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A Guide to Lucid Dreaming

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Lucid Dreaming - A Beginners Guide

To become conscious of the fact that you are dreaming, whilst riding the bus to school can seem quite overwhelming and just the idea that you are now in control of everyone and can do what you want with no social or physical consequences, can just well be the reason you wake up. Excitement and an untrained mind can lead to the absence or scarcity of lucid dreams.

Have you ever been doing something ridiculous in a dream and realised "what on earth am I doing? I must be dreaming."? Well if you can do that then you are on your way to lucid dreaming. Once you realise you are dreaming; you have to learn how to stop all the emotions and excitement going to your head. This will wake you up and you can literally see your dream world fading away. You can learn to stop this with a bit of practice and learn to sink back into your dreams and carry on doing whatever you want.

If you have decided today that you want to control your dreams (AKA lucid dream) then you'll be disappointed to know that the skill won't come to you overnight – and if it does then you are very lucky and don't really need to be reading this. The ability to lucid dream may take weeks, months, even years. I began my pursuit for the knowledge and understanding of lucid dreams in late October. I read every article on the internet, joined every forum and wrote down everything I learnt. After the first few days I was frustrated with myself and my inability to lucid dream.

I gave up for a while and assumed my quest a few weeks later after reading a whole lot of information on dreaming and what they meant. I set a new goal for myself, to have at least one lucid dream before Christmas. I started writing a dream journal and whilst I was recalling some of my recent dreams I started to remember dreams that I had had years and years ago.
After continuing to keep a constant dream journal for about 2 weeks I decided to join a forum, dreamviews.com. I got a few good tips there and had a few good conversations.  I ditched the forum a couple of days later after becoming bored with nothing new and exciting happening, except my first Lucid!!!

We usually have Christmas with my dad's family the Saturday before Christmas. I guess you could call it Christmas eve since we were having Christmas that next day.  I remember waking up at about 4am and thinking about the dream I had. I had woken from the dream after realising I was dreaming! I was on a bus and after becoming aware I was dreaming I got very excited and ran to a door which appearing in the front of the bus. I was going to jump out and thought to myself what the other passengers would think. I then remembered that in a dream you don't suffer social consequences and proceeded to jump out after a boy had jumped out. Just as I was going to I woke up. The excitement in the dream had woke me up and although I was extremely down that my first lucid was only a split second long, I was proud that I had finally experienced one for long enough to think about dreaming before waking up.

I had to learn to control my feelings on my dream and not get too excited.
My second lucid, was very vivid and seemed to go on forever. It's sort of hazy now since it was a while ago and I forgot to write it down as I was too excited about it being so lucid. I remembered it clearly for weeks and never got around to writing it down. Don't make the same mistake I did unless you couldn't care less about remembering them, but then again, what's the point of lucid dreaming if you can't remember the experiences you had.

I was at school and I realized I was dreaming. I got excited and started slipping out of my dream and then remembered something I had read about keeping a blank face and showing no emotion on it. It was very easy to do in my dream and from then on I stayed dreaming for what felt like hours! I tried to fly but could not get the gist of it before waking up. I remember getting at least 4 feet off the ground and then floating back down. It was fun and I even tried helping my brother fly (in the dream!).

Lucid dreaming is a fun and wonderful experience and it can help you overcome fears, pass long standing obstacles, fix relationships, cleanse your mind and keep you mentally healthy.
If you follow this guide to lucid dreaming I can assure, if you do it correctly, within a few months you will have obtained the skills of lucid dreaming and be able to do things are beyond anyone's wildest dreams!

                                                                     GUIDE:
*Keep a dream Journal. As soon as you wake up, try to remember all the dreams you had and write them in your journal. It helps if you lie still when you are trying to recall your dreams and try to write as many elements of them as you can remember even if they don't make sense. You can write them in a book you keep beside your bed or on a computer. I started off drawing my dreams and found that I could remember the frightening ones so vividly my sketches looked exactly like them.

