Newbie on the forum. Bonjour!

[Stef_Stef7]

Hello, Bonjour, I'm not really a complete newbie on lucid dreaming since I've been experiencing lucidity from time to time for 20 years (I'm 35). It's an ability I've discovered by chance (and with fears) when I was a teenager long before I heard about lucidity. My command of lucidity has dwindled gradually and I'm trying to get it back busily. What I'm curious about is how much you can extend this skill. I remember composing symphonies in half-sleep mode, replaying soundtracks from films I used to enjoy at that time and in both cases really hearing them as if they were played on my stereo. I remember checking the consistency of my dreaming environment and being amazed by its incredible vividness (while in my wake state, I'm unable to visualize just a single color with my eyes shut). So, I was wondering how far (and how) it's possible to improve this ability (I mean see or hear things you want to see/hear by will in a wake state) and if such an improve can be achieved through learning and bettering lucid dreaming. The ability exists for sure. I've heard that some composers hear the music they want to write down. But, I've heard or read nothing about pictures. Have you noticed things or read pieces of information linked to this question? Do you experience a better ability to visualize sceneries in your wake state? Or do you manage to use dreams and especially LD for a creative use? Bye Stef

[Luminous]

Hello, and welcome to DV! Lucid dreaming can have many uses, as you have already discovered. Lucid dreams are great for problem solving and creativity. I use lucid dreams for creative purposes myself. You seem to have come far already, and yes, you can improve your abilities with practice. From what I understood, you have certain scenarios, or something you want to see or hear in your lucid dreams, right? There are probably many things you can do to achieve this. I'll give you an example of what I sometimes do if I want to see pictures or paintings for inspiration: In my lucid dream, I will change my surroundings to a room, or at least a wall. I will find a door, and tell myself that there will be paintings hanging on the walls in the room behind that wall. I enter, and the paintings will be hanging there. I have not willingly decided what the paintings will look like. My mind will come up with something as soon as I look at them. Since you want to extend your skill, you might also be interested in trying a lucid dreaming technique we call 'wake induced lucid dream' (WILD) which is a technique where you enter a lucid dream from a waking state, so that you keep your consciousness as you fall asleep and enter the dream. It's a very popular technique, and there are several tutorials on it on the forums, look through the ones you can find here, if you are interested: http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...splay.php?f=25 Don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions!

[LucidDreamGod]

Hello, Bonjour, I'm not really a complete newbie on lucid dreaming since I've been experiencing lucidity from time to time for 20 years (I'm 35). It's an ability I've discovered by chance (and with fears) when I was a teenager long before I heard about lucidity. My command of lucidity has dwindled gradually and I'm trying to get it back busily. What I'm curious about is how much you can extend this skill. I remember composing symphonies in half-sleep mode, replaying soundtracks from films I used to enjoy at that time and in both cases really hearing them as if they were played on my stereo. I remember checking the consistency of my dreaming environment and being amazed by its incredible vividness (while in my wake state, I'm unable to visualize just a single color with my eyes shut). So, I was wondering how far (and how) it's possible to improve this ability (I mean see or hear things you want to see/hear by will in a wake state) and if such an improve can be achieved through learning and bettering lucid dreaming. The ability exists for sure. I've heard that some composers hear the music they want to write down. But, I've heard or read nothing about pictures. Have you noticed things or read pieces of information linked to this question? Do you experience a better ability to visualize sceneries in your wake state? Or do you manage to use dreams and especially LD for a creative use? Bye Stef Hello Stef, I too am interested in that visualization ability. I have experimented with seeing stuff mainly and I can definitly tell you it is improvable, like you said it works best when your sleepy, but it can be done in a normal waking state. I assume the ability to hear music in your head is improvable to, I havn't really tried often with that, but I remember times before sleep were I experimented and I got the sounds to become vivider, it's not like the music gets louder though, it's like it gets clearer and closer. You have to learn how to tune into it though, same with visualizing, I started struggling seeing simple shapes, and soon relised how to visualise my house and school, and were ever else I could remember in a more well detailed image. So far I have really only gotten an abstract sense of how to do it, but you can't go wrong trying to hear/see it and take yourself to wherever in your mind you feel it's coming from (thats the best way I can discribe it). Actually I recommend VILD or V-WILD http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=56389 seems like that would interest you more, but don't make it your main method, it could take awhile to achieve.

