# Lucid Dreaming > Attaining Lucidity >  >  Natural LDs with almost no technique

## lvlindless

I find that techniques for inducing LDs can sometimes get a little too complex, which in turn sabotages your chances of having one. Seems like most techniques skip over the "confidence factor." I find that when I'm TOTALLY confident about having an LD, I'll have one that very night with little or no technique.

So what I did a few months ago was I built up my confidence every single night to the point where I didn't doubt for even a second that I wouldn't have an LD, and I simply went to sleep. That night, sure enough I had an LD.

On the second night, I did the same thing. I really wanted to see if I would have an LD two nights in a row, as I had NEVER had that happen before. So that night, I built up my confidence again and bam, another LD.

I didn't have one the third night, because I was convinced that I proved I could have an LD with only confidence and nothing else.

So here's my... NON-technique, if you will.

1) Imagine yourself becoming lucid, and imagine it as a future event. Imagine that it really IS happening tonight, and that you can't do anything about it or stop it.

2) Go to sleep with this same confidence right away, before you begin to lose it through negative self talk (inner dialogue). Once you've got the idea in your head that you're becoming lucid no matter what, don't dwell on it. Just let it go, and go to sleep. Don't come back to this idea, no matter what. Empty your mind and sleep away. You'll fall asleep pretty fast.
--------------------------------

(I believe that when you repeat an affirmation too many times as you're falling asleep, they can actually hurt your chances of having an LD. You should only say something once or twice with REAL emotion, because just mindlessly babbling "I'm going to realize I'm dreaming, I'm going to realize I'm dreaming, I'm going to realize I'm dreaming..." will actually cause you to lose motivation and might actually cause you to lose the belief that you will. Saying something once, but with an emotional response should plant the seed in your subconscious that you are confident about whatever you're trying to do.)

I would love for anyone to try this technique and tell me how it goes. It's worked numerous times for me, so it should for you as well. Comments would be appreciated. =D

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## Alex D

You know, I find this way works best too. The confidence thing is so important with lucid dreaming and people just forget about it. Dream control for example, people just ned to believe what they want will happen and it most likely will.

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## Truffles

Wow! I had one of my first LD's last night and this was like...exactly what I used to get it! I just said to myself, I'm going to have a lucid dream and went to bed. Sure enough, I had one! Great idea!

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## refresher 711

wow that sounds really good!!!
i will try it out and let u know how i get on! thanks! ::D:  ::D: 

 ::goodjob2::

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## elsanpedro

Yes this worked for me once with no preparation. That night, I just had a feeling that I was going to LD and I got very confident. Lately, I get very enthusiastic to go to bed though I think I'm more hoping than actually firmly believing that I will LD. Thanks for the post lvlindless, I'm going to start this right away!

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## lvlindless

Oh, I was hoping Admins could put this topic in the "Attaining Lucidity" Center of the forum. I made it in General by mistake. x_x

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## Clairity

Moved this important topic to "Attaining Lucidity" as requested.  ::D: 
.

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## Cammy

Your right, i think this is the only thing you need to have LD.

I find confience is EVERYTHING in real life as well. You wont get no where without any.

Im going to try my best to get as confident as i can tonight  ::D:

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## Blaze Haze

So how do you feel about RC's then?  Should we still do them? And by imagining that we become lucid, should I imagine being in a certain place in my dream when I become lucid?

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## lvlindless

> So how do you feel about RC's then?  Should we still do them? And by imagining that we become lucid, should I imagine being in a certain place in my dream when I become lucid?



Well, I only do RCs when I really believe I might be in a dream. I don't do them on timed schedules, because that sort of dulls your mind and you really don't question your reality as much. It just sort of becomes a zombie thing like "Oh, it's 3pm, time for an RC."

When say... Something really weird happens in real life. In a situation where you just go "Woah... that's strange..." Those are the only times I do RCs. So at most, I do about 5 RCs a day.

But when I say imagine become lucid, I mean just sort of seeing a dream sign - like... a talking cow or something. And then you go "Oh... I'm dreaming." You can even throw in an RC in the visualization. It shouldn't take more than 30 seconds to get it down, and to go "Okay this is what I'm going to do later in my dream."

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## Snowy

I think this method (or non method) raises an extremely important point. People quickly get the impression that lucid dreaming is difficult and that they need to do all sorts of complicated methods to induce it which then in turn makes them more unlikely in some circumstances. DON'T get it into your head that lucid dreaming is hard. One often reads many posts of people not being able to LD and this can reinforce the fact so often its a great idea to just read people's successful lucid dreams so you build up a mental idea of lucid dreaming being something regular and easy. What is important is being able to remember your dreams though because otherwise you won't remember if you do have a lucid dream. However, just make sure you don't get it into your head that remembering dreams is "difficult" or "complicated". If you think it is, then it often will be. 
Great point lvlindless  :smiley:    Confidance all the way!

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## Kromoh

Well, not that I'm raining on your parade (otherwise, I support what you said)

Actually, that can be seen as (part of) the MILD technique, which bases on memory, confidence and subcoscious induction mostly.

Still, I believe it is the one that works best. Actually, I tell everyone tyo use it, no matter what other technique they try. LaBerge himself enjoyed this pretty much for what I reckon.

Thanks for bringing that up  :smiley:

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## lvlindless

> I think this method (or non method) raises an extremely important point. People quickly get the impression that lucid dreaming is difficult and that they need to do all sorts of complicated methods to induce it which then in turn makes them more unlikely in some circumstances. DON'T get it into your head that lucid dreaming is hard. One often reads many posts of people not being able to LD and this can reinforce the fact so often its a great idea to just read people's successful lucid dreams so you build up a mental idea of lucid dreaming being something regular and easy. What is important is being able to remember your dreams though because otherwise you won't remember if you do have a lucid dream. However, just make sure you don't get it into your head that remembering dreams is "difficult" or "complicated". If you think it is, then it often will be. 
> Great point lvlindless    Confidance all the way!



Exactly. I know this from experience, because the first LD I ever had happened completely out of confidence, and it was about 20 minutes long! I read a little something on some website about LDing, and I knew the basics. Reality checks, dream recall, dream control, etc. I didn't really care too much for those, so that night I went to bed FULLY expecting an LD. I didn't follow any sort of technique, I was just emotionally charged with confidence. 

I've introduced LDing to alot of my friends, and it took them forever to have just one. They looked at it as a hard and very tedious state to achieve, and because they thought of it this way, it was! I know for a fact that it's very easy to become lucid. You just have to believe it's easy, because it really is. Alot of topics on this site, and alot of users try to trick you. I've noticed how many people go "AWW WILDING IS SO HARD!" and some people say "IVE BEEN TRYING FOR A YEAR TO HAVE AN LD! AHHH!! ITS NOT WORKING IM GIVING UP!" It's total bullshit, because it is NOT hard to have LDs, even at will!

Laberge can have what... 4 - 5 LDs... PER NIGHT! Come on, just by reading that you KNOW it's not hard. 5 LDs a night, while you're sleeping! How difficult could that be? I'm going on a rant, but all I'm trying to say is is that it's not difficult. It's very very easy once you know how.

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## Blaze Haze

Well, the only hard part I can say about this is to forcibly make confience out of nothing.  If you can teach me a method to make confidence, then I'll have this method set.  I read this post yesterday, went to sleep w/ not much confidence, then I woke up this morning without an LD, but inexplicably I have more confidence about having one tonight.  I think a few more days will go by before I confirm this method to be true, for myself that is.  I definately agree though.  Lately I've been doing 50 or so RC's a day.  I had an alarm that would go off every 15 minutes and I would constantly be reality checking, throughout the whole day.  Ive got about 1 LD since July 1st.  When I first began LDing, I spent little to no time caring about RC's and stuff.  I just wanted an LD and expected one because I did the bare minimum of what the threads on the forum said and that should've meant I was going to have one.  I had about 1 or so a week and in my 1st month I had 10 LDs.  My first LD took a week since my first dream journal entry began.  I definatley agree w/ this method though.

