seek advice

hey peoples , i have been trying to lucid dream for a few months now , using all sorts of literature available and others sources i have mannaged to increase my dream recall but have yet to consciously dream . not for lack of enthusiasm !! i promise !! i keep a journal and am informed regarding induction methods and dreams signs and methods to stabalise and increase lucidity but have not as yet been able to use such wonderful things .. is there any advice you may have for me . i will not let it curb my enthusiasm i will keep trying !!! but a bit of advice would be appreciated.

Welcome filemon :)

To get your first lucid dream it sometimes is enough to just motivate yourself and really try to imagine how it would feel to be lucid in a dream.
I got my frist lucid after I had watched The Matrix and I started to question EVERYTHING in my reality, and then I just randomly questioned what was going on in a dream and realized that I was dreaming. So next time you are taking the bus or something, just sit and realize that in a dream you mind is as aware as you are right now! Next time you talk to your friends, realize how strange it would be to understand that they were not real. Also combine this thinking with a reality check, just something simple like looking at your hands and observing the details of the hand.
A good idea is to count the fingers. In the dream it will look strange and that can be enough to get aware.

Remember that just the fact that you know understand what lucidity is, is already working in your favor as you sleep. And it's good that you keep a dream journal as well.
But my best advice for you would be to not actually have lucidity in itself as a goal, because it's hard for you to understand the concept if you never have been lucid.
So have higher general awareness as your primary goal. Recall your dreams and realize that the more you remember, the more aware you are of the dream.
In order to increase awareness you need to be aware of how the awareness in the dream feels. Recall a dream that you remember vividly and then try to imagine how that felt.

Lucidity will come in time, but awareness is the key.

This also helps you to not get discouraged if your not lucid.

Lucidity as a goal + Unsuccessful attempt = Frustration, anger, feeling discouraged. -> Giving up

Awareness as a goal + recall dreams = Increasing awareness -> that in turn will lead to lucidity on the way.

Because you will always remember something, and if your not remembering your dreams, there are methods to practise and fix that instantly.

Alot of text... But it's important to realize that awareness should be your primary focus and lucidity is just a bonus.

What most people forget is to appreciate their non-aware dreams (normal dreams), that perespective need to be changed in order to succeed.
Because they are after all the bridge to lucidity.

Sweet dreams :) If you have more questions, just ask ;)

mastermind i cant thank you enough , in focusing too much on lucidity i was getting frustrated a bit , but i wont stop trying my friend .i will work on my awareness!!!! thank you so much for the advice , im thinking maybe i should watch the matrix!!!!!! i sincerely appreciate you finding the time to write to me. gonna focus on awareness brother and see where that takes me!!!! thank u thank u thank u

It might be better to realize that truth yourself, but a little guidance on the way can't hurt. I struggled with this fact for years, only now I realize that every act you do achieves the best results when it's passive. When it comes to lucid dreaming we have done experiments and tricks and tried to invent alarms to help us and whatnot, but the truth is that asian methods covers everything allready.
Asians... xD (Although I am Asian too, but raised in Sweden)
Dream Yoga = Best Recall + DILD method, Quigong meditation variation + Yoga Nidra is the best WILD method.
That's according to me though based on what I have found. For example I randomly, perhaps naturally come up with this method, then I realized that it was already a part of Dream Yoga, but I hadn't heard of it before. I mean look at the result!
http://www.dreamviews.com/f15/if-you...ams-try-93005/

Only know I realize that WILD methods are describing certain meditation methods that have existed for many years. And I trying to learn to master that.

And this is basically the best run down of the best lucid dream methods I can give you. This is what I have realized, but if you trust me or not is your choice ;)
Although what this really means and how you should use this information is up to you to discover, it's no use for me to tell you if you don't come up with the conclusion yourself, because then you haven't attained any own knowledge only mimmicked something. So see this as guidelines and try to understand how you can make use of it.

For example I don't mean that you do Quigong in your bed on your WILD attempt xD It only have the same purpose.
And one have to understand the meaning of that oneself.

Wopps long post again, but I hope it makes you see lucid dreaming in my perspective. In the perspective of a MasterMind lol ...

Helping others may look like an altrustic act, and helping yourself may look like a selfish act but the truth is that we are ONE, so help others and you help yourself, and help yourself and you help others.

