Was I Lucid?

[TroubleLDing]

Info: I've been attempting to lucid dream for about a month using the fild method. I sort of got it the first night, but when I was supposed to do my reality check I thought to myself, "I'm obviously still awake" and didn't do it.. then I woke up and was mad that I was practically there. I downloaded an app yesterday called Dream Inducer on my iPhone (if you type "dream inducer" it should be the first one) and I think I got my first lucid dream. Purpose: To have sex with a specific girl (who would've guessed, right?). We'll call her Michelle I started in my room, obviously. There was an "instructor" pretty much telling us what to do to go lucid. I didn't see anybody until I got to my room's door. I went step by step. Sat up, rubbed my hands together, that didn't do much so I went down and rubbed the carpet. So I'm thinking to myself, "she's gonna be there as soon as I walk out my door" then I notice my door is half open. FUCK. I'm still in my dorms, turn left.. keep thinking "She's gonna pop up.. THERE. She's gonna pop up, THERE." Like if i'm playing hide-n-seek. I make another left and arrive to a big prom hall looking thing with a lot of people sitting down and start walking/looking around. I see this girl (who I have no idea who she was), almost pass her up and then I take a step back, say hi, and she obviously knows I'm hitting on her. She walks me to the restroom and on the way there I see the girl I've been looking for. I don't even stop, just tap her on her shoulder and move my head towards the way I'm walking. She doesn't get up right away. I'm at the restroom with the other chick and see Michelle in the hallway looking for me. I immediately leave the first chick and go with Michelle to another end of the hallway, she already knows what we're doing. She pulls up her dress (which I've seen her wear in her facebook pictures) and then the dream starts fading/getting shaky. She starts running back to her seat. I start thinking, "fuck. fuck. fuck." Go down, and start rubbing the carpet. We're good. I go back, tap her again, and we go back to the hallway. I tell her I want her to blow me... she does. I bend her over and as soon as I'm in I start blowing my load. I'm just thinking, "fuck, I'm gonna wake up with messy shorts". After I'm done with her the only thing I remember was being back in my bed and waking up to the instructor saying, "Alright, everybody except him leave" (assume he's talking about me). Then after a bit I open my eyes(in the dream), then I open them one more time and I wake up. I immediately check my shorts. We're good to go. Questions: 1) When I first started I felt like I was dizzy/drunk. I was moving slow and pretty unstable (wobbling, everything was shaking). It happened a few times when I was talking to the first girl as well. Is this how it usually starts? 2) Did I actually have a lucid dream? Or was that just a regular dream and me thinking I was lucid? (I did a reality check at the beginning of the dream by holding my nose and breathing and remember telling myself, "Alright, I'm good").

[splodeymissile]

1. I'm afraid I can't really help you with this, since I've never experienced anything similar, but it may have something to do with low vividness or dream control or just your subconscious mucking about for a bit. 2. Definitely lucid. A pretty high level of awareness, decent dream control (you did eventually find this girl,, after all) and the fact that you remembered your intention scream "yes" to me.

[Scionox]

Yo and welcome to dreamviews. 1: Sounds like dream might have been just unstable, stabilization techniques such as rubbing hands that you are using can help if it's that, or maybe you were just dizzy in dream, i've had some dreams where i was literally dizzy, in that case dream control it up to go away, like, drink anti-dizziness potion or something. 2: As splodeymissile said, definitely lucid, because you were aware that you were dreaming and even nice control and awareness, so congrats on your first!

[TroubleLDing]

Thank you and thanks for your responses! I'm pretty happy to know that I went lucid. Even though I've been lucid before (when I was younger), I never had as much control as I did this time. I think it may have dealt with stabilization because there were some parts where it started getting dizzy then would go away as soon as I started rubbing the carpet. I tried going lucid again this afternoon but I wasn't able to go to sleep. I tried it once more this evening and it seemed like I was in the process of SP or something. It literally felt like if someone would stand over me (I didn't necessarily feel/see them standing over me, just the best way I can describe it), push my chest and legs down, and I would bounce up.. which would cause me to wake up. Then the same thing happened when I tried it on my side, but instead it felt like I was pushed from behind.

