Chapter 1: Introduction

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Note:

This post contains the initial revision of chapter 1: Introduction. The latest version can be found here.

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This is the initial revision of the first chapter in the book: Introduction.

Feel free to discuss, propose or post changes to it. Do, however, put new/edited text in a different colour, so to make comparison easier. Finally, you could [[add notes to the piece by using brackets]].

Note that this thread is for discussion about the 1st chapter only: for general discussion about the book, check this thread. You might also want to see the Project Sketch, for information on the plans for the project.

Note to all writers: make sure you include the copyright at every book file you create. This is just to prevent material leaks.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

I was in an apocalyptic version of my house. Everything around was ruins and brown, and the horizon was black and depressing. My father told me we had to get out of there, as it was no longer safe to hide at home. After some running, I faced what was supposed to be my school. It was also in ruins, and this time there were bodies all over. This view was so awful that I told myself "No, this can't be true! I was here yesterday and my school wasn't like this!". That sentence immediately brought up an intense feeling. I knew all I was seeing wasn't real.. but if it wasn't real, where was I? I took a closer look at my surroundings. Everything was mysteriously unknown but rather familiar at the same time. It could only be a dream. And it was. By the time I realized I was inside my own dream, and aware of it, I thought about the limitless possibilities the situation held. I was in charge of my own dream, and I could do anything I wanted to. That said, I looked around one other time and up. The sky seemed beautiful now, in a shade of blue I had never seen before. And so I took off, using a propelling jump to fly my way out of that ruined atmosphere. Flying seemed great: I could feel the wind on my face, and I could see the small buildings below me. At that moment, I was free, nothing could stop me. I could fly without wings, swim without breathing, lift cars and conjure explosions out of thin air. However, the most amazing bit in all that is, the dream was so real that anytime I could mistake it for reality; details filling my imagination with awe. It was like a second life, but a life in which I was the superhero.
--Lucid account by Bruno Lepri (Kromoh)

Exhilarating, freeing, and awe-inspiring are only a few ways to describe the wonder that is lucid dreaming. Through them everything is possible: you could fly over a sunbathed city, shift through walls, feel incredible joy, compose music, create your own worlds, and influence any aspect of your dream. The best news is this vast realm of possibility is available to any who peruse it. By the time you have finished this book you will have learned the fundamentals of lucid dreaming, the historical and scientific contexts, how to better remember your dreams, techniques to induce lucidity, various lucid aids and more.

Ask yourself, have you ever had a dream that you knew you were dreaming? If you answered yes than you have experienced the uniqueness of lucidity. You may have had pinched yourself trying to wake up, or ran to do something you couldn’t in waking life. Whatever the case chances are this dream sticks out in your mind. Comparatively a non-lucid dream is the kind most are familiar with. In the average dream it is like you were handed a movie script and told to play out your part exactly as it was written. The truth is the scenery, characters and situations are all generated by your subconscious, yet you believe everything, no matter how ridiculous, to be true to reality.

The benefits to lucid dreaming is far greater than meets the eye. How much time do you spend asleep over your lifetime? Most people spend a third of their lives unconscious, missing out on grand opportunities to be as awake and alive as their waking life. Within lucidity the most obvious use is entertainment value, but digging deeper there are many therapeutic and psychological advantages to be found. Through lucidity you can absolve nightmares, face your fears, learn about yourself, gain artistic ideas and insights, boost confidence, problem solve and release a new level of freedom in your life.

In the endeavours for becoming lucid in your dreams, an important ability is the one to recall dreams. In our daily lives, our chores always stand in first place, leaving us little time to know ourselves better. In this tiring routine, many of us lose the ability to remember our dreams. One may even conclude that he or she doesn't dream anymore: that is hopefully not true. Everybody has an average of five dreams in a good night of sleep. Had this being the core of it, we would remember our dreams with great ease. But there is also the fact that, while we're having a regular dream, we're mostly unconscious. That makes recalling dreams a challenge of key importance to lucid dreaming. A good ability to recall dreams will not only increase your lucidity rate, but also make sure you do not forget your lucid dream, when you have one.

For improving this ability, there is a consensus that keeping a Dream Journal is of uttermost importance. It can be anything that stores information about your dreams from a simple spiral bound notebook, a computer or tape recorder. Considering the importance of dream recall, the topic will be expanded on the following chapters.

You will also find a vast toolbox of relaxation methods to more readily fall asleep, which do also hold great importance. These techniques will not provide you lucid directly, but are fundamental to the induction techniques themselves.

