Thread: General advice for those wanting to have lucid dreams

I wrote this post elsewhere in response to a person who voiced frustration over lack of progress in LDing. I thought it should be preserved so others could benefit from it.

You don't mention a number of important points in order to receive appropriate advice to tuning your practice:

How long have you been practicing?

What is your daily practice (day and night, in detail)?

What have you read about lucid dreaming, what approach are you following?

How is your dream recall? (In order to lucid dream frequently, you should have excellent, detailed dream recall nightly, with highly vivid dreams on a regular basis)

How good / regular / long is your sleep?

And a few really important points that I've discovered in my own journey:

Lucid dreaming is almost not at all about what you do (techniques) as much as it is about who you are and how you live. Are you living a lucid/mindful life, paying purposeful attention to the present moment, frequently, throughout the day and night? Or are you frequently zoned out, on "autopilot," living "mindlessly" throughout the day, never or rarely reflecting on the present moment experience? Are you really interested in exploring consciousness, what it means to be awake or dreaming, and in participating in your life's conscious experiences? I'm not trying to make it out like LDing is just "woo woo," partly it IS about having fun, but having at least some interest in these things can makes all the difference.

Those who approach lucid dreaming only as an entertainment vehicle IMO achieve much less success than those who approach it as a way to some sort of "higher purpose." The reason is, as you're discovering, it takes a lot of effort, and sustaining that over enough time to start to see results takes very strong dedication and motivation.

And finally, some advice:

Read ETWOLD, chapters 1-3. If you've already read it, do your best to forget what you think you know about LDing and what LaBerge writes, and read it again, with the mindset of a total beginner, searching out the pearls of wisdom there, because I can see that you need to learn what he writes. LaBerge gives what I believe is a fool-proof, simple (to understand, doing is another matter) recipe, if you follow and do all of what he suggests.

Approach LD practice as something really interesting and fun and enjoyable. If you find it stressful, this will seriously impede (or prevent entirely) your progress. LDing is a mental activity, and mindset is critical. You make lip service to knowing it is not ideal, but you don't seem to fully appreciate how critical this is. Practice mindfulness for the joy of living a tuned in, purposeful life. The dreaming comes as icing on the cake. If you do not enjoy living lucidly, lucid dreaming will be much, much harder to achieve. Lucid dreaming is not separable IMO from just being a lucid person, 24x7.

Yes, it is a serious discipline in which it takes time (years) to become an expert. The good news is, that you can see measurable progress all along the way, in a relatively short period of time. Increased dream recall and vividness comes in just days/weeks, and lucidity increasing in dreams in weeks/months. You are doing nothing less than reprogramming how your brain works, and this takes time.