Thread: Complete noob, half skeptical.

we have a tutorial section if you're looking for a step by step guide. It's actually rather well written and the instructions are very clear. If you need further help with induction techniques after a THOROUGH reading of the tutorial section then contact a Dream Guide and they'll happily help you with any questions you have.

Are there any questions you have beyond the techniques or any specifics you wish to discuss?

There are guides all over this site that help with pretty much any LD technique you can think of. The first thing you should start with is a dream journal, try to remember all of your dreams upon waking up (like you said in #2.) Also, get yourself into a habit of doing reality checks throughout the day, such as plugging your nose and trying to breath in, pushing your finger through your hand and checking your hands because often times in dreams there will be something odd about your hands. Also, try to randomly challenge yourself throughout the day and ask yourself "am I dreaming" (be as genuine as you can about this) and take a good look around you, does everything seem normal? These are habits you'll want to develop if you want to become a successful lucid dreamer.

But aside from that little paragraph, there are literally hundreds of threads with tutuorials on different LD methods and techniques, go check em' out.

Thanks guys. One question.. if you are LDing, is whatever you're doing as pleasureful as if you are awake? For example right now I can close my eyes and imagine myself flying, but there is not really any detail of where I am, or what it feels like. I just know in my head I am above the ground. I can focus extra hard and have a basic picture of where I am, but I have to keep focusing on where I am and where I want to be or else It'll just fade away. In a dream is it like this or is it more automatic? Does it just unfold exactly how you want it without having to 'plan ahead'. If that makes ANY sense?

Your question makes perfect sense, LostInDream. I've been doing research too and, actually, have been interested in lucid dreaming before I even saw Inception. Don't be skeptical. Skepticism will kill this for you faster than anything. Embrace the fact that lucid dreaming has been scientifically studied and confirmed as real. Look up Dr. Stephen LaBerge as he is at the forefront of everything Lucid Dreaming.

In regards to your question: Lucid Dreaming, once you have gotten a good handle on maintaining dream control, looks and feels just like real life...but without the constraints of reality. So imagine you wake up tomorrow morning and look around the room. You do a reality check and pinch your nose. But you can still breathe! So you are lucid dreaming. Now imagine that feeling of sitting on your bed and imagine you deciding to up and fly out of your room. That is lucid dreaming. It's the act of living out anything you can imagine.

So I wont be exploring something I've already "thought up" per say? It will feel new? Like if I imagine I'm flying right now everything I experience is artificial and I've already thought about how it will work, so there are no surprises.

PS: RC is to give you a habit? To hope that one of the times you do a RC that you are in fact asleep? Simple as that?

I guess the only way I can explain it is this: Imagine that you are awake and in real life. And you start to fly. You would feel wind rushing through your hair and hitting your face. You would want to close your eyes slightly from all of the force and you would have that pit in the bottom of your stomach. You would /really/ be flying. That's what lucid dreaming can do for you. You won't be "imagining" flying. You will actually be doing it. It'll just be inside of the confines of your mind and not in the "waking world". It's really hard to describe/explain. Once you do it: you'll know.

And yes, RCing is simply a habit building technique. You've probably realized already that things you do in your every day life, things you're constantly aware of, seep into your dreams. For the past few months I've been constantly worried about going to the dentist (because I have to get my wisdom teeth pulled out) and eventually that got to be so on my mind: it actually started popping up in my dreams. The same concept applies to reality checking. You want to habitually reality check in the hopes (and the odds are good) that you will eventually reality check in your dream and...voila! You are lucid. But the trick to reality checking is this: you have to reality check with an open mind.You have to be receptive to the idea that you actually could be dreaming.

Originally Posted by jasonresno

You have to be receptive to the idea that you actually could be dreaming.

For example, I'm walking around school and in my head I 'know' it's real, and I feel stupid checking, but I try to push my finger through my hand. If I'm not open to the idea that it could in fact be a dream, then even if it is a dream the RC might not work right? It could fail but in the end... me actually be in a dream? So I have to train myself to... question what is real and what is not, and never be sure if it is. On the surface LD sounds cool but it also sounds kind of scary... not knowing if everything is real or not. Kind of like inception..

EDIT: Has anyone ever carried a certain item like in inception? I know I probably sound stupid bringing this up since inception is a new movie and all the ideas were though up before but... im curious.

Originally Posted by LostInDream

EDIT: Has anyone ever carried a certain item like in inception? I know I probably sound stupid bringing this up since inception is a new movie and all the ideas were though up before but... im curious.

No. In real life totems wouldn't work. For example if you had the top like in Inception and for some reason it showed up in one of your dreams and you decided to spin it it would just fall over like it would in reality.

I do have an 'A' (for awake) written on the palm of my hand though and I make a habit of checking it in reality all the time in hopes that I'll check in a dream and become aware I'm dreaming.

