What's up with those "rules" about lucid dreaming?

[cengi]

Ok, admittedly I've never had a lucid dream before so I haven't got to test it yet. But what makes me sort of curios are those "rules" concerning lucid dreaming. by that i mean things like: rubbing your hands or spinning to make the world more vivid etc. ( I hope you see where I'm getting at) Aren't you supposed to sort of make those rules up on your own? I mean, you decide what's happening, therefore when you say i blink or snip with my fingers I'll have instant vividness or something like that. Isn't that a bit of a misconception if you already tell people what you should do? It's like you already limit their imagination even though we all want to achieve the opposite. Like, shouldn't we drop those rules? (sorry, I am not trying to be philosophical or anything. It's just an idea I thought I'd mention.)

[Saizaphod]

Well you can make your own rules (stabilization) if you just come up with any, the idea is just that you must ground yourself to the dream. Rubbing your hands together creates friction which forces your brain to pay more attention to the dream itself making everything else also more vivid and realistic. So I personally don't believe that snapping your fingers once really simulate your senses enough to make the dream vivid. Oh and when you said that the rules made by others "limit" your dream, what do you mean? You rub your hands every once a while what's the big deal? In return you get amazing lucid experience. Good luck lucid dreaming, -Mika

[Box77]

I wouldn't say they are rules to follow without asking Why? The main point here is to know what are you really doing while rubbing your hands or pinching your nose, etc. and if you feel comfortable with them to achieve the main goals which are stabilizing or reality checking, etc. then go on. But if you don't get proper results perhaps you can find a better one that fits for you. I could tell that I found a lot of very useful ideas in the forum which helped me a lot to improve the quality of my LDs, not to mention all of those thousand things to do in a LD... By the way, I don't rub my hands to stabilize neither pinch my nose to RC, they don't work for me...

[JoannaB]

I would not call them rules. Everyone is free to do whatever they like and whatever works for them in their lucid dreams. These things that you refer to as "rules" are things that people have come up with to resolve issues they have experienced while lucid dreaming. Some of these issues such as trouble with stabilization are very common. Of course if you wanted to you could come up with your own method to resolve stabilization issues. There are people on this forum who had been lucid dreaming successfully for years without knowing that it was called lucid dreaming or what the recommended techniques were, and if they also encountered stabilization issues, they on their own figured out how to resolve them. However, for those who prefer to not only use their own approach, they have the option of reading techniques that have worked for other people, and then they have the option of either trying some of them out to see whether these techniques also work for them, or deciding not to follow the ideas in LD tutorials, but come up with their own instead. None of these approaches are wrong. If you feel that tutorials on LD might limit your imagination, you might consider not reading them or not following them. This could lead you to find new innovative ways of doing things, and in that case, please tell us about them, unless you so strongly feel that it would limit our imaginations, then feel free to keep your methods a secret. Whether you do things your own way or follow ideas proposed by others, either way, there is no guarantee that you will be successful LDing faster: some methods work better for some people, some people achieve lucidity and stabilization faster than others, no method fits all. There are some methods however that are less likely than others: if you come up with your own method which is that every time you begin to suspect that it is a dream you firmly tell yourself that such thoughts are nonsense, and then make sure to think of something else, I doubt this unique method would help you lucid dreaming.

[NyxCC]

Yup, I agree with the above. There are no rules, just recommendations. These are techniques that people have discovered for themselves to solve particular dream issues. So they share the experience and everybody is free to try what works for them, then provide feedback. In this way, we get some kind of consensus on what procedure is more effective, that's all. If you are interested in inducing LD certainly one day you will be also posting your point of view and what method is best for you, people here are open to new ideas and will try out new techniques proposed by others.

[Scionox]

I agree with everyone else, these are not rules, but are techniques to help new lucid dreamers to achieve lucidity and more vivid lucid dreams easier, you can always come up with your own method and some skilled or talented people can reach stable lucid dreams without using any stabilization techniques at all, so yeah.

[Jabre]

Rubbing your hands does bring you into a dream. It stimulates the senses. No one is making anything up, and you are welcome to do anything you want for stability. Assuming that that is the only "rule" you noticed, then I guarantee you that whatever you do for stabilization will involve stimulating the senses. Nothings "limiting" your dreams. Maybe you don't have any lucid dreams because you protest technique.

[Bansheet]

Assuming that that is the only "rule" you noticed, then I guarantee you that whatever you do for stabilization will involve stimulating the senses. That "guarantee" sure looks like a limiting belief to me. Maybe somebody could stabilize a dream just by thinking; "hey, this is my dream. Get vivid." Ultimately these techniques are as said above just tools that tend to work for a lot of people. But you can't really "guarantee" anything about how anyone's dreams work. Lastly, I believe that anyone would do well to understand why and how these techniques tend to work in order to get a better understanding of how to manipulate your own dreams in new and creative ways.

[Rothgar]

The thing I find interesting is that there are "rules" that seem to apply in the dream space. If you have never experienced an LD then it does seem pretty amazing to find they "work". Maybe not always for everyone but in general. Probably "techniques" are a better way to say it. My daughter had heard me talk about lucid dreaming but thought spinning was something I said would stabilize her. Well, she had one and spun around and found herself in a new place. I told her that spinning was a technique for teleporting, after the fact. I had tried using a watch for a reality check but then I read about the nose pinch. For me it always works. Looking at the ground or touching things can stabilize the dream, which i also rean about and have experienced. But I also would say that everyone has to find what works best for them. I discovered if I reach my hand behind me I can always find a hand and pull someone around to me...usually a cute girl. So trying techniques is good but developing your own is good too. By the way, I tried snapping my fingers to make someone appear and found it just woke me up. Magic like that either doesnt usually work or I dont have the skills yet to do that.

[Jabre]

That "guarantee" sure looks like a limiting belief to me. Maybe somebody could stabilize a dream just by thinking; "hey, this is my dream. Get vivid." Ultimately these techniques are as said above just tools that tend to work for a lot of people. But you can't really "guarantee" anything about how anyone's dreams work. Lastly, I believe that anyone would do well to understand why and how these techniques tend to work in order to get a better understanding of how to manipulate your own dreams in new and creative ways. yeah, but saying 'get vivid' is just an indirect and subliminal way of paying attention to the senses.

[Darkmatters]

* people with a lot of experience have found certain tricks that work. Try to pass those tricks on to newcomers

[Jabre]

* people with a lot of experience have found certain tricks that work. Try to pass those tricks on to newcomers "Even dreams have rules" Lisa Simpson

[melanieb]

Ok, admittedly I've never had a lucid dream before so I haven't got to test it yet. But what makes me sort of curios are those "rules" concerning lucid dreaming. by that i mean things like: rubbing your hands or spinning to make the world more vivid etc. ( I hope you see where I'm getting at) Aren't you supposed to sort of make those rules up on your own? I'm not certain where you saw these stabilization methods as "rules" but if you found them on DreamViews I would really like it if you posted the link to them. Here we try to teach basic guidelines, methods to give new people a starting point to build on. Those techniques you mentioned come from Stephen Laberge's book if I recall correctly (I may be incorrect) but they are not rules by any means. In all honesty I've never rubbed my hands together and most accounts I've read about spinning in the dream lead to failure, but every person will respond differently. You should do what works for you. I hope you respond with the material link I requested.