Chapter 4: Lucid dreaming

This is the revision made by Sugarglider11 and revised by myself of the fourth chapter in the book: Lucid dreaming.

Feel free to discuss, propose or post changes to it. Do, however, put new/edited text in a different colour, so to make comparison easier. Finally, you could [[add notes to the piece by using brackets]].

Note that this thread is for discussion about the 4th chapter only: for general discussion about the book, check this thread. You might also want to see the Project Sketch, for information on the plans for the project.

Note to all writers: make sure you include the copyright at every book file you create. This is just to prevent material leaks.

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The blue parts are the ones edited by me from the initial version by Sugarglider11

Chapter 4: Lucid dreaming

Now you are about to begin you journey into lucid dreaming. There are many things you can do to make your first steps; in this chapter you will be advised through your first struggles to becoming lucid in your dreams.

Perhaps the most important thing about lucid dreaming is that it isn’t just enough to have them, you need remember them or the experience will be lost. Even our greatest lucid dreams can be forgotten if our dream recalling is bad. Actually, you could have had lots of lucid dreams in your life, and what happens is that you just won't remember them

Recalling dreams is hard for a reason: most of our regular dreaming experiences happen on a subconscious level, and not all our mental faculties are present. As soon as we wake up, our mind will attempt to erase the memories of the dreams you had, for they are considered unimportant to your daily life.

While some people find it easy to remember their nightly journeys (statistically women recall dreams more easily than men), other people could even start believing that they do not dream at all. That is not true: every person has at least five dreams daily, depending on their sleep schedule. if you have the impression yo udo nto have dreams, then all that's happening is that you cannot recall them. Remembering dreams can be practiced through simple steps.

The major step to recalling your dreams is to keep a dream journal, which as you will learn, greatly improves your chance of becoming lucid. A dream journal can be anything, from a small notebook to an Internet blog, and it should contain everything you remember from the dream you have. It is very easy to improve your recall, and the steps follow.

[[I do not see a reason to keep the dream recall steps in bullet points. It would be more engaging as pure text.]]
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• You need to get a journal, specifically for recording your dreams and place it next to your bed. You could try to use your cmputer for this, but having a piece of paper is fundamental: sometimes you have to write quick notes so that you don't forget them.
• When going to bed you have to want to remember your dreams; once you do that you already have 50% of the job done.
• When falling asleep, repeat “I will remember my dreams, I will wake up after my dreams, and I will have vivid dreams” in your head until you fall asleep, or record it and replay it for about 15 minutes. During the time when you are almost asleep, this is when your brain will most likely listen.
• When you wake up, don’t move, and immediately try to remember your dream. Ask yourself "What was I doing just now?" "What was I thinking a while ago?". Some small pieces of information about your dream may spring up: a voice, a feeling, an object, a sight. Write down anything that occurs you, even if it sounds unimportant.
• Concentrate hard on remembering your dream: you will find that if you concentrate on it with a lot of will, you will soon be recalling everything clearly. This happens because, when you are focusing on remembering what you dreamed, your brain is categorising that information as important, and recalling your dreams will be easier.
• If, even after trying hard, nothing of your dreams shows up, force yourself to write about the dream you had. Doing this, you are again giving importance to what you dreamed, and remembering it becomes more likely.
• After you've written down all you could remember, you could try to organise that information into a clear description, and into a cronological order. You don't have to do this immediatly though: do it when you have time during the day. You may find you will remember a lot more of your dream whe nyou try to describe it accurately.
  
• The next day read your dreams from the previous night. This will make your subconscious know what you want to remember, and increase your dream recall.

When you record your dreams in your dream journal, record it in the present tense, this will make your subconscious more familiar with your dream world, thus increasing your chances of becoming lucid in the dream. You should also never give up on your dream journal, you need to stay motivated. Don't regard it as a chore, but rather as something fun. If your first attempts at recalling your dreams are completely unfruitful, don't worry: dream recalling has a snowball effect: as soon as you start it, it will get better and better. By simply sittign down t owrite your dream, you are already improving yoru recall, even if you don't manage to write anything at all.

Before you begging to seriously try lucid dreaming, you should build a recall of about 2-3 dreams a night, although by recalling one dream per night you probably won't forget any lucid dreams you have. Many lucidity induction techniques rely on information you gather through dream recall, so remebering yoru dreams is a really important ability. Actially, just by starting a dream journal, chances are you will have lucid dreams naturally. Most people who build an average recall report having one or a few lucid dream a month without any effort. Dream recall should be the easiest thing when you are used to it, so there is no reasing to worry about it much. You may even see dream recall improving greatly the first night.

[[What about subtitles?]]

One major difference in the dream world is that you lack much thought. We tend to rationalize rather than think logically, and we do not have access to our full mental faculties. [[I guess this part could be improved, I don't know what you intened with it]] What is absurd in reality is completely normal in a dream. It is not known exactly why but it could be a safety feature of out brain when we were cavemen. If caveman had a dream of playing with a t-rex over and over again, he may eventually try to do that with a real t-rex and get eaten.

