard to take truth is that your wrong.
The reason so many people on this forum think of lucid dreaming as "hard" is because of the warped way they try to induce them.
Your peers have taught you lucid dreaming is hard, I'm here to teach you its not.
That said, there are some things that will make it nearly impossible for you to lucid dream:
- Fear
- Being on some types of drugs
- A mental illness
An example of fear affecting induction would be me trying to WILD after watching a horror movie. Though I might do everything right during the WILD I'll find it impossible to enter a dream.
Why?
Because my body is subconsciously protecting itself from the terrifying things it will witness when I enter the dreamworld.
(note: If the horror movie didn't scare me at all then of course it wouldn't have affected my WILD. One must be afraid of the dreamstate itself for this phenomena to occur.)
Drugs: Though its not 100% impossible to have lucid dreams on drugs, taking them can make it many times harder.
Why?
I'm not going to even try to go into the details, my guesstimation says its probably due to drugs effects on REM.
Drugs that have been known to in some way inhibit dreams or lucid dreams in general are Marijuana, and Alcohol. This information isn't so much from scientific study, just from many threads that have popped up around the forum.
Why did I just tell you that? So that you can see that those are the only reasons you wouldn't be able to induce lucid dreams as quickly as you wanted, other than going about it the wrong way.
If none of those three reasons apply to you then maybe now you see, your more than likely just trying to induce lucid dreams the wrong way.
___________
So you've been doing it wrong, what now?
Now you have to forget everything you've ever learned about lucid dreaming. You have to forget all your biases, all the things people have told you and you think you've learned, and then you have to do exactly what this tutorial tells you.
Theres no easy way to start having lucid dreams on a nightly basis. All great things come about either by hard work or luck. Since you've already established that your not one of those "natural" lucid dreamers, that leaves the alternative.
If your still not convinced then ask yourself, would you rather spend hours and hours of time testing out all the "quick and easy" methods you've read about here on the site, only to realize in about 2 years that your not even one step closer to LDing nightly than you were when you started?
Or would you rather spend the next six months spending hours and hours doing what this tutorial will teach you, slowly becoming more and more proficient at lucid dreaming (until one day you realize your having then weekly, then nightly)?
You decide. Exit now if you chose the first option.
So you've been doing it wrong, what now?
Now you have to forget everything you've ever learned about lucid dreaming. You have to forget all your biases, all the things people have told you and you think you've learned, and then you have to do exactly what this tutorial tells you.
Theres no easy way to start having lucid dreams on a nightly basis. All great things come about either by hard work or luck. Since you've already established that your not one of those "natural" lucid dreamers, that leaves the alternative.
If your still not convinced then ask yourself, would you rather spend hours and hours of time testing out all the "quick and easy" methods you've read about here on the site, only to realize in about 2 years that your not even one step closer to LDing nightly than you were when you started?
Or would you rather spend the next six months spending hours and hours doing what this tutorial will teach you, slowly becoming more and more proficient at lucid dreaming (until one day you realize your having then weekly, then nightly)?
You decide. Exit now if you chose the first option.
________________________________
Things You Must Always Do.
To have lucid dreams as often as possible there are things that must be done on a daily, or weekly basis. Also there are general rules to live by.
I will first present a list of these things to you, then systematically go through them explaining each.
The List:
I can't stress this point enough. Think about it:
How do you have lucid dreams? You have dreams.
How do you have dreams? REM.
What is REM dependent on? The amount of sleep you get.
You really can't expect to have many lucid dreams if you don't even give yourself the chance.
(notice: I have had DILDs when only sleeping 5 hrs. The thing is, I only have about 1 DILD during those first five hours, to every 10 DILDs after that key point.)
Always Keep a Dream Journal:
This is another huge thing.
I always get asked what the value of keeping a dream journal is. Well, I'll tell you what my experience has told me:
Your dreams are a whole different state than your conscious daytime reality. Its as though we have two separate minds, the dreaming mind, and the waking mind.
Dream journaling (ie. writing down what happened and how one felt during the dream), gets your daytime mind used to what it feels like to be in the dreamstate (the dreaming mind).
Simply writing down your dreams lets you relive them in some small way, in reliving your dreams, you inadvertently relive that feeling of dreaming.
Using this logic, the more you write down your dreams and the more detail you put down on paper, the more your daytime mind will manifest itself during your nightly adventures.
