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Muscle relaxation ^ the post above, is mostly just used to tire your body and warm it up to help cure insomnia. I haven't had it work well.
I recently had another dream, it's always when I take a nap in an unusual place. The dream started to break down though as I asked harder questions for my dream to trick me into believing that it was real. I asked how so many people could fit in one car, and the dream just dodged the question. Then I asked why we were going, and that it had been fun before, the dream answered New York. The shrubbery outside the car got more repetitive. Then I remembered feeling something heavy on my side like a log, I was asleep on the car though I didn't remember falling asleep. But then the log didn't make sense, so the image changed in the peripheral of my eye, and turned into a rolled up carpet. These things are long. Longer than cars.
It was then that I woke up for real, asleep on a sofa in the position one would be in when sleeping on a car. Fuck my dreams. They never give me a chance to go lucid  . I woke up in a light sleep paralysis, then after I could move, I really didn't want to because my leg was really numb.
I won't give up on lucid dreaming, but I won't be chasing it actively in the future.
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On August 08 2010 02:35 rad301 wrote:Man did I have a crazy night last night. I've been reading about something directly linked to lucid dreaming, which is called "The Phase." http://obe4u.com/According to this website they call it an out of body experience, or astral projection. It's probably best to skip the text on this site until below the guy with the huge arms. I don't think it has anything to do with either of those, but something actually happend last night. I was practicing a technique called straining the body, where you essentially try to strain your entire body without moving any muscles. This was late at night when I went to bed, btw. All of the sudden I felt a few indiscribable feelings, and then my eyes started to shift from side to side uncontrollably. At that point I didn't quite know it, but right now I am convinced that it was actually my body going into REM state while I was concious. My eyes were closed, but my field of vision increased, and the view from behind my eyelids changed into this strange hazyness. I'm not sure how I can describe this without buying in to their bs but it did sort of feeling like I was floating away in some manner. At that point my heart started to race very very fast and I woke out of it. It was a bit strange because I felt a bit paralyzed, but I could still move. That was pretty much it for the event. Then I jumped on msn to tell my bro. I was going to make a blog about this, but this seems like a good place to put my story that happend last night. For anyone else interested in this phenomena please always keep a skeptical eye when reading material on it. As I said before people will give it mystical names and attribute it to spiritualism and religion, but believe me I am the opposite end of those spectrums, and what I experienced last night was very real. Study the techniques carefully but don't expect miracles to happen.
While there are varying opinions on this I believe OBE/AP is just a lucid dream, and every possible test I have done has shown them to be one and the same for me
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I had my first lucid dream this morning. It was pretty amazing how much control I had over the dream.
I won't go too much into the details of the dream, but the dream itself was rather vivid.
So I woke up @ 8:30 and I ate breakfast before realizing I didn't have class until 1pm for this day. (My schedule is still busy). I went back to bed with my clothes and light on.
I slowly started to realize that one dream was a dream, things just didn't make sense in it. But the first thing I thought, was to will myself to wake up so I could write about the dream. I woke up to a dream within a dream (my body's natural response against lucid dreaming). I tried to push myself up and put my teeth on my wooden bedframe, I could taste and smell it so vividly, so I convinced myself that I was outside the dream. Then I wrote two words down on a sticky note about my dream.
Then my dream turned into a girl dream. I had a lot of girl dreams the week before, so while I was awake, I decided to use them as a trigger for lucid dreaming. Something similar happened in one of my dreams the week before, so the trigger activated and instantly convinced me that I was in a dream.
The dream was very vivid from that point on. I won't go into too much details, but lucid dreaming allows you to control a lot more than you think you can. Levitating isn't very difficult. You can change what would be a bad dream (none of my previous girl dreams turned out too well) into a good one.
Right now I'm very worried that I will figure out a way to set more triggers for lucid dreaming and become addicted to it. I spend more time in this reality than in my dream one, so I would rather minimize displeasures in this one, and not focus too much on my dream reality. I don't want my dream reality affecting my real reality decision either.
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On July 23 2010 13:31 Bub wrote:
Drugs. Lots of them.
I've had some pretty crazy dreams after getting high. Would it assist lucid dreaming?
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Before reading this I didn't feel like going to sleep even though I'm tired. Now I can't wait!
