Thread: Back to LDing - But taking the lazy route

Welcome back.

That whole sleep thing is crucial. It's hard to abide in clarity either awake or in dream if you're not getting enough sleep and a clear presence in the dream is very helpful in noticing those tricky dream signs.

Best of luck.

Welcome back and good luck Tygar! What helps is to set some goals, at the very least mentally. I picked up the lucid dreaming practice once before, in the past, and without me realizing, my goal was to achieve lucidity. Once I did that, I stopped. I kind of proved to myself it was possible and that was it. I was slightly puzzled in hindsight why things turned out like that... I realized only later when coming across the importance of goals.

If you really want to dedicate months to working at this seriously, I think one way to do it is to take the "Course in Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge, paired with the book: A Course in Lucid Dreaming. If you search for the PDF online, you'll find it!

I kind of started it myself but haven't yet written down my progress in the exercises.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by gbbr

What helps is to set some goals, at the very least mentally.

So true! I have been pondering the setting of goals. We set goals every night....but how about a long term goal? How will lucid dreaming fit into our lives over the years? What do we want to gain from it?

There is a chapter in "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" called "Goal setting for success", it helped me. I also recently discovered WOOP my life which seems to be a good way of going at it.

I agree that goals are very important. Currently my ultimate goal is to create a set of habit that will feed over to my subconscious mind, thereby I will follow these habits when I dream.
My smaller goals are: (1) To ask myself "am I dreaming" often though out the day (to keep keep me as aware as possible; (2) Do some form of reality check under specific conditions (Every time I see the sky, when ever I feel negative emotions, etc).

Right now I just want to hit one of those triggers while dreaming. I have succeeded in the past, once where I did a RC because I was outside and another where I did a RC because I was feeling negative emotions. I just need a way to get lucid that won't cause me to constantly lose sleep.

Hey, how do I update my Avatar and signature? Do I have to upgrade or something?

Originally Posted by Tygar

I just need a way to get lucid that won't cause me to constantly lose sleep.

That's crucial for me as well being a slightly older oneironaut who needs to still get up early every day for work. I really make certain that I fall asleep peacefully and quickly at the beginning of the night and I keep away from anything that requires me to use an alarm to interrupt sleep. SSILD continues to be my go to induction technique.....I can use it at the very end of the night during my last sleep period and it really requires that you fall right back to sleep. What's not to like? And it almost always yields results in some way.

I save my WILD attempts for opportune times in weekends.

My smaller goals are: (1) To ask myself "am I dreaming" often though out the day (to keep keep me as aware as possible;

I have been having better success recently by telling myself often during the day that "This is a dream". I find that every time I say that my attention snaps right back to my surroundings. It seems to automatically heighten awareness of my surroundings. At night, when falling asleep after SSILD cycles, I calmly tell myself, "Say the words, man...this is a dream." When it works it's very strong....I enter the dream and say the words...and there is no doubt that it's a dream.

Hey, how do I update my Avatar and signature? Do I have to upgrade or something?

You should be able to just go to your Control Panel and navigate to your avatar and your signature from there.

So, I was thinking last night and decided to slightly adjust my tactic for trying to get lucid.

First, instead of constant reality checks (like counting my fingers) i'm simply going to ask myself, in my mind, "am I dreaming." This is the trigger I need to happen in my dream. Then I can just think about what I have been doing for the last hour or so; or look around for anything unusual. That one question should bring some rational thought into my dream state (as it has in my past experience) which will lead to lucidity.

I am going to focus on dream signs, but instead of searching for "micro-dream signs" such as specific circumstances I'm going to focus on "macro-dream signs" which are things that show up constantly in my dreams because they are so common in real life.

Here is my current list based in the order of most common to less common.
1. People. People are constantly in my dreams. It is rare for there not to be people in my dreams. So when I see new people, or when I am speaking to people I will ask in my mind "am I dreaming."
2. The sky. While I don't always see the sky in my dreams, I am often outside in my dreams and just don't pay attention to the sky. So, I am paying more attention to the sky in real life and asking the question.
3. Strong emotions. Again, I don't always have strong emotions (anger, frustration, sadness, excitement) in my dreams; it does seem to happen often enough that I take notice and has made me lucid several times in the past. When I feel any strong emotion I will ask the question.

I will probably continue to refine this over time. But I'm hoping it will work.

Also, I'm going to try to keep a dream journal but I don't want to lose sleep worrying about it.

I've had a couple of dreams where I am confused and frustrated by things that don't make sense. Based on past experience this is a good sign. For me this means that a small amount of rational thinking is finding it's way into my dreams which causes me to question strange things in my dreams. I'm hoping to get lucid soon, even if it is brief.

Originally Posted by lenscaper

I have been having better success recently by telling myself often during the day that "This is a dream". I find that every time I say that my attention snaps right back to my surroundings. It seems to automatically heighten awareness of my surroundings. At night, when falling asleep after SSILD cycles, I calmly tell myself, "Say the words, man...this is a dream." When it works it's very strong....I enter the dream and say the words...and there is no doubt that it's a dream.

I am always looking for new ways to quickly bring myself to the present moment, and though I've used "This is a dream" in waking many times before, I don't think I have used it specifically to become present and you are right, it is very effective for that purpose, bringing everything around me into super-clear focus/very vivid.

Originally Posted by Tygar

I've had a couple of dreams where I am confused and frustrated by things that don't make sense. Based on past experience this is a good sign. For me this means that a small amount of rational thinking is finding it's way into my dreams which causes me to question strange things in my dreams. I'm hoping to get lucid soon, even if it is brief.

I agree, this is a good sign. Anything not working on our smart phone is also a common dream sign. You and I share the sky dream sign it looks like. It is one of my favorite ways to become lucid, looking up into the sky and noticing unusual movement in the sky or anything unusual.

