For The Sake of my Friends' Ears, I've Come to Wear Out Your Eyes

**ThisWitheredMan** · 08-02-2012 08:03 AM

I've always been extremely interested in lucid dreams, and I'd say in the past two or three years there were several separate times where I tried to make a concerted effort to get into it, picking up reality checks and keeping a dream journal and all that, but eventually giving up.

This year has been a bit different for me in terms of spirituality and discipline, and around April I started trying again, keeping a thorough dream log and, after reading a book titled, funnily enough, Lucid Dreaming, that offered a lot of ideas and insights and techniques, doing a simple enough thing.

Throughout the day I began assuring myself I would have a lucid dream that night, over and over, just saying "I will have a lucid dream tonight," either aloud or in my head with forceful conviction (think method acting), and at night just before going to sleep, I sit in bed for 5 minutes and stare at my hands, repeatedly telling myself, "Tonight while dreaming, I will see my hands and realize I'm dreaming."

EDIT: It may be of interest/worth mentioning that though I do this every night, and it seems to cause me to become lucid, I never actually become lucid on account of any of the triggers, I just sort of am aware throughout the dream and at a certain point just decide, "Oh, it's a dream" without any sort of trigger or bizarre event cluing me in.

Within three days of this I had my first INTENDED lucid dream, which was very brief but completely mind blowing, and reaffirmed my conviction when I'd tell myself I was going to have a LD that night. Three days later I had ANOTHER, which was also painfully brief and frustratingly easy to destabilize. That was at the end of June. Maintaining this technique, as well as spending lots of time simply thinking about dreaming, and talking to my friends about all this, I had 8 more lucid dreams throughout July, as well as DOZENS of extremely vivid non-lucid dreams, and a handful of weird semi-lucid ones.

I guess I'm rambling here, but I'm getting to a point! Last night I had a milestone LD, which lasted much longer than any of my others, I'd estimate maybe 10 or so minutes given how much random stuff I was able to do. I think I am starting to get a feel for how to keep things moving smoothly, such as not letting my gaze rest on any one thing for too long, and focusing on just looking around and keeping things going instead of trying anything too fancy.

So here's the point I'm getting to, finally. I feel that I have frequency down. Some weeks I have LD's 4 nights out of 7, I've had one each of the past two nights and have a strong conviction that I will have another tonight (I WILL, damnit!

). What kinds of things should I focus on doing to strengthen my... dream balance, for lack of a better term? I theorized trying to perform some kind of ritual in the dream, telling myself that doing this or that act would permanently improve my dream awareness or stability or whatever. Has anyone tried anything like that?

I'm looking forward to the whole infinite cosmic power thing, but generally speaking I find I have to tread quite lightly to avoid tipping the balance. I can summon objects easily and I'm going to start trying to summon specific people, and I also flew for the first time last night, though not terribly well (still, AMAZING!), but it seemed... draining to do so. It seems that I have a limited well of energy to draw on to effect my will on the dream, and more extravagant tasks drain that energy more quickly. How do I deepen that well of energy? I realize it just takes time, but I'm wondering if there's any specific exercises I can perform while in the LD state to focus/speed the process up.

...
Oh, yeah, and... Hi

**DriftingDreamer** · 08-02-2012 08:12 AM

Im new to trying to LD, and have been focusing on my hands throughout my waking life to try and create reality checks in my dreams. I haven't thought of trying to speak it as an affirmation though, good idea. I've simply been writing a B on one wrist and an L on the other to remind myself a lot throughout the day. I'm definitely gonna try this out. It's good jumping on here and reading of others who have success with similar methods.

Welcome!

**ThisWitheredMan** · 08-02-2012 08:24 AM

Thanks! I suspect it's some kind of autosuggestion/autohypnosis, but it really works wonders. I'm not sure if this improves the effectiveness, but when I repeat the phrase to myself, I say it in a variety of tones (happy, sad, angry, scared, etc.) because I once heard that's a technique actors use to remember their lines, and it seems appropriate somehow. I also visualize myself waking in the middle of the night from the already completed lucid dream, laughing like I always do and rolling over to write it all down, as though it has already happened. Just really flex your will when you say it, really BELIEVE it.

Oh and the other thing I forgot is that, when I wake throughout the night and write down whatever dreams I was just having, as I return to sleep I say, "This is it, the lucid dream is next, I'm going to have a lucid dream when I go back to sleep," and these sorts of things. The trick is to not be discouraged when you pour a lot of will into it one night and it doesn't work, but generally speaking this works WONDERS for me. Going for the hat trick tonight

**DriftingDreamer** · 08-02-2012 08:40 AM

I will try and use a bit of emotion in my affirmations then. It definitely makes sense. I have been saying them randomly to myself throughout daily life. Perhaps I will put it into song lol.

It really helps going knowing you can do it. Knowing that it is absolutely possible. It is all an adventure in one way or another, and when it doesn't work out sometimes it makes it much more gratifying to think "this is fun. I can't wait to try again l!" instead of "ugh wtf I'm never going to get this down." I haven't had a full lucid state yet, but I've made more progress than I would have with a negative mindset. I just can't wait to have a LD to the point where I can be patient and wait. XD

Good hockey reference, btw! Go for it!

**dutchraptor** · 08-02-2012 01:18 PM

One of my favourite stabilization techniques is once you become lucid imagine energy flowing out of evrything around you into your body, you become super strong while everything around you warps. It always works for me to convince my mind that I now have infinite power as long as I keep reminding myself.

**Batch** · 08-02-2012 03:01 PM

I can't shift into lucid dreaming just by looking at my hands, but if I start to suspect I might be dreaming, one of the quickest and easiest ways that I check is to try and start stretching my fingers ... so by the point my fingers are all 10 inches long, I'm pretty darn sure I'm dreaming!

Welcome ... I've only been here a day, but seems like a cool place!