how do i get over this obstacle ?

[RobiZ]

So basically I've been trying to lucid dream for like month. Before that I had dream recall like maybe 1 good dream in 1 - 2 weeks. Now I discovered interesting pattern in my dream Journal. It's like 1 long and vivid dream , 2 short or no dream, 1 long and vivid and again 2 short or no dream. So also I've noticed that last 3 days have been all long and vivid dreams (dream recall increased to 1 night 1 dream? Thou I feel like I've been dreaming before the vivid dream,but can't remember what). But the obstacle is , how do i get lucid now ? Or should I improve my dream recall way further ? I've been doing RC's (the finger counting and looking at palms ,pushing finger through palm, and trying to breathe with plugged nose),whenever I remember throughout the day. But it seems like every dream for me is like reality and I don't even think about doing any RC's or I don't have even a thought that I'm dreaming. Usually I try to MILD(I've tried a lot of Mantras,it's just hard to make one short and meaningful in my language) and DILD combination, I can't really do WILD's, because I have to wake up at 5:00AM -6:00AM every day. I'm also trying to listen to Isochronic or binaural beats before bed (I don't know I think they help somehow, maybe that's just psychology). So any suggestions on this ? I really want to LD, so I don't think I've lost my inspiration to try achieve it. Thanks

[JoannaB]

I have heard that for lucid dreaming it really helps to have dream recall that is fairly consistently multiple dreams remembered per night, but of course there are no rules that apply for everyone. Similarly, some people have a lucid dream as soon as they hear about it, and others put in a lot of effort for a year before they succeed. Most people are somewhere in between those two extremes. I think lucid dreaming is a wonderful hobby that teaches us so much, including patience and perseverance.

[Sensei]

I think that you should start practicing LDing right away, but keep up dream recall practice. I think that dream recall is one of the most important things that can be done in LDs. Check out this thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/general-lu...important.html It should give you some good ideas on what to practice while doing some RCs and MILD. The intro class can give you some good advice: http://www.dreamviews.com/intro-class/

[MasterMind]

There are lots of things you can tell a beginner to do, such as reality checks, WBTBS, dream recall and many other things. But I am going to be honest and tell you what I do, and if you find it valuable, try it out. I don't reality check during the day, I don't keep a dream journal, I don't WBTB with an external device. And let's go back to the origin of lucid dreaming. The Tibetan practise. Do you think these monks have a dream journal? Look at their hands all day? Use alarmclocks? No probably not... What they do though is to be aware of themselves the entire day. What is awareness you ask? Youtube tutorials might say that it is an act of becoming aware of your surroundings and if you are aware of being awake or not. And well this is true to some extent, but if you really think about what a dream essentially is, you will see that a dream is only an experience of yourself, your memories, your thoughts and emotions. So if a dream is your memories, thoughts and emotions what is then the obvious way to practise dream awareness during the day? To be aware of yourself! Which are the people that lucid dream and use their imagination in the most effortless way? Children! What differs them from us? Well they are not in their head! As we get older we spend more and more time in our heads analyzing, juding everything we encounter instead of being aware of it. Right now for example you might be thinking about lucid dreaming and the best methods and juding your own practise etc. But you are not aware of the room you are sitting in. Anyway my point is that awareness of yourself, your thoughts and the presence and now is the only thing you need. Because your worries, concerns and stressful thoughts make you unaware of the present moment. I thought about this and started to meditate as I went to sleep to get rid of all my worries before going to sleep and then I suddenly find myself in a vivid dream totally aware. I realize now that this isn't so weird since the dream is an experience of ourselves, if we are stressed or worried as we go to sleep, we will have stressed and worreid dreams, but if you go to sleep with a clear and calm mind, you will have calm and clear dreams. So my point with all this is that I think you should practise whatever you find interesting and fun, but to be present is the core. Sweet dreams!

[realdealmagic]

I can't really add on to what everybody else said to expand on their points. I will say that my advice to you would be to continue with your Recall training, and also keep at it with the RCs. But as MasterMind said, it's all about awareness. You won't know when to do a Reality Check within a dream if you don't pay attention to your surroundings, and to where you are, because you won't be able to realise when your surroundings are strange. The root of all Lucid Dreaming is awareness. Check out this WILD Lesson from Sageous' class on awareness, it covers it pretty well.