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Ever tried having a lucid dream in your lucid dream? You need to go deeper.
Seems like Inception ripped of your whole section on Reality Checks...
Nice read though. In the beginning I thought you were yanking our chain and this whole thing was a hoax. Going though the scientific papers now.
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Very nice guide.
I've had dreams before that I recall and used to force myself to sleep longer on weekends as a kid to have vivid ones that I could at least create the scene for.
Until reading this thread I thought I hadn't really dreamed in a long time. Then I started remembering a few I had just last week lol.
Anyway last night I tried doing that mantra as I fell asleep to remember them. To my surprise I woke up exactly 4.5hrs later. Thats fairly unusual for me, and I couldnt recall if I had been dreaming. I managed though to induce sleep paralysis instead of just falling asleep again. It took a while but eventually I started to dream. I waited for images to form and take shape. It was like watching the scenery through a window on a train. Then I started to control it, completely changing the scene. It was going well until I focused too hard on a particular object and suddenly my body jolted and I was awake.
Was pretty stoked I managed to do this first go at will. I suspect i've done so before though. I definitely remember having the flying dream as a kid and wondering why i couldnt just will myself to IRL.
So thanks for the guide, look forward to trying again tonight  Hopefully i'll become more lucid over time, as I only saw/recall imagery of the dream.
Btw im a big Matrix fan. I certainly believe as gamers we have an easier time manipulating non-reality :p
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wow really interesting post.
the teamliquid blog is full of jewels....
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Hmm... I've seen threads about lucid dreaming on TL, but I've never really checked them out.
Since I've read this over a couple of times; might as well give it a whirl. 
Very informative blog. :D
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After reading this thread and a lot of the info on Dreamviewers, I think I really want to get into this. Im going to start keeping a dream journal, and try to practice ADA (all day awareness) and RC's a little bit every day. My goal is to try and have my first recallable Lucid Dream by the end of April. I know I've had them before but I cannot remember them. I also would be able to like to remember my dreams in general to help me in my daily life.
Just wondering if anyone else on here has tried ADA? Dreamviewers makes it sound like its an almost guaranteed practice of getting Lucid Dreams once mastered.
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On March 31 2011 03:21 Artemis wrote:
After reading this thread and a lot of the info on Dreamviewers, I think I really want to get into this. Im going to start keeping a dream journal, and try to practice ADA (all day awareness) and RC's a little bit every day. My goal is to try and have my first recallable Lucid Dream by the end of April. I know I've had them before but I cannot remember them. I also would be able to like to remember my dreams in general to help me in my daily life.
Just wondering if anyone else on here has tried ADA? Dreamviewers makes it sound like its an almost guaranteed practice of getting Lucid Dreams once mastered.
Yes, you can get it to a guaranteed level. I can LD at will when I am in shape, and can still easily have 1 or more a night even if I am not trying to LD as actively as possible. It just comes down to picking a technique that suits you and getting familiarity with it. After that confidence plays a huge role. If you start telling yourself its tough to have LD's you will make it that way for yourself, especially since LD is such an incredibly mental thing.
ADA is often called Lucid Living, and it is essentially trying to always question your state (dream or reality). You could think of it as trying to be constantly doing RC's, its a very similar concept. I think ADA is fine, and probably with extended practice you could reach the point of having several LD's a night, maybe even more. The drawback here is that it doesn't give you a choice, if your practicing this mindset, your going to start having LD's whether you want to or not because it is such a habit. On at "at will" level this would mean you would almost never have a normal dream, something I sure wouldn't want.
Also, even if your doing ADA I see no reason you wouldn't also want to use a solid induction technique like MILD or WILD as you go to bed; like reality checks, ADA complements the use of induction techniques, and using both just increases your chances of having a lucid dream. I personally would focus on actual induction techniques, and use ADA/Heavy RC stuff to better your chances and awareness.
A note about dream recall. It is essential for Lucid Dreaming. Don't even bother with Lucid Dreaming if you don't at least remember one dream per night at a minimum. Any recall less than that and you'll forget most of your lucid dreams, and the ones you do remember will probably be pretty hazy, weak recall; both of which serve to discourage and hurt motivation, not to mention ruining proper feedback about whether your current approach is working well.