So keeping a dream journal makes your conscious mind more aware during your dreams.
Being more aware doesn't make you lucid. No, to be lucid you have to use the next thing I'm going to tell you about:
Reality Check Often:
As I just said, this and dream journaling go hand in hand, its pointless to do one without the other.
Many people don't understand how to properly reality check. Which is why I'll tell you that here.
Reality checks shouldn't be viewed as a chore, you shouldn't just do them because you haven't done one in awhile... Do a reality check only when you see something that makes you wonder if your dreaming at that moment.
Again, don't do a reality check just because you haven't done one recently. Reality checks are tools that you use to check the validity of your current state of reality.
A common misconception is that your supposed to do reality checks so often that eventually you'll do one at random in a dream. Thats false, I've never once done a reality check at random in a dream. The only time I do reality checks in dreams is when I notice something in the environment that looks odd or dreamy.
You should reality check only as often as you notice things around you that seem out of place. Theres no set amount of reality checks that should be performed daily .
Notice: This doesn't mean that you can't make a habit of looking for things around you that look odd, theres loads of things all around you that could constitute a reality check.
Rehearse Your Lucid Experiences
I've always found that a good tool for getting lots of lucid dreams is wanting lots of lucid dreams.
How do you create deep and intense desires to lucid dream? Give yourself a small taste of what will come when you finally have one.
Every night as your falling asleep take about 1-2 minutes to rehearse what you will do that night in the event that you become lucid. Imagine this scenerio vividly, remind yourself that this is what will happen later tonight (don't see it as something unobtainable or imaginary, but as fact).
Live out the lucid experience twice in your mind, go step by step with what you'll do.
Heres an example of how I do this:
Hmm, what will I do tonight? I know, I'll go climbing on mount Everest!
My dreams have been happening indoors lately, so I guess I'll do this:
Notice that I never tell myself what the effect of my actions will be.
Never say: "I'll jump through the mirror and feel it all liquidy on my skin", instead just let your mind make up whatever feeling it will give when it happens.
Also don't ruin your adventures by going through exactly what will happen when you reach whatever you were trying to reach.
These rehearsals are done so that when you finally get lucid, you'll remember exactly what you were wanting to do. This is so at the very start of your lucidity, your cloudy mind will be able to take the steps necessary to gain full lucidity. Also, doing a nightly rehearsal will, as I said earlier, motivate you to become lucid that night.
You kill two birds with one stone.
(note: I wrote this tutorial on which steps to take to get fully lucid)
I'm only going over four induction methods in this tutorial:
DILD
The definition of DILD is:
Dream
Induced
Lucid
Dream
I have already gone over the most known way of having DILDs. Keep a DJ, and reality check.
Other ways of having DILDs (that you can look up on your own) include:
Remember though that keeping a dream journal and reality checking are the base of this technique. Although its fine to use HILD, MILD, etc, you should always be keeping a DJ and reality checking.
Those two things give many more benefits than simply having lucid dreams often.
WILD
Definition:
Wake
Initiated
Lucid
Dreams
WILD is and always has been my favorite technique for lucid induction. I have had probably about 3-4 hundred successful WILDs in the past three years, so I like to think I have a general idea of what I'm talking about on this subject.
WILDing is much simpler than I and others have made it seem in the past. How to WILD:
What many tutorial writers get confused and do, is try to explain what they do during each of those steps. This is a flaw in their tutorials (my old one included), everyone is different, and everyone must tailor each part of the WILDing process to him or herself.
That said, there are some general things about the above five points that apply to everyone. I'll expand on the above five points to give you a better perspective of them.
point #1: Sleep 3-8 hrs
You sleep for a period of time before WILDing so that it will be easier to enter REM.
The vast majority of people find that between 5-7 hrs is how long they need to sleep before WILDing. A very small minority say that they find it easier to WILD without sleeping at all prior, but this is a very small minority.
Point #2: Stay up anywhere from 10 seconds to an hour
The reason you should do this is so that you will be able to do the WILDing procedure without passing out.
As stated above, you may have to stay up for an entire hour before you'll be able to WILD without falling asleep, or you may only need to stay up for 10 seconds.
Everyone is different, you'll have to use trial and error to figure this out.
Point #3: Lay down on your back
Though some can WILD on their side. I, as well as most successful WILDers I have known in the past have always laid on their back during their WILDs.
