Thread: Having Troubles

Originally Posted by MNwrestler123

Okay I see that all of you are pretty experienced lucid dreamers. I have a few questions for you. How long did it take you to achieve you first lucid dream? how did you do it? by using mild wild dild or others. which techniques do you use today to lucid dream? I have been trying for 2 nights and have not been sucsessful yet. If anyone can answer these questions thatd be great.

I reckon you'd have to be pretty skilled at lucid dreaming to attempt it for the first time and start seeing results in two night.
I'll just tell from my experiences. It took me about a week or two to start seeing results and it was through WILD, though I wouldn't recommend that to first timers. WILD can be a tricky thing and even now I sometimes fail at it. I can't really say which lucid technique is the right one for you. That's something you'll have to figure out for yourself, though a lot of people do swear by MILD and DILD.

What I'd do is first start a dream journal. Everytime you wake up and remember a dream, just write it down. Not only does this improve recall, it keeps you motivated and allows you to see any recurring dream signs. If you want a DILD, I'd try out All Day Awareness, since it helps you become more aware in your dreams. Don't get frustrated if it doesn't work straight away. Once you've got ADA down, you'll never fail to have a DILD at some point. And some mantras would also help and can lead to MILD - Just say them before bed or as you try to fall asleep and, just like with ADA, eventually you should see results.

Lastly, I'd recommend doing wake back to bed, since that always improves your chances to have lucid dreams.

It took me around ~2 weeks to get a lucid dream and the method i used was WILD, if i remember correctly. I had a few lucid dreams before that, but those where completely spontaneous. My method to get a lucid dream these days is basicly to tell myself that i'm lucid dreaming, while i'm falling asleep. I found out that i dream about things that i think about just before i fall asleep. So, this is the perfect way for me to lucid dream.

In all honesty 2 days is nothing, because a lot of people take 2 months to get there first lucid dream. It's all about having confidence in yourself and having fun while doing it. I assume that's what you're already planning to do, but experiment with different techniques and find out what works out for you. Also, don't give up on a technique if it doesn't work in 1-2 days. Try to stick with it for atleast 2 weeks. Just don't give up like so many people do. (Trust me, you will feel really proud and good once you get one.)

Hope this helps you out!

I got my first lucid dream as a kid, spontaniously. But my first lucid dream induced intentionally actually took a few weeks, perhaps a month.
Because I expected it to be difficult. You are just starting out so I don't want to throw too many principles and concepts at you, because the whole point of learning is to figure those out for yourself.

But I can save you alot of time by saying that what technique that works best for the many is not as relevant as what technique that works best for you.
And I will even go so far and say that what technique that works best for you is not as relevant as what technique you find most fun to practise.

I prefer meditation and that and focusing on staying on my lucid dreaming path is in fact all I do. And it only works because I have gone through the process of the lucid dreaming practise and changed my belief and expectations so I now can not only believe, but know that lucid dreaming is easy.

I will give you the truth that you probably don't want to hear, but I will tell you it now because most people struggle for months without realizing this and then stop for good.

And that truth is that if you want to become a succesful lucid dreamer you must be prepared to take a journey.

Youtube motivational videos about lucid dreaming, make it seem like a walk in the park and that the moment you start to use a special technique you can explore your mind and have awesome adventures night after night. And well you are fully capable of doing that now, but it's not very likely because of a few reasons:

Your belief and expectation needs to change and you need experience to understand how it all works.

Getting good at lucid dreaming is a long-term process, I like to compare it to getting good with women. I know it's totally random but it's a really good illustration.
Any man is totally capable of going out and get a girls number, but most men are blocked by beliefs like "do looks matter?" or "does social status matter?" and expectations like "If I go out and talk to a girl I will get rejected... And it will be humiliating". And when they eventually start to make the effort they try to find the best pickup line to say to a girl or the funniest joke.

