Lucid Dreaming and Dream incubation

[dreamvacationer]

I've been lurking here off and on and decided to post. I need your help and any tips you can give me. I started attempting to lucid dream a few months ago. I try to do reality checks throughout the day, but I have trouble remembering to do them when I am asleep. I rarely remember to do them in my sleep. I have been keeping a dream journal and so far my dream signs are: 1) People I know being places that I normally would not see them, or combinations of people I know being together that would not normally be together or know each other. 2) Living in places I have lived in the past but no longer live 3) Settings looking slightly different such as buildings layouts being rearranged. My house will look like my house, but the rooms will be in different places. 4) Things taking place where they wouldn't normally such as a business meeting at work being at my next door neighbor's house. 5) People who are deceased still being alive. 6) Meeting celebrities or fictional characters 7) People acting out of character (this one is kind of rare). I've tried to vary my reality checks to look for these sort of things rather than the standard ones described on this site. I have had 2 dreams that I think are lucid, I realized I was dreaming and was able to do some things I wanted to do, but they were pretty brief and they weren't as vivid as what is described here, still very dreamlike. These are *very* infrequent. I will admit that there are times when lucid dreaming is not as big of a priority as something I want to try to do and during those times I have become lax in keeping my dream journal and doing reality checks during the day. I am going to try to keep from doing that again in the future. Yesterday I read on here about using a "brainflooder" with Windows Movie Maker to watch images of what you want to dream about go by rapidly. I made one using "www.slide.com" a website for making flash slideshows. I put the pictures at the fastest speed possible and added captions about what I would dream that night and that I would lucid dream and remember my dreams. I watched this for half an hour before bed (no music just silence)...and I awoke twice during the night and watched it again for about 5 or 10 minutes trying to induce WBTB. I had one dream which was not lucid, but at the beginning of the dream, I dreamed that I was looking at the slideshow. Should I continue using the "brainflooder." Is this a good start? Any tips you can give me will be much appreciated.

[Saturos]

If you dream about watching the slideshow, I would suggest making it a reality check.

[dreamvacationer]

Thanks that's a great idea. I will at times dream about something that I was concentrating intently on before bed, but usually when that happens it is because the thing I was concentrating on was causing me stress rather than this being a good thing. For example if I am having a problem with my computer before bed, I will dream about trying to fix the computer problem. I'd like to figure out how to harness this into dreaming about things I want to happen, but for whatever reason aren't possible in reality. I want to be able to acheive vivid dreams based on various fantasies.

[KingYoshi]

"Brainflooder" sounds interesting. I don't think it can hurt your chances of attaining lucidity, so go ahead and use it if you like. Just remember different things work for different people. Make sure you keep up your Dream Journal and every time you do a reality check, look around the room for a second and make yourself believe it is all a dream. Glance around the room and pick up on some of the details. Then go about your business. You can also try listening to these songs either with or in place of Brainflooder. They make work in the same way. http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=81880 Good Luck in your future efforts.

[dreamvacationer]

Thanks... I will try listening to the mp3 tonight while I watch the slideshow and see what happens. I got the brainflooder idea here: http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...t=brainflooder Except mine doesn't show several dozen per second like his.

[dreamvacationer]

"Brainflooder" sounds interesting. I don't think it can hurt your chances of attaining lucidity, so go ahead and use it if you like. Just remember different things work for different people. Make sure you keep up your Dream Journal and every time you do a reality check, look around the room for a second and make yourself believe it is all a dream. Glance around the room and pick up on some of the details. Then go about your business. You can also try listening to these songs either with or in place of Brainflooder. They make work in the same way. http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=81880 Good Luck in your future efforts. I watched the slideshow with the first mp3 from the thread you linked to for half an hour before bed. As I went to sleep the song played over and over in my head and I was unable to think about anything other than the topic I wanted to dream about. The vision of what I wanted my dream to be was much more vivid, detailed, organized, and clear than in the past too, instead of just being "I want to dream about X." I woke up after about 3 and a half hours and got up and watched the slideshow again with the song. The song was again playing over and over in my head and I was focused on what I wanted to dream about. I think I may have actually had the dream, I want but I can't remember it. I have no dream recall from last night at all. I usually recall 2 to 3 dreams a week. I am disappointed that I didn't have the dream that I wanted (or at least don't remember having it) but I have renewed confidence that if I keep this up, I will be able to acheive this in time. I did not think about anything other than my dream topic and lucid dreaming all night. There have been other times when I have gone to bed obsessed with a topic, but usually that is because something in my lilfe is upsetting me. My dreams will generally be about the problem that is bothering me and me having continued frustration with it. I'm hoping to simulate the same thing only with something I WANT to dream about. I will try again tonight and maybe tis time I'll actually remember! Thanks for the help. Let me know if you there's anything else I could do. I am going to try to RC throughout the day today.

[The Cusp]

I had one dream which was not lucid, but at the beginning of the dream, I dreamed that I was looking at the slideshow. Should I continue using the "brainflooder." Is this a good start? LOL! Dreams reflect what you focus your attention on, and in this case it was the brain flooder rather that lucid dreaming. It could still work, but... Dreaming techniques often become a distraction, where you focus more on the technique rather than the goal. I think your time would have been better spent repeating to yourself something like "I will know I'm dreaming" or "I will become lucid tonight".

[dreamvacationer]

LOL! Dreams reflect what you focus your attention on, and in this case it was the brain flooder rather that lucid dreaming. It could still work, but... Dreaming techniques often become a distraction, where you focus more on the technique rather than the goal. I think your time would have been better spent repeating to yourself something like "I will know I'm dreaming" or "I will become lucid tonight". Yeah, tonight I added an mp3 that someone on here made with a really really catchy song that has the lyrics "I am dreaming....lucid dreaming" over and over and over again. Even if you listen to it once it gets stuck in your head and you can't get it out. I think I need the slideshow to help me envision the goal and get it completely stuck in my head that that's what I want to dream about, but adding the song will probably help me remember the actual goal. That song is STILL stuck in my head this morning. I think I may be spending too much time thinking about what I want to dream about rather than the lucid dreaming itself. I'm not sure... I think I'm getting close though. Like I said above, I think I may have had the dream last night and just don't remember it. What I'm trying to do today is spend time doing reality checks and making myself believe that tonight I will have the dream I want and envisioning what it will be like. Then I'll watch the slideshow and mp3 before bed.

[dreamvacationer]

I made a new slideshow that shows several images per second because I read elsewhere on the forum that it helps if your brain doesn't see the image long enough to process what it is. Its something to do with the subconscious. I made a movie using Windows movie maker that quickly flashes 177 images that I want to dream about while playing a lucid dreaming mp3. I watched it for half an hour before bed and in five minute intervals the 2 times I woke up last night. I did not get a lucid dream, but I did remember 4 separate dreams from last night which is more than I've ever remembered in one night and one of them had a small element of what I was attempting to dream about towards the end. I think tonight I am going to try drinking apple juice and eating peanut butter because those are supposed to help too. I am still only managing to remember to RC in reality and not in my dreams.