Hello, my name is "Mental".

[Mental]

Hello everyone, I'm looking forward to talking to other lucid dreamers for the first time. Here is my background: While earning my Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, I found a fantastic used book for $1. It was "Creative Dreaming" by Patricia Garfield, Ph.D. From that book I learned of lucid dreaming and how to experience them. That was 1986. I've tried off and on ever since and have had 33 as of this writing. They have all been DILD's. That averages to less than 2 per year so obviously my ability to do induce them is weak. With that said, I have had some lucid dreams with excellent control. Here are some of my best achievements exerting control while lucid: Flying - In one LD I did a barrel role, loop-de-loop, and ground swoop. In another I flew thru a wall as if it wasn't there. Performed "impossible" feats - landed on the ceiling like a fly, lifted a car etc... Manipulation of the dream environment - I've made some walls/ceilings disappear. Conscious prolonging of the LD - Rubbed my hands successfully to prolong a LD. Recollection of physical state - I pondered the fact my body was sleeping in a horizontal position. Yelled to my wife knowing she wouldn't hear me. As for educating myself about lucid dreaming, I have quite a good collection of books on the subject. Of them, I have read the following (some more than once): Creative Dreaming - Patricia Garfield Ph.D Pathway to Ecstasy - Patricia Garfield Ph.D Lucid Dreaming - Stephen LaBerge Ph.D Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming - Stephen LaBerge Ph.D/Howard Rheingold Lucid Dreams - Celia Green The Lucid Dreamer - Malcom Godwin Lucid Dreaming, Dawning of the Clear Light - Gregory Scott Sparrow The Bride of Dreams - Frederik Van Eeden Dreams and How to Guide Them - Hervey de Saint-Denys (Yes I have a copy!) Lucid Dreams in 30 Days - Keith Harary Ph.D/Pamela Weintraub Advanced Lucid Dreaming, The Power of Supplements - Thomas Yuschak I'm also well read regarding Buddhism, Meditation, Mysticism, Comparative Religion, Philosopy, Psychology, Biofeedback and Neurofeedback. I'm starting to read a little about quantum physics. Some will be interested to know I own a NovaDreamer. I believe it helped me have 1 LD. Unfortunately I find it slightly uncomfortable and typically do not get a good night's sleep when wearing it. On a similar note, I successfully induced 1 LD around 15 years ago with a home-made contraption. I hooked up a tape recorder to a lamp timer and had it turn on at around 4:00 a.m. At that time it played a recording of my own voice saying "You're dreaming." I was pretty proud of that! My goal of course is to be able to have a lucid dream any time I desire. I have been immersing myself in the subject since the first of the year. I've re-read the classics, read new books on the subject, performed reality checks multiple times every day, kept a dream journal, evaluated my dreams for dream signs and attempted both MILD and WILD techniques. My next step is to give the 'ole NovaDreamer another try. I'm also waiting on the rest of Thomas Yuschak's recommended supplements to arrive. I plan on trying his strategy to the letter. I am convinced that he and Scot Stride are correct - that the key can be found in neurochemistry. With that said, I would prefer to be able to induce them with will power alone. Unfortunately history has shown me personally that I am not one of the lucky few that possess the mental talent to do it regularly. My other interests are skydiving (10 years and 420 jumps so far), unicycling and spending time with my family and friends. If you've read all this, thanks for your interest. I look forward to talking to you all.

[DeletePlease]

Welcome to DV, Mental.

[KingYoshi]

Welcome to DreamViews! It seems like you have read a lot of material with concern to lucid dreaming. It is always great to invite such an enthusiastic member! With lucid dreaming, it is good to have as much knowledge on the subject as possible, but keep in mind that everyone's mind is different when it comes to dreaming as well. Since dreams are all in ones mind, you get a lot of flexibility when it comes to induction/control/etc. It is always best to use techniques that you are most comfortable with. Experiment with many different things and find out what works best for you. Along with whatever techniques/methods you are using, make a point to fall asleep knowing, 100%, that you will have a lucid dream tonight. Act as if you are an experienced LDer and this is just second nature. Convince yourself that you will become lucid and fall asleep in this mindset. It may give you that edge to becoming lucid that night. Try not to get discouraged with failures...learn from them and remember that with each failure, experience is gained. Practice and experience makes perfect when it comes to LDing. That EILD tech you used is pretty cool. I was able to induce a lucid dream once, by using a song that I simply left on low volume as I slept. I heard it in the dream, performed a RC, and became lucid. One more thing, you said you were performing reality checks during the day...that is good. Make sure, however, that you aren't just going through the motions and simply performing them. Take a few moments to look around at your environment. Imagine that everything around you is a dream. Use your senses to take in the environment for a moment (smell the air, fell the temperature, etc). Think to yourself, "Could this be a dream? Am I dreaming right now?" Then perform your RC and see if you are dreaming or not. It only takes a few moments and will increase the effectiveness of your daily RCs. Good Luck to you and if you have any future questions, don't hesitate to ask!

