# Lucid Dreaming > General Lucid Discussion >  >  Sensei's Secrets

## Sensei

This is a thread about all the things that I have found out, either through asking around or trial and error. I hold all of them to be true, but that doesn’t mean that they are true. Judge for yourself.  :tongue2:  Please don’t add your own “secrets” to this thread, if you want to know my opinion on something not mentioned, have a question about something I didn’t explain well enough, or want to discuss something, then go for it.  ::D: 

This thread was inspired by Fryingman, who kept asking me a bunch of questions on things that I do throughout the day to try and figure me out. After two years I have found a lot of thing that work and do a lot of things every day. I also have things that I do periodically, or when I hit a dry spell, to make sure that I will get back to it.

*No one can give you a guide on how you can obtain lucidity*

Sorry if this doesn't make much sense, but it is true.

Because no one can be inside of your head, they can only point you in the right way. Every single guide is a personal person's guide through their own mind in order to achieve lucidity.

*No technique can make you get lucid, but it can raise the percentage*

Pretty much everything is said in this, but I will explain it because I like it!
Let me say that for the last 3 days I have had a great nights sleep
10%
I have said "calm, dream" about a thousand times today.
10%
I did my work right before bed.
10%
woke up 4 times last night.
10%
typed up my tags up the previous night
10%
Had an LD the previous night
10%
I have had approx 600 LDs.
30%

90% for the night, but that doesn't even include a couple things. So if one thing goes off, my LDs suffer immensely. Take out the top one, and I lose 10% for 3 whole days. If I don't have a good schedule, then I will not wake up in the night either. So 20% taken away. If I don't wake up, I don't type tags, 30% taken away. 60% chance for 3 days means that odds support me missing a day. Dropping a day to 50% chance. So, even though the odds are generally for me having an LD, there is no promise of an LD. In fact, odds might say that I should have 90% chance to LD, which should give me 9/10 nights a lucid dream, but if one thing goes wrong, this can spiral to a measly 50% chance, and because of 2 other factors (confidence and expectation), it can make it even less.

So, looking at someone else, you have to reconfigure the whole thing for their own personal LDing practice. When dealing with a noob, we can say that things are quite different.

Slept good the last 3 nights
1%
Forced wake up throughout night
1%
saying mantra (of course dependent on person, effectiveness of mantra, how long they have had the mantra, if they put feeling into it)
2%
DJed
1%
Had 2 LDs
0%

total for night is 5%, 1/20, and on a crappy hard to keep schedule, it will lower it a few times throughout the month, switch it to 4% a few nights and 3% some nights as well, this will barely get you an LD a month. Even so, not the point of this thread. Even if someone did the same things as me throughout the day night only up their LD % by 10% by doing my exact day, because they are going through their own minds. There are things that I do with my mind that may not even help you a little, there are things that I don't do that might make all the difference. I do my thing, you must find your own.

*Confidence and Expectation don't boost your lucidity*
You have been lied to. I do not believe that confidence and expectation can increase your chances to lucid dream. Confidence gives you the ability to do something with a much higher chance of success. Expectation gives you the mental ability to do something with a higher chance of success. Your ability through expectation and confidence will never go past the ability that you posses.

Confidence and Expectation are interwoven, and very important because if you cannot control it, you will not lucid dream. The 1/20 might go to 1/100 or 1/1000. Controlling this is a major part to LDing. Note: stress is negative expectation when applied to the future, and lack confidence in the future as well. If you are stressed about something at work, your confidence will be down. Some people have the ability to be stressed and to only expect awesome things from the night because the days are evil. This is a bad thing in my opinion as I want LDing to enhance my life, not tear it down

*Lucid Dreaming is 100% Mental*
haha, most think that they agree with this, but they really don't. They think that some physical thing will give them lucids. Until science can do more to effect the mental I wouldn't count on physical things (REMEE, supplements). I will not go into details, but there are a lot of reasons that I don't do supplements. Spending money is a big one that no one can argue with, so I will leave that one there.  :tongue2: 

Since LDing is so mental, every technique is either a physical thing to effect your mental, or a description of something mental.
Example 1
I wake up and go back to bed (WBTB)

Now, first is a description of something physical that effects something mental.  You aren't after a physical thing to effect your mental, because you can't promise that this physical thing will always provide a mental thing. However, that doesn't mean that the technique is useless. I would recommend looking for the amount of people that try the technique and the amount that succeed with it.

