Screaming out doesnt help at all

[lemmefly]

Hey guys, in my last 2 or 3 lucids I tried to exercise a higher level of dream control by screaming out stuff like "Clarity now!", or "I want a footbal NOW" or "Dream, please make the scene brighter". I have read that this works a lot for many people and is a reliable, easy and effective way to get what you want. However, this doesnt do sh*t for me. Seriously, this isnt changing anything, not even the slightest bit, for me. Am I doing something wrong here? Is this more like a skill I have to work on? Are there alternative techniques to this? I would feel kind of dumb abandoning this technique just yet. It seems so incredibly useful, because it could basically be applied to every single aspect of an LD. Thoughts?

[SolvedSnake]

First of all, keep experimenting to find what works for you. Second, keep researching on the forums, so you may find the solution. And my suggestion is that instead of "asking the dream" like "please dream do this and that", you should create the things yourself. Because the dream wouldn't exist if it wasn't for you. You create your dreams. Just try creating stuff, just as you would create them in your "ordinary awake" imagination. Oh and the most important is self-confidence. If you don't believe something can happen, or you are not confident enough, then it won't happen. Oh, and screaming out can be help, like "DREAM, I COMMAND YOU TO STAY VIVID!". But that's not enough alone. You must have a strong intention behind it, your voice alone doesn't make anything.

[Higurashi]

Hey guys, in my last 2 or 3 lucids I tried to exercise a higher level of dream control by screaming out stuff like "Clarity now!", or "I want a footbal NOW" or "Dream, please make the scene brighter". this doesnt do sh*t for me. You will find many suitable alternatives(for stabilizing the dream) in this tutorial. As for dream control, I personally found it easier in a lucid to use a wand rather than trying to create something out of thin air. It's a lot easier to believe that lucid items/concepts are caused or created by magic than just accepting various dream happenings. This way control is more believable, therefore more feasible(for me).

[lemmefly]

Thanks for the tip with the wand, I will certainly give it a try. I also thought about using some kind of 'magic' paper, where I can draw on things and make them get real (by burning the paper or w/e). As for stabilization, I already do the things from the tutorial you linked, like rubbing my hands all the time. It just seems that this always only helps for a couple of seconds or so. Also, my lucids are always semi-dark, I just cant seem to get the scene bright (electric light switches never work). I just think I need to find another way to raise my overall awareness and clarity.

[Swordz]

screaming helps me. This night i got a LD that every minute started to fade out. Then i kept screaming CLARITY NOW! and everything became back to normal

[deepsleep]

Different things work for different people.

[Dash]

Thing is, you have to be confident it will work. I've found that yelling things like "Clarity now!" and thinking that it might not work makes it less effective. There's nothing better than practice and experience for this.

[Kastro187420]

Ultimately, it comes down to: Do you expect it to work? 9/10 times, when something fails, its because the person who is doing the action doesn't 100% expect it to work out. If you are doubting that it will work, then your mind will make it not work. No matter how much you want it to work, it won't unless you really expect it to. I've had the whole yelling thing work for me in the past, but I've also found that shouting too hard or loud can cause your Lucidity to shake and make you wake up. If you want to command certain actions though, aside from Dream Stabilization, try asking Dream Characters to carry out the actions for you. For instance, if you want to summon a person, but can't, ask a Dream Character to do it for you. Thats what is best I think. I've achieved so many difficult things by having dream characters do the hard work for me.

[Lulian]

Ultimately, it comes down to: Do you expect it to work? 9/10 times, when something fails, its because the person who is doing the action doesn't 100% expect it to work out. If you are doubting that it will work, then your mind will make it not work. No matter how much you want it to work, it won't unless you really expect it to. Try asking Dream Characters to carry out the actions for you. For instance, if you want to summon a person, but can't, ask a Dream Character to do it for you. Thats what is best I think. I've achieved so many difficult things by having dream characters do the hard work for me. This and this. I've been far more successful with expecting a believing that something will work, rather then simply giving it a swing and hoping for the best. It may seem difficult to expect something to work according to plan, considering the randomness of a dream, though you won't be at a loss if you believe it'll work without any problems.

[lemmefly]

I am aware that expectation plays a major role when trying to achieve such feats. HOWEVER, I have come to believe that expectation, at least for me, can not be the most important, at least not the only part of the equation. One example: About 2 months ago I had a lucid dream (DILD), and my goal was to use the spinning technique to change the scenery. I was REALLY REALLY expecting this to work, because up to that point I had only read experience reports and books that stated that this is the way to go. But as you can imagine, it didnt work at all. I tried really hard to spin into a beach scene, imagining it and fully expected it to work (just like flying worked for me the first time I tried) and failed anyway. I was really surprised as you can imagine. Same with the shouting out thing, I really expected it to work the first time, but it didnt. I tried again and again, putting all my intent and good will into it, but it never changed anything. There has to be some other factor or influence that I cant really grasp yet. Just expecting and wanting it doesnt seem to do the trick for me (yet).

