Thread: Tips for newbies

I wrote this a loong time ago when I was a dream guide.
Thought this might be useful. Besides, I'd like to link it in my sig:

General tips:
For the sake of simplicity, I'll focus on Dream Induced Lucid Dreams (DILD)
Increasing your skill at lucid dreaming involves at least 3 steps: Dream Recall, Awareness and Control

Dream Recall:
Keep a dream journal to impress on your mind the importance of your dreams. It greatly increases both recall and the possibility of becoming lucid automagically
When you wake up - if possible stay in bed. Don't change position, just lie in the position you woke with and go over any feelings or snippets of dreams you remember. Ask what caused the feeling or the snippet. How did you feel like that, how did you get to that dream snippet, what happened afterwards, etc.
Only once you feel confident you've recalled as much as possible, then you may write it in your journal.

Awareness:
Practice your general awareness in both waking and dream 'life'.

First learn of a few reality checks (RCs). These are simple tests to 'check' if you're awake or sleeping.
Always have more than 1, to be sure one will work. As you get more skilled you may also need to find new reality checks.
Also identify some dream signs. You can liken dreamsigns to a RC 'trigger'. Eg. a dreamsign may be that whenever you see a car, you instinctively perform your RC's.

Make sure you practice your RCs and dreamsigns habitually until it becomes second nature to you. This may take between 2 days and 2 weeks, depending on the person and their determination. Ask yourself every now and again if the things around you seem to be all in your head, or are external to you. Eg. in The Matrix (I know - corny) they talk about your sensory input being all that lets you know of the world around you. Remember that things around you are only what your senses tell you they are. Realise that 'Seeing is NOT believing' and your senses are not always truth - this understanding seems to help with lucid dreams

Also always make sure you have some sort of goal you want to meet in your dream. This motivation both increases your chances of becoming lucid as well as the length and quality of your lucid dream.
Should you NOT do this, there is a high chance that your lucid dream will drift off back into a normal dream very quickly. You can liken it to having to go for a swim as soon as you've woken up You need to prevent yourself getting lazy

Dream Control:
When it comes to dream control, remember that your subconscious is still in control of a lot of the dream. And your subconscious is a tricky thing - what you sow, you reap. If you want something to happen in a dream, try to (1) make it easier to 'understand' - something that could happen in reality. Eg. open a box to summon an object, instead of it 'popping' up in front of you. Or use devices that help you to eg. fly. Throw them away once you realise that it's all in your mind. This is called a shortcut.(2) Don't doubt whether things happen. Just try to take for granted that things will just work. Any doubts can cause the negatives to happen. Nightmares for example are fuelled on doubts, fears and insecurity. Ever had a dream where you had to run, but couldn't? or fight, but felt like it was under water? That's all doubt. Just try to avoid thinking of any doubts, and take things for granted (Takes some practice)

I highly suggest looking through the tutorials for more information
Any question or topic you need elaboration on?

Vote for Sticky.

Stickies are frowned upon nowadays - so it's unlikely
But thanks for the vote

Very good Placebo

Originally Posted by Placebo

Stickies are frowned upon nowadays - so it's unlikely
But thanks for the vote

I could link this in the Newbie Zone sticky if you want. Nicely done!

Originally Posted by Burns

I could link this in the Newbie Zone sticky if you want. Nicely done!

Cool. See, I told you voting for sticky counts!

Thanks guys.
Wow, I should find all my other old useful posts

Thanks. Very helpful

Originally Posted by Placebo

Any question or topic you need elaboration on?

Hi o/ I used to do a ton of lucid dreaming when i was younger before i even knew that thats what i was doing. after awhile i stopped being able to and eventually forgot about it. Ive always had the 'awareness' you speak of in terms of lucid dreaming as a result of my younger adventures i guess. but now that I want to start doing it again... I notice that its a HUGE struggle to take control of the dream. Normally the first thing ill do as soon as I realize Im dreaming is a test to check how much control i can force over the dream. Usually this will be just by a small test of using magic. I will wave my hand and think about what i want to appear or I will just think really hard about what i want to happen i.e like .. im outside and its raining- i want it to stop raining. or Ie-waving hand I want to change the seasons around. Well usually this test will either work right away (with a huge amount of mental and .. how you say.. when you feel like youre straining your body trying to get it to do what you want) but it will only for a few times... then the dream starts feeling like its putting a struggle up against me to put itself back in control (a fight i usually lose because it feels like its pulling my body and midn extremely hard regardless of my will or determination) or it just wont work at all and ill have struggled for nothing. I have no doubts that I can control the dreams as I used to do it all the time. but.. why is it feeling like such a fight now? Is this normal for the dream to fight to keep itself going as it was without your control? Its a very physically tiring and straining struggle. Any tips or advice please? I really need some fun adventure again like i used to.

Also.. i do always have a goal in mind when doing this. Ive always been kind of curious on if theres a way to force your subconscious to tell you out straight what its trying to tell you through the dreams or if theres just an easier way to figure it out. My goal when I attempt these is not to force the answer to come straight out (obviously thats probably something more on the complex advanced LD ability) but to be able to find out by my own means on what the dream is telling me while following it through allowing it to run its natural course while still being able to exert control where I want or need to. Is my goal not strict enough?