Thread: Attaining Lucidity Through Meditation?

Well, i know that meditation does help with Lucid Dreaming but thats a very good question but imagine if you could .

Originally Posted by ninja9578

I guess it's similar to the the WILD technique, but kind of different. I've heard that monks do this sometimes. I've meditated deep enough to loose consciousness, but I've never attempted to go lucid. From what I know dreams only happen in REM sleep, which happens at the end of the sleep cycle. Can meditation even reproduce the REM stage of sleep to go into a lucid dream?[/b]

Meditation is an attempt to train oneself in concentration,various methods have been devised.Staring,breathing,chanting etc etc with the sole aim of one pointed unwavering attention.In advanced stages of meditation no effort is required.
Most people cannot lucid dream because they have not trained themselves in concentration.Lucid dreaming requires a person to be ultra relaxed yet very very aware with un-distracted mind.
So yes practicing meditation will yield positive results in reaching Lucidity in dreaming

Originally Posted by ninja9578

From what I know dreams only happen in REM sleep, which happens at the end of the sleep cycle.[/b]

Dreams can happen at any stage of sleep but the most vivid ones happen during REM.

question- if i meditate every day, how fast would i see results.

also, i have been meaning to start meditating every day for half a year now... I have meditated like 5 times since then. i need help!

last, how do you achieve deeper stages of meditation? when i meditate- it is fairly easy for me not to think- first i picture anything in the middle of darkness, and i picture thoughts in the form of blobs coming into view. the object in the center zaps them away with lightning, and after like a minute of doing that, i have no thought. what is that?

I usually see that too, I think it's blood. Your eyeslids are opaque some light gets through. Try dimming the lights a littler bit more. To get deeper you need to slow down your heartrate, this is done through proper breathing. Breathe in very deeply at a normal speed, then hold it for maybe five seconds, then let it out slowly. This deeply relaxes you. While you are doing this count backwards with each outbreath from 99. When you get to zero try to imagine a watermelon, whole at first then split it in half. Look at it, smell it, taste it, this will highten your sences during meditation. Now put it back together and tell yourself: "I'm going to count to five and be fully awake, every time I meditate I will allow myself to go deeper, quicker." then count to five and open your eyes.

Some of it may seem strange, but it works. When you get good at it you can eliminate the counting because you will know when you are deep enough, after a while you can do things other than watermelons.

Occasionally my muscles will stop working as if I was asleep, but am still awake. If this happens don't worry about it, when you bring yourself back.

You can meditate sitting or laying down.

Here is something to help you: http://www.meditainment.com/free_guided_meditation/ Find the one called Secret Garden.

Originally Posted by ninja9578

I usually see that too, I think it's blood. Your eyeslids are opaque some light gets through. Try dimming the lights a littler bit more. To get deeper you need to slow down your heartrate, this is done through proper breathing. Breathe in very deeply at a normal speed, then hold it for maybe five seconds, then let it out slowly. This deeply relaxes you. While you are doing this count backwards with each outbreath from 99. When you get to zero try to imagine a watermelon, whole at first then split it in half. Look at it, smell it, taste it, this will highten your sences during meditation. Now put it back together and tell yourself: "I'm going to count to five and be fully awake, every time I meditate I will allow myself to go deeper, quicker." then count to five and open your eyes.[/b]

Sorry but this sounds like your putting yourself into a trance, this is not meditation!! You are heightening your senses, while during meditation you sense completely shut off, you can no longer feel your body. Imagining a watermelon also goes against the idea of meditation you are meant to empty your mind of all thought not fuel it with visualizations. To me your method sounds very much like self-hypnosis, it would be beneficial to lucid dreaming as you are building visualization skills but it is not meditation.

I have already posted this link here before but it really is the best explanation I know of on how to meditate. I advise anyone who wants to meditate to read it: http://www.bswa.org/modules/icontent/index.php?page=93.

"also, i have been meaning to start meditating every day for half a year now... I have meditated like 5 times since then. i need help!"

try to build it up slowly. Begin by simply being aware of the moment, this can go hand in hand with your RCs. Once you build up your awareness start to become aware of your breath even just for 5 minutes to begin with and then, over time, take it up to 10, 15 etc. It does take dedication to begin with but it soon becomes easier especially when you begin to really enjoy the experience.

Hope I've helped a bit
Bushido

Go here and read. Then thank Billybob.

I have tried lot of meditation. There are different types, and they do different things. I don't claim to be an expert, but really simplistically, this is my experience:

Empty mind, no-mind, zen, ataraxis meditation: you basically count your breaths or something similar until you are good enough to acheive a no-thought state. If you are doing it right, dreamlike or hypnogogic imagery or memories can break through. But, it relies on complete body-and-mind relaxation. Any purposeful act in thought or body will make the state dissapate quickly, and you have to start over again. Acting purposefully, as with lucid dreaming, would probably just be frustrating. In fact, the goal of this kind of meditation is to let mind do as it will, without any interference from you. Supposedly when you get your "black belt" with this kind of meditation, you break beyond the hypnogogia. I don't know what that would be like.

Mantra meditation: relaxed repetition of a thought or words (or images) to help you stay focused on a subject. Might be equivalent to self-hypnosis, in a way. But, the key is to keep it simple. This might be more valuable for lucid dreamers. One could meditate and repeat a mantra on common dreamsigns ("Whenever I see my hands, I remember that I am dreaming", "when I realize I am lucid, I will say 'lucidity now!'") or a more general dream-state attitude ("All of life is a dream") etc. It might make your liklihood of attaining lucidity in the dreamstate higher, or deepen lucidity.

my two cents

I use many kinds of meditations, I concider the watermelon technique meditation even if its not really. I like the empty mind thing too, I do that most of the time.

I was reading about meditation for dreams here and afterwards I ended up buying The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep.
The book obviously has more info, but that link is an excerpt from the book (what are the odds?) I found the article quite interesting, still working on the book though.

Originally Posted by ninja9578

I guess it's similar to the the WILD technique, but kind of different. I've heard that monks do this sometimes. I've meditated deep enough to loose consciousness, but I've never attempted to go lucid. From what I know dreams only happen in REM sleep, which happens at the end of the sleep cycle. Can meditation even reproduce the REM stage of sleep to go into a lucid dream?[/b]

Isn't it so that Meditation is supposed to ENHANCE and STRENGTHEN your Consciousness instead of making you lose it?
Maybe you meant you were in such deep meditation you lost awareness of your external surrounding world and transcended away from your physicall body into an Imaginative dreamworld within yourself?

Yes, but like I said in another post I do lots of different things like that, all of which I call meditation even though I guess technically they aren't. Sometimes I just go through cycles of deep breathing to relax and sometimes I relax so much I fall asleep. I'm in college so I have loads on my mind all the time (class, girls, work) and I like to get away.

I go into deep consciousness too. :-) Tranquility is bliss. Ah, I might go meditate right now, thanks for the idea.

As I understand it meditation is not to be empty of everything as if you were dead but to concentrate on one thing such as Vispasana, sp?, where you just concentrate on your breathing and if you start seeing images or thinking of anything other than your breathing you just relax, acknowledge the thought is there and then once again concentrate on your breathing.

Relaxed, but aware.

How can you be aware with no thoughts in your mind?

http://www.audiodharma.org has free audio clips on talks on the buddhist idea of awareness and an introduction to mindfulness meditation. I'd recommend getting the older file on awareness meditation. I think this is the correct file: http://www.audiodharma.org/talks-intromed.html I'm downloading it again also.

I also wanted a regular meditation practice but I can't seem to be motivated and I am only wanting it for dream enhancement.