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## Blaze Haze

...actually one more thing.  You cant exactly teach confidence, I'm aware of that.  What I mean is, what method do you use to gain confidence?  I find it difficult to tell myself I'm goin to have an LD because I always go to sleep at night wanting and LD and that's all there is on my mind, but it never occurs, or at least not often.

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## Kromoh

well, you can't tell your mind that you want to be "conscious" - your mind won't understand it


otherwise, try to get as conscious as you can, and then tell yourself that "this is what you want to be like in a dream"

it should work way better than whatever you have tried

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## HandicapReborn

Just reading this boosts my confidence!  Like I started thinking about this also and although I havn't had a LD yet, I know that my dream recall is A LOT better!  But it seems to be a VERY logical method!

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## lvlindless

> ...actually one more thing.  You cant exactly teach confidence, I'm aware of that.  What I mean is, what method do you use to gain confidence?  I find it difficult to tell myself I'm goin to have an LD because I always go to sleep at night wanting and LD and that's all there is on my mind, but it never occurs, or at least not often.



There are plenty of ways to build confidence. Some of mine are...

1) Looking through old dream journal entries in which I had LDs. KNOWING full well I have had them before, and reading through them to get that feeling re-anchored, my confidence shoots up immediately and instead of doubt it's more like "This is gonna be so fun!"

2) Acting confident. Even though you might not feel confident, if you act like you picture a confident person would act, you start to feel confidence... out of nowhere. It's weird. Like that phrase, "Fake it till you make it."

3) Listening to an audio track that boosts your beliefs. Here, I uploaded one for you guys. Listen to this right before you go to bed. http://rapidshare.com/files/42249313...ilder.mp3.html

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## Torcher

Too often I've forgotten to do just this. Thanks for this post!!

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## Blaze Haze

Have you ever had an LD in the middle of the night, but your recall isn't good enough yet to remember what happened, only the vague feeling that it did?  Yeah, it really sucks.  Im sure your method worked on me, but I can't concretely say it did yet.  I did about two actual RCs yesterday, but I spent most of the day just trying to get a confident, almost excited feeling the whole day, based on memories of old LDs, and then trying to amplify it to the point where I can tell myself I'm gonna have an LD that night, but with a more aware conscious that can capture the whole sentence and embed it into my subconscious, if you can sort of understand where I am getting at.  I did read my dream journal entries, but nothing is better than just remembering it as best I can, because I can almost visualize the dream and the emotion of becoming lucid again.  Thanks for the MP3 too, I'll give that a try.

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## Mes Tarrant

Hey man, thanks SO much for this thread, this worked wonders for me last night.  :wink2:  So simple, too. I'm putting a link to this thread in my DJ.

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## lvlindless

> Have you ever had an LD in the middle of the night, but your recall isn't good enough yet to remember what happened, only the vague feeling that it did?  Yeah, it really sucks.  Im sure your method worked on me, but I can't concretely say it did yet.  I did about two actual RCs yesterday, but I spent most of the day just trying to get a confident, almost excited feeling the whole day, based on memories of old LDs, and then trying to amplify it to the point where I can tell myself I'm gonna have an LD that night, but with a more aware conscious that can capture the whole sentence and embed it into my subconscious, if you can sort of understand where I am getting at.  I did read my dream journal entries, but nothing is better than just remembering it as best I can, because I can almost visualize the dream and the emotion of becoming lucid again.  Thanks for the MP3 too, I'll give that a try.



Yes, I've had that happen. Waking up, and recalling only being lucid, and no other dreams. It's kind of annoying, but it's good at the same time. What's important is that you build real confidence, and not just saying to yourself you're confident because you read the topic. You really have to become totally sure of an LD coming.

Some things are still important, like good dream recall. If you can't remember your dreams, whats the point of being lucid? RCs are important, but only genuine RCs where you really question your reality. Can't be a quick RC like "yah yah, RC time." You should be going "Woah... am I really dreaming? Is this... a dream?" Don't let the vividness of real life get ya. Sometimes in my dreams, I won't do an RC because I'll be convinced that it's "Real Life" because it's so vivid. When I wake up I want to punch myself.

The audio tape should help, because it gets you in that mindframe of "Nothing's stopping me from having a 30 minute LD tonight, and I'm gonna do it!" So yeah, keep trying to build the confidence.

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## Blaze Haze

Oh my god, bro this is awesome! I just woke up, I havent really looked through all I wrote in my journal, but I must've had like 3 or 4 different dreams last night, ALL LUCIDS.  This TOTALLY fuckin works,  I've been lucky to have 2 in one night.  I just had 4 of them.  I Listened to that recording while I was stoned last night and it worked perfectly, apparently.  This is crazy Im doin this everyday now! Thank you SO much  ::banana::  ::bowdown::

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## Missmj

my first LD are without any preparation too  ::banana::  i got it after 2 times being kick out from my dream thou... so yup this without preparation aree really work..you guys should try it :p

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## BeautifulDreamer

Do you think trying this in conjunction with my sleep deprivation technique would work? Both are 'non-methods' somewhat, and it takes me forever to fall asleep without having stayed up. I'd imagine that I'd get even more vivid dreams and great LD's because of the REM stackup.

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## Adam

Just seen this thread from Mes' DJ. Weird how I went to bed last night with this mentality, without reading this post, and had an LD as per the Lucid Task Post quoted below. So I think it is right, that you have this confidence and it does work. Wish I had found this thread earlier, only problem I have now is I wont be able to LD at home, as per the red parts below!!!  :Sad: 





> Soooooooo close 
> 
> *Ok so I am staying in this hotel at the moment as away with work. And I knew I was going to LD before I went to be as have not had one since I got back from holiday a couple of weeks ago, and had loads on holiday, so knew coming away hear would mean I would be LDing in no time.*
> 
> The Dream:
> So I was lying on my bed, the TV was on, right next to my bed (but in this room it isn't, its on my desk) and I felt really sleepy, so I thought I know I will have an LD, and right away, I was lucid, i touched my laptop keys, which was on my bed to confirm I was. So I got up, but it was really dark, so I thought I wonder which DV member is in my bathroom, I thought this would be the easiest way to meet them. So as I walked, it got darker and darker, and my ways to increase vividness is to ask a DC but there were none about, but i remember my last LD a DC told me to spin anti clockwise only because clockwise (which is the way I had been doing it) didn't work. So I span, and I got really dizzy, I couldnt walk straight, so I thought I cant be dreaming if I got dizzy! I thought about leaving the room to find the DVDC but thought well if this is not a dream I am going to look pretty stupid walking out in my boxershorts :p
> 
> So I tried to look out the window and couldnt see anyone, it was getting really dark by now, so thought I must be awake then, I will just go back to bed and try get lucid again, then went to bed thinking I must post on DV to tell them about me sleep walking thinking I was lucid and spinning in my hotel room.
> 
> ...

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## SnakeBloodZero

Wow dude... it does work to have the confidence and stuff... or something... but the only thing that lacked in my LD was focus and the clarity... I know I had it cause I had a blast in my dreamm....... THANK YOOOOOOOOU!!!!

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## RealityEnds

If this method works for me tonight, do you think it will be a dream were I do a RC, or just enter the dream already lucid like a wild?
Will reply later if this works.

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## lvlindless

> If this method works for me tonight, do you think it will be a dream were I do a RC, or just enter the dream already lucid like a wild?
> Will reply later if this works.



I usually have RCs with this method. It's usually the first thing I think of anyway, just to make sure it's a dream so I don't kill myself by jumping off a high building.

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## RealityEnds

Tried it, didn't work. I guess I'm not being confident enough. Honestly though I'm not sure it was that because I didn't have any substantial dreams I could've become lucid in anyway.

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## musicman

wow this looks like the REAL holy grail of lucid dreaming if you can get it to work, i'm definatly trying it.  I'll bet it would work even better if you gave your mind a reason to have an ld, like vitamin B6 or that new subliminal mp4

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## SKA

Yeah Confidence IS the key.

