Struggling to visualize in first person.

**Raen** · 08-28-2012 03:41 PM

So basically since I've been taking notice of my dreams and looking into the world of lucid dreaming, I've discovered that I dream quite often in third person. By this I mean that in most of my dreams, I am the character in them but I feel as if I am not in my own body and I am some other being watching me as the events take place around me. I've heard that this can result in low quality and generally unmemorable lucid dreams although the first and only real lucid dream that I've had was in first person and seemed to be completely random and out of nowhere. Recently I have noticed that not only do I dream often in third person, but it's like my dream switching between observation points. At one point I will be dreaming in first person, the next I will be watching the dream unfold from a point outside of my body. The changes just seem to be random and I don't know why I dream this way.

This has also had an affect on me in other ways because I have recently tried to dedicate myself to the MILD method and as you all know, this requires visualization. The only problem with that is that because I'm so accustomed to dreaming in third person, my visualizations also happen in third person. Again, there is a switch between third and first person where I have to concentrate really hard to "get in" my body while visualizing and as soon as I start trying concentrate on the world around me and how it feels, I lose first person view and take the third person overview again. This can be incredibly frustrating as I want to have lucid dreams in first person and this doesn't seem like it will lead me to first person lucids.

Another issue I have with visualization is that I have troubles making myself do something without narrating in my mind what I am doing. For example, a common scene I like to set myself is a beautiful garden where I start by sitting down by a fountain in the middle of this garden. The garden slopes down which is supposed to represent my subconscious and I try to make myself descend through the garden at will but the only way I can make myself do something in my visualizations is to physically think out with words "I am getting up and walking deeper into the garden" and things like "Now I am noticing the feel of wet grass between my toes". Is this how I am supposed to do this or do I just need to keep practicing to get it right? Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any replies are appreciated.

**Burke** · 08-28-2012 04:58 PM

When preforming MILDs you don't necessarily want to visualize a dream scene, you want to repeat a mantra in your head as you're falling asleep. Visualizing a dream while falling asleep is called dream incubation and, while similar to MILD, doesn't seem to be as successful (in my experience at least).

As for the visualization issues, don't try visualizing them as you were in a dream, per se. Instead visualize them as if they were waking life things since you only perceive waking life in first person. Imagine you're awake and walking through your garden, allowing you to view it all in first person. Also, even if you can't seem to do it in first person it's not the end of the world if you have a third person lucid dream. Once you become lucid you can change it so that you're viewing it all in first person.

The having to talk yourself through your actions should come easier as you do this more. For your first few tries it's fine to narrate the activities you're doing but just remember this takes away from your concentration on the other aspects such as the scents and sounds of the scene you're visualizing. If you lean back right now and imagine yourself riding a bike down a road do you narrate yourself going, "left foot down, right foot down, turn right, pedal, pedal...."? You can't "talk" yourself through every little step so as you visualize more and more try taking out little details. At first you start out, "I am getting up and walking deeper into the garden," then the second time change it to, "I'm walking through it." Then just keep narrowing it down until you're at, "walking" and that's a perfectly fine place to leave it but feel free to try to get rid of everything.

Hope this helps

**Raen** · 08-29-2012 12:48 AM

Thanks a lot, I'll give it a try. I've only recently started meditation and such and I'm finding it rather challenging at the moment, haha. Hopefully doing as you say should make things a little easier for me. Thanks again ^.^