Originally Posted by LostInDream

For example, I'm walking around school and in my head I 'know' it's real, and I feel stupid checking, but I try to push my finger through my hand. If I'm not open to the idea that it could in fact be a dream, then even if it is a dream the RC might not work right? It could fail but in the end... me actually be in a dream? So I have to train myself to... question what is real and what is not, and never be sure if it is. On the surface LD sounds cool but it also sounds kind of scary... not knowing if everything is real or not. Kind of like inception..

EDIT: Has anyone ever carried a certain item like in inception? I know I probably sound stupid bringing this up since inception is a new movie and all the ideas were though up before but... im curious.

Well, it would be scary if you were fully awake and in that state, possibly. You simply don't have the thought process you would if you were awake while you are dreaming. So things don't seem all too weird.

Everybody says the totem idea would not work, and I beg to differ. People actually do use totems, all the time, for reality checks. Classic example is a cell phone or a digital wrist watch. The top idea is definitely possible though.

No. In real life totems wouldn't work. For example if you had the top like in Inception and for some reason it showed up in one of your dreams and you decided to spin it it would just fall over like it would in reality.

Oh, would it now? So that means if I pulled my finger in a dream it would stay the same size, just like in reality? If I checked my clock twice in a dream it would present the same time just like in reality? Should I go on?

Originally Posted by LostInDream

For example, I'm walking around school and in my head I 'know' it's real, and I feel stupid checking, but I try to push my finger through my hand. If I'm not open to the idea that it could in fact be a dream, then even if it is a dream the RC might not work right? It could fail but in the end... me actually be in a dream? So I have to train myself to... question what is real and what is not, and never be sure if it is. On the surface LD sounds cool but it also sounds kind of scary... not knowing if everything is real or not. Kind of like inception...

Exactly - you have to genuinely question whether or not you are dreaming, because dreams feel just as real as reality itself. If you simply do a RC and know that you aren't dreaming, in a dream you will do a RC and "know" that you aren't dreaming.

A couple years ago (before finding this forum) I would do RCs simply by asking myself if I was dreaming, and then look around at reality to determine I wasn't dreaming. Well, twice in dreams I asked myself, "is this a dream?", only to look around (at all of the weird things going on around me) and determine I wasn't.

Originally Posted by Aquinas

A couple years ago (before finding this forum) I would do RCs simply by asking myself if I was dreaming, and then look around at reality to determine I wasn't dreaming. Well, twice in dreams I asked myself, "is this a dream?", only to look around (at all of the weird things going on around me) and determine I wasn't.

Lol that's too funny. Flying cars, people upside down.. in a crazy club and I'm naked... is this a dream? seems pretty logical, not a dream at all.. XD

Originally Posted by FatBox

No. In real life totems wouldn't work. For example if you had the top like in Inception and for some reason it showed up in one of your dreams and you decided to spin it it would just fall over like it would in reality.

Well if I lost logic, wouldn't it just keep spinning because that's the point of me spinning it? Because I want it to keep spinning. Kind of like a RC could be throwing a rock in the air and levitating it. If it works you're /probably/ dreaming.. :p

Well about the Totems, I think the point is that they very well could work, which is cool and all, but in all truth they probably aren't as reliable as the traditional reality checks such as pinching your nose and breathing through it, trying to push your finger through your hand and it works, etc. Besides, carrying a totem around is cool, but I would imagine it getting annoying at times lol.

As mentioned above, lucid dreaming is scientifically proven. Although don't believe its necessarily like anything you've seen in the movies.

Originally Posted by Tranquil

Well about the Totems, I think the point is that they very well could work, which is cool and all, but in all truth they probably aren't as reliable as the traditional reality checks such as pinching your nose and breathing through it, trying to push your finger through your hand and it works, etc. Besides, carrying a totem around is cool, but I would imagine it getting annoying at times lol.

The subconcious is tricky. My theory is that the "Spinning top" totem wouldnt be effective, because your subconcious could make it topple over. Also, If you carried a totem around long enough, it could also appear in your dream. Therefore, making it a unreliable technique.

Originally Posted by ParadoxIllusion

The subconcious is tricky. My theory is that the "Spinning top" totem wouldnt be effective, because your subconcious could make it topple over. Also, If you carried a totem around long enough, it could also appear in your dream. Therefore, making it a non-reliable technique.

That's the point, make it appear in your dream and test it. Although yes as other posters said, other RC's are more reliable. I put my hands in my pocket a lot though so it'd kind of be nice to have something in my pocket that reminds me to do a reality check. Not sure if anything would serve the purpose though because if it doesn't appear in the dream than it's useless.

