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

So last night I had my first LD! I'm wondering, when I complete things, or my info changes, should I update my original workbook post? Is there an accepted or recommended way of doing this?

Also, as I said above I had my first LD last night. No teachers have posted anything in my workbook thread so I feel kind of left out. If one of you guys has time to swing by and just look at my recent LD and see if you guys have any tips, that would be greatly appreciated. Also post #6 would maybe be kind of interesting to you!

Thank you guys for doing what you do!

Congrats on the ld jacko!

About the workbook updates, you can edit your original workbook post or just post a new post in the workbook - it's completely up to you. A new post may make it easier to track changes in your goals though.

I will also leave you a comment in the workbook with regards to your ld.

Hey guys,

As relative masters of the practice, how long have your LD's become over time? When you started, how long were they? How long is the longest one you've had?

Personally, my LD's typically last for 2 in-dream minutes or so; nothing major. I would love to be able to spend hours lucid, but that'll take quite a lot of time.

Thank you!
Jelly

Hey Jellyd0nut! I can say that there has been an improvement over time and with practice. It's really difficult to give a precise duration for all my lds because they really vary. But yeah, the super short lds are less frequent, some are in the 5-15 min range which is actually enough to complete a ton of things and run out of ideas, while others can last much longer, say 30 min to an hour. Personally I am quite of a wakeful person so it's hard for me to keep it going for longer than that.

If I have to give any advice regarding how to get longer lds - keep up the overall practices so that you can get more lds and in those lds give yourself fully to the dream. Interact with the dream environment as much as possible, don't let any thoughts and worries ever distract you and follow through with any goals you have set.

Ok, good to know!

I always wondered what kind of time I would have once I got good at the whole thing.

I thought of another question that's been bothering me for a little while now regarding my method. So when I'm trying to LD, I usually go to sleep thinking dreamy thoughts, try to catch a natural awakening, and if I do I think about my goals for a few seconds and then go back to sleep. This method worked for me several times last month, but this month there's been no results.

I personally find myself cautious about physically getting up and doing the entire WBTB routine of getting up and grabbing a snack and everything. I just worry I'll screw up my brain and end up not being able to sleep or something. I try to move as little as possible while thinking about dreams and stuff, but I'm wondering if I need to do something differently.

When you're WBTBing, what do you usually do?

Thanks,
Jelly

Originally Posted by Jellyd0nut

Ok, good to know!

I always wondered what kind of time I would have once I got good at the whole thing.

I thought of another question that's been bothering me for a little while now regarding my method. So when I'm trying to LD, I usually go to sleep thinking dreamy thoughts, try to catch a natural awakening, and if I do I think about my goals for a few seconds and then go back to sleep. This method worked for me several times last month, but this month there's been no results.

I personally find myself cautious about physically getting up and doing the entire WBTB routine of getting up and grabbing a snack and everything. I just worry I'll screw up my brain and end up not being able to sleep or something. I try to move as little as possible while thinking about dreams and stuff, but I'm wondering if I need to do something differently.

When you're WBTBing, what do you usually do?

Thanks,
Jelly

Hey Jelly!

One cool thing about lucid dreaming is that when you WBTB, you are actually helping yourself set up for the lucid dream. For example, my best lucids are when I wake up after 6 hours of sleeping, and then get up and do stuff (get some water, let the dogs out, take a peepee, etc..). Maybe 30 min total. Then I go back to sleep. I might wake up 1 or 2 more times, but that awake time puts me in the right state of mind to grab a lucid.

Try this and see what happens.

I agree with what Ophelia has said. Wbtbs can be very helpful for ld induction and can help you get in the right ld mindset.

Everyone does them differently, so feel free to experiment with both lenght and activity to see how these work for you. I do both micro 1-5 mins to long 20-30 mins wbtbs depending on the amount of time I have and the overall motivation. On the whole, for me the longer the better but within insomnia constraints. Activity-wise I usually concentrate on lucidity-related mantras and the goals I wish to accomplish in the coming ld.

Thanks guys!

I'll be sure to try it when I can catch a good natural awakening. Maybe I'll try reading some EWLD or something and incubating. I've found that "dream binging" really works well for my recall and increases my chances of lucids tremendously.

I'll let you know what happens in my workbook!

Thanks again,
Jelly

I managed to try the WBTB technique last night, and although I didn't get a lucid, I certainly had vivid dreams afterwards and great recall!

However, part of the reason I didn't have a lucid was because I kept on getting lucid and waking up during HI. I'd get all sorts of little dreamlets, remember that I'm trying to have a lucid, and then become aware and wake up suddenly. Is this how WILD is usually done? Riding a dreamlet into a bigger lucid? Is this a matter of stabilization?

Thank you!
Jelly

Good to hear Jelly! Yes, wild is done in a similar manner as you retain your awareness while falling asleep. I think with more practice you will learn not to startle yourself and you should always gently try to focus on the dream/visuals you are having and allow yourself to fall asleep.

Hey guys,

Sorry I've been raiding the Q&A lately, should I PM you guys instead?