There will be scientifically proven methods to obtain lucidity within your dreams, whose purpose will be explained in detail. The lucid dreaming community popularly names them by the use of acronyms. For example, the most general technique, known as a dream induced lucid dream, is called DILD for short. Apart from those main techniques, you will learn many relevant pieces of information, such as the best time of the night to gain lucidity and much more. The whole extent of techniques will be, though, mostly guides you can use and expand upon. You may even create ways on your own that best fits your lifestyle. Lucid dreaming involves creativity: if one way doesn't seem to work for you, then you can adapt it and make you own method. The goal behind this book is more than just to teach you popular techniques; it is aimed to have you learn to lucid dream on your own and do so masterfully. All said, lucidity is more of a personal achievement rather than learnt techniques.

Now then, you’re ready to begin your path to lucid knowledge. If you have never experienced a lucid dream before, take heart, it is only a matter of time and patience. Turn the page and step into the realm of lucid dreaming.


© Copyright 2007 Dreamviews education team. All rights reserved.

These are the gentle corrections I had in mind.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

[[Lucid dream account omitted for concision - I didn't have any corrections to it.]]
--Lucid account by Bruno Lepri (Kromoh)

Exhilarating, freeing, and awe-inspiring are only a few ways to describe the wonder of lucid dreams [[lucid dreaming -> lucid dreams, to match plural pronoun "them" in next sentence]]. Through them everything is possible: you could fly over a sunbathed city, shift through walls, feel incredible joy, compose music, create your own worlds, and influence any aspect of your dream. The best news is this vast realm of possibility is available to any who pursue [[was peruse - I think pursue is actually the word you wanted]] it. By the time you have finished this book you will have learned the fundamentals of lucid dreaming, the historical and scientific contexts, how to better remember your dreams, techniques to induce lucidity, various lucid aids and more.

Ask yourself, have you ever had a dream that you knew you were dreaming? If you answered yes than you have experienced the uniqueness of lucidity. You may have had pinched yourself trying to wake up, or ran to do something you couldn’t in waking life. Whatever the case chances are this dream sticks out in your mind. In comparison [[was "comparatively"]] a non-lucid dream is the kind most are familiar with. In the average dream it is as if [[was "like"]] you were handed a movie script and told to play out your part exactly as it was written. The truth is the scenery, characters and situations are all generated by your subconscious, yet you believe everything, no matter how ridiculous, to be true to reality.

The benefits to lucid dreaming are [[was "is", plurals again ;-) ]] far greater than meets the eye. How much time do you spend asleep over your lifetime? Most people spend a third of their lives unconscious, missing out on grand opportunities to be as awake and alive as their waking life. Within lucidity the most obvious use is entertainment value, but digging deeper there are many therapeutic and psychological advantages to be found. Through lucidity you can overcome nightmares [[was "absolve", which doesn't make sense - was maybe meant to be "resolve"?]], face your fears, learn about yourself, gain artistic ideas and insights, boost confidence, problem solve and release a new level of freedom in your life.

[[New paragraph to dispel potential concerns here. Would be nice to have testimony from a "natural"]]
Lucid dreaming is perfectly natural, but at present it is not widely known about. Most dreams are not lucid, and in general people don't spend much time thinking about dreams, so it isn't surprising if you've never heard of lucid dreams before. In the past few decades, lucid dreaming has been studied by scientists and its existence is firmly established. Although it is natural, most people have to make an effort to have regular lucid dreams. The exceptions are a lucky few who have had frequent lucid dreams from an early age, who are surprised when they discover that it doesn't happen to everyone else! If you try the techniques in this book, you should not worry that you will be stuck with regular lucid dreams against your will and be unable to stop them.


In the endeavor to become lucid [[was "endeavours for becoming". Switch to US spelling. More correct phrasing. Could be "In *your* endeavors to become" though]] in your dreams, an important ability is the one to recall dreams. In our daily lives, our chores always stand in first place, leaving us little time to know ourselves better. In this tiring routine, many of us lose the ability to remember our dreams. One may even conclude that he or she doesn't dream anymore: that is hopefully not true. Everybody has an average of five dreams in a good night of sleep. If that was all there was to it, [[was "Had this being the core of it". Correct phrasing & substitute more common expression]] we would remember our dreams with great ease. But there is also the fact that, while we're having a regular dream, we're mostly unconscious. That makes recalling dreams a challenge of key importance to lucid dreaming. A good ability to recall dreams will not only increase your lucidity rate, but also make sure you do not forget your lucid dream, when you have one.

For improving this ability, there is a consensus that keeping a Dream Journal is of uttermost importance. It can be anything that stores information about your dreams from a simple spiral bound notebook, a computer or tape recorder. Considering the importance of dream recall, the topic will be expanded on the following chapters.

You will also find a vast toolbox of relaxation methods to more readily fall asleep, which do also hold great importance. These techniques will not provide you lucid directly, but are fundamental to the induction techniques themselves.

