Thread: Questions from a newbie

So I have some questions about lucid dreaming that I haven't been able to find answers for, so I would like others' opinions. Feel free to answer just the ones you know about or wish to.

1. In the past, before I knew anything about lucid dreaming, on two widely separated occasions I had two (maybe semi-) lucid dreams - where I realized I was dreaming while in the dream, but managed to stave off waking up for maybe 10-15 seconds. In both cases it was the same method to stay in the dream - walking around and not thinking too hard about it. In addition to these two cases, every several weeks or so I have a dream where I realize I am dreaming, but wake up practically instantly. I hope to be ready with dream stabilization next time this happens, and reality checks to make it happen more often, but my question is, do these past occurrences mean it will be easier to learn lucid dreaming?

2. Just as learning to stick contact lenses in your eye gets easier and easier the more you do it, does getting and maintaining lucidity get easier and easier the more you do it?

3. Binaural beats and isochronic tones - are they useful and helpful to you?

4. Self-hypnosis and meditation - how necessary?

5. Sleep paralysis (of the WILD method) quite honestly freaks me out. I picture lying in bed stuck there for several minutes feeling crushed while creepy voices and shadowy entities are around me, but I am somehow supposed to not panic and keep relaxing. Please tell me what it is really like.

6. I've heard of a method of saying "1, I am dreaming, 2, I am dreaming, 3, I am dreaming..." while you fall asleep - how effective is this?

7. I'd be interested in a phone (Google Play) app (perhaps an alarm app) that would just vibrate maybe once or twice only, and I could set it to do so every so often. (maybe every 90 minutes during the day, and then sometime during REM sleep.) My idea is to do a reality check every time I hear the buzzing, and then I should hear it in my dream (either the actual phone heard in the dream or a dream phone) and then do a reality check and achieve lucidity. Do you know of a free app that can do this? (I tried to use my phone's built in clock app for this already, but it doesn't work, as it buzzes over and over for a full minute and wakes me up. It almost worked, as I heard the buzzing in a dream before I figured out what it was, so my theory is that once or twice should be enough to get me thinking without crashing the dream.)

Thanks for any help!

Hi, im kind of new to lucid dreaming as well but i think i can awnser a few of your questions

1. yes i think past experiences should help with learning to lucid dream. Simply because you know the feeling of being in the lucid and you also know very specifically what your goal is.
2. Yes, of course it gets easier to do with practice, as does everything.
3. As i said i am fairly new to this but every review on binaural beats and the such in regards to LDing have been positive.
4.Very necessary if you have a hard time relaxing and focusing on your own.
5.don't know tbh.
6.Haven't tired this but every lucid dreamer who uses WILD i've heard of uses this so i would say it was probably effective
7.Sounds like a good idea, and i think that there are many apps out there made specifically for lucid dreaming so maybe check those out.

sorry if this did not help much as i am also pretty new to this

Originally Posted by Matt1

1. In the past, before I knew anything about lucid dreaming, on two widely separated occasions I had two (maybe semi-) lucid dreams - where I realized I was dreaming while in the dream, but managed to stave off waking up for maybe 10-15 seconds. In both cases it was the same method to stay in the dream - walking around and not thinking too hard about it. In addition to these two cases, every several weeks or so I have a dream where I realize I am dreaming, but wake up practically instantly. I hope to be ready with dream stabilization next time this happens, and reality checks to make it happen more often, but my question is, do these past occurrences mean it will be easier to learn lucid dreaming?

Short answer, yes. Long answer, everyone can learn how to lucid dream, and the information you shared does not mean you will learn anything easier, per se, but that that you have already climbed a few rungs of the ladder on your own. The first step in learning how to lucid dream is dream recall, which you seem to have no problems with. The next is attaining lucidity, which you have done without any formal methods. The step after that is dream control, which includes stability. I suggest reading over some guides in the Dream Control section of the forum, and specifically look for stabilization techniques.

Originally Posted by Matt1

2. Just as learning to stick contact lenses in your eye gets easier and easier the more you do it, does getting and maintaining lucidity get easier and easier the more you do it?

