Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | i found the way to attain it

hello

thought i might help you guys to achieve your lucid dreaming goals



let me introduce myself for this is my first post on this blog i recently found

i'm a brazilian 16 yo male currently on high school and an almost-everynight unintentional lucid dreamer

not even bullshittin u

some would say i'm the luckiest guy ever for that tho i don't really see the point in sayin that

for my dreams are as long as my sleep itself

thus preventing me from getting proper rest from my sleep

so i came to this forum to tell you guys how i came to this

in exchange you can help me too



so this is my story:



for several reasons i decided to make a change in my life recently

as part of that change i took part in a masturbation-free routine

i felt like i was born again and much things in my life changed for the better

i can say i was a chronic masturbator before so it was definetly a pretty significant change

after one single day without masturbation my life's first wet dream occured

(can't remember exactly if it was a lucid one)

was pretty intense and satisfying though i felt somewhat guilty about it

these dreams happened everyday after i stopped jacking off becoming completely lucid and sexual

i'm sure these dreams were testing my strenght of will by puting me face-to-face with flirty provoking women in a lucid dream



(at one time i dreamed i was in a bus with this beautiful blonde sexting me from the back seat

when i decided to stand up and flirt with her i came and the orgasm woke me up

that pretty much proves the strenght of will theory i can asure u guys)



at first i would always give in to these women

curiously sometimes when i was about to jizz the dream showed me that the whole thing was me watching porn

my will was showing me how weak i was by giving in to those women

i often woke up feelin like shite

gradually these dreams became even more lucid so i decided i'd stop givin in

when i did so these dreams became more spiritual and long lasting

i became used to those women provoking me and stopped givin in unless i felt i should

i could now realize i was awake

open my eyes

stop dreaming

close 'em again and go back to the dream right where i left off

pretty impressive huh?

i could lucid dream

i swear on my sight i'm dead serious



i'm a god when i'm lucid dreaming there are no boundaries rly

my adoption of a masturbation-free did that to my mind

gradually gave me longer and more exciting and believing lucid dreams and the ability to go back to them whenever i want

even after i wake up

never even experienced sleep paralysis or anything like it

not even once

spirituality can really change one's mind



that was it

you can call the bluff if u want but that's nothing but the truth

ask whatever you want i'm willing to answer





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Lucid Dreaming | Trying to Fall Asleep with Eyes Open - Any Experiences?

Once in a while I come across something I didn't hear yet - and I don't know, if it is good for anything, either - there's not so much else on here:

Lucid Dreaming*




Quote:




2) Carry Over Some Consciousness



Pick a night when you are so tired that you will fall asleep as soon as you hit the bed…but don’t. Lie on your back with your arms at your side and keep your eyes open for as long as possible. Don’t jerk them open; you’re not trying to stay awake, only to keep your eyes open. Eventually you will fall asleep without even realizing it. For some reason this will make you more conscious when you begin to dream, making it easier to go lucid. Do this over and over and you will get results soon enough. After all, what better things do you have to do when trying to fall asleep?




What do you guys and gals think of this?







*I hope, the link is allowed - but I got it from another thread on here - otherwise - may it disappear.





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Chess Puzzle | 4/30/2014 - Mate in 4





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Monday, April 28, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | Do WILDs miss the point?

Thought I might start an interesting debate...

(To me) lucid dreaming is about training your mind to question our reality so that we become not only aware that we are dreaming within dreams, but that we are aware of the world around us in day to day life. And so DILDers' awareness levels will be higher during their dreams because they've actually trained their mind to think deeply.





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Chess Puzzle | 4/28/2014 - Overworked and Underpaid





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Sunday, April 27, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | I almost had a LD this morning, but :'(...

When I woke up this morning I tried one of the techniques I've read from here: imagine yourself doing something while you feel sleepy. I imagined myself running and I woke up finding myself lying down and doing the running action on the matress. I got up, not sure whether this was a dream. I did a nose-plug RC, but I couldn't breathe. I thought to myself this can't be a dream and went back to sleep. Then I woke up for real. :'( I had had lucid dreams before (though they were very short) plugging nose always worked. I should have know it was around 9 am in real life, but in the dream it was dark. Anyway, I didn't know you could hold your breath in a dream. I should try a new RC.





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Lucid Dreaming | Is there something I can do during the day to help?

So when I'm waiting and doing nothing for a few minutes in the afternoon or late morning is there anything I can do that will help increase my LD chance? I already do RCs, so besides them.





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Chess Puzzle | 4/27/2014 - The Chase





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Saturday, April 26, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | Totally Beginner, can't fall asleep

Hello people, this is my first post on this forum, I'm totally new to LD and never had one before. I'm currently trying WBTB with MILD and also some lucid dreaming phone apps.



My biggest problem is: when I'm trying to LD, I simply can't fall asleep. I keep repeating the MILD mantras, but:



1) When getting drowsy I switch from mantras to visualization and en up awake again;



2)When getting drowsy I feel a weird vibration, maybe some WILD related stuff and that makes my heart rate and breathing go faster (which ruins the relaxation I guess);



3)Simply get stuck visualizing but too concentrated to fall asleep.



After about 45 minutes trying I give up on lucid dreaming and just try to sleep normally.



Any ideas? Maybe some binaural tones could help me relax or something like that? Should I try another technique?





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Lucid Dreaming | Can FILD Work As Soon As I Go To Bed

It's very hard for me to wake up during REM, so is there a chance that FILD would work as soon as I get to bed (being tired of course)





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Chess Puzzle | 4/26/2014 - Spielmann - Van Den Bosch, Europe 1935





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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | What I've found works for Me.

Hi everyone,



I haven't really been on here for quite a few months and have learned a little more about how to Lucid Dream on a nightly basis, I've also come up with a couple of ideas that may help some of you get Lucid more often so wanted to share them.



I was last regularly posting on here about 8 months ago and at that time found a way I could LD on a nightly basis so wrote a post about it. The only problem was as I had been trying quite a few things, I couldn't be sure what was working and what wasn't and as I was getting such success, I didn't want to rock the boat and change anything. After not really trying to LD for some time though, I've found out what it was that was working and what was not.



The reason I Haven't been trying to LD the last few months isn't because I lost interest in them (How could you) but because I have been into something else and that has been consuming my thoughts. I had one of those LDs that just stands out and grabs your attention though and it sucked me straight back in, so thought I'd try the things I was doing before one at a time to see what it was that was working and weed out the rest.



The first night I naturally WBTB and without getting up, turned on my back and said to myself with conviction I'm Dreaming, this is a LD, etc... and tried to MILD as I used to before, fell back to sleep and didn't have a Lucid.



I tried this for 5 nights and never got Lucid, I know 5 nights doesn't sound like much but to me it's long enough to know this isn't working so I started trying Reality Checks throughout the day. I also had noticed my Dreams were not what they used to be, they were many and vivid but I could only remember bits and pieces of them, so thought I'd start writing a Dream Journal (which I'd managed to get away with not keeping one before, only having to write my Lucid's down).



The night I was going to write in the DJ though I couldn't be bothered so instead went over the Dream I'd just had in my head, I then did that for all the Dreams I had that night and it worked just as well as writing in the DJ, my Dream recall went up and they've became much more vivid again so worth a try for people who don't like writing in a DJ.



I had a Lucid on the sixth night but that was just a random one and then none for the next 3 nights.



On the 10th day I decided to start Prospective Memory again as this was what I thought had a lot to do with regular LDing before but wasn't sure. That night I naturally WBTB, turn on my back and say to myself with conviction I will remember when I am Dreaming, I do this a few times and let myself fall to sleep and find myself in a non Lucid Dream, after a minute or so I realize I'm Dreaming and become Lucid, success!



I try this for the next 5 nights and become Lucid the same way every night so pretty conclusive that for me (And if it works for me it will work for others) Prospective Memory significantly improves MILD attempts so well worth trying if you haven't already.



I've also found that I wake at the same time everyday for WBTB, then wake again around 1 hour later having had a Lucid in that time so I must be hitting my REM period nicely. If some of you have not been successful with WBTB maybe it's because you're just missing your REM phase, try changing your alarm half hour later or earlier and see if it makes a difference.



Lastly I wanted to try to think of a way to get some DILDs earlier in the night so I could get Lucid in the night instead of waiting for the early morning (might as well try to get in as much as possible) and came up with something simple. I just RC every time I realize I'm in different surroundings, for instance I'll be in the kitchen and RC, then at some point I'll realize I'm outside and RC and so on. My thoughts behind this is that Dream scenery can be rather changeable and it gives you a few chances each Dream to hopefully click on you're Dreaming. So far I've had a couple of DILDs from this in only a few days so it's looking promising.



Thanks for reading.





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Lucid Dreaming | How much Vitamin B6?

I'm going to buy vitamin B6 tomorrow as I've heard it can help make dreams more vivid. The question is, how much should I take it? I don't want any consequences. Thank you.





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Chess Puzzle | 4/24/2014 - Mate in 7





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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | Dream journal questions

1. Should I be waking up in the middle of the night via alarm or pee break from water to write in my journal. Or should I just remember what I can in the morning when I wake up. When I was waking up in the middle of the night I was able to write down like 3-4 dreams. If I dont wake up I am lucky to get 2 dreams in. Usually its a mix of 2 dream that I just write down as 1 dream I think.