Example 2
You want to let go of your thoughts

The second one is something mental that describes...ish something that is happening in your mind. The second one is actually a good description of something mental. You should look for mental exercises that will give you a better reign over your mind. Sivason's class is amazing for this.
It will build your mental prowess.

*WBTB is King*
WBTB is the best way to test out mental states and to practice mental exercise. When you get a description like the one above, and you cannot simply grasp that concept, your half awake, half asleep mind normally will have a better chance at it. The drawback is that you are worse at concentrating. Try a dream yoga class ("energy flow simulation" or something similar) in day and then during a WBTB, and you will notice that you can more easily accomplish this in a WBTB. Try something that is more… concentration based (sensory awareness, immunity to shock) and you will find the opposite. WBTB puts your mind in a different state that will make it easier and harder for many things. This is why you wake up for a WBTB and don’t DJ or anything, you just go back to bed. Concentration shot. 

I do not WBTB depending on time or depending on amount of time awake, these are physical things. I wake up in the night when I decide to or when my dream is over, I go back to sleep when I “know” that the moment is right to go back to sleep. It is mental, not physical. I could use physical things to describe it, like an hour and a half in I usually wake for 7 minutes, but that is no longer my technique, because sometimes 7 minutes is too long and sometimes too short, if I concentrate on this I will miss it more times than I should. 
*
You Don't Have Unlimited Willpower*
You only have so much willpower, if you use it all every night you will run out. If you focus too much on recall you will forget the state, if you focus too much on dreaming you won’t recall. There are some that seem to have so much of both that it takes no willpower to recall or realize states. I take very little willpower now to realize state, but I let my recall slide a bit. My willpower is much higher than it used to be though, so I am able to use a lot of willpower on recall.
*
There is No Such Thing As a Random Lucid Dream*
I showed you the percentages!  :tongue2:  I know that those are very rough percentages based loosely on my thoughts at the time and thrown up as an example only, but the idea is there. I hear this term too much, and it connects too well with known techs, that it is simply not random. 
“I quit LDing and a week later I had an LD” is normally significant of someone that has a good percentage of LDing and such, but they either have low expectation or confidence, when they stop concentrating on it, the percentage for some things goes down, but the expectation and confidence issues are dissolved for a time, and this will cause an LD. 

“I stopped putting names on things and just did what felt right” I hear from people that have a lot of LDs and try to convince people that the best way to LD is to not read anything about it and just “feel” the lucid. This is ridiculous. There is a point when learning something that you hit the ability to “auto-correct”, when you know enough about something and have enough experience. If you know the fundamentals and have experience, then do what you feel is right. If you don’t know the fundamentals and have no experience, then read and practice. 

I looked back on the “random” lucid dreams that I had and I realized that they all were things on my list that raise the percentage even a little. 
snoozing my alarm over and over (WBTB)
nightmares (raised awareness, usually from thinking about dreams throughout the day, and always having a good sleep schedule)

What do we say about coincidence?
The universe is rarely so lazy.
*
Naturals are Just Like Us*
Most people completely disregard naturals as unattainable gods, but when comparing people that LD more than me, you always end up with this list of things:
confidence (in themselves, most naturals end up with “arrogance”, while most that work for it have more of a confidence in everyone willing to put the effort forth)
consistency (in technique, in sleep schedule while learning the technique)
their own technique (even if it is a variation, they all have their own mental techniques that they go through)
love of dreams
Years of practice
Fundamentals either consciously or unconsciously down

This might seem ridiculous to you because you look at naturals vs me and say “they come here and they have 6 LDs a night and you have 1?! We are nothing like them!” Well, most of them start when they are 5-8, and we don’t even allow them on the site until 13, giving them 5-8 years of experience at least. Most of them are not 13 though, they are normally 15-50, so when you realize that they spent years perfecting their techniques by themselves and that they don’t have any reason to not expect LDs, or lose confidence, to them, it is either something they think that only they can do, or they think is “natural”. A positive linear progression is always present as well. They normally go from one a month to one a week, to one a day, to multiples. 
*State Test, Incubation, What I Really Want*
I came up with a question a while ago.
“What exactly do I want to think in a dream?”
As a way of incubating, you want to think something with a clear specific method. Since I think of RCs as incubating thoughts into a dream, I came up with the idea:

*I'm Dreaming*
Three syllables to remember
I decided not to worry about repercussions since, as of yet, there is no cases of someone through practiced effort giving themselves over to a second reality and letting go of the first (always through trauma, if you have some form of mental illness, I would always recommend talking to your doctor before LDing). 
I repeated this throughout the day, all day, every day. This is and incubation mantra. I was also told many time that mantras only work in the present tense as well. Thinking “I am going to lucid dream tonight” might even come into your mind in a dream and you still not get lucid. 
4 Syllables helped a lot too. I wasn’t trying to send a crazy long text message to my future self (120 characters or less), just this specific idea. I saw major improvements through this method, especially when I had 3 weeks of work that I set off minute alarms (an alarm every minute) to remind me to say “I’m dreaming”. I got serious headaches from this, and I ran almost completely out of motivation. I believe that I had 10 days without an LD when I stopped this because the tax that it took on my mental state.  

