Thread: Any way to improve?

4) I'm getting excited, except when I'm dreaming and know that something isn't possible, then how will I take control of it from there?[/quote]


I shall address these in the order in which they were written:

1) You are probably doing fine. Once you are lucid you can remember a few key phrases between dreams, and earlier dreams will be easier to remember in the morning.

2) You may want to cut down a little on the "is it real?"isms. Otherwise, people tend to start discrediting them. A few questions aksed with sincerity are worth more than all the insincere questions in the world. Many people here say two to four a day is enough. I usually don't go above eight, myself.

3) If you are one of the lucky ones with strong dream patterns (and some people, myself included, do not usually have them, except in times of worry or stress), it becomes much easier to recognize that you are dreaming -- which is the absolute KEY to lucidity, is it not? Even once you have attained frequent or spontaneous lucidity, dream patterns are interesting because you can call back pieces of past dreams to explore them and come to a greater understanding of how your own mind operates.

4) You may or may not be able to control your DREAM in your first moment of lucidity, but you can probably control your Dream Self. Even complete helplessness means nothing once you are lucid, however.

In one of my earlier lucid dreams I was faced with a shark that was trying to eat me (while I and my friends tried to escape from it by running up one of those wide metal playground slides except that it was too slippery). Once I realized I was dreaming, I simply jumped down on to the beach and let it have a go at me. It snapped to one side or another, but it couldn't touch me. Another time, when I was dreaming that cars kept on speeding by and barely missing me, I started puposely trying to get hit. It took a while, but I finally did, and it was LOVELY. Out-of-body experience and all.

What I mean to communicate here is that IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER whether you can control your dream once you're lucid. Nothing can go WRONG (unless you ATTEMPT control in an already-lucid dream and it backfires because you're already waking up, but that's different).

You can start manipulating things in your dream almost immediately. Some people say to start small because of psychological conditioning -- that is, you're more likely to be successful with something small at first because your mind thinks it more possible than something grand. However, if you are in a lucid dream and want to start big -- by all means go for it! Just keep it under control.

Dear Twan,

Otherwise, how are your dreams going? do the seem more important than before. If the quality of your dreams is improving then you might feel reassured that you are moving toward that Stage where eventually Lucidity would become advantageous.