2. What is your preferred Android app for writing and tracking dreams.





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Lucid Dreaming | Easy visualization exercise for MILD

In MILD and Intention Technique, as described in EWOLD, Laberge suggests visualizing yourself becoming lucid in the previous dream.

The problem, of course, is that sometimes recall is poor or inexistent. When this happens what to do ?



Does it really have to be the previous dream ? Can we use any other previous non lucid ?



But, for what this thread is about : can we use some waking life memory ? For instance, the memory of the day ?



It is still fresh in our minds, and we don´t need the mental burden of creating and visualizing a whole new plot. We can just incorporate some fantasy elements.



For example, i remember today i was waiting for the bus and then i remember arriving home, meeting an old friend and so on.

So, when practicing MILD i can visualize myself becoming lucid at the bus stop after spotting some oddity and then visualizing and making small changes to my memory blueprint, but without changing the main story of the day.



Just an idea to keep MILD rolling when conditions are tough :)





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Chess Puzzle | 4/23/2014 - Got Him





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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | How often should you be attaining lucidity before trying to stabilise and control your lucid dreams

At the moment I tend to have 1-2 lucid dreams per month, technically, usually after noticing a dream sign, but in all of them I have woken up either immediately or 2-3 seconds after I realised I was dreaming, which I know is very common. I have been told I am supposed to rub hands together and focus on the dream when I become lucid, but I wake up before I can even think of doing this. I'm guessing I need to have more LDs to get my mind used to this state, but how often have others been achieving lucidity before they were able to stabilise, or how long did it take them to reach this stage?





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Lucid Dreaming | OPEN BETA - The Way of the Lucid Dreamer - Days 7, 8, and 9

If you're new, start here...



OPEN BETA - The Way of the Lucid Dreamer

OPEN BETA - The Way of the Lucid Dreamer - Day 0



Ok, I've been doing a rewrite of the previous stuff, but hopefully days 7, 8, and 9 still make sense without having to reread everything up until now. One of the main concepts that's expounded upon is the idea of the "mental construct" version of reality. We start out with this idea and explore the first exercises in relation to it. This is part of the explanation from the new Day 1...




Quote:




The brain, so it would have us believe, has better things to do than continuously update our perception of reality. It’s only when something unexpected or out of place occurs that the brain begins to refresh our vision. This is the reason that moments of surprise (good or bad) tend to be remembered with more clarity and detail. The brain is actually paying attention to what is going on.



In a non-lucid dream, we find the same thing happening. Rather than seeing the reality of the dream world, we’re simply viewing a mental construct. We’re moving and operating in a mental space. When we become lucid, the construct disappears and we begin to truly see the dream for the first time, recognizing where we are. In Exercise 1, we are learning to see beyond any kind of mentally generated construct of physical reality. We are learning to see reality as it really is. This is a crucial and foundational skill that subsequent exercises build upon and that we’ll eventually be using to become lucid in our dreams.








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Chess Puzzle | 4/22/2014 - Mate in 2





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Saturday, April 19, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | First LD Friday night..

Sorry if this is the wrong section, I decided to go to bed but my scalp was hurting from being in a ponytail all day. I got this copper scalp massager "the tingler", used it and went to bed and had a awesome LD. I don't know if that is what caused the LD, I also told myself to be aware before sleeping, anyone know which could have caused the lucid dream?





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Lucid Dreaming | Looking for a good audio book about lucid dreaming?

I'm not a very good reader, but I do like audio books. Problem is I am finding it hard to find any audio book about lucid dreaming. "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" seems to be a book everyone suggests and I have read various post around the web that suggests there is an audio version but I sure can find it.



Doesn't need to be "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" any audio book anyone can suggest would be great.





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Lucid Dreaming | Lucid dreams more likely in new environment. Speculation.

It's been discussed many times, but I know that many have noticed that lucid dreams are more likely to occur when you sleep in a strange environment. I've noticed I often lucid dream on holiday - usually the first night in a new bed I LD. Also, I've read that women are better at lucid dreaming than men. There could be a reason for this - I've read that women are lighter sleepers than men because they monitor for sleeping babies waking and crying. So it could be said - broadly - that the women are alert for danger thus lighter sleeper. The increase in lucidity rate while on holiday (or sleeping on the sofa in your normal home because your other half has flu :mrgreen: ) could be because the strange sounds (and sensations) leads to heightened awareness while asleep because you perceive the unusual sensations as "danger". Thus an increased chance of lucidity follows? So you could maybe use this - set up something that you genuinely perceive as a "safe" danger and use it to increase your chance of becoming lucid.





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Chess Puzzle | 4/19/2014 - Tisdall - Lee, London 1981





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Friday, April 18, 2014

5 Medical Tips When You’re Off the Map

Many people who are well prepared in other ways overlook the importance of being able to handle a medical emergency when venturing off the beaten path. Remote areas, especially mountainous ones, can present a challenge. Both weather and distance may make it impossible to leave the area for help. An injury to a limb or an illness could be dangerous and put a person’s first aid skills to the test. Here are five tips for taking care of an injured individual when medical help is not available.


woods


1. Make splints out of branches.


Losing mobility in the mountains can spell trouble. A sprain, strain or broken leg from a fall can make it difficult to bear any weight. For this type of injury, an effective splint can be made from materials found in the area. Branches, sticks of wood or pieces of bark can all be used. As a guide, the limb needs to be splinted to the joint directly above the injury. If a broken foot is suspected, it should be immobilized with a splint up to the ankle. For a twisted knee, apply the splint to the hip. Wrap padding around the injury before splinting to help hold down swelling.


2. Know how to make a tourniquet and wrap an ankle.


A tourniquet will stop bleeding for a short period of time in an emergency situation. It should only be used when direct pressure does not stop the bleeding. When no sterile gauze is available, a roll of tape or a piece of clothing can be used to firmly wrap the injured area.


A makeshift tourniquet can be made from a stick. The stick should be positioned alongside the injury and attached to the bandage with two overhand knots. The stick can then be turned to tighten the bandage and apply more pressure. This provides stability to the wound and will stop the bleeding, but the person’s blood flow will be cut off below the injured area. Learn how to properly apply a tourniquet before the need arises to use one.


3. Provide purified water and food to the injured person.


An injured person could be laid up for a period of time. They must have nourishment so they don’t become weakened or ill. In a remote area, food storage survival kits are ideal in a medical emergency. Survival kits contain either individual water pouches or water purification tablets and high energy food bars.


Lakes and streams now contain too many chemicals and microbes and are not considered safe sources for water. If water pouches are not available, safe drinking water can be prepared using purification tablets. Drop two tablets into one quart of water and wait 30 minutes before drinking. An alternative is to boil the water for between 5 to 20 minutes to kill any microbes or bacteria. Survival energy bars are high calorie, and made to replace a full day’s worth of meals, if necessary.


4. Bring down fever or provide heat.


To treat a fever in a remote area, it’s important to have the individual rest and drink as much water as possible. This replaces fluids and brings down body temperature. Applying cold compresses can also help bring down a fever. Solid food should be avoided until the fever breaks. The person should also be kept warm from a heat source. Studies have shown that body chills during a fever should be treated by being sure the person is covered and kept warm.


5. Consume rice or rice water.


During cases of illness, rice can be used for some medicinal purposes. The properties of rice soothe an irritated stomach and can be used to control diarrhea, edema and blood pressure. Rice water is particularly effective as a remedy for intestinal infections and diarrhea. To prepare, use one part rice to three parts water and boil for 15 minutes. Let it cool, strain and drink.


Author: Lee Flynn


© 2014, Rourke. All rights reserved.






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Lucid Dreaming | Nose pinch considered harmful?

Let me start by saying nose pinch works 100% for me. Whenever I have done it in a dream, it always indicates dream. I do not recall any dreams where I did a nose pinch that indicated not dreaming.



I have saved a few good LDs where I started doubting, with the nose pinch. Nose pinch has helped cement lucidity in a few LDs right at the beginning. Mostly, however, I get lucid by awareness peaking and just realizing all of a sudden I'm dreaming. I don't think I did an RC in a dream until the 7th LD or so, which I just did when already lucid because I was curious what my dream hands looked like.



Developing a "nose pinch reflex" has been a big part of my training. I think it has been useful in a few cases. But maybe subconsciously I'm relying on it too much now? Maybe "nose pinch and continue" is training me to let go of peaked awareness too soon?



It's so easy, so fast, so clear, and it takes no thought or consideration. Maybe instead of a nose pinch reflex, I should work instead on an awareness reflex, focusing on awareness alone to evaluate my state, holding peaked awareness longer? It is the mental awareness and constant activity of the critical faculty (is this a waking situation/state?) that many associate with very frequent lucid dreamers (many of who established this as a way to detect/predict nightmares).



In my daytime practice, I'm working hard to cultivate a continuous sense of skepticism about my state: I try never to assume I'm awake, ever. I consider my surroundings critically all through the day.



Maybe I'll keep the nose pinch, but only employ it *after* thoroughly mentally evaluating my state/environment, and holding longer to peaked awareness.





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Chess Puzzle | 4/18/2014 - Steinikov - Jaskoy, USSR 1988





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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | Can you gain lucidity with an irregular sleep pattern?

I get insomnia most nights, and I travel from house to house so the time I go to sleep and the time I have to wake up varies a lot. I've had experience with lucid dreams before but not for a long time. I've been doing reality checks and am keeping a DJ, sometimes I wake up after every REM with full memory of the dream, sometimes I wake up in the morning with no memory of waking during the night. Is it possible to become lucid when my sleep patterns are always random? And which induction technique is best for someone like me?





