What are some good ways to induce a lucid dream?

What are some sure fire ways to induce a lucid dream?

In case you are wondering:

A lucid dream is a dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. The term was coined by the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik (Willem) van Eeden (1860–1932).[1] In a lucid dream, the dreamer can actively participate in and manipulate imaginary experiences in the dream environment.[2] Lucid dreams can seem real and vivid.[3]

A lucid dream can begin in one of two ways. A dream-initiated lucid dream (DILD) starts as a normal dream, and the dreamer eventually concludes it is a dream, while a wake-initiated lucid dream (WILD) occurs when the dreamer goes from a normal waking state directly into a dream state, with no apparent lapse in consciousness.

Lucid dreaming has been researched scientifically, and its existence is well established

Now, I have had a few lucid dreams throughout my life...all seemingly random, nothing remarkable I did beforehand (that I remember)..and they have been the type that I eventually figure out is a dream verses the waking state into a dream state...the second type would be pretty cool mind you, but so far, only have randomly recieved the first type.

Beyond drugs (I don't do illegals, so thats out, and don't suggest that here anyhow as its a ATS nono and the mind cops will beat you should you try)...what methods do you personally recommend that seem to work for you? and feel free to tell of how you discovered this method...pros and cons of LDing, and anything else relevant in order to beat freddy kruger!

I've tried to have a lucid dream, mostly because I gather it is kind of a gateway into astral projection, but only once or twice have I actually been able to identify that I was dreaming when I was. The problem was, I couldn't do anything and I woke up almost immediately.

I've also tried listening to binaural beats when I go to sleep, but I always get tired of having the headphones in my ears so I take them out and roll over to sleep.

Try this journal.....Click Here

The most effective method I've ever found is what I term Post Sleep Relaxation (PSR). To achieve this, try and wake up a little earlier than you normally would, say 2-3 hours or more if you need. Feel free to get up for a bit or you can just lie in bed. The important thing you need to do is when your attempting PSR is to tell yourself that I'm not getting up, there is no reason for me to get up so I'm just going to lie here, relax and let the mind wander. Eventually you should fall into a fairly light sleep normally followed by some fairly lucid dreams.

Enjoy.

Originally posted by myselfaswell
The most effective method I've ever found is what I term Post Sleep Relaxation (PSR). To achieve this, try and wake up a little earlier than you normally would, say 2-3 hours or more if you need. Feel free to get up for a bit or you can just lie in bed. The important thing you need to do is when your attempting PSR is to tell yourself that I'm not getting up, there is no reason for me to get up so I'm just going to lie here, relax and let the mind wander. Eventually you should fall into a fairly light sleep normally followed by some fairly lucid dreams.

Enjoy.

So, set an alarm?

reply to post by SaturnFX


The Hemi Sync Lucid Dreaming Series is awesome. It has helped me be able to consistently obtain the lucid state.
My first breakthrough in deliberately inducing the state came from a variation on the suggestions given by Carlos Castaneda in his book The Art of Dreaming. He suggested making a conscious decision to try to find your hands in a dream. What I got from this was that if you program yourself throughout the day to keep thinking about finding your hands in your dream, your mind will eventually recycle that idea in your dream. My variation was to add the question, "am I dreaming" whenever I looked at my hands throughout the day. Sure enough, after only a few days of randomly looking at my hands and seriously asking myself if I was dreaming, and really pondering the question, trying to determine if I was dreaming throughout the day, I asked myself the question in a dream after looking at my dreaming hands. It was very easy for myself to give an answer at that time. I've been a lucid dreamer ever since.

Edit to add: A very useful technique that Castaneda talked about in his book was to constantly shift your attention from one object to another in your dream. I've found this to be very useful for maintaining the lucid state for a long period of time. I've found that if I focus for too long or too hard on any given object, the dream will begin to become hazy and I either lose my "dreaming attention" as Castaneda called it, or I wake up completely. I've also found that meditation techniques such as simply focusing on your breathing and evening it out will help one from the initial shock that can cause a person to wake soon after realizing that they are dreaming.

I have no answer for you. I am one of those that rarely remembers my dreams - VERY FEW! I wish I could remember my dreams, have more lucid dreams. The few I have remembered were quite vivid - and they are very few.....

All of mine have been too random to know how to induce. I had a class with this kid who would talk about his moves he would do in lucid dreams. The guy had spin moves and flying maneuvers... lol kinda crazy, did not really believe it but he seemed happy. I hope you figure it out. Let me know if you do.

