Lucid Rulebook

[LolaTheLoner]

Lately I've been trying to comprise a list of rules that will help me personally in my lucid experiences. So far I have two major rules. 1. Do not wake yourself up, under ANY circumstances. 2. Avoid family members. The first rule, I had to make because I would often have false memories during my lucid dreams that made me feel as if it were urgently important to wake up. (Such as I was late for class, or I had to save my nonexistent pet horse from being killed by a rampant billy goat.) This would inevitably result in a) wasting a perfectly good lucid and b) a horrifying sequence of false awakenings and struggling to get out of sleep paralysis for ages. Not fun. The second rule is less obvious. Whenever I encounter family members during my LDs, they normally do everything in their power to hinder any progress that I might make in completing my goals. This usually involves them turning psycho and trying to kill me. The Cusp explained this very well several years ago. The concern you have for your family and close friends forces you to put an inordinate amount of focus on them. This excessive concern or attention then shapes the dream in a generally negative way. So, do any of you have rules that you generally follow during your lucids? Thoughts? Suggestions?

[Scionox]

3. Do not think about waking body, ever. (Might cause destabilization/FA) Whenever I encounter family members during my LDs, they normally do everything in their power to hinder any progress that I might make in completing my goals. To think about it, same here actually.

[LolaTheLoner]

3. Do not think about waking body, ever. (Might cause destabilization/FA) That is definitely a good principle, but I'm afraid that adding that to my list will actually cause me to think about my waking body and therefore break the rule. Kind of a paradox.

[Saizaphod]

Im always trying to avoid my family members too. They attend to join my adventures and i hate that =S

[AbelMagwitch]

That is definitely a good principle, but I'm afraid that adding that to my list will actually cause me to think about my waking body and therefore break the rule. Kind of a paradox. 4. During LD, under any circumstances, do not think about things that you can't think. Guess why ? Because you will do it. It always work that way for me.

[LolaTheLoner]

Im always trying to avoid my family members too. They attend to join my adventures and i hate that =S That too. If they're not trying to stop me, they follow me everywhere. 4. During LD, under any circumstances, do not think about things that you can't think. Guess why ? Because you will do it. It always work that way for me. Haha, a continuation of the paradox. That reminds me of something my friend said the other day (though not in relation to LDing): "Do not think about those things that are not meant to be thought about." (Funny how your quotes kind of matched up.) If only there was a way to override the paradox about not thinking about things... Maybe once you start thinking about them, quickly switch to thoughts about pink elephants instead.

[NyxCC]

Haha. Could definitely relate to number 2! But I am also trying to use them as DS, because they show up so often. They could be pretty annoying though. It can be so perplexing when you just realize you are dreaming and try to have fun and then suddenly in the middle of nowhere your mom appears and stays in the way so you can't even move.

[LolaTheLoner]

Haha. Could definitely relate to number 2! But I am also trying to use them as DS, because they show up so often. They could be pretty annoying though. It can be so perplexing when you just realize you are dreaming and try to have fun and then suddenly in the middle of nowhere your mom appears and stays in the way so you can't even move. I have had that all too often as well. Especially now that I'm older, and no longer living under her house and rules. It's like she's compensating for it by being extra bossy in my dreams. New rule, due to a series of related dreams: Money is not transferable to waking life. Stop trying. SO MANY good lucids I've wasted by trying to bring my horde of dream money back to the real world with me. It just can't be done.

[Sivason]

My first contribution: 5) I5tt '"s VE %^RRY H@rRd TUO RE#QD tHe RrRuOu-L BuOuK INn EaA DRRREAm. My 4th contribution 9) Don't bother trying to count in a dream. Finally, 8) Accept that not every thing will be in the right order.

[Jabre]

Don't look in mirrors.

[LolaTheLoner]

My first contribution: 5) I5tt '"s VE %^RRY H@rRd TUO RE#QD tHe RrRuOu-L BuOuK INn EaA DRRREAm. My 4th contribution 9) Don't bother trying to count in a dream. Finally, 8) Accept that not every thing will be in the right order. Haha, I see what you did there. Also, very good points. That is quite like something that might be said in a dream. I do find that attempting to read while dreaming greatly distorts the coherency of the dream itself, because all my focus is poured into making sense of the nonsense text and away from the scenery. As a result, the scene loses stability because my attention is no longer fixated upon it. I imagine that trying to count objects would have the opposite effect; they'd multiply by the hundreds and I'd never get an accurate count! I think your last point ties in fairly well with both examples, along with other in-dream scenarios I've experienced. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try for control, the dream simply has other ideas. Don't look in mirrors. Or at least, be overtly cautious of them. I quite enjoy looking in mirrors during my lucids; never know what to expect. Sometimes my reflection is evil, sometimes a talkative weirdo, and sometimes she wants to come out and play... You're right, though. It can be all too easy to get distracted by whatever the mirror holds.

[LDman]

Don't look in mirrors. I did several times and saw my reflection like normal, what's wrong with it? However my eyes do look like I'm always panicking for some reason.