Thread: Where do I start with Lucid Dreaming, I want to become very good at it. Personal help?

Lucid dreaming is very interesting, just thinking about all the stuff I could do is like a adventure before going to sleep. I do so much research, there's so much to try. I get so lost and confused sometimes with instructions. The method I've tried the most is the SP method but I can't seem to focus enough and relax to induce SP. I really want to step onto the right path to LUCID dreaming, learning quickly step by step. I'm dedicated to the practice. Can someone please personally help me? A expert? Something. Id gladly appreciate it.

I don't think it's a good idea to do the SP method because you are not experienced and it isn't easy. Why don't you try something more effective? And are you doing RC regularly and writing DJ?

There's not much someone can personally help you with that you can't easily find help for on the site by looking around. If there are any exceptions, you could try IRC or making a thread about it. Someone personally teaching you isn't going to make the process faster either, patience is important when learning to LD. Good luck though, hope you get your first LD soon enough.

EDIT: There some good tutorials you could try here.

I would say that you should start by focusing on dream recall, no matter what induction technique you choose to do later, starting to intend to just remember the dreams (and there by becoming more aware of them) is the starting point. With more experience of the non-lucid dreams you will get a sense of how "dreaming" actually feels for you.

So then the you get a better sense of what it really means to become aware while dreaming.

There are then two types of induction methods:

Indirect - DILD: Which are inductions where you fall asleep unconsciously and reatain awareness while already in the dream. The most common form is MILD.

and

Direct - WILD: Which are inductions where you fall asleep consciously and are aware when the dream starts to form. The one I got experience of is the DEILD.
When you DEILD you basically wake up in the middle of the night, remain still with close eyes (while in REM) and you see your thoughts form into a vivid visualization and you are in the dream after just 5 seconds.

I have done lucid dreaming for a long time now, and if you check my threads and my posts, you will see that I have tried most things and promoted all techniques and I constantly change my opinion and view of the practise. In the beginning I was ALL for recall and just focused on that, later on I was FULL ON DEILDing, shortly after that I was FULL ON reality checking and practising daily awareness, lately I have been practising extreme WILDing on bedtime.

Right now I have other focuses in my life, such as tests that I need to get up early to study to, so I try to find an effortless way to lucid dream.

However since I now sleep less in the morning (which means that I miss the BIG REM periods in the later sleep) it means that lucid dreams doesn't become as frequent.

So well to sum up what I would recommend for you:

Practise recall -> Choose what ever method, theory, technique that interests you.

Never judge the result negatively, always find something positive to learn from each experience.

Do your practise after 6 hours of sleep or longer. WBTB.

And don't do the number one misstake that beginners do:

Don't see lucid dreaming as something you can attain by following instructions on the first or second try.
See it as a skill such as learning to play guitar, piano or a flute, the more you do it, the better you get!

Here is where it all started for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrV4vEDPkB0
Have fun and welcome to the wonderful land of dreams!

Originally Posted by MasterMind

Don't see lucid dreaming as something you can attain by following instructions on the first or second try.
See it as a skill such as learning to play guitar, piano or a flute, the more you do it, the better you get!

You can LD on your first try, people exaggerate how hard it is, and it's easy to get your first one. I do agree with your second sentence.

Originally Posted by n00bf0rlyf3

You can LD on your first try, people exaggerate how hard it is, and it's easy to get your first one. I do agree with your second sentence.

Of course you can, but if your focus is more on the result than on the process, you will not be able to make it consistent and you will get unmotivated and quit.

It happens in everything we do, if we start a Dream Journal and then have the goal of remembering as much as possible and start to strive to remembering long pages of dreams every night. Then the night where we don't remember as much, because it will happen some day or another, it will totally break us.
But on the other hand if the goal is to just do the best we can and have the goal of doing it for let's say 30 Days in a row, then it will become much more fun.

Another way to look at it is to use the perspective of stoicism: Don't focus on what you can control, only what you can control!

The result is barely in our control, we can control it to some extent but not fully control it. Sure you can say that you will have aa lucid dream tonight and have one, but can you do that tomorrow, or the night after that, probably not. But the process of doing actions is in our control!

I am not trying to argue with you, I am simply reinforcing my own beliefs, because I tend to jump between result-orientation and process-orientation.

Good day!

I do not like hijacking threads, but I think this might be appropriate since we both are beginners. What if one barely have vivid dreams? Is there any way to induce more dreams into ones life? Like the aid of natural things such as teas, foods etc. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Brian18

I do not like hijacking threads, but I think this might be appropriate since we both are beginners. What if one barely have vivid dreams? Is there any way to induce more dreams into ones life? Like the aid of natural things such as teas, foods etc. Thanks!

Eat well (particularly sleep friendly foods, google for them), exercise regularly and intensely. The way to get more vivid dreams is to constantly work on improving dream recall. I believe almost all dreams are experienced very vividly, it's just the memory of them that fades. So always work on more and more recall, every single night, and you will be rewarded.

Supplements are mostly for the birds. I've tried my share of them, and generally found that on average, my natural nights (like last night) are just as good as the supplement nights.

LDing is a continual journey of self-(re-) discovery. Really learn about your natural self before trying supplements -- if you don't know what your non-supplement dreaming is like, how can you judge the effect of a supplement?

Originally Posted by Brian18

I do not like hijacking threads, but I think this might be appropriate since we both are beginners. What if one barely have vivid dreams? Is there any way to induce more dreams into ones life? Like the aid of natural things such as teas, foods etc. Thanks!

Hi Brian,
the problem is not to induce more dreams, but to remember them. My experience is that the best way to improve dream recall is to appreciate your dreams. So write them down, think about them. You will remember more and more dreams and more details so your dreams will get automatically more vivid.