This works probably because most people normally have a small amount of trouble sleeping on their backs (when compared to their sides or fronts), and also because being on your back creates less pressure points on your body, which can possibly cause problems during the breathing stage.
Point #4: Focus on you breath
This is where most of the magic happens.
I won't attempt to explain why keeping your attention on a single thing (ie. your breathing) makes you enter the dreamstate. Instead I'll just tell you that it does. Focusing on your breathing in the correct way is what will make or break your WILD attempt.
There is a secret to WILD. A secret that somehow got lost in the cracks of every tutorial that I've read. Though most tutorials do tell you the secret, they camouflage it under the veil of unimportance.
I am about to plainly state this secret for what it is: the thing that the people that can WILD do, but that those that can't don't.
You must NOT think about the fact that your WILDing when your WILDing.
"How the hell do I do that?" you ask? Its simple and totally obvious. You WILD!
Why do you think your supposed to focus on your breathing, or a mental picture, or some other mental or bodily function as you WILD?
You focus on these things to occupy your awareness until a dream creeps up and pulls you into it.
What most people will do is focus on their breathing for about 5 minutes, then think to themselves: "I wonder how close I am to being in a dream". That thought, when backed by awareness, will make getting into a dream impossible.
The sad truth is that if you look for a dream it will never come. If you try to force a dream it will never come.
I'll use an analogy:
The dreamstate is a wild bird, when that bird lands on you, you enter into a dream.
Now, in this analogy, when you think about the bird, the bird knows it. Your mental self yells at the bird everytime you think of it. The reason the bird doesn't just land on you when your in day to day life and just thinking random thoughts is because when you do that, the bird sees you walking around and talking to yourself. A wild bird doesn't just land on a moving person, or a person thats yelling in its direction.
Now when you WILD, what your doing is putting seeds all over your body, your sitting still and clearing your mind of random thoughts. Its like your mental self is lying down on a bench. Eventually, if you lie still still for long enough (ie. have no thoughts and don't think about the bird/dreamstate), the bird sees the seeds and lands on you- sending you into the dreamstate.
As stated earlier, every time you think of the dreamstate (the bird) you start yelling aloud.
When your WILDing, every time you begin to think about when you'll enter the dream the dream gets farther and farther away, the bird gets more and more wary of you.
Now I suck at analogies, so if that made no sense just tell me.
What are you doing to keep your mind clean of random thoughts and thoughts about when you'll enter a dream?
Focus on your breathing. Focus on the noise you make when you breath in, then, while your focusing on the noise it makes, relax your body more and more with every breath out.
For the first 30 or so breaths you may want to accompany that with counting, hear your breath as you breath in, as well as say the number of breaths your on. Then hear yourself breath out, and relax little more.
After the first 30 breaths stop counting but continue doing the other things. You were only counting so it would be easier to cut through all the clutter of your mind. Though there will still probably be clutter for a little while longer (or a long while longer), just keep bringing your attention back to your breathing over and over.
It may seem like a losing battle at times but never give up. Eventually your mind will be free of clutter.
When your mind reaches a point where you feel like you don't have to work so hard to keep it relatively clutter free, begin to make focusing on your breathing a more passive thing. Still do it, just don't put all your mental effort into it. If more thoughts arise after this, then focus on your breathing harder again for a little while then go back to doing it passively.
Continue to passively breath until either your alarm goes off hours later, or you fall asleep, or you enter a dream.
NEVER look for signs that your about to enter a dream. Don't worry about "how close" you are to being in a dream, only worry about your breathing and relaxing.
WBTB
Definition:
Wake
Back
To
Bed
A WBTB is when you wake up after 5-6 hours of sleep, then stay up for a short period of time thinking about lucid dreaming, then go back to bed.
This is a very powerful method for inducing DILDs. Wake up five hours after going to sleep, then stay up for 15 minutes, then go back to bed. During those 15 minutes critically look at your environment nonstop, always reality checking when you see something odd or out of place.
Try to find as many things to reality check over as is possible during these 15 minutes, then go to bed and quickly rehearse what your going to be doing in the next 5 minutes when you enter your dream.
This has very seldom failed for me, even in the beginning of my lucid journey.
FILD
Definition:
Finger
Induced
Lucid
Dream
FILDs are meant to be used at those times during the night when you randomly awaken (without an alarm clock or anything).
