Thread: So, what's YOUR technique(s)?

Originally Posted by sramsay12

WILD doesn't work for me, I just don't get into SP and when I do, I can't enter a dream.

You don't need SP to lucid dream. And what people often refer to as SP, is just normal falling asleep sensations. SP is when you can't move at all no matter how hard you try and you see/feel a threatening presence in your room. If you don't normally have SP, you will not have it when WILDing either. Sensations and types of entry into WILD

Originally Posted by sramsay12

Could going to sleep and counting while thinking "LUCID DREAM" work? I noticed that when counting, I rarely get past 10 before I start hallucinating and catch myself on the verge of sleep. Is there a technique to take advantage of this?

Yes. You are practically there. When you catch yourself on verge of sleep, just keep counting or saying mantra, watch the hallucinations and next time you fall asleep, with some luck it will be lucidly.

Originally Posted by sramsay12

Anyway, discuss your technique

I could discuss my technique, if I had one. The thing is, once you learn the basics, then it's a matter of trial and error for everybody himself to find the best way for himself. That's why I would recommend you read some good tutorials, try them exactly as they are written and then you can adjust them for yourself. You see, every attempt, especially for WILD and DEILD can and will go differently than your previous one. It's important to understand the basics and why are things happenig the way they are.

WILD (sageous)
DILD (gab)
DEILD (dutchraptor)

Happy dreams

I agree with gab, take the time to read a whole guide he has linked and practise it consistently for a month or more. DOn't take for granted what a guide tells you, try it then modify according to how you want it to work. My technique is constently changing and I really can't emphasize it enough, if you know that your technique is tailored for you you'll have much more confidence.

The part where you mention counting is exactly which many DILD and WILD methods are based on. Arguably the most effective technique for WILD is falling asleep and regaining consciousness right before the transition. Tell yourself that you will recognize yourself falling asleep and just starting counting until you lose focus, after a few attempts you eventually fall asleep and some point afterwards you regain awareness as you enter the dream. It can take a while to learn however, patience is key.

I don't really have any techniques I just randomly have lucid dreams.

I like to go outside before bed when the moon is full, locate it in the sky and perform reality checks. I usually jump as high as I can a few times. Then I set an alarm for 03h00, go outside again and repeat the reality checks. The intention of getting up and going outside gets carried into my dreams sometimes .

Originally Posted by lsddream

I don't really have any techniques I just randomly have lucid dreams.

This is what used to happen to me, not anymore though , that's why I'm tryign to find something that works consistently for me.

Originally Posted by gab

You don't need SP to lucid dream. And what people often refer to as SP, is just normal falling asleep sensations. SP is when you can't move at all no matter how hard you try and you see/feel a threatening presence in your room. If you don't normally have SP, you will not have it when WILDing either. Sensations and types of entry into WILD



Yes. You are practically there. When you catch yourself on verge of sleep, just keep counting or saying mantra, watch the hallucinations and next time you fall asleep, with some luck it will be lucidly.


I could discuss my technique, if I had one. The thing is, once you learn the basics, then it's a matter of trial and error for everybody himself to find the best way for himself. That's why I would recommend you read some good tutorials, try them exactly as they are written and then you can adjust them for yourself. You see, every attempt, especially for WILD and DEILD can and will go differently than your previous one. It's important to understand the basics and why are things happenig the way they are.

WILD (sageous)
DILD (gab)
DEILD (dutchraptor)

Happy dreams

I'm still struggling to find a technique that works for me, you see, even with SSILD I seem to have a block to getting lucid... I'll either fall asleep after waking up at 3 AM, or I'll stay awake, do the SSILD stuff and then can't get back to sleep for two hours, so it's wasted.
I'll check out those tutorials, I've already read dutchraptor's DEILD guide, I might try that as the possibility of chaining dreams together appeals to me.

Originally Posted by dutchraptor

I agree with gab, take the time to read a whole guide he has linked and practise it consistently for a month or more. DOn't take for granted what a guide tells you, try it then modify according to how you want it to work. My technique is constently changing and I really can't emphasize it enough, if you know that your technique is tailored for you you'll have much more confidence.

