My technique

Hello:

For the second post, I'm going to relate how I become lucid.

Well, the real trick is not to do reality checks from time to time, but to be immersed into a reality check continuum. Yes, it sounds exhausting, but it's far easier to accomplish.

When we dream, specially in the last hours of our sleep time (where theta periods are longer), we are able to observe, with greater focus, what's going on around us. There's also a weird sense of familiarity, acceptance, and, in some cases, oddness of what it's happening.

The point is to gather all of those feelings in the waking time. In a session, for example, when I step out of my house and I start to walk I imagine (assume) that I'm inside a dream. In fact, the brain is unable to know the difference in between the two states.

So, as I go on walking, I observe the streets, people, lights... with great care, and, always assuming I'm inside a dream. I get to a point where those feelings of weirdness, oddness... start to pop up in my mind, so I know I'm entering the correct state of mind.

Then, your view of the reality begins to shift. Strange and interesting things unfold in your mind. For example, I begin to perceive my surroundings as a stage. That means I feel as if only the little piece of reality around me in that precise time would exist. Think of a videogame, you have many worlds to walk but you can only see the space through the screen, a little focus that gives you one little piece of that reality at a time. The inner sensation also feels as if I would be totally comfortable and at home in every little spot, once I've activated the "stage" feeling.

I also have a sensation of "layer-splitting", so things moving (people) and stable things (buildings and objects) seem to be in different layers (as a photoshop picture with two layers).

The previous effects can be held for as much time as you want. The more time, the more probability to become lucid when at sleep. It works for me really well.

I know I've explained a complete subjective technique, so if you want to get to the point I've got to, you should give it a try. It's worth the effort. I found it out by chance, practicing and experimenting on my own.

Hope it gives you a new perspective. Bye!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andonitxo

Hello:

For the second post, I'm going to relate how I become lucid.

Well, the real trick is not to do reality checks from time to time, but to be immersed into a reality check continuum. Yes, it sounds exhausting, but it's far easier to accomplish.

When we dream, specially in the last hours of our sleep time (where theta periods are longer), we are able to observe, with greater focus, what's going on around us. There's also a weird sense of familiarity, acceptance, and, in some cases, oddness of what it's happening.

The point is to gather all of those feelings in the waking time. In a session, for example, when I step out of my house and I start to walk I imagine (assume) that I'm inside a dream. In fact, the brain is unable to know the difference in between the two states.

So, as I go on walking, I observe the streets, people, lights... with great care, and, always assuming I'm inside a dream. I get to a point where those feelings of weirdness, oddness... start to pop up in my mind, so I know I'm entering the correct state of mind.

Then, your view of the reality begins to shift. Strange and interesting things unfold in your mind. For example, I begin to perceive my surroundings as a stage. That means I feel as if only the little piece of reality around me in that precise time would exist. Think of a videogame, you have many worlds to walk but you can only see the space through the screen, a little focus that gives you one little piece of that reality at a time. The inner sensation also feels as if I would be totally comfortable and at home in every little spot, once I've activated the "stage" feeling.

I also have a sensation of "layer-splitting", so things moving (people) and stable things (buildings and objects) seem to be in different layers (as a photoshop picture with two layers).

The previous effects can be held for as much time as you want. The more time, the more probability to become lucid when at sleep. It works for me really well.

I know I've explained a complete subjective technique, so if you want to get to the point I've got to, you should give it a try. It's worth the effort. I found it out by chance, practicing and experimenting on my own.

Hope it gives you a new perspective. Bye!

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I have been using JUST THIS SORT OF METHOD recently, and I had a quick lucid dream only an hour ago! Believe me, this sort of method works. It helped me realise that it was a dream, even though I didn't ask myself something. I was so used to being absolutely aware from time to time that it just kicked it. Thank you.

i think like that and i dont have many lucid dreams and the ones i do have, my problem is exactly that(because of this my dreams arent as fun when im a superhero, i see it in the same way as i would in a video game), im trying to reverse this.

ssooo, just think and see everything as a dream? and truel believe everything s a dream?

That's the point.

You'll know you are getting to the appropriate state of mind when you start to feel weird. But it's a comfortable feeling.

By golly what you have just stated here sir may be pure genious...

Been doing this since I started. Word of caution...set a limit to where and when or you may find yourself 'stuck' in dream thinking and it's difficult to undo. The best and safest place to 'dream' act is at home in your room.