Lucid dreaming works in a shockingly similar way. Beginners come here expecting to learn to lucid dream by reading a tutorial. In the same way guys expect to bring a girl home by reading about the best pickup lines on the internet.

And the truth is that even if these guys got a girl instantly or even if the beginners here got a lucid dream instantly, they wouldn't be ready for it!

And now I talk about total beginners. And well beginners do get their first lucid dream, but they are not used to it so they wake up immediately or forget the dream after waking up, or are not totally aware of it and act on instint etc.

And then when they have got the taste of the cake, they are motivated to continue but then they hit another block like recall problems, or falling asleep while WILDing and so on. And the more intermediate pracctioners that have lucid dreams quite often start to experience dryspells from lucid dreams.

And here you can either choose to get defined by the problem and decide that lucid dreaming practise isn't your thing and that it didn't worked for you.

Or.

Overcome the obstacles that are thrown in your way and grow as a person and progress in your lucid dreaming practise.

I feel like I can type for hours... But anyway what I have tried to show here is that what technique you use isn't as important as what mindset you have.

And that is why using a technique that you enjoy doing is better (in the long run) than a technique that is good but that you don't enjoy.

Beginners who are discouraged by not having a lucid dream for let's say a week are short-term focused and this is not the mindset of success, this is a mindset of despair and will bring you nothing but negative emotions. I am not judging you, I was like that and we have all gone through that process, I am just making you aware of this fact from the start.

People that are excited by the small things such as recalling more dreams than before, or finding new understanding of dreams and the practise in general and most important of all, people that find joy in knowing that they do the right thing such as recalling dreams, practising reality checks, meditating, overcoming obstacles and focusing on the practise itself rather than the result, those are the people who are long-term focused and who will progress, enjoy the practise and produce the best result.

So now you know. In theory we can all just pick up a girl/ lucid dream right here and right now, is it likely to happen? No...
Most of us need to go through this journey to become the person who knows he can lucid dream/ be succesful with women.
The annoying thing is though, that when we reach this destination we realize that we were fully capable of doing it right from the start.
We just didn't believed that we could. But hey this will make us appreciate the journey even more.

What I suggest you do is that you admit that you are beginner, that's what I did when I decided to practise picking up girls, I admitted to myself that "I SUCK SH*T" and focused on every little positive feedback rather than the unavoidable negative feedback such as rejection.

I hope this clear some things up for you. And good luck!

I just had my first intentional lucid and it took like a week and a half-2 weeks. What I did was meditate(very broad term, more specifically I was resting as the witness of everything rather than the doer) at least 40 minutes a day, often 80 minutes. Was maintaining some awareness during the day when I remembered. I set an alarm for around 4am 75% of the nights, did SSILD, ended up waking up multiple times, etc. Oh and I had been keeping a dream journal for a couple weeks previously and kept that up too. After the week and a half of this one night I added in writing down "I wake up inside my dreams and realize I'm dreaming" and filled up a big notebook page with this. And then I visualized becoming lucid and would repeat the phrase so as to connect the act of becoming lucid with the phrase subconsciously. Then I wrote the phrase down even more, lol. The last dream of the night, bam, I woke up inside a dream.

my point is that you have to be dedicated no matter what you choose to do, and not at all deterred by temporary defeat, and in fact you should re-define success. Anytime I remember a dream thats success for me. If I don't remember anything then there always the next night to take another shot at it. Gotta be persistent.

How long it takes varies from individual to individual, and even the same person at different times of life will need to spend a different amount of effort, and different techniques will work for different people better. Lucid dreaming is a very individualized experience and it depends on a lot of factors including among others which level of awareness you are starting from: someone who goes through life on autopilot in mental fog will most likely take longer than someone who is used to paying attention already, how good your memory is also has an impact, hormones and other chemistry are a factor, how much sleep you get every night and how regular your schedule is, and also your expectation as and intensions and dedication level will influence how quickly you see results. Lucid dreaming takes a special approach to life: you need to go through life with an open mind to question your reality, and that takes some getting used to, and you may need to unlearn some bad habits. Most likely it will not happen over night. That said it is always a good idea to always go to bed expecting this to be the night when you remember to realize that you are dreaming.