However the fear of failure born from past disappointing results needs to be conquered to illiminate the main barricade to lucidity.

One way of doing that is thinking of this:

Think of any accomplishments in the past that you have deemed impossible for a long logn time and then suddenly one day you found out it wasn't and it just happens to you:

*My personal one would be:*
When I first started playing guitar I learned some very easy, basic chords of my dad. He then proceeded to learn me barre-chords in which you use your index finger to cover AND press all 6 strings of the guitar while youuse your remaining 3 fingers to hold the rest of the chord. When I first tried to play these kind of Chords I found my hand's muscles just wouldn't allow such a rediculous posture let alone allow me to actually play the individual notes on the chords with clear tone: it sounded muted and horrible instead. I thought: 



> "MAN this is Impossible! I'm NEVER going to master this!"



I was fully convinced it was practically impossible and that it would take me years and years to learn. But sure enough one day I found out barre-chords are not too hard at all and I got the hang of them pretty fast. *It proved to be a MILLION times easier than I innitially THOUGHT it would be.*


*Another one would be:*

In my teens I became heavily disappointed with the world and it's people and fell into a deep deep depression. I felt so completely messed up, beaten and down that I had no hope for a future being any better. I reasoned in a strange way, completely throwing perspective/relativation out of the window.
I thought to myself: 



> "This (all my miserable feelings about what happened) will never heal. I will never ever feel joyfull again after all of this"



I was deadsure that life wasn't ever gunna get any better than the sucky state it was in at the time. This was all based on past experience of a pretty sad, long period in my life.

Sure enough one day I saw the beauty of life again and started smiling and I became the happy, joyfull, sunny person I used to be in my early childhood again. I looked back at the times where all hope had gone and only pure survival mode kept me going: I now laugh at how I was inable to relativate that that sucky period in my life was just a period and as with all periods it would pass to make way for another.

Maybe the latter case is more recognisable to more people here since almost everyone has had depression to some degree where they felt hopeless, helpless and believed that things could never be "right" ever again. And when life made them smile again they saw that this though was an illusion.

Now look at those 2 examples and think of some of your own from your experience:

We THOUGHT it was impossible, yet one day we found ourselves accomplishing what we formerly believed to be impossible thereby busting the illusion.
Now Just that same way: The thought that reaching lucidity TONIGHT seems just as impossible, but past situations of accomplishments show that this is merely an illusion. Knowing that many things in life seem impossible when later on they turn out not to be impossible at all when you accomplish them, you should, logically, have more confidence about your Lucid Endeavors shouldn't you?  :smiley:  That doubt is doubt you've seen before and also personally proved WRONG before. 

Now what are you waiting for.

*Now if you wanna get a good insight into how the whole Confidence/Capability thing works I really recommend you to read the following example:*
You know the fear of failure is often far, far greater than the actual risk of failure. This is a little example that shows you how fear can make a task that is actually oh so easy seem near or completely impossible:

Take an iron beam, 15 meters in length and only a foot and a half broad, and place it with both ends on the rooftops of 2 skyscrapers each 10 meters apart. The gap the beam bridges is a terrifying 30 meter chasm.

Now you walk the beam, from one rooftop to the other, having to walk over that grizzly 30 meter chasm below you. I BET you have ALOT of trouble walking that beam straight and get off balance many times and, scared shitless, try to cross the beam with great trouble. You'll probably be crawling since keeping balance *seems* rediculously hard. The Truth is this is all a bold mind-illusion, because it ISN'T.

Here's why it ISN'T at all that hard, but you just THINK it is. Actually it's a piece of Cake: Put that same iron beam on the ground and try walking from one end to the other trying not to fall of. I BET it's EASY for ya.  :wink2:  See what I'm getting at? The risks of loosing balance and falling off wasn't any greater when you tried to cross the bar bridging a 30 meter deep gap, but that risk sure SEEMED alot greater .

Confidence is once again the Key.
We need to discuss this more and more and then I reckon that this Topic could and should become a Great Tutorial that would be of great help to Lucid dreamers.  :smiley:  Way to go! great Topic.  ::D:

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## -Almost

This topic should be stickied.
I have learned so much from this topic alone than I have in most years of my life.

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## Mes Tarrant

Yeah I definitely think it should go on the tutorials page or something, I mean just look at how many people are successful with it.

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## james-25:22pm

wow, im excited to try this...but im not trying to rain on parades...i would have called this a mild...without the wbtb?

cuz you sort of impose LD thoughts on your self and the confidence that follows? and I know that works..cuz when mild works for me...i expect not hope for lucidity.

i will try this too, goodlukc everyone

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## Spamtek

This does not work for all people.

And you're going to respond with "What you mean is it doesn't work for _you_, and of course it doesn't work for you if you have that attitude about it!"

I'm not sure what else I can say to convince you of it, short of telepathically sending you a record of my thought processes before bed where I affirm that I _can_ have LDs, _have_ had LDs in the past without even trying to, and _will_ have an LD tonight because it's easy and natural and the direction I want to be taking my life.  Nor can I possibly hope to project to you the positivity and optimism with which I embrace that message and drift off to sleep still feeling.  It's a great mood lifter... but it has yet to make me lucid in the least.

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## SKA

> This does not work for all people.
> It's a great mood lifter... but it has yet to make me lucid in the least.



It will once you've build up your confidence a 100&#37; and eliminated all unnececairy doubts about Lucid Dreaming. It's got nothing to do with positive thinking. It's not wishfull thinking because wishfull thinking is thinking with your heart. This is rationally thinking and gradually understanding that, if you're currently unsuccessfull with lucid dreaming, the doubt of succes, even the slightest residue of it, is exactly what keeps you from success. And nothing else, unless you drink alot of alcohol or smoke alot of weed prior to bedtime for instance. It's more like to teach yourself to stop negatively thinking which all unsuccessfull lucid dreamers do to some extent.

I know it is hard to believe that Lucid Dreaming isn't hard when it has been so unsuccessfull for you in the past experience. It's hard to let thoughts go that have fixed themselves in your beliefsystem and to find out we're not just a bunch of positive-thinking irrational hippies, but that we're people telling you the truth about how you are MUCH more capable at achieving many many things than you believe you can. My "Walk the 15 meter beam"-example and "Low Confidence due to past failure"-example are the perfect examples of that.

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## zeroroom

I will try this and I pray it work, but my confidence is very low as I suffer from depression.  I take a lort of meds (for depression, blood pressure, cholestoral, diabetes, acid reflux) and I hope they do not intefere because I seem to have this need to LD, I don't know why.  I will also conitnue to use some mugwort tea occasssional as well as Galantamine and B6 as well occassionally to build up my neurotransmitters.  If it does not work tonight, however, I will not give up, I will keep trying the confidence method and pray it works in the future.  Who know, with practice it may turn into a nightly adventure.  Thanks for the info.

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## void

lvlindless can you  upload that confident track again?

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## X14Halo

Wow!  It works!  I have been trying to LD for almost a year now, and I havn't had any in the past couple months, and I rarely remember dreams anymore.  Last night I read this post, and as I went to bed, I convinced myself that I was going to have a lucid dream.  I just made my mind "know" that I was going to lucid dream, and I fully expected to.  Then I just didn't think about it anymore so my inner dialogue wouldn't kick in.  I woke up naturally around 6-7 hours after falling asleep, and then I drifted back to sleep and had a lucid dream!  It was so short, and by the time I did a reality check and realized I was dreaming, it faded and I woke up.  But at least I had one, and it as very vivid!  Thanks!

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## james-25:22pm

lvlindless, I owe you!

I had a Lucid Dream last night...after reading this maybe 3/4 days ago. I hadnt changed anything..and did almost 0 RCs during those days.

i think this is worth trying...you will LD eventually..whether its a day or a week!

and i would say this can work for anyone..providing you get enough sleep, good recall.

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## Hazel

That's a good idea! I'll try it tonight.