*Slow, I'm Dreaming*
http://www.dreamviews.com/dream-cont...our-goals.html

I added this a little while ago. It is just to remember to slow down every time I say dream.

*
The Secret of LD Count*
A lot of you are really wanting to lucid dream to do amazing things with LDing, and you are thinking that in 10 LDs or in 20 LDs you will be able to do a lot of good things. Honestly… Your first 20 LDs are probably going to suck… You might be able to do some goals, but you are probably either going to wake up really quick or go into “caveman mode” (find the nearest DC and try to get it on). This can be extremely down putting. The first few times it is great, you are like “HOLY CRAP I AM LUCID” and then “MOTHERS OF PINE SWIRLS I AM AWAKE!” and you are fine with that at first. Then of course, we get to LD 20 and up, you might have some good LDs, and might be better at remembering goals, stabilizing, or control, but odds are that you are still going to have very many good LDs. 

I know what you are thinking “But when I get to 100 I will have all good LDs all the time”... probably not, really rare for someone to have many good LDs around this time. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t want to get to LDs, or want a specific amount, but don’t get disappointed when you get to 50, 100, or 200 LDs, but realize that this is a “lifetime hobby”. 

*Meditation is Really Really Good For You*
Inside LDing and out, you need to look into meditation and find which ones appeal to you. I would recommend doing them all, but I definitely have an affinity for meditating, so I don't mind practicing meditation during free time. If you need some ideas on how to meditate, then look into sivasons dream yoga class, as well as any visualization that you wish. I personally recommend learning how to "forget your body". I might put a thread up about this. Who knows? :/ 

*Motivation*
*Giving and Taking*
I know that “motivation cannot make you LD”, and just had a conversation with Zoth about the pros and cons of it. The truth is that you will run out of motivation, and if you don’t continue practicing without motivation, then you can’t succeed at anything. You can have zero motivation and not get frustrated, frustration is when your experience doesn’t meet your expectation. So the easy way to not get frustrated is to expect your motivation to fail. When it does, realize that it is fine that it has, but screw it all, you are still going to LD. 

Now, I only have a little on being motivated, because even though you might not need it to LD, it is nice to have, because that makes the whole process more fun.

I apply everything in my life to everything in my life, it makes things a lot easier in life when you realize that there are rules that transcend all things. One is like the above, if you stop doing something when motivation fails, then you can’t succeed. The next one is this idea in Christianity that we call “fellowship” (you all probably know what this word means, but let’s look at the original). It comes from the Greek word “Koinonia” which has the idea of “giving and taking”. Something I see around this forum is a lot of taking, and a lot of giving, but not all people are “giving and taking” I would label some as givers and some as takers. For instance, this thread that I am writing is “giving” I am taking the time and burning some of my motivation by writing this whole thing out (Can’t really measure it). When I get a lucid dream or watch something about LDing, get motivation. Having friends that LD or spending time on DV can make this motivation go up as well.

The dream guide system kind of allows for people to destroy their motivation. Spending a lot of time working on things for LDing that uses motivation and they normally lose their LDing ability first and then they stop coming to the forum. I am not against it, in fact it has gotten better. I just think that you should be wary of how much motivation that you are losing and using. Write down a list of things that increase and decrease.

*
Fundamentals*
*
Sleep Consistently*
If you do not know how to sleep consistently, then you can google it. 

*Work Consistently*
Work hard on lucid dreaming, and work hard on recall

*Don’t Stress*
Stress is not just about not letting the things in your life stress you out, but not letting lucid dreaming especially stress you out. Things in lucid dreaming can stress you out in two ways.