[Zuma]

I am aware that expectation plays a major role when trying to achieve such feats. HOWEVER, I have come to believe that expectation, at least for me, can not be the most important, at least not the only part of the equation. One example: About 2 months ago I had a lucid dream (DILD), and my goal was to use the spinning technique to change the scenery. I was REALLY REALLY expecting this to work, because up to that point I had only read experience reports and books that stated that this is the way to go. But as you can imagine, it didnt work at all. I tried really hard to spin into a beach scene, imagining it and fully expected it to work (just like flying worked for me the first time I tried) and failed anyway. I was really surprised as you can imagine. Same with the shouting out thing, I really expected it to work the first time, but it didnt. I tried again and again, putting all my intent and good will into it, but it never changed anything. There has to be some other factor or influence that I cant really grasp yet. Just expecting and wanting it doesnt seem to do the trick for me (yet). Do what other people said, make a dream character get your person/item, turn around and expect it. Try walking through a door or mirror to change scenery. The spinning thing does change scenery, but in my experience it's hard to control where I end up. In your life things don't appear out of thin air. In your life you can turn around and see someone, you can make someone get something for you, and you can open up a box and find something. You have to use all the reference points in your waking life combined with the confidence in suggestion to make magical things happen in your dream. Just keep trying and eventually you'll get it work once and then you'll have that positive reference point and you'll end up actually believing in yourself. It will become a self-fulfilling prophecy

[Potatoes]

You have to believe it will work. You have to believe: "This is MY dream, and i am god in my dreams. I am able to manipulate anything, it's all in my head."

[Unelias]

Shouting or action similar to it is just your own way to boost your confidence. I once developed a stablizing method which worked by punching my fist to my palm. You just have to program some kind of action, which means stabilizing to you. Shouting is common because it is seen as a outburst of anger or way of commanding people. It's all in your mind.

[The Cusp]

This site is full of crap techniques like that. Someone does something that particular to their character and they announce it as a foolproof technique. I'm pretty sure most techniques are just unnecessary steps, distractions. If you are more focused on the technique than you are on your goal, it's likely not going to work. And as for believing things will work, that is the biggest piece misinformation being passed around this site. The real key to reliable control comes down to what you focus your attention and archetypes. We learn by making connections, and an archetype is the sum total of connections for one subject or theme. The more developed and stable the archetype, the better the odds of succeeding in your endeavors. If you've never juggled before, you're not going to be good at it in a dream. If you're a master juggler, it won't be a problem. The problem with control is that in dreams we are mostly attempting to do things we are unfamiliar with. You can become familiar with new archetypes or change existing ones in dreams with practice. For more info on control, check this out http://dreamviews.com/community/showthread.php?t=57283

[Kastro187420]

There has to be some other factor or influence that I cant really grasp yet. Just expecting and wanting it doesnt seem to do the trick for me (yet). There is alot more to it than simply expecting it to. Expectations is what makes it possible for you to achieve something, but as for how it will be achieved, there are different methods for doing that. If you are attempting Dream Spinning, for instance, to change your scene, some people will find that doesn't work. Not because they don't expect it to, but because their own mind, at the time of trying it, doesn't know how to go about generating that new scene and forming it from the previous one. As "The Cusp" mentioned, you need to be familiar with an activity, or at least knowledgable about it, to really be able to create it. If in your dream you wanted to shoot an energy beam out of your hand, well, you might have alot of issues with that. But if you imagine yourself with a Magical Object (some use Harry Potter wands), and having assistance from that, then it becomes easier, because your mind knows how to render that effect (since magic and magic wands are things almost all people know about as children). If your mind doesn't know how to do something, but it still tries to do it anyway, then it will do it with the information it has available. If you try to travel to, lets say Pluto, but have never seen images of it, your mind doesn't know how to accurate construct it. So it will construct it based on what you think it would look like. With me, I've found that many things are easier to do because I'm someone who enjoys Anime. I've watched various ones alot (Bleach, Inuyasha, Full Metal Alchemist), and from those, it gives my mind a way to construct various abilities such as flying, tranformation, and things of that sort. Its much easier than if your mind is trying to create it based on very vague information such as "A bright blue beam firing out of my hand". Overall, it comes down to expectations, but those need to be fueled with the knowledge of how something will work. Sometimes its easy to do actions purely with expectations, but its alot easier when you have some kind of experience or alot of information about the action that your mind can draw from.

[The Cusp]

Building on what Kastro said, just because your current active archetype doesn't allow the particular activities you want to do, that doesn't mean you can't supplant it with another more suitable one. Trying to use Harry Potter magic in a dream that mimics a RL scenario could prove difficult for someone who's not a fan, but even for a fan. But you can replace that RL scenario with a Harry Potter scenario. The way that happens is by shifting your attention. One way to do that if you still want to yell in your dreams would be to yell out "Harry Potter!". Just remember it's not the yelling that's important, it's focusing your attention on the Harry Potter universe, the yelling is just a means to acheive that.

[lemmefly]

Thanks for the new input guys. It certainly gave me a new perspective to work with. I havent had an LD since, but I will definitely give the wand a shot the next time I get lucid. Although I am not a huge Harry Potter fan, I've watched some of the movies, so I can certainly relate and hopefully make this work.