[[I believe the following information belongs i nthe DILD techniques chapter]]
When you think something is rather in a dream, or in reality, your going to want to check which you are in. To determine if you are dreaming or in reality, you need to do reality checks. The reality check that is the least likely to fail is to pinch your nose and breath, if you breathe, then you are in a dream. Other reality checks include pinching yourself, seeing if your finger will go though your hand, or reading something twice and seeing if it has changed.

After you have recorded a decent amount of dreams, you look for something similar in them. If you find one, that is your dream sign. Whenever your dream sign appears, do a reality check. Your dream sign can become your best friend when it comes to lucid dreaming.

In real life you would think something was wrong if you saw a pig fly, but in a dream it would be perfectly normal. Knowing this fact about dreams can help you become lucid with these simple steps.

• During your normal day, look around, know that everything is normal. Now make sure everything is normal, and if anything isn’t, do a reality check.
• Now pretend those something normal like a bird was a flying pig, now do a reality check, actually believe the bird is a flying pig, so that when you are dreaming if something similar happens you will become lucid.
• Now pretend that you just became lucid in a dream, and what you would do, and think about it.
• If you have already discovered your dream sign, pretend that you have just seen it, and do a reality check, this way you will do that in a dream.

[[We could always move that bit to the DILD chapter. I just think explaining that takes oof content fro mthe already skinny chapter 6.

This is what I'd add intead of the previous bit.]]

The main reason why are are not lucid in our drewams is because, subconsciously, we believe what we are facing is real. Without the wise judgment from consciousness and logical thinking, even the most unlikely or impossible situations seem just natural.
For that reason, is can be hard to determine for sure whether you are in a dream or awake. When i nwaking state, you are sure you are awake. But so are you in a dream. Luckily, there is a method for determing if you are dreaming or awake. It's called Reality Checking. [[This needs expanding, of course, but I guess I could convey the topic of the reality checks without taking it as an induction technique. Right now I'm too bored to expand it myself :D maybe later]]


© Copyright 2007 Dreamviews education team. All rights reserved.

Another brutal copy-edit :-P. I have great sympathy for the mistypings, mainly just spaces which aren't in quite the right place. Once again, I'd like to point out a spell-checker would pick up most of these. If your browser won't cut it, paste into Word and see what it flags up.

My changes in blue, Kromoh's blue removed. Comments in [[red brackets]]. Text the comment refers to in red. Also in red are pieces of text without a comment attached, where I think it needs improving but am not quite sure how yet.

Hmm... what this chapter for? Both dream signs and RC's are DILD techniques, so in theory only recall would remain here.

Note: possibly due to multiple authors, text seems schizo on at least one point: contractions. Write out "That is" in full or abbreviate to "that's"? It's not a big problem, both are valid, and I for one sometimes use both in the same piece of writing, depending on the emphasis I want. Having said that, if you chop and change too many times without a clear reason, it may not look good.
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Chapter 4: Lucid dreaming

Now you are about to begin youyour journey into lucid dreaming. There are many things you can do to make your first steps; in this chapter you will be advised through your first struggles [[a bit negative]] to becoming lucid in your dreams.

Perhaps the most important thing about lucid dreaming is that it isn’t just enough to have them, you need remember them or the experience will be lost. Even our greatest lucid dreams can be forgotten if our dream recalling recall is bad. Actually, you could have had lots of lucid dreams in your life, and what happens is that you just won't remember them

Recalling dreams is hard for a reason: most of our regular dreaming experiences happen on a subconscious level, and not all our mental faculties are present. As soon as we wake up, our mind will attempt to erase the memories of the dreams you had, for they are considered unimportant to your daily life.

While some people find it easy to remember their nightly journeys (statistically women recall dreams more easily than men [[needs backing up, i.e. a footnote giving the article this fact came from]]), other people could even start believing that they do not dream at all. That is not true: every person has at least five dreams daily, depending on their sleep schedule. if If you have the impression yo udo nto you do not have dreams, then all that's happening is that you cannot recall them. Remembering dreams can be practiced through simple steps.

The major most important step on the path to recalling your dreams is to keep a dream journal, which as you will learn, greatly improves your chance of becoming lucid. A dream journal can be anything, from a small notebook to an Internet blog, and it should contain everything you remember from the dream you have. It is very easy to improve your recall, and the steps follow.