There will be scientifically proven methods to obtain lucidity within your dreams, whose purpose will be explained in detail. The lucid dreaming community popularly names them by the use of acronyms. For example, the most general technique, known as a dream induced lucid dream, is called DILD for short. Apart from those main techniques, you will learn many relevant pieces of information, such as the best time of the night to gain lucidity and much more. The whole extent of techniques will be, though, mostly guides you can use and expand upon. You may even create ways on your own that best fits your lifestyle. Lucid dreaming involves creativity: if one way doesn't seem to work for you, then you can adapt it and make you own method.

The goal behind this book is more than just to teach you popular techniques; it is aimed to help [[was have]] you learn to lucid dream on your own and do so masterfully. All said, lucidity is more of a personal achievement rather than a series of learned [[was just "learnt". Correct phrasing and keep to US spelling - my spell-checker says "learnt" is wrong]] techniques.

Now then, you’re ready to begin your path to lucid knowledge. If you have never experienced a lucid dream before, take heart, it is only a matter of time and patience. Turn the page and step into the realm of lucid dreaming.


© Copyright 2007 Dreamviews education team. All rights reserved.

The intro is very good, but how far are you into your chapter kromoh, I'm just interested.

Wow source, you're amazing... O_O

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Originally Posted by Oneironaut_Jeff777

Wow source, you're amazing... O_O

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Why thank you :-). I like to think I'm good at copy-editing; nitpicking style/grammar/spelling. There are still sentences I'm not happy with.

I think the real work was writing the introduction in the first place, it will Live Or Die based on whether the structure is OK at a higher level and we've got the right *ideas*. Anyone can come along and correct the English afterwards. Though maybe I just think what I do is easier because I understand it better.

More nitpicks which I haven't decided how they would be best fixed:

• "Shift through walls" - it's not clear what this means, would "walk" be OK?
• "There will be scientifically proven methods" - I think it needs to be more explicitly, e.g. "The book will contain" or "We will describe".
• "the most general technique, known as a dream induced lucid dream". a) The acronym originates with Laberge where the "I" was initiated, not induced, which actually makes more sense. b) I think of a technique as a step-by-step guide: DILD is too general to qualify as a technique by my definition. [[I think it's right to explain about the ILD acronyms though; initially the book is going to be on the internet only and you can't escape ILDs on lucid dreaming sites.]]

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Originally Posted by sourcejedi

More nitpicks which I haven't decided how they would be best fixed:

• "Shift through walls" - it's not clear what this means, would "walk" be OK?
• "There will be scientifically proven methods" - I think it needs to be more explicitly, e.g. "The book will contain" or "We will describe".
• "the most general technique, known as a dream induced lucid dream". a) The acronym originates with Laberge where the "I" was initiated, not induced, which actually makes more sense. b) I think of a technique as a step-by-step guide: DILD is too general to qualify as a technique by my definition. [[I think it's right to explain about the ILD acronyms though; initially the book is going to be on the internet only and you can't escape ILDs on lucid dreaming sites.]]

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wow, with you there will be no errors in the book, your probably better than the spell check

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Originally Posted by sourcejedi

More nitpicks which I haven't decided how they would be best fixed:

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• "Shift through walls" - it's not clear what this means, would "walk" be OK?

Would the word "phase" be innapropriate for this? If so, then I support "walk".

• "There will be scientifically proven methods" - I think it needs to be more explicitly, e.g. "The book will contain" or "We will describe".

I say it's better as "This books contains" since by the time it's ready, it will contain. Just an idea, though.

• "the most general technique, known as a dream induced lucid dream". a) The acronym originates with Laberge where the "I" was initiated, not induced, which actually makes more sense. b) I think of a technique as a step-by-step guide: DILD is too general to qualify as a technique by my definition. [[I think it's right to explain about the ILD acronyms though; initially the book is going to be on the internet only and you can't escape ILDs on lucid dreaming sites.]]

I agree with the initiated thing.

DILD is more like a category of induction techniques rather than a technique itself. I was planning to divide it into 3 techs: a) keeping the idea that you're constantly in a dream b) reality checking as habit c) reality checking as comfirmation of suspiscion.

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• "Shift through walls" - it's not clear what this means, would "walk" be OK?

Would the word "phase" be innapropriate for this? If so, then I support "walk".

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I don't think "phase" is right either. "Walk" it is.

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• "There will be scientifically proven methods" - I think it needs to be more explicitly, e.g. "The book will contain" or "We will describe".

I say it's better as "This books contains" since by the time it's ready, it will contain. Just an idea, though.

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Ah, I didn't notice that side of it. Your phrase sounds good.

