Thread: People that are Lucid 80% or more of the time, How Do You Do It?

I am certainly not lucid 80% of the time, but I also have that "background noise" that Sageous speaks of most of the time. In my opinion this alone is very satisfying as it influences decisions in dreams and can make things very interesting. It also allows for DEILDs, and effects a great many other things I am too tired to think of at the moment. I do get a satisfying amount of LDs from DILDs but I have never bothered to count them; surely it is nowhere near 100 per month. I do get a huge amount of DEILDs however, but keep in mind that I have been known to sleep up to 16 hours at times.

I am not sure exactly how I achieved the "background awareness", but it is either due to self-awareness in general, or what I call "state awareness", which is a dream yoga alteration that involves setting certain hours of the day aside to continually look for dream distortions and sensations, all the while seeing myself from the outside in a way (way over-simplified version). This obviously also involves self-awareness, and since arriving at this forum and reading about Sageous's experience, I think it is apparent what is at work here. I assume that I recognize the dream state because of my personal place within it (how it relates to ME) and the frequency of my daytime practice, and since incorporating techniques from others, like MILD and RRC, I am beginning to understand the process more as I struggle to achieve that pure self-awareness and memory in dreams more frequently.

Basically; practice, practice, practice, and this: you have to love the process. I remember when I wanted to kick high for martial arts. I decided to train for a split in my twenties and stiff as a board. I taught myself over time, and after stretching for an hour and a half per day for four years, I finally did it. If I did not love the small gains, I do not believe I would have held out so long. Unlike a split however, the gains need not be small if you truly throw all you have (or can) at lucid dreaming, and do it in such a way that you love doing so.

I'm definitely not lucid 80% of the time, but with adequate sleep (like 9 hrs) and the intention to become lucid I have about a 50% success rate, which isn't too terrible.

I use MILD every time I go to sleep, and WBTB at one-hour intervals after I've gotten 6 hours' sleep. I wouldn't say I'm a "natural" by any means, though when I was young I did discover that I could avoid nightmares by flying away from them (which implies I had some knowledge that I was dreaming.) Perhaps for this reason I've almost never used RC checks or failed to answer correctly if I asked myself "am I dreaming?" -- if I remember to question at all, I go lucid right away. Dreams "feel" different from waking life.

Not very helpful, I know! but this is what I've gathered from the other posters who've got thousands of lucids under their belts: like rynkrt3 said, you have to learn to constantly question reality. Be vigilant for anything that seems unusual or unexpected, and remember that your dreaming brain will make excuses for everything no matter how odd ("Why is this baseball in the fridge? ...oh, my friend must have put it there.") Ideally you want to be aware of what you're doing at every possible moment; you don't want to let yourself coast through the day on 'autopilot' because you'll coast through dreams the same way.

This sounds exhausting (and it does take practice!) but it actually turns out to be a very soothing and relaxing mindset. I starting practicing All Day Awareness http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...kingyoshi.html and noticed that it made me feel much calmer; then I realized that the constant-awareness approach is very similar to mindfulness, which is a kind of meditation you can do throughout the day without having to sit and close your eyes. I believe this is the key to increased lucidity and so this is where I've been focusing most of my efforts; in theory you could be constantly aware (with lots of practice, of course) and therefore highly likely to become lucid in dreams.

Originally Posted by Renyao

I'm definitely not lucid 80% of the time, but with adequate sleep (like 9 hrs) and the intention to become lucid I have about a 50% success rate, which isn't too terrible.

I use MILD every time I go to sleep, and WBTB at one-hour intervals after I've gotten 6 hours' sleep. I wouldn't say I'm a "natural" by any means, though when I was young I did discover that I could avoid nightmares by flying away from them (which implies I had some knowledge that I was dreaming.) Perhaps for this reason I've almost never used RC checks or failed to answer correctly if I asked myself "am I dreaming?" -- if I remember to question at all, I go lucid right away. Dreams "feel" different from waking life.

Not very helpful, I know! but this is what I've gathered from the other posters who've got thousands of lucids under their belts: like rynkrt3 said, you have to learn to constantly question reality. Be vigilant for anything that seems unusual or unexpected, and remember that your dreaming brain will make excuses for everything no matter how odd ("Why is this baseball in the fridge? ...oh, my friend must have put it there.") Ideally you want to be aware of what you're doing at every possible moment; you don't want to let yourself coast through the day on 'autopilot' because you'll coast through dreams the same way.

This sounds exhausting (and it does take practice!) but it actually turns out to be a very soothing and relaxing mindset. I starting practicing All Day Awareness http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...kingyoshi.html and noticed that it made me feel much calmer; then I realized that the constant-awareness approach is very similar to mindfulness, which is a kind of meditation you can do throughout the day without having to sit and close your eyes. I believe this is the key to increased lucidity and so this is where I've been focusing most of my efforts; in theory you could be constantly aware (with lots of practice, of course) and therefore highly likely to become lucid in dreams.

Keep in mind that self-awareness is different from ADA awareness( which is environmental awareness)

Originally Posted by LouaiB

Keep in mind that self-awareness is different from ADA awareness( which is environmental awareness)

Self-Awareness is a bxtch at first! LOL Seriously, ADA was a cake walk for me after many repetitions. Then I started a Gravity RC which was literally hell for the first 2-4 weeks.

It does all boil down to awareness though, just different variations of it anyway. There is no magical trick to becoming lucid its an art and skill just like any other. I'm practically lucid daily now, but what I've realized is once your technique is a habit it becomes second nature. You then start to carry it over into dreams without even realizing it. What's interesting is that the people I've met recently who are ALWAYS lucid weren't like that in their childhood. I tend to find their strategies for success more interesting rather than a person "naturally" doing it. I say naturally for lack of a better term because everyone's definition of it will be different. Most of the time as a child you don't know how you do these things, but just simply do them. Then again, there are a few who remember what they did in those early years.

Originally Posted by Azul

Self-Awareness is a bxtch at first! LOL Seriously, ADA was a cake walk for me after many repetitions. Then I started a Gravity RC which was literally hell for the first 2-4 weeks.

It does all boil down to awareness though, just different variations of it anyway. There is no magical trick to becoming lucid its an art and skill just like any other. I'm practically lucid daily now, but what I've realized is once your technique is a habit it becomes second nature. You then start to carry it over into dreams without even realizing it. What's interesting is that the people I've met recently who are ALWAYS lucid weren't like that in their childhood. I tend to find their strategies for success more interesting rather than a person "naturally" doing it. I say naturally for lack of a better term because everyone's definition of it will be different. Most of the time as a child you don't know how you do these things, but just simply do them. Then again, there are a few who remember what they did in those early years.

But self-awareness is a different awareness than ADA awareness. Indeed, they have both distinct jobs. Both have different effects. Each one has its own region(s) of the brain.