How to increase dream senses?

Hi everyone,

Something I've realized about my lucid dreams (and pretty much all my dreams for that matter) is that I almost never experience any senses besides sight. My dreams are purely visual. There is no ambient noise, the only time I hear a sound is if something central to the dream plot causes a sound (in other words, when I expect there to be a sound). There is no body feeling, unless I reach out to touch something or something touches me. I never notice the weight of my feet on the ground, or my body moving through the dream environment.

Does anyone else have this experience? And does anyone have any advice on how to increase the presence of these other senses in a dream? Maybe it's because I pay less attention to these senses in waking life and do the same in a dream. Maybe they are there, but I just don't notice/recall them.

I have also noticed that my audio sense is low intensity, there are never loud sounds. Touch also seems much softer than usual, touching something lightly feels normal like a brick wall, dirt, or a flower, but lets say I fall or hit something there are only light sensations. Your point is valid, I hardly ever really focus intensely on sound or the sense of touch while awake, this could be why those senses are underrepresented in my dreams. Occasionally I will come across music playing on a radio or something in a lucid dream, this is always interesting and enjoyable. I think you said it pretty well, perhaps spending like 20 minutes a day listing very carefully to music or something would build that brain region, I recall hearing that musicians had intense musical happenings in their dreams.

When I talk to people in lucid dreams their voices are pretty much always quiet, but I can still hear what they are saying pretty clearly. For me remembering conversations are tough, this is annoying when I recall parts and know they were saying something interesting.

Once while in a garage I was speaking with two gentlemen, they were just standing around talking when I walked in, they were laughing and having a good time it seemed to me. After I started to ask them about where they came from and about the dream state, they went on to explain in great detail how the dream universe we were in was accessible to multiple dimensions, that they were from a parallel universe similar to my own, in general they seemed happy to talk to me and found my confusion very funny. I know the conversation lasted minutes, and yet I can only recall small pieces, I know there was more.

I am usually a very scientifically minded person, I have no idea if there is a afterlife or a God or non-physical planes of existence in the metaphysical sense. But when a 'person' standing right in front of you says straight out they are real, and then goes on to give logical explanations why they are real, how they got there, and about the structure of the universe which allows them to be there, it makes one wonder. Saying that I think it is possible I came across interdimensional travellers makes me feel a bit embarrassed, but I am inclined to mention it because it was such a convincing and singular event in my lucid dreaming career and your mention of the fickleness of the auditory sense in dreams reminded me of that situation.

The real question, Jay, might be this: Do you really want to increase the "physical" senses in your dreams?

That might sound a bit counter-intuitive, but the absense of a dream body and its given senses in your LD's might indicate that you have advanced beyond a need for it in your dreams. In a sense, you have become accustomed to the non-duality of your dreaming world, and innately understand that the entire dream, and not your dream body alone, is "You." So physical senses and body parts only appear as needed, and are otherwise not present because, well, you know they are not what defines you in the dream... and that knowledge can help you open your mind to dreaming adventures that dramatically transcend the need for an illusory body or waking-life senses at all!

So in truth you may be ahead of the game, and not lacking in experience. As you seem to have already noticed, the other senses (and body parts) are available to you on demand, and will perform exactly as you expect them to. So sensory/physical experience is available to you; but you have simply chosen (perhaps unconsciously) to not bother summoning them so much. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that none of us tend to feel the weight of our feet on the ground during dreams, unless of course we need to (which is why Hukif's gravity RC works so well, BTW).

As for me personally, these days I almost never have a dream body during fully lucid dreams, and I never miss it. I do need to summon senses or body parts when needed, and I can't tell you how many times I had the odd experience of reaching out to touch something with a hand that floated to its target, attached to nothing. I've found that not having a dream body -- and needing to summon senses or body parts -- was far more an advantage than an impediment in my explorations.

tl;dr: This might not be a problem at all, but rather an indictator of your comfort with the true nature of your dreams; so there may be no need for concern. Plus, and to the point of your OP: if you ever need to increase any particular sense or utilize a body part, you need only summon it with simple expectation.

Valis1, cool dream. I like the idea of having accessible dream dimensions that you could experience in the dream state.

Sageous, as much as I truly want to agree with you, I think you give me too much credit. I am still a beginner lucid dreamer. I have been on and off with trying to lucid dream for the past 5 or so years, and never got good enough to reliably induce lucid dreams at will. I wish one day to be at that level, but I don't think I'm close to that yet. But with 35+ years of experience it's no surprise that you have achieved this level of awareness. It sounds like a very profound understanding of the true nature of the dreaming mind.

^^ You don't need to be a good or experienced LD'er to have an innate understanding of the nature of your presence in a dream, though that understanding is indeed a boon to future success!