Quote:

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• "the most general technique, known as a dream induced lucid dream". a) The acronym originates with Laberge where the "I" was initiated, not induced, which actually makes more sense. b) I think of a technique as a step-by-step guide: DILD is too general to qualify as a technique by my definition. [[I think it's right to explain about the ILD acronyms though; initially the book is going to be on the internet only and you can't escape ILDs on lucid dreaming sites.]]

I agree with the initiated thing.

DILD is more like a category of induction techniques rather than a technique itself. I was planning to divide it into 3 techs: a) keeping the idea that you're constantly in a dream b) reality checking as habit c) reality checking as comfirmation of suspiscion.

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OK. How about we say people "classify techniques" using acronyms, instead of "name techniques", that would be general enough that it covers both DILD/WILD, (so we can keep the DILD example, which is simple to explain), and more specific techniques like LaBerge's MILD?

I'll add these changes to the revision in my earlier post now. EDIT: oops, that post is too old to edit now.

Um... if everyone's happy with the new version, at some point I need to post a version without all the blue colouring and comments. Not just because the final version won't have them in, but because once the changes are agreed the comments / blue make it harder to review the latest version and suggest further changes. How are we doing that?

I think the plan might have been to merge the changes back into the first post. The second post with the blue all over it would stay as it is, as so we wouldn't really be deleting edit history. I can't edit the first post because it's yours, but I could remove the blue and comments and PM it to you to use - shall I do that now?

To be sincere, I never thought of keeping the updated version on the first post. Sounds good.

There's no need to format the text again. If you are gonna make changes to it, keep it the way it is; once we're agreed I'll format and update it myself. No wonder I call myself the secretary of this project :P <feels useful>

I was also thinking of expanding a few things here and there, but I'm gonna wait for the correction.

sourcejedi, thanks a lot for your fundamental help with the project :>

I've been worrying at this again. I've fixed the remaining word/phrase choices I didn't like, with the intention of going over it at a higher level this weekend.

For completeness my last fiddle is here: <http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dc35tjkz_0hn72s3>. I haven't highlighted my changes though, so theres no real reason to look now.

If I think I've been able to improve it significantly, I'll post it as a link again when I'm done. I won't highlight the changes there either - because it would end up all being highlighted :-).

OK, I finished my first pass and here's my summary in a Q&A format. It uses the same structure as the first revision, but I've made my own choices as to what details I've left in and what I've elaborated on.
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What are lucid dreams?

Here's an exciting account of one. Ask yourself if you've ever realised you were dreaming - if so, you've already had a lucid dream. [[If not, what came to mind when you read "realised you were dreaming"? I think that phrase speaks rather well for itself; it implies both the amazement of the initial realisation, and the question "what should I do?"]]

Why would you want to lucid dream?

Mainly for fun, but also "self-help".

Is it really possible, and if so is it safe?

Yes. Scientists agree it's possible. It happens naturally so its difficult to see it being dangerous. Obsession is unhealthy, but you know that already. Ultimately it's your choice.

I don't dream very often, what can I do?

Most people have long dreams every night but don't remember very much. [[Though there are REM suppressants - certain drugs - that stop people dreaming]]. Dream memories usually fade quickly, so you have to really want to remember them, and establish a routine where you go over them as soon as you wake up. You're strongly recommended to write your dreams in a journal. Dream journals also let you look back over a number of dreams and discover interesting features, which can help you become lucid. More on all this later in the book.

What else is in this book that can help me lucid dream?

Lots of popular techniques, but also enough relevant information and explanation to help you understand them and find/adapt/create techniques that work for you. Some of the methods have been scientifically proved to help people induce lucidity.

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Originally Posted by sourcejedi

Chapter 1: Introduction

[[Lucid dream account omitted for concision - I didn't have any corrections to it.]]

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Heh. I didn't like to touch it really; it was so magical and it wouldn't be right for me to rewrite someone else's personal account. As an experiment, I ran a grammar checker on it and it did highlight a few things. Now I look at it again, I think it escaped the typo generator but there are some things that might be improved - with your permission, Kromoh. Don't let me break the magic :-).

