Technique that has brought me from bad-recall to 3 semi-lucids in 3 nights.

**littledreamer** · 07-31-2011 12:00 AM

I know I’m pretty much a beginner, but in case anyone of similar experience would like to try, these steps have given me the most vivid-to-semi-lucid dreams in a small amount of time than anything else I have tried. I seriously feel as if I’m on the verge of finally having very frequent (true) lucid dreams, I just need to become more aware.

Make sure you set an alarm or have some means of getting yourself awake about 1-2 hours before you normally would.

1.) Read, watch, or listen to some material on lucid dreaming for about 20 minutes before bed.
2.) Get in bed, sit up, relax, then become aware of all external stimuli for about 5 minutes.
3.) Attempt to "imagine" various stimuli for each of your senses for around 5-10 minutes. (Imagine the way random objects look, feel, smell, taste, and sound as vividly as possible)
4.) Lay in bed as if you were sleeping, then take 10 deep, slow breaths while imagining that each breath makes you more and more relaxed.
5.) Close your eyes, then visualize walking down a spiral staircase as vividly as possible (all senses) until you reach the bottom, where a nice bed is located.
6.) Get into the bed, and visualize falling asleep within the visualization.
7.) Now replace the visualization of you being in bed with a vivid "re-dreaming" of your latest non-lucid recalled dream, as if all "external" stimuli of the bed at the bottom of the staircase are gone.
8.) "Re-dream" this dream as vividly as possible until you encounter the dream sign you missed when really dreaming it.
9.) Imagine yourself truly questioning reality, then imagine yourself becoming aware with excitement and all.
10.) Stabilize, clarify, then imagine doing what you plan to do.
11.) After a while, imagine waking up, back in the bed at the bottom of the staircase, and reflecting on your lucid dream for a few moments.
12.) Now, as you fall asleep, use autosuggestion of your choice. I usually say “The next time I’m dreaming I will realize that I am dreaming,” and sometimes I tag on the end “and I will be 100% aware of the fact that all that I see, hear, smell, taste, and feel are all a product of my mind.” If you find your mind wandering, tell yourself “I am not concerned with that,” then continue with the autosuggestion. If you start having strange thoughts such as catching yourself thinking of a completely nonsensical phrase in place of your mantra, then you are probably close to being asleep. Correct yourself, then continue until you’re asleep.

Now, when you wake up via alarm or other means:

13.) Get out of bed, use the restroom, get a sip of water, and make yourself comfortably/calmly awake and aware for about 10-15 minutes. During this time, remember exactly why you’re making yourself wake up, and get yourself confident in the fact that you might be very, very close to having a lucid dream.
14.) Repeat steps 2-12
15.) Realize that you are dreaming!

Let me know if any of you have success with this (if anyone tries). I’m fairly confident that it is a solid routine that might work for me now as an inexperienced dreamer.

**Lizh** · 07-31-2011 12:13 AM

It seems confusing, but i guess i could try

**Lemons** · 07-31-2011 12:14 AM

Interesting... I will most certainly be trying this tonight then reporting back in this thread. I have a few questions:

-Should we write down the dreams that we had that night when we wake up via the alarm, during the time that you said to make ourselves awake?

-What if we can't remember the dream that we had last? Can we remember any dream that had different dream signs in it? I know for sure that I didn't miss anything in the last dream I had.

-How long have you been trying this, and many times did it take before you got it to work?

**Puffin** · 07-31-2011 12:24 AM

Thanks for sharing! I'll try this tonight and see how it goes - my recall has been extremely poor lately, to the point where I had an LD two nights ago and could only remember a brief moment of stabilization.

**littledreamer** · 07-31-2011 02:36 AM

Originally Posted by Lemons

-Should we write down the dreams that we had that night when we wake up via the alarm, during the time that you said to make ourselves awake?

I forgot to add this in.

Yes, writing down any dream that you have just had is a good idea. Plus, it's a good way to get your mind on dreaming in step 13, and a good dream to use in step 14.

Originally Posted by Lemons

-What if we can't remember the dream that we had last? Can we remember any dream that had different dream signs in it? I know for sure that I didn't miss anything in the last dream I had.

Your latest dream that you would consider an important, vivid, yet non-lucid should work great.

Originally Posted by Lemons

-How long have you been trying this, and many times did it take before you got it to work?

I've only done this all together for the past 3 nights. I've remembered 2-3 dreams each night when usually I'd only remember fractions of one every other night or so.