[RobiZ]

Lately i noticed , that when outside , something "snaps" in my mind and immediately everything is so beautiful and unseen , like I see all the details and everything, every single object (like trees or something like that). I guess this is how i should be all the day then ?

[CNGB]

http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...kingyoshi.html Sorry if you've already read that before, but as it relates to awareness I figured you might find it helpful. Awareness is a huge part of lucidity. Also, if you don't practice dream recall (like dream journaling) for the fun of it, then look at it like this: For every time that you don't remember your dream, you might have had a lucid dream, controlled everything, and had the best experience you've ever had--and yet you don't remember it. So yeah, I'd definitely say that you should work on your dream recall.

[SuperOhm]

If you want short mantras, I suggest simple predication. I personally use a two part mantra which is simple and short "I am aware. I am dreaming." That's it. I'm not sure of the details of Latvian, but most languages have simple predicates as well as terms for dreaming and awareness. I imagine "I know. This is a dream." might also work with similar success. These could easily be strung together, and I do, but I felt like it was important that each simple predicate be sufficient on it's own on the off chance that my in-dream brain doesn't properly parse complex language properly. I've already found that tense and negatives don't work for me. "I will dream" for instance won't work. "I will not forget my intention" will also not work for the same reason. "I will recognize that I'm dreaming" will not work for several reasons, too complex and future tense. I have no idea if the same holds true for tense, negation, and complexity in other languages. That would be an interesting study. As for whether or not you should try to LD, it couldn't hurt. The worst thing that might happen would be that you won't succeed that time. No big deal, there's always next time.

[JoannaB]

Oh, yes. I agree, one should always try. My previous post in this thread now I realize could be misinterpreted to suggest that one should not try to LD until one recalls several dreams per night, which is not what I meant: I meant that to increase chances of success with LD, one should aim for improving dream recall to several dreams per night, that's what I read anyway.

[CNGB]

Hum. I did not realize that the in-brain (or some peoples' brains) couldn't comprehend certain tenses, nor did I think that some wordings might be too complex. Might be something I should change for myself. Thanks, SuperOhm.

[SuperOhm]

There's a whole can of worms in that discussion about tense, negation, and complexity. But yes, make your mantras, or linguistic controls, as simple as possible. Simple predication is as simple as it gets "x is y", "b are a", etc. They require less cognitive machinery to process and as such, its more likely that the portion of your brain which processes those types of conceptual syntax will be active. Predication seems necessary for cognition, so I think it'll always be active unless the dream is 100% abstract... which is rare. Even then, it's probably still active.

[RobiZ]

Some of you guys didn't read my first post , but it's okay . As in first post mentioned , i write dream journal , and it's like the first thing that helps me in dream recall. Also I do try to Lucid Dream. Also as I said in first post , in Dream Journal i noticed a pattern - 1 day - long vivid dream, 2 days - short dreams or no dreams, 1 day - long vivid dream 2 day - short or no dreams. Now I also noticed that the pattern broke. Tonight i got 4th vivid dream in row (4 days I got 1 vivid dream each night).

[JoannaB]

Congrats on four nights of vivid dreams!

[CNGB]

1 day - long vivid dream, 2 days - short dreams or no dreams Just in case you're referring to me, when I said that for every time you don't remember your dream I was talking about those two days where you can't remember them. Regardless, it's really good that the pattern's broke and you've had four vivid dreams in a row. That means that you're that much closer to achieving lucidity, so good job!

[RobiZ]

Okay today i tried something different. (Whole?) night I slept on my back. I mean i got a med size vivid dream, which I remembered when i was turning on the PC , but it wasn't worth for me, i just couldn't fall asleep and then i woke up not relaxed. So i Guess i better stay with my right side position . So fifth vivid dream in row , huh ?

[CNGB]

Yep, you're doing good. I've heard that sleeping on the back enhances the dream and I've even tried it once before, but I don't remember my results. I just remember that it took me a few hours to get to sleep and the following day was awful. Sorta like you!

[RobiZ]

Yep, you're doing good. I've heard that sleeping on the back enhances the dream and I've even tried it once before, but I don't remember my results. I just remember that it took me a few hours to get to sleep and the following day was awful. Sorta like you! I believe you get best dreams in "Your best position'. I think i won't try sleeping on my back , because it feels uncomfortable and i can't just fall asleep in that position

[Sensei]

Sleeping positions are something that I think you should test out. If you can't sleep in that position, then I would cross that one off immediately, since the main thing you need for LDing is sleep.