* If another dream comes to mind, from a while ago, put it in your dream journal, if it's not already.

*After at least 20-30 journal entries you can find your dream signs. Dream signs are elements that occur frequently in your dreams. Even if it's just a certain piece of clothing you are wearing or an animal or a place or scene. Look back through your dreams and determine your dream signs. Try to get at least 5.

*The best way to determine dream signs is by writing down every single thing you remember from your dream from what clothes you were wearing and what words you spoke to what colour the carpet is and which people are there.

*You can try searching for lucid dream inductive videos on YouTube or MP3s. They are not guaranteed to work but they are sometimes worth a try if you are having trouble lucid dreaming. A website that I found helpful is: www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.co… the second video. Watch it once a day, right before bed and it will help with lucid dreaming.

*Try to make it a habit to ask you "am I dreaming?" throughout the day. That way, when you finally enter the dream world, you will automatically remember to ask yourself and may become aware of the fact you are dreaming.

*Set your alarm to wake you up at times in the middle of the night and try to recall as much of the dreams you had while sleeping. When you have remembered your dream lie back down, try to go back to sleep and repeat to yourself "I will be aware that I am dreaming' or something similar until you think its sunk in enough and if you're lucky, you might just go back to sleep in a lucid dream. This technique is called MILD (mnemonic induction of lucid dreaming) by Stephen Laberge.

*You could also attempt one of the most successful techniques called WBTB (wake back to bed).
• Set your alarm for 5 hours after going to sleep.
• Wake up and focus on ONLY lucid dreaming for an hour.
• Use MILD to go back to sleep.

*A WILD (Wake Initiated Lucid dream) is when you fall asleep you carry your awareness/consciousness into your REM sleep and begin out as a lucid dream. I Have heard it can be quite fun but have not succeeded in it yet.
• The easiest way to attempt this technique is if you take an afternoon nap or you have only slept for 3-7 hours.
• Try to meditate into a state that is calm, but focused. You can try counting breaths, imaging ascending/descending stairs, dropping through the solar system, being in a quiet soundproof area, etc.
• Listening to Theta binaural beats for an amount time will easily put you into a REM sleep.
• See the warnings at the bottom, as these are very important.

*Try researching as much as you can on lucid dreaming and the subject of dreaming. The more you know about it and the more you remember, the more likely you will think of it during a dream and be likely to have a lucid dream.

*One easy way that helped me lucid dream was frequently doing reality checks and I painted my nails blue. You may not think it's much but in my first lucid I looked at my hands and realised my nails were clear of any nail polish I thought I must be dreaming because they weren't a few moments ago. So it can be something as simple as painting your nails that triggers your first lucid.

                                                    *How to do a reality check:
• Look at your hands – if they seem far away or see through or moving then you knows you're probably dreaming.
• Look at some text, read a bit, then look away. In your dreams the text, usually, always changes the second time you look at it.
• Write a letter on your hand/arm (eg: A for Awake) and make a habit of looking at it every now and again. If you are dreaming and there's no letter on your arm then you'll become aware you are in a dream.
• Look at a clock to see if the time stays constant
• Pinch/poke yourself in the palm of your hand

*During a dream, if you feel yourself slipping away or if your lucid dream is losing clarity then try spinning around in circles or rubbing your hands together. You must constantly remind yourself you're dreaming when spinning as you may end up in a different place and loose lucidity, otherwise. If it's still not working, try looking at the ground and visualizing your surroundings.

                                                               *Warnings
• Please note that attempting WILD will cause you to suffer from sleep paralysis, rapid vibrations and noises that don't really exist, floating and other out-of-body experiences, and hypnologic hallucinations/images, and anxiety. There is no reason to be afraid, as Sleep Paralysis happens every night - you just sleep through it. Hypnagogia is just your mind being overactive. Remember that with lucid dreaming you are aware and can always wake yourself up if you feel overwhelmed.
• Remember if you get very excited during your lucid dream, it might cause you to wake up suddenly. At this point, focus on your dream, rub your hands, or spin around and concentrate.

