The Power of Belief

[OneUp]

Hey guys, in this post i just wanted to get some people thinking. Recently I have had more lucid dreams and an increase in their frequency all by one thing: Belief. I feel that if everyone TRULY believed that they had the power and ability to lucid dream every night, they could do it. This ability that ive "discovered" can really help some people out I feel. For instance- every night that I go to bed truly believing that Ill have a lucid dream- i have one. But it only happens when my determination is solid and at its height, which isnt that often. So what if everyone tried this? What if everyone started realizing this ability? Or is it even an ability at all? Any thoughts on this? Hope it made sense lol, my first new thread in a while.

[Bobblehat]

Isn't this...pretending to believe, rather than actually believing? If it only works "when my determination is solid and at its height" isn't the fact that determination is required indicate that you don't actually truly believe?

[Sageous]

^^ And by extension, isn't this focus on "truly believing" really just another term for setting intention? Nothing wrong with setting intention, of course, but it might be a good idea to understand, or be honest with yourself about, what you are really doing... especially if you are setting up a new technique. I think "belief," for better or worse, is a volatile term as well, because it often connotes religious leanings, or, as Bobblehat noted above, implies that you are accepting something as real even if your common-sense sensibilities tell you it is not. This idea might just require a simply word-switch, I think. Change "believe" to, say, "know," and the OP will be a much more agreeable read -- and an excellent idea.

[Nfri]

Belief is knowing that your intention is going to work. So yes, it raises the chance of becoming lucid

[DragonSword]

I've gotten so mad that I'm having such a difficulty trying to lucid dream that I have actually stomped my foot and told myself I am going to lucid dream. Only managed to remember a few dreams but those ended in failed attempts at having DILDs.

[HeWhoShapes]

MILD is actually built(in part) by your belief\intent(as are many DILD techniques), so yeah that is really helpful for any LDer to have. Becoming an oneirnaut by sheer belief however is something iv'e yet to accomplish

[OneUp]

Haha yea i see what you're saying Bobblehat. Sometimes I am pretending but other times I actually come to a sense of "Knowing" Ill lucid dream rather than just believing. So sometimes its pretending other times its not. Kinda hard to explain. ^^ And by extension, isn't this focus on "truly believing" really just another term for setting intention? Nothing wrong with setting intention, of course, but it might be a good idea to understand, or be honest with yourself about, what you are really doing... especially if you are setting up a new technique. I think "belief," for better or worse, is a volatile term as well, because it often connotes religious leanings, or, as Bobblehat noted above, implies that you are accepting something as real even if your common-sense sensibilities tell you it is not. This idea might just require a simply word-switch, I think. Change "believe" to, say, "know," and the OP will be a much more agreeable read -- and an excellent idea. Thanks for the help Sageous, and yea I think that to "know" is better than to "believe". Great idea man! I've gotten so mad that I'm having such a difficulty trying to lucid dream that I have actually stomped my foot and told myself I am going to lucid dream. Only managed to remember a few dreams but those ended in failed attempts at having DILDs. Hey DragonSword. I must say I think we've all gone through that at sometime. But the change of tide and the end of your dry season comes with motivation and persistence, so yea bro your approach is a good one, but also have patience cause it'll help you focus more and make things easier- at least for me it does. Just last night I had a lucid dream due to straight up Intention- no practice at all really, but it comes with motivation and focus. Keep practicing man, I know youre going to get it down really soon.

[Starlightpaw]

