Originally posted by MidnightDStroyer
Hmmm...I'd be interested in techniques for the mental discipline of lucid dreaming.
Any suggestions for some source material?
Probably the biggest pioneer in the west for lucid dreaming is Stephen LaBerge (so they claim) with the Lucidity Institute. They use various
interruption techniques to induce lucid dreaming (some from toys they offer for a pretty penny). They also advocate keeping a dream journal (as do
I).
www.lucidity.com...
But of course, as is usually the case, there is older accounts of this stuff across the seas. I highly suggest looking into the wisdom of the Tibetan
dream yogis if you're serious about lucid dreaming. I don't know of any good sites for this, I would suggest checking your local library.
This site doesn't by any means scratch the surface of Tibetan Dream Yoga, nonetheless it is a good read with some cool techniques.
www.plotinus.com...
Here is a lucid dreaming & OBE forum I got from Gazrok? or Bandit? It's called Saltcube.com and is a pretty cool site, definetly worth checking
out.
www.saltcube.com...
Okay assuming you 1) have a dream journal and 2) have a strong intent to lucid dream, here is a very basic outline of the techniques I have come
across (not my words):
Waking Techniques:
Reality Checking:
Always Test First and then Decide when you have even the slightest inclination that you might be dreaming. In this way you won't miss valuable
lucid opportunities. Also, throughout the day, ask yourself as often as you can remember, whether you are dreaming, and perform a test to find out.
This may seem silly, but it will carry over by habit to the dream state, and you will be very glad (for once) when you find that your check has
bounced! The best test is to read some text, look away and quickly look back. If the words change - you are dreaming! It helps to try to get the words
to change. A digital watch is excellent for this. If there is no text nearby, look at your hands for a good 5-10 seconds to see if they appear wavy or
odd in any way - as they most often do in dreams.
Bedtime Practice:
Before sleep, reread your dreams from the previous (or more) night(s). This allows you to begin to connect with your dream memory, and is also an
opportunity to interpret your dreams and spot connections to the day's events. Then, as you go to bed, clearly ask (rather than command) yourself to
remember your dreams when you awaken in the morning or during the night, and remind yourself that it's a simple, natural process. Also, suggest to
yourself that you will spontaneously awaken when you need to without using an alarm clock, since it can inhibit recall. This method works well with
practice, but you may initially wish to set your alarm for 15 minutes after your suggested wake-up time, just to be safe. Any time you awaken, keep
your eyes closed (or shut them if already open) and remain as motionless as possible. If you moved since waking, return to your earlier body position.
Gather as many images, feelings or impressions as you can, then rise and immediately record them in a journal (which you keep bedside) or say them
into a tape recorder, no matter how brief or vague they may at first seem. You'll be surprised at how much more you can remember as you write (or
speak).
Daytime Practice (Tibetan Dream Yoga):
1.Contemplating the body as illusory and unreal
2.Contemplating the mind and mental activities as similarly insubstantial
3.Regarding the world and all phenomena and experience as dreamlike, insubstantial, impermanent, and unreal
4.Recognizing the relativity and ungraspable quality such as time, space, knowledge, and awareness
5.Reminding ourselves of these four truths throughout our waking hours helps to dissolve the barrier between the dream of life and the sleeping
dream. As we become more adept at these practices, we begin to regard our nighttime dreams as continuations of our waking dream and we learn how
to bring habitual awareness to both
Mirror Practice:
The following mirror practice is an effective way of perceiving the dreamlike nature of “reality”, and especially of “self”. From time to
time during the day, take a few minutes to do it.
1.Stand in front of a mirror and look into your own eyes.
2.Hold up a hand mirror behind your right or left ear and look at its reflection in the larger mirror. Keep angling the hand mirror so as to
fragment and multiply your image as much as possible. Let your mind fragment along with the image.
3.After a few minutes, angle the hand mirror back until you return to the original, single image in the mirror in front of you.
The analogy of a mirror image is, like dreams, traditionally used to describe the insubstantial nature of our everyday experience. The mirror
practice helps bring that teaching to life. The fragmented image is the kind we might see in a dream; yet we are seeing it while we're fully awake
— or are we?
Allowing your mind to "fall apart" also helps ventilate the solidity we typically attribute to our world, and especially to our "self."
