Hello! I'm new here :D

Hello dreamers! I thought I'd make my introductions before delving into this site (which I'm quite excited for!). I'll start by saying I'm NOT experienced in lucid dreaming so I'm her to learn and share what I learn.

I'm 19 and have been interested in lucid dreaming for about 4 years. Needless to say, I didn't have the conviction to practice reality checks back then and I couldn't keep a dream journal for more than a couple of days in a row. But, a near lucid experience renewed my faith.

I've had 2 lucid dreams and they were both this month. I use the finger count method and am pretty pleased with the results but I encounter the same problem each time. I have trouble maintaining lucidity. It wasn't until my second lucid dream that I worked up the courage to try to phase through the wall out of a second story building but right after I landed I woke up. I'm probably getting too excited but I'd like to hear your opinions and methods!

Hey waterghost, Welcome to DV. Help yourself to our excellent assortment of guides, tutorials or tips. If you need any help with DEILD or WILD just give me a PM :D
Don't worry about maintaining your lucid dream, you will learn with experience. Just enjoy them while they last. Sounds like crap advice (I know) but it's better to approach this from a passive angle, within a few lucids you should be able to extend the dream just by doing stuff. Worrying about it will probably only have a negative effect.

Welcome to Dreamviews!

Feel free to check out the DV Wiki for tutorials, or DV Academy and see, if there is a class you would like to attend (or just read the material).

Please let us know, if there is anything you need help with. Happy dreams:alien:

Thanks for the advice and hospitality, Raptor and gab. I look forward to making this website home :)

Is that from personal experience? I'm just wondering how many people run into a problem like this.

Yes it is from personal experience, I find that spending time just doing fun stuff has gotten my brain to a stage where it lucid dreams are just naturally long. I know that you want to get the most out of them, but if you immerse yourself in the dream enough and follow your goals you get good at it without having to use techniques.
People ask this question almost every day and the honest answer is that you can use stabalization or you can take it as it comes, both work equally well so I like to pick the easy going option. Great that you wanna become part of the community :) hope you become a active member, it's good to get some new opinions and threads going on again.

Great to know. I haven't given a whole lot of thought to what I want to do when I get there. So, I think I'll start setting goals for myself. :D

Welcome waterghost! (I really like the name :D)

I just wrote something I think is important to keep in mind while practising lucid dreaming here: http://www.dreamviews.com/f20/ello-137410/

Remember that you are already capable of getting the answers of anything, I am not kidding. But sometimes it can be good and nice to have someone to get guidance from.

The Dream Guides of the forum is here for you :hugitout: So if you need any help don't be afraid to ask!

I just wrote something about how I with my own biology and intent prolong my own dreams that can be read here: http://www.dreamviews.com/f12/crazyn...3/#post1955014

But to give you a short answer. Find a way to either go from the waking state to the dream instnatly, wake yourself up from the dream and return, or just increase the critical thinking in general to increase your chances. So in other words the WILD, DEILD or WBTB techniques and method. ;)

Another thing to note as well. Reality checking along the entire day is an effective tool for awareness in dreams, but is far from necessary. Just look at Robert Waggoner's book or the oroginal source of the method Carlos Castaneda, where they tell you to just look at your hands before going to sleep and then intend to see them in the dreams, and just that works.

So what your primary focus should be is on that intention behind your actions. That's all for lucid dreaming you get from me today. ;)

And to get some spiritual thoughts in here as well, because I can't help it I got to tell you about the power of intent...:roll:

Intention and your thoughts in general affect your life, just as we don't know how we can trigger critical substance to rise in our sleep with just intent, I can't explain how intent works in daily life as well. I have not been out partying very much lately since most of my friends study stressful courses, so well I wanted to find a way to get out more.

I intended to find a likeminded person and a way to get out more often, and one day when I were out with my friend as I said godbye to him I just felt the urge to go through the city, I had no real reason to why, it was a long detour, but I somehow did it anyway.

Thinking about my intent to meet someone I then started to wake to the bus stop and suddenly hear "Hey Chris! What are you doing here?"
We started to talk about our studies and boring stuff when he suddenly say, "I work as a promoter for a few clubs and well it have been a while since we last talked, and we never really went out and party together. Would you like to join me the next Friday? You will get in for free as well ;)".

..And now we are out every weekend :cheers:

Bash it all you want :content: I just want you to understand that this is not the first time positive intention have helped me and if you understand the power of intent you can make changes in your life too.
Dam* it I never manage to write a short post.... Ah well I hope it helped you :dreaming:

Inlakesh :meditate:

Congratulations. I agree that it helps to have a goal to make your lucid last. Keep it simple, and rehearse it a few times in your mind. Those first few seconds after you become lucid are critical. It can be a bit confusing, but having a goal helps keep you focused.