FILD is very simple, when you wake up at one of those random times, lay perfectly still. Now passively begin to almost move you index and bird flicking fingers up and down one after the other.
Note: Your not actually moving your fingers, your just barely sending out the signal to move them. (your moving them, but your just not moving them so much that someone that was watching would be able to see them moving up and down).
Don't count as you do this, just passively do it. Eventually you'll either enter a lucid dream, or you'll pass out, or you'll find that your not tired enough for the technique to work and won't be able to enter a dream no matter how long you keep barely moving your fingers.
Remember to do it passively, don't focus on your fingers or the feeling it makes or anything. Just do it.
This technique is very useful because it makes use of those rare times when you find yourself waking up for no reason in the middle of the night.
Make sure every night before you fall asleep you remind yourself to do FILD if/when you wake up.
Things You Must Always Do.
To have lucid dreams as often as possible there are things that must be done on a daily, or weekly basis. Also there are general rules to live by.
I will first present a list of these things to you, then systematically go through them explaining each.
The List:
- Get 7-8 hrs of sleep nightly
- Always keep a dream journal
- Reality check often
- Rehearse your lucid experiences
I can't stress this point enough. Think about it:
How do you have lucid dreams? You have dreams.
How do you have dreams? REM.
What is REM dependent on? The amount of sleep you get.
You really can't expect to have many lucid dreams if you don't even give yourself the chance.
(notice: I have had DILDs when only sleeping 5 hrs. The thing is, I only have about 1 DILD during those first five hours, to every 10 DILDs after that key point.)
Always Keep a Dream Journal:
This is another huge thing.
I always get asked what the value of keeping a dream journal is. Well, I'll tell you what my experience has told me:
Your dreams are a whole different state than your conscious daytime reality. Its as though we have two separate minds, the dreaming mind, and the waking mind.
Dream journaling (ie. writing down what happened and how one felt during the dream), gets your daytime mind used to what it feels like to be in the dreamstate (the dreaming mind).
Simply writing down your dreams lets you relive them in some small way, in reliving your dreams, you inadvertently relive that feeling of dreaming.
Using this logic, the more you write down your dreams and the more detail you put down on paper, the more your daytime mind will manifest itself during your nightly adventures.
So keeping a dream journal makes your conscious mind more aware during your dreams.
Being more aware doesn't make you lucid. No, to be lucid you have to use the next thing I'm going to tell you about:
Reality Check Often:
As I just said, this and dream journaling go hand in hand, its pointless to do one without the other.
Many people don't understand how to properly reality check. Which is why I'll tell you that here.
Reality checks shouldn't be viewed as a chore, you shouldn't just do them because you haven't done one in awhile... Do a reality check only when you see something that makes you wonder if your dreaming at that moment.
Again, don't do a reality check just because you haven't done one recently. Reality checks are tools that you use to check the validity of your current state of reality.
A common misconception is that your supposed to do reality checks so often that eventually you'll do one at random in a dream. Thats false, I've never once done a reality check at random in a dream. The only time I do reality checks in dreams is when I notice something in the environment that looks odd or dreamy.
You should reality check only as often as you notice things around you that seem out of place. Theres no set amount of reality checks that should be performed daily .
Notice: This doesn't mean that you can't make a habit of looking for things around you that look odd, theres loads of things all around you that could constitute a reality check.
Rehearse Your Lucid Experiences
I've always found that a good tool for getting lots of lucid dreams is wanting lots of lucid dreams.
How do you create deep and intense desires to lucid dream? Give yourself a small taste of what will come when you finally have one.
Every night as your falling asleep take about 1-2 minutes to rehearse what you will do that night in the event that you become lucid. Imagine this scenerio vividly, remind yourself that this is what will happen later tonight (don't see it as something unobtainable or imaginary, but as fact).
Live out the lucid experience twice in your mind, go step by step with what you'll do.
Heres an example of how I do this:
Hmm, what will I do tonight? I know, I'll go climbing on mount Everest!
My dreams have been happening indoors lately, so I guess I'll do this:
- First, to ground my lucidity, I'll kneel down and examine whatever object I find. The whole time I'm looking at this object I'll be thinking about how its merely a dream object, made by my mind.
- I get up and find the nearest mirror for teleportation.
