hope for newbies

Even though I have had lucid dreams in the past I've only recently started practicing the techniques again in hopes of having one. After over three weeks of daily reality checks, altered sleep schedules, trying different herbs, and recording my dreams I finally had a lucid dream last night!

I wanted to share this because the last couple days I really getting frustrated and started wondering if I had some mental block and would not be able to lucid dream again. I'm sure I'm not alone in this frustration so I hope this gives someone else the resolve to keep going - it WILL happen if you don't give up.

Last night I altered my routine in a number of ways and I'm not sure what exactly it was that worked this time so I will relate what I can of yesterday that might be relevant... reality checks were done throughout the day about 7 to 10 times...

3pm - ate grilled cheese sandwich while browsing this site (cheese is supposedly a potentator of lucid dreams.)

7pm - went to sleep for 6 hours and set alarm for 1am. (had 2 regular dreams at the end stages)

1am - woke up and did computer work until 4am, during which time I recorded the 2 dreams in my online dream journal. About an hour before going back to sleep I also drank a cup of Damiana tea and ate some fresh watermelon. (the herb Damiana is reported to aid lucid dreaming). About 10 minutes before returning to bed I ate 1/2 banana. (I was actually just hungry but banana is apparently a dream potentator also.)

4am - return to bed and set alarm for 7am (for work). As I drifted off I did the 51 point (or whatever it is) relaxation and also the white dot technique (imagining white dot to retain consciousness) I got to 1/2 sleep paralysis and blacked out (happens to me all the time).

6am - lucid dream - I'm standing in a hallway in a house or apartment I don't recognize. The walls are painted blue and down the hallway is a living room with a Christmas tree set up in the corner. The hallway has a mirror hanging on the wall. As I turn and look at my reflection I am shocked to see that my face has no features - no nose eyes or mouth - just smooth skin where a face should be. I hold my hands up to my head and think "omg, what happened to my face" at that point I think "holy crap, I did it, I'm dreaming!"

I keep repeating that to myself "I did it! I'm dreaming" and walk down the hallway. All of a sudden I remember that people say you should spin so you don't wake up so I started spinning in place like a little kid until I was SUPER dizzy but the room was solid and I wasn't waking up.

I looked down the hall in the opposite direction and saw a smaller room with also contained a mirror like surface hanging on the wall. The 'mirror' was covered in symbols which looked like alphabetic type hieroglyphics. The symbols were large (probably 3" x 3" each and arranged logically as if they would form sentences if someone could read them. I have seen these exact same type of hieroglyphics in a number of my dreams.

I ran toward the Christmas tree and decided I wanted to fly (even though indoors) so I ran and jumped at the tree and wrapped my hands around the top of the tree as if I was trying to strangle it. As I did this my feet floated straight up as if someone just switched gravity off and I found myself floating on top of the ceiling looking straight down at the Christmas tree below. My cat scurried under the tree as I did this. I difference was he was a black cat instead of his actual orange-tan color but I knew it was still him. He sat way below me on the floor and looked up at me like "what are you doing?".

All of a sudden I heard a beep reminder of my PDA next to my bed (I use it as my alarm clock too) but the beep in the dream just came out of the air and I knew exactly what it was. The dream started to fade and my vision started to go dark and fuzzy and I tried to spin but couldn't in time and woke up.

After I woke up I did a reality check to make sure it wasn't a false awakening and I indeed was awake. I was STILL dizzy though even sitting up in my bed and probably for the next hour getting ready for work. I also noticed a kind of "openness" feeling between my eyes where I imagine the white dot during the meditation technique and that also persisted for a few hours before it went away. It almost felt like some switch in my brain had been flipped on and left on my accident. Very weird.

I hope this account helps someone :) Keep dreaming!