[TroubleLDing]

I have another question. I was attempting to WILD yesterday and it seems like I get to the point where I'll start hearing things. Most of the time they're loud pops/bangs that scare me. Not in the sense that I don't want to try it anymore, but in the sense that they get my heart racing fast and I get knocked back into full consciousness. Is there anyway to mitigate this?

[Scionox]

Do not focus on them and just stay calm, hallucinations can't hurt so there's nothing to be scared about, also they can vary from attempt to attempt so maybe you will never experience them next attempt, and either way, think about something else, something that would be positive for you. By the way, check out this WILD tutorial if you haven't already: WILD

[TroubleLDing]

I should've rephrased it. I wasn't necessarily scared, I was more startled than anything. It startled me enough to bring me back to my senses/get knocked back into full consciousness. I tried it again yesterday afternoon. I got to the point where I started seeing bright lights behind my eyelids, was never able to make out any shapes or anything. Ended up falling asleep a bit after.

[TroubleLDing]

I tried it again today during an afternoon nap.... nothing. I'll start hearing random sounds/seeing lights, random images in my head. I try to focus on them and I can't. I'll stay motionless for what feels like forever and I never seem to get passed that.

[Scionox]

Firstly, for WILD you do need to fall asleep, but while keeping awareness, have you checked out the tutorial i linked you to? Also it's many times better to fall asleep unaware than to stay completely awake, since from greater awareness from WBTB/nap and all mental preparations one has higher chance to get random DILD(s) along the way. And also, it's better to not focus on staying motionless or waiting, WILD is not a waiting game and focusing on staying motionless as well as waiting usually only makes it harder to fall asleep. If you aren't getting to REM phase of sleep fast enough or can't fall asleep during WBTB or nap it might worth to experiment with WBTB/nap time.

[TroubleLDing]

I did check out the tutorial. I also read another link where it stated what you're saying, WILD is not a waiting game, which is why I was trying to focus my attention to one of the images in my head.. To completely lose focus on my body. You said that I do need to fall asleep. Why does everybody keep saying to not let yourself dose off then?

[JoannaB]

I did check out the tutorial. I also read another link where it stated what you're saying, WILD is not a waiting game, which is why I was trying to focus my attention to one of the images in my head.. To completely lose focus on my body. You said that I do need to fall asleep. Why does everybody keep saying to not let yourself dose off then? You definitely need to fall asleep to have a successful WILD, you also need to stay aware while you fall asleep. However, if your options are to fail to fall asleep or to fail to stay aware, fall asleep. You could have a DILD later if you fall asleep unaware, but you cannot lucid dream if you do not fall asleep.

[TroubleLDing]

You definitely need to fall asleep to have a successful WILD, you also need to stay aware while you fall asleep. However, if your options are to fail to fall asleep or to fail to stay aware, fall asleep. You could have a DILD later if you fall asleep unaware, but you cannot lucid dream if you do not fall asleep. So in other words, I should just keep doing what I'm doing, but let myself fall asleep once I start seeing the images?

[TroubleLDing]

I think I got a little bit more into it this time. The images started getting clearer but I was having a hard time keeping my eyes closed and falling asleep.

[TroubleLDing]

So, here's what is happening: I get to my room from work, immediately take attempt to WILD. After laying motionless for I'm not sure how long (it doesn't take forever, but it's not fast either), I'll dose off for a few minutes only to wake back up (while keeping my eyes closed). This happens a few times. After a bit, I dozed off and had a pretty clear dream.. was definitely not lucid though. After waking up from that (still with my eyes closed) I get to the point where it becomes extremely hard to keep them closed and I started seeing clearer images. I try to fall asleep when that's happening but it's so hard to keep my eyes closed, I have to actually keep an effort to keep them closed. What am I supposed to do when that happens? What's the next step?