1. You need to get a journal, specifically for recording your dreams and place it next to your bed. You could try to use your cmputer computer for this, but having a piece of paper is fundamental: sometimes you have to write quick notes so that you don't forget them.
2. When going to bed you have to want to remember your dreams; once you do that you already have 50% half of the job done.
3. When falling asleep, repeat “I will remember my dreams, I will wake up after my dreams [[needs further explanation - the usual aim of this affirmation is to wake up after each individual dream, which makes them a lot easier to remember than if you try waking up after several hours good dreaming and try to remember it all at once]], and I will have vivid dreams” in your head until you fall asleep, or record it and replay it for about 15 minutes. During the time when you are almost asleep, this is when your brain will most likely listen.
4. When you wake up, don’t move, and immediately try to remember your dream. Ask yourself "What was I doing just now?" "What was I thinking a while ago?". Some small pieces of information about your dream may spring up: a voice, a feeling, an object, a sight. Write down anything that occurs you, even if it sounds unimportant.
5. Concentrate hard on remembering your dream: you will find that if you concentrate on it with a lot of will, you will soon be recalling everything clearly. This happens because, when you are focusing on remembering what you dreamed, your brain is categorising that information as important, and recalling your dreams will be easier.
6. If, even after trying hard, nothing of your dreams shows up, force yourself to write about the dream you had. Doing this, you are again giving importance to what you dreamed, and remembering it becomes more likely.
7. After you've written down all you could remember, you could try to organise that information into a clear description, and into a cronological chronological order. You don't have to do this immediatly immediately though: do it when you have time during the day. You may find you will remember a lot more of your dream whe nyou when you try to describe it accurately.
8. The next day read your dreams from the previous night. This will make your subconscious know what you want to remember, and increase your dream recall.

When you record your dreams in your dream journal, record it in the present tense, this will make your subconscious more familiar with your dream world, thus increasing your chances of becoming lucid in the dream. You should also never give up on your dream journal, you need to stay motivated. Don't regard it as a chore, but rather as something fun. If your first attempts at recalling your dreams are completely unfruitful, don't worry: dream recalling has a snowball effect: as soon as you start it, it will get better and better. By simply sittign sitting down t owrite to write your dream, you are already improving yoru your recall, even if you don't manage to write anything at all.

Before you begging begin to seriously try lucid dreaming, you should build a recall of about 2-3 dreams a night, although by recalling one dream per night you probably won't forget any lucid dreams you have. Many lucidity induction techniques rely on information you gather through dream recall, so remeberin remembering yoru your dreams is a really important ability. Actially Actually, just by starting a dream journal, chances are you will have lucid dreams naturally. Most people who build an average [[too vague]] recall report having one or a few lucid dream a month without any effort. Dream recall should be the easiest thing when you are used to it, so there is no reasing reason to worry about it much. You may even see dream recall improving greatly the first night.

One major difference in the dream world is that you lack much thought. We tend to rationalize rather than think logically, and we do not have access to our full mental faculties. What is absurd in reality is completely normal in a dream. It is not known exactly why but it could be a safety feature of out our brain when we were cavemen. If caveman had a dream of playing with a t-rex over and over again, he may eventually try to do that with a real t-rex and get eaten. [[I don't understand this part either, Kromoh]]

When you think something is rather in a dream, or in reality, your going to want to check which you are in. To determine if you are dreaming or in reality, you need to do reality checks. The reality check that is the least likely to fail is to pinch your nose and breath try to breathe through it. If you breathe can breathe through your pinched nose, then you are in a dream. Other reality checks include pinching yourself, seeing if your finger will go though your hand, or reading something twice and seeing if it has changed changes.

After you have recorded a decent amount of dreams, you look for something similar in them. If you find one, that is your dream sign. Whenever your dream sign appears, do a reality check. Your dream sign can become your best friend when it comes to lucid dreaming.

In real life you would think something was wrong if you saw a pig fly, but in a dream it would be perfectly normal. Knowing this fact about dreams can help you become lucid with these simple steps.

1. During your normal day, look around, know that everything is normal. Now make sure everything is normal, and if anything isn’t, do a reality check.
2. Now pretend those something normal like a bird was a flying pig, now do a reality check, actually believe the bird is a flying pig, so that when you are dreaming if something similar happens you will become lucid.
3. Now pretend that you just became lucid in a dream, and what you would do, and think about it.

If you have already discovered your dream sign, pretend that you have just seen it, do a reality check, this way you will do that in a dream you could use that for step 2. You should then do a reality check as part of step 3, so you remember to reality check whenever you see your dream sign.
The main reason why are are not lucid in our drewams dreams is because, subconsciously, we believe what we are facing is real. Without the wise judgment from consciousness and logical thinking, even the most unlikely or impossible situations seem just just seem natural.

For that reason, is it can be hard to determine for sure whether you are in a dream or awake. When i nwaking in the waking state, you are sure you are awake. But so are you in a dream. Luckily, there is a method for determing determining if you are dreaming or awake. It's called Reality Checking.

© Copyright 2007 Dreamviews education team. All rights reserved.

lol source jedi I never thought I could make so many typos if i didn't use a pell checker. I'll use it next time.

About contractions: sometimes I just write them withotu even noticing. I have to work on this.

Once again thanks for the feedback and help. :D

I'm done for now - gotta upgrade my OS. If all goes smoothly I may be back soon, but it could take some time if I'm unlucky.

Copy-edit finished, previous post updated.

PS OS upgrade was fine, didn't even have to reboot. Ubuntu Linux for the win! Setting up graphics still sucks though :-).