I would suggest that you don't sell yourself short, and use that bodiless presence to your advantage rather than try to eliminate it. For instance, not having a dream body makes it a whole lot easier to do things like fly, because you have no concern for getting a body into the air.

Just sayin'...

Here is a PDF of perhaps one of the best occult and mind training books ever written, I bring it up because there is a chapter, which includes methods, for developing the "magical" and "dream" senses.

http://tikaboo.com/library/Initiatio...20Hermetic.pdf

There is also later in the book a interesting step by step WILD like method you may be interested in.

I use lessons 5 and 6 here, http://www.dreamviews.com/dream-yoga...esson-2-a.html

When you get in a dream, not only look at your hands, but manipulate them in one of the ways you have practiced. While doing this try to vocalize some basic sounds. Get good at it and you can bring an advanced sense of touch and hearing into your dream.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Valis1

I am usually a very scientifically minded person, I have no idea if there is a afterlife or a God or non-physical planes of existence in the metaphysical sense. But when a 'person' standing right in front of you says straight out they are real, and then goes on to give logical explanations why they are real, how they got there, and about the structure of the universe which allows them to be there, it makes one wonder.

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I got goosebumps when I read this! You totally described how I feel about dreaming. I'm a very scientifically driven person. I consider myself an agnostic atheist (although with a bit of a pantheistic inclination). However, when it comes to dreams, I feel like they are more than just neurological activation in our brain.

But anyways, back to the OP. From personal experience, my LDs usually start with "numb" senses, until I anchor myself to the dream. Anchoring can be anything from hand rubbing to eating something or sitting down and observing your environment. Basically anything that disconnects you from your waking body by putting emphasis on your dream body. I have experienced sensations in dreams that felt more vivid than anything I've experienced in waking life. From flying, to being burned alive during a solar flare.

Well, you could try to make a magical wand appear (like in Harry Potter) and say, "Increase Senses", or swallow a pill in the dream that will automatically increase all 5 senses. I usually don't feel any senses either when I first become Lucid but believing the senses will increase helps. Good Luck :thumbup:

If you want to increase dream senses, it may be worthwhile practicing in your waking hours. Take time to focus on your senses one by one. Touch different surfaces and really *feel* the texture of the object that you are touching. Feel the weight of objects. Touch different parts of your body and focus on the sensations. Then, try to recreate the memory of the sensations in your mind. You don't have to get it to a point where you are hallucinating, but try to recall what it was like touching the different textures. Do this with your hearing and other senses as well. Focus purely on the sounds around you. Eat some food and savour the taste, and then try to recall the taste again afterwards. Next, practice doing this in lucid dreams. This is generally how I stabilise. I focus my sight on my hands and on objects, then I move to touching things to engage my body. To practice with your hearing, try making sounds as someone suggested earlier, create a radio, or just focus on listening and se

For me, scent has always been the tricky one as for some reason my physical olfactory senses always override my dreaming expectations. I will inhale expecting the aroma of a baked pie, and instead get the scent of my room. But this has other uses so I don't mind.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Valis1

Once while in a garage I was speaking with two gentlemen, they were just standing around talking when I walked in, they were laughing and having a good time it seemed to me. After I started to ask them about where they came from and about the dream state, they went on to explain in great detail how the dream universe we were in was accessible to multiple dimensions, that they were from a parallel universe similar to my own, in general they seemed happy to talk to me and found my confusion very funny. I know the conversation lasted minutes, and yet I can only recall small pieces, I know there was more.

I am usually a very scientifically minded person, I have no idea if there is a afterlife or a God or non-physical planes of existence in the metaphysical sense. But when a 'person' standing right in front of you says straight out they are real, and then goes on to give logical explanations why they are real, how they got there, and about the structure of the universe which allows them to be there, it makes one wonder. Saying that I think it is possible I came across interdimensional travellers makes me feel a bit embarrassed, but I am inclined to mention it because it was such a convincing and singular event in my lucid dreaming career and your mention of the fickleness of the auditory sense in dreams reminded me of that situation.

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That's because there is way more out there my friend. Trust me, it gets good. ;-)

Apparently like for others above, in general my dreams are silent movies (with full colour), but I now routinely demand "MORE SOUND!!" quite verbally in the dreamworld, and gradually over maybe 3-6 seconds sound emerges. It never reaches realistic levels, however. In physical reality hearing is my best sense, and I both listen a lot to music and play the piano every day.

It still rattles me that sound is by default turned down to zero in the dreamworld; must be a faulty receiver. :)

By the way, making use of senses not already in use seems to stabilise the dream. My guess is that if a dream sense is active, then there is less risk of being awoken through its physical counterpart.

I also can't use any senses but sight but I've only one LD.