Thread: What am I doing wrong?

So about 11 days ago I started a combination of MILD, DEILD, ADA and Silverbullet's thing. Also started taking multivitamins, made my sleep schedule more consistent (9-7 weekdays, 10-8 weekends) and threw in 15-30 minutes meditation every night.

Over the next seven days I had seven lucid dreams, one LD three nights, two LDs two nights and no LDs two nights.

Then it just stopped. It's been four days and it just stopped. Why? I haven't changed a damn thing. I haven't been any more stressed or anything, though of course that's starting to build up NOW. It's hard not to feel that way when every time I take one step forward I get pushed ten steps back. What the hell is happening? Why does this happen every time I make progress?

No, no, no! You not being pushed back. You making excellent progress. That's how LDing is. You may have one every other night for a month, and then nothing for a month. As long as you don't look at it as you doing something wrong, you will be ok.

What I have noticed is, that some routine works for a while, then it stops and I need to make some slight changes. Like changing a 5am WBTB to morning nap 1 hour after I wake up. Use a different mantra. Find a different goal what I want to do in LD. I think what happens is my mind gets used to it and I need to make changes to make it interesting again and to kind of catch it off guard, so it doesn't know, what I'm up to.

Another thing could be your level of excitement and your intent.

So just look at it as natural course of things. Accept it and be grateful for what you have and tell that to your higher self.

Seven lucid dreams in 11 days is amazing! Especially when you are just starting out! You aren't doing anything wrong! Just keep doing what you are doing and the lucid dreams will become more persistent. For most new people (on average) it takes them a month to achieve one lucid dream. So you are definitely doing a lot better then that. Don't give up!

Just starting out? I've been doing this for four years...

Note that I said this happens EVERY TIME I make progress, it's like I'm binging on LD's and then they just stop for a month. There has to be something I'm not doing right, I can't see why they would just stop like that.

@gab, that's a rather feel-good post, but none of that has ever worked for me during dry spells. Sorry if that sounded blunt. For now, I will try to push my WBTB time around a little.

Originally Posted by KTDM

Just starting out? I've been doing this for four years...

Note that I said this happens EVERY TIME I make progress, it's like I'm binging on LD's and then they just stop for a month. There has to be something I'm not doing right, I can't see why they would just stop like that.

@gab, that's a rather feel-good post, but none of that has ever worked for me during dry spells. Sorry if that sounded blunt. For now, I will try to push my WBTB time around a little.

Well, your answer to mancon did sounded blunt. You mention you just started with this method 11 days ago. But you didn't mention is that before that, you have been LDing for 4 years. So how are we suppose to know?

And you say it happens every time you make progress. That implies that you have ups and downs. Period of Lding and periods or dry spell. But your dry spell always ends. And that's how it is for everybody. So just do what you do everytime during dry spell and you should be ok. If that means doing nothing just waiting for it to be over, so be it. That's how it usually is for everybody.

I think this video can help you: Patch Parables ~ The Parable of the 84th Problem - YouTube
I see that you meditate and that is great But I am not sure what kind of meditation you do though

The meditation I do for lucid dreaming has the goal of being aware of my subconscious, memories and EMOTIONS and thereby being aware of the building stones of a dream.

In a whole perspective I would tell you to look at and ask yourself why you let things like one failure erase the happiness of seven lucid dreams...

If we take a Freudian theory for example and say that we ONLY dream about things that we surpress and make it so farfetched and say that lucid dreams only happens when we are not actively thinking about it. Can it then be so that it takes you about a month to get a passive perspective of lucid dreaming and are not as focused on outcomes as the night after the night with failure?

In a part pespective I would say that you should look at how you do the attempts on the successful nights and compare it to the nights of when you have you unsuccessful attempts.
Don't only look at the way you do the techniques, also look at how the days were, your mindset, bedtimes and anything you can think and see if there is something that stands out.

The way I end dryspells is by not counting the days or my lucid dreams and I am never focused on the outcome. But don't get me wrong I am not ignoring the effective ways of lucid dreaming, I just let it flow naturally and become a part of my sleep instead.

Observe what you are doing but never judge it and with practise you will eventually learn how you lucid dream at will. So for now just be happy for your successes instead of letting a potential dryspell drag you down.

I am sure you will do just fine, just don't look at lucid dreaming too serriously. Sleep tight

My goal is to eliminate dry spells. I'm not going to settle for waiting them out, that's not my goal.

The meditation I do usually involves putting myself in a pleasant place, thinking on what's important to me, my intent and (recently) trying to talk myself up in relation to lucid dreaming as in Silverbullet's tutorial. Also throw in a bit of environment and entity visualization. Thanks for giving me something to think about, Mastermind.

You're right. Rather than dwelling on my failures I should put more thought into the differences between the successes and the failures (however miniscule they may be) and treat each day as a fresh start but with an increased level of experience.

Kind of like a New Game +.
Huh.