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## lvlindless

> lvlindless can you  upload that confident track again?



Sure, here it is again.

http://download.yousendit.com/FDED0AE5409EB290






> This does not work for all people.
> 
> And you're going to respond with "What you mean is it doesn't work for _you_, and of course it doesn't work for you if you have that attitude about it!"
> 
> I'm not sure what else I can say to convince you of it, short of telepathically sending you a record of my thought processes before bed where I affirm that I _can_ have LDs, _have_ had LDs in the past without even trying to, and _will_ have an LD tonight because it's easy and natural and the direction I want to be taking my life. Nor can I possibly hope to project to you the positivity and optimism with which I embrace that message and drift off to sleep still feeling. It's a great mood lifter... but it has yet to make me lucid in the least.



I'm sorry, but this DOES work for ALL people. Yeah, my response is going to be quite predictable, but it's true. The only reason you didn't have one is because you weren't confident enough. You might have a smidge of doubt in your subconscious somewhere that causes you to think of LDing as a difficult state to achieve. 

You ever notice the people that go "LDing is SO hard! I've tried for months and I can't do it!" almost rarely have LDs? While the people that go "LDing is easy, I can do it without effort." Manage to have one every night? Or whenever they want. Now of course, some things are still important. Dream recall, knowing how to do RCs, the amount of stress in your daily life, and the amount of sleep you get are still pretty important.

I've seen techniques on this site that literally have 15-20 steps involved. HOW am I going to have an LD when I can't even remember half the steps? And it's counter intuitive because you start to think "Oh... If I mess up one of the steps it's not going to work!" and then you do all the steps, and all the effort, and nothing. You don't even have an LD! That's why I believe confidence is around 95% of importance to having an LD.

It's really cool how much success you guys have with the technique. Keep it up!  ::D:  I realize an aspect of it is taken from a MILD, but I still like to think it's its own technique.

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## thegnome54

I've tried this technique two nights in a row, but I still haven't had a lucid dream.  Something very strange has been happening, though.

For example, last night while I was falling asleep I imagined a dream I had the other night about being on the edge of a desert with weird gnarled trees all over, and I imagined doing a RC and becoming lucid.  I decided that this was going to happen, there was nothing I could do about it, etc., and then thought about other things until I fell asleep.  

Both nights that I've done this same process, I woke up around 4:40 AM, and remembered just having had a fairly extensive dream.  I then fell asleep for 10-20 minute intervals, having one dream at a time before waking up after each one.  This went on until about 5:30, at which point I fell asleep until about 9:00 and had a REALLLY long dream (today it was about an entire first day at school, complete with 6 full classes and a presentation at the auditorium).  

So both days, I've remembered like 5-6 dreams easily.  The weird thing is, my dream recall is usually fairly low, maybe one dream a night if anything.  So I suppose this method is doing _something_.

Tonight I realized that if I woke up again repeatedly, I should attempt a DEILD each time.  I did, and was unsuccessful.  Does anyone know of anything I'm doing wrong, some reason I didn't have a LD under such seemingly perfect conditions?

----------


## Spamtek

Hooboy, here were go.  lvlindless:

The problem I see with the confidence method is not the method itself but the claims its proponents throw out into the fray.  Get me straight: Confidence can do _nothing_ but help.  There is no fathomable way that being confident makes you less capable of attaining lucidity.  _Confidence helps you have a lucid dream_.  We agree on this.  What we don't agree on is your extension of that positive claim, from "confidence helps you LD" to "confidence makes you LD," transforming it from one contributing factor out of many to one that supercedes all others in efficacy.

If you sign up to perform in a musical and walk out onto the stage opening night never having even read your lines, it won't matter how confident you are.  You can have 100&#37; faith in your abilities, and _know_ without a doubt that you're going to nail this performance, but when you open your mouth to start singing you're going to fall flat and fuck up anyways.  I could pump myself up for days before showing up to compete at an Olympic sprinting match, but that won't stop me from getting trampled into the concrete by the competition.  There are at least _some_ situations where factors beyond confidence play a crucial role in determining your success or failure.

So we turn to lucid dreaming and instinct says: "This is different.  LDing is mental, so the only things that can make a difference are our thoughts and attitudes.  If I think I can, I will.  If I think I can't, I won't."





> You ever notice the people that go "LDing is SO hard! I've tried for months and I can't do it!" almost rarely have LDs? While the people that go "LDing is easy, I can do it without effort." Manage to have one every night? Or whenever they want.



I don't dispute that.  I myself am a person who goes "LDing is SO hard!" and almost rarely has LDs.  Every wildly successful LD-at-will lucid master I've ever met has been confident.  But you're asking about correlation, not causation.  Confidence correlates with LD success.  But this doesn't prove "If I think I can, I will" any more than it proves "If I do, I'll think I can."  Where's the chicken and where's the egg?  What causes what?  How can you know that success (or failure) doesn't come from both directions?

Why is it that the first of two people, neither of whom know what LDing is or how difficult the popular literature makes it seem, can obliviously and effortlessly have LDs every night of his life and yet the second one never have a lucid dream at all?  Don't we have to conclude from such a situation that people can be inherently talented at lucid dreaming just like any other skill?  And wouldn't actual ability then ("I can") have to play a part in lucidity just as you say confidence ("I think I can") does?

You say confidence _is_ ability, but I say confidence _augments_ ability.  Some people do, honestly, profoundly, have an inherent ability to have a lucid dream, and some people have a remarkable inability to reach that state.  Most lie somewhere in between.  Confidence can add to that ability, and for many people can push them over the edge into lucidity but I think confidence has a limit to what it can do.  It might help a marathon runner hit the finish line first against his peers, but it's _not_ going to help an amputee get there, either in first place or ever at all.  This isn't to say that anyone is beyond all hope of attaining lucidity, but that no amount of faith in their abilities will get them there if they don't _actually_ have a certain amount of ability to have faith in in the first place.  Other, more mechanical methods - god knows what, I've tried a hell of a lot of them - have to build up ability the old-fashioned way before confidence can begin to play its part.

So I say again:  This does not work for all people.  Your defense, at least from your side, is perfectly unassailable though: every word I say against your methodology is "negativity" you can look at _through_ your current methodology to brush aside as proof of your own point without never needing to really consider the arguments contained therein.

I'm not trying to be negative, although I'm certain my pedantry and contrarianism comes off as such.  I just want to express something that's driven me insane for years, where I disagree with confidence gurus and have them use my disagreement itself as proof of their own point rather than them trying to actually grapple with my arguments.  Maybe I'm wrong seeing it that way, but this is how people proposing this method have always come off to me in discussion.  I see harm being done in proposing childish belief in your own success for some people whom it might benefit more to actually be trying more actively skill-building methods instead.

I've done this method nightly for a week with no results, and complete lack of dream recall for the past three days.  I intend to keep with it - you have no idea how much I'd love to prove myself wrong.

----------


## lvlindless

> Hooboy, here were go.  lvlindless:
> 
> The problem I see with the confidence method is not the method itself but the claims its proponents throw out into the fray.  Get me straight: Confidence can do _nothing_ but help.  There is no fathomable way that being confident makes you less capable of attaining lucidity.  _Confidence helps you have a lucid dream_.  We agree on this.  What we don't agree on is your extension of that positive claim, from "confidence helps you LD" to "confidence makes you LD," transforming it from one contributing factor out of many to one that supercedes all others in efficacy.



Yes, confidence just by itself will not lead you to have an LD. Like I said in previous posts, there are still things of importance. Before you can become confident about having LDs, you first need to KNOW the information behind them. You need to know about reality checks and how they work, and you need to have dream recall (at least remembering one dream per night).





> If you sign up to perform in a musical and walk out onto the stage opening night never having even read your lines, it won't matter how confident you are. You can have 100% faith in your abilities, and _know_ without a doubt that you're going to nail this performance, but when you open your mouth to start singing you're going to fall flat and fuck up anyways. I could pump myself up for days before showing up to compete at an Olympic sprinting match, but that won't stop me from getting trampled into the concrete by the competition. There are at least _some_ situations where factors beyond confidence play a crucial role in determining your success or failure.