I was in an apocalyptic version of my house. Everything around me was ruins and brown brown and in ruins and the horizon was black and depressing. My father told me we had to get out of there, as it was no longer safe to hide at home. After some running, I faced what was supposed to be my school. It was also in ruins, and this time there were bodies all over. This view was so awful that I told myself "No, this can't be true! I was here yesterday and my school wasn't like this!". That sentence immediately brought up an intense feeling. I knew all I was seeing wasn't real... but if it wasn't real, where was I? I took a closer look at my surroundings. Everything was mysteriously unknown but rather familiar at the same time. It could only be a dream. And it was. By the time I realized I was inside my own dream, and aware of it, I thought about the limitless possibilities the situation held. I was in charge of my own dream, and I could do anything I wanted to. That said, I looked around one other one more time and up then up at the sky. The sky seemed beautiful now, in a shade of blue I had never seen before. And so I took off, using a propelling jump to fly my way out of that ruined atmosphere. Flying seemed felt great: I could feel the wind on my face, and I could see the small buildings below me. At that moment, I was free, nothing could stop me. I could fly without wings, swim without breathing, lift cars and conjure explosions out of thin air. However, the most amazing bit thing in all that that this is, the dream was so real that anytime I could mistake . At any point I could have mistaken it for reality; the details filling my imagination the detail filled me with awe [["and fired my imagination"?]]. It was like a second life, but a life in which I was the superhero.

&#169; Copyright 2007 Dreamviews education team. All rights reserved.

Just a quick opinion. I like the lucid account you used, a lot. The contrast of the initial futility of your surroundings with the later feeling of power and control was great. However, if we're trying to target the social mainstream, maybe such a dark account could be counterproductive. It's literarily weak and cliched but... it'd might be better to have an account that people would relate to happiness or awe.

Btw, it should be "lucid dream account" instead of just "lucid account" since you haven't introduced lucid dreaming as a concept yet.

Yah, i wouldn't say "mainstream" but I would be interested in ways of make it as "accessible" as possible. The rest of the introduction doesn't mention any specific details about the account, so it should be easy to switch if we find a more appropriate one.

I'd noticed the "lucid account" thing and it's fixed in my last published revision (http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dc35tjkz_0hn72s3).


I think its past time we rebased; i.e. put a single revised version as a post here, to serve as the basis for any future work. I thought Kromoh was going to do that by editing the first post, which is why I posted my last revision as a link instead of the contents, but maybe I got confused.

I can't edit the first post; I could put the revised contents in a new post but I'd prefer to wait until Kromoh's had time to check my suggestions on the dream account. I don't want to post my version of the account, without the blue change highlighting, until Kromoh has approved them.

PS: If you're reading long passages like these book chapters, you might find Thread Tools->Printable version useful. It strips out most of the clutter that make the forum pretty & convenient for discussion, making it nicer if you just want to read.

Good corrections, Source. It's nice to see someone who can actually proof-read well. I will make one correction to your correction, however:

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If that was all there was to it we would remember our dreams with great ease.

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Should actually be:

Quote:

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If that were all there was to it, we would remember our dreams with great ease. (Subjunctive)

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Good catch. I wasn't completely sure about that "was", and you know scary words like subjunctive so you must be right :-).

My post is too old for me to edit, but I've corrected the revision I linked to earlier.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sourcejedi

...you know scary words like subjunctive so you must be right :-).

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LMAO!

Yes, spreading the joy of the subjunctive is just one of my personal missions.

My biggest grammar-related pet peeve at the moment is the horrible misuse of personal pronouns that seems to have plagued almost everyone on TV.

"He told David and I a story." :barf:

Ask yourself, have you ever had a dream that [in which*] you knew you were dreaming? If you answered yes than [then*] you have experienced the uniqueness of lucidity. You may have had pinched yourself trying to wake up, or ran to do something you couldn’t in waking life. Whatever the case, chances are this dream sticks out in your mind.

none of my business really haha, just thought I'd point that out

No, please, you're always welcome to post constructive criticism here.

Thanks for spotting those! I'd got the "than", but not the "had" (in my Google Docs revision).

/me pms Kromoh

This is the second revision of the introduction. It's very similar to the first revision, but with more correct English :-). There's one extra paragraph, which is supposed to answer some of the worries readers might have about lucid dreaming.

Everyone should feel free to discuss, propose or post changes. If you quote large pieces of the text, please mark any changes / comments you add to that text, so we can see them in a nice consistent way. I've made large numbers of small changes and comments at a time, and found a few conventions useful.

Note that this thread is only for the Introduction. There's a whole forum dedicated to this book! Check out the threads on the book as a whole, the project sketch, and the other chapters.

Please preserve the copyright notice.

• blue for anything that wasn't in the original I'm quoting, or that I want to change. That's the most important thing: make sure your changes/comments stand out from the quoted text you've put them in.