The main reason I decided to share it was the weak semi-lucid it has given me each night. It seems like the idea of lucid dreaming has bled into the morning dream (step 15) every single time. I just haven't been aware enough to fully appreciate it.

@Puffin:
Thanks for trying it! Hopefully it helps somehow. It's basically a compilation of the most eye-catching of various things I've read about in different lucid dreaming books with a couple of my own elements added in to make it personal.

**faceonmars** · 07-31-2011 04:02 AM

Nice post. You are preaching to the choir with me, however. Visualization is the easiest method to attaining a lucid dream experience that I know of. This needs to be combined with deep relaxation techniques and borderlines on self-hypnosis. If you awaken from a vivid dream in the middle of the night you can, if you visualize, go back and complete the dream. This is widely known. I feel one can enhance their chances of lucid dreaming this way also... just relax and visualize!

**Raish** · 07-31-2011 04:10 AM

a bit long on the explanation, and i find it difficult to remember a bunch of steps, but ill try this. ive had three lucids since my last visit, but one of them all i could remember was me saying "im dreaming! oh my gosh, im dreaming! okay ace, stay calm. youre dreaming." what a great dream that... wasnt

**nrg** · 07-31-2011 11:09 AM

Well its just a variation of the WBTB with some visualization. Nothing new in my opinion.

**Lemons** · 07-31-2011 01:34 PM

Well, I tried it last night. I had a few problems with the visualization. Should my eyes be closed at 2-4? (I had them closed...)

I didn't remember any dreams from last night when I tried this method. I've just started to get back into caring about my dreams, though. So that might be part of it.

**littledreamer** · 07-31-2011 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by nrg

Well its just a variation of the WBTB with some visualization. Nothing new in my opinion.

It wasn't meant to be something "new." It's meant to share something that worked for me.

**nrg** · 07-31-2011 03:33 PM

a, ok

WBTB works best for me too.. great method!

**Avalanche** · 08-08-2011 03:36 PM

I don't think is is much a new technique, as more of a new formula for WBTB. No two people are exactly alike, so no one method works the same way, each time for two people. That's why humans don't have manuals. This means that each method for lucid dreaming in existence has the ability to be shaped and molded and redefined to fit people better.

This method is WBTB at it's core, but with a personal take on it that actually works. If you try this and it works for you, then odds are you are a similar person to the OP.

I'm going to try this as it fits in well with what I'm doing right now, and the staircase thing was imagined pretty easily in my head.

**Erii** · 08-08-2011 08:59 PM

this sounds like it could be promising

i will give it a try~

**Avalanche** · 08-09-2011 06:01 PM

Didn't do it, soz.

I will tonight though, for sure.

Reading, sensing, imagining, breathing, staircase, re-dreaming, mantra, sleep, wake up, repeat, lucid.

Got it.

**Avalanche** · 08-10-2011 11:43 AM

Ok, last night I was on DV right up until I went to bed. I got into bed, and did a little of noticing my senses, and then imagining them, but not that much. I did the breathing which helped quite a lot actually, then I imagined going down a staircase to my bed, feeling the steps and seeing everything. It went well-ish. I imagined a dream when I got to that bed, and said my mantra "I am dreaming" until it turned into "Imffp agm deereemin". I feel asleep, had no dreams, which was odd, then I woke up, did a 20 minute long WBTB, went back to bed and sleep, repeated all that stuff again, and I had a slightly larger amount of dreams than normal, and they were much more vivid in places that normal.

No lucid, but its only my first go. I'm trying this again tonight, it may just work.

**DpsBob** · 08-10-2011 11:23 PM

Recognize it for what it is, guys!

LittleDreamer isn't pioneering a new path here, nor is he claiming to; what he's done is assimilated information from a wealth of sources, tweaked and combined them in a way that he PERSONALLY found highly effective, and then shared his technique with the community. We like this! Even if many of these techniques are "old news", it is a great thing when you collaborate with every-day-people (not subject-specific authors, which are also of course wonderful resources) to find out what's working for them.

Point is, this is an awesome step-by-step approach that incorporates elements from a broad array of techniques. There are hand-picked influences from WBTB, visualization, autosuggestion, meditation, etc.

Summarized the steps in my pocket notebook and I will try it tonight. I like step number 3 - it's like you're preparing your mind to prioritize and focus on internal stimuli. I can definitely see how that would be effective. Cool stuff