 Your example doesn't really apply in this case. The musician doesn't know his lines, so his confidence doesn't really matter in determining whether or not he will put on a good show. He can't, it's impossible. Well, a lucid dreamer DOES know his lines. He knows how to carry out Reality Checks, and how to recall dreams. Now confidence plays a big role here. If you KNOW what you have to do, then the only way you will do it is if you're absolutely confident that you will. I'll try to give you a better example.

Say... You're trying to drive a car. You've went through the driving academy, and now you know the rules of the road and how the vehicle operates. There isn't anything that you don't know that wouldn't make you successful. Now, the only role is confidence. If you are unsure, and  not confident whether or not you will be able to drive the car, then you'll walk into the car and just sit there. You won't turn on the ignition, and you won't move. You'll simply stare out of the windshield and there won't be any action from your side. Now, if you're totally confident about it, then you'll perform the actions required. You'll turn on the ignition, you'll press on the gas, and you'll be on the road. I believe the same applies for LDing.

----------


## ZenVortex

Hi Ivlindless:

The conclusion I've reached after many years of research is that some people have a natural ability for LDs and respond easily to many techniques.  Other people simply don't have a natural ability and for them it takes a lot of work.  Confidence is important, but the bottom line is that LDs seem to be ENTIRELY dependent on neurotransmitter levels in the sleeping brain and this varies from person to person.

Many, many, many times I've been absolutely CONFIDENT that I was going to have a LD (after doing a lot of RCs, mantras, MILD, etc, etc. etc.) but didn't.

----------


## Spamtek

lol Zen, you just successfully summed up my entire objection in four sentences.  Three cheers for brevity!

----------


## lvlindless

> Hi Ivlindless:
> 
> The conclusion I've reached after many years of research is that some people have a natural ability for LDs and respond easily to many techniques.  Other people simply don't have a natural ability and for them it takes a lot of work.  Confidence is important, but the bottom line is that LDs seem to be ENTIRELY dependent on neurotransmitter levels in the sleeping brain and this varies from person to person.
> 
> Many, many, many times I've been absolutely CONFIDENT that I was going to have a LD (after doing a lot of RCs, mantras, MILD, etc, etc. etc.) but didn't.



When I'm truly confident, I don't do anything. When I really fully know that I'm having an LD that night, I just go to bed. Seems like your confidence was faked, because the more things you do the less confident you seem to be.

----------


## LucidMike14

Thanks for the tip I will definitley hold on to it!

----------


## X14Halo

I bought a book called Lucid Dream in 30 Days: The Creative Sleep Program.  I am on day 7, and last night before going to bed, i had to tell myself that I was waking up rather than going to sleep, and that I would be awake and fully conscious in my dreams.  And guess what, I had a lucid dream!  I had a lucid dream after day 3 also, so I highly recommend the book.  I can't wait to get further into it.  But yea, this is like the 3rd time in 2 weeks that I had a lucid dream based on the confidence before bed technique.   :Cool:  
oh yea, and I just started keeping a dream journal again, and I'm pretty sure that the dream journal, plus reality checks, plus confidence before bed gives you lucid dreams!

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## Gez

wow. this topic seems full of sucess.
It really goes to show what all it comes down to is inner belief.
IM HAVING A LUCID TONIGHT!.  ::D:

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## ThreeLetterSyndrom

I'm doing this technique tonight. One more LD for me  :boogie: 

That's the way the technique works, not "I'm trying to do this technique tonight." but as "I"m doing this tonight and will pass."


Clever thinking  :wink2:

----------


## DreamChaser

I think Stephen LaBerge coined the MILD technique well:

3. Focus your intent:
While returning to sleep, concentrate singlemindedly on your intention to remember to recognize that youre
dreaming. Tell yourself: Next time Im dreaming, I want to remember Im dreaming. Really try to feel that you
mean it. Narrow your thoughts to this idea alone. If you find yourself thinking about anything else, just let go of
these thoughts and bring your mind back to your intention to remember.

4. See yourself becoming lucid
At the same time, imagine that you are back in the dream from which you have just awakened, but this time you
recognize that it is a dream. Find a dreamsign in the experience; when you see it say to yourself: Im dreaming!
and continue your fantasy. For example, you might decide that when you are lucid you want to fly. In that
case, imagine yourself taking off and flying as soon as you come to the point in your fantasy that you realize
you are dreaming.

5. Repeat
Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until your intention is set, then let yourself fall asleep. If, while falling asleep, you find
yourself thinking of anything else, repeat the procedure so that the last thing in your mind before falling asleep is
your intention to remember to recognize the next time you are dreaming.

----------


## blue_space87

> I'm doing this technique tonight. One more LD for me 
> 
> That's the way the technique works, not "I'm trying to do this technique tonight." but as "I"m doing this tonight and will pass."
> 
> 
> Clever thinking



M-M-Massive BUMP!

----------


## Dream_King

This technique really works for me, and I had a lucid dream last night. Also I showed this to a friend who had never even heard of lucid dreams before and he said he thinks it worked for him. This IS the holy grail of lucid dreaming!

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## Skydreamer707

HOLY CRAP! D: this is just what i did last night! i had no doubts i was going to lucid dream and then i fell asleep right away and had a lucid dream!  ::D:  dude... so weird! i found this right after it happened too O_o

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## Planewalker

> So here's my... NON-technique, if you will.
> 
> 1) Imagine yourself becoming lucid, and imagine it as a future event. Imagine that it really IS happening tonight, and that you can't do anything about it or stop it.
> 
> 2) Go to sleep with this same confidence right away, before you begin to lose it through negative self talk (inner dialogue). Once you've got the idea in your head that you're becoming lucid no matter what, don't dwell on it. Just let it go, and go to sleep. Don't come back to this idea, no matter what. Empty your mind and sleep away. You'll fall asleep pretty fast.



This is not a "NON-technique". 1 is exactly what MILD stands for: Remembering a future event, using prospective memory. 2 is an example for autosuggestion. Those resemble the main techniques of most lucid dreamers, even if they don't know the exact terms. What you described here is pretty much identical with the way LaBerge explained it in "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming". MILD is largely misunderstood, that's why I wrote this article. Anyway, congrats, it seems you grasped the principle of MILD and confirmed it's usefulness. Of course one should avoid building up mental barriers, as you also realized, but that's a common issue.

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## Thorim

That sounds like crazy shit  ::D: 

I'll give it a try tonight, going to post results tomorrow after I had a lucid dream  :wink2:

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## BigFan

Why are you guys surprised that this works? Being confidence that you will become lucid is a must if you plan to have LDs. I was pretty confidence a couple of days ago that I will be having a LD soon. I ended up having a moment of lucidity in one of my current dreams that night  :smiley:

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## Lucid-Balloon

I like this simple method, i will tell you how it goes tomorrow morning  :smiley:

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## noobflake

Thank you so much.
I was able to induce my first lucid dream by using this.
I got kicked out of my dream because of my excitement.  :tongue2:

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## DarkCoffe64

This seems a very good Help!
Tonigh I'll try!
I WILL HAVE A LD AND I WILL MEET NIGHTS!!!! :Nod yes: 
WAIT FOR ME!!! :Oh noes:

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## johoiada

I had a really good feeling about this technique when i read up on it and it turns out that the feeling was RIGHT! becuase i had my second lucid last night after using this technique thank you lvlindless for your post. now that i know how to induce a lucid dream i have to work on dream control. im gonna try the "calling my sub-consious" method and see if it works if it does im going to the moon to see if i can find nomad

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## LiveInTheDream

Wow, I don't know how many of my lucids have been due to using this Confidence Induced Lucid Dream method (yes, I think it deserves to be called a real method, not a non-method  ::D: ), and yet for a long time I disregarded it just because there were so many other methods out there that didn't really suggest to do this.