- After I've found the mirror I'll stand in front of it and state aloud my intention of where I want it to take me: a forest at the base of Mount Everest.
- I'll dive through the mirror and find myself at Everest's base.
- I'll climb it in whatever way I see fit.
Notice that I never tell myself what the effect of my actions will be.
Never say: "I'll jump through the mirror and feel it all liquidy on my skin", instead just let your mind make up whatever feeling it will give when it happens.
Also don't ruin your adventures by going through exactly what will happen when you reach whatever you were trying to reach.
These rehearsals are done so that when you finally get lucid, you'll remember exactly what you were wanting to do. This is so at the very start of your lucidity, your cloudy mind will be able to take the steps necessary to gain full lucidity. Also, doing a nightly rehearsal will, as I said earlier, motivate you to become lucid that night.
You kill two birds with one stone.
(note: I wrote this tutorial on which steps to take to get fully lucid)
____________________________
Induction Techniques.
Though lucidity can be achieved simply by keeping a DJ and doing reality checks, there are ways of making it happen more reliably, and more often.
These will be my interpretations of the techniques and nothing more. I'm not going to look at the tutorials for what I write, I'm going to pull all of the info out of my personal experiences. Sorry in advanced if you think I'm totally off on something, I'm only saying what works for me (in other words though I use the names of some methods, I may not explain them the same way the tutorials on the site do).
Note: the following techniques should be added onto your pre-existing regimen of reality checking and DJing. Never try to replace those two things with a technique
Induction Techniques.
Though lucidity can be achieved simply by keeping a DJ and doing reality checks, there are ways of making it happen more reliably, and more often.
These will be my interpretations of the techniques and nothing more. I'm not going to look at the tutorials for what I write, I'm going to pull all of the info out of my personal experiences. Sorry in advanced if you think I'm totally off on something, I'm only saying what works for me (in other words though I use the names of some methods, I may not explain them the same way the tutorials on the site do).
Note: the following techniques should be added onto your pre-existing regimen of reality checking and DJing. Never try to replace those two things with a technique
I'm only going over four induction methods in this tutorial:
- DILD
- WILD
- WBTB
- FILD
DILD
The definition of DILD is:
Dream
Induced
Lucid
Dream
I have already gone over the most known way of having DILDs. Keep a DJ, and reality check.
Other ways of having DILDs (that you can look up on your own) include:
- HILD
- MILD
- VILD
- "Confidence and Dream Feeling Induced Lucid Dreams"
Remember though that keeping a dream journal and reality checking are the base of this technique. Although its fine to use HILD, MILD, etc, you should always be keeping a DJ and reality checking.
Those two things give many more benefits than simply having lucid dreams often.
WILD
Definition:
Wake
Initiated
Lucid
Dreams
WILD is and always has been my favorite technique for lucid induction. I have had probably about 3-4 hundred successful WILDs in the past three years, so I like to think I have a general idea of what I'm talking about on this subject.
WILDing is much simpler than I and others have made it seem in the past. How to WILD:
- Sleep 3-8 hrs.
- Stay up anywhere from 10 seconds to an hour (different for everyone).
- Lay down on your back.
- focus on your breath while relaxing with every breath out.
- Do that for as long as it takes until you either: pass out, get interrupted by your alarm clock several hours later, or enter a dream.
What many tutorial writers get confused and do, is try to explain what they do during each of those steps. This is a flaw in their tutorials (my old one included), everyone is different, and everyone must tailor each part of the WILDing process to him or herself.
That said, there are some general things about the above five points that apply to everyone. I'll expand on the above five points to give you a better perspective of them.
point #1: Sleep 3-8 hrs
You sleep for a period of time before WILDing so that it will be easier to enter REM.
The vast majority of people find that between 5-7 hrs is how long they need to sleep before WILDing. A very small minority say that they find it easier to WILD without sleeping at all prior, but this is a very small minority.
Point #2: Stay up anywhere from 10 seconds to an hour
The reason you should do this is so that you will be able to do the WILDing procedure without passing out.
As stated above, you may have to stay up for an entire hour before you'll be able to WILD without falling asleep, or you may only need to stay up for 10 seconds.
Everyone is different, you'll have to use trial and error to figure this out.
Point #3: Lay down on your back
Though some can WILD on their side. I, as well as most successful WILDers I have known in the past have always laid on their back during their WILDs.
