GILD - Game Induced Lucid Dream [Experimental]

[Rush2112]

*I originally posted this on Lucidipedia but thought I'd spread it to another active LD community for good measure. TOTAL SUCCESSES - ONE (Ravemaster7) Hey, just came across this today; I have not tried it, but I feel like I've done it already (minus the mp3 dream reminder)! When I first got the game Prototype for 360, I marveled at the amazing things the main character (Alex Mercer) could do - scale walls just by running up them, perform charged leaps and attacks, glide, and otherwise manipulate his biology. I was so fascinated, apparently, that it spilled over into my dreams! I found myself in Alex's body, using his claws, whipfist, and incredible running/scaling powers! It was a lucid, exhilarating experience! I strongly recommend using videogames to influence your dream control schemes. You don't have to experience it in the way the game presents it to you, either; in your dreams you can literally sense anything you want, down to the ground under your gaming feet. I saw a post from Tim on Lucidipedia's homepage about 3D games and lucid dreams so I googled it and found some very interesting things. I have used these things to create an induction method. http://www.livescience.com/culture/video-games-control-dreams-100525.html Playing video games before bedtime may give people an unusual level of awareness and control in their dreams, LiveScience has learned. Dreams and video games both represent alternate realities. "Gamers are used to controlling their game environments, so that can translate into dreams." The two groups [gamers and lucid dreamers] have also demonstrated a high level of focus or concentration, whether honed through lucidity-training activities, such as meditation, or through hours spent fighting virtual enemies to reach the next level in a game. The first study suggested that people who frequently played video games were more likely to report lucid dreams, observer dreams where they viewed themselves from outside their bodies, and dream control that allowed people to actively influence or change their dream worlds – qualities suggestive of watching or controlling the action of a video-game character. PREREQUISITES * First of all, this isn't for everyone. If you're not into video games, this is not the method for you. * You will need a video game. It needs to be 3D. The more realistic the graphics, the better. It is highly recommended that you play a non-linear, open-world game. In these games you can explore and do your own thing OR follow the game's main story - much like in a lucid dream. Here is a list of games that would work exceptionally well with this method: Grand Theft Auto 4 - Total freedom in the huge world of Liberty City (based off of New York). Prototype - While you have a smaller (but still very open and large) world to explore, the mere dreamlike abilities such as superspeed, flying and intense parkour available to you in this game make it a very good choice to not only practice dream control but inspire you to have a lucid dream. Red Dead Redemption - From the creators of Grand Theft Auto, this game is almost identical save for the setting - the early-1900s Wild West. Assassin's Creed I/II - Though your freedom is somewhat restricted, you still have free roam of the setting with the addition of acrobatic parkour moves to scale buildings and ancient Arabian temples. Most MMOs (World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, EVE Online, etc) allow the character to travel freely through a massive virtual world. As such, they would work well. *An mp3 with some sort of message that says "This is a dream" or something similar. The easiest way to do this is to record yourself with a mic and make an mp3 file that plays that message and then has 15 minutes of nothing. That way, when you loop it, it plays every 15 minutes. STEP 1 - THE NIGHT BEFORE About an hour before you go to bed, turn on your game and play it. Have your mp3 set to go off about every 10 or 15 minutes. As you play the game, especially if you are playing an open sandbox game, really take notice to what you are able to do. Feel the virtual freedom. Every so often when you're doing something that you know you couldn't do in real life, do a reality check. When you hear your mp3, do a reality check. STEP 2 - FALLING ASLEEP When you crawl into bed, the gameplay should be so fresh in your mind that you can visualize it with ease and vividness. Do so. Feel the freedom, do things that you would in the game. Take note of the game itself. What are you able to manipulate in that game? When did you do reality checks when you were playing it? Make sure your alarm is set at the time you usually do a WBTB. STEP 3 - WBTB/MILD/WILD When you wake up, recall dreams as normal. Did you dream about the game you played? If so, you're definitely on the right track. Now turn on your game again. Repeat step 1. Play for as long as you usually stay up when you do a WBTB. Now, when you get into bed again, you should be able to visualize playing that game in vivid detail. As you return to sleep, picture yourself as if you were still playing that game. Don't re-enact something you did in the game earlier, imagine you are still playing it. What kind of freedom do you have? What can you manipulate? When did you do a reality check? As you go back to sleep, continue picturing this. Hopefully this visualization turns into a more vivid dreamscene. You could just as easily take this directly into a visualized WILD. If not, you have a good chance of dreaming about the game and becoming lucid. NOTICE *As of 6/8/10 at 12:06 AM, I have not officially even TRIED this technique. Despite this, I have confidence that it will produce good results for the following reasons: I have tried visualizing something before bed to try to make it appear in a dream without it working many many times. Yet, when I play video games a lot or right before bed, I would say that 80% of the time that I remember my dreams of that night, at least one of them is related to that game. This technique is fun. You're playing a video game for god's sake. Research has proven that 3D gamers are better at both inducing lucid dreams and controlling them once lucid. Close your eyes and picture yourself jumping from an airplane. How vivid was that visualization? Chances are it was pretty decent. Now, wave your hand in front of your face. Close your eyes and picture that. Chances are it was incredibly vivid, because you just experienced it. The same thing happens when you play a game, and this I know from experience. If it's fresh in your mind, it's going to be SO much easier to visualize when you crawl back in bed. You're not just doing a MILD and a WBTB, you're training your mind to be able to control your environment and to be able to recognize when it can do so. You're practicing the cognitive elements that 3D gamers have that aid them with lucid dreaming. You're using autosuggestion as well by connecting a reality check / alert that you're dreaming with the game that you're playing. Please post your results. If you have a suggestion for a change in the technique or a game you can use for this, post please.