Just a little thought for the day :content:

Inlakesh :meditate:

For me, I must not be too tired. In this regard I consider LD a sort of luxury; in that I can only do it when I am getting "extra" sleep. An nap in the afternoon works well. Also, try to get your normal 7 or 8 hrs sleep, then wake-up, eat breakfast, read the news or what have you and then go back to bed.

Moved to General lucid

ty my friend , the longer the message the better as far as im concerned man . i will trust u re this matter . sure what have i got to loose my friend . kind regards

thanks oumenm i will keep that in mind

Wow MasterMind thanks that was a great post. I definitely need to work on my awareness. These forums are awesome

been a few days without much recall !!! mastermind save me with some advice will ya mt friend . what can i do tonight to improve??

Consider your bedtime and your way of falling asleep.

Ideal bedtime for me is 22:00, but this can vary depending on your sleep patterns, the important thing is that it's a very regular bedtime.

And in order to dream peacefully and calmly that in turn makes it easier to remember, you need to fall asleep calmly and peacefully.

If you fall asleep with a stressed mind or many worries on your mind you will get very chaotic dreams with lots of random information that wont make sense to you and because of that also is harder to recall. And either way stress relief is healthier than being stressed, and who wants to be stressed anyway?

This is why I recommened this thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/f15/if-you...ams-try-93005/

It lets you acknowledge all the experiences you have had during the day and because you don't surpress it, you will not have chaotic dreams about it, because you already have placed it in your memory sort of. And it's a good short-term memory practice that will help you remember your dreams, because the biggest reason for bad recall is probably because of the short-term memory.

For stress I would recommend meditation, a simple version is one of Robert Monroe's visualization tools that I often use:

You go to bed and tell yourself that nothing will disturb your nights sleep and then you visualize/ imagine a chest, box, safe or anything of you choosing and then you think of something that stresses you and you make symbol out of it and then put it in the box, chest or what ever you choosed. If you are stressed about school work you can imagine putting all your school books in there, the important thing is that you understand the symbolic meaning of the object. Do this for everything that stresses you and then put the lid on the box, close the chest or the safe etc.

Then turn away from it. And now for another exercise to make you aware of your dreams.

Now mentally tell yourself again "Nothing will disturb my nightly sleep" begin now by visualizing yourself walking in your house, don't worry about the detail of the visualization, the more relaxed you become the more vivid it gets. Then walk around the different rooms in your house and if you want get out of the house, continue visualizing and explore you are basically dreaming now not vividly but you are aware of the self.

You will fall asleep during this process and since that will be the last thing your mind thinks about "To be aware and control this experience" that intention will spill over to your dreams.

After some practise with this you will stop remember your dreams like "movies" or even recall them in a typical manner.
Instead you will become so aware that when wake up you already remember the dream because you experienced it, it is just that at the time you were experiencing it you were not aware of the fact that it was a dream but you were still aware of the situation. (if that makes sense). When I first experienced this I described it as "It felt like being in a different persons mind and body and experiencing all the things he/she did but never becoming aware of the fact that you are another person for real and that I was just dreaming att the time" like schizophrenia or something.

When you are this aware, it is much easier to become lucid because all that it takes by then is a strange event within the dream or a reality check from your side. This will also help you remember your dreams.

This was what I did to get my recall process going, feel free to follow it as a method, but don't be afraid to experiment and find other solutions.

Sweet dreams :sleepmeditate2:

such sound advice man ty ty ty

yo man i'm waking up during middle of night to try and re enter but i keep falling asleep. gonna try get up a bit later then walk or stand for a bit so im really awake . then go back in . wat u think??? any advice?? i know its just around the corner but im getting frustrated

When I woke up in the middle of the night I used to visualize a dream scene and if I were close to REM or already dreaming I would soon find myself in that visualization.

Don't get discouraged this is great, be proud of what you have accomplished so far and the rest will come naturally. ;)

Think of your lucid dreaming process as a mountain and imagine that you have been climbing for a while, in this moment you shouldn't look up at the top and think of how much it is left for you to climb, this will only make the climbing boring and not very enjoyable. Instead look down from where your standing and see how far you have already got, this will make the climbing motivating and fun! So keep this mindset for lucid dreaming as well. :meditate:

Remember though when you reach you reach the top of your mountain (reach your goal) there is always higher mountains to climb and not even the sky is the limit.