This works probably because most people normally have a small amount of trouble sleeping on their backs (when compared to their sides or fronts), and also because being on your back creates less pressure points on your body, which can possibly cause problems during the breathing stage.
Point #4: Focus on you breath
This is where most of the magic happens.
I won't attempt to explain why keeping your attention on a single thing (ie. your breathing) makes you enter the dreamstate. Instead I'll just tell you that it does. Focusing on your breathing in the correct way is what will make or break your WILD attempt.
There is a secret to WILD. A secret that somehow got lost in the cracks of every tutorial that I've read. Though most tutorials do tell you the secret, they camouflage it under the veil of unimportance.
I am about to plainly state this secret for what it is: the thing that the people that can WILD do, but that those that can't don't.
You must NOT think about the fact that your WILDing when your WILDing.
"How the hell do I do that?" you ask? Its simple and totally obvious. You WILD!
Why do you think your supposed to focus on your breathing, or a mental picture, or some other mental or bodily function as you WILD?
You focus on these things to occupy your awareness until a dream creeps up and pulls you into it.
What most people will do is focus on their breathing for about 5 minutes, then think to themselves: "I wonder how close I am to being in a dream". That thought, when backed by awareness, will make getting into a dream impossible.
The sad truth is that if you look for a dream it will never come. If you try to force a dream it will never come.
I'll use an analogy:
The dreamstate is a wild bird, when that bird lands on you, you enter into a dream.
Now, in this analogy, when you think about the bird, the bird knows it. Your mental self yells at the bird everytime you think of it. The reason the bird doesn't just land on you when your in day to day life and just thinking random thoughts is because when you do that, the bird sees you walking around and talking to yourself. A wild bird doesn't just land on a moving person, or a person thats yelling in its direction.
Now when you WILD, what your doing is putting seeds all over your body, your sitting still and clearing your mind of random thoughts. Its like your mental self is lying down on a bench. Eventually, if you lie still still for long enough (ie. have no thoughts and don't think about the bird/dreamstate), the bird sees the seeds and lands on you- sending you into the dreamstate.
As stated earlier, every time you think of the dreamstate (the bird) you start yelling aloud.
When your WILDing, every time you begin to think about when you'll enter the dream the dream gets farther and farther away, the bird gets more and more wary of you.
Now I suck at analogies, so if that made no sense just tell me.
What are you doing to keep your mind clean of random thoughts and thoughts about when you'll enter a dream?
Focus on your breathing. Focus on the noise you make when you breath in, then, while your focusing on the noise it makes, relax your body more and more with every breath out.
For the first 30 or so breaths you may want to accompany that with counting, hear your breath as you breath in, as well as say the number of breaths your on. Then hear yourself breath out, and relax little more.
After the first 30 breaths stop counting but continue doing the other things. You were only counting so it would be easier to cut through all the clutter of your mind. Though there will still probably be clutter for a little while longer (or a long while longer), just keep bringing your attention back to your breathing over and over.
It may seem like a losing battle at times but never give up. Eventually your mind will be free of clutter.
When your mind reaches a point where you feel like you don't have to work so hard to keep it relatively clutter free, begin to make focusing on your breathing a more passive thing. Still do it, just don't put all your mental effort into it. If more thoughts arise after this, then focus on your breathing harder again for a little while then go back to doing it passively.
Continue to passively breath until either your alarm goes off hours later, or you fall asleep, or you enter a dream.
NEVER look for signs that your about to enter a dream. Don't worry about "how close" you are to being in a dream, only worry about your breathing and relaxing.
WBTB
Definition:
Wake
Back
To
Bed
A WBTB is when you wake up after 5-6 hours of sleep, then stay up for a short period of time thinking about lucid dreaming, then go back to bed.
This is a very powerful method for inducing DILDs. Wake up five hours after going to sleep, then stay up for 15 minutes, then go back to bed. During those 15 minutes critically look at your environment nonstop, always reality checking when you see something odd or out of place.
Try to find as many things to reality check over as is possible during these 15 minutes, then go to bed and quickly rehearse what your going to be doing in the next 5 minutes when you enter your dream.
This has very seldom failed for me, even in the beginning of my lucid journey.
FILD
Definition:
Finger
Induced
Lucid
Dream
FILDs are meant to be used at those times during the night when you randomly awaken (without an alarm clock or anything).