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Lucid Dreaming | Experiments with memory and awareness

I was doing a lot of thinking about awareness techniques - particularly ADA, and the Omnilucidity non-blinking technique - and I was also doing a lot of learning (I'd always wanted to learn all the countries of the world and their capitals, just to kick off a broader knowledge of the geography of the world I live in, and so I can look really clever when TV quiz shows are on ;) ) and was using the Method Of Loci. The Method Of Loci is also known by other names, such as Memory Palace and Roman Room. If you don't know, it's a memory system where you associate information you want to learn with a place (location), the idea being to make memorising the information and recalling it easier. Example: You want to remember to buy beans and a dog whistle when you go shopping later. So, to apply Method of Loci you look at something in your room - the mirror, say - and choose a a part of the mirror - say the frame. You want to remember the baked beans first. So you then make a ridiculous image in your head, such as the the frame of the mirror being made of baked beans instead of wood, and you visualise all the beans trickling down the wall, making an awful mess. To remember the dog whistle, you can make a ridiculous image based on the actual mirror - the reflecting part: You imagine yourself looking in the mirror and instead of having a head for a head you have big dog whistle for a head. And to add a bit more, you try to scream but instead of a scream coming out, the high shriek of a dog whistle comes out. Later, when you're out shopping, you only have to remember your frame and the mirror to remember you need baked beans and a dog whistle. If you can remember something - such as the route you walk to work - you can memorise thousands of items using Method of Loci (and I have!)



The idea popped into my head of using my body parts as "locations" to remember information. The idea being to try and combine my memorising with an awareness technique - so I'd be doing stuff that made me aware of my body, but I was also doing something that was equally as constructive - learning information. I made a list of body parts and associated information with each part. For example, for my big toe I wanted to memorise the first country alphabetically (Afghanistan), so I visualised an Afghan hound biting my big toe. I remembered about 50 items, using different body parts. Another example would be that I imagined an Eiffel Tower springing out of my nose (for France, obviously) I took the idea a bit further and imagined I was in a box (the best way to imagine this is to visualise that I was in a coffin) and formed associations around the box, the idea being to bring my awareness towards myself, my body, my immediate environment, in dreams. The dream I had that night was the most clear (I want to avoid using the term "lucid" to avoid confusion :biggrin:) I'd had for a while.



I decided to try to refine things a bit. So I just used my glasses for the locations. I listed the parts of my glasses and associated information with the various parts. Hundreds of them. Similarly, the idea here was to spend a lot of time during the day paying attention to my glasses - memorising and recalling the information - in the hope that my attention would go to my glasses in my dreams, I'd remember the exercise and BINGO!, I'd be lucid. I continued the exercise for about 21 days. On not one occasion did my attention go towards my glasses in my dreams - or that area of my face. There were interesting similarities with the exercise, though. There were an awful lot of windows popping up in my dreams. So much so that windows (and peering through them) could've been considered a new dreamsign for me. The top of my glasses frame featured a lot in dreams, though not close up. For example, in one dream I was looking at a wall and there was a clear black line across the middle of the wall and animals were balancing on the top of this line! In another dream I scrutinised a fence in the distance and followed it from left to right and right to left. Obviously the line on the wall and the fence were the dreams' depictions of the top frame of my glasses. Close, no cigar. And no lucidity.



I moved on to using an object placed across the room - a clear cube, about the size of two fists put together. I moved on from Method of Loci a little, a treated the box as not an object with lots of locations to be used as hooks, but rather as a kind of "3D screen". I would visualise remembered information as happening in the box. 3 items on the far side of the box, 3 items on the base, 3 items on the near side, and 3 items on the top. The box didn't feature in dreams at all, though dream clarity and recall took a big leap up when I had done the exercise before going to bed. (You may notice that this is similar to the well known hand technique, where you study your hand for half an hour or so before bed and tell yourself "When I dream I will dream of my hand and realise I'm dreaming". I'm not willing to sit in bed for half an hour staring at my hand like a muppet, but I am willing to stare at something for half an hour when I'm achieving something constructive - learning - in addition to my quest to become lucid (equally as worthwhile, but a lot more frustrating).)



I moved on to staring at the cube while reviewing the "movie" inside the cube. The idea here was that the staring at the cube in waking life would happen in dreams (You probably know that if you stare at something in dream the thing will distort) and I'd see the distortions and think "Aha! Dreaming" Same results as before though - an increase in dream clarity and recall, but no lucidity. No staring as such in a "eyes locked" kind of way, but there was an increase in the amount of scrutinising I did, and also, interestingly, that kind of "white haze" you get when you stare at an object for a long time put in an appearance in a dream. (Still thinking about if there could be a way to use that.)



The next idea was to use a dreamsign. I often dream of my credit card (like most dreamsigns, I have absolutely no idea whatsoever why that pops up in dreams more than other oft-used items). I held my credit card at arm's length (opposed to close to my face (in the glasses case) or across the room (in the case of the cube)). I treated the two sides of the credit card as being like two separate 3D viewing screens. I introduced a bit of magic for the first time too: On the side of the credit card facing me I would visualise/view items normally, but on the far side (not visible) I would treat it as though I had X-ray vision, and was viewing the items with magic X-ray vision, through the credit card. This carried over to dreams on the first night. In the dream I was in a theatre. To the left of me was a grey wall (the left side of the front of my credit card is grey) and to the right of me was a red curtain (the right side of the front of my credit card is red). The X-ray vision thing carried over to the dream too...sort of. A person in the theatre opened up the whole of the back wall of the theatre to reveal I was in a railway station, and I could see the lines disappearing into the distance. (NB: It's interesting here how the colour and layout of the card appeared in a dream, but not in the same size, and the distance from me was "wrong".)



The next day I did extensive visualisation using the credit card and did the visualisation for an hour before bed. That night was the first lucid experience. The dream was already very vivid (a "like I was in another life" type of dream). I was scrutinising a children's water park, which was on a hillside in the distance. On the left of the park was greyness, on the right side was an enormous red water slide. I twigged it was a dream. (Interesting again how the layout of the card - grey on the left, red on the right - occurred at the "wrong" distance.)



It's worth noting that the credit card itself has not featured in a dream.



I had another brainwave. If I was visualising things in front of my credit card - say, a Romanian was pointing up at Vladimir Putin (to remember the countries Romania and Russia) I could, essentially, treat it as though Putin was flying. So for all the visualisations I was doing I could tag any item above the ground as "flying". I have experimented with this and have had one flying dream - lucid - where I was in a plane, flying it with the power of my mind. (Need more time to test this one fully, though.)



The dreaming/not dreaming dichotomy.



So this is the dichotomy we know - we are either dreaming, or we're not dreaming. I am toying with the idea of having this dichotomy within a dream itself and building this idea into dreams. This is how this would tie into the credit card visualisation thing: The side nearest to me would be the dreaming side; the side away from me would be the not-dreaming side. Or put it another way, a lucid dream would be treated as a place in the dreamworld. So to become lucid in a dream, it wouldn't be a matter of realising we're dreaming in a dream, it would be a matter of going to a place in a dream - like we don't have the right to become lucid and enjoy lucidity until we go to that correct place. I'm guessing that's it's much easier for the sleeping, dreaming mind to grasp the concept of going somewhere to achieve something (lucidity and fun), than to grasp the - much more abstract - idea that we must be aware of our own mental state to achieve lucidity. Clear? Probably not. Will it work? Time will tell.



"Aim for the stars, reach the clouds".



What future - where technology is so advanced that virtually everything you can imagine is possible - would be akin to lucidity? If people could choose to alter their mental state in any way they choose, instantly? If someone could split instantaneously into several clones? If someone could instantly go to sleep and into a lucid dream? If simulators and virtual reality/ actual reality outdid lucidity? If you could put yourself into stasis for years? If everything - even objects - were sentient? Would it be possible to build this future world into the visualisations so that the events would occur in non-lucids and lead quickly to lucidity?



Other possible things to visualise. Variations, speculation etc.




Glasses problem




So when learning information by using the parts of my glasses as Method of Loci locations, the problem was that my awareness did not move to my glasses in dreams. What would happen if I put a stick in my mouth - a stick say, half a metre long - and created a range of Loci locations ranging from the far tip of the stick to the part inside my mouth? Would my awareness drift towards me and make me twig I'm dreaming? Speculation.



Eye movement while awake



If I used random points throughout the room I'm in as Loci locations so that my eyes have to dart about quickly to visualise them, would this carry over to dreams?



Hand focus




Could the hand and its components be used as Loci locations?



Other dreamsigns




What other dreamsigns could be used for Loci visualisations? Could action dreamsigns be used?



Cube variation



I could introduce a rule (when doing visualisation with a cube) that when I visualise things at the front of the cube, I always close my eyes.



The inside of the head




The inside of my head could be used for Loci locations and I could close my eyes while visualising. (I don't think this will work, based on my poor results with the glasses Loci experiments.)



A tube through the head




I could visualise items like there's a tube through my head: I would visualise items rushing towards me through the tube, into my head, and out of the other side.



Visualising only items behind me.



I could visualise only items behind me, to try to make events in dreams occur behind me, to play with my perception and increase my chances of becoming lucid.





The not-blinking approach (Omnilucidity)






Open eyes could be used to form Method of Loci associations. However, I doubt it will work (for me, anyway) - based on poor results with the glasses experiments.



