Im so happy it worked for you Cardeal! As you keep practicing the technique, you will see a lot of progress. So keep it up! :D
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Im so happy it worked for you Cardeal! As you keep practicing the technique, you will see a lot of progress. So keep it up! :D
After visualizing, the scene just doesn't seem to stick in my head. :( It's like after I get everything going, my mind wanders for a brief second and then I have to get it all dreamed up again.
Any tips?
Oh and while I'm here, I have to ask:
In an afternoon nap yesterday, I was just able to focus on my breathing and let my mind wander, while being a little bit immersed in it. After about 10 minutes, I felt very peaceful, and the sound seemed to deafen a little bit, but I fell asleep shortly. What do you think I could have used to keep myself aware?
Since you know so much about it and have a lot of experience with it. ^^
Is there a type of scene (imagined or real) which may work better ?
If I may make a suggestion. The visualisation would require quite a bit of mental effort so I feel for myself I should delay it until the right moment and this is my plan - I will count from one to five and then backwards again from five to one. The up and down counting helps to keep me focused on the task in hand of counting. When I notice that I am beginning to forget to count, not because I am thinking about other things, but because I am on the cusp of falling asleep I will give myself a little awareness jolt to keep me from falling asleep and I will begin the visualisation. The two conditions of forgetfullness are really distinct and herald the onset of sleep thus pinpointing the ideal time to start the visualisation.
Thanks Mancon for the guide. It was short, sweet, and to the point.
I will try this technique tonight with WBTB and post my results in the morning.
Will try this again tonight too. :) For some reason though, I still cannot keep the image in my head.
Darn. I rolled over too much and fell asleep. I never really got to the visualizing part.
Great guide, but the thing is, I'm bad at visualization. I cannot hold images in my mind longer than 1/3 of a second. They just vanish, and I can barely see what I've imagined. Thus, I cannot imagine anything vivid in my dreams.
This is a pretty decent guide to improving visualisation http://www.dreamviews.com/f12/induci...art-2-a-29491/
Well, last night I had an alarm failure so I guess I'll try again tonight.
I will post my results tomorrow. :)
Question for you Mancon: How long from laying down and relaxing a bit, then starting to visualize should it take into you transition? My problem with visualization is that I can do it, but not for long... The images start fading and getting really choppy after only a few minutes.
Hmm..I think it depends on the person. As you get better at WILDing the time it takes for you to transition gets shorter and shorter. For me it is about 3-5 minutes. As a beginner it could take 10-30 minutes on average. Once you get the hang of it though, I promise it will be shorter.
Not everyone can visualize well. Go to google and look up visualization exercises. Practice them until you become better at visualizing. Another thing I should mention is to visualize your dream scene as a moving scene, not just a still picture. The more details (in my opinion) the easier you visualize. Good luck!
It's really cool to think about... how the transition will get shorter and shorter the more advanced (or rather, "practiced") we are in the technique. :D
That is an awesome guide, hidden deep in the caverns of dreamviews. This is my main reason for disagreeing with moderators locking bumped threads that haven't been active over two years. Guides like this can get lost completely as there is so much info on dreamviews that one needs an awful lot of spare time to find this info when it could become a lot more available if we were allowed to get involved and start the discussions up again on old threads.
So, if I practiced more with visualization, I would be able to keep the "picture" in my head longer?
...Yes! :)
Seriously I can't believe the improvement in my mental imagery since I've started practising MILD and trying to develop my visualisation. I used to have a really vivid imagination when I was a kid but it faded almost to nothing. Now my visual memory/visualisation skills are stronger than they've ever been.
Keep at it, you'll surprise yourself ^^
I completely agree. I can't even remember how I found that other than my tendency to obsessively seek new information on lucid dreaming.
I'm gonna try what you said about visualising as you feel yourself on the brink of sleep tonight, I'll post feedback tomorrow :P
@mcwillis: Do you count your breaths? Or just count at random times?
@Ctharlie: Did you use any visualization techs/exercises to get your visualization really good? Or was it just MILD that helped you a lot?
Well, last night something spectacular happened. I had a FA and I immediately tried to WILD (in my dream). I started to see this bright white light on a black canvas and my body started to shake viciously. Then, I was standing in a n open pasture (random because I wasn't even thing about that). I then woke up in my real bed and marveled at how complex the mind/dreams really are.
I feel like I han an Inception moment! :D I'm going to try this again tonight but instead Im going to use an object to help me visualize. When I WBTB I will have a toy figure of a dog. It is about the size of the top part of my pinky finger so it is pretty small. Anyways, I will spend a few minutes studying it and rolling it around in my hand imagining the dog with all 5 senses. When I feel like I'm deep in the visualization Ill set the dog down and continued with the instructions listed here. I guess this is just a warmup exercise to prepare yourself for the actual "event".
I'll post my results tomorrow. :D
Those of you who have trouble visualizing, try instead just letting the images come naturally. When you start seeing the patterns of light and such, observe them (but don't focus on them), and let them naturally form an image that you can then observe. Sometimes they even form entire scenes, at which point you want to still passively watch and let play out. Once things feel a little solid, then try to exert a little control and move around.
This is my preferred technique, since I too have trouble with visualizing sometimes. Letting them come more natural tends to help relax me aswell, allowing sleep onset to arrive quicker.
Well, I realize that most of the visualisatio n prhoblems I have are a result of trying to see through my eyes, instead of my mind. I cannot seem to do the latter when I want. They seem to come when I am not focused on anything, daydreaming. So, my next challenge is to master visualisation, I guess.
This is the biggest misconception people have. In Mancon's method you just need to be daydreaming but with a big difference. You need to integrate the 5 physical senses into the daydream and experience the 5 physical senses in great detail. Then at some point, with practice, the daydream will begin to take on a life of its own and you will transition into the imaginary world you have been daydreaming about :)
The counting is just a mental activity to prevent me from falling asleep. When I notice that I am beginning to forget to count it means I am on the verge of falling asleep. This gives me the signal to become more aggressive with my intent to stay awake as my body falls asleep. I added this to the thread as I feel it would help myself, and perhaps others, to start the visualisation at this point.