*How to Not Stress*
A couple ways to stress out about LDing. 
1) You don’t get lucids or something and it frustrates you. This is mostly worry (before) or frustration (after), they can cause stress, but they are not stress. More likely to happen and to drive people from LDing.
2) You work too hard on LDing. There is a limit to the amount that we can work on something, especially something that takes concentration and willpower (focus is unlimited, but not the amount of time that you can engage it). All of these are limited, you cannot expend an unlimited amount, most probably don’t know this, because most do not expend their max amount of any often enough to do this. I noticed this mostly during competitions. I may not push myself too much on a normal basis, but when I push myself to the limit two weeks straight I see problems pop up. Hopefully this is your problem, you will need to fix it.
You don’t have a max amount of these three, but unless you have fixed the willpower problem or have an extreme amount of willpower (unlikely, even though you think that you do), you will not run out of the other two (very unlikely). So I noticed it in competitions that I kept having problems. One was the violent uprise of my LDs during competitions, which could be associated with “competition”, but that is not how your mind works. Competition in competitive people brings up your willpower and makes you use existing willpower to the max for a time. After 2 weeks of really exerting, I find two things happen.
a) I don’t get lucid and I get angry (or some other negative emotion)
If I don’t get lucid, I have very little willpower to work with, and trying to do something that you have lost a bit of confidence in without willpower will bring out things like anger, sadness, or boredom with LDing. I have almost quit because of this many times. 
b) I get lucid like freaking crazy
I stop putting willpower in, but because of the willpower exertion before and the expectation being high and all the other factors exist, my LDing stays on the crazy awesomeness, because it takes almost no willpower to keep doing something that you are doing well at. 

Because of this, I use this a little like medicated steroids during competition, I up the amount of willpower that I put in a lot each day, and then wean myself off and back to regular amounts by the end of the competition. There are probably better things to do, but I have not thought about anything better to do. 

FOCUS VS. CONCENTRATION :: IART Clinical Fitness Certification

To reiterate, being in focus does not mean an individual is focused on the specifics of a task at hand. It means that his mind is ‘in touch’ with reality. And so, when a trainee is in focus while he is at the gym his mind is clear, alert, and ready for action; he is fully aware of the equipment around him. With every piece of exercise equipment he looks at a flood of information that instantly is available to him. Being in a daze and not being cognizant of his surroundings as various thoughts float in and out of his awareness would be the opposite of being in focus.

The best method a trainee can use to get focused is for him to ask (what may seem like trivial questions): “Where am I? What piece of equipment am I going to use? Why this equipment instead of another?” He should ask of himself orientating questions that will make him more aware of his physical surroundings. A sure fire way to know that he is not in focus is if he is distant or even seems separated from the objects around himself. A trainee who is at the gym, yet seems distant from his physical surroundings is most likely not in focus.

Best part of this is that this sounds very much like ADA. You hear a lot of them saying to “focus on everything”. Also to concentrate on the world around you. But focus is the goal “orienting questions that will make him more aware of his physical surroundings.” The next part is simply interesting because we are training at all times. So the goal of ADA would be to be in focus, not concentrating. 

If you cannot see the difference, then you might be wasting your time trying to do ADA (as most are). The differences is what makes it powerful. I personally think that after a while, raised focus is what makes LDers LD, but it is what makes us raise our focus that we put in guides. ADA is close to the truth, but since it isn’t the truth, it leads people astray. This will make it very hard to become lucid from ADA. I wouldn’t recommend it. Find a list of people that get more LDs than I do using ADA as described in any tutorial, and I will reconsider this statement.

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## Xanous

This is long as fuck and I'm drunk so I only skimmed over it BUT... I think everyone has to find thier technique.  For me its AP style DEILD.  Supplements help a ton but are not magic. It helps but it's still about skill. Getting plenty of rest is key. ADA is good but not necessarily key. It does help. I like this post though. There's some good ideas in here. Everyone is different. WBTB is almost required even if its just a few minutes,  save for the few early night LDs we all get. Meditation.. yes yes yes but not required. Good stuff. Keep it coming.  ::D:

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## NyxCC

Sensei, you so stole the title of my planned ld with you. Now that you've posted all your secrets I'm left looking for a new dream goal.  :tongue2:

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## Sensei

Thanks drunk xanous!  :smiley:  

Nyx, I still have 2 secrets other than this. They don't help LD, but when put here they might...  :smiley:  you can still ask about those.

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## Highlander

I guess if you have had 500/600 lucid dreams over the course of a defined period then you must be doing something right, so chapeau to you!  :smiley: 

However I personally don't have any quarms about taking supplements and/or foods. Sure (if you are talking about galantamine, etc.) then supplements can be expensive, especially once you have paid the customs duty! 
Certain dream-enhancing plants can be found in the wild for 'free' for example but you have to know what you are looking for and do your research thoroughly. 

