Thread: What is most important?

Dream Journal, Imagination, and Dedication.
That's all I feel the need to attest to.
I developed my ability to lucid dream, naturally, by exploring my own mind. I would lay in the bed and run all sorts of thought experiments in my own mind. I did for hours on end, every night. I did this so much that my mental imagery, focus, control, and comfort level became so high that in my dreams I would remain aware. So, I developed DILD naturally. I noticed that if I played around with the notion of sleep, instead of closing my eyes and blanking out, that I was able to reach strange states of mind, and this FASCINATED me. This quickly lead me to WILDs. I didn't have the internet back then. I lucid dreamed for ten years before I learned that there was a word for it. I really just thought of it as "Studying my brain".

So, for me, all that I needed was imagination.
Dedication MUST be important, because without it you won't even try to lucid dream, and that rarely leads to lucid dreaming. lol
And I state Dream Journal, because for the time that I had one, my dream recall SKYROCKETED.

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

What is the single most important thing to have to attain lucidity?

Confidence
Awareness
Self-awareness
Imagination
Dream recall
Dream journal
Dedication
Sleep schedule

I was thinking of course that you can do things to effect each one of these things. The top four you can do types of meditation to achieve. The bottom four just take time. All are great for lucidity, but which is best?

Feel free to add to the list if you like. tell me what you think!

Looks like this will be an interesting thread.
My vote is for 'Dream recall' but also for myself, expectation seems to play a major role as well as the other things you have listed. If my brain doesn't expect to lucid dream, it doesn't.

Oh yeah, sloth is right too, doing a dream journal improves dream recall.

For me, it'd be dedication. This is especially true for starters, like I once was. The first few weeks of learning to lucid dream were very crucial. Motivation seemed to fade really quickly, especially when nothing seemed to be working. In those first few weeks for me, it was really overwhelming because I had to learn so many new things. Even though I had lucid dreams before without knowing what they were, it was still challenging to be introduced to so many new terms and concepts, and to begin a new lifestyle with dreaming in the foreground.

If it weren't for dedication, I would have given up completely, and quickly. And I'm not just talking about dedication to have a lucid in general, which is too broad. It's the dedication to the little things that helped me achieve a lucid — like dedication to be consistent with my dream journal, dedication to my chosen technique, dedication to my goals, as well as dedication to the forum. Having dedication to all these little things ultimately led me to achieve lucidity.

When you dedicate yourself to something, regardless of natural talent or luck, something good will always come out of it. Maybe not always in the form of lucids, but also in other aspects of yourself that you have improved in the process. And when you improve yourself, you are in a much better position and mindset to keep doing what you are doing.

1. dream recall - because you'll never remember your dream even if its lucid if you don't so then what would be the point?
2. awareness - after you have dream recall this is all you need to have a lucid dream.
3. dedication - practice makes perfect

the rest of the list are important things. but not "necessary" to have lucid dreams. really all you need is recall and awareness. the other things are more like building blocks to get those. i would say a solid sleep schedule is important, but its proven itself to me time and again that you can have REALLY solid, stable, controlled lucids after staying up getting wasted for about 3 days straight. I wouldn't reccomend it, but it definitely happens. I had also smoked salvia not long before that, not sure if that may have had an effect.

Wow I'm really excited to see answers from this thread from experienced dreamers but I think maybe picking three ideas from the list would be better because taking only one seems a bit harsh and I think you need many from that list equally. Just my 2c.

Now to make my post have a bit more content. In my opinion:
1. Awareness
2. Dedication/Consistency
3. Dream Recall

Having some top notch awareness is what will help you recognize you're dreaming more often. Take Naiya or any natural for example; she has a lucid dream or two each night with awareness because she can recognize the different feeling from being awake to being in a dream and she can then notice other odd things easily. I think if you want to become a 'natural' then using awareness is the way to go.