                                                    *Helpful Hints and Ideas:
• If you are experiencing sleep paralysis, try wriggling your fingers or toes or blinking or swallowing a few times. Sleep paralysis is when your brain sends signal to your body to relax your muscles, in order to prevent you from thrashing around in your sleep.
• Try and think of what you want to achieve in your lucid dream, right before going to sleep. This way, in your dream, you don't have to waste time thinking about what you want to do.
• If remembering the dream, when you first wake up, is hard then try focussing on an object in the room (eg, a clock, doorknob, car keys etc) and try and think of the emotions and feelings you had throughout the dream. Trying too hard and looking around will often make remembering the dream even harder.
• Most of the time, in a dream, if you ask someone if you're dreaming they will say... no.
• When you wake up, try not to move as it activates muscle neurons and it makes it more difficult to access the parts of your brain that allow you to recall your dreams.

                                         *A few stories out of my dream journal:

*The dream began with a man walking alongside these huge rock monsters. He was about 1/100 of their size and he seemed to be hiding from them. The dream then shifted and the scene with the man became a sort of prologue for my dream. The dream from my point of view began in the mountains. We were catching a bus through the mountains - to a shopping mall.
Dad wasn't there and I was for some reason frightened. Mum said he was dead! I got scared and all of a sudden I was in the street next to mine. There was a huge cylinder shaped rock monster with giant feet and hands. They made loud thumps when they took a step and they were coming to our house. Josh and I hid inside and I walked down the hallway and Heard them walking around in our backyard. I went to peek through the bathroom/toilet window to see if they were close and when I opened it (even though it was clear glass: P) I saw a red eye peering in. As I stepped back and a giant stone hand reached in to grab me and I woke upon contact with it.

*The earth was for some reason needed to be abandoned. I remember getting into a spaceship from the sun and the lava was rising from inside it I then was at school near the old portables and everyone was saying goodbye. Some people were leaving and some were staying on earth. We had to get into a room to leave. I all of a sudden appeared at home and mum and I were packing our stuff. We got into the car which we could ignite a switch underneath and I hovered/flew. We flew out of the court and to Bunning's and saw we had travelled, somehow, back in time. It was Christmas. We were in a shop and there were toy ducks and noodles! I felt happy but sad that everyone shopping would have to evacuate and would die soon. We then proceeded to another planet - somehow and lived in an advanced world full of chrome plated buildings and high tech gadgets!

                                                       *A few of my dream Signs:
• At school
• Getting lost
• At school or youth camp
• Being part of a video game
• Mr? (a guy who's in every dream but I've never met him in real life) he may be a person, picture or statue, all i know is that HES always in my dreams, somehow.
• Not being able to run

Well... I hope my Lucid dream Guide is helpful and I will be adding more as I discover it! Please don't try and rush into lucid dreams as you'll be very disappointed if you fail over and over again. To be honest, I had forgotten about my quest the night I had my first lucid but once I realised it had the skills the flame had been relit and I was taking my lucid dream obsession to the next level, watching movies, reading books and writing guides. I have achieved a lot in the past few months and I'm actually a lot happier and mentally healthier since I started lucid dreaming.

                                                     Thank you for reading my guide.

                                                               Happy Dreaming!
Just a quick guide to lucid dreaming. it gives you tips and methods to achieve the ability to lucid dream.

I've also included extracts from my dream journal and findings about my dreams to give you an example of how you can record your dreams and findings.

I hope you find this helpful and interesting. If you have any questions feel free to email me or post a comment here.

Thank You. :D
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LonelyTear-T-T's avatar
Not bad, you collected a fair amount info and lined it up nicely. I learned how to lucid dream a few years back and have been having a lot of fun sense. My drawings are mostly based on my dream characters and other dreams. Chek them out if you for and the time. As a fellow lucid dreamer you might find it interesting