Like your percentile statistics you convey then it is a case of knowing one's own body, working with it and getting to know your strengths, limitations, personal sleep patterns and make-up which takes time and a great deal of introspection.
Plus you have to work with work patterns and the seasons, etc. For example early ambient sunlight during the summer months causes problems with my schedule although I won't go into any secrets.  :smiley: 

I agree with the (slow) exponential lucid dream skill level you mention after 1-10-100 lucids rather than it being a sudden (logarithmic) jump.

With the 'give-take' forum dreamguide motivation issue then all I can say is that it mirrors life I'm afraid. I have trained (agency) people to do my job, only for them to get replaced by someone else, or just simply leave and the cycle continued. A case of 'wash, rinse and repeat.'
All I can say is at least you tried. You gave your advice and knowledge. It is up to the recipient what they do with it.
Personally I'd rather see a thread about LD and someone trying, especially when compared with some of the other threads which are unrelated (IMO) to the forum in general.

The only statistic I'm any good at remembering is 36-24-36 BTW.  :tongue2:

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## Hukif

It only took you like 4 months to post this.
I especially like the ADA part, people take the "awareness" part far too seriouslsy sometimes and end up doing it wrongly.

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## Sensei

Highlander
I just don't feel like supplements help at all. Not just that they cost. Whatever short benefits that they give seems to be nothing compared to the fact that most people that use supplements don't LD without supplements. I think that it is much better to do things that help in the long run rather than a temporary fix. Instead of trying Galamantine one night, try just eating brain food and healthier more often. Most LDers are in pretty good shape. 

Yes, I don't think that LDing is knowings one own body any more than sports and all, but most people don't get to that point in sports. 

Won't go into any secrets? You should post your own thread about LDing.  :smiley:  Every bit of experience that works helps me learn about LDing.

Yes, the give/take thing is definitely mirrored from real life. Things from real life trump a lot though because of the fact the real life you have things that you "have" to do. LDing has no "need" in your life. If you compare it to any other hobby, then you see that the statistics would be the same. 

36-24-36...  :Big laugh: 





> It only took you like 4 months to post this.
> I especially like the ADA part, people take the "awareness" part far too seriouslsy sometimes and end up doing it wrongly.



4 months?  :tongue2:  I actually only started typing about 2 weeks ago. I have been planning it for a long time though. 

Glad you like the ADA part. I did a bunch of research on it since yours is the only ADA that I have seen work better than my own techniques, actually most ADA doesn't work at all unless you are already alright at LDing anyways. Your way is closer to an incubation of a state of mind that is thinking about :"
}{hing" that I see from all other ADAs. I would hesitate to call yours ADA at all, but it makes more sense as a "critical question" that you see with most naturals (DILD naturals vs WILD naturals). WILD naturals are different in the fact that all they do is night time work. I am working on that right now, and seem to be making leaps and bounds. I will be posting on that if I get it down.

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## Hukif

I remember you promising a thread like that some time ago, even before your other thread at "Attaining Lucidity". And it turns out you only started typing 2 weeks ago!? Jeez lol

Also oh? I don't know many WILD naturals, thats something I would be interested in reading about.

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## Sensei

> I remember you promising a thread like that some time ago, even before your other thread at "Attaining Lucidity". And it turns out you only started typing 2 weeks ago!? Jeez lol
> 
> Also oh? I don't know many WILD naturals, thats something I would be interested in reading about.



I know one in waking. I have been meaning to get a hold of, and one on here. I need at least 2 to make a connection. :/ I am stuck making connections of non naturals and naturals.

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## ThreeCat

This is an awesome thread, Sensei.  It's really helped me understand (or possibly understand?) some of the inconsistencies in my own practice--especially the part about taking a break after training hard.  Thanks for expending some of your motivation!

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## Sensei

> This is an awesome thread, Sensei.  It's really helped me understand (or possibly understand?) some of the inconsistencies in my own practice--especially the part about taking a break after training hard.  Thanks for expending some of your motivation!



Don't take a break! Just slow down before you hit a wall!  :smiley:

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## Highlander

@Sensei - I felt that the supplements were part of my personal journey; they still are to a certain degree, but I do agree that they should not be considered a substitute for hard work or a 'quick fix' as you put it.
I did not make the mistake of jumping head first with supplementation as I had already experienced a gamut of hypnagogia, transitions, tactiles, FA and general lucid-type dreams beforehand over time.

I understand supplements are not everybody's cup of tea though, whether it is Mint or Mugwort!

