Just had my kind of first LD!

[Edo]

A few hours ago I woke up from my first LD. It started with me flying semi-lucid but then in the air I decided to become fully lucid. I had an LD before but I couldn't do anything, everything I tried failed, and I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing. Now I stopped flying when I became fully lucid and thought what should I do. Instead of the experimenting and dream guide searching I was planning to do I finished the Advanced Task of the Month! http://dreamviews.com/community/show...0&postcount=90 The ending, as I said the the TotM topic, was like this: The ending of the dream was really mean: I hear a noise, as if someone said: "Shh", I think it may have been my dad, but Santa, who is on my left, looks to the right of me and when I look too I wake up. Unfortunately, my recall isn't that good yet so I can't remember much before the lucid part, and the lucid part is a bit vague. Nothing like a real memory. Now I have two questions: Should the clarity of my dreams go up once I practice Dream Recall more? How do I make myself think and do the things I want while in the dream? Any thoughts?

[ThreeLetterSyndrom]

Of course your clarity will go up. That is, your memories will be more vivid. The clarity should be good. I don't really have an answer on your second question

[Edo]

Thanks. I was asking (the first question) because I've heard of many people on these forums that, even with their first LD, the memory of the dreams was almost like a real memory, and the clarity was 100x that of a normal dream. With me, it was almost like a regular dream, only I knew that I was dreaming and could control it. For the other thing, I think that once I gain some experience I should be able to do that, or else tell myself what to do before falling asleep. The problem is that everytime I try to tell myself anything while falling asleep it seems to take way to long before I actually fall asleep.

[Abra]

Congrats on your first lucid dream! The recall should go up if you put effort into it. That's why we encourage new dreamers to form good dream journal habits early on (details, emotions and thoughts within the dream, time you dreampt it). It may take a few weeks, but eventually you'll be remembering entire REM periods! Intention in a lucid dream takes focus. During your WBTB (if you do one), focus on your goal. Read your dream journal, and point out spots where you should have done a reality check. Imagine you are in the dream, and imagine doing the reality check. Then imagine the beginning of whatever dream goal you have. Do this with multiple dreams, because it teaches you to be flexible. Example: You dream of being late for school, and the clock goes forward five minutes every time you look at it. You recognize that you should have reality checked (mentally replaying the scene, and adding a reality check). Then you go to the fountain in front of your school, and imagine your dream guide appearing in the reflection... Example: You dream that your dog gets run over, and even though it is split in two, it keeps yelping. You realize that your dog dying is improbable, and that a dead dog shouldn't yelp, so you (mentally replay the scene and reality check). Then you spin around to teleport to where your dream guide is... Only imagine the beginning of the dream. You don't want to script the whole thing--just the beginning!

[Edo]

Thanks for the great advice! You say I should meet my dream guide everytime after RC'ing. How can I have found my dream guide if I've never become lucid before this dream? I thought you had to find your dream guide in a lucid dream?