Also good:

• [[comments]] inside square brackets.
• strikethrough to show words I wanted to remove.
• underline on new words.
• Where I replace text, I put the new words after the old words: gud speling good spelling

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Chapter 1: Introduction

I was in an apocalyptic version of my house. Everything around me was brown and in ruins and the horizon was black and depressing. My father told me we had to get out of there, as it was no longer safe to hide at home. After some running, I faced what was supposed to be my school. It was also in ruins, and this time there were bodies all over. This view was so awful that I told myself "No, this can't be true! I was here yesterday and my school wasn't like this!". That sentence immediately brought up an intense feeling. I knew all I was seeing wasn't real.. but if it wasn't real, where was I? I took a closer look at my surroundings. Everything was mysteriously unknown but rather familiar at the same time. It could only be a dream. And it was. By the time I realized I was inside my own dream, and aware of it, I thought about the limitless possibilities the situation held. I was in charge of my own dream, and I could do anything I wanted. That said, I looked around one more time and then up at the sky. The sky seemed beautiful now, in a shade of blue I had never seen before. And so I took off, using a propelling jump to fly my way out of that ruined atmosphere. Flying felt great: I could feel the wind on my face, and I could see the small buildings below me. At that moment, I was free, nothing could stop me. I could fly without wings, swim without breathing, lift cars and conjure explosions out of thin air. However, the most amazing thing in all this is how real the dream was. At any point I could have mistaken it for reality; the detail filled me with awe. It was like a second life, but a life in which I was the superhero.
--Lucid dream account by Bruno Lepri (Kromoh)

Exhilarating, liberating, and awe-inspiring are just a few ways to describe the wonder of lucid dreams. Within them, anything is possible: you could fly over a sun-bathed city, walk through walls, feel incredible joy, compose music, create your own worlds, and influence any aspect of your dream. The best news is that this vast realm of possibilities is available to any who pursue it. By the time you have finished this book you will have learned the fundamentals of lucid dreaming, the historical and scientific contexts, how to better remember your dreams, techniques to induce lucidity, various lucid aids and more.

Have you ever had a dream where you knew you were dreaming? If so, you too have experienced the unique sensation that is lucidity. You might have pinched yourself and tried to wake up, or ran to do something you couldn’t in waking life. Whatever happened, this dream probably sticks out in your mind. Compare this to the non-lucid dream we are all familiar with. In the average dream it can seem as if you were handed a movie script and told to play out your part exactly as written. In truth the scenery, characters and situations are all a product of your own subconscious, but you believe everything, no matter how ridiculous, and accept it as reality.

The benefits to lucid dreaming are far greater than meets the eye. How much time do you spend asleep over your lifetime? Most people spend a third of their lives unconscious, missing out on grand opportunities to be as awake and alive as their waking life. The most obvious use of lucidity is pure enjoyment, but if you pursue it further there are many potential therapeutic and psychological benefits. Through lucidity you can overcome nightmares, face your fears, learn about yourself, gain artistic ideas and insights, boost confidence, problem solve and release a new level of freedom in your life.

Lucid dreaming is perfectly natural, but at present it is not widely known about. Most dreams are not lucid, and in general people don't spend much time thinking about dreams, so it isn't surprising if you've never heard of lucid dreams before. In the past few decades, lucid dreaming has been studied by scientists and its existence is firmly established. Although it is natural, most people have to make an effort to have regular lucid dreams. The exceptions are a lucky few who have had frequent lucid dreams from an early age, who are surprised when they discover that it doesn't happen to everyone else! If you try the techniques in this book, you should not worry that you will be stuck with regular lucid dreams against your will and be unable to stop them.

In the endeavor to become lucid in your dreams, the ability to recall dreams is an important one. In daily lives, our chores can leave us little time to know ourselves better. Many of us lose the ability to remember our dreams in the tiring routine. Some of us might even conclude that they are not dreaming anymore; that is hopefully not the case! We all average about five dreams in a good night of sleep. If that were all there was to it, we would remember our dreams with great ease. But there is also the fact that, while we're having a regular dream, we're mostly unconscious. That makes recalling dreams a challenge of key importance to lucid dreaming. Good dream recall will not only increase your lucidity rate, but also make sure you do not forget your lucid dream when you have one.

To improve dream recall, there is a consensus that keeping a Dream Journal is of utmost importance. It could be anything that stores information about your dreams from a simple spiral bound notebook, a computer or tape recorder. Since dream recall is so important we will come back to it in later chapters.

This book provides you with a range of relaxation methods to help you fall asleep, which are also rather important. While these techniques will not directly make you lucid, but they play a fundamental part in many induction techniques.

There are scientifically proven methods to obtain lucidity within your dreams, which we will explain in detail. The lucid dreaming community popularly classifies them using acronyms. For example, many techniques are classed as DILDs, meaning dream initiated lucid dream. As well as the main techniques, you will learn many relevant pieces of information, such as when the best time to gain lucidity is. The techniques will be guides that you can use, but also expand upon. You may even create ways on your own that best fit your lifestyle. Lucid dreaming involves creativity: if one way doesn't seem to work for you, then you can adapt it and make your own method. The goal behind this book is more than just to teach you popular techniques; it is aimed to help you learn to lucid dream on your own and do so masterfully. All told, lucidity is more of a personal achievement rather than a series of learned techniques.

