Newbie's Observation

[Revan256]

My name's Steve and I just heard about the art of Lucid Dreaming a few days ago from my Advance Science-Fiction teacher. He's been doing this for over 3 years now and loves it. Anyway I couldn't help but notice how nice, understanding, and helpful everyone is on this forum. Honestly though, any other site on the web you'll get people throwing all kinds of names at you for no particular reason, just to get a rise out of you. Considering this is such a deep topic, I don't even see skeptical idiots spamming and putting people down. Well I guess what I'm trying to say is I've been a member for 5 minutes, and thanks for being so damn nice everyone, lol. Anyway like I was saying I'm Steve, I'm about to turn 18 y/o and graduate, I'm loving every second of it. I see myself as having a very creative mind, and I feel like I'm good at some things that would spark logic and creativity (like programming and drawing). When I heard the idea of Lucid Dreaming I literally stood out of my seat. Excuse the pun, but it was a dream come true! So far, achievement wise, I have not gotten very far considering I've only been researching/dream-logging for 2 days now. Although, I do see myself getting the hang of this eventually. Haha, I've only gotten to the point of getting myself relaxed as I drift asleep...and I'm not even sure I'm getting that right. So I suppose you're saying to yourself, "What's this kid trying to say?", well...I guess I'd have to ask the more experienced people...or at least the people who have experienced a ld: How did you start out? What kind of things did you do/what were you good at right away? Also, how long did it take you to achieve you first and how long after before they became consistent? Thanks a lot to everyone in advance.

[Casualtie]

Hey Steve! Welcome to Dreamviews. Your expectations seem to be similar to mine when I first heard about lucid dreaming and signed up here. It seems like this magical experience full of wonder and mind exploration; a great way to get in touch with your subconscious and unlock your creative muse. You won't be disappointed. Lucid dreaming is an amazing experience that I wish many people weren't so skeptical about. What can you do, though? Their loss! When first starting out you want to work up your recall, basically how well you remember your dreams. Keep a consistent dream journal of anything and everything you can remember from your dreams and it will gradually improve. Once you feel like you have a good footing in dream recall you can start reality checking (if you want to, you could probably even work on reality checks and dream recall at the same time. afterall, the sooner you can get a reality check habit, the better). I had my first lucid dream after about a week and a half of extreme anticipation, constant reality checks, and a semi-consistent online dream journal. It caught me by surprise and was notably vivid and controlled (from what I've read on this site) for a first lucid dream. Unfortunately, I'm still very inconsistent with them (about once or twice a month), most likely because of the fact that I no longer keep any dream journal (online or by my bedside), usually don't reality check more than once or twice during the day, and haven't gotten enough sleep since God knows when. I anticipate it changing dramatically during the summer as I won't have nearly as much stress from school and I'll be able to sufficient sleep. Anyway, welcome to Dreamviews. I'm glad you found it so inviting and hospitable after only one post. I wish you the best of luck. : )

[13redfan]

Heya Steve! Welcome, it's really cool that you find everyone kind and accepting. I also was quite amazed at how easy going and generally cool the site is, but I think it may have had to do with the verdana font lol. Anyway, I've been researching lucid dreaming for about I dunno 6 months, and I've only had one! but then again I haven't really been consistent with it. I don't have time for a DJ (I do now, I've started it up again) mostly because I get so little sleep, and I've been bad with RCs but my approach was to get my recall up, and begin RCing to get it to become a habit, as well as practising the visualization techniques in Stephen La Berge's book. I figured that way I'd have good visualization for the techniques used, and good recall and subconscious RCing, which would hopefully lead to constant RCing in dreams, and good payout when I do attempt a WILD. Hope you come right man!

[nina]

Welcome to the forum!

[stranger]

Welcome, Steve! I'm sure having a creative mind helps, but I think that the main points for being good at LDing are: - Constancy: think frequently about dreams and LDs, and do reality checks often, not as something mechanical, but really "questioning reality" (don't accept that you're awake until you prove it, even if you know that you're awake) - Patience: you can have a LD pretty soon, or it can take you some time. Don't get discouraged if you don't succeed at the beginning, or if you have several LDs and then stop having them for some time. I'm having a dry spell myself that lasts for several months now but in January I had 3-4 LDs a week! BTW this is my first post in several months, I've been really busy for some time, but it's over now This is another thing to remember: stress and concerns are the worst enemies of LDing. See you and good luck!

