LucidRaider

So I tried this last night. I told myself, "I lucid dream. Lucid dreaming is easy. EVERYONE can do it. You're holding yourself back by your doubts and false beliefs. Let them go. I lucid dream."
Sadly, I didn't get a lucid. But I know that it will happen. Cool part was though, I haven't remembered any of my dreams in literally months, because of school and all that. But the first night I try this technique? I remembered my dream in the morning. I can already tell it's progressing me along. (: I'll lucid dream tonight.
It really is a belief/subconscious thing. Our standard conscious belief is that lucid dreaming is difficult, and that it takes a lot of practice if you're not a natural. But in reality, everyone can do it. And by truly believing you can do it, and like Silverbullet said earlier 'Not just believing. It's fucking KNOWING.' <that right there says it all. KNOW that you'll lucid dream. And it'll happen. Sure, it may not work the very first night you try it, but it progresses you towards your goal (lucid dreaming) and ends up giving you the desired result. (:

This is exactly how it works for me! I think many people using this technique are "trying" a bit too much. But what is the difference between trying and knowing? For me trying is when you continue to tell yourself that you are going to have a lucid dream that night in bed. But if you knew that you would have a lucid dream that night, why would you continue to repeat that in your head?

I didn't get this simple fact before I started to look into my own dreams a bit more. First I started to look at what I did differently when I had my lucid dreams, of course I looked in all the wrong places. Was it the food I ate? The things I did? The time I went to sleep?

Well, I tried to completely replicate all of those little things and guess what I got? Absolutely nothing. I was left dumbstruck, if I did everything in the exact same way as I did when I had my lucid dream, why wouldn't I get one then?

Then it struck me, no small thing would make me lucid, because the only thing holding me back was myself. What held me back was my own state of mind. Every single lucid I've had throughout the years have been successful due to my state of mind.

So what was my state of mind like when I had my lucid dreams? Perhaps I thought much about lucid dreaming before bed? Maybe I played some game to make me more alert? Nope, the only thing I did was being careless about lucid dreaming, I didn't focus my strength at becoming lucid. I focused my strength at falling asleep.

So, what did I do when I failed my lucid dreams then? I pressured myself. I continued to think about lucid dreaming at night, trying to induce it by thinking hard about dreaming and by doing that i increased the already high pressure even more. It didn't matter if I fully believed that I was going to lucid dream, by pressuring myself at night I managed to destroy my chances of having lucid dreams.

I wish I would've seen my facial expression when I came to that conclusion. I think it was something in between of looking extremely happy but at the same time extremely dumb. This simple thing had flown past me millions of times and I didn't give it a thought at all. For years I sat and repeated my mantras, tried to fall asleep while aware and thought about lucid dreaming. But the only thing I needed to do was to look into myself and figure lucid dreaming out for myself.

The "method" i use in a nutshell:
1 (optional). I meditate about an hour before bed to make my thoughts more manageable. This makes it easier for me to induce the dreamscapes I want to visit (horray for cool dreamscapes!)
2. I go to bed and sleep. (If you have a hard time feeling careless about lucid dreaming try to think of it as something less important. You could pretend that you have a big test at school tomorrow and you really need to be 100% awake in the morning, so you don't have time to think about lucid dreaming.)
3. I lucid dream

If you choose to meditate you could use that to reinforce the fact that you're going to have lucid dreams tonight (or every night ).

So if anyone feels like they're trying a bit too hard, stop trying. Watch some movies, play some games, read some books or simply chill out. You are going to get your lucid dreams anyway!

(TLDR; I agree with Ctharlhie, don't focus so much on lucid dreaming at night, confidence is key, over-thinking is not.)

I've been going over a lot of threads and noticing a trend. People are constantly worried about their methods. They're worried about following instructions to the polished details, when it's that very persistent attitude that I believe is failing them.

Everyone is different, no doubt about that. We all learn differently. And similarly, we all have our own - questionably unique - techniques when it comes to attaining lucidity. Some use WILDs while others might prefer a MILD (I love these acronyms!). But beginners, like myself, have studied other users' methods with hopes of achieving a lucid dream on the first try - most often ending up with a disappointing and demotivating failure.

There is no "perfect" method! The real trick is figuring out what method works the best for you! Of course, beginners need to learn from somewhere - I'm not saying don't learn, I'm saying don't look at it with such a focused eye. Try a few different methods, vary it up a bit, and see what sticks!

For those who are just starting out, here is what I believe is important - remember, I'm not claiming this to be The Method, I just think it makes logical sense:
What is required to have a lucid dream? Well, we need to be asleep. We need to fall asleep before we can be asleep. And we need to be asleep before we can realize we're asleep. If we're focusing so hard with falling asleep, it's never going to happen. If I said, "Don't think about peanut butter!", then you'll start thinking about peanut butter. Likewise, if you're thinking about trying to fall asleep, then you probably won't be falling asleep anytime soon, as you'll be too caught up in thought.

Instead, go to sleep as you naturally would! Cross your arms, cross your legs, curl up into a ball -whatever!- and just relax. Find a way to keep your goal in the back of your head (not forgetting it, just not thinking about it) and let your thoughts drift as they naturally would each night.

Be sure to have plenty of sleep! Go to bed at a reasonable time to ensure you get enough sleep with time left in the day to use on trying your techniques. If you try to have a lucid dream at 9pm, just going to bed, then more than likely you'll fall into a deep sleep because your mind hasn't had a chance to unwind.

Oh! And just because a particular method doesn't work one night, doesn't mean it won't ever work! People have dry spells with lucid dreaming, so it might not have been a good night to try anyway.

Once again, this is all my own opinion. I hope this helps and that you give a few different methods a try and that you find your perfect technique!

I'd really like to hear what you all think

You'll see problems though when you start to apply it to things on the fringes of your beliefs, like if you can scarcely believe that it will, or can, happen.

There are other problems like hidden beliefs that work against you without you even realizing it.

Then there are conflicting beliefs that eat into each other's power to produce (ex. "the early bird gets the worm." vs. "He who hesitates is lost.").

Knowing yourself and your beliefs is key to getting it to work right and regularly.

Much like in dreams, belief is a tool and the better you use it the more you will get from it.