Hello Fogelbise. Thank you for your reply. I see you have had almost 1000 lucid dreams since 2013. That is amazing. I've only had 76 LDs (I had 10 more where I realized I was dreaming and immediately woke up) since 2004. If you have any advice I would love to hear it. I'm really hoping my current plan will work once I have made it such an ingrained habit that it flows over to my dream life.

Surprisingly, electronics rarely show up in my dreams even though I use them every day.

Once I got into a groove, I had strong success but I have been slacking the last few years and my averages have gone down (but not away thankfully). The process is very individual/different for everyone it seems. If you want to see my journey and see if there are any parts of my journey that resonate with you and then let me know if you have questions about any of the specifics, you can click on my username to go to my profile and then click on the "about me" tab.

You are also welcome to start a workbook at the link below. I am a DILD teacher here:
https://www.dreamviews.com/dild/

Quick update: So, I started this experiment on Aug 1 2019. The plan is to stick with this simple and lazy approach until Dec 31 2019. If I have any success I will continue, if not I will see if I want to do something different or just drop it.

So, what this has evolved into is very simple. I'm now calling it my "Am I F@%&ING Dreaming!?!" method. The plan changed on morning when I woke up very frustrated about LD'ing and angrily said "AM I F@%&ING DREAMING!!!". Now, I regularly ask myself (in my head) that single question and then look around to see if there are any indications I am dreaming. I found adding the profanity gives me a little bit more emotion which could be a benefit.
From past experience I know that once I ask that question in a dream I will know that I am dreaming. I ask the question often and try to do it when ever something new is concurring, I get out of my chair at work = ask the question, I go for a walk = ask the question, I go outside = ask the question, I'm speaking with someone = ask the question, I start eating food = ask the question, ect. Nice and simple. But, I figure this could take months for this habit to move into my subconscious mind an then show up in my dreams. I could make this a life long practice easily. Here's hoping it will work.

Originally Posted by Tygar

I figure this could take months for this habit to move into my subconscious mind an then show up in my dreams.

I was reading an article yesterday entitled "The Neuroscience of Behavior Change". The author was speaking about creating new neural pathways in the brain and said that it is estimated that it takes 3 to 6 months for a new behavior to become a habit, depending upon the complexity of the behavior and the intensity of the practice.

She also spoke of the importance of sleep and hydration for the brain during these periods of more intense learning.

Thank you Lenscaper. That is great information.

Well, I had some success over the weekend, but did not achieve lucidity.

(Sunday Sep 1st 2019 - 6:45 AM is when I woke from the dream).

In my dream I am at an American football game. It was either a high school or a college event. There are a lot of people standing around the field and many in the stands. I am aware that they are having a drawing and one lucky person will win one million dollars. I hear them call my name as the winner over the loud speakers. I turn to my wife and ask (with great surprise) "Did they just call my name???" She says yes, and is very excited. I ask where I need to go and she tells me there is a table near the entrance. I start jogging toward the table passing many people (who pay no attention to me). I reach the table and there is a blond woman standing behind the table, but there are 3 people in front of me speaking with her. I am amazed and excited that I have won 1 million dollars, but then (in my head) I ask the critical question "Am I Dreaming???" I glance behind the woman and there are 2 signs attached to a board behind her. One is a blue sign with white lettering that says "ADVANCED TICKETS" the other is a white sign with red letters which says "EXIT -->" I look away from the advanced ticket sign and then look back and it is exactly the same. So I assume I am not dreaming and I am very happy about that... the dream fades and I wake up.

The good: It seems my constant asking of the question is starting to pay off. I actually questioned reality in my dream. However, in this dream there were extraordinary circumstances of winning a million dollars. I'm hoping to ask the question during more mundane situations.

The bad: I really believed that I could not read words in my dream, and that looking away and looking back would somehow change what the sign looked like. I was wrong. So I need to break that habit and do a better reality check. I will focus on looking at my hand (and counting my fingers with the expectation that I have more than 5). I will also focus on looking at my cell phone, seeing the time, looking a way and willing the numbers to change to 10:22 and looking back. So if my cell isn't working or I can change the time I will know I am dreaming.

Originally Posted by Tygar

I look away from the advanced ticket sign and then look back and it is exactly the same. So I assume I am not dreaming and I am very happy about that... the dream fades and I wake up.

Pretty cool dream....but you got sucked into it, right?. That whole "grasping" thing is SO hard to avoid....especially with a million bucks dangling in front of you.

I struggle with establishing that non-dual perspective with DC's. If I don't perceive them as DC's right from the start I get carried away in the reality of the plot. I have been practicing a lot during the day on my co-workers trying to ID them as dream characters when I first see them. One just walked in to my office as I was typing this....and, once again, I failed miserably.

Hi lenscaper. If my RC didn't fail, I most likely would have been lucid. I've been practicing what I will do once I get lucid so I don't loose lucidity: 1. Stay calm. 2. Speak out loud everything I'm am doing (example: actually say, "I will stay calm." "I am going to walk over to the tree." Etc) 3. Engage my senses to connect with the dream (What do I see, hear, smell, feel....taste if there is something to taste). This has helped me in the past to stay lucid and not to wake up prematurely.

I like that idea about speaking out loud. I am at the point now where I am working more on stability when lucid. I'm going to work that in to my intention setting protocol.

Originally Posted by lenscaper

I like that idea about speaking out loud. I am at the point now where I am working more on stability when lucid. I'm going to work that in to my intention setting protocol.

It is very helpful to stabilize the dream and to manipulate the dream, for instance you can say out loud "There is a table covered in delicious cookies right behind me!" Then turn around and enjoy some calorie free dream cookies.