[sourcejedi]

My name's Steve and I just heard about the art of Lucid Dreaming a few days ago from my Advance Science-Fiction teacher. He's been doing this for over 3 years now and loves it. Anyway I couldn't help but notice how nice, understanding, and helpful everyone is on this forum. Honestly though, any other site on the web you'll get people throwing all kinds of names at you for no particular reason, just to get a rise out of you. Considering this is such a deep topic, I don't even see skeptical idiots spamming and putting people down. Well I guess what I'm trying to say is I've been a member for 5 minutes, and thanks for being so damn nice everyone, lol. Nice to meet you too Steve. You're right, I've been around a little while and I only remember one case that might qualify as idiotic skepticism, and even then it was more like disillusionment at finding this appealing thing more elusive than they thought it should be, than denying the fact of it. Underage, needy and incomprehensible we may be - but I reckon we're all pretty nice people. Good luck!

[RakelvonB]

Hey Steve! I'm new too, welcome from a newbie! I would say the best way to go lucid would be DILD, I personally think it's the easiest. It helps if you constantly have lucid dreaming at the back of your mind, always asking yourself if you're dreaming and if not then to prove so (you should do it as if to disprove that you really are awake). It also helps to keep all of your senses fully aware during your waking life which will eventually increase the vividness of your dreams. Btw I'm about to turn 18 and graduate too! :p Good luck with all that!

[Revan256]

Wow I said something nice and people actually responded nice back? Excuse the pun, but am I dreaming? Hahaha sorry, I had to do it. Thanks for all the feedback though fellas, I saw some good suggestions above. Now Stranger, I hope what you said about keeping dreams/ld's on your mind is true, because that's all I've been able to think about lately. My girlfriend and I will sit down on the couch ready to cuddle a little bit and I'll go ahead and be like, "Hey Em, I almost forgot to tell you something about lucid dreaming!". Haha she's so patient. Anyway I'll go ahead and update where I'm at in the process. I have kept a dream journal starting two days ago and had recalled 2 dreams the first night, and 3 the second...some more vivid than others. I tried to remember to do reality checks throughout the day, but couldn't really bring myself to consistently remember to do it. I tried to look at my watch (non-digital, no numbers, only one word on it :/ ) a few times to make sure it stayed the same, but honestly I don't know how effective that is. Also I spoke to the person who started me on all of this: my 1st hour teacher. I e-mailed him a long message with a bunch of questions. I figure direct help is going to be the best bet here, but as soon as my two weeks are up, I'm going to look to be adopted, haha. I was wondering what do you guys do for reality checks. What do you find works and what is really just a waste of time? Now I'm obviously not so ignorant to even expect a LD on the third night, but I feel like I've got a good start, or jump if you will(you baseball players know what that feels like ). What does everyone think?

[Alprazolam]

Whats crackin Steve I am 18, soon turning 19. I just graduated HS a year ago. I too have always felt I had a step up above everyone when it came to creativity and awareness, as well as an overall interest in the mind. I heard about LD'ing through a friend, and immediately came home and stumbled upon DV.com That night I had my very first LD, and have never looked back. Look foward to your first one, it will be an amazing experience in the least bit. As for trying to compare and get a gauge from everyone else as to when you'll have your first LD; Don't focus too hard on others success. Use it for motivation, and realize everyone seems to be different when it comes to LD'ing. You are doing all the right things. Make your stay here long and eventful, and soak in as much knowledge as you possibly can. Put what you learn into practice, and success will only follow! Happy dreams! ** Some reality check tips: The watch text is a decent one. The easiest two ones I like to do: Nose checking- Plugging your nose and trying to breathe. If you can breathe, your dreaming. If not, it's reality. Make sure to focus on the outcome after each one. Some sort of suggestive text- I wear wristbands. I would often put text on them such as "Is this real?" or "Are you dreaming?" I would check that as often as possible to form a habbit, and make sure to look around and take in every detail to feel if I was in reality or not. (I also had a friend that wrote it on a card and would check it every hour on the hour.) These are some basic ones to make good habit of. Start off slow and steady. (Wins the race, right?) Best of luck!

[NeAvO]

Hi Steven / Reven Welcome to the forum. If you need anything feel free to ask.

[stranger]

You're doing great, don't get obsessed about it and it'll be easier. As for which RCs work better, I suppose it depends on the person, and keep in mind that any RC has a non-zero chance of failure. My favourites are: - plugging my nose and trying to breath. If you can, you're dreaming. This one has never failed to me yet. - looking at my hand and counting how many fingers it has. If they look blur or difficult to count, or you have any number of them other than 5 (in my case ) then you're dreaming. - Reading a text twice and checking that it reads the same The last two have failed to me from time to time, but you can do any of them without people thinking you're crazy :p Do more that one check each time, because I suspect that subconscious mind tends to learn those tricks and improve the simulation of reality. Texts in my dreams are becoming pretty readable and make sense. Remember, be patient because it's worth the effort. Chances are that your first dreams will last a few seconds after realising that you're dreaming because of the excitement and lack of control, but the sense of awe the first time you do a RC "just in case" and discover that the whole world around you doesn't exist is priceless. It's so... matrix

[Infraredkelp]

Welcome to da thing If you have any questions, keep 'em to yourself :p