Deepening Your Practice:
To progress still further in Tibetan dream yoga,
1.Pay careful attention to your dreams
2.Record your dreams in a dream journal upon waking each morning
3.Recognize recurrent images, themes, associations, and patterns
4.Contemplate the archetypal, symbolic content and meanings of your dreams
5.Reflect on the similarities and differences between night dreams, daydreams, fantasies, visions, ideas, projections, and so on
6.Wake yourself up during the night to reaffirm your resolve to awaken within the dream and grasp the fact that you are dreaming
7.Sit up in meditation posture while sleeping to maintain continuous awareness while inducing and incubating lucid dreaming
8.During the day, maintain awareness that everything you experience is like a dream
Induction Techniques:
Arise during the night:
Research has proven that morning naps after a period of wakefulness are extremely productive times for lucid dreaming. This is for (at least) 3
reasons: (a) We have more REM (dream) activity per sleep cycle as the night progresses (i.e. more dreams, more chance of a lucid dream), (b) There's
much less time between when we fall asleep and when REM sleep begins than at the start of the night (about 90 minutes compared to 5-20 minutes during
a morning nap), so we have more chance of bridging the wake-sleep "forget-as-you-pass-by" barrier, (c) we tend to sleep more lightly (with much less
or no deep sleep) as the morning approaches.
This technique probably requires the most motivation, but also provides the best pay-off. Week-ends or vacation are a particularly good time to try
it. The best method is to arise either 1½ or 3 hours (1 or 2 sleep cycles) earlier than usual, stay awake for 30-90 minutes, and then return to bed
for the remainder of your postponed sleep. During the period of wakefulness, it's important to "get awake" to some degree. Some of the best
activities for this period are: taking a midnight walk (lots of fun!), love-making, and especially meditation (vipassana technique is particularly
good). Ideally, anything that brings or maintains presence of mind.
Wake-Back-To-Bed method:
Sleep for between 4.5 and 6 hours, get completely out of bed for half an hour or so, you should get completely awake, reading something about
lucid dreaming or doing other stuff, you could eat or drink something (probably so-called lucid foods, foods which are said to improve on lucid
dreaming), and then get back to bed. This method has proved to help a lot on getting lucid dreams.
Nap Induced Lucid Dream (NILD):
It works by staying up for an hour or two after waking up before going to bed again. This has proven to be a very effective technique, maybe the
most effective around. Sleep for about 5-6 hours, then stay awake for about 1-2 hours and go back to sleep. Maybe doing some MILD a few minutes before
falling asleep. Or try staying conscious (WILD) until the dream starts. This will in many cases cause you to have Lucid Dreams. Also a good way to
have vivid dreams, or will at least make dream recall easier. Staying awake for 90 minutes seems to work better than 60 minutes, though 60 minutes
seems to be effective enough in most cases. And sleeping for 6 hours seems to be better than 5 hours, though it might be harder to fall asleep again.
The time spent awake should be used thinking or reading about dream related issues. Like reading about lucid dreaming or related newsgroups.
Cycle Adjustment Technique (CAT):
The technique in which you adjust your sleeping cycle to promote awareness in your dreams.
Mnemonic-Induced Lucid Dreaming (MILD):
This technique is extremely effective, although it can be difficult to focus upon since it's practiced while falling asleep. The basics are:
Before going to bed, use the autosuggestion method for promoting good dream recall and the occurrence of lucid dreams, and then (ideally) use the
following technique on a previous night's dream: When you awaken after any REM period, arouse yourself and recall as many dreams as possible using
the dream recall methods. Before returning to sleep (while sitting on the side of your bed is best so as not to doze off before finishing the
technique), tell yourself "The next time I'm dreaming, I want to remember that I'm dreaming", then imagine you are back in the dream from which
you just awoke, remembering it step by step, scene by scene, except that this time you see yourself recognizing that you're dreaming (ideally when
something odd occurs) and carrying out some planned activity (see below). Then lay down, and focus upon your intention followed by the visualization
as many times as you can until you fall asleep.
Reality-Check-Initiated-Lucid-Dream (RCILD):
A lucid dream specifcally initiated through the use of reality checks. Such as pinching yourself.
