I finally stumbled into lucidity... after months of frustration. Any help?

I've been aware of lucid dreaming since I was a kid but didn't learn what they were called until my late teens. Since early December of last year, the idea of lucid dreaming became so intriguing that I decided to go ahead and put real effort into it. I looked up YouTube guides and came across some detailed videos explaining a technique which is a mix of what I now know are the DILD and WILD techniques. So I started the routines and also have been keeping a dream journal.

Since then I've been going about every day reality checking as often as I can remember, intending to lucid dream as I drift off into sleep, and writing in my journal whenever I'm not in a hurry in the morning. But I've only had two-ish in the three months since I started!

The first was in December. I was being chased on the outside of an old apartment building, but it was arranged into a strange Escher-like labyrinth of stairs, black railings, and other things you'd see in an apartment building. After being chased for a while I noticed how strange this all was and became lucid (I didn't really do a reality check as I was hoping. I just sort of realized it). I forgot about being chased and immediately wanted to see what happened if I killed myself. I planned to dive into the concrete below, but it was a confusing, twisting path to the balcony. I then simply walked through all the walls that were in the way and was quickly at a good place to jump. I looked over the balcony to the ground below, phasing through the railing as I did so. I then dove head first to the ground below, noticing the ground approaching fast. When I hit, the floor shattered and I found myself in a sort of wormhole with galaxies off in the distance (like the Andy Asteroids levels in Earthworm Jim). I was in awe by it all and looked at my limbs and saw them illuminated by the light from everything around me. After a good minute of this, I had a false awakening and lost lucidity.

The second was a week ago. I work at a library and had a cart with me full of books to shelve. I took one to shelve, but it flew up towards the ceiling as if gravity was in reverse, but only for the books I touched. Some elderly woman next to me laughed and said something to the effect of helping me if it happened again. I took another book and it did the same thing. I tried to keep it down but it was too strong and flew to the ceiling with the other one. I then noticed this as a dream sign, since everything else was otherwise normal. I looked at my hands to reality check. They looked normal enough, but the flying books were so big a dream sign that I decided I was dreaming. I then had a calm look around me and was impressed with how real everything looked. There were large pillars near me. I touched them and was surprised by how I could feel them right down the texture. I knew this wouldn't last long so I tried to make the most of the dream. I looked up and effortlessly flew towards the ceiling. I passed right through it and found the pillars extended into a strange black void, with a blue star/sun just a hundred yards in front of me. This was all so real and strange that I almost woke up, but I touched the pillars to feel and ground my senses in the dream. It kind of worked. I remained dreaming and lucid, but the scene changed a bit. I was incorporeal and witnessed a bunch of indescribably strange celestial objects fly past me. I then woke up after about five minutes of that.

The last one was this morning but it was so short it didn't count. I woke up a bit frustrated that I went yet another night non-lucid. I went back to sleep and tried to WILD, lying on my back. It was too uncomfortable and didn't work, so I lied on my side and drifted off. I was still in bed lying on my side. I saw my legs, but I was now wearing some kind of brown slacks and being slowly dragged towards the wall by an invisible force. I looked at my hand and it looked strange and folded. I realized I was dreaming, but for some reason felt like if I moved at all it would end. Sure enough that happened.

What can I do to increase the frequency of lucid dreams? They're among the most amazing things I've experienced!

WILDing doesn't seem to work, at least lying on my back, because it's so uncomfortable. And trying to keep a clear mind just keeps me awake. Am I concentrating too hard? Is it not a clear mind that makes it work, but rather a visualization?

I also almost never reality check in my dreams. How often or thoroughly should I RC? A recently stressful personal life has made me lapse a bit in this. Does that affect my progress?

What can I do? Do I have the wrong state of mind? I even take choline. It doesn't seem to help too much with achieving lucidity, but my dreams, lucid or not, are more vivid and it really has helped with my memory.

Any advice would be much appreciated. I already went over the tutorials here.

Thanks. I'm really glad a site like this even exists!

The first thing I would suggest to you: if you're currently RCing at all, STOP. Just for a few days. And then try a different RC. If it's a good check, within a couple weeks you could start going lucid just from that.

The reason I suggest this is just because you've tried so long without success. Your brain is tuning the reality checks out because they're just routine, and not (subconsciously) expected to work.

I know that means you'll have to take quite a long time to get back to lucid dreaming DILD-style, but if you're serious about this you'll take whatever time you need, right? ;)

Another thing: WILD is probably not going to be something you'll conquer right away. Even though my first intentional lucid dream came from a WILD (on my first night of trying, too), I still rarely succeed when I try it, but I just keep trying. So much about that method has to be fine-tuned to your own habits/personality/whatnot that it's just going to take a long time of tweaking to get it right.

But bottom-line, don't give up, be ok with it when you don't go lucid, and be ok with it taking as long as it needs to for you to succeed, but expect to succeed, and know that you will. You're dealing with your mind here, so expectations are huge.

All that's just the basics, but I hope it helps you out somewhat :)

Hello and welcome to the forum!

That's really wonderful that you're already lucid dreaming!

I most definitely agree with LiveInTheDream. Before I read their post I was going to suggest that you not make Reality Checks so routine.

If you make reality checks a routine that you do, they'll come to you as routine in a dream. You could do a reality check in a dream and because you were so used to doing it just pass it off as you're not dreaming.

Do you have a list of dream signs out of your dream journal? I would suggest doing reality checks whenever really strong themes of your dream signs occur in waking life. For example, if a dream sign is a sense of urgency, feeling you need to find something, etc... Do a reality check when this feeling is very intense. I hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have any other questions and I hope this helped.

Good luck!

LiveInTheDream and Cacophony pretty much hit the nail on the head. I've also been trying to WILD but haven't had much success recently but doubt I'll be stopping anytime soon. As for RCs, since, you've been doing them for 3 month now, stopping them for a bit OR using new ones should help your situation. You could always try a WBTB and DILD or a MILD if you haven't had a chance to try those yet. The more techniques you know, the more you can use them when the situation arises. BTW, welcome to the forums :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BigFan

You could always try a WBTB and DILD or a MILD if you haven't had a chance to try those yet. The more techniques you know, the more you can use them when the situation arises.

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While I agree with that, there's one tiny detail BigFan didn't mention: if you switch techniques every single night, your chances of success drop. A lot. So get to know them all, but then stick with something for a little while before you decide it's not working and you need to move on to something else. I made the mistake of deciding that and it messed up my LDing for quite a while :oops:

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I just realized I forgot to throw in my welcome, too! So welcome to the forums! :D

Thanks for the welcome.

Stop RCing? Hadn't thought of that. I'm always so thorough though. I look at my hands, check the familiarity of my surroundings, remember what I was doing earlier, and look for anything impossible or illogical. I even remember looking at my hands in a non-lucid. They looked very strange and I should have realized I was dreaming but something didn't click for some reason. But stopping for a while sounds good for the reasons you all said.

I also didn't think of dream signs as simply feelings or themes. I always thought of them as just illogical or strange events like flying books. Good advice.

Are you currently doing anything like a Wake Back To Bed?
http://dreamviews.com/community/showthread.php?t=64626
I think it is the single best thing you can do to improve all aspects of your dreaming.

Don't give up on WILD quite yet. It takes some practice, finesse, and timing. Read a few different guides about it to get a handle on what you're really trying to do. Have you checked out the WILD tutorial, yet?
http://dreamviews.com/community/showthread.php?t=66238