Good evening!

[MachineElf]

Well, clearly I'm new here and I'm also very new to lucid dreaming. I am figuratively consumed by my fascination of the enigma that is the human psyche and what comes after "this". Lucid dreaming to me offers and incredible doorway into the realm where the answers to the relevant questions lie. So, I sit here with dots on my knuckles (one second, reality check... yeah I'm neither asleep nor tripping on DMT), and I'm quite excited for the experiences to come over the next few months and beyond. I've "accidentally" lucidly dreamt for "short" periods of time before, and to no great ends (I didn't invent something as incredible as the periodic table). So, being new to this and not ashamed to ask questions till the death, I have a few that I'd like to have cleared up: 1. Does one ever "grow out" of doing reality checks? As in, eventually lucidity will come naturally? I've heard stories of individuals that can induce lucidity in deep mental states at any given point during the day after great practice. 2. I've found a reality check that really appeals to me. It's a looped Tibetan gong that plays every 20 minutes, at which times you perform your reality check. You listen to this as you sleep and thus lucidity is invoked through an auditory trigger. My worry with this method however is that I could imagine this becoming somewhat of a crutch. I won't always have access to the sound file, so when I am without it will I be helpless to become lucid? Will I be able to eventually become lucid without this sound file after using it long enough? 3. How closely tied are near-death experiences and DMT-like states to lucid dreaming? These realms of the human condition are most interesting to me. 4. Does anyone have any experience with iDoser, and as such do any opinions exist on its usefulness in lucid dreaming? Thanks in advance for any answers to these questions! I'll be posting them in the general discussion area as well!

[gab]

Welcome to Dreamviews! 1. Does one ever "grow out" of doing reality checks? As in, eventually lucidity will come naturally? I've heard stories of individuals that can induce lucidity in deep mental states at any given point during the day after great practice. It could become more natural and easier with time and experience, but I believe you still need to do some excercises. 2. I've found a reality check that really appeals to me. It's a looped Tibetan gong that plays every 20 minutes, at which times you perform your reality check. You listen to this as you sleep and thus lucidity is invoked through an auditory trigger. My worry with this method however is that I could imagine this becoming somewhat of a crutch. I won't always have access to the sound file, so when I am without it will I be helpless to become lucid? Will I be able to eventually become lucid without this sound file after using it long enough? I have tried audio clues to induce LD, but I found it to be not working as I hoped it would. I was super aware all night, expecting the sound to go off any minute and I couldn't sleep well. But the real issue with using any clues to get you lucid is, that even if you hear the sound/see a light, you still need to have some awareness to be able to realize what it's suppose to mean. Otherwise, you'll just dream and this sound will be incorporated in your dream and it will not get you lucid. In my opinion, to get lucid, best thing is to practice awareness, plus RCs and mantras.. 3. How closely tied are near-death experiences and DMT-like states to lucid dreaming? These realms of the human condition are most interesting to me. Sorry, don't know about DMT. But NDEs are similar to OBEs and WILDs (LDS) are similar to OBEs, in my opinion (some people would argue pro, and some against). 4. Does anyone have any experience with iDoser, and as such do any opinions exist on its usefulness in lucid dreaming? No experience with this, but feel free to place this question in Lucid Aids forum. Happy dreams

[Matte87]

Welcome to DV! 1: Lucid dreaming is like any other skill, if you don't practice it, it'll fade away eventually. You don't have to do RC's but can rely on other techniques such as MILD or WILD, but I find that doing RC's throughout the day is very effective since I also then daydream. Daily awareness is when you're trying to be as aware as possible all day long, one big RC basicly, and that's probably the ultimate DILD technique, it does require alot of effort on your part however. 2: What you want to do is to set an alarm in the beginning, but only to get into the habit of doing RC's regularly. You should stop using your alarm when you can and do the RC's whenever you see something weird, experience anything out of the ordinary or just remember to do them. 3: Astral Projection, OBE's and Lucid Dreaming might all three be the very same thing. Many people claim that they are not however. There's no scientific proof that the former two actually exist, but who knows? They're bunched together in the same kind of category and if you experiment with lucid dreaming you'll probably encounter some cool experiences you haven't experienced before. It all depends on how deep you get into this stuff. I do know however that the techniques used in lucid dreaming are also used when trying to AP or OBE. WILD'ing uses the same prep work, but I don't know more than that. Check this place out if you want to read more on the subject: Beyond Dreaming 4: Haven't heard of it, sorry. If you've got any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

[melanieb]

Welcome to the forum! I think gab and Matte87 posted just about everything I would say. You have some good advice to start with. I can say that many people here find lucid dreaming comes with ease. We also have many people who have great difficulty with it. There is no set rule and no two people will have the same luck with their dreams or the methods and guides posted on the forum. You just have to try things for yourself. People here are glad to guide you and answer questions! Post them or send any of the staffmembers a private message. I like your Rainbow Dash avatar! Happy dreaming!

[Brigid]

Hello, MachineElf! Welcome to DV. Erm, I don't really know how to answer all your questions, but wanted to say I like your profile picture. My Little Pony, FTW! I've also just started trying to use audio cues to help me lucid dream. I have an app on my iPod that gives me a notification every 15 minutes to remind me to do reality checks, and then if you hear it while you're sleeping it's supposed to cue you to do a reality check and realize you're dreaming. I've only been using it for one night so I haven't had any results yet... so, I don't know whether it becomes a crutch or not. I think the good thing about it is that it should remind you to do reality checks. Hopefully if you do them enough both in your waking and dreaming lives, they'll eventually become more natural and you won't need the alarm, if that makes sense.