A very easy technique to attain lucidity

[AvatarOfDeception]

Once again, I'm not sure if this has been posted, although as far as I know this is an original idea:

A friend of mine told me that there was a technique that her friend used to have lucid dreams at will. It was very simple. Before bed, all he would do is think to himself "There is going to be a lion (or some other odd object in his dream) and when I see the lion, I will recognize that sign and become lucid." He would then think about this lion for awhile and then go to sleep. When he dreamed, he would notice the lion (or whatever object) and become lucid.

any thoughts?

[NebuliRaven]

i have heard of this technique before and have heard much success thru it's implementation. give it a shot and see... i think that it would work especially well if you are good at visualization. just make the object, animal, person, whatever very clear and picture perfect in your mind and focus on it with all your energy. the mind will listen...

peace and light,
raven

[Howie]

I have tried that with picturing a person before but it did not work. Maybe I will try an animal or inatiment object or somthing.

[NebuliRaven]

an inanimate object or something crazy generally works, like a purple cat or a cube of dancing water... =^)

[Knuckles2126]

yesh, that sounds like an interesting idea. i'm going to to be like in 1 minute so i'll try it out...

[AvatarOfDeception]

It works well. I tried it once. I own a cat that is white with black spots. Before going to sleep, I promised myself I'd see my cat, although instead of white fur I'd see neon pink. Sure enough, I was sitting in a classroom for not ten seconds before seeing my pink cat walk around =)


~Lance

[Danger Dog]

cool im goin to try right now

[beanland]

Sure beats some of the other techniques at attaining a lucid dream I've seen. I'll have to try it out!

[Remus]

I'll try this..I'll picture a......5 foot tall...tiger striped.....Bunneh! That's odd! xD

[sme_bro]

Ive been trying to think of a way to make this one work, perhaps repitition just befoe sleep is what i need?
ill be giving it ago tonight

[lord soth]

same here

maybe a glowing cat,

wait thats normal for me, poor kitty, pushed it into one of those vats of paint....


j/k :roll:

[Placebo]

This sounds similar to the idea of VILD - Dream Incubation.
The idea is to cause a dream to happen, and that the dream will spark your lucidity.

However, I haven't got this right yet.
I have a theory about this though - related to the way your mind works and your memory.
During my journey through memory techniques and research, I learnt that association is the life blood of your memory.
And in order for an association to be powerfully entrenched in your brain is to make it as creative and 'fun' as possible.
The reason for this is that your mind will keep dwelling on that 'fun' or crazy thought.

Perhaps this extends to this technique too.
Create a dream... but make it as creative,crazy,fun and intriguing as possible.
Eg. Something you know, but different. But still something that will spark lucidity. Eg a dreamsign.
In order to keep it a powerful as possible, you need to create the dream in as many senses as possible - sound, sight, feel, smell, etc etc

My suggestion:
Do the same thing as VILD - but make it as silly and interesting as possible.
It works best if you do it after 6 hours of sleep, but apparently its not necessary as an interesting though will keep reliving itself into your dreams.
In summary this involves the following:

1) Think up a really strange, intriguing crazy situation or dream. But it MUST be one that you know will cause you to be lucid. For instance, something (a cat on fire?) telling you that you're dreaming (with a postcard of flowers on it?).
Think about it in detail - in all 5 senses. Try really visualise it well.

2) Go to bed at the usual time. But instead of sleeping, read a book, do a crossword... something that stimulates your consciousness.

3) Then close your eyes - and drift off. But KEEP visualising that dream you thought up. Repeat it. Over and Over.
Eventually you may find yourself visualising the dream... and it really is a dream! (Careful about this - you need to think of a dream that will make this obvious.. unless you know automatically the difference in feeling from a dream to visualisation)

Apparently many people have problems falling asleep like this unfortunately. But certain people can do VILD with a 100% success rate.
The only change I'm proposing is to make a really interesting crazy fun incubated dream - it really ups the changes of this working correctly.

The problem I tend to have with this idea, is I'm not all that good at noticing the change from visualisation to dream.
Any suggestions on this?

[lord soth]

oooooh, so close.....

didnt work, by the way, although I did see a dreamsign (a watch) and I had apperantly "found" it, but it was upside down.... if I only looked at the time...

:(

[evolo]

I like this idea placebo. I'm going to give it a try.

[sme_bro]

hmmm, VILD i think it is a little too good to be true for ME but if it workd for you than i give you coodles-COODLES FOR ALL!
well i tried suggesting that i see a pink chair(not that weird i know but i dont usualy see pink chairs, and it didnt work... But i descovered that i could hypnotise myself a new way which was cool and relaxing.
tonight im going for blue apples.

however there is one thing, i dont usualy take the time to stop and look at objects in my ND's i think i would have to suggest a reason for seeing it, like that i will be looking for a blue apple-then because i will be looking for it i should either see it or do an RC just in case.
thats my 20 cents or 1/4 of a dollar

[Placebo]

Good points ;)

I haven't had lots of success myself with this, but many others have 100% success rates ... hence my desire to get it right...

My ideas are simply an enhancement for the original idea

Unfortunately I'm having such a dry spell this week because of immense stress at work, that I haven't even recalled a single dream in days :shock:

When I get over that, I will make a fair attempt at this.
Please let me know if this works for anyone ;)

BTW - thanks for feedback lord_soth. Gonna try it again?

[lord soth]

um, maybe, I had an LD last night, but i didnt get it THAT WAY

I looked at my watch, and it was all screwed up, so I became lucid

[mrguytodd]

I didn't see the pink chess set :(

[Jojodi]

more than repition, the mind focuses on things with emotion behind them.. so instead of mindlessly visualizing it for an hour (lol) try to put more in-depth feeling behind the visualiztion. I will try this tonight..

[Je33ica]

That's sortof like setting up to do a RC when something bizzare happens. It's a good idea if you in face see a lion in your dream.

When I was little I once tried to image being on a air ballon cause I wanted to dream about it, but I was unsuccessful :(

[LewisM]

Jojodi and Placebo make good points about adding emotion to the visualisation. Have any of you ever read those meditative things where the writer puts you in a situation to try and evoke emotion? Such as...

You've got 100 bucks

You've got to buy gas for your week of driving,
You've got to buy dinner,
You've got to... do a bunch of other stuff and it's real hard and people keep bugging you.
What can you do?

Perhaps if you put yourself in a situation and try to feel the emotion of the situation, you'll be thinking about it all night.

[mrguytodd]

Hm, I once had this crazy thought one night that I was forced to become a member of congress. It stuck in my head for a while and I ended up dreaming about it.

[Placebo]

Nicely said Lewis
Thats kinda what I was getting at, but couldn't have said it properly myself ;)