Yes! I would venture as far as saying that lucid dreaming is sort of like riding a bike, and that once you learn how to do it on command you can, well, do it on command. Practice and repetition have more to do with trial and error and with finding the techniques that work for you than mastering any. Keep trying different techniques until you find one that works well.

Originally Posted by Matt1

3. Binaural beats and isochronic tones - are they useful and helpful to you?

Scientifically, yes, they are known to induce the brain waves necessary for lucid dreaming. Personally, I would suggest not growing accustomed to them. I suggest you give them a try, just to see what specific brain waves (alpha, beta, delta, theta) feel like, but then find an induction technique that works. One reason for this is that outside stimuli do affect the environment of your dream, and you will find that you can still "hear" the distorted static sound that constitutes binaural beats even while dreaming. On a side note, you can pull a Inception and play some soft music, and hear it in your dreams

Originally Posted by Matt1

4. Self-hypnosis and meditation - how necessary?

Well, some people would argue that lucid dreaming is entirely self-hyponsis. No, you don't need to perfect or even practice either in order to lucid dream, however it could help and it certainly couldn't hurt. I know that the majority of dream control techniques are exactly that. Personally, I would suggest taking 20 minutes out of your day to meditate, if only to learn how to relax.

Originally Posted by Matt1

5. Sleep paralysis (of the WILD method) quite honestly freaks me out. I picture lying in bed stuck there for several minutes feeling crushed while creepy voices and shadowy entities are around me, but I am somehow supposed to not panic and keep relaxing. Please tell me what it is really like.

Face your fears, or try another technique. Let me tell you, though, that if you go to sleep thinking about voices and shadow figures you will not enjoy the lucid dream you are having. Let me also tell you that its not as scary as most people describe. In fact, I've went through sleep paralysis multiple times and found it quite fascinating before I read online that it was supposed to be terrifying. Whatever you do, tell yourself to do it without any fear or preconceptions, tell yourself that you are in no danger, and enjoy the ride. A man can only truly be brave if he is afraid.

Originally Posted by Matt1

6. I've heard of a method of saying "1, I am dreaming, 2, I am dreaming, 3, I am dreaming..." while you fall asleep - how effective is this?

Mantras work wonders for me. I always look in a mirror before attempting a lucid dream, stare myself in the eyes, and tell myself whatever to do whatever I need to do, whether it be attain lucidity, dream a specific situation, or remember my dream in the morning. They are related to self-hypnosis. However, they are only one technique out of many. For other induction techniques, or for further reading on mantra induction techniques, see the Attaining Lucidity section of the forum.

Originally Posted by Matt1

7. I'd be interested in a phone (Google Play) app (perhaps an alarm app) that would just vibrate maybe once or twice only, and I could set it to do so every so often. (maybe every 90 minutes during the day, and then sometime during REM sleep.) My idea is to do a reality check every time I hear the buzzing, and then I should hear it in my dream (either the actual phone heard in the dream or a dream phone) and then do a reality check and achieve lucidity. Do you know of a free app that can do this? (I tried to use my phone's built in clock app for this already, but it doesn't work, as it buzzes over and over for a full minute and wakes me up. It almost worked, as I heard the buzzing in a dream before I figured out what it was, so my theory is that once or twice should be enough to get me thinking without crashing the dream.)

I recently downloaded DreamZ app, which served the function of having an alarm that would shut itself off after a certain amount of time. I'm not sure if you can program it to have multiple alarms, though I'm pretty sure you can mess around with the "events" function on your "calendar" app in order to accomplish this without paying 99 cents.

Sweet dreams.

Even though you did not post in the introduction zone, I see this is your first posts, so break out the welcome wagon.
Here is my 'Welcome Aboard Post' to help you get started.......



Welcome to Dream Views! This is the place to be for anyone wanting to learn how to lucid dream. There is no quick answer to your question, but the Dream guide team is here to help you navigate the forum and answer questions. We all have 3 green stars above our avatar. Click on our user name and you can then select private message if you have a question, or you can start new threads. Don't worry about starting threads that have been started before, just try it out, if it ends up in the wrong place one of us can move it for you.