Change "believe" to, say, "know..." I find those terms rather interchangeable, in the case of lucid dreaming at least. The feeling you get when you "believe," or "know," that you will have a lucid dream before you go to bed is the same, even though the definitions are slightly different. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like the purist form of confidence in yourself, like you cannot allow yourself to fail. Once you have that feeling, and you fall asleep with it, I'd be more surprised if you didn't have a lucid dream. I've recently "discovered" this for myself, OP, and I'm glad you made a thread about it. The power of your own belief is amazingly strong if you can harness it properly. Many people seem to skip this, or don't pay much attention to it, but this is probably the most important thing in lucid dreaming next to raising your awareness, because it's all tied into your mindset. In the past two weeks, I've had more lucid dreams than I've had in the whole month of May because I realized that I needed to believe, or know, that I could have a lucid dream. Beforehand, I was just waiting for it to happen without really doing anything. My attitude was "it'll come when it'll come," but I changed that to "I want it to happen now, tonight!" and things actually got better. Also, a bit off topic, but I think people need to stop thinking that lucid dreaming is "hard," because it really isn't. The hard part is getting yourself motivated to write dream journal entries, do reality checks, stay aware, meditate, or whatever it is. And getting motivated is hard, I know this, trust me, but after you get going it's almost hard to stop. Thinking that lucid dreaming itself is hard is nothing but a hindrance on the mindset you need to achieve. Just do what you need to do, or what you have been doing, and add in more confidence in yourself. If you're reading this and you're having trouble... Do. Not. Give. Up. Build yourself and don't put yourself down. Look at the bright side of things all the time. Look at what you did right, or how much you remembered from last night, you'll feel so much better. :P

[OneUp]

I find those terms rather interchangeable, in the case of lucid dreaming at least. The feeling you get when you "believe," or "know," that you will have a lucid dream before you go to bed is the same, even though the definitions are slightly different. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like the purist form of confidence in yourself, like you cannot allow yourself to fail. Once you have that feeling, and you fall asleep with it, I'd be more surprised if you didn't have a lucid dream. I've recently "discovered" this for myself, OP, and I'm glad you made a thread about it. The power of your own belief is amazingly strong if you can harness it properly. Many people seem to skip this, or don't pay much attention to it, but this is probably the most important thing in lucid dreaming next to raising your awareness, because it's all tied into your mindset. In the past two weeks, I've had more lucid dreams than I've had in the whole month of May because I realized that I needed to believe, or know, that I could have a lucid dream. Beforehand, I was just waiting for it to happen without really doing anything. My attitude was "it'll come when it'll come," but I changed that to "I want it to happen now, tonight!" and things actually got better. Also, a bit off topic, but I think people need to stop thinking that lucid dreaming is "hard," because it really isn't. The hard part is getting yourself motivated to write dream journal entries, do reality checks, stay aware, meditate, or whatever it is. And getting motivated is hard, I know this, trust me, but after you get going it's almost hard to stop. Thinking that lucid dreaming itself is hard is nothing but a hindrance on the mindset you need to achieve. Just do what you need to do, or what you have been doing, and add in more confidence in yourself. If you're reading this and you're having trouble... Do. Not. Give. Up. Build yourself and don't put yourself down. Look at the bright side of things all the time. Look at what you did right, or how much you remembered from last night, you'll feel so much better. Exactly dude. I just read an old thread by SilverBullet which basically teaches the power of belief and that Lucid Dreaming isnt hard at all, but that people keep spreading the lie that it is and its like a disease and people listen to it. Its crazy what believing can do and now that Ive learned more about it I can only agree 100% with your reply Starlightpaw. The ability we have within us to Lucid Dream at will is definitely present, we just have to believe it.

[Sageous]

I find those terms rather interchangeable, in the case of lucid dreaming at least. The feeling you get when you "believe," or "know," that you will have a lucid dream before you go to bed is the same, even though the definitions are slightly different. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like the purist form of confidence in yourself, like you cannot allow yourself to fail. Once you have that feeling, and you fall asleep with it, I'd be more surprised if you didn't have a lucid dream. The terms, to me, are not so much interchangeable as they are different degrees of the same thing. You hold a belief about something as true until you know it is true. So, if you believe a thing, you still do not yet know it is true, and once you know it is true, then you no longer need to believe in it. I also think that this is not a matter of semantics; that we have an intrinsic knowledge of these two words, that the conditions/degrees they describe are reflected in our very nature. So, in the context of this thread, I think it makes more sense to know that you will LD tonight, rather than believe in it, because then you are telling yourself in a genuine way that the possibility of an LD tonight is something real, rather than something you are hoping for. ... and yes, if you can go to sleep knowing you will be lucid, the process is dramatically easier!