Mirrors



I could use the reflection in a mirror for my Loci locations. Thus this could act as a reality check. (This is definitely on my "to try" list, but I'd need 10 lives and 10 bodies to try all the experiments I want to do.)



Everything's alive



I could treat all the items in my Loci visualisations as though they are alive. If this carried over to dreams it may increase the chances for lucidity - it would certainly make dreams interesting.



The simplest approach may work in the long term



The credit card approach - where I view memorised information on "3D screens" on the front side and the back side of the card may work in the long term without too much fussing about or fancy alterations to the technique. Here's my reasoning:



There need not be anything fancy about the question, "Am I dreaming?" One could use a foreign language, or you abbreviate the term to "AID?" and it would still function. You could even say the the question "Am I dreaming" could be represented by an action. Over time, perhaps the greyness - or the fact that I'm holding an object in my hand, or scrutinising any object, or whatever, would become the "Am I dreaming" for me and make me lucid. As long as I stay aware that I am doing my credit card exercise to become lucid in dreams it may work in the long term?



Going forward



I will continue with my Method of Loci split approach, and I will keep experimenting. The joy with this approach is that, even if the approaches don't give me lucids I can still do some constructive learning. I won't go back to the old ways of staying up at silly hours, chanting mantras ad nauseum and standing there holding my nose like a plonker and asking "Am I dreaming" every time something strange happens or someone says something silly.





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Lucid Dreaming | Some Beginner Questions

Hello all,

This is my first post on these forums, but I have tried lucid dreaming before. Once I started college I had taken a long break from lucid dreaming because I couldn't keep a stable sleeping schedule. But now I am back to lucid dreaming and I've found that I am plagued with all the problems of a beginner, not to say I ever got anywhere the first time I tried lucid dreaming, I've only done it a couple times. So instead of making a bunch of threads for each of my questions, I'll post all of them here. Some things to note is I have been keeping a regular dream journal, and I've been doing reality checks and randomly asking myself if I'm dreaming during the day since I've started trying to lucid dream again. I would really appreciate an experienced lucid dreamer's advice on these questions. Thanks.



Most of my dreams I am not in a body, I'm either overlooking my own body in the third person, or my perspective is above the whole dream and I'm watching whats happening from afar and when I am in my body its like everything is scripted, there's no thought of what or why things are happening, everything is just moving, even myself. How do I realize its a dream when I don't have a body to do reality checks? And is it normal to feel like things are just going through the motion in a dream?



I've been practicing asking myself where I just was and where I'm going and doing reality checks for about a week now. The last time I tried to lucid dream I was doing them for months and I still wasn't getting anywhere. The only lucid dream I consider a genuine lucid dream, was when my pet cat had just died and he showed up in a dream and I realized that he had died, which I'm pretty sure wasn't because of reality checks. Any advice?



Over the course of my life I've had around 7 dreams in which I realized I was dreaming, but only to the extent that I wanted to wake up ( they were all nightmares, and I wanted to escape what was chasing me ). Whenever these happen I don't even stop to think about it more, I just realize I'm dreaming and then immediately wake myself up. Is there any advice to give me that will help me stop and think about it a bit more?



Whenever I keep a regular sleep schedule, during the course of my sleep I wake up naturally around 4-6 times, which I assume are after a REM cycle because I can remember clearly what I had just dreamed about. Instead of doing DILD should I consider other techniques? And which would be best for my situation?





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Lucid Dreaming | Going to sleep only to recall as many dreams as possible

Have you ever approached sleep and dreaming in this way on your quest for lucidity?

I did this about a year ago, and it seemed to increase my dream recall by a ton.

Basically, I didn't think of sleep as "rest", I thought of it as something I needed to do in order to get as many dreams as possible.

So every night I would be like "okay, I'll just lie down for a while so I can get some dreams going" - then I kept doing that all night until morning, and sometimes I would be able to recall 5-6 detailed dreams in one single night!



It is all about changing your focus, so that instead of thinking of sleep as rest, you think of it as a "dream inducer".

I believe this can make your brain even more observant for upcoming dreams.





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Lucid Dreaming | [b]Prospective Memory and Lucid Dreaming 4[/b]

Previous posts in this series:



Prospective Memory and Lucid Dreaming



Prospective Memory and Lucid Dreaming 2



Prospective Memory and Lucid Dreaming 3



I strongly recommend that you read the first 3 posts in this series before attempting PMILD

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



PMILD

(Beta)



Prospective Memory Induction of Lucid Dreams, PMILD is an update of basic MILD. These instructions assume the reader is already familiar with basic lucid dreaming theory and has been keeping a dream journal long enough to have a catalog of at least a dozen frequent dream signs.



A factor vital to lucid dreaming success, but often overlooked is the importance of importance. That is, how much importance do you attach to your usual LD attempt? Stephen LaBerge observed this fact in the lab many years ago, and more than few long-term dreamers stress this idea as well.



As it turns out, importance is one of the major factors in lucid dreaming success for the simple reason that it’s a major factor in prospective memory success. If what you wish to remember to remember at some future time us trivial, chances are the mental mechanism of prospective memory won’t come into play at all. At the other extreme, if what you wish to remember to remember is life or death, not only will PM mechanism come into play, but it will nag you mercilessly.



The point is not that you should imagine or pretend your LD activities are important... rather, you should come to realize the potential importance of LDing in your life and approach the subject accordingly. In fact, this approach demands more time and energy than flopping into bed and thinking the right thoughts. It’s also designed to be fun, but don’t mistake that for frivolity.



PMILD Procedure



PMILD is broken down into two sections, Part A, to be done before going to bed for the night or during the day, and Part B, which is carried out after a WBTB, or immediately after awaking from an LD or NLD. A Journal is required on some of the Part A steps.



PART A – The Flight Plan



STEP 1 – The Destination

In your journal, write a brief statement of what you hope to accomplish this night. Your goals for the session must go beyond just becoming lucid.

(Theory Note: Chances of PM success are increased when the task is other than the last action in a series of actions.)



Example:

I want to become lucid and then practice flying like Superman.



STEP 2 – The Route

With reference to your dream journal, make a list of a half-dozen or so frequent dream signs. Spend a few minutes recalling dreams in which each of these signs showed up, without reference to your journal. Upon exercising each individual dream sign, put a check mark after it and write the word, “activated.”

(Theory Note: Chances of PM success are improved when the cues for retrieval are well associated with the task.)



STEP 3 – File the Flight Plan

Below the list of activated dream signs write:



“At the appearance of a dream sign I will remember to recognize that I’m dreaming.”

(Theory Note: This is the prospective memory encoding step. A dream sign is the cue, and “remember to recognize that I’m dreaming” is the task.



Write this out a couple more time to fix it in memory.



Put your journal away, and as you go about your daily routine, stop every now and then to anticipate the LDing success to come a bit later.



PART B – The Flight



STEP 1 – The Pre-Flight Inspection

Do whatever you usually do to achieve an appropriate state of mind for lucid dreaming and then briefly study your earlier notes and your activated dream signs.



STEP 2 – The Run-Up

Assume your usual sleeping position and get comfortable.





STEP 3 – Taxi to Runaway

Say to yourself…



“At the appearance of a dream sign I will remember to recognize that I’m dreaming.”



Focus on the words and repeat a couple of times.



STEP 4 – Take Off!

Visualize yourself in a dream in which one of your activated dream signs appears; see yourself remembering to recognize that you’re dreaming, becoming lucid, and then doing whatever was planned… flying, etc. Include whatever you normally do to stabilize, be it reality checks or whatever.



Aternate steps 3 and 4.



In each repeat of step 4, use a different activated dream sign from your list. Imagine something or someone, a dream character perhaps, nudging you upon the first appearance of each dream sign.

(Theory Note: There’s a dream sign incubation factor in play here, in that the PM retrieval mechanism will be actively searching for these dream signs, and that should help to bring them to life.)



Continue alternating steps 3 and 4 until you fall asleep.



Have fun!





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Chess Puzzle | 4/16/2014 - Mate in 3





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Monday, April 14, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | Prospective Memory and Lucid Dreaming 3

Previous posts in this series:



Prospective Memory and Lucid Dreaming



Prospective Memory and Lucid Dreaming 2





Prospective memory is an incredibly clever piece of mental machinery! It allows us to park simple future tasks and then automatically retrieve them at a predetermined time and/or under predetermined circumstances.



For example, one morning you feed your cat, “Fluff Hole” and notice that’s the last of her food. You do a mental note-to-self number… “gotta stop at Safeway on the way home from school and get food for Fluff Hole.” Then you go on about your business.



That intention initiated a prospective memory cycle by encoding a specific task… get food for Fluff Hole, along with two specific cues… a place, namely “Safeway” and a time, “the way home from school.” Without even thinking about it, you also set an importance level for the task. “I must…”



As you sit through your classes, you have no attention on your no-cat- food situation.



Hours later you’re on your way home, and miraculously out of nowhere, perhaps even before you reach Safeway, a seemingly spontaneous thought enters your mind… “Oh yeah, I’ve got to stop at Safeway and get food for the cat.” And you do.



The entire time, prior to stopping at Safeway, your prospective memory machine was continuously monitoring your awareness, looking for “Safeway” and/or for you to be “on the way home from school.” When one of those cues registered, the machine checked the importance level of the task, and saw fit to give you a little nudge… “Better stop for cat food.” Note that the strength of the nudge was appropriate to the assigned importance level of the task. If it had been less important, the nudge might have been less demanding… “Maybe stop for cat food?”



