Greetings! Hoping to really ramp up my LD ability here!

Hello & Thanks for making this forum!

I'm 46 and had my first LD when I was 5. I've had a few, very randomly, over the years. They are among the most astounding experiences I've had.

About a month ago I had the experience of moving from the waking state into the dream state without losing awareness, and experiencing a lucid dream. This got me really going on the LD track again. Leading up to the event I had been engaging in a daily mindfulness practice that consisted mainly of being in present moment awareness with quiet mind. I feel almost certain that this was a major contributing factor.

All of my other LDs were in the DILD class, usually as a result of recognizing something "off" about the environment in the dream. I also seem to have a lucidity que involving the behavior of water, and my best DILD to date was triggered from observing an ocean on the other side of some glass double-doors in a small city, although it took me two times looking at it before I made the connection and went lucid!

I've been attempting, on & off, to consciously augment my LD ability since the early 90s. My success has been relatively low. I have even tried things like the NovaDreamer (my dreaming mind was very good at incorporating the flashes, and I wasn't great at recognizing that the incorporations weren't at all normal events... but I also hadn't been doing a lot of reality testing at that time).

My dream recall varies wildly, and I will go for a month or more without remembering any dreams, and then I'll enter a cycle where I remember several vivid dreams each night for a few weeks.

I've been in a low cycle for the past month or two, with the exception of the "WILD" dream I had.

I've recently started studying Tibetan Dream Yoga and have accepted that there are some astounding experiences to be had through the use of these techniques, and that it also will take quite a bit of work on my part to properly implement these techniques, with much meditation.

Additionally, I recently found a book called Advanced Lucid Dreaming (Thomas Yuschak) that focuses on specialized supplements. While I am getting comfortable with the various concepts and researching the supplements, I thought I'd try some of the possibilities suggested that might be less likely to really mess with my brain chemistry, and I bought some phosphatidylcholine, and decided to risk a less-than-restful sleep last evening and took a 1200mg capsule before bed. And I had two - normal - dreams that I remembered, so I feel there was a significant possibility that that alone may have had an effect. I'm going to try it again tonight (I had a pretty good night's sleep last night despite the climbing acetylcholine levels in my brain!)

I've also tried Mugwort herb with very little effect. When I finally reached a dose that generated dreams, they were disjointed, chaotic and fleeting. And I had a miserable night's sleep.

So here I am, looking to really make it happen this time. I'm looking forward to learning a LOT here. I'm interested in going the whole route, even shared dreaming if such a thing is really possible.

Thanks to all here for being a part of this and makiong such a place possible.

Dave

Hey Dave, welcome to DV :)

You're already riding on some fantastic experience, which is going to be awesome for you :)

I've been considering buying the newer release of the Nova Dreamer, but it's so much money :crying: But I've also been researching some Tibetan Dream Yoga... picked up a copy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is fascinating, so far :)

Yuschak is the guru of supplements :) If you want to try some, a very popular one across the board is 4mg galantamine / 200 mg choline. They tend to produce very vivid and intense dreams. St. John's Wort also tends to increase serotonin levels in the brain (which relates to dreaming).

But as I say before suggesting any supplements: Do your research, make sure it's right for you, and don't take anything if you're under 18... (which you aren't obviously, but anyone else reading this post!)

Hi Serenity, and thanks for your response.

As for research, it's very disheartening, so far. Everything I read initially in Yuschak's book, on further research, seems to have horrid side effect possibilities. Macuna Pruriens can result in life-long disabling psychosis... 5HTP (and anything that may increase serum serotonin) can result in heart failure and pulmonary hypertension... Even stuff I would have thought was OK, like L-Tyrosene can cause heart palpitations, irregular heart beat and potential stroke (I already DO get palpitations from too much caffeine! :-) ). SO far only the GPC Choline and the Galantamine *seem* to be fairly safe as long as I keep the doses to a minimum, but even the Galantamine has significant heart-related side effects in some people. What the heck??? :-(

As for reading - there are some very interesting things to be gleaned from the Tibetan Dream Yoga, if you are willing to engage the tantric traditions more fully (which I certainly am, as mostly, it is a type of tantric tradition that I follow that leads me to wish to become proficient in lucid dreaming). Currently I am reading The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche; Meditation, Transformation and Dream Yoga by Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, and Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu; I am also learning a meditation technique called "Inner Fire", and am reading the book "The Bliss of Inner Fire" by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. All these books provide tremebdous insight into the energetic structure (according to the Tibetan Tradition/view of the world) of the body/mind and discuss in detail how the winds move through the channels, and where they concentrate at different phases of wakefulness, sleeping, and dreaming. It is utterly fascinating and *feels* right to me. It is NOT something that can just be read & done, it requires a LOT of practice, and so, of course the lower-effort side of me says "let's try the supplement route!" LOL! :-) So I figure between learning and practicing the more LD Oriented methodologies here (MILD, WILD, DILD, Reality Testing, etc), Supplements, and the long-term practices of the tantric traditions, I will either learn to be proficient at dreaming, or I will become a lunatic! :-)

This board is fascinating, however, and I'm very glad I found it, it seems truly packed with good info.

Dave

I don't prefer the supplements because I want to achieve regular lucid dreaming without the help of anything bad for you. So far I improved my dream recall very much from having a dream a year to a dream a few nights. The Inner Fire technique interest me, I might look it up.