lucid

This is a guide for myself,

I don't have a name for it, but I did the technique where I do a WBTB, meditate, and go to sleep while watching my thoughts. I simply attempt to quiet my mind and meditate. Of course every time you try to do so, thoughts appear in the mind. Instead of fighting the thoughts, you focus in on them and watch them quietly. Let them unfold and do their thing. The goal is if you are tuned in enough, you will see FAINT IMAGES in your minds eye. The "mind's eye" is the same faculty used to conceive objects without them being in front of you. No need to conjure them, judge them, or control them. Just stay detached and watch these images unfold in your mind's eye. The caveat here is that you CAN NOT get sucked into the thoughts. The goal here is to watch the thoughts similar to how one would quietly watch a movie. Yes, the movie is immersive, but at no point in time does the viewer get sucked into the screen and lose awareness. The viewer is somewhat still aware of his or her surroundings in the theater.

The cool thing about this technique is that your mind and body will do the WILD for you; you just have to get out of your own way. Your body already is tired and knows how to fall asleep, let it. I don't even have to lie completely still. The process is natural and relaxed. The hard part really is having enough discipline to watch my thoughts without getting distracted or impatient. It's just a matter of time, really.

End Guide.

Anyway, the FIRST lucid dream had me stuck inside of this dark room. And I mean stuck. I could not move. Was it the sleep paralysis crossing over into the dream world? There was a closed door ahead of me. I used every technique I knew to get out of the room but every time I tried to move there was AN IMMENSE pressure on my head. Like my neck was straining as if someone pressing down hard on it. There were small points in time where I could move freely but in the end....two powerful arms grabbed me and threw me. To be honest, I probably conjured that because I deemed the lucid dream a failed attempt and wanted to start over again.

So I'm awake. I repeat the WILD induction and THIS TIME, it feels more like an OBE. I can feel like a second body loosening from my bed as I gently get up. When I can feel myself standing in the dream world I know I am lucid. This is how it always starts, tactile sensations of me standing up then the visuals once I feel my way out my bed room. I make it outside my house and do a twirl into the night because I know that I should have TWO HOURS OF UNINTERRUPTED LUCID DREAMING RIGHT???

Wrong.

I spend the first minute or so walking around looking for Naomi, my designated dream guide. For some reason she is nowhere to be found in the usual spot I expect her to be. So I figure/expect she must be at the park 2 minutes away from where I am standing. I start walking in that direction...that's all I remember.

So two lucid dreams. But short.

So this is sick. Thought my practice of meditation, I can sit there and WATCH my thoughts go by during a WBTB period. Similar to how a small child sits quietly and watches television in a darkish room. Quietly and alert to what it happening in front of them. Eventually the thoughts turn into hypnagogia and sleep paralysis kicks in. I can feel my body going numb. Sometimes, I "push into" one of the hypnagogia and thus enter the dream world.

Standard lucid dream this morning. Got out of bed, went out of house and walked around neighborhood. Looked for Naomi; didn't find her. The scene was night time. I decided to walk to my park. The scene changed to morning time. I made it to the park entrance but there as this metal pathway. I went inside of it and the dream collapsed.

I must have woken up because the rest of the dreams I had were non-lucid. This leads me to believe that for this technique to be successful, I need to be almost fully awake - in a meditative mindset - THEN go back to sleep. My DEILD skills suck too much to try and re-enter a dream immediately.

Had another lucid dream this morning. I was staring up at my ceiling awaiting sleep paralysis. When it happened, I got out of my bed and did the usual routine of getting out of my house and out into the street. I saw Naomi. It was night time in the dream. I convinced her to come meditate with me. There a bit of confusion of where to meditate, though; the grass or the concrete? That's all I remember really.

Anyway, the lesson learned during this attempt is that I don't need to visualize; I don't need to deliberately and forcefully create images, sounds and tactile sensations for a lucid dream. Because I am close to REM sleep during a WBTB period, the mind will GIVE me the visualizations without any effort as part of the process of falling asleep. My job as the lucid dreamer is to quietly observe these phenomenon known as hypnagogia. Meditation is excellent for this in that it forces me to not get caught up in the phenomenon. It teaches me to remain detached from it.

Onward and upward.

