Thread: How to Effectively Control Your Dreams

My biggest advance in dream control came when I finally stopped think about it as doing these things. For instance I do not cause a tree to burst in to flames. I change the visual field to show a tree bursting into flames. I may add in the tactile sensation of pressure waves and heat. I do not teleport going from one location to another. I blur the visual field and create a new visual field depicting a new location. I do not think this equals practical advice for the beginner. I hope it is a useful observation to solid lucid dreamers. I still enjoy the dreams and experience an exciting virtual reality, but I no longer perceive the things in the sense of doing anything. Instead it is fine manipulation of sensation. I am not even sure that relates to your post; sorry if it is totally off base. I guess what I am getting at is related to the schema part at the end. You point out that by grouping your fire skill in the brackets of elements, that you do not start over when moving to water. In my case I now relate all dream control to the same process. It is no longer one skill at a time. It is no longer broad groupings like teleport or elements. It is one process of altering the visual field of a computer (my brain) generated virtual reality, and also adding in any other needed sensations. Flying is no longer pushing my body through the air. It is now changing the visuals so that the visuals support what flying should be like. I add in a sensation of air moving over my body in a certain direction. I add in the feeling of g-forces. The resulting experience is very life like flying. If I pick another task like summoning. I do not imagine an object appearing due to a summons. I change the visual field to now include the object. So the idea is the same. I no longer have to learn a new dream control for each task. I know I have the ability to create each component of the virtual reality program I want. There fore in my dreams all dream control comes down to one process, more or less. I am sorry that this is of such little value to beginners. Note: I do not have flawless control. My brain can still add uncontrolled elements in. This actually adds to the adventure. Perfect control 100% of the time would take away from the hobby, IMO.

@exo
I hope this helps! Thanks for reading and commenting.

Originally Posted by sivason

My biggest advance in dream control came when I finally stopped think about it as doing these things. For instance I do not cause a tree to burst in to flames. I change the visual field to show a tree bursting into flames. I may add in the tactile sensation of pressure waves and heat. I do not teleport going from one location to another. I blur the visual field and create a new visual field depicting a new location. I do not think this equals practical advice for the beginner. I hope it is a useful observation to solid lucid dreamers. I still enjoy the dreams and experience an exciting virtual reality, but I no longer perceive the things in the sense of doing anything. Instead it is fine manipulation of sensation. I am not even sure that relates to your post; sorry if it is totally off base. I guess what I am getting at is related to the schema part at the end. You point out that by grouping your fire skill in the brackets of elements, that you do not start over when moving to water. In my case I now relate all dream control to the same process. It is no longer one skill at a time. It is no longer broad groupings like teleport or elements. It is one process of altering the visual field of a computer (my brain) generated virtual reality, and also adding in any other needed sensations. Flying is no longer pushing my body through the air. It is now changing the visuals so that the visuals support what flying should be like. I add in a sensation of air moving over my body in a certain direction. I add in the feeling of g-forces. The resulting experience is very life like flying. If I pick another task like summoning. I do not imagine an object appearing due to a summons. I change the visual field to now include the object. So the idea is the same. I no longer have to learn a new dream control for each task. I know I have the ability to create each component of the virtual reality program I want. There fore in my dreams all dream control comes down to one process, more or less. I am sorry that this is of such little value to beginners. Note: I do not have flawless control. My brain can still add uncontrolled elements in. This actually adds to the adventure. Perfect control 100% of the time would take away from the hobby, IMO.

I definitely see where you are coming from. I recently was thinking about how hard it must be for a dream to "render" all of the physical spaces, like one would render the space in a video game, and then I realized. It doesn't! It just makes you see things and feel things, it isn't like a video game, but more of tv screen on your eyes. This wasn't a new idea, but one that I hadn't really pondered as much as I should have. Like in my last LD in the comp, you aren't changing an actual tree, but the image of a tree, and even the "taste, smell, feel, and sound of a tree" but there isn't actually a tree there. This idea that it is less dimensional than we think really changed the way I felt about what I could do with dream control. This may be something that as you said isn't related, but I think that it is, I think of it as a "schema", but this schema is more powerful, because it is all encompassing of the dream and is true. I don't think that it can completely control every dream though, since it will fall to the same problems as normal schema in the way that doubt or something seemingly disconnected slips in. You may be thinking "this is just my mind simulating an experience, I will just put a fire in my hand." and your mind is like... "Fire... hot" and now you are feeling immense pain before you can stop the fire or the pain. I guess for me, while it is a powerful and often omnipotent type of schema, it isn't always the most helpful. It may be better for someone to experience element bending in the same way as anime and try to connect the schema there instead of connecting it just to a dream. The pleasure of doing it will often be greater. The randomness in a dream is often its greatest draw. I have been working on something to bring that randomness to visualization, and it is semi working, if I can get it to work fully, I will officially have no line with witch to draw a distinction from when I am WILDing or visualizing, so it will be interesting.

Thank you for the input, I probably should have mentioned this specific thing in the OP really, but I did not. I might type something up and ask you to put it in when I have thought on how it would work in the thread more.

Originally Posted by Sensei

I guess for me, while it is a powerful and often omnipotent type of schema, it isn't always the most helpful. It may be better for someone to experience element bending in the same way as anime and try to connect the schema there instead of connecting it just to a dream. The pleasure of doing it will often be greater. The randomness in a dream is often its greatest draw.

I couldn't agree more. I like to pretend the effects come from magic or super hero abilities. I know what is really going on, but clinically altering a V.R. program is not near as fun as feeling like a Jedi as I shoot lightning from my fingers.