Notice that you were not looking for cues. Once the task, cues, and importance level were set, the process was entirely automatic until the machine nudged you. After encoding all you had to do is go about your business as usual.



Now consider this… what if you could encode in your prospective memory machine the task to “recognize that you’re dreaming”, and the cues “this night” and a workable “dream sign” likely to show up that night?



Well, maybe you can!



When I first started experimenting with prospective memory, I didn’t understand that after encoding, everything was on automatic. I thought I had to do something with reality checks or whatever… which I always forgot about once asleep. Then one day in an NLD, a little monkey with a tool belt let me know I was dreaming. Even though I at first resisted the idea, he managed to convince me and I became lucid. It wasn’t until much later that I realized the monkey was the prospective memory machine’s “nudge” to remind me I was dreaming. The dream was so amusing that I posted it here:



My Monkey and I



Part of the fun of this technique is seeing the various ways the PM machine incorporates the nudge into the NLD.



My original intent was to update LaBerge’s original MILD technique. In light of what I had learned about how prospective memory works, it’s a near miracle that the approach worked at all. The pioneers who somehow made it work on a consistent basis deserve medals!



The major problem I encountered when attempting to streamline MILD was how to predict what dream sign is likely to show up on any particular night. Once I got by that, it was downhill. There’s a story behind that, which I’ll post after we see how well it works for you guys.



Tomorrow I’ll post my version of updated MILD. I have high hopes for it, but in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that it’s still pretty much an untested approach… although it has been working extremely well for me.





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Lucid Dreaming | An app which shows your sleep cycles??

Sleep Cycle alarm clock Is this legit? It would be interesting to try...





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Lucid Dreaming | I'm a natural! First lucid dream

Alright I'm going to try to make this as short as possible. Please read everything.



I started researching lucid dreaming about 2 weeks ago on this site and became very fascinated. After about a week of trying to hard I gave it a rest. I've developed sleep paralysis about 2 years ago and I get it about once a month.



So here's how It started, I'm a sophomore in HS and had a lot of homework last night and at 12 am i was so tired I just said, screw it I'm going to sleep I'll try to wake up at 5 am tommorow to finish it. So keep in mind the past few days I've been taking a break of trying to lucid dream and reality checks. So I set my alarm at 5 am and went to sleep. I wake up in the morning at 5 am and am super super tired, I move very very quickly and turn off my alarm and go back to sleep. As I'm going to sleep for some unknown reason I think wow it was great living back at my old house with my bunk bed, ( 5 years ago ) so I said to my self I'm gonna try to imagine I'm sleeping there just for the fuck of it. ( KEEp in mind at the time I was not even thinking about lucid dreaming it was all just a huge coincidence) by the way have u ever tried what I was doing? Like closing ur eyes outside and imagining ur on a beach and u get to the point where if u think u open ur eyes u will be on a beach, we'll basically that's what I experienced and this all happened in a matter of seconds of falling asleep, so the moment I think I'm at my old house and about to open my eyes , BOOM In sleep paralysis, I'm

Not scared of sleep paralysis at all however I panicked idk why , but I just did, I think before or after I started hearing voices , anyways while I was in the sleep paralysis I hear my dad screaming at me WAKE UP, WAKE up! And I felt him shaking me it felt so real ( my eyes were closed and my dad shakes me slot somtimes to wake me up in the mornings) then I sainto my self. Shit I need to get out of this sleep paralysis before my dad kills me lol, so eventually I wake up and my dad wasn't even there it was just my imagination in my sleep paralysis.





So i know what ur thinking , "wtf that's not a lucid dream" however I think I was a blink away from a lucid dream I was so close ;(. I'm pretty sure if I didn't panic during sleep paralysis it would of went lucid it was so strange because when I was imagining my self sleeping at my old house it felt as if I was really there sleeping but I never opened my eyes it was only for a split second.



So I want to know what u guys think. A lot of WILD tutorials say to imagine like ur somwear or doing somthing which I did by pretending I was somewhere else. Do u guys think I would of went lucid if I didn't panic in the sleep paralysis? Has anyone else experienced somthing like this ? Please just give me some thoughts.



I will be trying this everyday now for this whole week and will post my results. Wish me luck.





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Lucid Dreaming | OPEN BETA - The Way of the Lucid Dreamer - Day 6

For those just joining us, you should be caught up through here...



OPEN BETA - The Way of the Lucid Dreamer - Day 5





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Lucid Dreaming | Is this common enough to be considered a thing?

Hi all, recently I began speaking my dreams onto an ipod, just after I've had them. I've noticed that a common theme thru my dreams so far has been people with ipods and people filming things, either me filming something or me filming it and then going into it. Then there was a dream in which I was in these "reality doors" and the plot got quite dense and confusing, like inception on dope. It wasn't lucid though.



What I'm getting at is: Has anyone else had dreams that include the things they record their dreams with and does this mean you're on the way to having a lucid? Like there seems to be theoretical things in my dreams about evolution and magic too. Its like I'm dreaming about the process of dreaming itself.





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Lucid Dreaming | Prospective Memory and Lucid Dreaming 2

In the first post on this subject (Prospective Memory and Lucid Dreaming) I made what I suspect some might consider a rather outrageous claim:



EVERY TECHNIQUE THAT LEADS TO A GREATER PERCENTAGE OF SUCCESSFUL LUCID DREAMING WORKS BECAUSE IT IMPROVES OR MORE EFFECTIVELY UTILIZES PROSPECTIVE MEMORY.



While I may have engaged in a bit of hyperbole, I’ll present the science and theories that support that conclusion in this post.



First, a brief overview of the phases of the prospective memory cycle.



PHASE 1 – ENCODING

Encoding consists of determining what we wish to remember to do at some point in the future. At times we very deliberately begin a prospective memory cycle. At other times, we may set one with little attention to what we’re doing.



In everyday life:

“I will remember to stop at Safeway and buy cat food on the way home from school.”



In lucid dreaming:

“When I see a dream sign, I will remember to reality check.”



PHASE 2 - RETENTION

Once we’ve encoded a prospective “mission” it’s retained and lies dormant until activated.



PHASE 3- RETRIEVAL

The prospective “mission” can be triggered by the appearance of a “cue.”



In the case of “I will remember to stop at Safeway and buy cat food on the way home from school.” the cue might be seeing the Safeway store on the way home. Time can also serve as a cue, so that the time frame of driving home from school can also serve as a cue.



In the case of “When I next see a dream sign, I will remember to reality check.” the obvious cue would be the dream sign.



PHASE 4 – EXECUTION

Once retrieval is triggered, the prospective memory mission enters our awareness, and we act upon it accordingly.



Now let’s see how various LDing techniques lead to an improvement in, or a more effective utilization of prospective memory.



MEDITATION

In one study, researchers set out to determine what effect the nature of the cue, what they called “valence”, had to do with prospective memory success rates.



They devised a series of experiments in which they asked test subjects to hit a particular key the first time they came across a particular word or phrase over the course of the experiment. They devised two sets of cues for the experiment, “positive cues” and “negative cues.” An example of a positive cue would be “smiling baby.” An example of a negative cue would be “dead baby.”



They found that the prospective memory cycle was substantially more likely to run its full course when the valence of the cue was positive, rather than negative. This seemed logical in that positive cues would be more likely to attract awareness than negative cues.



Looking further, the researchers designed another experiment with three sets of cues… positive, negative, and neutral… “smiling baby”, “dead baby”, “toaster”… for example.



The expectation was that the success rate for the neutral cues would fall between the success rates of the positive and negative cues. However this was not the case. In fact, the neutral cues resulted in a success rate substantially higher than that of the positive cues!



This unexpected outcome led to further research that eventually explained the phenomenon. They learned that the retrieval and execution phases of prospective memory were dependent upon available awareness resources or what I’ll refer to as simply “attention units.”



The reason neutral cues produced a higher success rate was because both negative and positive cues acted as a drain on processing power by sucking up attention units. In other words a certain amount of analytical power became tied up in both positive and negative cues for the simple reason that they were positive or negative.



The conclusions I drew from these experiments with respect to lucid dreaming were firstly that prospective memory function is very sensitive to changes in available "attention units" and secondly that a certain level of available attention is required for prospective memory to function at all. Thus anything that increases or frees up attention can potentially increase the chances of prospective memory triggering lucidity. Anything that decreases attention units lessens the chances for success.



This explains why meditation improves ones LDing success rate. After a hard day at school or in the workplace, our attention units are dispersed in many different directions... at times it's as if we're scattered over the entire universe. Every thought and emotion that runs through our head is sucking up attention units.



Effective meditation techniques allow us to retrieve and consolidate awareness units, thus making them available for use by prospective memory. Given the resulting higher success rate for prospective memory, a higher success rate for lucid dreaming logically follows.



AWARENESS EXERCISES

Awareness exercises also increase the analytical resources required by prospective memory, but do so by way of a different mechanism.



Awareness is largely a function of demand… meaning we go through life with only enough awareness turned on to manage the tasks immediately at hand. However, there are dormant attention units in reserve that can be called upon as needed, for example, when we’re taking a test or faced with an emergency. We’ve all experienced this phenomenon.