One of my major lucid goals down the line is to live out three books I have been working on. I guess that goal may come early. All I did was meditate during a WBTB period then try to fall asleep whilst attempting to stare through my eyelids. I had a hard time falling asleep and I needed to be again for work in an hour so I gave up the attempt and let myself fall asleep. The process of doing so let a flood of thoughts come on. Instead of fighting them or trying to control them I just began daydreaming about the first chapter of the first book of my series. Lo and behold a lucid dream of me ACTUALLY LIVING OUT the story occurred. It was really short but I was intensely happy with the results. Going to see if I can daydream my way into another dream tomorrow.

My lucid dreaming ability - although not much - is getting me really excited.

Got into a lucid dream using the usual method and began walking around my neighborhood. I figured I would be there for a while since the induction was so nice. Somewhere along the way the dream collapsed and I lost lucidity. So later on I had a dream about Russia offering to evacuate Americans off-world. Yep, Russia was offering to evacuate American off the planet. The shift was beige and had two large spheres. One on the top, one under the belly of the ship. Conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, was one of the ones on board. I stayed back with my family and was trying to figure out a way to secure my house from invaders because y'know, no police; nobody to stop looters and rapists.

I saw the ship flying through the sky over my neighborhood.

Gotta figure out a way to stop losing lucidity.

This through-the-eyes thing seems kind of legit. Because I live with a rambunctious 2-year-old, my WBTB ended up for being almost 2 hours long. That gave me only 1 hour to get sleep before I had to get up again and go to work. I did a meditation for 10 minutes. I noticed I was having a hard time falling asleep - a tad bit restless which meant I was going the technique too hard. I relaxed my eye-muscles just a tad bit but was still trying to look at a distant object through my eyelids. This left a slight pulling effect on my eyes. It's very subtle and something that has to be experienced by the practitioner to get right. You will feel sleep coming on. Just let the process roll.

Got me a lucid dream. It was pretty long. I met Naomi again for like the dozenth time in this backyard. She had on some baggy jeans and a dark green flannel shirt. This time SHE GAVE ME A FIST BUMP and we had a conversation!!!. She actually said some god damn words and wasn't a weird mannequin. The gist of the conversation was about what we were going to do in the dream come the long term. One of my dream goals is to be taken on a tour of the dream world via a dream guide. This dream guide is supposed to be Naomi but I have much more work to do to make her more animate and solid.

There was a part of the dream where I was stuck in this space between my bed and the wall. I don't know how I got there but I tried to levitate out. Then...I GOT STUCK THERE AGAIN. I levitated out of the spot...AND THEN SNAPPED BACK TO THE GAP. I don't remember much after that.

Became lucid where I left my bed. Couldn't see anything so I had to use my mind to bring some visuals and get out the house. I saw Naomi again....for like the 10th time or something. Starting next week I am going to move on from 'trying to find Naomi' and start trying to control and solidify the dream length. I just really really really really really wanted a dream companion/character. Maybe I am doing this backwards.

So. MILD DOES work. It's just that it takes a tad bit more effort than I originally envisioned. I decided to try my hand at MILD again considering that the common denominator between this and meditation(my most successful technique) is concentration. Active concentration and not daydreaming which is what both MILD and meditation demand during a WBTB period. All I did was wake up 4-6 hours and use the restroom. Then I just lied back down, visualized and repeated the mantra: The next time that I am dreaming, I will find Naomi. The visualization was of me standing in front of Naomi outside of my house. Of course, other thoughts arose but I immediately brought my focus back to my mantra+visualization. Easier said than done.

I met Naomi at least twice this morning. Her form was shapeshifting since I have ballpark idea of what she should look like and I am no master of visualization. Sometimes, she average-woman height. Another time she is basketball-player height. She said, "what's up?" and we shook hands. I don't remember much afterwards. My dream recall needs serious work. Heck I didn't even realize I had SEVERAL lucid dreams until I woke up this morning and thought about what happened.

Had another lucid dream this morning. My sense of touch shifted into the dream world before sight did. I knew I was in a dream when I could feel my way out of my bed as if it were an out-of-body experience. Seriously, in the beginning stage of the dream, I could feel my body start to shift. As I was standing next to my bed in total darkness, I tried to visualize to get some sight going. Got it working. Of course, like most of my previous WILDs, they start with me exiting my bedroom, down the hallway, through the hallway and out the front door into the street. The sky was overcast. I think I tried reading the stove clock before leaving. Naturally, it was blurry and distorted in the dream world.


Found Naomi, the dream character. Sadly, I don't have any better dream tasks to do other than search for this particular dream character over and over again. Why? I lack stability and dream control so I try to reach for low hanging fruit.

