Thread: Is it possible that some people just can't Lucid Dream?

My Dream recalls gotten a lot better to, I can recall my dreams in depth now, I am a little worried as classes have started and I fear that I might need to give up lucid dreaming practice tbh, which would set me back

Too invested? But one needs to be motivated, right?

The only thing you need Motivation for is to get yourself to practice. If you say every night 'This is it' you will only be disappointed and burn out. Being confident is good, but WILD is much more of a skill than Expectation, that's why i think a mantra during the day is unnecessary if you're not taking a DILD approach.

You should know that WILD is about retaining the faintest sliver of Awareness you can, so you can fall asleep. This makes it easy to understand why being motivated during the process isn't the best.

Daytime awareness and maintaining lucidity is just as important for WILD approaches as for DILD: after all, once you're in the dream lucid, you want to be able to sustain that lucidity for a long period of time, that's where day practice really comes in.

Ok, well another issue I have is despite my amazing dream recall, whenever I wake up for my alarm to try FILD, I just end up turning it off and going back to sleep. What are some good tips to stay awake/up?

What are some good tips to stay awake/up?

Take your alarm and put it far enough away so you have to get up to turn it off.

I was wondering, when i wake up for FILD, should I use the restroom or would it wake me up too much? I live in my dorm and I need to walk across the halls, which are lightened up

I was wondering, when i wake up for FILD, should I use the restroom or would it wake me up too much? I live in my dorm and I need to walk across the halls, which are lightened up

For many people, yes, but only you know how easily you fall asleep. The light on the other hand is probably too much, but if you can find the toilet with closed eyes, you'd probably be fine.

When I try FILD, should I relax a bit first after waking up?

Originally Posted by Noldor

Yeah, I wonder if anybody can do it.
I am not sure too.

I try to get lucid for 4 years now. I got a lot of advice over and over again.

" Take a break!" " You are doing to much" " You are not doing enough" Do this and that, whatever I´ve done was wrong

I try to find my own way, somehow.

Anyways, I saw a lot of people fail. So how can we be sure that everybody can lucid dream?

Nobody knows if "everyone can lucid dream", although many will say that they do know.

You have to bear in mind also that what people say that they can do and what people write on the internet is not to be taken at face value. Agnosticism is healthy, in my opinion. I suspect that comparatively very few people can actually lucid dream - it's a small minority, in my opinion and experience, although the hustings would declare otherwise.

Regarding your own 'struggle' - it took me three weeks of trying* to start having short lucids (1-2 seconds) at which I would immediately wake up. After six years of this (!!) and no improvement, I gave up in disgust. I didn't believe in it any more. About three weeks later, without even trying, BANG! I had my first lucid (of more than 1-2 seconds), which lasted about 60-75 seconds.

I'm not saying that my experience is any sort of template that applies to anyone else. I'm just putting it in the mix.

Good luck with your endeavours.

*Looking at one's hands (Castaneda technique).

Originally Posted by Oneiro

Nobody knows if "everyone can lucid dream", although many will say that they do know.

You have to bear in mind also that what people say that they can do and what people write on the internet is not to be taken at face value. Agnosticism is healthy, in my opinion. I suspect that comparatively very few people can actually lucid dream - it's a small minority, in my opinion and experience, although the hustings would declare otherwise.

Regarding your own 'struggle' - it took me three weeks of trying* to start having short lucids (1-2 seconds) at which I would immediately wake up. After six years of this (!!) and no improvement, I gave up in disgust. I didn't believe in it any more. About three weeks later, without even trying, BANG! I had my first lucid (of more than 1-2 seconds), which lasted about 60-75 seconds.

I wouldn't say your six years of effort were "without even trying," assuming a regular practice. Practitioners often mistakenly describe lucid dreams as "random" or "without trying" when they occur during a relaxation phase (or after "giving up"), following a period of perhaps intense effort. It shows that the effort did work, and that you just needed to give it time (or to be a bit more relaxed). And it shows the benefits of keeping a relaxed mindset. Wanting something too much can cause (subconscious perhaps) anxiety, and anxiety is known to be bad for dreaming. There is no doubt that lucid dreaming is a demanding practice, and calls for immense patience and delicate balancing between many factors, among those being intensity and relaxation.

I'm going to try SSILD for a week, I heard its good.

Originally Posted by kamenriderbaron

I'm going to try SSILD for a week, I heard its good.

sounds good i have a lot of success with it!

OK, on SSILD, I kind of have an issues as I find it difficult to concentrate on a certain sense, what would be the best way to get over this?

Any SSILD tips?

Originally Posted by FryingMan

Daytime awareness and maintaining lucidity is just as important for WILD approaches as for DILD: after all, once you're in the dream lucid, you want to be able to sustain that lucidity for a long period of time, that's where day practice really comes in.

definitely true. I think though that people get scared off by the 'all day awareness' label. You don't have to be aware all day- that's for buddhist monks. A little extra awareness goes a long way I think. In any case whilst it is important for DILD and WILD, I think its far more important for DILD. For DILD the awareness is what triggers the lucidity and maintains it, whilst with WILD it only helps maintain it.

If you get good enough at WILD you can LD multiple times a night, and then the LD's will naturally get longer because you have so much practice. I don't do DILD, so I don't know what it would take to get to that level with that technique, but I'm guessing it's not very common, because it would require literally 'all day awareness', which most people can't do.

^^ I don't think that all day awareness, especially in the form of the ADA technique as described on these forums, is necessary for successful LD'ing at all, be it WILD or DILD. Also, though they may strive to be mindful all day, I don't believe that even Buddhist monks practice ADA (mindfulness/self-awareness does not equal ADA by any measure, BTW).

The daywork required for successful DILD's is about equal to that required for successful WILD's, I think. Either transition* requires a "lucid" state of mind to be successful -- and, of course, for lucidity to be maintained after the transition is made. About the only difference in terms of daywork is that it is a good idea to use the MILD technique for DILD, which does add a bit of daywork as you develop prospective memories. Also, again in my opinion, the daywork of ADA does little to nothing to aid these transitions; indeed it might even hinder them by clouding a dreamer's mind with distractions and an unnecessary urge to "notice" more of them. That clouding can prevent the self-awareness necessary for lucidity to surface, pretty much negating any chance of becoming and remaining lucid.

So, in my opinion, ADA really is not necessary for DILD at all, and may even be unhelpful. And no, the "simple" awareness of ADA (basically just noticing everything around you) does not trigger DILDs. If anything, it is likely that the expectation generated from inadvertently thinking about lucidity all day while practicing ADA is what encourages lucidity, initially.


* WILD and DILD are not techniques, BTW, they are descriptions of the two types of transitions to lucidity that are possible: either by retaining waking-life self-awareness throughout the passage from wake to sleep to dream (WILD), or by regaining waking-life self-awareness during a non-lucid dream (DILD).... just thought it worth mentioning.