The part where you mention counting is exactly which many DILD and WILD methods are based on. Arguably the most effective technique for WILD is falling asleep and regaining consciousness right before the transition. Tell yourself that you will recognize yourself falling asleep and just starting counting until you lose focus, after a few attempts you eventually fall asleep and some point afterwards you regain awareness as you enter the dream. It can take a while to learn however, patience is key.

Thanks, I'd always been slightly afraid of modifying techniques made by more skilled dreamers like you and gab, in case it ruined it. I suppose it's fairly logical that it'd need some customization to work for someone else though

Ok I am going to give you a comparison that at first might look weird, but I want you to see my perspective of progress clearly.

I was once a very shy guy and I wanted to do something about it, so I read the book The Game which is a book of how to pick up girls. I know this sounds stupid and that it make me look at women as objects, well that kind of thinking never come to me. I was terrified of speaking to strangers in a club, so to see them as objects was not a very easy task and never got to my attention.
Anyway the goal for me was to learn to be social without much effort and just be myself and well perhaps get a phone number
And the firsts step was to OPEN which means that you go to a group of people and say something to start a conversation, this step is harder than it sounds. And you get lots of Approach Anxiety.
And the first tried went badly of course, I would nervously walk to them not even look them in the eye and with a nervous voice ask the question and look very weak and it felt terrible...

Although when I talked to my friend and explained what I had done I realized all the misstakes I had done, for example I was focused on the outcome all the time, from the moment I saw the group until I spoke my words I was thinking subconsciously "Will she like me? Is that dude her boyfriend? Will she give me her phonenumber?"

Ok what has this to do with lucid dreaming you ask? Well change the book "The Game" to Stephen LaBerge - Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming and "The Girls" to Lucidity and the "Approach Anxiety" to "Anxiety of not getting a lucid one night".

In order to progress you can't focus on what's wrong that will only drag you down, like I can hate myself for talking nervously to the group or I can be proud of doing the approach at all and then work on the changes that needs to be done without judging myself. And on those apporaches when it goes well, ask yourself what did you do differently this time? Was you more relaxed and yourself? Did you say something differently?

The same thing applies for lucid dreaming.

Focus on the successes you get like "I did remembered dreams this night or I did remember 4 dreams this night!". And try to analyze the attempt and ask yourself WHY did you remember more dreams this night?

There is no magic formula that makes you comfortable socially and a magic pick up line to get girls to like you it's something you have to work on yourself, learn by doing.
And likewise there is no magic method for lucid dreaming, in that case everyone would be lucid every night, it's something you have to work on yourself, learn by doing.

So choose a method you like, but remember that the process of perfection must be done by YOU.

Namaste

Having had many lucid dreams in my life (too many to count) I know that it is always a possibility as I fall asleep. This knowledge lends itself to a general positivity that helps induce lucid dreams. Some of my lucids happen naturally and some are induced. I use a method that involves visualization during the process of falling asleep and have been doing so for 10 years now. Does it work every time? No. But it works some of the time and that is good enough for me. Lucid dreams occur in a precarious balance between consciousness and unconsciousness. So, almost any anxious thought will wake the dreamer up. It has taken years for me to simply relax and enjoy the phenomena. Ergo, the ability to remain calm - to the point of simply observing the dreamscape - would be considered part of my technique. Anyhoo, hope this helps!

Originally Posted by MasterMind

Ok I am going to give you a comparison that at first might look weird, but I want you to see my perspective of progress clearly.

I was once a very shy guy and I wanted to do something about it, so I read the book The Game which is a book of how to pick up girls. I know this sounds stupid and that it make me look at women as objects, well that kind of thinking never come to me. I was terrified of speaking to strangers in a club, so to see them as objects was not a very easy task and never got to my attention.
Anyway the goal for me was to learn to be social without much effort and just be myself and well perhaps get a phone number
And the firsts step was to OPEN which means that you go to a group of people and say something to start a conversation, this step is harder than it sounds. And you get lots of Approach Anxiety.
And the first tried went badly of course, I would nervously walk to them not even look them in the eye and with a nervous voice ask the question and look very weak and it felt terrible...

Although when I talked to my friend and explained what I had done I realized all the misstakes I had done, for example I was focused on the outcome all the time, from the moment I saw the group until I spoke my words I was thinking subconsciously "Will she like me? Is that dude her boyfriend? Will she give me her phonenumber?"