IMJ

Ok, IMJ, I get your point.

Just an advice: laugh. Don't take spiritual things too seriously, otherwise your ego would feel more attacked. Enlightenment (and I consider it astral projection, kundalini awakening, LD and so...) must be a game. A game to be enjoyed, and where you can help others giving them information about your path, sharing your knowledge.

That said, it's obvious you have to calibrate yourself, to know where you can get to. If you are driving your car, it would be dangerous to practice any practice. That's common sense. And if you are a hypochondriac you'll have to measure your steps, so to say.

It's all up to you.

Anyway, I put in practice my technique inside my own room. I stepped into one of my squared carpet's corners, and I started to walk following the diameter line. During that I meditated and assumed that all around me was plastic and illusory, as I went on walking in a loop fashion.

I got to a point where my ego started to worry about the thing. The ego's main function is to keep one's stability in life, so if you suddenly start to change the core of its rules, it just can do three things: 1.to go insane, 2.to dismay, 3.to transcend reality's borders. I felt those three at the same time, so I had to stop. I needed a while to recover from the experience, but from that moment on, I knew I had discovered the key to surpass the ordinary.

After that experience I looked for a security system, in order to prevent potential problems inside my head. It just was a matter of meditating a bit to find out the solution: I live in an illusory world, with an illusory body, so they both fit. The thought, then, turned to: I can transcend this illusory world while being in it at the same time.

As you can see each one of us has to patch his own fissures. There isn't any generic cure, so you have to scan yourself and strengthen your weak points.

Good luck!

A friend has asked me to explain a bit more... here they go some thoughts.

There’s something magical in the 3 dimensional space around us. So magical that we don’t even sense it. In the ancient texts, the keeper of the gate that lets us step into the following stage –spiritual stage, of course- is associated with Saturn. In fact, the tarot card related to that path is The World, and both it and the planet are interconnected.

After having been reading for years a lot of literature about the subject I have concluded one mere thing: simplicity is key in the unfoldment of our inner capabilities to transcend the limits of this so called reality.

So, that said, look inside of yourself. I’ve checked techniques out without much success. I’ve put myself to test, but in vain. But, suddenly, I look at the reality with other eyes, with a new prism. I spoke about that in my first post, but some people have asked me to extend the explanation a little bit farther. So, I’ll try to do my best.

Brain is a curious machine that holds many things. Whatever psychical artifacts it harbor, I’d like to point out one of its main functions (the very same one we can observe in the universe): equilibrium. Our brains will try to keep things going without much change in their day-to-day routine. Do a change, and it will start to get preoccupied. Change your diet, change your schedule, change your coffee for a tea, change your job, change your home… whatever. It will get angry, and so you, more if that change has come unexpectedly.

The deeper the thing changed, the more crisis your brain will have. If you change a long-life belief, your entire life will break up, and you’ll need a period to settle down and reconstruct that life with a new perspective. If you change a tinnier belief, maybe you’ll be angry for some days, or even weeks, but you’ll recover from it in a faster manner.

Many of you would have deduced, so far, what it’s our lives’ uppermost belief: that we live in a rock-solid world, and that there’s no other thing beyond it. Yes, it’s easy to say “I believe in the astral”, but is it as easy to feel it with the heart? Only that you can imagine and feel is really achievable, even more if we are talking about abstract things.
Then, tell your brain the 3D world is a fake. It won’t work. You’ll still be here, sensing hard things around you, and being captured by your body’s necessities (let’s remember it is a machine, and that way we have to consider it, even if we are not cylons… haha).

Now, I have to explain a text I read time ago. It talked about the basic elements, ie, Plato’s four elements and the fifth one, base of the other four. All the texts explained each element is a kind of an energy with a behavior close to its physical counterpart. So air is “airy” and related to the mind, fire is “fiery “ and linked to the active part of the universe, water is “watery” and associated with the feelings and passive part of the universe, and earth is “earthy” and the hard part of the story.

If you try to meditate about that, merge with other belief systems (e.g Taoism), and take some benefit you can go nuts. But that text I mentioned before gave me a better insight of the matter, and explained the thing something like this: fire, the active part of the universe, the energy; water, the passive part of the universe, the “matter”; air, the equilibrium obtained from combining the previous two; and, and most important, earth, the point where you view all that process.