Now then, you’re ready to begin your path to lucid knowledge. If you have never experienced a lucid dream before, take heart: it is only a matter of time and patience. Let us guide your first steps into the realm of lucid dreaming.


&#169; Copyright 2007 Dreamviews education team. All rights reserved.

I've starting a more ambitious rewrite, but at the moment there's only about five lines of it in a word file; the rest of it is flying round in my head.

That means if you fix a grammar error we've _still_ not fixed in the second revision, I _might_ post another revision which doesn't have that sentence in it at all. I feel I should warn you because I was very annoyed when something similar happened to me on Wikipedia. If that puts you off, I'd suggest you don't spend time poring through this revision looking for mistakes in the English, or spend too much time working out how to fix any one sentence.

However, this isn't Wikipedia. It's a forum, which should make it easier to talk about the changes, and we're all friends here (ignoring what goes on in certain fringe sub-forums :P). If you do improve this revision, it'll set a higher standard for any future revision, whether that's an incremental update or a complete rewrite.

If you're not one of us mean 'ol Grammar Nazis, I don't think you should worry at all ;). If you think we can improve by adding or removing information more generally, addressing a specific misconception, or a different sort of dream account - that would still apply to what I'm trying to do, and we'd love to hear from you.

I spent an hour or so searching through an archive of 200 to find this. I think it was worth it :-).

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/hallucinations.png

<http://xkcd.com/203/> (CC 2.5, Attribution, NC. Commercial use by request)

Introduction rev 3 (aka 2.0, vs 1.0 and 1.1).
Early, partial, draft.

<LD account, courtesy Kromoh>
<The weirdness of dreams, summarised by XKCD cartoon>

<Opening, take 1.
Eventual goal: explain the value of dream experiences.
I tried to work out how to write "dreams can be fantastic experiences", but the copy-edit demon on my shoulder kept sneering at me, so I started with a different tack, but I know I still need more "sense of wonder".>

We live in a world which is mostly other people and follow many levels of rules we didn't write. Like it or loathe it; you can't leave it and choose another one. Happiness lies in coming to terms with it in your own way. On the plus side, a challenging world means you can be truly proud of your own achievements. On the minus side, reality severely limits our range of our experiences. If you want to feel what it would be like to fly like a bird, breathe underwater, or visit a distant galaxy, that will probably remain a dream. Or you might have slightly more realistic desires like touring Moscow, going hang-gliding or telling your boss/teacher/parents what you really think of them. But we don't get to live all of our dreams because these things take time, money, or perhaps more bravery or willingness to face consequences than we really have.

But there are two sides to the phrase “that's just a dream of mine”. If something is impractical in waking life, we can still experience it as a vivid reality - while we are asleep...
<uncompleted>

<Next bit - how to make the best of dream experiences>
There are two major challenges you must overcome to get the most out of your dreams. The first is to remember them! Your dream recall needs to be reliable, vivid, and detailed enough to make it worth the effort. The second challenge is the difficulty of realising that you're dreaming. Just being consciously aware of the opportunities open to you in the dream makes an amazing difference. This self-awareness is known as lucid dreaming. Both dream recall and dreaming lucidly require effort, but they are skills that can be learnt and taught. The main aim of this book is to teach these skills.

rev 3, draft2.

This still starts in the same way ("The real world sucks, sort of. But we all have our own world of dreams"). It ends at the point where we need to start saying how vivid/lifelike/enjoyable etc. dreams can be. Then I'd go on to talk about how recall and lucidity help improve our experience of dreams, and then a bit about how the book will help you with them.

Sugarglider or anyone else - do you think this is looking like a good plan?

I'm still planning on putting the XKCD cartoon and Kromohs lucid account first, and they help by immediately saying something about dreams and lucidity. But I think working back up to that, talking about the waking world to establish a contrast - is a good way to set up the motivation, explain why we're interested in lucid dreaming. I think my way also avoids running out of breath in the first paragraph :-P.

--

Our world is filled with other people, each with their own opinions and their own goals. We are constrained by rules which we did not choose for ourselves, but cannot ignore. Like it or loathe it; you can't live without it. Reality rules, right?

We can exert control or influence over small parts of this shared reality, but true happiness lies in being able to accept the rest of the world, warts and all. Faced with a challenging world, you can be truly proud of your own successes. On the other hand, reality limits the range of your experiences. If you wish to fly like a bird, breathe underwater unaided, or visit a distant galaxy, that can only remain a dream. Or you might have slightly more realistic ideas in mind such as touring Moscow, going hang-gliding or telling your boss/teacher/parents what you really think of them. But we don't get to live all of our dreams because these things take time, money, or perhaps more bravery and willingness to face consequences than we really have.