-apathy

Thank you and congratulations. *stares at cheez-its* ok cheese is good :).
Ive been practicing for a few weeks... i also am getting better dream recall. (when i was outmy whole familly decided to read my dream journal... not fun) Thanks for the encouragement. I've had 1 lucid and a very short one at that. I wish i had your knoledge of pro dream activities :P. Happy dreaming (note to self, Hide dream Journal)

apathy, congratulations on your lucid dream!! (Is your cat still looking at you funny?) :D

Also thanks so much for sharing what worked for you.. perhaps it can help others as well!

.

Congrats! I have one question. When you said you did a reality check to make sure you were awake, was this just for it to get into your subconscious mind for lucid dreams? Or, did you genuinally not know if you were dreaming or not? I am asking because I have never genuinally thought i was dreaming when i was not. sorry if it sounds like a stupid question, i am just curious

It took me 6 months to have my first LD - consider yourselves lucky! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LucidMike14

When you said you did a reality check to make
sure you were awake, was this just for it to get into your subconscious mind for lucid dreams? Or, did you genuinally not know if you were dreaming or not? I am asking because I have never genuinally thought i was dreaming when i was not. sorry if it sounds like a stupid question, i am just curious

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I think everyone uses RCs differently. Personally, I just use them to get into that mindset of questioning reality. I've never genuinely thought I was dreaming when I was awake, but then again when I'm dreaming I never think I am either :-P The most important thing is just taking a minute to be thorough, look around, question why things are the way they are. What are you doing right now? Why are you doing it? Does that reason make sense? Ask yourself questions like that.

Trying to put yourself into that state of mind will help you become lucid in your dreams, whether you do it just to condition yourself to do RCs or otherwise.

Wow i wish i have a ld soon. But i'm writing this in regards of the banana :banana: yesterday i ate one before sleeping and i almost have a ld so maybe you are right about that.
and, can you explain the white dot meditation, when do i do it what do i imagine all that plz

I'm not sure what this white dot business you're talking about is. Personally I never used any of the induction methods - but then again it took me 6 months to start LDing :p

I actually used a "method" I came up with on my own to have my first 2 LDs. I just told myself to wake up in the middle of the night, and after waking up I drank half a quart of chocolate milk and went back to sleep. I think this got my brain and body to be more active while digesting the milk, which helped me become lucid. On that note, I would recommend waking up in the middle of the night and then eating your banana :banana: No promises, but I think it's worth trying.

By the way, I had a LD last night :D My first in a while. Just reading these boards for 30 minutes before going to bed really gets your mind in the right place to do it.

the question of the white dot was for apathy.
And pelirrojo ill try eating the banana at the middle of the night. and i have asked myself during my waking life if i was dreaming but it was just a strange situation

That's the secret - you need to always be asking yourself if you're dreaming :D You need to constantly question whether the things around you make sense, what their purpose is, whether you're dreaming, etc. Try to always be in that critical frame of mind. LD is a way of life :D

Wow, thanks for the responses....

As for my dream consciousness, I wasn't lucid until the shock and horror of seeing myself in the mirror sans face. Before that I was just in a normal no-lucid dream being a dream puppet. The shock jolted me into a sense that something was not right here at which point I realized it must be a dream (or really bad plastic surgery which is a possiblity for me :)

The white dot technique is from "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge (my LD bible). pg 102 psalm 16:

Power of visualization: White Dot Technique (for WILD)

1. before bed resolve to recognize when your dreaming...visualize in your throat the syllable ah, red in color and vividly radiant...

2. at dawn resolve eleven times to comprehend the nature of the dream state....concentrate your mind upon a white dot, colored bony white, situated between your eyebrows...continue to focus on the dot until you find that you are dreaming.

The white dot represents the third chakra and is supposed to help you stay conscious while your body falls off.

-Apathy

Correct me if I'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure he RC'd when he woke up, because he was making sure he wasn't having a FA.

An F.A. stands for False Awakening. It's when you dream that you are waking up. Alot of people are super-close to an LD and then fall into a false awakening, and then ACTUALLY wake up. So, thats probablly why he did the RC, to make sure he wasn't in a FA.