I'm working towards my first lucid dream ever. This thread will simply be a series of journals about what I am doing and the steps I am taking. Any insights, advice, or help will be appreciated greatly.
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I'm working towards my first lucid dream ever. This thread will simply be a series of journals about what I am doing and the steps I am taking. Any insights, advice, or help will be appreciated greatly.
Bedtime WILD: I tried this only once, and after about 10-15 minutes I felt like my whole body was buzzing and I was spinning at high speeds. Then it all stopped and I entered the calm state. While the signs were definitely more potent than the daytime version, it is the same effect.
Nighttime WILD: I learned that it is best to do a WILD after sleeping. I have done this twice, and both times I just fell asleep again before I could do anything.
Other methods: Since they all require reality checks and stuff, I lack the diligence to do them. If no WILD techniques prove successful I will do them.
Lucid dreaming is like a big home-cooked dinner. And reality checks are like the meat and potatoes. They are what you need most of all. So saying 'I won't do them because I'm not committed enough' probably isn't the best mindset to have. I sometimes forget to reality check for long stretches of time, sometimes most of the day. But you should still do them whenever it crosses your mind.
I do them when I can but I just don't have the focus to constantly be doing them
I would disagree with Jade there. I think it is (this may suprise people to say it) un-natural, to do reality checks, and that it's not a realistic way to live (ironic). This is why most of us get sick of RCs or don't have the attention for it because they don't become relevant to us. What I would suggest to attain Lucidity, it's a very spiritual thing. I think you not only need to be a very spiritual person, but unless it's the RIGHT kind of spirituality, that Lucid dreams won't even benifit. In occult circles, satanist are known to be extremely proficient at lucid dreams to the extent where they have them at will, and go places on earth in real life. But they do this in a way that is definitely not healthy. So it's not just about getting Lucid dreams, I think from the beginning you should have a really good think about why you want to do it, your beliefs, and how it relates to your life. When you have a hobby in life like say playing the guitar, you practice that and get good at it, and enjoy it in your spare time. Lucid dreaming is not like that, because it's to do with your consiousness and your mind, and your soul, and in dreams there is gateways open that effects you. Focusing on dreams intensely is similar to using mind altering drugs, it can be dangerous to your perception in life and how you live. Before you start I advise just a balanced approach, is the most important thing.
sssssiiilllllllld... that is if you are able to go back to sleep that is:)
Unlike deanstar's "spiritual" approach, I agree completely with jadegreen. Even if you are aiming to make WILD a primary method, reality checks and awareness practice will certainly help..but only if practiced in the right manner.
Diligence is something that must be forced for the period in which your initial interest is lacking but you haven't yet developed the necessary skills. The first key to becoming diligent in your practice is being prepared, this means sorting out exactly what techniques you wish to spend time on, making a plan of action, setting realistic goals, getting a book to dream journal in and chart your progress.
Make a system that can work and isn't tiresome to do. Once you have that, and you fill it in at the end of every night you will see your progress directly. Without marking down your progression you will simply forget about lucid dreaming for long stretches of time and potentially fall into the habit of lying to yourself that you've been working on it when you haven't really.
Another very important point to make is that WILD is easily as demanding as any other technique. It takes extreme devotion to wake up every night just to find the balance, to try out different techniques and remain patient through the process.
Now I'm not trying to scare you away from it, lucid dreaming may come naturally to you, but you are likely going to need to look at it realistically to succeed.
New Report:
I have had a dream journal by my bed for like 2-3 weeks now and I go to bed with 100% full intention to record in the morning, but for some reason when I wake up I decide not to do it. Like 10 minutes later I realize that was stupid. Basically I get up and I have a big dream and it's like trying to hold a giant clump of marbles, it just falls apart. So usually I go through it in my head once before writing it and I can't even finish I get like 1/8 of the dream before the rest fades. Or sometimes I wake up and already forgot my dream.
Very common. Dream recall seems to be really messy until you get your thoughts happening in a more consistent or coherent manner subconsiously. Even then dreams are not like waking life and they don't go by waking life logic, so there is a language and dimensional barrier to converting them into writing. That is one of the fundemental steps I believe is in gather those chaotic thoughts together, and to start sorting them out like untangling a piece of rope. Takes patience and skill. Eventually you learn more about yourself than you would if you were just reflecting about yourself in waking life cause you are using the power of your subconsious as well as consious.Quote:
Originally Posted by Avian
The moment you wake up, sit up in bed and start recalling from there. It helps me gain enough motivation to right it usually.Quote:
Originally Posted by Avian
September 14:
After taking a long break from my WILD attempts I have restarted. I set an alarm for 6:30 after going to bed at 12:30 (I was asleep shortly afterwards), but I woke up at 4:00AM from a weird dream or something. I definitely woke up from REM sleep because what made me wake up was a really weird "spooky" sound in my dream caused by my dog rolling around and sniffing in real life. Although it seems foggy and not realistic now, I recall mentally noting that the dream was EXTREMELY realistic to the point where it could have been real life except for the weird things happening. Anyways, I woke myself up, watched a youtube video about WILDing to inspire myself, and lay down in bed. I don't know why, but it didn't and wouldn't work. I know that it always works when I do it when I go to sleep, but since there is no dream to enter I just end up laying there. This time there was surely a dream to enter but I couldn't do it. I'm pretty sure I wasn't moving a lot, but I couldn't keep my mind from wandering. Could that have been it? On most of my successful attempts I kept a focused mind and just focused on my breathing. This time my mind wandered after about a minute and after an hour, I wasn't getting results so I gave up and went to sleep. What did I do wrong?
September 16:
I tried SSILD last night after sleeping for 4-5 hours, the recommended amount. I got up, got a glass of water, got in bed, and started. However, I couldn't focus this time either. Even something as simple as focusing on the sounds I was hearing was impossible, as I was being pulled by sleep. I guess I was half asleep because at one point I wasn't sure whether I actually saw a piece of sheet music while my eyes were closed or if that was just my imagination. Anyways, I completed the instructions, went to sleep, and nothing happened. Did I need to focus more? If yes, how would I do that?
Sounds like you need to wake up more for the WBTB part of it. You risk a little insomnia, but the more time awake the better imo. Also, I think SSILD is a good tech to use for getting your first few lucids. I definitely would not try to WILD if I were you, it just seems to drain your motivation and you probably need a little more experience before going that route. Keep trying the WBTB + SSILD and you should have a lucid soon.
Also, I tend to disagree with the dream journal being such a necessity for beginners. If you ask me all it does is drain your motivation and distract you from your actual goal of getting a LD (at least in my case, everyone is different). When I started trying to LD, I DJed for around a month and then quit trying because it just wore me down and I wasn't seeing results. I haven't DJed since except for really cool lucids. I think it spares you some motivation and focus that you can then throw at the goal of actually having a LD.
Also there's a certain inherent memory that comes with being lucid. It's not like your regular dream where you can forget everything. The only time when I really don't remember an LD well is because I had another one right after it that stole my attention, but that's a good problem to have :D
I tried SSILD again and nothing whatsoever happened. I am sure that I spent enough time during WBTB because I was totally focused when doing it. I think I'm going to go back to WILD as I have never tried it when I was doing WBTB for a long enough amount of time.
I've heard the slower you wake up, the more you remember of your dream. And I've found it to be true, whether it's placebo effect or not it still works for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Avian