Last night I managed to have a lucid dream (DILD) for the first time in about a month. However, while I'm greatful for it, it was pretty mediocre for two specific reasons. Here's basically what happened while lucid:

I realized I was lucid when the exact same event happened twice in a row (this girl looked at me). I immediately realized I was dreaming, and decided to do a reality check (to no avail; my hands were actually normal), but I still remained lucid. I tried to do some dream control by growing an object, but it didn't work. I tried walking over to the other side of the room, but it felt stupid. Then the dream changed and I was no longer lucid.

Here's why this felt like a crummy dream:
1: I really couldn't do much. I had to think really hard about something in order to make it happen, like when I tried walking around. When I tried to walk around, it wasn't like I just walked. I had to mentally think of myself walking, but instead I ended up kinda stupidly floating to my destination like a bad glitch in a game. I'd much rather have a dream where I feel like I ACTUALLY walk and ACTUALLY do stuff, and not feel like I'm watching a movie of myself through my own eyes.

2: I felt tired throughout the dream. I just felt straight up fatigued the whole time, like I just wanted to go to sleep (although that seems very ironic). This helped to make the rest of the dream out of focus and my motivation kinda weak.

Is there anything specific I can do to prevent these things? I realize that some of this might just come with practice, but is there any remedy to the fatigue issue? Is there some psychological thing I can do to make myself more present in the dream to prevent the lack of control?

Thank you,
Jelly

Hey Jelly,

feel free to post here as much as you like, that's why we have this Q&A thread.

First of all, congrats on your ld! It's a bit difficult to correctly diagnose why things weren't working exactly as planned on this particular occasion. It may be that the fatigue issue also was affecting your ability to move around freely. I think, in some cases, it would just happen that we feel very tired in a lucid dream and may have difficulty performing physical actions. I wouldn't expect this to be the case every time, rather a sort of unfrequent glitch that you can't really do much about. So, don't set the expectation that this will be the case in your next ld.

At any rate, with any sort of dream glitch, if something is not working, then just direct your attention to doing something else. There's still plenty of things we can practice in the dream as long as we are there.

So, I'm wondering: I have a bit of experience lucid dreaming, but my lucid dreams are always pretty random and always DILD. For Lesson II we are picking a dream technique to try out for a couple weeks. I definitely want to work on performing genuine RCs during the day and increasing my awareness in general to up my chanced of experiencing a DILD, but would you suggest combining that with trying WILD at night, too? Or should I simply focus on increased awareness for a while before I try the WILD?

Hi Lucidity333, welcome to the class!

Yes, you can definitely combine two or more techniques like RCs and awareness exercises and tring for a wild at night. However, I have to emphasize that the daily awareness work isn't just for getting DILDs. It will help raise your overall awareness which is at the end also necessary for a wild. So, in the long run you should be focusing on building strong fundamentals which include day work.

Hi everyone, nice to meet you all! I'm just starting the intro class.

I've been studying lucid dreaming for about 3 weeks, and I had good results since then.
I had some lucid dreams, but they're mostly too short or very unstable. What bothers me is that somehow I always forget too fully stabilize, and I never remember to RC in a dream, even when I'm lucid.

Is there a way to remember stabilizing?

Hello Timespace and welcome to the class! If you would like to do stabilization first thing in the ld, then you have to indeed be able to recall this. You can remind yourself about this goal for your next ld throughout the day. It may be a good idea to use a mantra like, for example, "I become lucid, I stabilize". You can also do this at bedtime or if you have natural wakes during the night. This way you are boosting your chances for an ld as well as you recalling to stabilize.

Thanks Nix!

I'm currently just starting with dream incubation mantras. Can I use different mantras simultaneously, or should I just use one at the time?

Hi Timespace. Yes, you can definitely use more than one mantra. However, I would recommend not to use too many, say, more than five, as not to confuse your mind when switching back and forth between these.

Awesome! Thanks again, Nix.

In this case I'm gonna use some waking-life mantras as well, since I have some empty slots and life's not only about lucidity. =)

I don't have a question right now but I just want to say thanks to everyone who puts work into this site.

Is it possible to WILD with insomnia
I don't think I have true insomnia but I have bouts where i can't sleep. No stress and my mind is calm and quiet. It's like my I'm ready to sleep but my brain won't make the switch. I usually try a montra or SSILD to fall asleep but it doesn't work. But My body will twitch, like it's trying to go to sleep but It cant. I was wondering if in these instances of no sleep ,Would WILD work, since my mind is awake and it's seems like my body wants to sleep?
Sorry to post this here. I posted in the WILD section and have gotten no replies

Hello! For wild to work, your body still does need to be asleep, so having insomnia is not really a way to achieve wild. Although, one might argue that being insomnia prone may allow you to be more alert in general and not miss the transition to sleep compared to others. That, however, is quite speculative. The best way to find out if there might be a correlation is by experimenting.

For optimal results with wild, always attempt it after a few hours of sleep. Again, your body needs to be asleep, otherwise there's no dreams.

I would like some input on dream induction. I think I heard on the podcast there was some good dream induction t4ext somewhere but I cant seem to find it.

Have you checked the lessons page

http://www.dreamviews.com/intro-clas...sons-i-iv.html

Also the tutorials

http://www.dreamviews.com/intro-clas...mpilation.html