One thing you can do in a post is place a link to another thread. I have done this below. You can click on the colored words to see the new thread. Start with this extra basic one, it will help you read the acronyms in other posts, Help With Acronyms For Complete Beginners


After that one the very first thing you should do is check out basic tutorials. This one covers most of the terms you will see members using in much more depth, so start here, http://www.dreamviews.com/f20/beginn...eaming-124786/

Also be sure to check out the DVA Dream Views Acadamy, click on this link to get there, DV Academy.

Matte , our Dream Guide team leader runs a general lucid dreaming class, and you can join in contests where you gain points for dreams you have. General Lucid Dreaming (Matte87)

Gab , another Dream Guide runs a class that is very valuable to beginners on MILD/DILD, which is by far the best method to start with. DILD (Hukif and gab)

Finally as far as the DVA stuff goes, there is a class on introduction to lucid dreaming. This is a great place if you are just starting out and need a little personal help. Intro Class (OpheliaBlue, RareCola, CanisLucidus, Chimpertainment, Xanous)


Now, on the lighter side, you may be excited to learn to fly! Here is a thread where people explain how they went about learning to fly, http://www.dreamviews.com/f14/can-u-...u-learn-40468/

Then just for a laugh here is a thread where people list all the things they want to do in an LD. It is mostly light hearted and supposed to be funny, http://www.dreamviews.com/f11/1000-t...-dream-104556/


Have fun and good luck with your dreaming!

1) The first hurrdle in staying lucid is getting past the shock of it. So, you do not have to start with the first dream, you are on your 3rd dream. Now, go to the 4th. You KNOW it can happen, so you have already made a big step forward.

2)Even after decades it is not perfected. Every year you will learn more and always keep improving. The biggest jump in learning comes after, say, 20 or 30 dreams. By that point you will start having longer dreams and you will start being able to do control tricks easier.

4) Meditation is not needed, but is a powerful tool. It is like using a type writter. Anyone can type out a letter, but training yourself in how to type is a skill that takes time and drastically improves your ability to use a type writter. Any one can learn to lucid dream, but those who train their brains to lucid dream through meditation skills will be able to do amazing things. This class will teach you all about how to do the training, Dream Yoga (Sivason)

5) Sleep paralysis is all a big misunderstanding! Please do not even think about it! Here is a thread we all put together to clear up the confusion, http://www.dreamviews.com/f79/sleep-...lained-136993/

6) That is one of the techniques I push. It is probably, by far the best mantra I have ever used. It creates an after image of that phrase that can keep echoing in your head while you sleep. You are more likely to have the thought "I am dreaming" during a dream, and that will likely make you get lucid. Here is a thread with questions and answers on this technique, http://www.dreamviews.com/f12/simple...-dilds-128723/

I hope that stuff helps and welcome to dream views!

About the Sleep paralysis question. Its not scary if you know and aware of what is happening. it can be strange but not scary. The only time it gets scar is if you panic. But if you attain sleep paralysis there's two options you can begin to build the dream Which i have not done yet
But ive heard its sort of like assassins creed where the scenery slowly appears in front of you.
Or you Concentrate on waking up because the feeling is to intense or you not enjoying the experience. i have done this. What helps to to wake up from sleep paralysis is to first keep telling your self you will move one of your fingers. after 10 seconds and no success Just manginess yourself breathing in and out really deeply those two work for me.

Not everyone experiences hypnogogic imagery
Me personally i get a high pitched sound sort of like those ringtones you get when you were young that like a frequency of 20khz or somthing
I also get vibrations Which happen down my spine. Now i think these can both be explained.

The brain mimics a high pitched sound of about 22khz when you are dreaming (( Correct me if im wrong but this is also a binoral beat. And i found this out like 3 days ago ))

And the vibrations are just the bran relaxing the muscles even deeper or the last of the electric impulses to my muscles.

But they are usualy both so intense that i just cant think of anything else so end up trying to force my self to wake up

5) I used to be terrified of Sleep paralysis. But after some time in here i came to know some facts about the phenomenon.