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^Can you tell your dreams apart though (if you remember more then 1 a night)? Sometimes ill remember a dream or two, but it will just feel like a single dream. Also I dont think I want to try WILD since it seems to require too much waking up and going back to sleep (or am I thinking of WBTB?), and it would hurt my overall rest. I'd rather stick to DILD and MILD. Which seems to be the most effective for you? Also the few times I have remembered my LD's they're usually false awakenings, which I cant control. In the past whenever I've had any type of LD its just sheer luck. Im looking to be able to will myself into a LD, and be able to recall it to the point where it feels like a memory. My main concern though is not spending too much time doing this. Im currently a college student and value my sleep(rest) greatly (lol).
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I get terrified when I have a lucid dream, because I realize I'm inside my own mind and pretty much anything could happen in there. So the fear pulls me out before I can try to control it.
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Started my dream Journal last night. I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote down 1 dream. It was a dream I could control but I didn't realize I was lucid while I was in it. After I went back to sleep I woke up in the morning without being able to remember any more then that 1 dream. How does WBTB work?
Im also trying to practice ADA and RC's regularly. Although I find it hard to concentrate on it and dont always remember to stay fully aware.
How come I could only remember one dream, even though I definitely had more after that? And how did I not realize I was dreaming even though I had a loose control over my dream. The dream felt perfectly natural like normal life, but now that I look back on it, it seems ridiculous.
The dream:
I was going snowboarding with a bunch of people from work, and we had to catch a bus to the mountain. I cant recall how I got there but I was standing outside of my office waiting with them when the bus pulled up. When the bus got there I realized I didnt have any of my gear with me, and I had to run home to get it while I asked the bus to wait. Suddenly I appeared at what felt like home, but after I remember it being a strange apartment that I've never seen before. I looked out the window to check that the bus didn't leave (it was still there, co-workers getting anxious), which was weird because my house is a good 20min drive from my office. I felt like I had to use the bathroom so I spawned a toilet in the middle of the room, and a group of people walked in while I was going, I freaked out and woke up. From there I wrote it down and went back to bed.
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I can't believe this has gone all the way to page five at the time of me writing this. Your post has got me to start a dream journal and I'm really looking forward to when I can finally lucid dream.
Before I started a dream journal, it was a very rare occasion for me to remember my dreams. To my surprise, on nights I have gone to sleep repeating a mantra to myself, I have woken up multiple times and have been able to remember my dreams, so that's looking great.
However, I have been reading about sleep paralysis and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that the idea of it terrifies me really badly. I know and understand that it is all in my head, but I know that if I ever went through the experience of it then I would start panicking and I would forget it's not real and totally freak out. I'm mostly afraid of the stories people tell of seeing dark figures or hooded men trying to kill them or something during SP.
So my questions are, do you still experience SP if you are DILDing? Do you hallucinate horrific things most times you get SP? And what are the best ways to get out of SP if you are in it? Lastly, how would you go about getting into a lucid dream if you are in SP?
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I tried having lucid dreams at once point but I never had the patience and dedication for it.
Then I tried polyphasic sleeping patterns at one point and I naturally had a lucid dream (they're much more common when you're polyphasic). The length of my sleep was 20 minutes yet the dream felt like hours. It was wonderful.
@above: SP wasn't explained properly in this thread. Let me explain it a little.
Sleep Paralysis is something that happens every single time you sleep. When you go to sleep, your body goes into a near perfect paralysis, this is the sole reason that your body doesn't move the same way you move in your dreams. Now, the 'dark figures/hooded men' you're referring to is part of a mythical folk tale which is now known to be when your mind partially wakes up from sleep but your body hasn't actually been released from the paralysis. Essentially you still 'dream' even though you're awake, and sometimes you end up seeing scary figures (this tends to happen in the middle of the night and night is naturally scary). Since your body is still in paralysis, you can't move and this adds to the scary dreamlike state, making it worse.
The entire concept of DILD is that you're already sleeping/dreaming when you induce (activate) the lucid dream. The sleep paralysis stuff is more to the WILD side of lucid dreaming, since you're staying conscious while your body goes into paralysis.
