Starting out

[Ian]

Hey I just started on this Lucid Dreaming stuff, it sounds really cool. What would you suggest I practice doing to train this for the first week? Should I start out with Dream Recalling and Journal entries? Or just go straight to trying to cue a Lucid Dream? I want to get started in this right away. I've had Lucid Dreams before that I can remember but I never could substain that state, I get too excited and end up waking up. I have pretty good Dream Recall though, I remember lots of my dreams.

[Raven]

You can do both ways....

[Ian]

Well the first night before I fell asleep I kept repeating to myself that I would have lucid dreams. And I remember for every one of my dreams I had last night I knew they were dreams within seconds and they just ended. One of them I knew it was a dream as soon as it started it seemed and I said to myself "I am dreaming" and then said "look at the dog" and I looked at a dog that was standing beside me. Then looked back straight again and I felt tingley all over my body then the dream faded. I thought I was keeping calm but I don't know what happend. I had 3 dreams that night and all of them lasted seconds because somehow I knew they were dreams, I think I knew so fast because the world around myself was a grey emptiness. There was nothing around me there was just me.

[Howie]

HI Ian!!! Welcome</span> <span style="color:green"> To loose lucidity is to be expected when you begin. If you have time when you feel the scene fading, try to look at something stable. Maybe like your hands or the ground. Try to remain calm. Excitement is what wakes you up. Sounds like you will have good success!

[Ian]

Yeah thanks I think the reason I lost lucidity was because of the overwhelming tingling feeling, I think it distracted me too much and I lost concentration. I was concentrating on the dog I saw in my dream but then I felt tingling all over my body, like nothing I've felt before. Even that was an experience I will remember for a while. Can't wait till night time again

[Joo52]

Remember to spin in place if you feel you are loosing the dream. This helps you to collect all of your sense again, although you will likely end up in a new location after doing this.

[Ian]

I'll have to try that tonight, it sounds a bit rediculous but from other posts I've heard it works.

[Barbizzle]

Also rubbing your hands works just as well.

[nerve]

recall and journaling go hand in hand and are definitely the best place to start. but if your recall is already great then i see no point in working on it. even if your recall is good i'd still recommend keeping a journal, it can actually make your recall even better and you can use the dreams you record to work with certain techniques and things. honestly, the spinning thing never did anything for me, i wouldn't even bother. i think the best thing to do is, like howetzer said, look at something stable. i always look at my hands, and it helps a great deal. perfecting dream stability can be really frustrating and,i think, is probably the hardest part about lucid dreaming. so don't get discouraged if you don't get it after awhile. it's really, really important to keep a good attitude; getting too stressed about it can repel lucidity and dream recall. best of luck to you and of course, if you have any questions at all feel free to ask me or anyone in the staff (they're some of the nicest people you'll ever meet). ps, it's totally worth the effort.

[Ian]

Yeah, thanks for the info I was also wondering about what happend to my body when I became lucid.. the tingling feeling I felt was like nothing I have before, it was almost like my whole body just fell asleep instantly and it kept getting worse and worse untill I eventually woke up. Has this happend to anyone else before?

[nerve]

perfectly normal and probably related to sleep paralysis. i don't want to sound like i'm condescending or anything, i don't know how much you know about the sleep process, but everytime you go to sleep you become paralyzed. it's common to experience tingling or pressure sensations, and even hear strange noises. sometimes you may be conscious of the paralysis during sleep onset, which is hypnogogic paralysis. or you may be conscious of it while you're waking up (less common) called hypnopompic paralysis. my guess is that you were waking up as the paralysis was wearing off. i remember in my first lucid dream, when i woke up i heard this loud pop, almost like someone dropped a lighbulb. so yeah, things like that are totally normal and commonly experienced by lucid dreamers.

[Ian]

I see.