Lucid Induction of Lucid Dreams (LILD):
The technique in which you do something in a lucid dream that theoretically will remind you that you're dreaming in your next dream.
Influencing the dreamworld in a lucid dream so that dream world helps you to become lucid in a NORMAL dream.
Visual Induction of Lucid Dreams (VILD):
The technique in which you incubate a dream that reminds you to do a reality check and become lucid.
Dream-Initiated Lucid Dream (DILD):
This is a name for every Lucid Dream where you become aware that it is a dream in the dream. Meaning that you are unconscious before you become
Lucid. Most Lucid Dreams are DILDs.
Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream (WILD):
A lucid dream that you enter consciously directly from the waking state, and already lucid. "Wake-Initiation of Lucid Dreams" is often used to
refer to techniques in which you go directly from consciousness to the dream state.
A lucid dream that starts from a waking state. Usually, the dreamer "meditates" or relaxes by other means. Then they are able to go straight from a
waking state directly into a full lucid dream.
Music Wake-Initiated Lucid Dreams (MWILD):
The practice of WILD with the assistance of music of the dreamers choice.
Punishment Induced Lucid Dream (PILD):
This technique works by punishing yourself every time you fail to realize that you were dreaming. While going to sleep, tell yourself that you
MUST become Lucid this night OR you will be punished in the morning. Various types of punishment may be a cold shower or maybe an electric shock. A 9
volt battery against your tongue maybe. This technique should be used in combination with MILD. The point is to increase your intention, and it
works.
Reward Induced Lucid Dream (RILD):
This technique works by rewarding yourself every time you succeed in having a Lucid Dream. Various types of rewards may be eating a chocolate bar,
or anything else that you like doing/eating. Have the things you want to reward yourself by your bed, or ready to use. It will increase your
intention. This technique should also be used in combination with MILD.
Spinning Technique:
1.Notice when the dream begins to fade When a dream ends, the visual sense fades first. Other senses may persist longer, with touch being among the
last to go. The first sign that a lucid dream is about to end is usually a loss of color and realism in your visual imagery. The dream may lose visual
detail and begin to take on a cartoon-like or washed-out appearance. You may find the light growing very dim, or your vision becoming progressively
weaker.
2.Spin as soon as the dream begins to fade As soon as the visual imagery of your lucid dream begins to fade, quickly, before the feel of your dream
body evaporates, stretch out your arms and spin like a top (with your dream body, of course). It doesn't matter whether you pirouette, or spin like a
top, dervish, child, or bottle, as long as you vividly feel your dream body in motion. This is not the same as imagining you are spinning; for the
technique to work, you must feel the vivid sensation of spinning.
3.While spinning, remind yourself that the next thing you See will probably be a dream Continue to spin, constantly reminding yourself that the next
thing you see, touch or hear will very probably be a dream.
4.Test your state wherever you seem to arrive Continue spinning until you find yourself in a stable world. You will either still be dreaming or have
awakened. Therefore, carefully and critically test which state you are in.
Rhythm Napping:
Kinda long so here is the direct link to the technique:
www.saltcube.com...
Some of these techniques had decent explanations others were just definitions. Please refer to these links for further reading:
www.lucidity.com...
brain.web-us.com...
www.dreamviews.com...
www.psywww.com...
www.saltcube.com...
www.plotinus.com...
www.crhsc.umontreal.ca...
en.wikibooks.org...:_Glossary
Induction Devices:
Nova Dreamer:
Basically a mask that registers when you're in REM and sends you a cue like a flashing light (a reminder to become lucid).
Dream Speaker:
You electronically record a 17 second message which plays back when you enter REM sleep (something like "you are dreaming"). It's triggered via
a cable that plugs into the Nova Dreamer
PEST:
An overly priced electronic toy that aids the Reality-Testing technique. You carry it around with you during waking state and it does advanced stuff
like vibrate and flash.
novadreamer.com...
www.waynesthisandthat.com...
Essentials:
1.Keep a dream journal...don't just record dreams, re-read them too
2.Always question your current state of consiousness
3.Pick an induction technique that works the best for you
4.Be persistent and patient.
If you have any questions (or anyone that read this post) feel free to ask me. I have healthy body of knowledge in regards to lucid dreaming.
[edit on 082828p://4u37 by Lucid Lunacy]