The mindfulness tweak I did was simply visualize the space outside of my head as if I was looking through my eyelids while also snapping my awareness to the present moment. I am trying to figure why I can only WILD after a 20-30 minute WBTB using mindfulness and not directly after waking up in the middle of the night as part of a DEILD. They were vivid non-lucid dreams, though.

Heck yeah. Did a mindfulness meditation and got a short lucid dream. Woke up and tried to get back into the dream. Had vivid non-lucid dreams afterwards about playing bass guitar and hanging out at a mansion with Drake. Saw some old friends as we rode buses around the city. Tried to work on my car. Was also hanging out with some co-workers.

RANT

I think I had a semi-lucid when I realized that no, this bitch didn't really just snap brand my brand-new music CD in half. But that is not the point. The point is I am another step closer to mastering lucid dream induction.

I have a seriously had habit of honing in a technique that yields consistent results but then due to excitement, I try to hard to make that technique work again and it doesn't. My number one principle of lucid dreaming is this:

You can not 'brute force' your way into a lucid dream. It doesn't matter if you say a mantra 10,000 times in one day or if you listen to the loudest binaural audio before sleep. Lucid dreaming - at least WILD - is a delicate craft that must be approached with a delicate mindset.

Last night, I dead set on having a DEILD. Long story short, it didn't work out the way I planned. I missed two attempts to get lucid which led to me frantically scouring the internet for tutorials on how to MILD. BAD. So I went back to dream journal and carefully reviewed what worked the first time:

MINDFULNESS.

It was that simple. Mindfulness is simply, and gently, being in the present moment. Watching the now; watching the breath. So that's what I did, I sat in meditation for 30 minutes. JUST RELAX and MEDITATE.

Then I went back to bed for a morning nap. The focus? RELAX AND STAY PRESENT. THATS IT. There is no trying for anything. There is no watching for anything. Let go of the desperate need to lucid dream and just relax and be present. Mind wandering? Bring it back to presence. After a while those distracting thoughts were actually Hypnagogia in both the visual form and the auditory form. I knew that much but I did not know how to transition them into a lucid dream. From here on out, I need to work on catching myself to notice I am entering a dream without the disturbing the hypnagogia.

I had a vivid non-lucid dream nevertheless.

Had two lucid dreams this morning. After today, I am taking my lucid dreaming technique to the next level. What I have changed over the last couple of weeks is that I am meditating 30 minutes before bed as outlined in Tipharot's video. I am also meditating for 30 minutes during my WBTB period in the early morning. However, I have been noticing the connection between the minds eye - the faculty used for visualization - and lucid dreaming in general. I was fortunate enough to wake up 2 hours earlier than I would have normally liked to for my WBTB session. I immediately went back to sleep. Whilst doing so, I Visualized that I was standing in my kitchen. The visualization pulled me in after about a minute and I began my lucid dream. Found the dream character, Naomi, and went on an adventure with her. I found her through sure expectation that she would be where I was going. In other words, when I am lucid, I am still visualizing.

I woke up later at my normal time for the actual WBTB. I meditated for 20 minutes when lie back down. This time around, I visualized that I was standing my bedroom beside my bed. This was a bit tricky because it's hard to visualize yourself in another orientation when lying down to sleep. Can't just visualize sight, must visualize touch and body orientation. I had trouble falling asleep which meant I was trying too hard so I relaxed a little. When I felt relaxed enough so I could feel myself falling asleep, I went back to the visualization of me standing in my bedroom with my eyes opened. It was working because, I started feeling hypnagogia that was pulling me in to the dream world. The feeling of being immersed into the visualization is a sure sign that it is working.

I knew I was in a dream when I could feel my dream body get out of bed yet still sort of feel my real body. Therefore, I was moving my legs around with my eyes closed trying to feel my way out of my bed room. Once again, Visualization is key. Eventually, the visuals will come together once you expect them.

All I was meditate 30 minutes before bed and 30 minutes during WBTB and had a short lucid this morning. Found dream character. It was alright.

Had a lucid dream this morning about being in a car lot.

Did my WBTB meditation thing. Went to sleep and found myself able to move in a dream with no visuals. I just felt my way around by touch and the visuals came in by themselves. And like most of my lucid dreams, they start with me getting out my bed. I got outside my front door and found Naomi, but I was too caught up on trying to close the door behind me and the dream ended.