Awareness exercises aid prospective memory function because the exercise itself demands that more attention units become active, and as noted earlier, increasing available attention has a positive effect on prospective memory, and hence a positive effect on LDing success rates.





DRUGS AND SUPPLEMENTS



Drugs such as galantamine and certain supplements work by artificially causing more attention units to become available, and so prospective memory is markedly improved. leading to higher LD success rates.



Caffeine and other stimulants would also work, but because they stimulate the entire central nervous system, not just the brain, they’re of little use in LDing.



NIGHTMARES



As many of you know from first-hand experience, nightmares can lead to lucidity. I would argue that on the first appearance of a particular nightmare that’s not likely. But upon waking up from a nightmare a second or third time, the immediate thought becomes, “next time I have that nightmare I’ve got to realize it’s just a dream!” Because of the circumstances, that intention creates a powerful prospective memory encoding. The next time that dream occurs, adrenalin cranks up the available attention units, the nightmare content acts as a cue, and the prospective memory plays out, which leads to the child becoming lucid. (… after which we do whatever we can to remedy the dream situation. My solution was to wake myself up by jumping out the second story bathroom window. )





MARIJUANA



This theory also explains why smoking weed inhibits LDing success. Simply put, pot and similar drugs create their effect by dispersing attention into a pleasant haze. Thus the resources required for prospective memory become unavailable.





SSLD



SSLD is a double threat. Besides being an effective awareness exercise, it further enhances LD success rates by another interesting mechanism.



Experiments have shown that the elapsed time between the encoding phase and the retrieval phase of the prospective memory cycle has an adverse effect on success rates. In other words the longer the time between encoding and the appearance of the cue, the less likelihood of success.



This effect wouldn’t matter that much were the decrease in success rates over time a linear affair, but that’s not the case. Various experiments have shown that very rapid drop offs of prospective memory success rates occur in the first hour between encoding and retrieval.



SSLD, like all DILD techniques relies heavily on prospective memory. Repeating the SSLD cycles is itself a form of encoding prospective memory in that the intention of the act is to remember to wake up in a dream. If the exercise is continued to the very edge of sleep, than the interval between encoding and retrieval is rather short… to the benefit of prospective memory. (Yes, I know SSLD can also be looked at as a WILD techinique.)



WBTB



Obviously the fact WBTB allows us to take advantage of longer, more frequent REM periods has a huge effect on LD success rates, but it also benefits prospective memory by way of shorter time periods between encoding and retrieval.



MANTRAS



Mantras can lead to effective prospective memory encoding, but I think it’s not so much the repetition that works as the fact that in repeating a mantra the encoding resets closer and closer, time-wise, to retrieval. I strongly suspect that saying a Mantra once, just before falling asleep would be at least as effective, and possibly more effective than repeating it over and over, After a certain point mantras tend to go on automatic, which would probably serve to muddle the desired prospective memory encoding.



DREAM SEX



This also explains why inducing a lucid sex dream can be so hard. Horniness sucks up attention units like a sponge sucking up water, essentially turning off prospective memory altoghether... which is probably why I forgot I had a dental appointment the day I spent that afternoon with Shirley Robbinsion.





About now you might be thinking that this prospective memory stuff is interesting, but since you don’t use a prospective memory approach to LDing it hasn’t got a lot to do with you. I would argue otherwise.



With any LDing technique, just the action of lying down in bed with the intention to have a lucid dream activates prospective memory. You are in effect encoding, “I will fall asleep, dream, and become aware I’m dreaming.” It doesn’t matter whether you voiced the thought or not. Given ideal conditions for prospective memory function, that alone, with NO OVERT TECHNIQUE WHATEVER OR ANY TECHNIQUE AT ALL is capable of producing a lucid dreaming experience. The first time I experienced this phenomenon and had an incredible WILD experience, I posted about it to Sageous’s WILD thread. He recognized what had happened immediately and commented that technique had little or nothing to do with the success. I kind of got it then, but now I think I really got it.



Consider this…

What if the conclusions I’ve drawn so far on this subject are right… or even half right?

What if our LDing successes come about mostly when we accidentally harness the power of our prospective memories?

What might happen to our LDing success rates if we learned to knowingly and expertly use our prospective memory to induce lucidity?



It could be another day or two before I’m ready to upload the updated MILD technique I’ve been experimenting with, but I promise I’ll put it up as soon as I can.



Niall





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Chess Puzzle | 4/14/2014 - The Good Old Trick





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Sunday, April 13, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | Seeking Advice

So I've talked about this a little with a friend of mine who is a member of this forum (rynkrt3), but it's easier to explain things in a single post on a forum than multiple short messages on facebook. Also, I'd like to see other people's views on the matter.



rynkrt3 was telling me about how he uses a mantra and SSILD for his technique. He goes to sleep quickly, so he can just focus on his senses until he goes to sleep.



This would take a lot of practice for me, because I've tried focusing on senses for meditation many times, but I just can't clear my head. My mind is always running at full speed, always distracting itself. I have briefly calmed it down during my meditation attempts, but it never lasts long. I plan to learn how to meditate effectively some day, even moreso now that I know it can help with lucid dreaming.



Anyway... The point of this post is to tell you guys a little about myself so you can give me personalized advice, helping me to determine the best LD technique for me.

I've had 3 accidental DILD's in the past year, which is what initially spurred my interest in lucid dreaming. I started a dream journal well before my first LD, but the purpose of the journal then was to hopefully notice patterns in my dreams that would help me figure out how my subconscious mind works. It has helped to some degree in that regard, but now my interest has shifted mainly to lucidity. Aside from that, I take walks through the woods all the time, and have made it a habit to keep aware of my surroundings while I'm out. I didn't know what ADA was until two days ago, but ADA is pretty much the same thing I do when I go walking. Perhaps that's why I had those DILD's. It's a theory, anyway.



So now, after talking to rynkrt3 about this for a while, more frequent awareness exercises and habitual RC's seem to be the way to go for me. I plan to practice awareness a few times every day, working my way up to true ADA over time. As for the RC's, I don't really know how I should go about it. I'll leave that open for suggestion.





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Lucid Dreaming | Prospective Memory and Lucid Dreaming

I'm a bit compulsive on wanting to know how things work, and so when I became interested in lucid dreaming, I spent a month or two studying the hard science on perception, memory, and dreaming, as well as the popular books on the subject. When the smoke cleared one fact stood out above everything else I had learned. All lucid dreaming induction techniques rely upon prospective memory for their workability.



For those of you unfamiliar with "prospective memory" a brief overview. The two kinds of memory are retrospective and prospective.



Retrospective memory is the faculty we use to recall past events, for example, remembering how to bake a cake, or the experiences of your last vacation.



Prospective memory is the faculty we use to remember to remember something at a future time, for example remembering to remember to stop at the store and buy cat food on the way home from school... or remembering to remember your girlfriend's birthday.



Stephen LaBerge's breakthrough came about as a direct result of his realizing the role prospective memory plays in lucid dreaming.



In WILD approaches to lucid dreaming, we will ourselves to remember to remember to stay aware as we hit the various stages of falling physically asleep. If our prospective memory lets us down, the WILD attempt fails.



In DILD approaches we will ourselves to remember to remember to recognize that we're dreaming when certain reminders (dream signs) show up.



Retrospective memory is turned off in the sleep state. We don't flinch at the most absurd happenings because we don't remember what is normal.



Prospective memory, on the other hand, remains turned on while we sleep. This is evidenced by the fact that most people can successfully will themselves to wake up at a particular time, or perhaps they wake up seconds before the alarm clock sounds.



It's a self-evident fact that dream recall is essential to the success of any lucid dreaming technique, but beyond that it's all about the ability to use our prospective memories.



I was surprised to learn that in the ten years prior to LaBerge making known his ground-breaking discoveries, less than 40 peer reviewed papers touching upon prospective memory had been published. In the ten years that followed, over 300 papers on the subject were published. Obviously there was a lot about the subject that was not known when LaBerge wrote his book.



And so I spent the last month studying prospective memory, how it works, how to effectively use it, and why it sometimes fails us. As my understanding of the subject grew, I began to suspect, and finally concluded what to me was a rather remarkable find...



EVERY TECHNIQUE THAT LEADS TO A GREATER PERCENTAGE OF SUCCESSFUL LUCID DREAMING WORKS BECAUSE IT IMPROVES OR MORE EFFECTIVELY UTILIZES PROSPECTIVE MEMORY.



That discovery, coupled with one of those "bolt from the blue" moments of insight opened the door to a very direct and simple approach to the MILD technique that I just began experimenting with last week. So far my success record is 4 for 5.



After last night's success with the approach, I got really excited, and so this post to tell you guys about it.



More to follow...





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Chess Puzzle | 4/13/2014 - Two Lane Highway





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Saturday, April 12, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | The Confident Knowing Technique

Aha, I have talked about this a little in my RC's and DILD guide but I will elaborate more.



The confident knowing technique, or CKT for short. This technique is a easy and simple way (but you need a great perspective memory) to get a lucid dream.



First off, what is it?

CKT is a component of MILD but more specific. Think of it this way, you know you're gonna get a lucid dream as much as you know you can move your finger right now.



Is it effective?



For sure! Infact, I have been testing it out haha. Last 2 nights, spring break right? Fell asleep late and did no reality checks.

I said to myself things like "I know I am going to get a lucid dream, subconscious" and stuff like that. I started thinking of what to do in my Lucid Dream that I knew I was going to get.

