These are the tips I left for myself on OneNote, to sum up all the tutorials I read, as well as some things I just feel should work (not like "it would make sense if they worked", I mean my brain just clicks with them).
Anyway, I thought it might be useful for other people, so I decided to post it, along with explanations, in case my short sentences don't make sense. They're written in second person, because that's the way I find most effective.
Tell yourself to lucid dream whilst falling asleepCode:• Tell yourself to lucid dream whilst falling asleep.
• Stretch and stay perfectly relaxed, but keep yourself conscious.
• Give yourself the impression of being in a lucid dream (introduce your mind to it).
• Listen to your audio tracks before sleeping.
○ SHARM Brainwave Entrainment (theta)
○ I-Doser Lucid Dream
○ Best-working item from the Dreamviews audio database
○ Favoured or emotion-evoking music played along with entrainment tracks increases affectivity.
• Be sure to check for false awakenings.
○ Try to mentally turn on a light (keep your eyes closed).
○ Ask yourself why you're getting out of bed, and if anything is odd.
• Remember to RC.
○ Breath
○ Hands
○ Text/digits
○ Mirror
○ Lights
○ Dream abilities
• Stabilize the dream.
○ Spinning
○ Hand-rubbing
○ Observation
○ Patterns
• Lie still and remember your dreams.
• Re-enter by focusing on a closing snapshot of the dream and allowing yourself back in.
While falling asleep and relaxing, telling yourself you will become lucid. However, I don't do this verbally, but conceptually. I can't explain what that means very well without linking you to my tutorial on conceptualization elsewhere, but it's basically the feeling something gives you, like when you try to say a sentence, you don't think of every word, you just have intentions and the words come from the intentions. Your "intentions" were the conceptualization. Basically, I just tell myself in "feelings" that I'm going to have a lucid dream, by trying to imagine a lucid dream. I also tell myself to remember my dreams.
Stretch and stay perfectly relaxed, but keep yourself conscious
Part of inducing sleep paralysis. This should be self-explanatory, but if it's not, I just mean to stretch my muscles, relax completely in my bed, but keeping my mind semi-active to avoid falling asleep.
Give yourself the impression of being in a lucid dream (introduce your mind to it)
Whenever I remember, I try to make my current reality feel like a dream reality (I get a dulled, warm feeling in dreams). This isn't proven or anything, but it feels right to my brain. My guess is that it sort of gets my mind used to being in a dream while still running normally.
Listen to your audio tracks before sleeping
The SHARM track I use is Meditation - Brainwave Entrainment (theta). I can't legally post a link to a download, but I think I can legally tell you that warez-bb might just have it, if you search something like SHARM.
The I-Doser track I use is the Lucid Dream track. This isn't complicated. You can Google I-Doser, but again, I can't post a link to this track. I wonder if, hypothetically, a site like warez-bb would have a link to a lucid dream.mp3 (or something like that) if you searched for I-Doser. Hmm..
I also found from a friend who studies brainwave entrainment and meditation that playing music along with binaural beats helps. I don't know why, but he was right. It doesn't matter if the beats sync up or anything. I just put on a Final Fantasy soundtrack. He theorizes that it works better with music you're more emotionally attached to, or that really evokes imagery and emotions.
Be sure to check for false awakenings
RC upon awakening. I must remind myself of this a lot. However, because I'm combining techniques, I'll probably try to sink back into the dream (and sleep paralysis) if it's not a false awakening, so I have to keep my eyes closed while RCing. I will try to mentally turn on or off a light and see if the light behind my eyelids changes. If I get up without remembering to check, or without specific intention, I will ask myself why I got up (I'll most likely falsely awaken during the night, so I shouldn't have a reason for getting up).
Remember to RC
Simple enough; perform my favorite RCs. Try to breathe after plugging my nose, check if my hands are normal (correct number of digits), check text/numbers for consistency and sense, check if mirrors and lights work properly. My brain has also somehow become conditioned to give me superpowers in.. well, in every dream I can remember for the past few years, except one. That makes superpowers a pretty reliable check. If I can superjump, then I'm dreaming. I'll either perform these when I am suspicious, or just when I remember.
Stabilize the dream
When I know I'm in a dream, I'll try to improve clarity (my problem isn't waking up.. I've conditioned myself not to wake up years ago. My problem is that simply the words "I'm dreaming" no longer really matter to my brain, because I've said them so much. Because of this, I must use other methods to induce full lucidity). Try spinning around and imagine bumping into things, rubbing your hands together, overloading your dream senses with everything you sense, and repeating or finding logical patterns (or anything that would activate the logic senser). For me, I'll probably try going through multiplication tables, repeating limericks, or even solving an equation.
Lie still and remember your dreams
When I wake up, I must try to remember to remain motionless and run through my dream a few times to make sure it sticks (then I'll go to my laptop and record it)
Re-enter by focusing on a closing snapshot of the dream and allowing yourself back in
If I want to re-enter my dream when I wake up, I must focus on the feelings, environment, and just general senses that I felt in the dream, along with my last intact visuals from it. At that point, I must.. (this part gets hard to explain) push myself through the barrier, and let myself sink back into the dream. I guess it's sort of like cutting bread, you need to pressure a bit, but too much will ruin it. You need to.. nudge yourself back into the dream.
As I mentioned, I'm not really an expert. I have experience with some things, like dream re-entry, just because I learned them on my own (after reading about dream control in an Archie comic.. go me), but some are just compilations from tutorials and what feels right.
For the things that seem iffy, please comment on their effectiveness. Thank you!
I hope this helps somebody.
