Am I close to a DILD?

[Phoenix422]

Currently got back into lucid dreaming a week or two ago. I have my mantras which I do every night before bed or whenever I wake up in the night: Dream Recall, "I wake up after every dream and remember my dreams vividly!", DILD, "I'm dreaming, reality check!", DEILD, "I wake up after every dream and play dead!" And, during the day, whenever I have free time, I pause and analyze what I hear, feel and see while saying to myself, "I'm dreaming" over and over again and using a reality check at the end. I only just changed to these mantras and, while I would describe my recall as good (I have two to four small dreams during the night which I remember in fuzzy detail upon waking up), I wonder if my ADA and DILD mantra is starting to work. Two days ago I have a FA but sadly didn't realise this until later when I really was awake, and, last night, in my dream I was with some friends and were talking about lucid dreaming and how to get lucid. Is there anything more I can do or should I continue with what I'm doing so far?

[MasterMind]

Vivid dreams, being aware of awakenings, and talking about lucid dreaming in your dreams are good indicators that you are closer to a lucid dream. What I would do if I were you would be to just continue falling back to sleep whenever you wake up, your waking awareness will follow you to the dream and increase your chances of becoming lucid. But other than that just continue what you are doing and awareness will come on it's own.

[Phoenix422]

Thanks, that's great to hear! I'll keep up with the mantras and ADA awareness and hopefully I'll have a DILD. If not, then at least I'll have some awesome, vivid dreams to right down!

[Scionox]

Do you just say "I'm dreaming" before doing reality check or you actually fully believe that you might be dreaming? If it's the second, then you are doing well, since you have false awakenings i suggest adding doing reality check every time you wake up to that, they are good way to get lucid. And like MasterMind said, WBTB/Micro WBTB can help getting lucid as well.

[Phoenix422]

Do you just say "I'm dreaming" before doing reality check or you actually fully believe that you might be dreaming? If it's the second, then you are doing well, since you have false awakenings i suggest adding doing reality check every time you wake up to that, they are good way to get lucid. And like MasterMind said, WBTB/Micro WBTB can help getting lucid as well. Well, I try to fully believe I'm dreaming while doing ADA and then do the reality check at the end to confirm that I'm not. I hope that's the right way to go about it. I'll definitely do the reality check upon waking up! I've tried in the past and then always forgot so I'll make sure to get into the habit of doing it! My dream recalls a funny thing. Remembered nothing last night and I'm not too sure why. My dream recall's been better in the past but seems to be average at best and below average at worse. :\ Still, I'll stick to what I'm doing and hope it improves.

[Highlander]

Like Mastermind and Checker666 say, WBTB does help. It helps me, etc. It is a good method which can increase the chance of a DILD afterwards. Likewise reading through some of your dreams before going to bed and noting any common themes and dreamsigns can help you too.

[JoannaB]

I am not sure that believing one is dreaming while doing ADA during waking life helps. The goal after all is to learn to be aware of one's true dream state, not to fool oneself into thinking that waking life is a dream (unless you believe that it is all a dream). For me while doing ADA I try to remember what I did before, and I try to be as aware of the moment as I can be, be aware of myself, do everything and perceive everything consciously, and use logic to determine whether it is a dream or waking life and be open to the possibility of this being a dream, but I will not tell myself that it is a dream when it is not because I believe that would make me less aware: brainwashing myself into thinking my waking life is a dream would not help, I think. But that's my thinking and I may be wrong.

[Phoenix422]

I am not sure that believing one is dreaming while doing ADA during waking life helps. The goal after all is to learn to be aware of one's true dream state, not to fool oneself into thinking that waking life is a dream (unless you believe that it is all a dream). For me while doing ADA I try to remember what I did before, and I try to be as aware of the moment as I can be, be aware of myself, do everything and perceive everything consciously, and use logic to determine whether it is a dream or waking life and be open to the possibility of this being a dream, but I will not tell myself that it is a dream when it is not because I believe that would make me less aware: brainwashing myself into thinking my waking life is a dream would not help, I think. But that's my thinking and I may be wrong. Ah, I see. I'm doing ADA the way I am currently am because I read in another thread that believing one is dreaming while doing it transfers over into dreams and makes you more likely to become lucid. Sort of like reality checks, I believe. If you get into the habit of doing it, sooner or later you'll do it in your dreams too. Then again, there's another thread saying you should do ADA while been skeptical you're really awake, so maybe there's different ways to go about it? Possibly, I've been doing it all wrong and need to change how I go about it. Would it be better to do ADA while thinking, "Am I dreaming?" or "I could be dreaming", instead?

[MasterMind]

It's called a reality CHECK for a reason. Before you do the reality check you are supposed to not be totally sure if you are in the dream or the physical reality because in a dream it will feel exactly the same. And you will be in the same kind of situation in the dream, you might be talking to a friend and then start thinking about a reality check and the point here is not to think "I am dreaming!", the point is to check if it is a dream or not but at the same time not not know if you are awake either. Although for beginners it's probably good to think that you are dreaming while awake, because then you will start to expect your dreams to become as reality which will make the dreams more vivid and easier to become aware of, but later on when you are frequently starting to have spontanious lucid dreams you will become skeptical to physical reality itself and that's when the reality check is no longer just a tool to induce lucid dreams, it's actually a REALITY check to help you be aware of what reality you are in.