People that are excited by the small things such as recalling more dreams than before, or finding new understanding of dreams and the practise in general and most important of all, people that find joy in knowing that they do the right thing such as recalling dreams, practising reality checks, meditating, overcoming obstacles and focusing on the practise itself rather than the result, those are the people who are long-term focused and who will progress, enjoy the practise and produce the best result.

Two words...LOVE IT!

What I suggest you do is that you admit that you are beginner, that's what I did when I decided to practise picking up girls, I admitted to myself that "I SUCK SH*T" and focused on every little positive feedback rather than the unavoidable negative feedback such as rejection.

Two more words...THANK YOU.

Three words - You are wecome!

Originally Posted by Phoenix422

I reckon you'd have to be pretty skilled at lucid dreaming to attempt it for the first time and start seeing results in two night.
I'll just tell from my experiences. It took me about a week or two to start seeing results and it was through WILD, though I wouldn't recommend that to first timers. WILD can be a tricky thing and even now I sometimes fail at it. I can't really say which lucid technique is the right one for you. That's something you'll have to figure out for yourself, though a lot of people do swear by MILD and DILD.

What I'd do is first start a dream journal. Everytime you wake up and remember a dream, just write it down. Not only does this improve recall, it keeps you motivated and allows you to see any recurring dream signs. If you want a DILD, I'd try out All Day Awareness, since it helps you become more aware in your dreams. Don't get frustrated if it doesn't work straight away. Once you've got ADA down, you'll never fail to have a DILD at some point. And some mantras would also help and can lead to MILD - Just say them before bed or as you try to fall asleep and, just like with ADA, eventually you should see results.

Lastly, I'd recommend doing wake back to bed, since that always improves your chances to have lucid dreams.

I will keep trying! I have tried using WILD and yeah youre right about that.. Ive tried to get to "sleep paralysis" or whatever its called, but I cant lay still! haha Thanks though.

Originally Posted by Ekyu

It took me around ~2 weeks to get a lucid dream and the method i used was WILD, if i remember correctly. I had a few lucid dreams before that, but those where completely spontaneous. My method to get a lucid dream these days is basicly to tell myself that i'm lucid dreaming, while i'm falling asleep. I found out that i dream about things that i think about just before i fall asleep. So, this is the perfect way for me to lucid dream.

In all honesty 2 days is nothing, because a lot of people take 2 months to get there first lucid dream. It's all about having confidence in yourself and having fun while doing it. I assume that's what you're already planning to do, but experiment with different techniques and find out what works out for you. Also, don't give up on a technique if it doesn't work in 1-2 days. Try to stick with it for atleast 2 weeks. Just don't give up like so many people do. (Trust me, you will feel really proud and good once you get one.)

Hope this helps you out!

Thanks! and yeah ill just keep trying different things, see what works best.

Originally Posted by MasterMind

I got my first lucid dream as a kid, spontaniously. But my first lucid dream induced intentionally actually took a few weeks, perhaps a month.
Because I expected it to be difficult. You are just starting out so I don't want to throw too many principles and concepts at you, because the whole point of learning is to figure those out for yourself.

But I can save you alot of time by saying that what technique that works best for the many is not as relevant as what technique that works best for you.
And I will even go so far and say that what technique that works best for you is not as relevant as what technique you find most fun to practise.

I prefer meditation and that and focusing on staying on my lucid dreaming path is in fact all I do. And it only works because I have gone through the process of the lucid dreaming practise and changed my belief and expectations so I now can not only believe, but know that lucid dreaming is easy.

I will give you the truth that you probably don't want to hear, but I will tell you it now because most people struggle for months without realizing this and then stop for good.