As Sivason said above, Sleep paralysis have been greatly misunderstood. If you do not experience sleep paralysis regularly, chances are you won't ever experience it. Often, when people talk about sleep paralysis, they are reffering to normal falling asleep sensations which is not the same.

And if you do experience it, i can only imagine it being a cool experience anyway.

7) Android = Alarm clock plus. You just need to set the various settings to fit your needs.

Yo.
1: Yes, i think it should be easier to feel the lucid dream after you already got it done some times, thus easier to do it again, though probably not by much, it really depends on one's mindset.
2: Yes, yes and yes, though not overdo it, 'cause you might get too excited .
3: Dunno about other methods but they are very helpful for relaxation for WILD'ing .
4: See 3.
5: Depends on one's expectations, if you really will think about them much, they will appear, if you don't like them, don't think about them and just enjoy experience .
6: Don't works for me at all personally, but from what i know it's very effective for the most of people.
7: Dunno, i don't have any sort of that hardware.

Originally Posted by Matt1

1. In the past, before I knew anything about lucid dreaming, on two widely separated occasions I had two (maybe semi-) lucid dreams - where I realized I was dreaming while in the dream, but managed to stave off waking up for maybe 10-15 seconds. In both cases it was the same method to stay in the dream - walking around and not thinking too hard about it. In addition to these two cases, every several weeks or so I have a dream where I realize I am dreaming, but wake up practically instantly. I hope to be ready with dream stabilization next time this happens, and reality checks to make it happen more often, but my question is, do these past occurrences mean it will be easier to learn lucid dreaming?

It will be easier because you know the sensation of dreaming. So that's a little advantage you can have, because later on when you are more aware of your dreams generally you might get some awareness just because of that fact.

Originally Posted by Matt1

2. Just as learning to stick contact lenses in your eye gets easier and easier the more you do it, does getting and maintaining lucidity get easier and easier the more you do it?

It's different from experience to experience, spontanious lucid dreams is sometimes very close to wakefulness so sometime it's very hard for you to stay in the dream.
But it's more like the more you learn the more you will understand and the more you will succeed, so yes you'll learn by doing.

Originally Posted by Matt1

3. Binaural beats and isochronic tones - are they useful and helpful to you?

Currently I am using Hemi Sync from (Robert Monroe) which is basically several binaural beats mixed together, kind of hard to explain but all in all it's tones that helps you to attain different states. It should be noted though, that these are not inducing a state of mind on it's own, it's just an aid to help you do it on your own.
It's easy to think that it's just to put on some headphones listen to some beats after reading about the incredible science behind it and then just end up dissapointed because nothing happend. A rough explanation is that binaural beats is for a lucid dreamer what special soccershoes is for the soccer player, ok that might have been too rough because binaural beats are really effective if used correctly.

Originally Posted by Matt1

4. Self-hypnosis and meditation - how necessary?

Meditation for me holds a much bigger meaning than lucid dreaming, because lucid dreaming has the goal of understanding yourself and be aware of yourself, but meditation has the goal of understanding THE self and to be aware of THE self. For simplicity the big lucid dreaming goal is to be aware of the mind, and the big goal for meditation is to be aware of the soul. So for me lucid dreaming is just a part of the meditation, but if you by meditation just mean the practise of learning to relax the body and mind then all I can say is that it is very useful for lucid dreaming, not necessary (You can place a nail without using a hammer, with a stone for example, so the hammer isn't necessary although it is a great tool.)

But to summarize meditation I would say that it's the practise of understanding your mind, body and soul.

Originally Posted by Matt1

5. Sleep paralysis (of the WILD method) quite honestly freaks me out. I picture lying in bed stuck there for several minutes feeling crushed while creepy voices and shadowy entities are around me, but I am somehow supposed to not panic and keep relaxing. Please tell me what it is really like.

I have never experienced something like that, and for the record sleep paralysis (body paralysation) happens AFTER you are already dreaming, those scary experiences you hear about is often false awakening nightmares, so you see you are already dreaming, stop being scared, start being lucid!
And you can just get out of bed and say "What's up boogieman I control you know" or "Hey slenderman let's be friends."