That night, I got a lucid dream.

Next night, did the same thing. No reality checks, journal, nothing. TWO lucid dreams my friend!



Well I want in, how to though?



First, I would suggest a journal but this is really just a technique if you are craving a lucid suddenly.

Second, same thing with journal but with Reality Checks. Basically for both, not required but helps.



Now, go to bed. Well, while your in bed start thinking these three things.

"I am going to get a lucid tonight subconscious, for a fact"

"Get ready to make my LD subconscious, for tonight" and

"Hmm, what should I do with my lucid dream tonight?

Do this part before you go to bed, and try to keep dreamy thoughts the whole time.

Repeat this step and/or after you wake up in the night and is falling back asleep. (Infact you could convert this to a DEILD or WILD)



Simple as that! Also, if you're a perfectionist then of course you can tweak ALL of these things.



So go ahead, maybe you can get a quick lucid tonight :)





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Lucid Dreaming | How to fall asleep before your REM in WILD?

I was just thinking about it, and wouldn't you go through all the NREM cycles again? Because you wake up, and so how does going to sleep in the middle of the night mean you'll go straight into REM? I know your supposed to wake up just before your REM starts, so does it just pause? Haha, that seems ludicrous to me.





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Lucid Dreaming | Dream journaling... How to wake up during the night?

I want to try WILD which requires me to know my regular sleep cycle. I read on a tutorial that you need to wake up just before your REM and I understand all that. Apparently you wake up naturally after each REM period but I don't, or don't have any memory of doing so. So how am I supposed to find out where my REMs are if I can't take note of them because I don't wake up? I hope this makes sense, if it doesn't please tell me so. If it does please help.





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Chess Puzzle | 4/12/2014 - Kandas - Plumb, Gilbert 2012





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Friday, April 11, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | Including more self-awareness in reality checks?

Hi,



I know that self-awareness and memory are essential for realizing you’re dreaming, so I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to how you could include an effective spark of self-awareness in your reality checks.



I was thinking you could ask some questions like: Who am I? What day is it? What was I doing earlier? Etc.



Would these questions really be enough to encompass all of your self-awareness, so that you can become lucid? I mean, are there other questions you could ask yourself, or anything else you could do to bring about a greater sense of your waking-life self in a dream?



Thanks for your suggestions. :)





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Lucid Dreaming | A trick for enhancing Reality Checks.

Have you ever heard the rumor that if you study while chewing gum and then take the test while chewing the same flavour you will remember better? The trick apparently involves neurobiology, because if you preform a test in the same conditions in which you studied, then similar memory pathways will be activated as when you were learning.



This could have potential as an supplement for inducing DILDs, of course we already have the fairly reliable reality check for them, so this technique could be used to practice the RC. My Idea is to simulate the environment of a dream, to a degree that makes me truly have to stop and consider whether I am dreaming, instead of repetitive menial tests when I'm already sure. For example I could acquire an alarm clock with a glitching screen, which I'm so used to seeing during false awakenings.



Imagine me waking up in the morning still spacy from sleep, I look at the clock and see the jibberish numbers, causing me to question if I am in a dream. It would cause me to think twice and not take any minor dreamsign as fact that I am dreaming, but instead use them as a reminder for a more valid test (such as things that can only work in dreams, like flying or telekinesis, pushing me to practice dream control as well)



Another option is found in a neat book I've been reading called "Finnegans Wake" (click here for online version). Before going to sleep I open up the book, and since it's writing style is very similar to how words act in a dream, I can use it like the study gum. What I do is read a few sentences and then attempt to use some super power that's never worked outside of a dream. Now every time I am reading something similar in a dream, I am in the habit of trying a super power as soon as I stop, and thus immediately realize that I am dreaming.



Let me know what you think and please share any experiences if you try it! : D





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Chess Puzzle | 4/11/2014 - White Wins





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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | The Lucid Chart 1.0

Lucid Chart 1.1.jpg



Hello all.



I am attempting to put together a simple chart, that can be printed out, for a folks who are new to LDing. I have attached my first draft. All opinions and suggestions are welcome.



^^If you click on the chart above it should be large enough to read.



Thank you.


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Lucid Dreaming | OPEN BETA - The Way of the Lucid Dreamer - Day 5

Chess Puzzle | 4/9/2014 - Center Stage





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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | Should I find sucsess with this?

Hey everyone. I have been interested in LDing since 2010. I had my first LD after 3 days of DJing and RCing. After that, I never found much success with DILD. I have never been able to WILD. But the few LD's I have had came from MILD. I have devised a plan to get my LD count up, and would like some feedback. 95% of my dreams are "context" (Weird place, situation, etc.) nothing like dragons and flying elephants, but always in a weird place or me in a weird situation. So knowing that most of my dreams are like this, I will periodically throughout the day ask myself where I am, what I am doing, and what I have been doing for the past X amount of time. At night I will go to bed with the intention of waking up after every dream and remembering the dream. Upon awakening from each dream I will log it, then go back to sleep either focusing on a mantra or trying the SSILD technique.



Should this work?



Thanks! :)





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Lucid Dreaming | OPEN BETA - The Way of the Lucid Dreamer - Day 4

Lucid Dreaming | Question on reality checks

Although RCs are a part of my routine, I recently discovered there's something I'm not doing right. Apparently, when you ask yourself if you are dreaming, you have to believe that you may be and then do the checks. My problem is that I don't believe I could be dreaming. Despite saying "okay, I might be dreaming, let's find out", I already know whether I am or not. The same applied to the couple of lucids I've had so far: once I became aware and before doing the RC I already knew I was dreaming, I just did it to increase vividness.



Do you really believe you could be dreaming when you do a RC in waking life? Is it "pointless" that I do RCs without expecting to find out I'm dreaming because I already know I'm not?



I hope this doesn't sound too stupid, btw :oops:





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Chess Puzzle | 4/8/2014 - Mate in 2





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Monday, April 7, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | a technique for attaining lucidity

soooo idk if this has happened to anybody else but it has happened to me quite a lot & i finally have some scientific predictions as to why it happens and how you can turn it into a lucid dream.



often upon waking up in the early morning (or whenever i have been sleeping for a long while) I usually get up and go to the bathrooom or get a drink of water then go lay back in bed and try to sleep.

but what happens is my body is extremely tired while my mind is wide awake (my mind is awake due to stress most likely or just an active mind, so people with anxiety or who have very busy schedules that they mull over in the nighttime/morning may find this technique easier than those who fall asleep easily)

so since my body is falling asleep it starts to go into Sleep paralysis (preparing my body for sleep by making my muscles and ligaments imobile) when my body enters sleep paralysis my mind is still awake because it did not fall asleep as quickly as my body does



this process used to scare me because i would start feeling people having sex with me?? weird i knowww....

but its really just my mind going into sleep mode, i also would hear a random loud banging noise or a door closing, etc. this is also sounds that occur when the mind is going to sleep.

now since my body is in SP when this happens i obviously cant move (which can be scary )

(you can get out of SP by wiggling your toes tho fyi and working up the body which will allow u to move &Wake u up)

but now i know instead of trying to wake my body up i can focus my mind on any scene i want too and its like u have to let yrself get sucked into the picture in ur mind

then your there and its a lucid dream!





its much easier to turn the experience into a lucid dream rather than to get scared and try to wake up from SP.



i hope this post made sense and wasnt all over the place!





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Lucid Dreaming | OPEN BETA - The Way of the Lucid Dreamer - Day 3

Lucid Dreaming | Sleeping positions affecting dreams?

Sleeping on my right gets me unclear dreams and no lucid dreams at all

Sleeping on my back gets me vivid dreams and lucid dreams

Sleeping on my left gets me nightmares



What's with this? should i always sleep on my back?





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Chess Puzzle | 4/7/2014 - Forcing Through





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Sunday, April 6, 2014

Lucid Dreaming | Multiple lucid dream in one sleep

after 5 hours of sleep, i woke up because my sister is quite noisy. after a few minutes i fell asleep again,

and then instantly achive lucdity, reality checks are vivid, multiple LDs are happening

what surprising is that after i LD i wake up and then fell asleep again and enter LD and then wake up again,

after 3 times of waking up, my body is in sleep paralysis, but then i fell asleep again and enter the most vivid LD.



i smoke weed + beer + ate chicken before this happened. can someone explain





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Lucid Dreaming | OPEN BETA - The Way of the Lucid Dreamer - Day 2

This is a book for all levels. For those that have mastered examining reality, keep that in mind, but still play! ;)




Quote:




Chapter 2 - Super Reality Checks



“Do not be misled by what you see around you... You live in a world which is a playground full of illusion.” – Shirdi Sai Baba



Reality checks are a curious thing. While being one of the most practiced tools of the lucid dreamer, they may be one of the least effective and most misunderstood. Your experience of a reality check as a beginning lucid dreamer will be much the same as your experience of a reality check years later as a more advanced lucid dreamer. In this light, reality checking really isn’t a skill you develop, it’s more of a stepping stone to a skill which you hope to acquire.



At some point, many of the more advanced lucid dreamers acquire the skill that reality checks strive to teach. Then they toss them aside, seeing them as no longer useful. Those dreamers that never quite acquire this mysterious skill also toss reality checks aside, seeing that they had no effect on their quest for lucidity. Either way, reality checks are ultimately tossed aside. It’s not that the reality check is a bad tool, it’s just a bit flawed. So let’s take a look at this old trick and see if we can figure out where it went wrong.



