Seeking Advice

[DMTisYOU]

So I've talked about this a little with a friend of mine who is a member of this forum (rynkrt3), but it's easier to explain things in a single post on a forum than multiple short messages on facebook. Also, I'd like to see other people's views on the matter. rynkrt3 was telling me about how he uses a mantra and SSILD for his technique. He goes to sleep quickly, so he can just focus on his senses until he goes to sleep. This would take a lot of practice for me, because I've tried focusing on senses for meditation many times, but I just can't clear my head. My mind is always running at full speed, always distracting itself. I have briefly calmed it down during my meditation attempts, but it never lasts long. I plan to learn how to meditate effectively some day, even moreso now that I know it can help with lucid dreaming. EDIT: Also, I think it's important to mention that it usually takes me anywhere from 1-3 hours to go to sleep, sometimes longer. Anyway... The point of this post is to tell you guys a little about myself so you can give me personalized advice, helping me to determine the best LD technique for me. I've had 3 accidental DILD's in the past year, which is what initially spurred my interest in lucid dreaming. I started a dream journal well before my first LD, but the purpose of the journal then was to hopefully notice patterns in my dreams that would help me figure out how my subconscious mind works. It has helped to some degree in that regard, but now my interest has shifted mainly to lucidity. Aside from that, I take walks through the woods all the time, and have made it a habit to keep aware of my surroundings while I'm out. I didn't know what ADA was until two days ago, but ADA is pretty much the same thing I do when I go walking. Perhaps that's why I had those DILD's. It's a theory, anyway. So now, after talking to rynkrt3 about this for a while, more frequent awareness exercises and habitual RC's seem to be the way to go for me. I plan to practice awareness a few times every day, working my way up to true ADA over time. As for the RC's, I don't really know how I should go about it. I'll leave that open for suggestion.

[tofur]

So I've talked about this a little with a friend of mine who is a member of this forum (rynkrt3), but it's easier to explain things in a single post on a forum than multiple short messages on facebook. Also, I'd like to see other people's views on the matter. rynkrt3 was telling me about how he uses a mantra and SSILD for his technique. He goes to sleep quickly, so he can just focus on his senses until he goes to sleep. This would take a lot of practice for me, because I've tried focusing on senses for meditation many times, but I just can't clear my head. My mind is always running at full speed, always distracting itself. I have briefly calmed it down during my meditation attempts, but it never lasts long. I plan to learn how to meditate effectively some day, even moreso now that I know it can help with lucid dreaming. EDIT: Also, I think it's important to mention that it usually takes me anywhere from 1-3 hours to go to sleep, sometimes longer. Anyway... The point of this post is to tell you guys a little about myself so you can give me personalized advice, helping me to determine the best LD technique for me. I've had 3 accidental DILD's in the past year, which is what initially spurred my interest in lucid dreaming. I started a dream journal well before my first LD, but the purpose of the journal then was to hopefully notice patterns in my dreams that would help me figure out how my subconscious mind works. It has helped to some degree in that regard, but now my interest has shifted mainly to lucidity. Aside from that, I take walks through the woods all the time, and have made it a habit to keep aware of my surroundings while I'm out. I didn't know what ADA was until two days ago, but ADA is pretty much the same thing I do when I go walking. Perhaps that's why I had those DILD's. It's a theory, anyway. So now, after talking to rynkrt3 about this for a while, more frequent awareness exercises and habitual RC's seem to be the way to go for me. I plan to practice awareness a few times every day, working my way up to true ADA over time. As for the RC's, I don't really know how I should go about it. I'll leave that open for suggestion. To meditate is to quiet down your mind, going from lost in thought to clear and observing the mind, getting pulled back into thought, pulling yourself back out, over and over. It takes time and consistent effort over years, it isn't something you just "learn" and then your mind is quiet from thereon out. The actual act of meditation is about as simple a thing to learn as you can find. Watch your mind, observe phenomena rise and fall, observe your breath, bodily sensations, etc. In practice however, it's not that easy. Easy to learn, not easy to master.