[Phoenix422]

It's called a reality CHECK for a reason. Before you do the reality check you are supposed to not be totally sure if you are in the dream or the physical reality because in a dream it will feel exactly the same. And you will be in the same kind of situation in the dream, you might be talking to a friend and then start thinking about a reality check and the point here is not to think "I am dreaming!", the point is to check if it is a dream or not but at the same time not not know if you are awake either. Although for beginners it's probably good to think that you are dreaming while awake, because then you will start to expect your dreams to become as reality which will make the dreams more vivid and easier to become aware of, but later on when you are frequently starting to have spontanious lucid dreams you will become skeptical to physical reality itself and that's when the reality check is no longer just a tool to induce lucid dreams, it's actually a REALITY check to help you be aware of what reality you are in. Gotcha! Can't believe I've been going about it the wrong way! ^^' I'll change it up then. When I do ADA from now on, I'll act skeptical and question whether I'm dreaming then do the reality check once I'm finished to make sure and confirm that it's not. Thanks for the tip!

[JoannaB]

I noticed that twice already in this thread you have said that you will reality check to "confirm that it is not" a dream. See, that assumes that it is not a dream, so deep inside you are actually expecting it not to be. That's not good. the purpose of a reality check should not be to confirm that it is is not a dream, but rather to verify whether or not it is a dream. If you expect to confirm that it is not a dream, you most likely will confirm that it is not a dream, even when it is. And actually right before the reality check and while doing it perhaps for a brief amount of time it is a good idea to fool oneself briefly after all into thinking it is a dream because one has to overcome that natural expectation that it will work like in real life. So for a brief moment there, expect this to be a dream during the reality check.

[Phoenix422]

I noticed that twice already in this thread you have said that you will reality check to "confirm that it is not" a dream. See, that assumes that it is not a dream, so deep inside you are actually expecting it not to be. That's not good. the purpose of a reality check should not be to confirm that it is is not a dream, but rather to verify whether or not it is a dream. If you expect to confirm that it is not a dream, you most likely will confirm that it is not a dream, even when it is. And actually right before the reality check and while doing it perhaps for a brief amount of time it is a good idea to fool oneself briefly after all into thinking it is a dream because one has to overcome that natural expectation that it will work like in real life. So for a brief moment there, expect this to be a dream during the reality check. So, what you're saying is that I should be doing the reality check to verify whether or not I'm dreaming? That I should be skeptical before and while I do it and that the current way I do my reality check is setting myself up for failure? Yeah, I can see what you mean. If I keep doing it the way I am, then even if I become aware in my dreams and do a reality check, there's the possibility I'll just dismiss it as reality because that's what I do when I'm awake. Right, when I do my reality check I'll do it to verify if I'm dreaming or not. I'll take what you said into account. Thank you!

[MasterMind]

I just want to point out one thing. And once again I will use an analogy of the process of learning to get good with girls. (I know it might be a weird comparison, but it's actually a really similar process.) It's not about learning HOW to pick up a girl or HOW to GET a lucid dream. Because girls are not objects and your awareness is not an objective thing either. So the process one needs to go through (in order to be a successful lucid dreamer or ladiesman) is not needed in order to learn how to do something, bur rather it's needed in order to learn how to BECOME something. You don't want to be a guy who tricks a girl into liking you and you don't want to be a pracctioner that needs to be dependent on techniques in order to lucid dream. The theories and techniques, yes believe it or not there are techniques for picking up girls but they don't work and that's the point! Lucid dreaming techniques doesn't work either! What makes them work is your change in belief and expectations which will make you act differently. And that's what we are aiming for, a change in being. But that takes time. When you have got rejected by thousands of girls and let go of your ego, you start to not care about what they think about you or if you get the girl or not, and you start to have fun and be what every girl wants you to be "YOURSELF" and the fun actually is in talking to the girl, you can't be yourself or have fun when you are nervous and anxious because of false belief and expectations such as girls only like tall muscular guys, girls only like douchebags etc. Because this becomes your reality. By letting go of ego and going through this process you get socially aware and intelligent which in turn will give you the result. When you have failed a thousands of times of getting lucid dreams you start to let go of ego and don't care if you get a lucid dream or not, and you start to do what you find fun and interesting, and the fun is actually in pracctising lucid dreaming itself and you can be naturally aware in your dreams, you can't be that when you are nervous and anxious because of false belief and expectations, such as dreams are unstable, dreams are hard to be aware of etc. Because this becomes you reality. By going through this process you get naturally aware of your dreams and understand the mechanics of it which in turn will get you the result. But to make it SIMPLE. Don't put too much time on thinking about the theory behind everything (unless you find that entertaining.) All you need to do is to do what you know is right and just do it, if you do something wrong obstacles will appear on their own and by solving them you learn and understand new things. What I described above is useful for people who have practised for let's say 3-4 years. All you need to do is to take action! Here is a fun video to illustrate why. (The video is pickup related, but I think you get the point ^-^)

[Phoenix422]

Thank you, MasterMind! I found your post really helpful. I'll try and use that to help me with my lucid dreaming! ^^