Dedication is also very important because you're not going to succeed and become good a lucid dreaming ever if you aren't prepared to put in some effort. If you give up, you will get less and less lucids until you only get them very rarely again. Whereas if you don't given up, you're going to get lucids more and more often until you're proficient.

And the obvious one, dream recall. You need to remember your dreams. It's a building block. 'nuff said.

Thank you all for your responses. Looks like I'm the only one with confidence so far .

Anyways. I think it is interesting the answers you guys are putting and the reasons. It appeals to my lucid nerd side.

Keep up the good answers!

I would have to say confidence and imagination. By imagination I of course mean the ability to visualize.

I would say, for the first 1-2 LDs, it's

excitement with some
practice

Later, it comes down to

recall
intent/confidence
practice
emotions

I would say Curiosity. Somewhat like Confidence, it's a quality that underlies everything else and motivates and improves everything else. To use another term for the same thing, I would also call it "Beginner's Mind." Beginner's Mind is a concept of Zen that emphasizes a constant willingness to learn, adapt, and accept new things. In this way, Curiosity shares some of the same aspects of Self-Awareness, Dedication, Creativity.

But I am also very practical. So from a practical standpoint, I think Dream Recall is crucial too.

Dedication, Dedication and Dedication! This is the only thing that I've been missing and I just can't get back. I don't know why. I'm motivated and all but I just can't bring myself to practice seriously. I never been more confident about something like I am about lucid dreaming. If I try I get a lot of Lds but I'm always like. I'll practice tomorrow....
and I've been saying this for 4 months now!

All those things are really important and some may over lap a bit. For me the most important is Self-Awareness. You cannot be lucid without self-awareness. That is essentially the definition of a lucid dream. If you cannot be mindful and aware during the day then you will be like a corpse during the night.

A really close second, if not equal, is confidence. When I am totally confident I usually get lucid. Actually you have reminded me of this. Thank you. I put most of my focus on self-awareness but unless I have at least some confidence, I don't get lucid. I often repeat mantras and affirmations during the day to build my confidence. So yeah, I would agree with you there.

I do have to say this, however. Before my first LD I was really skeptical if any of this lucid dreaming stuff was real. I focused on my dream recall and daily RCs until one day I had a really spectacular LD. I had zero confidence, but by working to notice dream signs and build my awareness, I was able to break past any doubt.

@are you me
You need to watch more bleach! That will get you motivated and dedicated.

@xanous
Yes. I definitely feel like most of them leek into the others when you are putting them in practice like confidence and expectation. Imagination might be one of the most stand alone, but it has helped me so much!

@ sysiphus
Thanks for the reply, I have seen you on a lot of threads recently and noticed you have consistent LDs and used to come here a bit before I got here. Welcome back. curiosity is a pretty big deal since it is probably tjr first step to LD, because had you heard lucid dreaming and had to actually look it up. As well as the starters of lucid dreaming (naturals, Laberge, and others) I had 10 LDs before even knowing what an LD was, and didn't even think about trying to induce. They actually woke up from that and started thinking "what if?"

@ everyone
Thank you for all the replies, they all make sense to me. I am hoping to be able to get my thoughts in order for this, I don't think this is a thing that has a right answer, it depends on what techniques you are applying. I am hoping to get some ideas from this... i dont know what though.

I would defenatly say Dedication, having to pick only one, but following Dedication I would most certanly say Imagination.
I think dedication is most important because I have seen many a times people having most of the other stuff that you listed, yet not being satisfied with their results, expecting that the knowledge of LDing they have will automaticly give them a LD every night, thus leading them to not explore tehniques, practice and similar aswell as people giving up after a few unsuccsesfull tries. From my personal expiriences, best progress I had when I gave full dedication and emmersed myself fully in the dream world, when I set up taska, schedules and goals that I follow. As for Imagination, I think it is important aswell, to induce curiosity and fantasy that helps a lot with getting interested in expirimenting with LD, practicing and so forth.

