Stabilizing

**SgtPeanuts** · 12-11-2012 02:56 AM

Hello Everyone! Ok, first I would like to say I have had so far 2 lucid dream, but both of them only lasted under a minute. I had another one last night (wooo!) Only problem is I have hard stabilizing it. Ok, so last night, I watched Inception for the second time (Great movie) and went to sleep right after, repeating "I will have many lucid dreams" over and over until I fell asleep. I had a couple dreams, and I was in the middle of the second one when suddenly I appeared in my bathroom, and for some reason,without doing any reality checks I knew instantly I was dreaming. It as scary to see how real it looked at first though. I looked at my hands and noticed that my pinky was missing on my left hand. So I was like, "Oh well I am dreaming yay!" And I walked out of the room and noticed everything became really blurry and I noticed I started waking up (everything was going black) so I tried spinning, which helped a little, so I started to TRY to do verbal commands. Only problem is I could not talk. I tried to say, "Lucid dream, Clear up!" but I could not for the life of me open my mouth. Maybe I was to late, and started to regain my real body or something.. however I am not sure.

This has happened to the other dreams as well. It seems like I do not even have a chance to relax and anchor the dream.. Any suggestions? Also, whenever I become lucid, my "Dream Body" feels fuzzy.. is that normal?

Anyways, thanks for reading, if you need any info, post in the comments and I will answer them.. thanks!!

**MarineRecon** · 12-11-2012 03:13 AM

Congrats on your lucid! The first thing that you have to do when you find yourself lucid is to tame your emotions, but by the way you describe your LD it seems like you got that part down. Secondly, I like to look at my hands and shout "Clarity Now!!!" until my hands look so realistic it's scary hahaha. After that my dream is pretty much stabilized. During the dream though I still like to stabilize periodically so I do not lose awareness.

Also, you said that you spun around to stabilize. In some cases that helps but from what I read only use that as a last resort because it can lead to you waking up, which is what I think happend in your case.

I hope that you found this insightful!

**SgtPeanuts** · 12-11-2012 03:22 AM

Thanks MarineRecon! As I described in my post, I was trying to say things but I could not for some reason, I could not open my mouth.. It was strange! Thanks for the reply, It helps a lot!

**MarineRecon** · 12-11-2012 03:31 AM

Oh I must have read over that part

It is strange you mentioned that because I had the same problem! What I did was nothing....Yup, if you think about it when you are lucid than there is a good chance it will happen. I just totally swept that out of my mind. What I normally do to forget stuff is lay down and imagine a cloud. Then put what you want into the cloud and let it float out of your mind and away. It is actually a good relaxation technique too.

**Drax** · 12-11-2012 08:00 AM

The reason you likely couldn't open you mouth is due to the fact you weren't yet truly convinced you were dreaming. It's the same reason many beginner LDers (I'm no expert myself) can't control the dream e.g fly or pass through objects. If your expectation becomes that you cannot speak, then you cannot speak. If you think it's hard to fly, it becomes hard to fly. In all of cases the best form is to do what comes naturally, if you struggle talking don't talk, rub your hands together, count your things or spin on the spt Return again to your voice if need be but don't let it concern you, if you're lucid you're lucid and there's nothing more to it then that.

I personally would recommend rubbing hands and following up with sense checking. Make sure the first thing you do in a lucid dream is to STOP! Most dreamers will continue walking autonomously after becoming lucid, this shows naivety and lack of control. If you stop and just briefly take in your surroundings, the sound, the feel of a wall, the feel of your hands, feel of your clothing, feel of your body, what do you smell?, what clothes are you wearing? what do you look like? How much clarity is there? If there isn't clarity try pretending to put on a pair of glasses (pull them from your pocket, just expect they'll be there). This works perfectly for me as I'm short sighted and wear contact lenses, but in general it works because if the mental intention. Just doing that briefly will increase you dream stability and clarity a 100x.

It's also important to consider something like ADA (though I'm not a fan of that particular technique). Just consider how rare it is you feel the above senses or ask the above questions in reality. If you don't know what you hear, smell or see in reality how can you expect such clarity in the dream world. If you don't stop and take a look around once in a while how can you expect the same not to be true in a dream?

**MarineRecon** · 12-11-2012 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by Drax

It's also important to consider something like ADA (though I'm not a fan of that particular technique).

I may ask, why don't you like ADA? I was just wondering because I thought that ADA just increases your awareness to improve the chances of LDing in general. It could be used as a stand-alone technique, but I think it is more of a supplemental technique like MILD.

**Drax** · 12-13-2012 10:50 PM

Originally Posted by MarineRecon

I may ask, why don't you like ADA? I was just wondering because I thought that ADA just increases your awareness to improve the chances of LDing in general. It could be used as a stand-alone technique, but I think it is more of a supplemental technique like MILD.

I don't dislike the idea of All-Day Awareness I dislike the standard technique that goes with it. Typically when people refer to ADA they also are referring to a default technique which consists mainly of performing Reality Checks (RC's) to certain Dream Sign cues in reality. For instance walking up a set of stairs. Awareness in general is a good thing to cultivate but I feel ADA cultivates more of a habitual and ritualistic stance to dreaming which is less likely to make you lucid and more likely to result in false lucidity e.g where you perform an RC but are still non-lucid or are lucid but don't act upon it.