But then I saw this thread, tried it again, and had the first LD I've had in a long time! I didn't RC or do anything, even...all of a sudden, in the middle of a dream, I just said, "Hey, this is a dream! Cool!" and off I went  :boogie:

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## johoiada

> I didn't RC or do anything, even...all of a sudden, in the middle of a dream, I just said, "Hey, this is a dream! Cool!" and off I went



that is exactly how mine went to i honestly didn't think it would be that easy. ::banana::

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## Lucid-Balloon

> I like this simple method, i will tell you how it goes tomorrow morning



Well i did not have a proper lucid dream, but i think it was semi lucid though!

But then again i am not sure, but it felt like it  :smiley:

----------


## Loaf

Two year bump?

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## Thorim

well, I tried it last night, and I must say that my recall sucked this mornging  ::D: 
I'll have to get my recall up again a bit, then I'll post again  :wink2:

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## arby

> Two year bump?



My question is how it died for 2 years with this sort of success rate.

I could have seen this tech working for seasoned naturals..... but the fact it works so well for non-naturals as well! VERY interesting. It points towards LDs being even more mental and situational then before. I didn't think MILD could be this light weight of a tech.

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## DarkCoffe64

I just got back to work. Now I'm going to bed and I will have a lucid Dream!!!
I'LL HAVE A LUCID DREAM!!! I SWEAR IT TO EVERYTHING!!! :Mad:

----------


## Thorim

> well, I tried it last night, and I must say that my recall sucked this mornging 
> I'll have to get my recall up again a bit, then I'll post again



So in the last few days I set my recall up again, and when I tried this again last night I had a lucid dream  :smiley:  I even rememberd to wake myself up and write it down! *Thanks a LOT for presenting this wonderfull method!*

Cheers  :smiley: 
Thorim

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## conisag

son guys, how do i do it let me just clarify. i imagine myself becoming lucid in a dream? or i imagine me being successful or what? i'm a little bit confused as to exactly how i should go about this.

how am i to truly make myself believe im going to have an ld with no possible way i wont?

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## Loaf

Well, I've been using a technique for 4 or so months. I started to not bother using a technique, and now I get lucid just by being more aware of my surroundings and expecting to get lucid each night.

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## beachgirl

excellent post. too often i get discouraged by not having had an ld last night... but look how many i have had! I like the idea of reading old ld's. the mind can be an asset or foe.

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## mark832

thanks this actually worked for me .
I hadnt had a lucid dream for about 2 weeks , then i read this and tryed it  and the night that i read it , i had a lucid dream.

Thanks  ::D:

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## conisag

hasnt worked for me, i dont feel like i was truly confident.

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## lucidattempter25

Llvlindless, I tried this technique and believe it or not it actually worked! Well...kind of, because I think I was only semi-lucid,if there is such a word. Here is how it went down. I spent the entire day with confidence that I would have a lucid dream, there were a few moments when I would say "I will become lucid" a few times in my head and even out loud a few times. I even had a banana and a glass of milk before I went to bed. My dreams were a bit more detailed, yet I was only able to remember a few bits and pieces, for example there was this one dream where I was sitting next to my dad in this truck and I was unloading this rifle. Anyway, the lucid dream occured during this false awakening when I was lying in my bed, and out of reflex I guess, I pinched my nose and I could breathe, which I thought was very peculiar so I pinched it harder and I could still breathe, so then I wondered "Am I dreaming?" And then I realized I was and tried to get out of bed, I had a bit of difficulty because I think I was halfway between the dreaming world and the waking world. Anyway I was in this office of some kind with all these people running around, and they didn't even know I was there. I tried using stabilization techniques like trying to keep myself calm, rubbing my hands, and even doing the "increase lucidity" phrase, but none of them seemed to work. It was as if my dreaming body was too close to the waking world and nothing I did was going to stop me from waking up, and I'm sure other people have had this problem. But, I was lucid nonetheless and hopefully I will become lucid again. Maybe I should try to imagine myself in a more peaceful setting like in a forest instead of a busy office next time. I apologize if this post is really long but there was a lot I needed to explain, thank you.

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## Armistice

I tried this last night and it worked, haha!

When going to bed, I repeated, "I'm going to have a lucid.  man, this is going to be cool coz I'll become lucid.  I'm going to be able to control my dream.  Awesome!" and kept thinking this (almost when your trying to encourage someone to do something, same concept).  I did this for about a min

Then in my dream I was in this military mode and moving along the side of a road (there was a field too my left that had some enemies, and to my right was about a 6ft high embankment then the road.  For some reason, I then knew I was dreaming and thinking questions.  Then, like always, my dream started to wash out, I then became unlucid and my dream continued.  Oh well

I was also on the forums reading about stuff for a good 30mins, so maybe my head was in that mode?  I'll try again tonight  :SleepMeditate2:

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## topten35

I tried this last night and it worked!  I said my affirmation about who i wanted to dream about, but with feeling and with confidence, and it worked!  Although i wasn't lucid and couldn't do anything i wanted.  But i haven't been lucid for a while any way so this technique really works.  I'm going to try it again tonight and make an affirmation about something elese when i figure out what i want to dream about and see what happens, this stuff is good what you posted.

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## Flashdance

> I tried this last night and it worked!   Although i wasn't lucid and couldn't do anything i wanted.



If you didn't become lucid, why do you say this technique works?

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## JesterKK

this should definitely be stickied. Just woke up from a lucid dream. Didn't use any of the reality checks that I had been practising a couple days ago. Let me explain how I got such a vivid lucid dream (actual like full waking life recall, intact projective memory... the works)
1. Dream journal: I only had recorded 3 nights of dreams (but my recall is pretty good anyway) make it as detailed as possible and make notes on the side about other dreams from that night that you remember.
2. Read about lucid dreams. you can find ebook torrents and the dream journals here are great.
3. I listened to binaural beats (set to theta which may increase learning) at the same time as listening to subliminal lucid dream suggestions.
4. Listened to brainwave mind voyages lucid dreaming cds.
5. Meditated. (just let your thoughts wonder, close your eyes and listen to music).
6. Made a list of things to do in my dream.
7. Did many reality checks during the day. If you reality check make sure to do it when you first wake up, when you see something weird, or attach it to some obsessive thought or activity (the last one might make reality checking less effective and memorable)

OK so points 1, 2 and 6 I think are definitely vital. All the others may be useful, but I don't know, I'm gonna stop some of them for a while.
Reality checks: I was doing maybe 50 reality checks a day at one point but during dreams I never remembered to do them. I think remembering to reality check in a dream would be after I was already lucid in my case so it's of little use. Dreamsigns are what allowed me to become lucid. when I stopped doing reality checks for a couple of days is when I had a lucid dream.

Dream Journals: improves memory and awareness in dreams

List of goals: stops you panicking when you become lucid. builds up confidence and implies confidence in lucid abilities

CONFIDENCE is the key. It's not that hard to build confidence. Almost everything you do can help you build up an awareness of the disparities between dreaming and waking life. so remember that you already have more than enough practice and experience.

Unfortunately my lucid dream was the last dream of the night and I was woken up by my mom before I could do everything on my list. I went to bed at 5 am (much later than usual) and had the dream at about 11.45 am after a false awakening. I woke up much later than usual which might have allowed my extra awareness.  ::banana::

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## Remorseless

I don't doubt the possibility of this at all. Motivation and confidence are the best tools for doing anything, even if it's destructive  :wink2: 

However, chronic *MASTERBATION* has pretty much obliterated my confidence in anything regarding lucid dreaming. Whenever I go to bed, for some reason, a woman starts undressing herself, and before you know it, I'm passing out after a waking wet dream, with no control over the REM cycle whatsoever.