And that truth is that if you want to become a succesful lucid dreamer you must be prepared to take a journey.

Youtube motivational videos about lucid dreaming, make it seem like a walk in the park and that the moment you start to use a special technique you can explore your mind and have awesome adventures night after night. And well you are fully capable of doing that now, but it's not very likely because of a few reasons:

Your belief and expectation needs to change and you need experience to understand how it all works.

Getting good at lucid dreaming is a long-term process, I like to compare it to getting good with women. I know it's totally random but it's a really good illustration.
Any man is totally capable of going out and get a girls number, but most men are blocked by beliefs like "do looks matter?" or "does social status matter?" and expectations like "If I go out and talk to a girl I will get rejected... And it will be humiliating". And when they eventually start to make the effort they try to find the best pickup line to say to a girl or the funniest joke.

Lucid dreaming works in a shockingly similar way. Beginners come here expecting to learn to lucid dream by reading a tutorial. In the same way guys expect to bring a girl home by reading about the best pickup lines on the internet.

And the truth is that even if these guys got a girl instantly or even if the beginners here got a lucid dream instantly, they wouldn't be ready for it!

And now I talk about total beginners. And well beginners do get their first lucid dream, but they are not used to it so they wake up immediately or forget the dream after waking up, or are not totally aware of it and act on instint etc.

And then when they have got the taste of the cake, they are motivated to continue but then they hit another block like recall problems, or falling asleep while WILDing and so on. And the more intermediate pracctioners that have lucid dreams quite often start to experience dryspells from lucid dreams.

And here you can either choose to get defined by the problem and decide that lucid dreaming practise isn't your thing and that it didn't worked for you.

Or.

Overcome the obstacles that are thrown in your way and grow as a person and progress in your lucid dreaming practise.

I feel like I can type for hours... But anyway what I have tried to show here is that what technique you use isn't as important as what mindset you have.

And that is why using a technique that you enjoy doing is better (in the long run) than a technique that is good but that you don't enjoy.

Beginners who are discouraged by not having a lucid dream for let's say a week are short-term focused and this is not the mindset of success, this is a mindset of despair and will bring you nothing but negative emotions. I am not judging you, I was like that and we have all gone through that process, I am just making you aware of this fact from the start.

People that are excited by the small things such as recalling more dreams than before, or finding new understanding of dreams and the practise in general and most important of all, people that find joy in knowing that they do the right thing such as recalling dreams, practising reality checks, meditating, overcoming obstacles and focusing on the practise itself rather than the result, those are the people who are long-term focused and who will progress, enjoy the practise and produce the best result.

So now you know. In theory we can all just pick up a girl/ lucid dream right here and right now, is it likely to happen? No...
Most of us need to go through this journey to become the person who knows he can lucid dream/ be succesful with women.
The annoying thing is though, that when we reach this destination we realize that we were fully capable of doing it right from the start.
We just didn't believed that we could. But hey this will make us appreciate the journey even more.

What I suggest you do is that you admit that you are beginner, that's what I did when I decided to practise picking up girls, I admitted to myself that "I SUCK SH*T" and focused on every little positive feedback rather than the unavoidable negative feedback such as rejection.

I hope this clear some things up for you. And good luck!

Thanks a lot. I guess I didnt realize what a process this actually is. I was assuming that within a few days I could do it. I guess the youtube video called "How to have a lucid dream tonight" didnt help my opinions haha.