**MarineRecon** · 12-13-2012 11:02 PM

Originally Posted by Drax

I don't dislike the idea of All-Day Awareness I dislike the standard technique that goes with it. Typically when people refer to ADA they also are referring to a default technique which consists mainly of performing Reality Checks (RC's) to certain Dream Sign cues in reality. For instance walking up a set of stairs. Awareness in general is a good thing to cultivate but I feel ADA cultivates more of a habitual and ritualistic stance to dreaming which is less likely to make you lucid and more likely to result in false lucidity e.g where you perform an RC but are still non-lucid or are lucid but don't act upon it.

I see what you're saying. Thanks, I was just wondering what you meant earlier

**Astralent** · 12-13-2012 12:51 AM

Just as soon as i become lucid i rub my hands together, stare/focus on my hands, spin around then look at the ground and solve a simple math problem. It works for me.

**Sivason** · 12-13-2012 04:56 AM

Sometimes you will not be able to avoid waking. It is easiest to get lucid moments before you wake. With practice you will get lucid in deeper sleep.

Try this routine for stabilizing. Look at something close like your hands, then look at something further away, like a wall or a tree. Then tap your finger or rap your knuckles on something near by.

**Kaenthem** · 12-13-2012 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by sivason

Sometimes you will not be able to avoid waking. It is easiest to get lucid moments before you wake. With practice you will get lucid in deeper sleep.

If so, I believe learning how to chain is very important. So I think it's best to learn how to DEILD.

**gogodoll** · 12-13-2012 03:27 PM

I usually have the same problem , i get lucid but stabilizing it is hard for me so i loose it soon , you guys have mentioned above about stabilizing techniques but how will you remember that for exam you gotta look at your hands or some other things that u have mentioned i mean if i try to get that much focused that i actually remember doing some thing like looking at my hands i suddenly wake up i mean it will work against me.

**Sivason** · 12-13-2012 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by gogodoll

I usually have the same problem , i get lucid but stabilizing it is hard for me so i loose it soon , you guys have mentioned above about stabilizing techniques but how will you remember that for exam you gotta look at your hands or some other things that u have mentioned i mean if i try to get that much focused that i actually remember doing some thing like looking at my hands i suddenly wake up i mean it will work against me.

I don't think the answer is very fun. The truth is it takes practice. I think the first 12 or so LDs are just about your brain getting over the shock of something new. Stick to it and be patient. It may take months before the really good stuff starts, but then you have a life time to enjoy it.

**sanctispiritus** · 12-13-2012 03:44 PM

Originally Posted by SgtPeanuts

Hello Everyone! Ok, first I would like to say I have had so far 2 lucid dream, but both of them only lasted under a minute. I had another one last night (wooo!) Only problem is I have hard stabilizing it. Ok, so last night, I watched Inception for the second time (Great movie) and went to sleep right after, repeating "I will have many lucid dreams" over and over until I fell asleep. I had a couple dreams, and I was in the middle of the second one when suddenly I appeared in my bathroom, and for some reason,without doing any reality checks I knew instantly I was dreaming. It as scary to see how real it looked at first though. I looked at my hands and noticed that my pinky was missing on my left hand. So I was like, "Oh well I am dreaming yay!" And I walked out of the room and noticed everything became really blurry and I noticed I started waking up (everything was going black) so I tried spinning, which helped a little, so I started to TRY to do verbal commands. Only problem is I could not talk. I tried to say, "Lucid dream, Clear up!" but I could not for the life of me open my mouth. Maybe I was to late, and started to regain my real body or something.. however I am not sure.

This has happened to the other dreams as well. It seems like I do not even have a chance to relax and anchor the dream.. Any suggestions? Also, whenever I become lucid, my "Dream Body" feels fuzzy.. is that normal?

Anyways, thanks for reading, if you need any info, post in the comments and I will answer them.. thanks!!

I have tried many things to stabilize my lucid dreams. In my case, what has given me better results is to focus on something specific within the dream. If you were in the bathroom and you felt that the dream was ending, you could have directed your attention to the toilet bowl for only give you an example. YOU WOULD have gone into details such as whether the water was clear, which was the color of the toilet, etc.. It's as if you cling to an object or image in the dream to keep this finalize.

**stonedreams** · 12-13-2012 11:58 PM

See if I had any suggestion for you to keep your dreams stable it would be to use verbal commands. I find it very weird you couldn't talk.

**MarineRecon** · 12-14-2012 12:03 AM

I like your sig Stone! Radioactive is one of my favorite songs!

**TheOneirologist** · 12-14-2012 02:46 PM

It's definitely true that thought would have helped where verbal commands failed. I've even read that in certain dreams your thoughts become verbal without you intending it. Anyway, I personally have liked to investigate my hands. First I make sure to check my fingers, then I look at the thin wrinkles and moles on my hands. While this does always make the dream clearer for me, it also presents the risk of becoming out of touch with the rest of your senses. The best stabilization technique is one that forces you to invest all five senses in the dream, but I haven't quite gotten that down myself yet.