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Last night I experienced my first LD. While I'm stoked about it and it was an amazing experience, there were some parts that were lacking. The main issue was that I knew I was dreaming but I didn't have full control over my mind; it felt like I was half awake and half sleeping. Basically I wasn't concious enough to tell myself i could do whatever I wanted. I knew it was a dream, but couldn't control myself. Any tips?:)
It can help to try to remember details about your life when this happens. Stuff like "what did I do yesterday? What day is it? What's my address?", etc. Basically things that will start to wake up your logic brain parts. This can help you be more yourself in the dream and help you be more aware of what's going on.
Yup. What key said.
And also try to take some time before you start your adventures to calm down, become aware, sitting down can be nice. Touch some stuff in the dream and really feel it. Try all your senses... smell something, taste something, really listen to what sounds are around you... that type off stuff. Oh and it's very smart to try to remember what you have been hoping to do in your LD's.
Edit: and there is a guide here on the site somewhere... I think it's called the three fundamentals of something. Try to find and read that.
Hello rkkaz!
Helpful tips use them at your own discernment:
What I recommend you doing, is first, rewiring your subconscious mind to produce more stability and control whenever you are in a lucid dream.
Something simple like “I am hyper aware in my dreams” as an example mantra. I talk about that here:
https://www.dreamviews.com/attaining...-lucidity.html
Also, expectations come into play. Automatically assume that you will have stability and high functioning consciousness when you sleep. It is an absolute must, it is a big misconception, that dreams need to be stabilized, but that’s well, because you automatically assume that you need to, when really it’s working like this:
Stabilized dream -> dreamer enters dream expecting it to be unstabilized -> unstabilized dream
:)
Also, when you arrive in the lucid dream, and you’re finding it fading away, or not as clear. Try this:
Yelling out at the dream “CLAIRVOYANCE” or “CLEAR SIGHT”
Looking at something stable like the ground, or your hands, and imply that this level of detail will be consistent throughout the dreaming world
Fade the dream to black, and start fresh with a new scene that you imply is already very vivid and detailed.
MEDITATING IN A DREAM, thats a really big one, you should try this first in my opinion, then do the others if this fails, because afterall, meditation is mostly mindfulness, and mindfullness == awareness and awareness == more lucidity. So win, win, win, YAY
Happy lucid dreaming. :nodyes:
Congratulations on your first LD rkkaz!
Lots of good advice from the others above.
Grounding yourself is an important part of having a vivid LD. Start by using your sense. If youre at the beach for example, take a minute to bed down and feel the grains of sand running through your fingers. Feel the warmth of the sun, and hear the ripples of the sea. This all helps to stabilize your dream.
Then i find most helpful to talk out loud to myself. Keep telling yourself things like 'This is a dream' and 'I am in control', keeps your mind focused and stops you slipping back towards a normal dream.
In terms of having full control, thats a mixture of practice and pshycologial issues. You have the ability to do anything in an LD, but you do have to beleive in it, self doubt your ability to fly and it will struggle to work. Fully believe in your control and ability to fly and you will soar!
Any more questions just ask, enjoy.
One of my personal favourite ways to ground myself in a dream is to hit walls, slam my "body" into things, rub my "hands" across coarse surfaces, etc. It may seem extreme but I've found that, for that exact reason, it really does wonders. Whenever I'd be losing lucidity I'd do something like this because it forces me focus on my dream body and my dream sensations. Just takes a little self-discipline to truly commit to it though. It may be a false reality but the thought of intentionally harming yourself can be quite daunting, but once you get over that there isn't an issue.
And no, I'm not masochistic.
As for the control factor, what others have said is on point. At the end of the day, it is your world and therefore you are responsible for its rules and limitations. Saying that, however, there may be times when you just can't do things. I used to find that, in some of my lucids, it was almost like a higher authority was blocking total control. These dreams always had a very similar, ominous feeling about them. Whether that was just my own inability to assert myself, or something else, remains to be seen. However, as a rule of thumb, if you believe you can do it, you can do it.
I'm going to try some of the advice presented here. A few weeks ago during my first lucid I attempted the spin technique when I felt that the dream was destabilizing but I soon woke up. I wound up in a hallway, though. So it started to take me somewhere.
For my second LD, once I realized I was lucid I tried to look at my hands as an RC. I felt certain it was a dream at that point because my hands were morphing as I perceived them - visually it appeared hallucinatory. Then the dream started destabalizing so I attempted the spin technique yet again, but this time I swirled into darkness and eventually woke up. Maybe I am still too excited.
Good luck with gaining mental clarity and awareness during the dreams. From what I've read it seems like expanding your awareness and working memory are some of the most important foundational blocks to gaining more clarity within lucids. At least that's what I've understood from my reading. The points more experienced LDers have made in this thread are more helpful, I'm sure, though.
Hello zelcrow, congratulations on recently starting your Lucid Dreaming journey!
Personally I would advise against the spinning technique for grounding yourself. I find the act of blurring your vision or closing your eyes to be risky, and can result in different outcomes rather than stabilising the dream. As you mentioned, it started to take you somewhere.. I've actually used spinning as a scene change technique. It's all about expectaitions in the LD world. I know there are people who use it regularly, but personally i think there are simpler more reliable ways as I mentioned above.
I concur with the spinning technique. I always found it hard to maintain control when doing this. If anything, it was just disorientating.
I actually had my first lucid dream in a long while this morning. The first thing I did was focus on my hands and rub them together, weave, intertwine, etc. This provided me with enough stability to look around the room I was in. When I stepped outside my stability was slowly fading, so I stopped at one of those electric cabinets you find on the side of the road and proceeded to lay into it with my fists. Needless to say, I felt pretty damn grounded after that lol.
Hey, thank you, Sunfire! It has been fun and interesting so far. I appreciate the input. You make a good point and it sounds wise to start out with the simplest and work my way from there. Knowing that this technique does not work so well for everyone makes me want to immediately start different stabilizing techniques since I've lost the dream each time I have spun. I think I will go with rubbing hands and some of the other things mentioned above. Haven't had a fourth lucid, but I haven't had the time to focus like I had been for a few weeks. Hopefully I'll be back on track soon.
Thank you. I agree, it's a smart approach to start doing everything the simplest way first and build from there with practice. Good luck with it all, and if you need anything, just message.
Hey, thank you. It is much appreciated, Sunfire. I may take you up on that at some point when looking for guidance and direction.