From my DJ (where I record most of my stuff, etc.) my modus operandi is generally WBTB - DILD. (Just don't look at the tag cloud!  ::D: )

Regarding the hobby aspect I found that art helped me as it sort of complimented my thinking in regard to LD. You may have touched on something similar with visualization and sports (i.e. basketball) if I'm not mistaken.

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## OneUp

One thing I respectfully have to disagree with you on Sensei is the Confidence and Expectation part. I know you are alot more experienced than I am, but recently I have done an experiment where all I did was have self awareness and ONLY positive expectations to trigger LDs. I had LDs 3 out of the 4 nights I did this experiment. The only reason I didnt have LDs the 2nd night was because I had other things on my mind, I was a little stressed out, but not because of Lucid Dreaming. But back to the point, I think the two factors I mentioned in the beginning can *highly* increase your chances of achieving lucidity, but it depends on how you use them and your view on them. If youre not one that believes in yourself too often then of course you will find yourself having doubt and such. The key to taking the power out of expectation and Confidence is_ Knowing_  that it will work. To me that goes along with the definition of Intention which I guess is similar to expectation, but you have to absolutely know without a doubt that it will work, and for me it has. If you have any doubt at all, you take the power out of those words and you wont get anywhere. Anyways I hope I understood you right and I hope this made sense lol  ::D:

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## Sivason

Thanks for taking the time to make this thread. It helps me to see how you summarize what you have been helped by in the first two years of your art. It should serve as a good tool for anyone teaching as well as those trying to learn.

Two comments.

1) I use no form of supplements. I try to stay healthy and that is it.

2) I feel awareness training should be part of everyone's training, of course. I do not think it has to be ADA and I agree you must understand why awareness works and what it actually means. One trivial thing I want to make clear is that ADA is just the name King Yosi put on a thread he made about awareness training. I wish others would call their styles something generic like "Dave's awareness training" or that they would make up a name for their own version. Let's keep ADA as a term for King Yosi's thread so it is clear what we mean. As I said trivial.

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## DefineMeAsOne

Thank You so much Sensei, a lot of wonderful information you have given to us. You mentioned



> I personally recommend learning how to "forget your body". I might put a thread up about this. Who knows? :/



 Are you talking  your stabilization technique, that extends amount of time in lucid dream.  or is it something else entirely.

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## Sensei

Highlander. Yes, the more hobbies that you get good at, the easier it is to get good at hobbies. 

Oneupboy, you are taking all of your experience from less than a weeks worth of experiments? That is crazy.  :tongue2:  I did say that having stress and negative expectation would hurt, so I don't see how your experience contradicts my conclusions.  ::D: 

Sivason, thanks for commenting.  :smiley:  I wish people would come up with their own names for techs as well. I try to stay away from making a "technique" thread for how I LD, but LDing "concept" threads, so that people can learn their own way to awareness.  :smiley: 

Define. With forgetting my body? That is the opposite of that stabilization technique, but that stable technique is pretty good. I had a lot of success early on until I found my own way to stabilize.

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## CworkV

Good thread, thank you for submitting it.

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## SinisterDezz

Hmm.... Do you think I am an arrogant natural?
Thanks for saying we're just like everyone else haha.

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## Mystycal

Good thread, good tips and yeah, I agree with the ADA thing. And I also see why you've written what you have about motivation not being able to make you LD, but I consider myself an exception to that.
A few years ago when I first got into LD'ing, I skimmed through some guides not really understanding anything and all I had was motivation. A real, burning desire to LD, that made me shiver with anticipation for the whole day and not be able to sit still, like an excited child, which I kind of was.
And that alone got me more than a week's worth of lucid dreams every single night, sometimes with more than one a night. Seriously. I had no clue what I was doing, but my desire made me lucid every night, even though after a few days I stopped wanting LD's that much. And they still kept coming.
So motivation alone really CAN make you lucid dream, even if you don't "practice". I haven't had anything close to that many LD's since, but I presume that's because I can't get as excited about it as I was years ago since I was very excitable then...13 or 14 years old, you know how it is.
So yeah. Just thought I'd share my experience, even though it might be an exception to an otherwise universal rule  :smiley:

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## Andey

I cant even begin to comment on what you stated about LD's because i have never had one! I can question one point, if any of you listen to RadioLab, you may remember an episode called Guts!

In this episode they talked about what you eat affects chemical/hormonal balances in the brain. Basically they tested rats giving them different foods, one a control standard, the other a bacteria food. The stress levels of the rats with the bacteria food was lowered significantly, something to do with the brain receiving a lot more serotonin. 