That information changed my mind, and switched on some circuits in my inner machinery. Now, earth was not the Earth, but a sort of a mathematical vector, a point where you are positioned and from where you can observe something. In other words, the whole process observed.
That taken for granted gives us a new perspective. We are not in some stable 3D space, but somewhere where we are located and observing a non ending process of elements interacting.
Earth, and the element earth, are represented by a plate of gold in esoterism (also by a coin or a cavalier’s shield). It’s the holder of the other elements, the table where the tools are laid. It’s curious how we see our world flat, even if it’s a “globe”.

After all of those thoughts… I think I’ve philosophized quite much… let’s get started.

The first thing you need to observe matter is silence. If birds are singing, the sea is roaring or the rain is hammering your roof there’s no problem. That’s nature’s music, so it doesn’t interfere. If you have your earphones plugged in, or the TV turned on… shut them down.

After that your brain will go on buzzing. If it is able to have you busy, you’ll never be able to concentrate in “the change”. Let it go ahead with its loudest protest. Don’t hate it, just love it. Now you know it is activating all of its resources to avoid any change and to maintain your stability and keep you happy with your daily routine. Maybe it will make someone phone you (I don’t understand that mind-connection in between humans, but it happens automatically even if your mind is not conscious of it). As you excel in that ability (expect as much as you can that you will achieve such ability) you’ll get closer to the sensation I mentioned in the first post.

So, the first step would be to meditate upon those “elements” taking place in the physical plane. Look for containers, for holders, for “fires” and “waters”. The more you seek and meditate, the closer you’ll get to the sensation.
Besides, that has an added value, because you train your mind in observing and cataloging things, so that ability will be passed to the dream state.
Well, I think I have extended too much in my paranoias. Ask about whatever doubts you could have, and I’ll try to explain a bit more in incoming entries. By the way, English is not my mother tongue, so some expression can sound weird.

Light for all.

andonitxo- very interesting, can you link to a more detailed description of those elements?

Have a look at this URLs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element

http://www.thedance.com/wicca101/4elem.htm

The technique mentioned (ie, to meditate about the elements in our daily lives) is taken from the books of an author called Ophiel (from his series of books "The art and practice of...").

Two of those books are "The art... of Astral Projection" (where a LD method is given), and "The... of occultism". He gives a very good insight of how the astral is. I think they're a must, but that's just my opinion.

Dude, I LOVE you.

I had an LD around 6:30 - 7:00 AM thanks to you're technique. I'm going to try this again tomorrow. :D

As a secondary school teacher I feel absolutely satisfied if some of my advices (or the information I've transmitted from other authors) have helped you in whatever positive way.

There are some final thoughts I'd like to share with you. I'm sorry for not having presented all this information in a more ordered way, but with such a slippery matter at hand it is better to follow a spherical way of thinking, more than a linear one.


0.Assume you are in a dream while awake:

Imagine, assume, take for granted you are already dreaming. That will lead you to the point 2 of this post.
Of course, don’t go nuts and jump from a bridge. When trying these sort of assumptions you have to keep a foot on the ground, just in case. The point is to trick the brain, not going insane.


1.See everything as something newfangled.

Our brains get too much information each second of their lives. That makes them elide much of the data received, making us, also, lose our observation abilities. So, look at everything as if you were an alien and never would have been in Earth before.

If you see a tree, marvel yourself with its shape, its structure, its beauty. If you see a brick, do the same. Enjoy the shape, because the shape gives the object its function, and that's so magical.


2.Expectation:

When you are immersed in your "normal" "physical" life with your brand new abilities to see all new and to perceive everything as a dream... expect that something's going to happen suddenly. Expect, wait with curiosity, have an eye open. Expect you're going to take control of the situation, that a flying horse is going to appear, that you're going to find yourself floating... in a phrase: that you are finally going to find out you're dreaming. THIS DOES WORK!


3.Preassumptions.

There's an old saying in English which says "no pain, no gain". Well, that's not always true, and I'd say another way: "no goal, no gain". That said, state clearly what your goal is, and how you are going to attain it.
Please, don’t take for granted what it’s said about LD. Many sites state that a dream diary has a lot of importance to have success. Maybe, for me it didn’t work. For you could, perhaps, work. If you don’t feel comfortable with it, just put it aside and go ahead. The point is to feel good with the process.
My way of working, with the previous “techniques” gathered and applied together, work better than good. Each one has to check them out, choose, and apply the best for them.


Good luck!