*I hope you do not mind me answering to your topic, seeing that I am a new member

Even though I'm not a regular lucid dreamer...
Confidence. Knowing that you want to lucid dream. The feeling of not wanting to miss out on something this epic.

Haha. I meant regular as in like... "regular, normal, not much different." pretty much just anyone that lucid dreams. Like a regular guy a regular basketball player or something like that. Not just someone who gets lucid regularly or is a regular to this site. Anyone may respond if they have an opinion on the matter

All of this is very interesting to me, and I like to hear others opinions about things.

Don't think on the single one thing it's possible to get far in different lucid dreaming skills, so i have to select a few.
Confidence i think is really important for starting out as well as for dream control, considering how dream control works.
Dedication is important for general practice, to become better at lucid dreaming.
And imagination is very important for creative dream control as well as for general quality of lucid dreams, especially when aiming for things that are not possible IWL.
Other things mentioned are also important in ways, but those three are most important in my opinion.

Dream recall it is! I read the comments and I recall no dream recall so that's why. I have a point though!
Because if you remember lots of dreams, you will notice lots of dreams signs, whether you want it or not. They say people get about 5-10 dreams a day. If you know about lucid dreaming, have some ideas about it AND know tons of dreams signs (because you remember lots of dreams). The chance is huge that you will recognise a sign and get lucid. You will also remember everything you do in lucids so practicing and experimenting becomes more efficient.

I went with dream recall just to contradict everyone but it turns out this really is the most important one

Originally Posted by Ginsan

Dream recall it is! I read the comments and I recall no dream recall so that's why. I have a point though!
Because if you remember lots of dreams, you will notice lots of dreams signs, whether you want it or not. They say people get about 5-10 dreams a day. If you know about lucid dreaming, have some ideas about it AND know tons of dreams signs (because you remember lots of dreams). The chance is huge that you will recognise a sign and get lucid. You will also remember everything you do in lucids so practicing and experimenting becomes more efficient.

I went with dream recall just to contradict everyone but it turns out this really is the most important one

dream recall was the #1 most important thing in my comment.

I agree somewhat with Checker666, I don't think a single thing has the top spot regarding importance.

But I don't think confidence is the "must" have. Sure it helps a lot especially when you're beginning, but in my opinion it doesn't do much after. If you don't feel particularly confident that you'll have a lucid dream, you can still achieve it due all the other steps you took. It's like studying: you may don't want to learn, but if you follow the correct steps, you'll still retain the information in your head. It was a pretty interesting article they made about it. And since the title is regarding attaining lucidity, I don't count confidence being necessary for dream control.

I also don't think things like creativity or imagination are "must haves". In my experience, the single factor that most contributed was consistency: the ability to keep rewiring your brain by introducing new habits, strong habits, present in a multitude of small tasks designed to build self-aware and meta-awareness. I do think that emotion plays a role, because I couldn't possible reach lucid dreams in a matter of a few days coming from breaks of months without really attaching myself to my goal. But apart from the occasional lucid, you can't really expect regular results without being consistent in your technique and "tricks".

Some months ago (once again after a long break) I tried measuring how long it would take to reach a lucid dream with only these aspects: 1 reality check (without association), 1 mantra. No dream journal, no visualization, no goals, no "technique", not even regular sleeping schedule (insomnia in the last week): only consistency in the reality check and in repeating the mantra for a few seconds along the day. The result was 21 days to achieve this lucid.

Originally Posted by opalwolf

dream recall was the #1 most important thing in my comment.

Yeah I just saw it, there are about 5 people saying recall

Dedication, in my opinion. As long as you're dedicated, you'll be able to do it. Of course, that encompasses many other things, like dream journaling, reality checks... actually going to sleep.

Natural talent is known to fade, knowledge is known to betray, confidence is known to stupify, recall is useless without something to recall. Persistence and determination are the most important things when it comes to doing anything at all.

I think persistence, without this you won't be putting any effort into it when you don't have a lucid dream. With persistence you can achieve almost anything.

dream journal, dream journal, persistence.