TL;DR no
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On March 31 2011 07:27 Artemis wrote:
^Can you tell your dreams apart though (if you remember more then 1 a night)? Sometimes ill remember a dream or two, but it will just feel like a single dream. Also I dont think I want to try WILD since it seems to require too much waking up and going back to sleep (or am I thinking of WBTB?), and it would hurt my overall rest. I'd rather stick to DILD and MILD. Which seems to be the most effective for you? Also the few times I have remembered my LD's they're usually false awakenings, which I cant control. In the past whenever I've had any type of LD its just sheer luck. Im looking to be able to will myself into a LD, and be able to recall it to the point where it feels like a memory. My main concern though is not spending too much time doing this. Im currently a college student and value my sleep(rest) greatly (lol).
From an effectiveness standpoint I can LD at will when I am in practice with either of the techniques. WILD does require waking up, because it relies on WBTB. Trying to WILD at the beginning of the night is suicide because your body goes into deep sleep at the beginning of the night, and it is near impossible to remain conscious in stage 3 or 4 sleep. As a very general guideline I tend to find MILD better for those that take longer to fall asleep (more time to affirm your intention) and WILD better for those who fall quickly asleep (less time to be "awake").
It should be noted that DILD is not a technique. Its just a dream where you become lucid during the dream as opposed to a WILD type experience where you maintain consciousness into the dream state. Dreams initied with techniques such as MILD, autosuggestion, or Lucid Living will always be DILDs.
On March 31 2011 22:55 Artemis wrote:
Started my dream Journal last night. I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote down 1 dream. It was a dream I could control but I didn't realize I was lucid while I was in it. After I went back to sleep I woke up in the morning without being able to remember any more then that 1 dream. How does WBTB work?
Im also trying to practice ADA and RC's regularly. Although I find it hard to concentrate on it and dont always remember to stay fully aware.
How come I could only remember one dream, even though I definitely had more after that? And how did I not realize I was dreaming even though I had a loose control over my dream. The dream felt perfectly natural like normal life, but now that I look back on it, it seems ridiculous.
The dream:
I was going snowboarding with a bunch of people from work, and we had to catch a bus to the mountain. I cant recall how I got there but I was standing outside of my office waiting with them when the bus pulled up. When the bus got there I realized I didnt have any of my gear with me, and I had to run home to get it while I asked the bus to wait. Suddenly I appeared at what felt like home, but after I remember it being a strange apartment that I've never seen before. I looked out the window to check that the bus didn't leave (it was still there, co-workers getting anxious), which was weird because my house is a good 20min drive from my office. I felt like I had to use the bathroom so I spawned a toilet in the middle of the room, and a group of people walked in while I was going, I freaked out and woke up. From there I wrote it down and went back to bed.
Your dream is what is often called a false lucid dream. The dreamer acts as if he is aware and lucid but never actually realizes he is dreaming. Just because you control things in a dream doesn't mean you will get lucid. Its like someone flying in a dream and not recognizing it as one, or seeing some monster. You rationalize it as oh it must be some unique wind pattern letting me fly, or that must be the new creature that got out of the zoo. If you even recognized your control you almost certainly rationalized it as normal.
WBTB works by allowing you to wake up later in the night where you fall into longer periods of REM sleep faster. This gives you a chance to re-apply your technique a second time, and not only that, but at a time in which it is much easier to enter REM sleep.
As far as dream recall goes its a matter of training. Most people don't naturally remember their dreams. They develop a habit of not trying to remember them, and our mind essentially has a built in dream eraser that makes us forget dreams after we return to sleep if we don't make a conscious effort to remember them. This is why even though everyone dreams at least 3-4+ times in a normal nights sleep, they usually remember less than one dream.
On April 03 2011 01:45 HeidstroM wrote:
I can't believe this has gone all the way to page five at the time of me writing this. Your post has got me to start a dream journal and I'm really looking forward to when I can finally lucid dream.
Before I started a dream journal, it was a very rare occasion for me to remember my dreams. To my surprise, on nights I have gone to sleep repeating a mantra to myself, I have woken up multiple times and have been able to remember my dreams, so that's looking great.
However, I have been reading about sleep paralysis and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that the idea of it terrifies me really badly. I know and understand that it is all in my head, but I know that if I ever went through the experience of it then I would start panicking and I would forget it's not real and totally freak out. I'm mostly afraid of the stories people tell of seeing dark figures or hooded men trying to kill them or something during SP.