[Mental]

GavinGill - Thanks! KingYoshi, Thank you very much for the welcoming and good advice. Indeed I sometimes just "go thru the motions" with my reality checks. I will heed your advice and contemplate my situation with more rigor when doing RC's. I also appreciate your comments about "flexibility when it comes to induction/control/etc..." Fortunately my current LD efforts are not as likely to get sidelined as in the past. I have more commitment now than ever. Although I am a little disappointed I haven't had one since I resumed the pursuit (over 6 weeks ago), I am not at all letting that bring me down. In fact, I'm very optomistic I will get "on track" due to the great advances I've been reading about lately. In the past, I never tried anything other than DILD. WILD seemed like something only possible for Buddhist Monks and Jedi Nights. Now I see it is indeed possible for me to accomplish. Question for you: Was there a turning point for you in gaining ability to induce LD's? If so what helped the most?

[KingYoshi]

Hmm...before joining this site, I had lucids dreams periodically throughout my childhood without really knowing anything about them. I didn't realize the extent of control or anything like that, I just simply realized I was dreaming. Once I joined this site, I actually had my first (purposely induced) LD that night. I have had pretty good success most of the time. What I did, however, was give myself as many opportunities as possibly to have LDs. I would set alarms throughout the night. The first one after 3-4 hours of sleep, then I set the next one for 2 hours later, then in 1 hour increments until I woke up for good. Ideally, this allows you to wake up right after or towards the end of a REM period of sleep. I would immediately write my dream down in a notebook and then return to sleep. I acted groggy and moved slowly, so I wouldn't wake up too much. Since I am waking up multiple times during the night and writing down dreams, my mind stayed on dreaming throughout the entire night. This alone, lead to lucidity. I always did the "fall asleep expecting to have a LD" mind state as well. Now, a lot of people couldn't afford to do this, but I didn't have a job...I was a college student who didn't have any classes earlier than 10:00am. I also immediately practiced WILDing. It took me a while to be successful, but with each failure I learned more and more about it. I had also went into SP many times in my childhood and would force myself out of it due to fear. Many of my WILDs are just random SP that I took advantage of. The number I have is only the ones I have recorded on this site...I have actually WILDed a little over 100 times, in a little less than 2 years, so it is definitely possible for normal people. Not just monks . If you ever are falling asleep and you feel SP, try and take advantage of this. If you wake up with alarms during the night...you will get this every so often. As well as taking naps during the day. If you find that you can't set alarms during the night, see if there are any points during the day that you can nap. Naps are excellent times for LDs. You will enter REM quickly after falling asleep, so if your mind is on dreaming...there will be much less time for the idea to be lost in transition. Naps are also a great times to attempt WILDs. Keep your dream journal up to date...and even if you only remember a small portion of a dream, go ahead and write it down somewhere. It doesn't have to be organized. I would write dreams on whatever I could find sometimes...paper plates, napkins, etc. Often times, I had my notebook right beside me, but was too groggy to notice, lol. If you don't remember any dreams, simply write down, "Couldn't remember any dreams." When I first started I was really dedicated to this and eventually (after several months) I was hitting 20+ lucid dreams a month. Half of the battle is the effort you put into it. If you keep up with it and don't take weeks off from practice...you will no doubt be on your way toward your goal of inducing them at will. Once you get into the swing of things, and have your dream recall built up...you won't need the alarms throughout the night, etc. It gets easier to practice anyway. Now there are times when you will go through droughts. Everyone gets them every now and then. You could simply have just started in a drought and need that 1 good lucid to help you break out of it. Just keep working and I'm sure you will start to get the hang of it. Stay confident. Even the slightest of doubts can cause problems.

[Mental]

Thanks again KingYoshi. That helps me a lot. The more I think about it, I don't recall ever experiencing SP. We are definately all wired slightly different. I really like your strategy of setting alarms thru the night. My wife probably wouldn't be real thrilled about that, but the the logic makes sense. I recently learned of the "Zeo." I'd like to get one of those as soon as funds allow so I can get a clear picture of my sleep cycles. That thing would be worth $200 to me just for that.

