Imagination is the key.

[Reala]

During this experiment which I just finished, there were two things that was constant in all of the natural lucid dreamers, Artistic nature and imagination. Therefore I am conducting this follow up experiment to try and deduce if this is learnable. I will be needing several people to devote at leat one hour a day to art and imagination building exesises. The exersises you could use, for example, food visulisation, think of the look, the smell the the taste of the food. Try and eat some air, make it taste like the food. Wing visulisation, picture yourself with wings, try and feel thempn yourself. Anyone is welcome to join in this experiment, this could revolutionise lucid dreaming if all goes to plan.

[spilly]

i agree with your idea about creative people being able to lucid dream perhaps easier than non creative people. another big thing i think is crucial is being able to completely let and to rid your mind of all the bullshit that has been crammed into it by the assholes of this world. btw, id consider myself a naturally creative person, i can usually get about 1 lucid dream a month, prob 2 on a good month since i have taught myself to lucid dream. if i didnt enjoy pot so much im positive that id be much farther ahead in my progression.

[Barbizzle]

What an interesting hypothesis Nights. I am a Natural Lucid Dreamer and I consider myself to be very creative and artistic. I play 3 instruments and I’m always, creating things and writing/playing music and I love to make movies, and that also takes imagination. The visualization activities that you were talking about, I do those all the times for practice. Its fun just to see just how far you can take your mind to craft things out of nothing. The world around us is only our perception of the out side world. Why not let the inside world penetrate to the out side? Its fun.

[Reala]

So would anyone like to volentier for this? I'm going to do all of these, then write up the huge expereiment and the follow ups as a whole.

[Jammy]

I think i could enroll for this. Is it a big report in the end of the month or something then?

[Reala]

Big report once all of the followups are done. FYI, this is having good results so far.

[nina]

Yeah, I am also a natural LDer...I have about 20-30 really short ones a week and maybe 3-4 long vivid ones, just depends on my state of mind at the time and how much sleep or nap time I get. I would also consider myself an extremely creative/artistic and open-minded person. I think it would be interesting to find out what zodiac sign most LDers tend to be?

[whoeverwearevox]

I think i'm a natural LDer. I remembered controlling my dreams since i was about 10. I am a chronic insomniac but everytime i get the appropriate amount of sleep i LD. I'm a taurus by the way lucidnina I write music, poetry, and i usually turn some of my dreams into pros. I play Guitar, Trombone, I sing, I play a little bit of drums, and i play a little piano. I also like making movies. I corriograph fight scenes for some of my friends movies and i also help with writting scripts. I like surfing, snowboarding, thinking, and long walks on the beach haha is there some sort of natural club or something that i dont know about?

[Reala]

From this sub-test, I have concluded that building imagination and artistic skills aids lucidity greatlly, tutorial on the way.

[Syntex]

Hey Before you start, I have something to add here.. which is in disagreement with what your saying... Lucid Dreaming is achieved by Consciousness and realization. Being more creative or artistic only has an indirect effect on lucid dreaming which makes it look like it is the cause. You see when your a creative or artistic, you tend to reflect on your life and yourself alot, you tend to know alot about yourself and therefore contribute to the ability to reflect on things in a dream, thereby becoming conscious. I don't believe practicing "imagination" will do anything. In all of us we already have a highly developed imagination, one that is so active it becomes real... Thats dreaming. To try and imagine something without the subconscious mind helping is just a futil task, in my opinion. I think a much more effective routine would be to reflect on your thoughts and actions for a full day. Become aware of absolutely everything you can. Practice being conscious. Notice every detail in a persons face and in the ordinary things you do. Do this for a full day and do it like twice a month, I'll think you'll find this is much more effective in creating lucid dreams than trying to imagine something, when you already have that ability(having that ability while awake would simply be Hallucinating or daydreaming). Those are just my insights. -Daniel

[Reala]

However it is a common trait in natural lucid dreamers and has been helping me with my lucid dreaming. First I will draw the link, then find out why.

[Kaniaz]

I wouldn't of expected imagnation to be the key to it, I would of expected consciousness too...but hey, if you can get some results out and some graphs and stuff, that'd be great and very intresting to read... This sort of remembers me of that book "The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night Time", where there's this autistic kid who takes in every detail of everything, really.

[Taosaur]

I doubt there will be a "key," but I can see how artistic pursuits would aid in lucid dreaming. Any creative activity, such as music, drawing, sculpting, or writing, requires us to become totally immersed in a process without losing control of it, which seems like a skill that would translate to LDs.

[incognito]

How come there's no debate on what Syntex has suggested? I think he's on to something there, and it would definitely have an effect on the outcome of such a research project would it not? I'm not sure where I stand on the issue, I think creativity and imagination play a role, but not in as direct a sense as you believe they do. I think you'll find a lot of "natural" lucid dreamers or people who come by it a lot easier than others are perhaps more creative and imaginative people, but this is a side effect; I think what lays at the core is that they are simply more open minded people. They are aware of their surroundings, and they are aware that there is much more going on then what is directly in front of them. This often leads to a person having a much broader imagination... this in turn leads to some of the best artists, inventors, etc.

[Syntex]

Incognito, EXACTLY... thank-you for that, glad you get it. -Daniel aka Syntex

[Placebo]

Thanks incognito and syntex... I didn't notice this for some reason until today I think you are onto something here... vivid dreams require good imagination. And imagination is an art-related skill I've always found that I had a great imagination - mostly because of my mother and the way she crammed books into me as a kid. And my father (who is a commercial artist) reckons I have a natural 'raw' artistic talent... undeveloped though. He envies my rough-sketch style, as his job has forced him into a clean cut style And now that I think about it... during the last LD 'wet' spell I had, I was more active with developing games and 3D graphics Hmm... maybe its not a coincidence at all... [EDIT] I just had a thought Perhaps its not directly about creativity How about being 'balanced'. Most people nowadays are unbalanced onto the logical side of things Being creative helps balance you out. Just a thought...

[Human]

Originally posted by Reala+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Reala)</div> During this experiment which I just finished, there were two things that was constant in all of the natural lucid dreamers, Artistic nature and imagination.[/b] I think you have a good point there. <!--QuoteBegin-Reala Try and eat some air, make it taste like the food. Wing visulisation, picture yourself with wings, try and feel thempn yourself. That reminds me of a term I have heard; synaesthesia. It's a term for a phenomen when a person is able to connect senses wich normally is not connectet with each other. Perhaps many natural lucid dreamers actually have a synaesthesia ability. What do you think about that? There is a good article about synaesthesia here: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/2/21/144256/437