[Starlightpaw]

The terms, to me, are not so much interchangeable as they are different degrees of the same thing. You hold a belief about something as true until you know it is true. So, if you believe a thing, you still do not yet know it is true, and once you know it is true, then you no longer need to believe in it. I also think that this is not a matter of semantics; that we have an intrinsic knowledge of these two words, that the conditions/degrees they describe are reflected in our very nature. So, in the context of this thread, I think it makes more sense to know that you will LD tonight, rather than believe in it, because then you are telling yourself in a genuine way that the possibility of an LD tonight is something real, rather than something you are hoping for. ... and yes, if you can go to sleep knowing you will be lucid, the process is dramatically easier! Hehe, I guess I can't really argue with a guy who has had thousands more lucid dreams than me, you make a strong point. :P So I will have to agree, the terms aren't as interchangeable as I thought, guess that means I'm going to have to make a few changes to my little personal diary. To add on to what you said, since knowing and believing are different degrees of the same thing, the feeling of knowing can be easily achieved if you already believe enough, it's a step up. Knowing is just a stronger feeling than believing and will help much more, so yeah, don't stop knowing! ^^

[JadeGreen]

I have been meditating on this idea without really practicing DILD. I suppose in a way this is a variant of MILD. The goal of these meditations is to help me realize, not only conciously but subconsciously that lucid dreaming is only as easy as you make it. Essentially, I can think to myself, consciously: "Lucid dreaming is entirely in my mind, therefore I should have complete control over it and be able to make it happen at will" But then I sort of get that aching voice in my head that's like "No, it's not. Your going to have to really work hard and practice every lucid dreaming technique to lucid dream." And so it very much becomes an ideological conflict in your head of I'm a good lucid dreamer-no I'm not. I have to work at it. But the thing is, I've been going at this technique for over a year and my lucid dreams HAVE been getting more frequent. I mean I'm still a long ways away from where I would like to be, but with a little effort and focus over a long period, I do seem to be getting gradually better. I'm by no means consistently having vivid dreams, but my ability to LD seems far superior to when I started out. And when I do buckle down for a night of heavy LDing, I'm pretty much guaranteed to LD. In other words, the power of belief does seem to work.

[OneUp]

I have been meditating on this idea without really practicing DILD. I suppose in a way this is a variant of MILD. The goal of these meditations is to help me realize, not only conciously but subconsciously that lucid dreaming is only as easy as you make it. Essentially, I can think to myself, consciously: "Lucid dreaming is entirely in my mind, therefore I should have complete control over it and be able to make it happen at will" But then I sort of get that aching voice in my head that's like "No, it's not. Your going to have to really work hard and practice every lucid dreaming technique to lucid dream." And so it very much becomes an ideological conflict in your head of I'm a good lucid dreamer-no I'm not. I have to work at it. But the thing is, I've been going at this technique for over a year and my lucid dreams HAVE been getting more frequent. I mean I'm still a long ways away from where I would like to be, but with a little effort and focus over a long period, I do seem to be getting gradually better. I'm by no means consistently having vivid dreams, but my ability to LD seems far superior to when I started out. And when I do buckle down for a night of heavy LDing, I'm pretty much guaranteed to LD. In other words, the power of belief does seem to work. Amazing dude! Now imagine what we could do with this ability once we gained full control over it! The possibilities seem endless. And not only could this sense of "Knowing" you're going to LD help with LD'ing but I suppose it could help alot in life as well, but thats for another thread. The terms, to me, are not so much interchangeable as they are different degrees of the same thing. You hold a belief about something as true until you know it is true. So, if you believe a thing, you still do not yet know it is true, and once you know it is true, then you no longer need to believe in it. I also think that this is not a matter of semantics; that we have an intrinsic knowledge of these two words, that the conditions/degrees they describe are reflected in our very nature. So, in the context of this thread, I think it makes more sense to know that you will LD tonight, rather than believe in it, because then you are telling yourself in a genuine way that the possibility of an LD tonight is something real, rather than something you are hoping for. ... and yes, if you can go to sleep knowing you will be lucid, the process is dramatically easier! Thanks for clearing everything up for me Sageous! You are truly a great help! And since ive posted this thread Ive only learned more about Lucid Dreaming, especially after visiting your "Q and A" thread about you and your lucid dreaming experience. Might as well make that thread a guide or something because of the amount of information within it!