Often people use the word “dream” this way, to describe a favourite fantasy, something they like to think about, but don't necessarily see as a real possibility. But there's a double meaning here. No matter how improbable your desire seems in the waking reality we share, you can still experience it within a dream.

-- Google docs --

• view
• edit

View link has been tested and should work for anyone. It should be a bit prettier than what's below. It also includes Kromohs account, the XKCD cartoon, and a final paragraph, which I didn't post here again because they haven't changed.

I haven't tested the edit link, but it should work for anyone with a supported browser and a (free) Google Account. Feel free to edit there, but I don't think that'll email-notify me. So please post here to say, as a minimum, that you've changed the document and what your Google Account name was.

When I do look the document again, I'll be able to list what has been changed and by whom (anyone with a Google Account can do that). Don't worry about losing my work because I can revert it to any previous version.

Insert->Comments looks useful, though if you just want to add a comment it's better to post here instead.

-- inline --

Our world is full of other people, each with their own opinions and their own goals. Our lives are governed by laws which we did not choose for ourselves, but cannot ignore. Like it or loathe it, you can't live without it: reality rules.

Our own choices affect small parts of this shared reality. True happiness lies in coming to terms with the rest of the world, warts and all. That needn't be a passive acceptance. You might simply accept the logical conclusion that you can't tackle all the ills of the world, all at the same time. You might also draw comfort from a religious faith, with the promise of a path towards a better state of existence. Living in a challenging world has advantages too. it means you can be justifiably proud of your successes.

One of the disadvantages of reality is that it limits the range of your experiences. If you wish to fly like a bird, breathe underwater unaided, or visit a distant galaxy, that can only remain a dream. Or you might have slightly more realistic ideas in mind such as touring Moscow, going hang-gliding or telling your boss/teacher/relatives what you really think of them. But we don't get to live all of our dreams because these things take time, money, or perhaps more bravery and willingness to face consequences than we really have.

People often use this word “dream” to describe a favourite fantasy, something they like to think about, but don't necessarily see as a real possibility. But there's a double meaning here. No matter how improbable your desire seems in the light of day, you can still experience it - in your dreams at night.

Each night we enter our own personal world of dreams. As far as our senses are concerned, dreams can be just as detailed, vivid and real as waking reality. But dreams are also completely unrealistic. Your waking experience is based on sensory data from a solid outside reality. When we're asleep we are cut off from this outside world. In sleep we dream up our own world, limited only by our imagination.

Sorry, I fiddled with it and broke the link. Here's a new one:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc35tjkz_6gz6s4dct

So subjective.. This "book" might do more harm that it will do good. Just cause one person cannot tun on the lights, and other copy it, does not mean it is a fact..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by G0MPgomp

So subjective.. This "book" willdo more harm that it will do good. Just cause one cannot trun on the lights, and other copy it, does not mean it is a fact..

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Sorry, does this chapter mention reality checks at all? I think you want a different thread :-).

W.r.t RC's I think it *is* a fact that the nose RC works. I wouldn't want to say the light switch RC always works, though I haven't experienced it either way. <Googles>... nope, Laberge study says sometimes it works, sometimes not). I'm happy to back you up on this if necessary.
---
In general: of course, in most cases we can't give facts, only hints. Are you saying that theres a problem with the "book" as it is (the current versions of the chapters)? Or that the hints are pointless and it's a hopeless endeavour?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sourcejedi

Sorry, does this chapter mention reality checks at all? I think you want a different thread :-).

W.r.t RC's I think it *is* a fact that the nose RC works. I wouldn't want to say the light switch RC always works, though I haven't experienced it either way. <Googles>... nope, Laberge study says sometimes it works, sometimes not). I'm happy to back you up on this if necessary.
---
In general: of course, in most cases we can't give facts, only hints. Are you saying that theres a problem with the "book" as it is (the current versions of the chapters)? Or that the hints are pointless and it's a hopeless endeavour?

---

As long as they are precented as hints, subjective truths, etcetera..

Instead of "facts", like: "If you do this and that, you will do this and that and then learn that .. !" <-- presented ok enough..

But see what happens with a little change of words? "If I do this and that, I will do this and that and then learn that .. !"

Then one suddenly see it is the writer that did it like that, and it is subjective.. So I guess all I am asking is that onstead of typing "you will be able to", or "I will be able to" as the writer experienced it, one can simply write "one will be able to", thus making it impersonal, and obvious to the reader that that is not a cemeted fact..

I do not feel I got this down though, a little slow in my head today..

I understand what you are saying gomp.

I am going to get all that is writin and combine it to see what we have allready.