animlucid's workbook

My current easy dream controls include the following:

-Flying: To fly I just imagine that I'm independent from Earth's gravity, once I get to that point, I simply find a point in the air and gravitate towards it and I find myself flying to that point, and I just constantly look forward to other points until i get the effect of flying forwards.

I don't have any hard dream controls, flying is pretty much all I can do at this point :S
My current LD rate is around every 3 days or so, depends on how much time I practice methods before bed or if I spent a lot of time on the forums on that particular day, if I keep the topic of lucid dreaming in my head for the day then I usually have a lucid dream.
Since actively using lucid methods I've had around 5 LDs so far.

The way I teleport is that I look at a point far away I want to be at, and then I just sort of imagine stepping forward into that spot and I happen to get the feeling of moving super fast for a split second and then I find my self stepping in the spot I had looked at before. Usually when I'm running away from something I teleport, but I never really attempted to teleport while lucid.

Big Goals:
-Stop Lucid nightmares every time I try to practice dream control. I feel like my subconscious does not want me to take control and it always tries to prevent me from doing so for whatever reason so it just startles me and wakes me up.
-Be able to control the environment: I would like to be able to manipulate the environment already generated to make something I like instead of trying to create a whole new scene from scratch.
-Be able to summon information from my subconscious.
-Be able to stay calm in a dream.

My big question is:

Why would my subconscious not allow me to take control and why can't I force it to not stop me?

Welcome to the class! :cheers:

Well when you get into the subconscious topic, ideas split here. I don't believe in a higher consciousness or a "subconscious" I believe in an unconscious. An amazing super computer that is semi random that works on schema, habit, and your own will. Your subconscious doesn't care if you get lucid, it doesn't think. It is a creature of habit, and it isnt used to the new things presented to it. You may have heard somewhere or seen a movie that implied that it doesn't want you to ld, or you might have been a little frightened when you got lucid. When you get frightened, it may connect your frightened mind more to the dream and cause it to go down hill. The same can happen if you are super happy. You need not be afraid of it any more than you are of putting a new software on your computer. The problem here is that you are continually changing the new software to be compatible with your computer, and your computer is different than everyone else's.

Being calm is a good thing in dreams, I recommend working on this first since it is the best way to remember goals that I have found. Just stop, calm, think about goals. Never worry about waking up, it will come some time, a thing is not beautiful because it lasts. Being excited doesn't wake you up (think about non lucids that you we're excited and didn't wake up...), but calm usually leads to awareness.

On the "changing things in the dream scene without changing scenes". I personally recommend learning to teleport as early as possible, but if you still want to do this, I would recommend changing small things and watching. For example:

I was once in a school. I looked to see what the school was teaching and had a huge banner saying "high school". I changed it to say "musician school" and all of the sudden all of the people were holding instruments, I changed it to say "dancing school" and all the people started dancing. I changed it to "Irish" and they all were wearing traditional Irish garb. I changed it to "Irish musician school" and they all were carrying bagpipes and going crazy. I am pretty sure I did more than that, but I also remember that I woke up laughing. Haha.

I don't like counting any dream control as easy or hard, but basic and advanced. Basic is if it doesn't go into anything crazy like sding, time dilation, or taking multiple dreams to finish a task. Basic is anything that can be done. Remember that when trying something "easy" like flying, that there is no difference between flying and teleporting. I leave you with the words from the matrix.
Dont try to bend the spoon. That is impossible.
If you know the next lines, that is great. If not, I recommend that you just rewatch the matrix. Write down that line and put it on the front of your dj. The most basics of control and the only way we can accomplish anything worthwhile in a dream is through creativity, and that quote, if you ask me, is a great take on what happens when we are creative.

Thanks for the advice! :D

Another question I forgot to put down was tips on how to control your thoughts. Because sometimes I would be thinking about something and then sometimes having that inadvertently happen when I didn't want it to. How would I make sure only thoughts I want will happen in the dream environment or how can I keep an empty mind while performing tasks in a lucid dream?

The same way you control it in waking. If I say, don't think of a pink elephant, what are you thinking about? Now watch this little trick, what if I tell you to think about a estranged ostrich from outer space? Now you aren't thinking about the elephant. Don't worry about what not to think about, just direct it in ways that you want it to. Emerging thoughts rarely effect the dream state, just directed ones. And thoughts aren't always going to be able to effect your dreams. In order to find out which thoughts effect the dream world and when, you really just need experience.

I just had another lucid dream where I was in my room. I felt like it was a bit quiet so I tried out playing music. I then tried to do that by using the computer in my room to search for a song on the internet like I do in my waking life. But the computer was disobeying my commands and started playing classical music. I felt like I was losing control and I was pretty confused because a computer shouldn't do things on its own. I told it to start obeying me or I'll destroy it. The computer stopped playing the music and I was able to control it again. My dad came in my room and said he wanted to talk to me, and I said I was busy, but my Dad insisted on telling me. So I decided to let him talk so he can go away. While he was talking the computer suddenly started playing very loud and distorted 8-bit music that sounded a bit corrupted. I was a bit startled and suddenly I wasn't able to move my arms or my legs or any muscle in my body. The music started to repeat extremely rapidly like it was broken. I tried to regain control but I woke up in the end anyways.

Even though a computer is a non-living physical object, why was it able to do stuff on its own?
Why did the computer start playing music again?

What caused me to freeze and not be able to move?

What do you mean about it being a non living physical object? It is part of your dream, it is all in your head. There is no difference between one thing or another really. Do you think that is air you are breathing? There is no spoon. haha.

In dreams where you don't have full control, it can be hard to gain control. Not being able to move is the same as not being able to use fire. There is no difference between one or the other. If you realize that there is no difference between walking and flying, or speaking or teleporting, inside of a dream you "theoretically" should be able to do whatever you want. Some dreams still might not go the way you want, but with time, you can develop full control. I think that the next step after that is to restrict power.

Hope that this makes sense to you. :) Let me know if you have any more questions. Looks like lucidity is going good for you. :cheers: