Speed of LD training?

[TheRealTenman]

How do I compare to you? This is my experience: I "didn't" dream for about 4-5 years, I simply didn't remember them. Then, while browsing the cesspool of the internet, I found a thread about LDing. After a day of research, and finding this site, I had a 3-10 second lucid dream. It felt like I was watching a movie, anyway, I was sucked out of it. 3 and a half weeks later I had a lucid dream in which I had full control over me. It wasn't vivid and didn't feel much (a sheer lack of feeling), none the less it lasted a good half hour to an hour...maybe more. How do I compare to you? I am aware things move very quickly for some and can take months for others, even years... I need a reality check/anchor to see where I fit in. I also just realized I sound like a pompous a***hole I blame my schizophrenia for it. But seriously I don't mean to be self centered

[Kholdstare]

I had been dreaming my entire life (I can remember a dream I had from when I was very little for some reason) and I found this site. After 4 days of nearly non-stop research I got one that lasted about an hour. Unfortunately, my LDs are usually of low quality (or so I assume; the experts say that it feels like reality, but mine don't ) and even my non-lucid dreams have an absence of feeling like yours. In one lucid I had, I tried to touch a concrete block and the texture felt normal, though, so maybe it is normal?

[MasterMind]

I meassure my level of lucidity by using Reece Jones "Five Layers of Lucidity" (Look in my Dream Journal description for a full explanation and his Youtube video). If I experience something that should trigger lucidity (Layer 0 (Minor) like seeing a pink elephant dancing in my bedroom, then I know thatI am not far from the next awareness level which is having dream control without becoming lucid (Layer 0 (Major) for example flying without becoming lucid and I then know that I am very close to becoming lucid but in the beggining the awareness might shock you so you wake up (Layer 1 (Minor). And I can use these Layers to see where my awareness level is and also find out what I need to work on. It might not be a perfect system but it's a helpful tool. So recall your dreams and see where you are at the scale. First of all you need to remember your dreams, then you just need to intend to become more aware and then work yourself up through these layers. For example if you know that you have dreams that should trigger lucidity but you don't become lucid (Layer 0 (Minor) then you know that need to practice your memory either by doing reality checks during the day or by using autosuggestion as you go to bed, or both. You see how the Layers works as a tool for lucidity? If you have any question don't hesitate to ask.

[Woodstock]

It took me a few months for my first LD, then I had a few more, then I wasn't interested for the whole summer so nothing happened until last Thursday. That day I decided to come back to DV and spent a few hours reading. I had 2 LDs that night. Now I'm working on having more and I've been trying shared dreaming and other similar things. All of me dreams are very realistic and even in a lucid dream it's hard to stay lucid because it just looks so real, but I have a lot of very strange things in them that would never happen in waking life, like the lyrics of Purple Haze written in the sky or being chased by zombies or seeing the Lizard Woman (she keeps coming into my dreams!).

[TheRealTenman]

...In one lucid I had, I tried to touch a concrete block and the texture felt normal, though, so maybe it is normal?... When I focused on my carpet it grew up to my shin and felt fluffy. :3 shame it was all I felt. The optical quality was terrible too, everything was black and "not" white, kinda like a negative of Madworld. ... Reece Jones "Five Layers of Lucidity"... Mastermind, so far I have a layer method of my own: Watching a movie (not in the dream or lucid) Acting in a movie (in the dream but have no control) Changing the script (have control may or may not be lucid) Changing the set (able to change the world somehow, lucid) Omnipotent (do what ever i like with it) ...or seeing the Lizard Woman (she keeps coming into my dreams!).... Lizard woman? Do tell ;3

[Woodstock]

Lizard woman? Do tell ;3 She's like a female version of Lizard Man that Mindraker talked about. She walks on two legs, has red lipstick, and has a sparkly silver purse. She chased me in a lucid dream last Thursday, but didn't think it was anything special so I made her disappear. Then I saw her again Friday or Saturday night. She looked at me funny and ran away.

[ThisWitheredMan]

There were times in past years that I briefly tried to pick up LDing, but my determination always waned very quickly with little personal experience to motivate me. I used to LD as a kid a lot but had little memory of it. My first LD I remember in any detail was in 2010. It was so vivid it completely blew my mind. That I could run around and experience a world as real to my senses as waking life was the trippiest experience I'd ever had. It wasn't until this year around April or so I began keeping a detailed dream journal dutifully and one day randomly had a LD that was again dazzlingly vivid and disappointingly short. Then I started reading a specific book about LDing that offered a technique that I began using and I've had around 18 LDs of varying lengths and strengths over the past five months. My dream recall is usually somewhat good at this point, much better than it was in April. I can usually remember a couple dreams per cycle, except certain nights where it's utterly abysmal for no obvious reason. My determination has faltered a little a couple times in these months and I lost a bit of ground on dream recall and awareness, but overall I seem to be making progress.

[TheRealTenman]

...keeping a detailed dream journal dutifully... Would it be necessary to keep a DJ for some one who remembers there dreams? I remember clearly all of my vivid dreams and some hazies... it isn't 4-5 a night but I have perfect memory of them, still.

[Wool]

I'd say you have it because of the fact that you made sudden research about it and probably because it was something that you found really interesting. The same happended to me when i discovered this site and was reading a lot of lucid dreaming. I had a couple of non-trained lucid dreams the next couple of weeks after that. It wore of after a while though and i learned other technuiqes.

[ssalas7]

I just watched the youtube video and to be honest, I have never even attempted to tell a DC that they are in my dream. Once I realize I am dreaming, they are my pawns to play with and see how well I can manipulate them. I guess I just look at the dream world differently since I discovered lucid dreaming years ago without any help from others or techniques to help guide me... Even when I am not lucid dreaming, my dreams are extremely vivid, I see colors and textures and sometimes I can even feel tired of from running or flying for too long and I have to remind myself that I have endless energy.

[ThisWitheredMan]

Would it be necessary to keep a DJ for some one who remembers there dreams? I remember clearly all of my vivid dreams and some hazies... it isn't 4-5 a night but I have perfect memory of them, still. I can't necessarily speak to your needs or abilities, but my guess would be yes. As far as I can tell, we're having MANY dreams per night, and there is simply too much detail to always be able to track every bit of it in your head. No matter how well you are remembering your dreams, you can always be remembering more of them, better. The level of detail you recall seems to diminish as time passes. What you remember five hours after waking will pale in comparison to what you remember right after waking, and the idea of keeping the dream journal is to constantly push this ability higher and higher. Higher dream recall means higher dream awareness which means higher likelihood of becoming lucid. I think there would always be a higher level to push things to. Consider that even in waking life, if you take a walk around your block, and then try to recall it, how little detail you actually remember. Dreams contain just as much detail as waking life, and it ALL has meaning, so striving to expand your ability to retain that detail seems a worthy goal to me. Even when I am not lucid dreaming, my dreams are extremely vivid, I see colors and textures. Is this atypical? Can some people not see colors or textures? I can hardly even picture what not seeing textures would be like, surfaces are just blank or vague blurs? I've heard of the whole "some people dream in black and white" thing but I always thought that was just nonsense. Even my non-lucids are visually very vivid, the haziness is more of a time/memory haze. Segments will be lost or time will seem to jump forward like I'm failing to track the events properly, but the visual quality is always as real as waking life.

[ssalas7]

Is this atypical? Can some people not see colors or textures? I can hardly even picture what not seeing textures would be like, surfaces are just blank or vague blurs? I've heard of the whole "some people dream in black and white" thing but I always thought that was just nonsense. Even my non-lucids are visually very vivid, the haziness is more of a time/memory haze. Segments will be lost or time will seem to jump forward like I'm failing to track the events properly, but the visual quality is always as real as waking life. Well, I'm not going to say it is strange but at the same time, how many adults outside of this forum do you know who remember their dreams at all? The people around me tend to remember more because I am always talking about my dreams so they subconsciously have a better dream recall just by thinking about dreams; however, if I was to ask them to describe the color of a scene, what someone was wearing, or any other minor detail, they are at a loss. You should be happy that your mind is creative enough to be vivid Not everyone is as lucky as we are!

[ThisWitheredMan]

You know what, now that you mention it, my friends HAVE tried to describe that to me. Like yours, mine have been experiencing improved dream recall and two have had their first lucid dreams just as a result of my inability to shut the hell up about it hah. One tells me that his dreams are like, largely white space... like there will be scenes with characters and furniture/objects around, but there's no background setting, like no sky or horizon or buildings or even interior walls, it's just white nothingness, and his DC's never have faces. I kinda always assumed he was just experiencing really terrible dream recall, like they weren't that drab when he actually dreamed them, he just forgot details? Wish I could jump into people's heads and better understand their perspectives...

[MasterMind]

Glad I am not alone.. I told my friend about lucid dreaming and explained how it felt like but he just said "But you are only dreaming that you are knowing that you are dreaming!" And I said "Yes that can be the case but there are cases where I am completely aware! It's like the matrix it can't be explain you must experience it.". The next day he ran to me yelling "I know how it's like! I had one last night! I met a super hot blonde" "Good for you... " And when I say to some people that the only reason they don't remember their dreams is because they don't pay any conscious attention to them. They disagree and say "that they don't dream". Some days later they one of them say "I had so many dreams this night can you interpret them?" And I say "No ... I am not Freud... The only one who can interpret them is you. Although I am happy that you "had" a dream this night "