So my questions are, do you still experience SP if you are DILDing? Do you hallucinate horrific things most times you get SP? And what are the best ways to get out of SP if you are in it? Lastly, how would you go about getting into a lucid dream if you are in SP?
Its not real, there is nothing to be afraid of. You cannot be hurt, injured, touched, or in any way harmed with SP. Sleep paralysis itself is natural as youngminji explained well. The "Old Hag" that you talk about usually occurs hypnopompically (waking up) and happens when you only partially wake from sleep, your still very much in a state of partial REM. Your mind then is still modeling worlds like crazy and starts making shit up. Since your paralyzed it usually adds a fear element and next thing you know you see/hear stuff coming from you or other alarming occurances.
That said, SP is a good thing. It means your SUPER close to a lucid dream. Just relax, close your eyes, and return to sleep keeping your mind a little active. Next thing you know you'll be right back into a dream. SP is pretty much a "free lucid dream card".
I almost never hallucinate scary things when I have SP since I know what is and why it happens. There is no element of fear so I don't experience anything scary. No you don't experience SP while "DILDing" since DILDing isn't a technique, though you could experience it upon awakening from an LD as with awakening anything although I would say its less likely since your more aware of what is going on.
On March 31 2011 09:25 Breavman wrote:
I get terrified when I have a lucid dream, because I realize I'm inside my own mind and pretty much anything could happen in there. So the fear pulls me out before I can try to control it.
Uhh, What? Nothing could happen in there......
There is nothing that can happen to you in a dream to hurt you. You can kill yourself, torture yourself, be raped, etc and there will be zero effects upon awakening. About the only thing that could happen is you could scare yourself as in the case of a nightmare. I can't think of an activity thats much more safe than Lucid Dreaming.
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Wow I think I had WILD once.
I remember when in elementary school i used to be sick a lot and stay home from school.
one time i had a hard hard time going to sleep but I eventually did, but it did not feel like I was sleeping. Rather, it felt like I had control of what I was thinking about. I didn't remember that vivid imagery, but I could picture the things I was thinking about. I didn't feel like i had 100% conscious control, but I felt that I was choosing things to think about. Once I woke up, I was like, wait, was I sleeping or not? I remember before I feel asleep (or during that) i was thinking about robbers or something stealing or running around. Then as I was dreaming I remember picturing them in cars driving around and shit. It was weird xD Like I said though, maybe I just didn't recall it well but I don't remember much imagery; the backgrounds seemed to be just black to me. Maybe it was at night? idk
Anyways thanks for this! I think people should check out this stuff more often, it would make movies like Inception more believable :D
haha
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Going to bump this because I've been keeping the lessons learnt from this and practising it casually, seeing the clock and keeping a dram diary and I've been starting to see results more and more often!
I haven't had COMPLETE control before but I've been conquring many scary dreams of monsters coming to kill me by being the weapon wielding hero instead hahaha, Though I admit that it's usually kinda gory after I become the vengeful "hero" with the weapon haha
There are mant other situations where I've managed to turn bad dreams into funner ones by realising that I'm the wizard when I'm dreaming and I've been happier with all the flying ^^
I've had some ability to control this at times prior to reading this but this guide has really changed my life for the funner :D
Thanks!
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On December 05 2013 00:47 JieXian wrote:
Going to bump this because I've been keeping the lessons learnt from this and practising it casually, seeing the clock and keeping a dram diary and I've been starting to see results more and more often!
I haven't had COMPLETE control before but I've been conquring many scary dreams of monsters coming to kill me by being the weapon wielding hero instead hahaha, Though I admit that it's usually kinda gory after I become the vengeful "hero" with the weapon haha
There are mant other situations where I've managed to turn bad dreams into funner ones by realising that I'm the wizard when I'm dreaming and I've been happier with all the flying ^^
I've had some ability to control this at times prior to reading this but this guide has really changed my life for the funner :D
Thanks!
You can have alot of fun with this. Or just change the game and be nice to the monsters and see what happens.
Nice to see you're having some success, just keep that mentality that having LDs isn't some insanely difficult thing and you'll be good to go.
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EPT