Oh well, could be worse lol

----------


## JesterKK

oh noes you got woken up by an orgasm. what a horrible way to wake up.  :Cheeky: 

I joke. I doubt your masturbation is chronic or getting in the way of lucid dreaming. Actually, masturbation lowers the chance of having a wet dream, so if you are a chronic masturbator and still have wet dreams then you just probably have an over sexed mind.
you'd never guess what I did in my false awakening.. I jerked off, and then I fell asleep and began a lucid dream. I jerked off 3 times before I went to bed as well. What I'm trying to say is that masturbating didn't really affect my ability to become lucid at all, and neither did having a dirty mind and an insatiable sex drive.
you could just masturbate as much as you like, ditch the excuses and get some confidence.

----------


## Remorseless

I consider it a _reason_ more than an _excuse._ You misunderstood what I said. I said whenever I go to bed. That doesn't mean "whenever I sleep." I almost never dream of sexual orientation, and I have _never_ woken up with a mess in my pants.

The second I close my eyes, the images just pour in, though, and I can't calm myself when sexually aroused. I have fallen asleep before finishing, though, but find it hard to remember the dreams I have afterwards.

Masturbation actually has alot to do with confidence and motive. Relieving yourself without any goal in mind is like having desert without dinner, there's no real work involved to get the reward.

----------


## JesterKK

oh right. I find masturbation clears my mind a lot and it only lowers my confidence with women.. everything else stays the same, but I guess it's different for different people. But I actually get insomnia if I don't masturbate so, maybe masturbation might help you get to sleep without having sexual thoughts. Maybe it's a legitimate reason but I'm almost certain you could find some way around it.

----------


## Lucid fanatic

How i got my first big lucid

Step One: Don't maserbate
Step two: Wake up
Step three: Masterbate
Step Four: Listen to some music
Step Five: Go to sleep
Step Six: ???
Step Seven: PROFIT!!!

I also apologise to anyone who is not comfortable with masterbation :/, sorry.

----------


## beachgirl

sweet...

ps this is a dream forum, 
so, 
i can only speak for myself,
but people talk about sex all the time here as i am guessing you've noticed too
as long as it's done in context of dreaming i don't think anyone's eyebrows will fly up in shock!
congrats on your first lucid! and thanks for sharing

----------


## superx

Woa It worked for me the 2nd time....

Awesome work...!!!

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## Remorseless

Lol, this thread slipped over pretty quickly onto the topic of masterbation.

I do agree that refusing to do so improves initiative, but I consider many women I know a complete abundance other than their attractive appearances, so there's pretty much no point in bothering, when it'll only end with the same thing as masterbation anyway. 

No offense to any women who are actually intelligent.

----------


## nechong

i tried yesterday night but not work for me....sigh

----------


## Man of Shred

Adding this as a tool for my nightly lucidity goal.

----------


## LiveInTheDream

> i tried yesterday night but not work for me....sigh



I wouldn't worry too much about it. Even though I've had this work for me several times, all my LDs done just from sincere self-assurance have been less rewarding than than the typical LD. For me the main problem is, I struggle to hold on to lucidity with this method. But of course all this may be different for you, I'm just sayin'  :wink2:

----------


## TheSatyricon

> I've tried this technique two nights in a row, but I still haven't had a lucid dream.  Something very strange has been happening, though.
> 
> For example, last night while I was falling asleep I imagined a dream I had the other night about being on the edge of a desert with weird gnarled trees all over, and I imagined doing a RC and becoming lucid.  I decided that this was going to happen, there was nothing I could do about it, etc., and then thought about other things until I fell asleep.  
> 
> Both nights that I've done this same process, I woke up around 4:40 AM, and remembered just having had a fairly extensive dream.  I then fell asleep for 10-20 minute intervals, having one dream at a time before waking up after each one.  This went on until about 5:30, at which point I fell asleep until about 9:00 and had a REALLLY long dream (today it was about an entire first day at school, complete with 6 full classes and a presentation at the auditorium).



yea same thing happened to me last night when I tried this "non-method". I didn't become lucid, but I had 2 dreams, and one of them was like a 2 hour movie. However I didn't record the dream so at this point I can't remember much, but i'm pretty sure it was super long! oh well, better luck next time.

ARE YOU DREAMING? :Oh noes:

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## LucidDreamer15

Yes it really does work. Because thanks to my confidence I got to have a couple of Lucid Dreams. One of them was in early April around the 1st or 2nd the other one on the 6th and the other one on the 7th  :smiley: .

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## InfiniteMinds

This is definitely true. I find when you 'know' you're going to have a lucid dream that night rather than think/hope you will, you almost always do. 

Also I rememeber when I was first strating out and wasn't so confident in my ability somehting that really helped was using the NLP timeline technique  (I think it goes by a few other different names too). Using this in place of a normal affirmations / mantra really sped up my progress in having more regular lucid dreams.

Timeline technique: 
Basically if you visulaize your life on a timeline with your past extending out in one direction, usually either off to your left or behind you, and your future off in the other direction. Then you can imagine floating up out of your 'present body' and moving along over the future part of youu timeline untill you get to some point where you see yourself as regularly having lucid dreams and are very confident in your ability to induce them on demand. Then you drop in to this 'future you' and take a couple of minutes to really feel how this future version of yourself does; What does this person feel like being able to have lucid dreams on demand, how do they talk about it, what is thier body languag elike etc. You can then return to the present version of yourself whilst holding on to this feeling.

Even if you don't start off feeling that confident your mind is easily able to imagine what it would be like to feel like that when given a chance, and once you are feeling like that it still has the same effect on your ability to induce LDs - it doens't really matter that you just imagined that feeling of confidence into being!

Hope thats helpful.

Also I was just wondering if anyone else ever tried something similar? How did it work out for you?

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## Erii

I WILL lucid dream tonight  :smiley: 
update tomorrow with results  :smiley:

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## Azalin

I WILL HAVE A LD 2nITE !!!

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## Anatoly86

You are using the law of attraction simple believe and you will receive you can use this in every area of your life it's fun it works

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## Bobblehat

> This is definitely true. I find when you 'know' you're going to have a lucid dream that night rather than think/hope you will, you almost always do. 
> 
> Also I rememeber when I was first strating out and wasn't so confident in my ability somehting that really helped was using the NLP timeline technique  (I think it goes by a few other different names too). Using this in place of a normal affirmations / mantra really sped up my progress in having more regular lucid dreams.
> 
> Timeline technique: 
> Basically if you visulaize your life on a timeline with your past extending out in one direction, usually either off to your left or behind you, and your future off in the other direction. Then you can imagine floating up out of your 'present body' and moving along over the future part of youu timeline untill you get to some point where you see yourself as regularly having lucid dreams and are very confident in your ability to induce them on demand. Then you drop in to this 'future you' and take a couple of minutes to really feel how this future version of yourself does; What does this person feel like being able to have lucid dreams on demand, how do they talk about it, what is thier body languag elike etc. You can then return to the present version of yourself whilst holding on to this feeling.
> 
> Even if you don't start off feeling that confident your mind is easily able to imagine what it would be like to feel like that when given a chance, and once you are feeling like that it still has the same effect on your ability to induce LDs - it doens't really matter that you just imagined that feeling of confidence into being!
> 
> ...



That seems to make more sense then just trying to create "blind belief."

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## 156curses

Dude, all my lucids come from this method. It totally works. I don't do it so often, I feel like its more of a spur of the moment sort confidence thing.. but I'll give it another shot tonight ay. 
Like once I had my sister over, and I let her sleep in my bed while I slept on a matress on the floor, and I thought how funny it would be if I had a lucid on the bed on the floor, and I spose an instant of a moment with the idea, the visual of lding in that bed on the floor shot through my head, and that night I had an LD. 
So yeah, its just these quick thoughts of absolute confidence. Seeing the bed your gonna sleep in before you jump in, visulising the idea of you LDing in it, then dropping the thought and falling asleep. It works for me.  :smiley:

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## iDreambig

i really like this a lot. im gonna try this tonight, because i always do my best to be a very positive person  :smiley:  i think i can easily build enough confidence to LD. thanks for the advice, you and i think alike in a way haha.

