Flashlight Technique & Lucidity

Hi all! *

I often have false awakenings (i.e., I believe I'm awake when I'm really still asleep) and I was constantly struggling to find a way to help me determine what state I was really in.

I'd read about the "Flashlight Technique" which worked perfectly the first time I used it (so I thought I'd share it with you). ;-)

Basically you'll use a flashlight or any type of light (I used a penlight) as a reality check.

You lay on your back (or on your side) with the flashlight and periodically, until you fall asleep, you turn the flashlight on (it stated once every minute but I probably did it every five minutes or so). * You turn on the flashlight and, if you see the light, then you turn it off and repeat once or twice your intentions (i.e., I will realize that I am dreaming and become lucid).

Eventually you will fall asleep, but hopefully you will continue to check the flashlight in your dreams. *Once you fall asleep, you may experience a false awakening and when you turn the flashlight on.. it will NOT produce any light. *When the flashlight does not produce light.. it will be your trigger to let you know that you are dreaming and to become lucid!

When your lucid dream ends and you wake up, be sure to check your flashlight again to VERIFY that you're really awake and not still dreaming.

This technique has worked for me and I hope it will work for others as well! *

Take care!

Clairity *

Interesting technique! I'll have to make sure it is pointed away from my wife when I try it though.

I've always wondered about device failure and why it occurs in lucid dreams. All I can figure is, it is the same thing that keeps birds crashing into our large picture window.

O_o

Yes, technology like flashlights is so new, evolutionary speaking, that is has not become hardwired into our instinctive mind. Your instincts don't know that flipping a switch produces light, it is a learned reflex.

Same is true of birds, glass is a relatively recent development and they have not yet had time to evolve to handle it, therefore, they assume the big clear area in the wall is OK to fly through.

Freakin retarded birds..... :shakehead2:

Hi Seeker! Yep.. nothing electronic ever works right in my dreams (especially phones)!

Sharing a bed with others can add extra challenges!

In fact my third OOBE occured by what I lovingly call the "SNORT" technique. *

My husband, on occasion, snores and one evening, amidst the peacefulness of the night, he SNORTED. *I was so startled by this sudden loud noise, that I jerked awake (or aware) and found my astral body hoovering just slightly above me. *I was so surprised, so happy and so afraid that my husband would move in his sleep (or snort again) that I forgot what I should do to get away from my body and I merged back in.

Clairity

I'm a total newb, so take this with a grain of salt.

I read somewhere that another way to check if you're in a lucid dream is to use a card. Put a card by your bed, and one in your wallet. On this card write "You are not dreaming!" Check this card every now and then (like the flashlight) and read it.

Once you enter your dream and you try to read the card, you can't! According to the stuff I read, you will have a VERY hard time focusing on any writing in your dreams. Looking at the card in your dream and seeing either no text, moving text, jumbled text, etc. will be your trigger that you're no longer awake.

When you wake up, look at your card just to make sure.

it varies from person to person.

I have no trouble reading in my dreams, so that technique would be sorta useless to me. unless it was something like when i read it in a dream it changed to "you are dreaming" or something else completely. hmm then maybe it'd be a nice technique for me, never the less ill probably try it anyway.

peace.

Yea, i alwaysed found it kinda wierd that people have trouble reading in their dreams. I am always picking up magazines and reading them in my dream, Its funny to wake up and remmebr what kinda of odd facts they give you and i wonder sometimes if all the stuffi read in them is true beacse it just might be forgotten knowladge in my mind.