[Plashanko]

Meditation works very well. Every night before I go to bed, I meditate for 10 minutes. I sit on my bed and clear my mind. The first five minutes I feel my entire body from my head to my toes. Then the final 5 minutes I just focus on my breathing and concentration. I've been doing this for the past 3-4 days and every night afterwards I have 2-3 very vivid dreams. Hope this helps

[DMTisYOU]

To meditate is to quiet down your mind, going from lost in thought to clear and observing the mind, getting pulled back into thought, pulling yourself back out, over and over. It takes time and consistent effort over years, it isn't something you just "learn" and then your mind is quiet from thereon out. The actual act of meditation is about as simple a thing to learn as you can find. Watch your mind, observe phenomena rise and fall, observe your breath, bodily sensations, etc. In practice however, it's not that easy. Easy to learn, not easy to master. I know meditation takes years of practice, that's why I have given up on it for the time being. I have never expected to just "learn" it and always have a quiet mind after learning how to do it. It doesn't work like that. I only referenced meditation because it's the first thing that came to mind when I was told about SSILD. For now, SSILD is out of the question for me because of how long I would need to lay there keeping that focus (hours). Meditation works very well. Every night before I go to bed, I meditate for 10 minutes. I sit on my bed and clear my mind. The first five minutes I feel my entire body from my head to my toes. Then the final 5 minutes I just focus on my breathing and concentration. I've been doing this for the past 3-4 days and every night afterwards I have 2-3 very vivid dreams. Hope this helps This is good to know, however I think whatever benefits I would get from meditation would wear off well before I go to sleep because of how long it takes me to sleep. I usually take between 1-3 hours to go to sleep, so IME when I try to clear my head in bed I always drift into regular thought patterns, then switch back to focusing on my senses, and alternating like that for however long it takes me to go to sleep. I always lose focus by the end of it. Maintaining a meditative mindset or thinking about one thing for hours on end is impossible for me. I just can't do it at this point in my life. Maybe one day after tons of practice, but not right now. Don't think I don't appreciate the advice you've given me, because I do. I will learn the art of meditation in my lifetime. But for lucid dreaming, I think I would do much better with other methods at this point. Right now my main interest is in ADA and RC's, along with WBTB (I think that's the right term). Last night I tried a combination of things. I went to bed at about 11:30, set my alarm for 6:00, then repeated a mantra until I went to sleep. As expected, I kept drifting from my mantra into normal thought patterns, BUT it did seem to work to some degree. I forget exactly what the mantra was, but it had to do with remembering my dreams, waking up at 6:00, and recording those dreams. Well... I woke up at 5:55! I think that was auto-suggestion, if that's the right term for it. I immediately turned my alarm off and recorded what I could remember, then stayed up for a while thinking about lucid dreaming, as I've been told it helps with the chances of having a LD. I didn't have a LD, but i did remember the last part of the dream I had after this WBTB exercise. I recorded what I could remember from this as well. So this is promising. I think if I keep at this method I'll eventually have a LD. I just need to remember to make awareness and RC's a habit. I still want some healthy criticism and advice from you guys though, because my method isn't as well-defined as I'd like it to be. Anything that you think would help with this method would be very much appreciated!

[tofur]

I was just saying that laying there with your mind racing and not being able to control it is a integral part of meditation, the point is to be able to observe all of it without being tossed around/sucked into it. Maintaining that perspective is what calms the mind down, you have unplugged it's energy source (you). The reason you've only briefly been able to quiet it down is because you just need to build some momentum, meditate more than twice, for instance. Do it for even 10 minutes a day and you'll notice a difference after a couple months. Do it for 40 minutes a day and you speed the process up dramatically. why would you have to lay there for hours with SSILD? that's not how that practice works, it is quite specific if you read through the whole thread (or at least the first 10-20 pages). You just have to wake up briefly later in your sleep cycle, takes like 10 minutes max.

[DMTisYOU]

I understand what you're saying. I understand that getting lost in thought is part of it, and that greater control comes with time. All I'm saying is that at this point in time it's not the method for me. I will revisit meditation at some point, but that point is not now. Maybe sometime over the next few months, maybe 20 years from now. I'd like it to be sooner rather than later, however. As for SSILD, it was my understanding that SSILD was about focusing on the senses until you fall asleep so that you're more aware of a change in those senses in a dream. It's very possible I'm wrong, I only just learned about these X-ILD's three days ago. Anyway, my point with SSILD was that because it takes me a long time to go to sleep, it would be harder for me to practice SSILD due to the amount of time I would have to focus on my senses. Attempting SSILD right after waking up would probably be more useful for me, so thanks for that at least. You'll have to forgive my noobishness. I know next to nothing when it comes to these things, which is why I'm Seeking Advice. I'm not trying to argue, I have no interest in arguing. It solves nothing, and leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouths. Meditation is great. I know this. It's just not what I'm looking for right now. Let's move ooonnn! To be specific, my interest is in awareness techniques. DILD seems to be the best route for me. I'm just looking to be pointed in the right direction for the techniques that work best for me. Any advice on DILD or awareness techniques would be helpful to me.