Hmmm... Well progress took me a while., but time didn't seem to matter much, so much as what I knew about LDing.
First step:
All I knew was a crappy tutorial online that basically said to just lay still and imagine a dream scene. Became lucid first try. Forgot it for a year.
Second step:
Read lots of online tutorials started sleeping 8 hours a night. No LDs for a little more than a month.
Third step:
Found ETWOLD, read ETWOLD, got an LD 2 weeks later.
Fourth step:
Started DJ, started analyzing everything I did and what it did to my dreams (DJ system in sig) started to have weekly LDs.
Fifth step:
Found DV. Jumped from aprox 1 LD a week to 18, 13, and ten a month.
Sixth step:
Through analyzing realized that before tring to LD I had LDs through short WBTBs. Tried them. Through analyzing remembered that all my first LD was from was intent. Tried them. Start of January. Stop DJing.
Final step:
Hukif. Helped me out more than anything. Inspiring well of*knowledge. Learning about him and talking to him. Since the beginning of the year I have had 24.4 LDs a month and that number is rising.

I don't DJ anymore unless I feel like it. I still have to sleep 8 hours a night. If I want to keep my current pace of LDs I could with just sleep and intent (micro WBTB is a part of my sleep now) but in order to progress I must keep learning, analyzing, and looking for things that inspire. I really couldn't have skipped a step. I use almost everything I learned. A lot of things mix over into others, like dream incubation, visualization, day residue, and RCs, and through learning about all of them I realize that they are all different angles of the same thing and knowing why something works is a great way to overcome it and master it. So always learning.

Now looking at all this I know that I could have had more LDs. Paid less attention to some hobbies, maybe not stayed up all night talking with my wife a few times. Hanging out with friends too late. Even when I am doing things like this I know I am ruining my LDing for at least one night, but as amazing as LDing is, my goal is to find a way to LD every single dream, without losing anything from any relationships in waking life. my biggest reason to LD is that I simply hate sleeping. I have a wonderful life, and I simply can't go through it so tired and the only thing that can make me sleep as much as I need (approx 8 hours a night) is LDing. I only use it to enhance waking life. So I dropped a lot of things that help me LD because they weren't as effective as others and the amount of time they took out of my day was damaging. Like DJing, having 6+ dreams a night puts me at 30 minutes with a pen. Too much time. Hope this is the detailed type of thing you want. To be honest sticking with something like this and honestly trying your hardest every night is difficult, but it is well worth it. I am not the type of person that thinks that "everyone learns at a different speed at LDing" I think that everyone learns at a different speed in life. Learn how to learn faster and everything in life will come easier to you, sports, video games, work. Read everything you can about a subject to understand it more. If you can't read very quickly, than learn how to. There are books on how to do all this. Good luck. Hope this helps. Haha. I get a little crazy when asked questions about LDing. This was all typed on my phone by the way, so it took a little while to type out, any problems with spelling or grammar I blame on that.

Edit:
Also mastermind said:
The technique that works for the many may not be the technique that works for you.

I would recommend looking at techniques that work for the many first, but not being stumbled if they don't work. Scour the land for techniques. If a tech works for you, figure out why it worked, take that part of it and screw the rest of it. look for people like hukif, naiya, or lucidis that have multiple LDs a night and figure out what sets them apart from the many. Take into account where you get the information for everything, and weigh it that way, but also realize that any technique that got anyone lucid ever, can work. They might have terms wrong, but it did work for them, so it would be worth it to read all the tutorials you can find ever. Good luck. Have fun. Count the cost of LDing before starting so that you don't fall by the wayside.

It took me about a month to get my first lucid dream. I didn't have a dream journal like other people suggest, but if I remembered having a dream when I woke, I would take a few seconds to try to recall what happened. My first lucid dream was a WILD, because it was the technique I was using. I've been most successful (as in, had the bed dreams with) DEILDs because I generally take a while to fall back asleep and DEILDs are much faster. The bulk of my lucid dreams now come from DILDs because even when I don't set an alarm, I still have the possibility of realizing that I'm dreaming.

It doesn't have to take a long time, I had my first intentional LD on the 3rd night trying.
All I did was wrote down my Dreams and did a few Reality Checks.
After the first 1 though I got more serious about it and started WILDing and doing the occasional bit of ADA.
Belief is a big part of it so don't think it has to take Weeks or Months, it doesn't!