Ok what has this to do with lucid dreaming you ask? Well change the book "The Game" to Stephen LaBerge - Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming and "The Girls" to Lucidity and the "Approach Anxiety" to "Anxiety of not getting a lucid one night".

In order to progress you can't focus on what's wrong that will only drag you down, like I can hate myself for talking nervously to the group or I can be proud of doing the approach at all and then work on the changes that needs to be done without judging myself. And on those apporaches when it goes well, ask yourself what did you do differently this time? Was you more relaxed and yourself? Did you say something differently?

The same thing applies for lucid dreaming.

Focus on the successes you get like "I did remembered dreams this night or I did remember 4 dreams this night!". And try to analyze the attempt and ask yourself WHY did you remember more dreams this night?

There is no magic formula that makes you comfortable socially and a magic pick up line to get girls to like you it's something you have to work on yourself, learn by doing.
And likewise there is no magic method for lucid dreaming, in that case everyone would be lucid every night, it's something you have to work on yourself, learn by doing.

So choose a method you like, but remember that the process of perfection must be done by YOU.

Namaste

That was an excellent comparison thank you mastermind

Originally Posted by MasterMind

Ok I am going to give you a comparison that at first might look weird, but I want you to see my perspective of progress clearly.

I was once a very shy guy and I wanted to do something about it, so I read the book The Game which is a book of how to pick up girls. I know this sounds stupid and that it make me look at women as objects, well that kind of thinking never come to me. I was terrified of speaking to strangers in a club, so to see them as objects was not a very easy task and never got to my attention.
Anyway the goal for me was to learn to be social without much effort and just be myself and well perhaps get a phone number
And the firsts step was to OPEN which means that you go to a group of people and say something to start a conversation, this step is harder than it sounds. And you get lots of Approach Anxiety.
And the first tried went badly of course, I would nervously walk to them not even look them in the eye and with a nervous voice ask the question and look very weak and it felt terrible...

Although when I talked to my friend and explained what I had done I realized all the misstakes I had done, for example I was focused on the outcome all the time, from the moment I saw the group until I spoke my words I was thinking subconsciously "Will she like me? Is that dude her boyfriend? Will she give me her phonenumber?"

Ok what has this to do with lucid dreaming you ask? Well change the book "The Game" to Stephen LaBerge - Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming and "The Girls" to Lucidity and the "Approach Anxiety" to "Anxiety of not getting a lucid one night".

In order to progress you can't focus on what's wrong that will only drag you down, like I can hate myself for talking nervously to the group or I can be proud of doing the approach at all and then work on the changes that needs to be done without judging myself. And on those apporaches when it goes well, ask yourself what did you do differently this time? Was you more relaxed and yourself? Did you say something differently?

The same thing applies for lucid dreaming.

Focus on the successes you get like "I did remembered dreams this night or I did remember 4 dreams this night!". And try to analyze the attempt and ask yourself WHY did you remember more dreams this night?

There is no magic formula that makes you comfortable socially and a magic pick up line to get girls to like you it's something you have to work on yourself, learn by doing.
And likewise there is no magic method for lucid dreaming, in that case everyone would be lucid every night, it's something you have to work on yourself, learn by doing.

So choose a method you like, but remember that the process of perfection must be done by YOU.

Namaste

Hmm, interesting comparison... I d have good recall and all- usually 5 dreams a night- but I really can't seem to identify dream signs or recurring dreams.... I'm starting to do what gab mentioned, the mantra "next time I'm dreaming I will look at my hands and realize I'm dreaming".. I just remembered that my last LD was pretty much brought on by pure confidence, as recommended by King Yoshi. I've forgotten to apply that to my recent LD attempts, so I'm adding that to a few DILD methods.
The only thing I've read on DreamViews thus far which has ruined a LD is the stability technique of spinning around, my dream collapsed the second I tried it... Rubbing hands works though.

Originally Posted by faceonmars

Having had many lucid dreams in my life (too many to count) I know that it is always a possibility as I fall asleep. This knowledge lends itself to a general positivity that helps induce lucid dreams. Some of my lucids happen naturally and some are induced. I use a method that involves visualization during the process of falling asleep and have been doing so for 10 years now. Does it work every time? No. But it works some of the time and that is good enough for me. Lucid dreams occur in a precarious balance between consciousness and unconsciousness. So, almost any anxious thought will wake the dreamer up. It has taken years for me to simply relax and enjoy the phenomena. Ergo, the ability to remain calm - to the point of simply observing the dreamscape - would be considered part of my technique. Anyhoo, hope this helps!

