Thread: RAISE YOUR HAND!! - Intro Class Q&A

is there a certain number of dream signs that are optimum? I have 4 and I wonder if that's too many to be of value.

Originally Posted by Turbo

My last three DILD's I have snapped out of immediately after realizing that I'm dreaming. I haven't had the chance to stabilize. I know this will improve with experience but it's definitely frustrating. Any tips for addressing this?

Hey Turbo, it definitely will improve with more practice. What you can do to facilitate this process is to try to immerse yourself as much as possible in the dream upon becoming lucid. Engage your senses, especially sight and touch. For example, find a nearby object and spend some time examining it. This way, your attention will be focused on the inner dream world, rather than surfacing back. Another way would be to pick a dream goal, such as our task of the month and immediately start working on it. I have found this to be pretty effective to keep the focus on the dream. Finally, I would also recommend to give the DEILD practice a try. Learning how to get back into a dream is a useful skill at any level.

Originally Posted by thinkfirst

is there a certain number of dream signs that are optimum? I have 4 and I wonder if that's too many to be of value.

Hello Thinkfirst! There is no optimum number of dream signs, there can be as many as you are able to find out. To start with, I would suggest putting emphasis on the most common ones until you know them really well. As you keep journalling, you will be able to find more dream signs and perhaps even put them into categories. For example, animals in general would be a dream sign for me. The most important part is that you know your dream signs and are reasonably able to expect them to cue you about it being a dream.

I'm sure this question has been asked, but I'm not terrific at the search bar, so I'll ask again.......

I've been listening to the podcast and find it a great help. Episode 5 on WILDS and DEILDS sparked this question. Its part of my regular yoga and meditation practice to be really present in the physical body and connect with subtle sensations of the body. But from the description of these inductions, it sounded like all focus should be in the mental field and forgetting about anything happening in the body. I'd love more info on this, or point me to the post that discusses this.

Thanks.

Hey thinkfirst! I would say there might be different approaches to wild. The common denominator in all, however, is falling asleep with a mind that is awake. To do achieve that, we often use the so-called anchors. This is a point of focus for the mind, which one would hold on to, in order to help us stay mentally awake during the bodily process of falling asleep. These anchors can be external or internal. You can focus on anything from your environment, be it the sound of the air conditioner, cars, crickets, your own breathing, your pulse, the way your physical body feels, etc.

Alternatively, you can focus on items that only exist in your own mind, images, sounds, mantras. As long as you keep your focus on your desired object and are able to fall asleep, both approaches can help you transition with your consciousness awake.

However, if you would like to enter the dream and arrive at a specific location or scenery straight away, it would be more advisable to use focusing on internal images as an anchor. With practice, you may be able to enter precicely the scene you have been visualizing, or help your mind generate a similar scene after the transition (as this was the object of your focus).

If there has been a discussion about this before, just give me the link.

On my 1st LD, I flew around easily.
On my 2nd LD, I wanted to look around mindfully to see my surroundings and immediately woke up.

I would enjoy learning more about that difference being active doing in a LD, and things that are more mindful and less physical.
I see colors, hear sounds, feel dream body sensations, but not yet mindful about them.
But then its only my 2nd LD.

Congrats on your recent successes, thinkfirst!

I am not sure whether your question relates to any perceptional differences between doing physical acts in dream state vs mental ones or the differences btw these two regarding dream stability/lenght. Either way, let's examine what these actions are in general to answer both aspects of the question.

First of all, I would like to stress that while engaging in a physical action may by itself look physical, such as grasping an object, while observing the surroundings may seem purely mental, in the dream world they both are for a lack of a better word - "made from the matter of your thoughts". Both actions involve the internal activation of your senses, whether this is touch or sight or hearing. And the focus of your senses on the dream is what makes its existence possible. So, as long as your attention is flowing to an object in the dream world, that dream will be sustained.

When it comes to mindfulness, the practice of being present in the moment and enjoying whatever the dream offers you, you can still continue engaging all your senses and this shouldn't really result in dream instability or reduction in length by itself. However, what may cause some disturbance is the focus on the thought of being mindful stealing away attention from fully engaging the senses. That way, instead of seeing an object, we may be thinking of being mindful of seeing it.

This may all seem a bit confusing at first, but with more practice, you will be able to test for yourself whether these explanations make sense. My best advice is to enjoy every aspect of your lucid dream as it presents itself to you - that way you will be implementing mindfulness practices seamlessly as well as be able to do other things you have planned.

If I get to a point where I am working on a task that is illegal - like stealing a car (Mar task), how much does a person's daily moral compass come into the mix? I guess if you are LD, you know its not illegal, right? And no reason to feel guilty. A new concept for a beginner LDreamer.

Great question, thinkfirst! Let's think for a second why stealing a car is illegal - because irl the car belongs to someone else. In the dream, all that surrounds you belongs to you and is there for you to dispose of as you wish.

Dreams provide us with the opportunity to try out scenarious that may not be possible in real life. We can also have reactions to outcomes that are different than real life. Dreams give us with the freedom to shape our own mind. And what we do with that freedom is up to each one of us.

To take that idea a little farther then - in the LD I had this morning, I was consciously flying around with the mission of sabotaging some teens from trouble and mayhem around my neighborhood. But if I had stopped to be even more mindful during the LD, I would have realized that all those people are just projections of myself, and there is no harm being done. No one is chasing me, my child does not need to be found because its all a dream, and I have no baby in the dream.

There's becoming lucid in a dream and that seems to be one level, and then there is the another deeper level in both waking and dreaming life of slowing down and realizing there in nothing that needs to be done here. There is no rush, no emergency, no solid reality. After today's LD, I also and wondering what it means to have control either in waking or dreaming life. I chose to fly, but then it felt like the mission I was on and the people and places that showed up were out of my control entirely.

Congrats on the ld thinkfirst! Those are all good points you made. Indeed, there are different levels of awareness both in dreams and in waking life. And as you pointed out, the deeper (and slower) we go, the more we are able to understand things from a much different and all-encompassing perspective.

Hey, not sure if this is even still active, but I hope so.

Should one do one lesson every day or everything at once? Sorry if this was mentioned somewhere. My dream recall is okay as far as I can tell, but otherwise, my abilities to recall aren't reliable, to say the least.

I think this is a sticky thread so, I think you may be fine. I think it may be more effective if you do one lesson every day instead of all at once so you won't be overwhelmed? Do what is really comfortable for you.

Originally Posted by Lang

I think this is a sticky thread so, I think you may be fine. I think it may be more effective if you do one lesson every day instead of all at once so you won't be overwhelmed? Do what is really comfortable for you.

Ah, alright. Thank you.