FILD is very simple, when you wake up at one of those random times, lay perfectly still. Now passively begin to almost move you index and bird flicking fingers up and down one after the other.
Note: Your not actually moving your fingers, your just barely sending out the signal to move them. (your moving them, but your just not moving them so much that someone that was watching would be able to see them moving up and down).
Don't count as you do this, just passively do it. Eventually you'll either enter a lucid dream, or you'll pass out, or you'll find that your not tired enough for the technique to work and won't be able to enter a dream no matter how long you keep barely moving your fingers.
Remember to do it passively, don't focus on your fingers or the feeling it makes or anything. Just do it.
This technique is very useful because it makes use of those rare times when you find yourself waking up for no reason in the middle of the night.
Make sure every night before you fall asleep you remind yourself to do FILD if/when you wake up.
_____
The above techniques are the ones I use often. I recommend that you do WBTB at least twice weekly, WILD as often as possible, and just always do FILD whenever the chance arises. As for DILD, since you'll be using your DJ and reality checking, you'll randomly get those pretty often.
The above techniques are the ones I use often. I recommend that you do WBTB at least twice weekly, WILD as often as possible, and just always do FILD whenever the chance arises. As for DILD, since you'll be using your DJ and reality checking, you'll randomly get those pretty often.
_______________________________
Bringing it all Together.
Now that you know the details of all the methods, as well as the reasons you should get enough sleep, do reality checks, and dream journal. I'm going to make a one week schedule that if followed, should produce at least, if not more than, one lucid dream.
______
Do these every day of the week:
Since your doing those every day of the week I won't mention them again.
Day 1:
Get up exactly five hours after going to sleep. Do WBTB coupled with many reality checks (the way I explained earlier).
When you get up to WBTB, record any dreams you remember.
Day 2:
Sleep normally, really focusing on your intent to have a FILD.
Also remind yourself that your due for a DILD tonight.
Day 3:
Sleep for 5 hours before getting up and WILDing.
Day 4:
Again sleep normally, focusing on your FILDing desires.
If you haven't already had one, that DILD is overdue, it'll most likely occur tonight.
Day 5:
WILD again.
Day 6/7:
WBTB both of these nights.
Bringing it all Together.
Now that you know the details of all the methods, as well as the reasons you should get enough sleep, do reality checks, and dream journal. I'm going to make a one week schedule that if followed, should produce at least, if not more than, one lucid dream.
______
Do these every day of the week:
- Reality check correctly as often as possible
- Sit down every morning and brainstorm about what dreams you had the last night. Always write down something, preferably try to find the plot of your dreams and write them in as logical a form as possible.
(note: some people may only get an emotion, or an image of a place. Thats ok, just try your hardest to backtrack from that image or emotion and try to remember what caused it/ where you were etc. If you can't remember anything else, think about it whenever you can for the rest of the day, if nothing comes of that, then rest well knowing that you tried.) - Don't drink or do any illegal drugs
- Go to sleep at a set time, and get up at a set time (ex. go to bed at 11pm, get up at 6-7am). This will serve to stabilize your REM cycles, making induction much easier.
- Remind yourself to do FILD every time you get the chance every night before falling asleep.
- Rehearse your LDs every time you lay down to sleep as I described earlier.
Since your doing those every day of the week I won't mention them again.
Day 1:
Get up exactly five hours after going to sleep. Do WBTB coupled with many reality checks (the way I explained earlier).
When you get up to WBTB, record any dreams you remember.
Day 2:
Sleep normally, really focusing on your intent to have a FILD.
Also remind yourself that your due for a DILD tonight.
Day 3:
Sleep for 5 hours before getting up and WILDing.
Day 4:
Again sleep normally, focusing on your FILDing desires.
If you haven't already had one, that DILD is overdue, it'll most likely occur tonight.
Day 5:
WILD again.
Day 6/7:
WBTB both of these nights.
______________________
Well now you know all the facts that I have always known about lucid induction but have never been able to put into words.
Hope it was worth the read to you
Well now you know all the facts that I have always known about lucid induction but have never been able to put into words.
Hope it was worth the read to you
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, 10-02-2007 at 01:30 AM Last edited by , 09-21-2010 at 10:42 PM Last comment by on 10-16-2012 at 03:39 AM 5 Comments, 85,327 Views |
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