Yes, I think positivity should me a major help now that I think of it, I see your point.... Remaining calm I can usually manage, but I struggle to be relaxed and yet alert at the same time. Anyway, thanks for the help

I had thought people would just come out and say "Oh, I MILD" or whatever, but I suppose it's not that simple

The technique I use is a modification of MILD/mantras. Before I fall asleep, I focus on witch technique I am going to use. I don't repeat it endlessly in my mind, I just clearly say it once using as least words as possible, making it as simple as possible. I also try to not think about random stuff before falling asleep. With this technique I can do everything you can do with mantras: I can wake up at a certain time to DEILD, I can MILD, it can help for WILD and improve my recall. It's just how I adapted it for me.

I think it's very important to adapt techniques so it works better for you, as everyone is different and learn differently. I think guides are examples of how to achieve a specific goal. Reading a lot of guides means having more examples of how to achieve a goal. By having more examples of how to, you find common points and with theses common points, your previous experiences, your way of thinking and learning you modify techniques to find your own way of doing it. By having the goal of succeeding at a specific technique, never giving up and reading tons of guides I found the best way for me to do MILD, DEILD and WILD.

Originally Posted by SIMDML

The technique I use is a modification of MILD/mantras. Before I fall asleep, I focus on witch technique I am going to use. I don't repeat it endlessly in my mind, I just clearly say it once using as least words as possible, making it as simple as possible. I also try to not think about random stuff before falling asleep. With this technique I can do everything you can do with mantras: I can wake up at a certain time to DEILD, I can MILD, it can help for WILD and improve my recall. It's just how I adapted it for me.

I think it's very important to adapt techniques so it works better for you, as everyone is different and learn differently. I think guides are examples of how to achieve a specific goal. Reading a lot of guides means having more examples of how to achieve a goal. By having more examples of how to, you find common points and with theses common points, your previous experiences, your way of thinking and learning you modify techniques to find your own way of doing it. By having the goal of succeeding at a specific technique, never giving up and reading tons of guides I found the best way for me to do MILD, DEILD and WILD.

So you just say it once and then try not to think of anything? Do you focus on breathing or watch hypnagogic imagery?

Originally Posted by sramsay12

So you just say it once and then try not to think of anything? Do you focus on breathing or watch hypnagogic imagery?

First I say what I'm going to do to achieve lucidity, then I think about what I'm going to do when I'm lucid, etc. I cannot think about nothing, so I try at least to not think about other things than lucid dreaming. I don't focus on breathing or HI (I don't have any), I just try to fall asleep thinking about lucid dreaming.

Well, I'm trying to do a MILD (simplified) with a WBTB technique tonight....Cause I think it's time I've experimented with other methods. So, I am not really sure if it's going to work or not, although I hear its a pretty high chance that it will

I'm currently using the V- WILD technique. I already wrote a guide for it! Here is the link for it.

Originally Posted by Mancon

I'm currently using the V- WILD technique. I already wrote a guide for it! Here is the link for it.

Nice guide, I'll give that a shot tonight, how many LDs do you get from it on average per week?

Originally Posted by Dreamt

Well, I'm trying to do a MILD (simplified) with a WBTB technique tonight....Cause I think it's time I've experimented with other methods. So, I am not really sure if it's going to work or not, although I hear its a pretty high chance that it will

Did it work?

Originally Posted by SIMDML

First I say what I'm going to do to achieve lucidity, then I think about what I'm going to do when I'm lucid, etc. I cannot think about nothing, so I try at least to not think about other things than lucid dreaming. I don't focus on breathing or HI (I don't have any), I just try to fall asleep thinking about lucid dreaming.

Ah, okay, that sounds quite interesting.. I've not heard of anything like that before

I usually try DILD but will do WBTB or WILD if I feel motivated enough.

Live a 'lucid-friendly' lifestyle.

Sleep well
Eat well
Exercise frequently
Do reality checks
Learn to observe your surroundings
Learn to ask yourself questions about your observations
Maintain a state of constant awareness (mindfulness); reinforces your intention to have lucid dreams
Motivation

Hope it helps.