Had my first lucid experience...YES!!!

I literally just woke up a few minutes ago...I had to get on here and post this. After starting lucid dreaming techniques almost two weeks ago, I finally had my first experience performing a reality check and becoming lucid.

I found myself wandering a hotel lobby by myself (I've had a lot of recurring hotel-themed dreams lately) and for some reason, had an urge to do an RC. I tried pushing my finger through my palm, and it was the craziest shit I've ever felt. It was like trying to push my finger through a big wad of bubblegum. I saw it going through and it clicked and I was lucid. However, the excitement killed the dream and woke me up, but I dont even care....this is the biggest step I've made so far. Plus from what I read, I've heard that happens to pretty much everyone the first time.

I was beginning to lose hope and wonder if I could really do this myself. But now that I've actually experienced performing a RC and becoming lucid, its such a breath of fresh air...cant wait to go to sleep tonight! hahaha

Congratulations =). I had about 2 minutes to wander around in my first LD. Now that you've had your first, it will be alot easier to have another. Continue your RCs, focus on dreamsigns when you are awake.
Just don't let the excitement of having a lucid dream prevent you from falling asleep. If you have another DILD you should try inducing a MILD.

Thanks! Whats crazy, is I had a big discussion yesterday with a skeptic friend about lucid dreaming. He was telling me that its not real, and that I wont be able to do it. And that 'you're just dreaming that your having a lucid dream and you're not really in control blahblahblah". But that was before noon, and after that I never really thought of doing RC's or about lucid dreaming at all the rest of the day. Then before I went to bed I listen to a great like 12 minute track I found on here of some subliminal messages with relaxing music. I usually listen to that twice and then take the headphones off and go to sleep.

I also did my own experiment I was going to post on here if I had good results from it. I'm sure other people have already done this though. I put up three pieces of paper in my room and wrote "Am I Dreaming?" on them. One next to my door above my light switch, one on the closet door, and one on the ceiling above my bed. So I always see that throughout the day when I'm home and try to do a few RC's here and there. Plus the subliminal messages tape has really helped me in my relaxation and I'm sure it played a roll in finally performing that first in-dream RC.

I want to do WILD's man...thats my dream, no pun intended :banana: Should I try and do DILD's and MILD's before I attempt WILD's? Or can someone just go straight to WILDing?

It depends on the person. I was a natural lucid dreamer, started with nightmares. I'd realize they weren't real and force myself awake. Little did I know this was a LD. It's happened ever since I was a little boy.

DILDs are great for beginners, your pieces of paper tend to have positive results as well =). When I first started I wrote "Recall" on my papers, to try to form that habit of not moving when I wake up, instead immediately start remembering the dreams I just had.
I can't tell you how many times I'd wake up normally and then in the mid afternoon remember a LD I had the previous night.

WILD's are also a great tactic, not my favorite (because of the weird sensations) but they do infact work. I used to set my alarm for about 4 AM, wake up for about 2 minutes, and then relax and repeat "I will have a lucid dream" over and over again. This is actually a WILD/MILD mix, it worked for me =). When you wake up in the middle of the night your body is already relaxed, and it doesn't take as long to fall back to sleep, thus making it that much easier to carry that one thought, image, or dream plan with you.

I want to know what the WILDing and sleep paralysis feeling is like sooooo bad. My lucid dream today actually happened right before I woke up...so it was around 11am or so.

Is there really a difference in the quality of lucid dream you'll get depending on what method you use? Like will a WILD be any more vivid or controllable than a DILD? Or is it just different ways of getting there?

Some may disagree with me, but the quality of the lucid dream depends on how many REM cycles youve had during the night already not on the technique used. The first dreams you have during the night are going to be shorter and less vivid. The more REM cycles you have the longer and deeper they become. So lucid dreams after about 5-6 hours sleep will be of the highest quality.