New to the forums, and to LD

[Sotik]

Hey guys and gals, I am new to the forums and to the whole Lucid Dream concept . I got turned onto Lucid Dreaming by a site I go to when I have nothing better to do, and they had a user submitted clip on how to achieve Lucid Dreams. Now at first I thought it sounded too good to be true, but not being one to just dismiss something with out research first I did in fact do research and became very interested in the whole concept of Lucid Dreaming. So that was a few days ago and since then I have been following the steps I have found which leads me to my question. Am I doing it right? I notice that a lot of the guides I found were fairly common, keep a notebook next to your bed and write any dreams you have in it in present tents, look at your hands a lot during the day and debate with yourself if you are dreaming, have an object you look at, try to tell your brain you want to have a lucid dream before you fall asleep and so on. Now while I keep a note book next to my bed however, ever since I have tried to have Lucid Dreams, my dreams seem to become real blurry. I could vividly remember a lot of my dreams before I tried to get into Lucid Dream, however now all my dreams seem to be a blur. So with the Dream Recall method I have also I have been trying the WILD method. Which is where I have my biggest problem. Now when I try the WILD method I will give myself a little speech aloud saying I want to have a Lucid Dream, I want to be self aware and to have control. I will then focus on a fantasy landscape that I would love to visit. When I do that what happens is I will start to see little blur swirly things, and my eyes will start to water really badly. But if I keep focusing I will start to actually see the landscape I am thinking off but the next thing I know is I will find myself fighting with myself to have a Lucid Dream and then I just wake up about an hour later. So it is at this point I give up and just fall asleep and I have my dreams that are all blurry. Like last night I had a dream and all I remember is there was a woman that was pregnant. I don't recall where we were, or who she was. I know there were other people in the dream, but I can not remember who they were. Which is odd because as I said before I have had very vivid dreams and I can still remember dreams I had from last year. I have also had dreams in the past where I did indeed become aware I was dreaming, but I couldn't control them. It was more like I was watching a TV show and I didn't like the dream so I woke myself up. I am not sure if that is considered a Lucid Dream though. Sorry this ended up so long. If anyone has any tips or idea's on what I am doing please let me know. P.S. Also I have written a A on the palm of my hand, every time I see it I will stop and debate with myself if I am dreaming or not, and I will pinch myself to see if I feel pain and if I do then I conclude I indeed awake. Is this a good habit to get into?

[Unelias]

Hi and welcome to the forums Well for your very first question, are you doing it right.. everybody developes eventually personal style of doing it, but you seem to be on the right track. Your first goal should be to develope a good recall, I suggest to train it untill you can remember 3-4 dreams a night. In that way you have great chance of NOT forgetting the lucid dream in case you have it. Dream recall is useful of course when you want to enjoy and digg things up from your dreams later. Well about your WILD, it is pretty hard to succeed in WILD unless you do the Wake-back-to-bed (WBTB) method. I suggest you to get familiar with WBTB ifyou wanna WILD. Lucid dream is simply dream in which you are aware that you are dreaming. You could say that there are still different stages of lucidity. But for me it's impossible to be unsure if I am lucid dreaming or in a regular dream since the feeling is so much different once I realize I am dreaming. For reality checks, try to do them with your mind in it. Everytime something you consider as strange happens, do a RC. I doubt that random checking helps much, I have never gone lucid from random reality check. Also, I wouldn't recommend pinching because ( at least I ) feel pain in lucids, so the pinch might not be enough to convince you in you dream. Check reality checks tutorials for more reality checks I personally prefer nose pinch breath method. But if you want to become good, I suggest you to start looking lots of your enviroment and training general awareness. In that way there is a lot higher chance for you to do that in your dreams Good luck for your dream journey

[Sotik]

Alright thanks for that information, and I ask to please forgive my typo's above. I am still trying to wake up after all Would it be good to buy a book from somewhere that has information on Lucid Dreaming? One of the biggest tips I see suggested over and over again is to do a lot of research on the subject and that way you become more aware that you can have lucid dreams and that if you are dreaming you have a better chance of asking yourself if the dream is real or not and becoming self aware. But then I just wonder if people who suggest that are just trying to get others to buy their book and make a profit off of it.

[Unelias]

I have never bought anything regarding lucid dreaming. I was a lucid dreamer before I knew what it was so you don't need it. But of course if you are interested you could buy a book. Be wary trough, there is always a chance that write is a hoax if you just pick it from some site. There is a topic about lucid books here too, which are real deal The main key is to become self aware, you are correct. So if you have habit to go mindlessly with the flow or sleepwalk through the day, it might hinder your progress

[Sotik]

Hmm it sounds then as if studying from the internet and taking notes would be my best bet then? Do you know if the lucidipedia website is a good site that is trustworthy? Also I still am unclear about what happened last night when I tried to induce a lucid dream by using the WILD method. I saw what was like a blue swirling ball, at first that was all it was but slowly it started to transform into the landscape I was trying to picture, then next thing I knew is I was asking myself. "Do you really want to have a lucid dream?" Then I just woke up, looked at the clock at it was only an hour later. I am thinking maybe it is best to take a step back and just start with a journal and move up from there into trying to induce them.

[ThreeLetterSyndrom]

Lucidipedia is certainly a good resource Welcome to DV

[Sotik]

Thank you. It seems like DV has a good supportive community. I can't wait to have my first LD though I know I have to But I love fantasy so much that it has become a hobby to write books based on fantasy. I have written a lot of smaller short stories for classes and stuff, and I am working on some that I plan to publish sometime in the future, and it always was a dream of mine if I could live in that kind of world. So the second I learned about LD it more or less became an obsession of mine. But again thank you for the welcome. You will most likely see me around the site a lot as I try to develop this skill Oh and happy New Years

[Unelias]

But I love fantasy so much that it has become a hobby to write books based on fantasy. I have written a lot of smaller short stories for classes and stuff, and I am working on some that I plan to publish sometime in the future, and it always was a dream of mine if I could live in that kind of world. I too have always had a good imagination and written a lot. Fantasy is one of my favorite genres too. Only problem I have encountered, or at least I think it was, is that I have sometimes hard time to become lucid via DILD because I think so many things are possible in real life. Too much fantasy I quess