[Stef_Stef7]

Thanks for your answers I'll post later about my successes (I hope !) Bye Stef

[Robot_Butler]

Hey, Stef, welcome to Dream Views. I know what you mean about visualizing in dreams. Its amazing the clear and realistic images and sounds our brains can come up with while dreaming. I've found that, generally, whatever you focus on in your dream becomes more vivid. If you stare at the landscape and try to inspect every detail, you will find every detail. If you take a moment to listen very carefully, you will start to hear music or sounds. Are you interested in improving your waking visualization abilities? Or your dreaming visualization ability? I think they can both be improved with a little practice.

[Stef_Stef7]

Hello Robot_Butler I have two different goals. I know my dreaming visualization is good. I still have very vivid normal dreams (I keep a diary, it helps a lot to remember as you know). What I'm trying is to improve my ability in getting LD. This is my main goal (and I'm rather confident about it, there are documented methods to achieve it ). The other goal is more hazy since I don't know what is sensible and what lies beyond human possibility (and my own capacities). To summarize it, yes, it would be to improve my waking visualization. I draw and write as a hobby. How marvellous it would be to get access to these incredible capacities the brain has when we sleep. Imagine, you're sitting at your desk, you visualize for instance a city and it appears, packed with details, with inventive architectonics. You play with the reflection of the sun and you just copy what you're visualizing ! I've done this kind of trick while sleeping (I often fly over huge cities built on hills). I don't know if it's possible in a waking state of conscience (I would suspect not to that extent, but for the writing it could be very useful to visualize sceneries, characters, plots, and so on). How frustrating and tantalizing it is to know these incredible capacities exist. Well, relax! first stage, get LDs more often

[Robot_Butler]

Stef, I use dreams for something similar. I'm an Artist & Architect. I come up with a lot of designs in my dreams. Pay attention to the Hypnagogic Imagery you get just before you slip into sleep. If you can keep yourself in that trance-like state right on the edge of sleep, you can come up with some crazy visualizations. I also incubate a lot of subjects, buildings, or environments to dream about. These can be lucid or non lucid dreams. I also like to turn my regular dreams into epic stories. Sometimes when I become lucid, I will let the dream play out with limited intervention from myself. I hold the expectation that there will be an awesome storyline, and then I step in to exert control if I don't like the way things are going. Then, I can also use tricks like dream reentry, incubated subject matter, ect to come up with some crazy ideas that would never come to me in waking life. I have heard that you can excercise your ability to visualize. It would make sense that remembering your dreams more vividly would help to strengthen this ability. Pulling up detailed images out of your memory that were just your imagination to beging with. You can also try some VILD type techniques to help practice visualization. I can't wait to see what you will come up with

[Stef_Stef7]

Hello everybody, I won't bore you with my nights but just for this time because I'm quite happy with my first try. And it's thanks to your support and the resources found here. I had tried WBTB before but on my own. Results were not very good. So for my first official WBTB it has worked very very well. Yes, it's worth a ludicrous dancing banana! I had LDs (2 shorts, one minute or so at maximum and the last one longer). The check nose trick has worked very very well, and the spinning too (in fact the spinning seems to solve my main problem with LDs: to maintain the sense of sight). I've also observed that to interact with dream characters is dangerous (interactions halted 2 of my LDs, too much emotion involved). Hé hé! Flying over this good ol' city was fun!

[Jdeadevil]

Welcome to the forum Stef. Looks like everyone's been giving you advice already so I won't bore you with my ultra long paragraphs. But I'd just like to say welcome to the community and I hope you have fun.