If you are afraid of your dream, I fully understand you, but you also ahve to be rational and realize, if you are afraid of your dream you are afraid of yourself.

But remember if you try to avoid the fear, the fear will hunt you. But if you welcome the fear, the fear will not appear. ^-^

Originally Posted by Matt1

6. I've heard of a method of saying "1, I am dreaming, 2, I am dreaming, 3, I am dreaming..." while you fall asleep - how effective is this?

Mantras are effective. I can write a long post here about mantras and affirmations or you can read this and get a full summary:

http://www.dreamviews.com/f12/buildi...mation-139016/

This is also in a way Self-hypnosis that you asked about before, but with self hypnosis I mean that you learn to control what your subconscious mind thinks as well.

Originally Posted by Matt1

7. I'd be interested in a phone (Google Play) app (perhaps an alarm app) that would just vibrate maybe once or twice only, and I could set it to do so every so often. (maybe every 90 minutes during the day, and then sometime during REM sleep.) My idea is to do a reality check every time I hear the buzzing, and then I should hear it in my dream (either the actual phone heard in the dream or a dream phone) and then do a reality check and achieve lucidity. Do you know of a free app that can do this? (I tried to use my phone's built in clock app for this already, but it doesn't work, as it buzzes over and over for a full minute and wakes me up. It almost worked, as I heard the buzzing in a dream before I figured out what it was, so my theory is that once or twice should be enough to get me thinking without crashing the dream.)

Interesting idea, I tried something similar in my early days. But instead of buzzing I used a sound that told me "You are dreaming perform a reality check now".
However I got so used to it so in the dream I just thought "Oh right my reality check reminder, I forgot to turn it off..." FACEPALM.
But maybe it is more effective with a buzzing. Try it out and see.

I hope these answers helps you though, and remember if you got any question all you have to do is to ask.

This thread is a gold mine of experienced oneironauts giving great information, thank you. I want to add that the best alarm app out there is called "Gentle Alarm" you can set an infinite amount of alarms and customize the length, volume, and tone in which the alarm goes of. You can even use a fade in option which steadily increases the volume of the alarm over a duration you can specify.

Welcome. I had about 10 LDs before I started trying, and I think one way it helps is that you alread know that you can do it.

If you do find yourself in sleep paralysis, I would recommend just closing your eyes and going to sleep. Don't look around you. easy as that. Don't be afraid.

I have never experienced SP in my life and I'm 23, I'm honestly jealous of you guys. I wanna see what its like

Originally Posted by BossMan

I have never experienced SP in my life and I'm 23, I'm honestly jealous of you guys. I wanna see what its like

Maybe give WILD'ing a try? I have never had SP in my live and then had it a bunch of times once i started WILD attempts, it was pretty cool though.
One started as FA during one of my WILD attempts, some sort of shadow hands were coming out of couch and holding me in the place and there was sort of cool rhythmic sound... and it helped me to get more lucidity as well.

Thanks to everyone for their responses, explanations, and all the links! I will definitely be checking them out.

Originally Posted by sivason

1) The first hurrdle in staying lucid is getting past the shock of it. So, you do not have to start with the first dream, you are on your 3rd dream.

Just to clarify. I think I was only semi-lucid those two times many years ago. Neither were very vivid - I've had more vivid non-lucid dreams. All I remember besides what my surroundings looked like those two times was that since it was a dream, I knew I had to not think too hard about it or it would go away. Other times where there was a shock in becoming lucid, I woke up within 1 second. So full lucidity without disappearing right away still eludes me.

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

I only experienced it once after an LD. I felt pressure everywhere and I couldn't get up. A voice said "this is a dream and I'm gonna rape you."

Whoa. Well at least your subconscious was nice enough to tell you you were dreaming.

I only experienced it once after an LD. I felt pressure everywhere and I couldn't get up. A voice said "this is a dream and I'm gonna rape you." My first thought was that I can easily wake myself up from dreams and I tried my few methods and after about 10 seconds I sat up. Really confused that I had been awake.

Your sub will be as nice as you are.