[Lost_prophet]

GavinGill - Thanks! KingYoshi, Thank you very much for the welcoming and good advice. Indeed I sometimes just "go thru the motions" with my reality checks. I will heed your advice and contemplate my situation with more rigor when doing RC's. I also appreciate your comments about "flexibility when it comes to induction/control/etc..." Fortunately my current LD efforts are not as likely to get sidelined as in the past. I have more commitment now than ever. Although I am a little disappointed I haven't had one since I resumed the pursuit (over 6 weeks ago), I am not at all letting that bring me down. In fact, I'm very optomistic I will get "on track" due to the great advances I've been reading about lately. In the past, I never tried anything other than DILD. WILD seemed like something only possible for Buddhist Monks and Jedi Nights. Now I see it is indeed possible for me to accomplish. Question for you: Was there a turning point for you in gaining ability to induce LD's? If so what helped the most? Most people start at some point to "go through the motions." Although, you don't have to start to scrutinize every detail while figuring out if you're dreaming. Just sometimes take an extra split to ask yourself, "Why am I plugging my nose?" And then more than likely, you'll say to yourself, "I want to see if I'm dreaming." Just ask yourself, "Am I actually dreaming?" A lot of times, that all you need. Just that split second of total question. I'm not sure if that question was only for Yoshi, but I'll answer to to give you more information. My answer: Time and more technique experience I didn't read your entire opening post, because it was quite a bit. But, everyone takes a different amount of time for habits to form and things to carry over. Most people will need to hone techniques before getting any sort of proficiency at Lucid Dreaming. All the tutorials you read in books and on this forum are just outlines that worked for that particular person. You need to figure out what small adjustments you need to make to become successful. After some time (for both trials and subconscious implantation) and tweaking, things will start to open up.

[Mental]

Thank you Lost_prophet. I like your advice and see the wisdom. Yes we are all a little different and probably all need to tweak our own strategies.

[Mental]

Awesome! I'm back in the game after a long dry spell. I've been trying very hard for about 2 months now to resume LDing, and finally got it done. Thanks again to KingYoshi for his generous input and great advice that helped me the most. Here's the dream (warning, its nothing noteworthy at all): I'm driving down my street and pass my house which I incorrectly think is one of my neighbor's house. It now has a paved driveway instead of gravel. I noted the upgrade and drove on. I decided to turn around in another neighbor's house and noticed it also was newly paved. As I turned around and looked it over, I thought to myself "Wait a minute, Jeff is too cheap to have his driveway paved. I must be dreaming!" With a little doubt still in mind, I decided to do a reality check I learned here on the forum. I pinched my nose shut and inhaled successfully. Conclusion - I'm definately dreaming! This is nuts! Right then I consciously decided to NOT try anything spectacular right away, but instead try to enjoy my LD environment and keep it going as long as possible. I also committed to doing as many simple LD tasks that I could remember. So I drove my "tractor", which originally was a car, down the street toward my house. As I drove I said "I am lucid, I am lucid!" Despite my lucidity I still didn't clue in that the house was actually my house, not my neighbor's house. As I drove down the street, smiling and looking around, my friend Chris approached in a car and slowed down to chat. He greeted me and held out something he wanted to give me. I took it but didn't focus on it what it was because I didn't want to get distracted. I remembered the RC where you inspect your hands to look for any morphing. So I decided to ask Chris to look at his hands. He did it and had a confused look on his face like he was wondering why I would ask him to do that. Around that time my lucidity slipped away and I woke up soon thereafter. So yeah, not an interesting LD, but at least I ended my drought and recalled some new things I've never thought of before. Here's my summary, mainly for my own record: 1. Used a new RC - the pinch your nose and try to breath trick. 2. Immediately decided to take my time and not risk losing my lucidity. 3. Thought of another RC but didn't use it - Inspect your hands. One quirk of this LD was the fact that between 5:00am and 7:00am I had just unsuccessfully tried to perform a WILD. My LD obviously was a DILD. The cool thing though, is that my WILD attempt seemed to be my best effort yet. I recognized my current wake/sleep status as being just right. I went back and forth between several techniques I've read about here. I did not suffer from the desire to move my body. Most important probably, was that I felt very confident this was going to be my first successful WILD. So even though that didn't work, perhaps the confidence and self reflection carried over and allowed me to finally notice a dream sign.