[Scionox]

It should not be hard to keep eyes closed, maybe you are focusing on physical sensations? Do not focus on that. As for falling asleep, you need to keep awareness during falling asleep, also there's not really much of step by step in WILD since so much varies from person to person, but this thread can help with dream entry, check it out: http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...ntry-wild.html Also it sounds like you were actually trying to do DEILD after waking up from that dream, i'd suggest checking out more about it in this tutorial: http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...cid-dream.html

[TroubleLDing]

I'm having no luck. I've tried LDing while napping and during my regular sleep time. I am, however, having pretty vivid first-person dreams, but I'm not LDing

[JoannaB]

Sometimes it takes a while: continue doing what you are doing until it becomes a habit that your mind goes through, and feel free to tinker with the process a bit to adjust it to better suit you but overall continue doing this for a while, until your mind gets used to the notion that you want to try to stay aware when falling asleep and also questioning reality - keeping in mind the idea that you could be dreaming. Ultimately you should succeed in LDing that way. Even if it does not work right away, try to stick with one method for a while, and only adjust it a but if needed, but if it has been a long time and it is not working, only then try a different method. Whichever method you choose, remember that expectations are a crucial component for success: you need to expect it to work, you need to expect to be aware in a dream. This expectation becomes harder as time goes by without a success of course, but it is important to then readjust one's expectation to be optimistic because if you expect to fail then you will. Also while you want this process to become a habit, it needs to be a habit that you continue to be aware of and seriously questioning stuff, because LD efforts are not going to be effective if done thoughtlessly on autopilot.

[Scionox]

What JoannaB said, also it's still progress that you are getting pretty vivid dreams, think positive, you are getting closer!

[TroubleLDing]

I think I may have had a lucid dream. I didn't do any reality checks. The only thing I remember is that there was a woman next to my bed, a young woman, and I had this weird feeling so I moved my arm and grabbed her wrist and she said, "Wow, you can do that?" like she was surprised that I was moving yet my body was still laying in bed (obe or whatever it is/this all happened in my room and on my bed). Once she said that I started rubbing my hands together to stabilize and then after a bit I just remember waking up and my right arm (which is the arm i used to grab her) was twitching. Not sure if I was actually lucid or if it was a dream.

[TroubleLDing]

Not sure if this is progress or not, but, the last thing I think about at night is what I end up dreaming about. For example, if I'm thinking to myself, "tonight I will dream about this" I will end up dreaming about it (before I wasn't able to do that. The dreams are becoming less vivid though.. still more vivid than before I started.

[Scionox]

For that dream, sounds like false awakening, and if you were aware that you were dreaming, then you were lucid. It's not necessary to do reality check in dream to become lucid, since awareness is what makes us lucid, and makes us to do reality check in first place. In many of my lucids i became lucid just due to feeling that i am in dream. As for progress, sounds like you are having really good time with dream incubation and it works great for you, it is progress because you can use it to your advantage! Next time think "tonight i will dream about this, and i will be lucid".

[TroubleLDing]

Well it doesn't work all the time, but it's still progress I suppose. For the actualy lucidity of dreams, I feel like I've made no progress

[TroubleLDing]

I just had another lucid dream and had quite a bit of control. I think it was a WILD. My alarm went off at the time it usually does, I turned it off and set it for ~1:30 later. I remember having a hard time falling asleep, then I would doze off and get startled by sound, but kept my eyes closed. I then remember myself "dreaming" but still not being completely asleep. When I finally dozed off, the dream was extremely vivid. Everything felt so real. I did my reality check and actually doubted myself. I thought, "Maybe I shouldn't do this because I'm not 100% sure if I'm dreaming or not." The dream took place in my room and I didn't even think of leaving (I wish I would've have). Regardless, this was the most vivid lucid dream I've had. I wish I had more control of it or would have thought of leaving my room so I would've been able to do more things. The worst part of this? Even though I've read about WILD and tried it numerous times, this time it was completely by accident and I'm not sure how I did it.

[dolphin]

Congrats on the WILD I've been in the same situation a couple of times where the dream is so vivid I'm not completely convinced I'm dreaming even when my main RC fails. This is where a backup RC comes in handy. My backup RC is jumping up to fly. If I jump up and fly, it becomes obvious to myself I'm dreaming. I also have the accidental WILDs you refer to. It is frustrating not knowing how you're inducing WILDs but this becomes more bearable if you have more of them. I've probably had 20-30 accidental WILDs, I lost count.