I've been practicing LD on and off for about 7 years now, with semi serious practice for the last two years, yet I felt like I made no progress. Long story short, I spent all this time chasing a shortcut. When i realized this, I wasn't even mad. I just laughed. This shortcut I was trying to do would supposedly help me skip learning the fundies so i could get to the good stuff, but I think i'd just be where I want if I just did the fundies there and then. Regardless, the time I spent wasn't wasted as I did learn many things about lucid dreaming, and I'm ready to try and do it the right way. I've been doing it for a couple days already and wanted to confirm if I'm on the right track.

As I understand it, There's 4 Fundamental Pillars of Lucid Dreaming, and I've organized them in order of importance roughly:

# 1 - Dream Recall

- Ability to remember dreamed experiences. Resolving to remember and record future dreams is basically resolving to be more present for them to enter the memory in the first place. This means that training dream recall also improves dream vividity and duration. The longer a dream lasts, the more likely it is for one to become lucid in it, thus also improving induction skill. I think this is why some people say that all you need is dream journaling if you really didn't want to do anything else.
- Key Skills - Memory, Awareness
- Training

Dream Journaling, duh

# 2 - Lucid Dream Induction

- Ability to induce lucidity within a dream.
- Key Skills - Prospective Memory, Awareness
- Training
1. DJ
2. Induction techniques
3. Reality Checks - PM, awareness
4. Meditation - I was always wondering how meditation helped LD, but I think I get it now. As lucidity is really just awareness of your current state, doing something to train your awareness IRL (like meditation) would probably increase the chances of this coming about.
5. Prospective Memory Training (PMT)

# 3 - Dream Stabilization


- Ability to keep the dream stable so as not to end prematurely.
- Key Skills - Focus
- Training
- Rubbing hands together - Touch
- Spinning around - Proprioceptic and vestibular
- Narrating observations made with other senses - sound + others



# 4 - Dream Control

- The ability to control the dream.
- Key skills - Focus, awareness
- Training
- Revelation technique - Visualize the construct. Once the image is clear, imagine it hidden and either turn to face it or reveal it. Could also work more easily by closing my eyes, then opening.

So, You improve dream recall to improve the quality of your dreams and to make sure you can remember the experiences. Then, you become proficient at attaining lucidity. After lucidity is something easy to come by, you can focus on stabilizing the dream so it doesn't end prematurely. Then and only then should you focus on dream control. The logic for this is that, even if you could, you wouldn't want to control an unstable dream, so stabilization is priority. But, you'll probably want to be experienced with it. In order to be, you need to be able to induce lucidity rather frequently, which itself requires some other things.

Daily Training
I caught myself on the 3rd day wondering if I should just only try techniques again(WILD WBTB, etc). Then I remembered that I've only given these things 3 days to work. I'm willing to be patient, and I'm trying to practice consistency in other aspects of my life. ADHD isn't making this any easier but damn haha

Record Dream

Perform at least 10 RCs throughout the day
Check for dream signs, check for other abnormalities, then perform state tests regardless of conclusion (I think i'm in reality, but just to be sure...) Ideally performed as a response to an abnormality or a dream sign
Some state tests I do
Checking for text consistency (Look away, look back)
Nose check (try to Breathe through closed nostrils)
Finger count
Gravity check (Do I feel particularly light or heavier than normal)
Tech Check (Is technology working as expected or at all)
Power Check (Do I have abilities some would consider unnatural)

Meditation
10 minute meditation. Slow, deep breaths. Count to 10. Inhales are Odd, Exhales are Even. Once 10 is reached, reset and count that cycle. (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.) One. (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.) Two. etc When you notice thoughts going astray, gently bring attention back to breaths. Nudge your mind back to breathing, but don't try to kill the thought right away. let it end on its own. If it's a particularly nasty thought, simply recognize that it's something you're thinking about and resolve to give it time later, or right after meditation. I notice that most of the anxiety and fear behind most thoughts is ambiguity, and that simply setting aside time for them really helps quelling them when they come up. The awareness of your typical mindscape and your breath will help train awareness in general, and it's this state of awareness we want to bring into our dreams.

PMT
I've had issues with this. I don't really go outside, so I usually never hit any of these goals, but I'll try to adapt it for home life. It's also kinda hard, but that's actually good because it's immediate feedback that it needs work.
I'll start with trying to hit 1 daily goal for 7 days, then increase this if it's too easy, eventually working up to 5 goals a day.

Nightly Stuff
Just techniques. sometimes I won't do them but when I do, it's WBTB + something else usually. I've had success with WILD in the past so i guess I'll just do that.
After alarm goes off, I'll wake up, get out of bed, drink some water and count to 30. Then, I'll lay back down and try to WILD. My anchor will be my breaths and counting them just like the meditation.

And this is how I understand it. Am I onto something? I think i am :}