When they researched further they found that there was a nerve link between your intestines and your brain. It went on to find out that the thousands of types of bacteria in your system affect your brains chemical balances. So these bacteria were actually telling the brain to release more serotonin. 

They proved this by cutting this nerve in another set of rats under the same conditions which caused all differences between each group to go.  

So actually there is a link between what is eaten and your mental state, a small one, but a definitive link! So you cant rule it out! Check the episode out over at RadioLab, what i said is all from my memory i am sure the real explanation is much clearer!

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## LDQ

Sensei, thank you for sharing your secrets.  I have found this information very useful.  I have been practicing LDing for almost a year now and typically I have a few LDs a week...maybe 3-5 on average.  Lately I've hit a dry spell with nothing for about 2 weeks.  I came back to DV and came up on this thread a few days ago.
I found your points that there is no set technique that works the same for everyone right on point and I started analyzing what I've been doing and what I can change to make it better.  The first thing I did is I changed my mantra of "Am I Dreaming?" to "I am Dreaming" as you suggested and it worked wonders for me.  Not sure why exactly, but I remember to do it much more often now during the day...probably at least 200 times.  I also found that every time I think and sometimes say "I am Dreaming" I treat it as a state test - I look around for anything unusual, I focus on what my body is sensing and what I'm doing exactly, sometimes even smell the air (if i'm outside usually).
The second thing I started doing differently is my WBTB.  In the past I've experimented with different duration of WBTB and although they worked sometimes, I haven't found that any particular time period was more effective (I've tried from 10 min to 40 min).  So I thought let me just try to do a WBTB that kind of feels right to me.  I normally wake up at night many times usually after dreams although I don't always remember them all (I do remember most).  So now I just do a WBTB for only a few min and then lie back down and meditate for about 10-15 min.  Sometimes I fall asleep and I've had some DILDs.  A couple of times in the last few days I've had WILDs this way and WILDs are very rare for me.
So anyway I wanted to share what I got out of you sharing your thoughts with us and to thank you.

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## OneUp

> Oneupboy, you are taking all of your experience from less than a weeks worth of experiments? That is crazy.  I did say that having stress and negative expectation would hurt, so I don't see how your experience contradicts my conclusions.



Hahaha yea I just now read this  :Big laugh:  can't believe I based my experience off of one weeks worth of that stuff. Anyways Sensei, times have changed and now I know that if you don't put in the work, you're not going to get any rewards. However I still strongly believe in the whole "positive Mindset" and expectations thing.
I don't rely solely on that anymore, because some time ago I decided that I really wanted to further my journey with Lucid Dreaming, and thats where Self Awareness came in. 
It really is amazing to have 50% of your dreams every night be semi-lucid, and get at least 1 lucid a night. I believe there is so much potential to self awareness.
Please Sensei, forgive me for my noobish, novice words from over 2 months ago xD. I've definitely made alot of progress since then.  :smiley:

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## Sensei

C work
Thanks.  :smiley: 

Dez,
You are definitely a different breed of natural. I don't find you arrogant.  :tongue2: 

Mystic,
Thanks for sharing.  :smiley:  I do think that intent and incubation are big things in lucid dreaming, and a lot of times we are doing a type of technique,  but we think that it is something else getting us lucid. I think that a lot of them are similar to motivation. What happened to your fire? You gotta bust out some crazy lucids streaks! Get excited!

Andey,
You seem to be gone from DV... don't feel like typing that much.

LDQ,
Thanks for sharing! Hope that this has helped you out in dream and not just our of dream. I am dreaming seems like it always gets me back on track! I love it!

Oneup!
I don't hold anyone's opinion against them.  :tongue2:  not in a very unexplored field like this. I am glad that you have stuck around here long enough to learn from a plethora of people. I have been on hiatus for a while, so I haven't responded to anything much. Hope your dreaming walk is going amazing.

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## BlueKat

I so appreciate all this information.  I've had seven LDs which were extremely short.  I thought I was doing something wrong and didn't know why I couldn't stay in them longer, in addition to not knowing why I'm not having them more frequently.  It's good to hear not to expect too much in the beginning.  Your percentage chart is also extremely helpful.  All those factors probably have to line up for some of us to have LDs.  Thank you!

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## Patjunfa

Cool thread!
I'd be interested to Hearn ow your practice, experience and LD count progressed as you discovered what worked for you. How were your 1st few months-1st year of practice. From your podcasts, you have a wee baba, congrats...you still manage to Ld despite other demands....I'm guessing it makes some form of difference?

