Thread: Regarding "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming"

I've recently finished reading chapter 4 of Stephen LaBerge's book, in this chapter he mentions a lot of methods of focusing your thoughts when you go to sleep, for example focusing on tenents in your body or thinking about how you will have a lucid dream tonight. My questin for anyone who read this book is which of these is the most effective for a newcomer, I'm not super experienced with LD, but I don't know which one of these to focus on.

Hi,

Great question and great book. Here's the thing. As a newcomer, I would say that chapter 4 is not the chapter for you. Why? Because chapter 4 is all about how to achieve a WILD - methods for inducing WILDs are typically thought of as advanced techniques. It can be tricky to achieve a WILD, especially without having a lot of experience in the lucid state first.

So if you area newcomer to lucid dreaming, I recommended focusing on chapters 2 and 3.

Great exercises from Chapter 2:

Cataloguing dream signs. Go through your dream journal and look for dream signs. These can be anything that stand out as strange, or repetitive. Catalogue them using the 4 categories from the book:

1. Form - different or unusual shape, color, size, texture, etc. Examples - a person with rainbow colored hair walks by, a half-full bottle of coke for sale, a dream character morphs, etc.

2. Context - unusual because of the situation or setting, such as a dead relative shows up, being a soldier in WW2, seeing a celebrity, being on another planet, etc.

3. Action - unusual action taken by you or a dc, such as a character behaving oddly, or something working in a strange way. Example: using a pizza cutter to fly.

4. Inner Awareness - unusual because your awareness is not normal for some reason. Examples: very intense emotion, floating outside your body, 3rd person view, rewinding a dream scene, basically understanding it's a dream in some way without being lucid.

61 Point Relaxation Technique.

In the middle of the night, when you awaken to write down dreams, perform this laying down in your bed. Focus on your toes first, giving them your full attention. Lean into any odd or uncomfortable feelings such as aching or pain. Move up to your feet, ankles, calves, knees, etc. all the way through your body. Stay on each location for about 3-10 seconds. If there's ache, stay longer, until it quiets. Imagine each body part falling asleep as you focus. This is great for inducing WILDS or DILDs.

Great exercises from Chapter 3:

Critical State Testing. Practice reality checks! Especially whenever anything strange or unusual happens during the day time. You want to build your "critical reflective attitude."

Intention Technique. Visualize yourself becoming lucid. Especially good if you do it in the middle of the night, after having a dream. Imagine yourself in that dream, becoming lucid. Think about what dream sign made you lucid in your fantasy. Carry out intended actions in your visualization.

Prospective Memory Training. See my signature for help with this. Basically, you want to build this skill because it will help you remember to reality check during dreams, and help you notice your surroundings more. I can't overstate it's importance. You want to select pre-determined "triggers" that you must remember to reality check to, should you notice them in waking life. This is in addition to any strange or unusual things (see "critical state testing" exercise above). I like to base them mostly on sensory awareness, and I usually use 4 a day. I use one visual, one auditory, one active kinesthetic action, and one passive action. Examples - today's are: 1. See a bicycle. 2. Hear a jingling noise. 3. Flush the toilet. 4. Sneeze. You want to build awareness of your surroundings and memory.

If you're still interested in Chapter 4's techniques, I would focus on the Hypnogogic Imagery one. When I attempt a WILD, I always do a WBTB ("Wake back to bed") for 1-2 hours. Then, I practice the 61 point relaxation technique. Then I imagine a sinking sensation, and focus gently on hypnogogic imagery. It doesn't always work, and I usually prefer to do a DILD attempt because it's less demanding. The key with having a WILD is to relax so much so that you're barely awake, but not asleep. You have to walk the tightrope that connects waking to dreaming, and it's only a sliver wide. The next big key is to interact very gently with the dream world as it coalesces around you. Don't do anything major until it's quite solid. Make sure to stabilize the dream before taking off in flight or something. Also, emotional control is important. Stay calm, and dream on