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## eicca

I tried this last night... I didn't remember _any_ dreams. I wonder if that's a sign that it worked and just altered my recall somehow? I can almost always recall anywhere between 2 and 5 dreams a night, but last night, nothing.

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## LucidFreedoM

nice technique..eve tho it doesnt take very much effort in your case, its still a technique none the less :smiley: 
will try to incorperate this and see what hppens

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## Draoi

Confidence comes with success and a knowledge of how success is attained. It doesn't seem possible to "build" confidence out of nothing, unless one is easily self-deluded.

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## eicca

Well, I must say, I now believe this works. I had my first LD Tuesday morning, and since I was so excited, I had _another_ one last night. I'm feeling pretty good!

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## 156curses

Its the power of positive thinking. Your subconscious doesn't know the difference between reality and lies - so if you do confidently say to yourself 'I am going to lucid dream tonight', and have complete confidence and belife in it then your subconscious will believe its true too, and work towards making this thing happen. 
And the same goes for a lot of things in life. If you can thinking positively, if you can talk to your subconscious through postive thoughts and such, almost anything is achievable.

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## Kensei

Wow. I only just read this thread, but I am now brimming with confidence! I mean, if this is all it takes then it will be fantastic! I just need to imagine what I want to dream... so many possibilities!

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## Jay12341235

This thread I see has a lot of potential! I have an experience I'd like to share that deals with this topic. 

It reminded me of a time one summer when I was confident about having a special "gift" (of course, this wasn't really true, but I was pretty young and believed everything everyone on the internet told me). So anyways, I was very confident about this idea, that I was "special". Well, after a couple days of believing I was some kind of psychic, I started having precognitive dreams (dreams that "show" you the future). I started seeing stupid stuff like christmas presents, when my friend's dog got a haircut, etc etc. They were almost always accurate. They came almost every night and I was sure that I would have a precognitive dream when I woke up in the morning. You could say all my dreams and the events that followed were a coincidence, and this could be true, but I highly doubt it. They were so dead on and almost all events happened the next day.

This went on for about 30 days until I started to doubt my "gift"( :tongue2: ) and it stopped. I have had a few precognitive dreams as of lately after I started to realize why they've stopped, though they could all easily be dismissed as coincidence and hold no real evidence in my mind. 

With some practice, this technique definitley has some validity. This is how I had my first lucid dream as well, so I'll be trying it again tonight for sure. I'll be sure to post back if I have success!

Thanks go to the original poster and everyone who posted their experiences. I definitely vote for this thread to be stickied  :smiley:

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## Kensei

Well, I can confirm the glory of this technique! last night, after just 2 days of building confidence I had a brief lucid dream. Also, teh first night I remebered 3 dreams. last night I did as well. I also agree that it needs stickying

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## Bobblehat

> Confidence comes with success and a knowledge of how success is attained. It doesn't seem possible to "build" confidence out of nothing, unless one is easily self-deluded.



That pretty much nails everything I've been thinking in one sentence.

Even if I tried to convince myself I believe, there was always be an element of self-doubt there which, I'm sure, would stop this from working. An element of self-doubt seems rational to me.

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## A dreamer168

I don't think this confidence is something that stems from the head, but from the heart. Just my opinion.

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## brettWp

> I don't think this confidence is something that stems from the head, but from the heart. Just my opinion.



Heart is a muscle. Oh wait, you were trying to be sentimental.

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## BenTheDream1018

The power of intent is an amazing thing when it comes to the world of dreaming. I never use reality checks or any types of techniques anymore. When I have lucid dreams they tend to come at a time that I least expect them.

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## A dreamer168

> Heart is a muscle. Oh wait, you were trying to be sentimental.



Not sentimental, maybe poetic. Yes, I didn't mean the heart muscle, I meant the heart as something you simply feel rather than think.

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## DukeDreamWalker

Hummmm   ::?: 

Think I"ll give it a go...

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## 156curses

> The power of intent is an amazing thing when it comes to the world of dreaming. I never use reality checks or any types of techniques anymore. When I have lucid dreams they tend to come at a time that I least expect them.



And do you have them very often (only curious) ?

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## brettWp

I'd just like to say, I thank everyone here. I had my first Lucid Dream last night after 6 months of trying. It was a DILD, and I had a major confidence factor last night that really helped. It really does help if you believe enough!

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## A dreamer168

Did you mentally say anything to yourself?

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## brettWp

I kept telling myself once or twice before going to bed, *I will Lucid Dream tonight, I will reality check and it will be vivid*. Something along those lines. Specifics don't matter. I really felt it, and was very confident last night. Make the night before seem special, FEEL IT! Ha ha.


AND. I woke up at 4:00AM, and was gonna attempt a WILD, but failed, fell asleep and woke up again at 5:00AM. Then I went straight back to bed and had the DILD, waking up again at 6:30AM for school.

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## A dreamer168

So is this only a bedtime ritual or can you feel like this the whole day? That's what I'm trying to do.

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## brettWp

I try not to think about it all day, cause then it backfires for me and almost overclouds my mind with LUCID DREAMING LUCID DREAMING LUCID DREAMING. I just want it to be in the back of my mind before I go to bed, and the last thing I think about before going to bed.

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## A dreamer168

All right.

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## 156curses

Yeah, thats how I do it too. Its like a sudden and rather quick burst of realisation and confidence. Like a mental visual flash of becoming lucid that very night and absolutely having no doubt its gonna happen! Then I forget the thought. It lasts not even 2 seconds. And those are the nights I attain lucidity.

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## Dream_King

bump

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## ShadowOfSelf

Thanks for this OP, the perfect non-technique technique.

edit- just realised this is an olddd thread, deserved the bump never the less

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## Spyguy

Sounds like a predecessor to SilverBullet's famous thread  :tongue2:  It works wonders though, so it definitely deserves a bump

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## MasterControl

Reading this entire thread has revived my focus and also my DR.

For those who want more, be sure to read *SilverBullet's Newly Revised Key to Lucid Dreaming* starting here:

http://www.dreamviews.com/f12/silver...eaming-117015/

Excerpts from SilverBullet's thread:

*Step 1:* First, you need to get rid of the idea that lucid dreaming is hard. Because it's actually VERY easy.

*Step 2:* (this step is most important): FEEL that you were born a natural lucid dreaming master.

*Step 3:* Do things as if you already have the "becoming aware in a dream" part down.





> The reason why there isn't that many steps is because lucid dreaming is easy.
> You don't need to be a rocket scientist to do it.
> ~ SilverBullet



Oh, and be sure to read this thread:

*Possibly the key to lucid dreaming?* by SilverBullet

http://www.dreamviews.com/f12/possib...eaming-114161/

One pithy quote:





> If you believe your a master lucid dreamer you are. If you don't, your not. I'm not a natural, I started like most people here struggling, barely even remembering any dreams. I started from scratch. You can all do the same exact thing.
> ~ SilverBullet

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## Laretta

Learning Lucid Dreaming wasn't that hard but i'm a terrible sleeper (I often wake up in the middle of the night)... maybe that's the answer y i have only 17 lucids... :\

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## Csorax

> Learning Lucid Dreaming wasn't that hard but i'm a terrible sleeper (I often wake up in the middle of the night)... maybe that's the answer y i have only 17 lucids... :\



I'm a very deep sleeper, but don't have many lucids either  :wink2:

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## Spyguy

> Learning Lucid Dreaming wasn't that hard but i'm a terrible sleeper (I often wake up in the middle of the night)... maybe that's the answer y i have only 17 lucids... :\



Waking up naturally is a good thing. You can use it to WILD,write in your DJ or confirm some matra's (or a combination of those)  :smiley:

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## [email protected]

not thinking too much is hard one... I try to forget using void meditation but I always think of LDing while in bed, unconciously... must overcome this!
btw I had 2 DILDs after reading this thread ^^

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## Bossalinni

Nice post, thats alot like what I do and it works everytime, I do repeat my mantra 5 times though. Thanks for posting

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## Laretta

Thanks for the reply,Spyguy  :wink2:

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