Reality checks are tests performed while awake to establish that one is, in fact, awake. A successful reality check is usually followed by a mnemonic reminder to perform a reality check that night in the dream. By getting into the habit of performing reality checks throughout the day, the likelihood of performing one during a dream is increased. And of course, when a reality check is performed in the dream, things don’t behave as they should and the dreamer realizes she is dreaming and can become lucid on the spot.



Right away, there are many flaws in this system. We usually don’t point out the flaws because there’s nothing we can do about them. How else are we going to wake up in our dreams? We want something we can do right here, right now, with minimal effort that will skyrocket our likelihood of becoming lucid tonight. Other than vague self-hypnotic affirmations right before bed, or waking up and going back to sleep all night, there just aren’t that many tools available, so we keep coming back to this malformed contrivance, and we keep having minimal, unpredictable moments of success with it.



In many ways, performing reality checks is a lot like buying lottery tickets. If I do a reality check today, I might just win the lucid dreaming lottery tonight. And of course, so we reason, if I do 100 reality checks today, I’ll be 100 times more likely to win that prize. If we applied this same logic to winning the Power Millions, we would find ourselves rapidly going broke.



But what is it that causes this tool to (sometimes) work? Often, the very intent of performing a reality check in a dream has been enough to cause me to become lucid. Simply remembering to test the dream, to wonder if I could be dreaming, will trigger lucidity before having even performed the test. Conversely, I have performed reality checks in dreams that should have caused me to wake up, but were instead rationalized away.



“Oh, gravity is just off today.”



“There’s probably a wiring problem with that light switch.”



“I can only sort of fly. If I were dreaming, I could fly a lot better.”



If we consider these scenarios the outliers of reality checking, they may shed some light on what is really going on. What was the difference that caused the tests to fail on one end, and not even be necessary on the other? To really understand that difference, we must put ourselves into the experience and look at it from the inside. Consider then the failed reality check…



You’re going along in the dream, almost seemingly in 3rd person. There is no control, you’re simply acting out a story. Some part of your consciousness is the helpless witness of everything that takes place. There is no spark of self-awareness in that consciousness, it merely follows the script of the dream. The dream self is on automatic. As part of the story, as part of whatever life or routine you’re in, it becomes time to perform a reality check. The feel of the reality check is no different than any other event in the dream. You go to perform a reality check like you would go to pick up a glass or get in the car. It’s just an automatic event. As such, there’s no true break in consciousness. There’s no shift. The reality check may indicate you’re dreaming, but it is explained away because deep down, there is no part of you that is truly questioning whether or not this is a dream. You are simply going through motions.



Going through the motions of a reality check is useless without some crucial bit of consciousness. Without a sudden halting of whatever mode of consciousness you’re in, followed by a sincere questioning of the world, the reality check and any number of bizarre circumstances which may be present can all be explained away. The reality check is not supposed to be an automatic thing, it is supposed to be a waking up. Consider now the scenario in which the mere thought of performing the test is enough to become lucid…



You’re going along in the dream, there is some random train of thoughts going through your mind. The idea suddenly occurs to you to perform a reality check. Now this thought didn’t feel like the thoughts you’d been thinking moments ago. As you thought it, you felt something happen. Like pulling your head out of the sand, you suddenly remembered yourself, you stepped back from the automatic flow of the dream and looked around. You regained something when you decided to do a reality check. Some nebulous aspect of consciousness returned to you. What was a moment before gone, lost, or scattered throughout the dream came flooding back into your being. Simply remembering to do the test to wake up was enough to wake you up. You realize it’s all a dream and leap into the air to fly.



The real purpose of the reality check is to get you to question, in hopes of leading you somewhere else. But to start, you must first seriously consider the question, “Am I awake?” This is a curious question to consider because the very act of asking it can cause one to awaken. Go ahead and try it now. Feel what it feels like to ask. Don’t just ask the question in your head as an interesting idea, but rather step into the world of the question. Genuinely consider. What are you feeling? Are you feeling awake? As you ask the question, your level of ‘awakeness’ will rise… and then immediately fall back when the question completes. Unless you hold on to it. Somewhere in that rise and fall of awakeness lies the key. In that moment of questioning, if you delve in, if you explore that second long enough, it pulls you out. You learn how to pull your head out of the sand. You experience a complete physical, mental, and emotional release from whatever “dream” you were caught up in. For a brief moment, you simply See. This is the skill the advanced lucid dreamers find, and once found, reality checks no longer become necessary. We want to learn to go straight there, and then find out what lies beyond.



We’ve established that the reality check is not intended to be a mental phenomenon. In order to work, it must be an experiential thing. With that in mind, let us see if there are more flaws in the way these tests are currently performed. PD Ouspensky is known to have claimed that it is impossible for one to remember their name in a dream. A large percentage of the population will accept this statement without question, and they will find that it is indeed impossible to remember their name in a dream. Another percentage of the population will meet this statement with disbelief. And if a few of them happen to be talented lucid dreamers, they will then set out to test this bold statement. Luckily for us, Dr. Stephen LaBerge, the godfather of lucid dreaming, is one such dreamer. He didn’t believe the statement and was able to disprove it in the dream world. He believed he could remember his name, and he did.



Along the same lines, in Wagoner’s book he talks about the influence of expectations on dreaming tools. Before Laberge tied the expectation of spinning to creating a new dream scene, Wagoner spun and experienced the appearance of balls of light. What does this have to do with reality checks? Consider one of the most common reality checks: the book test. In the book test, the idea is that text is unstable in a lucid dream. If you pick up a book or newspaper and read it, turn away, then read it again, the text will have changed, thus alerting you to the fact that you’re dreaming. This has long been a bedrock of “what’s so” in the world of lucid dreaming. However, Wagoner reports that text is relatively stable in his dreams. Like with spinning, it would seem he never bought into this part of lucid dreaming “reality.”



Talented dreamers know the power of intent and expectation in the dream. If you expect text to stay the same, it’s going to stay the same. If you expect it to change or if you expect that you’ll be unable to remember your name, you’ll experience just that. So what happens if we set out with intent to break apart other common reality checks? After reading Wagoner’s book, I set out to do just that with the light switch test in November 2013.



I am at some big university or institute. It's not the traditional kind. It's more like a learning environment. Sarah and I have a bottle of alcohol that reminds me of olive oil. We're drinking it and having a great time going through the bottle. There are a few people with us, and they're giving us sideways looks because we’re not supposed to be drinking. We're very aware of them, but are having an awesome time, so we continue. I start to hand her the bottle when I realize I’m dreaming. I immediately want to fly and consider taking her flying but luckily I remember my task. I leave the courtyard we’re in and start looking for a light switch. She follows me, but I don’t have time to explain what I’m doing. I go into a classroom and find one. I gather my intent and focus my will. “When I flip this switch, it will get brighter.” I flip the switch and the lights immediately come on.



Browsing popular lucid dreaming forums, we find that all reality checks can be unreliable. Most people recommend doing a number of tests in case one or more fail to trigger lucidity in the dream. Anything from looking at your hands to jumping up and down can all trigger lucidity, or keep you convinced that you’re not dreaming. So we return again to that crucial component, we must deeply experience the question, “Am I awake?” while performing a reality check. There is something about the state of consciousness that the question induces which causes us to truly wake up in the dream. But what exactly is that state of consciousness and where does it lead?



Exercise 2: Super reality checks



Select a wide variety of reality checks and perform them. For example, turn a light on and off. Sometimes in a dream, if it fails to perform, you know you’re dreaming. In this case, if it behaves properly, realize that you may be dreaming and that the light is just following your expectations. You may be dreaming this light and it is doing exactly what you’ve set it up to do. Be amazed at how seamless the dream reality is. Be amazed at your talent in creating this dream and realize that the light test can’t tell you whether or not you’re dreaming.



Select another test. For example, the gravity test. Jump up and down. Sometimes in a dream, gravity doesn’t behave as expected. In this case, if it behaves properly, realize that you may be dreaming this gravity and that gravity is just following your expectations. You may be dreaming this whole thing and it is doing exactly what you’ve set it up to do. Be amazed at how seamless the dream reality is. Be amazed at your talent in creating this dream and realize that the gravity test can’t tell you whether or not you’re dreaming.



Continue like this through every reality check you can think of. Once all tests are exhausted, realize there is absolutely no test you can perform that can tell you whether or not you’re dreaming. You truly do not know. Explore the world while holding on to this state of mind.



Examples of reality checks: changing text, changing clocks, gravity, non-functional light switches, hand through matter, breathing through a plugged nose, continuity of memory throughout the day, the non-existence of bizarre dreamsigns (flying pink elephants), etc.



Because it’s a state of consciousness (a pausing, considering, and not knowing) that causes a reality check to succeed, we want to be accustomed to that state of consciousness. We want it to become second nature. In a dream, a brief moment of that consciousness will cause us to awaken. With normal reality checks, we may not get to the desired state of consciousness each time, so it’s no surprise that we don’t always carry it over into the dream world. If, on the other hand, we can induce that state of consciousness and hold on to it for extended periods, it has the cumulative effect of doing hundreds of normal reality checks at once.



But how far can this one little exercise take us? Interesting things begin to happen when you complete this exercise and continue in the state of not knowing for 20-30 minutes. Give it a try, if you start to lose the super reality check state of consciousness, do another reality check and return to not knowing.








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