Cosiging ParadoxIllusions post. A totem, like in the film, is there solely to differentiate reality and SOMEONE ELSES dream. The reason you have a totem is so when you go into SOMEONE ELSES dream it still acts reliable to the way YOU know. And that's why nobody is allowed to touch eachothers totem. Because that defeats the point. To know the shape/feel/size/effect of someone elses totem would render it unreliable because then the "architect" (whoever is constructing the dream to "put you in") could recreate your totem and you'd never know the difference.

The reason this wouldn't work in our case is simple. LDs don't work like that. We aren't getting placed within someone elses reality. We are existing in our own mind. And, as you know, our mind knows everything we know. So it would know how our totem works. Thus rendering it unreliable.

Originally Posted by LostInDream

That's the point, make it appear in your dream and test it. Although yes as other posters said, other RC's are more reliable. I put my hands in my pocket a lot though so it'd kind of be nice to have something in my pocket that reminds me to do a reality check. Not sure if anything would serve the purpose though because if it doesn't appear in the dream than it's useless.

Or, when you put your hands in your pocket, and if it isnt in your pockets in the dream then do a reality check, so it can work both ways.

Originally Posted by jasonresno

Cosiging ParadoxIllusions post. A totem, like in the film, is there solely to differentiate reality and SOMEONE ELSES dream. The reason you have a totem is so when you go into SOMEONE ELSES dream it still acts reliable to the way YOU know. And that's why nobody is allowed to touch eachothers totem. Because that defeats the point. To know the shape/feel/size/effect of someone elses totem would render it unreliable because then the "architect" (whoever is constructing the dream to "put you in") could recreate your totem and you'd never know the difference.

The reason this wouldn't work in our case is simple. LDs don't work like that. We aren't getting placed within someone elses reality. We are existing in our own mind. And, as you know, our mind knows everything we know. So it would know how our totem works. Thus rendering it unreliable.

Right, but LDing doesn't work like in Inception either. Like I've read before, attempting to levitate an item can be a RC check. Not saying it's the best one, but can be one. So why cant attempting to spin a bottle cap or something for forever work as well? If it never stops, you're dreaming. Not saying I want to try it but maybe for a last resort before killing myself in a dream lol, because I don't want to be spinning a bottle cap every 5 minutes in RL

Originally Posted by ParadoxIllusion

Or, when you put your hands in your pocket, and if it isnt in your pockets in the dream then do a reality check, so it can work both ways.

Will it not start to appear in my dreams consciously (or unconsciously however you say it)?

Subconciously* and it depends whatever your subconcious decides. lets just say relying on an object is unreliable, relying on habit is the most effective way.

Originally Posted by ParadoxIllusion

Subconciously* and it depends whatever your subconcious decides. lets just say relying on an object is unreliable, relying on habit is the most effective way.

Thanks, Will definately remember that

I suggest you first follow these two things if you are interested in having lucid dreams:
-Get a dream journal and put it by your bed and EVERY time you wake up ask yourself what was I dreaming about? Even in nothing comes up keep trying and do not focus on anything but accessing your previous thoughts.
-Perform reality checks constantly throughout your life at random times of the day. Such as try sticking you finger through the palm of you hand and imagine it going through if it doesn't occur then obviously you are not dreaming but if it does then you will probably be dreaming and hopefully come to that realization that you are dreaming and you may even become lucid.

If these techniques won't work for you then look don't fret there are plenty of other ways one can go about lucid dreaming do some of your own research.

Originally Posted by FatBox

I do have an 'A' (for awake) written on the palm of my hand though and I make a habit of checking it in reality all the time in hopes that I'll check in a dream and become aware I'm dreaming.

I'm not understanding. If your already expecting the 'A' to be there then how do you know it won't be there in your dream?

Each time you see the A ask yourself if you're Awake. Become Aware of your surroundings, do a reality check. Then, hopefully you'll see it in your dreams, do an RC and become lucid. At least thats my understanding of it

Originally Posted by WakaWaka

Well, it would be scary if you were fully awake and in that state, possibly. You simply don't have the thought process you would if you were awake while you are dreaming. So things don't seem all too weird.

Everybody says the totem idea would not work, and I beg to differ. People actually do use totems, all the time, for reality checks. Classic example is a cell phone or a digital wrist watch. The top idea is definitely possible though.

Oh, would it now? So that means if I pulled my finger in a dream it would stay the same size, just like in reality? If I checked my clock twice in a dream it would present the same time just like in reality? Should I go on?

Not really. I think I agree with the quote here.
When you look at a clock, you're looking for an answer that your mind couldn't otherwise give you. If you already knew the time, which is why you look at a clock, why would you bother? I think the clock check is just a confirmation and wouldn't really work as a RC unless you were already questioning your reality to begin with - your mind would just trick you into believing it were normal just like whoever you've quoted there has suggested with the spinning top.

Bottom line is - the only way to find out for yourself is to come up with your own, unique totem exactly like they did in the movie, and try it out in the dream whilst already lucid to compare how your totem works in the dream-world and how it works in waking life.