Did u say u had an alarm every minute? If so that's hardcore and really pushes the bar up for determination...

When you say "I am ðreaming", is this similar to illusionary form?

Fair play for your generous sharing

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## Patjunfa

What area the tags you type up? Titles or dream signs?

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## Hilary

> Hahaha yea I just now read this  can't believe I based my experience off of one weeks worth of that stuff. Anyways Sensei, times have changed and now I know that if you don't put in the work, you're not going to get any rewards. However I still strongly believe in the whole "positive Mindset" and expectations thing.
> I don't rely solely on that anymore, because some time ago I decided that I really wanted to further my journey with Lucid Dreaming, and thats where Self Awareness came in. 
> It really is amazing to have 50% of your dreams every night be semi-lucid, and get at least 1 lucid a night. I believe there is so much potential to self awareness.
> Please Sensei, forgive me for my noobish, novice words from over 2 months ago xD. I've definitely made alot of progress since then.



What are you doing in specific for self awareness? That's a lot of lucids!

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## Sensei

> What area the tags you type up? Titles or dream signs?



I really don't use dream signs other than the dream feeling. Everything else is waaaay too unpredictable to be focusing on at all for me. 

This is what a non lucid looks like:
Dr. Who tardis Hell. Thomas. Daniel. Transform. Out of bullets. Button Combos. Kitties. 

This is the edited version though. Tardis was spelled tarnis, and Out was our. 

This is what a lucid looks like:
Old man says that he will train me. I show him Chidori. Doesn't break cloths. Josh dad. Saturday mornings. 

Back yard. Fighting with. Lucid. demolish. fly away. 

I usually try to write down a "person, place, and a short plot" This means that even if I don't remember the dreams, the tags can bring it out. The tags take about a minute to type up and then I can do some awareness exercise and then go to sleep. I do this like 5 times a night.  :smiley:

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## Patjunfa

Cool, generally takes me 10-20 mins writting dreams. Even on a Wbtb...I can see how 1min on many Wbtb would be effective and easier. Really I'm writting for the sake of continuing dream recall in order to foster lucids. Not as a detailed account as I do, as if for some analysis (which I don't do). May b hard to break pedantic habit of trying to make dream coherent. Will try tho as b great to save time...

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## Forg

> I show him Chidori.



You should've showed him Rasensan  ::D:  .

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## Patjunfa

Do you have just awesome dream recall or how do you manage to capture the dream in a minute? I find it takes me a while to remember the detail of the dream, then as I am writing I remember more of the details and so end up writting them, and then its 25 minutes...The odd time I have lots of recall straight away without having to replay the dream much...I'd love to spend less time on recall and writting and so enable more time for morning meditation.

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## Patjunfa

Actually just listening to your audio now (things you wish someone told you b4 starting lucid dreaming), where you answer this question. you don't consistentaly dream journal. you dream journal with purpose, writting short tags and if dream doesnt really interest you, you don't write it. I'd be interested to see if I only spent a while remembering dreams and only writting every few days would dream recall go down or not....may see...Thanks for all your contributions on this site

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## AstralPhreak

This pretty much sums everything you need for a good lucid dream  ::D:

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## [email protected]

Excellent! Everyone should read this. I realized the same exact things after I tried to find things on my own, not relying on DV tutorials or techniques. Not that I don't give DV a credit, but I wasted so much time being frustrated with lucidity. Your tutorial will save lots of newbies' time. 

Being lucid is state of consciousness. It's not the techniques that lead you to permanent lucidity. Just relax and be a spectator of everything around you, which is what 'awareness' is...

And trying the hardest is the worst thing you can do  :wink2:

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## KpuonyerNo4

This whole thread is inspiring me to give up...
 :Sad:

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## Keeboard

Ik this is an old thread, and Im really sorry if this is necro-posting. But I love the Sherlock quote!

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## slash112

This is an awesome thread, I'm glad it got bumped. Some real, top-notch information in here.

Nice one, Sensei! Thanks for the effort you put into this, 4 years ago.  ::D:

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## Sensei

> Ik this is an old thread, and I’m really sorry if this is necro-posting. But I love the Sherlock quote!



Thanks! I can't see the Sherlock Quote. Maybe I am blind. 





> This is an awesome thread, I'm glad it got bumped. Some real, top-notch information in here.
> 
> Nice one, Sensei! Thanks for the effort you put into this, 4 years ago.



Glad you liked it! I keep linking people to this because it is kinda my fundamentals to keep going back to.

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