A few years ago I used to lucid dream a lot, I used different methods such as sound recordings and alarms. One method I found worked best was keeping a dream log and highlighting reoccurring dream signs. Try to record your dreams as soon as you wake up and do it for month before attempting to lucid dream. It can be pretty exciting, one problem I had was fighting off my subconsciousness, who disliked me controlling it.

reply to post by SaturnFX



If you want to be able to lucid dream without waking up, I suggest keeping a dream journal. Do exercises in the day that keep you aware of reality such as asking yourself, "Am I dreaming?" and then proceed to look at you hands or a clock to see any weird changes.

Don't "fall" asleep, "go" to sleep. That way you can prep your mind with lucid dreaming thoughts. Have your eyes closed, but still think of lucid dreaming until you eventually fall asleep. Try to be aware as possible in your dream and take notice to any significant signs.

When you wake up write your dream in your dream journal and look over your dreams as time goes on.

For me, when I become lucid, the thought of being lucid in a dream pops into my head, and then I say it over and over in the dream and the more I say it, the more I feel my consciousness waking up. Then its like "BOOM! Holy shizzzz!! I did it again! Let's fly to Egypt!"

I might try this tonight actually, its been a while since I've become lucid.

SN: This takes time and is a practice. You may not get it on the very first time. Also, look up Reece Jones on Youtube, he is a great guy, and he helped me find my own method to inducing my lucid dreams.

A good chuck of older cheese before bed

I dunno vivid if not lucid dreams allot more often, but this of course is due to the late night snacks

Watch a few sci-fi movies, have a few drinks, then read some threads on ATS to make your mind spin, then go for a 2-3 hour powernap, wake up screaming "wow, what a lucid dream!!!".....then repeat the process as necessary

Yes you can set an alarm if you like.

I will give you one note of caution. Should you continue down this avenue it's more than likely that you'll eventually have an Inception like experience, (Dream in and Dream in a Dream etc). These can be particularly unpleasant especially if the mood of the dream is negative.

Cheers

Originally posted by Q:1984A:1776
He suggested making a conscious decision to try to find your hands in a dream. What I got from this was that if you program yourself throughout the day to keep thinking about finding your hands in your dream, your mind will eventually recycle that idea in your dream. My variation was to add the question, "am I dreaming" whenever I looked at my hands throughout the day.

I've used that technique with success before.
Find something that you dream about on regular occasions, and EVERY time you encounter it in waking life do a check to see if you're dreaming.

Some checks that I've tried and think work well....
1. "What was I doing half an hour ago?" If you cant answer with certainly, you're asleep.
2. Try reading something, then read it again. If the words have changed, you're asleep.
3. If you put your hands up to your face and can still see through them, you're asleep.

Originally posted by alfa1
2. Try reading something, then read it again. If the words have changed, you're asleep.
3. If you put your hands up to your face and can still see through them, you're asleep.

Kind of like first year of college/university...aaaaaahhh, those were the days

SFX,

It seems this may come down to one's innate propensities, as the majority of my dreams have always been lucid.

What I can tell you is that I naturally found my way into meditation as a child, and during a lot of these sessions would induce sensory deprivation.

I would suggest first training the mind to focus on one type of thought process for an extended period of time, while being in an entirely sound/sight deprived environment. This was what I did as a child.

I would curl in a ball in the highest shelf in my closet, close the door, put my hands over my ears, and close my eyes. Then I would focus on doubling the number 1 until 1048576, and back down. You may learn how to order your "random" subconscious thoughts into conscious awareness at this point, and then the "magic" may come about.

Essentially, the more you are able to make connections between one's subconscious and conscious mind, the more able one may be able to be conscious when one is supposed to be merely unconscious...in a dream state.

I don't use this meditative process any more. Haven't since puberty, but the dreams are lucid about 95% of the time still...

I haven't tried on purpose to have a lucid dream in a while but they do happen by themselves on occasion or quite a lot. One important thing for me to remember or to have a lucid dream is to get plenty of sleep. I have not been doing that lately so that makes it a lot more difficult. I can actually lie down and try to plant an image in my mind and start seeing some kind of dreamscape scene before I am even asleep on occasion. It almost seems like I can program my mind to remember things by just concentrating before I fall asleep. I've heard you tend to remember your dreams better if your sleep is slightly interrupted as long as you're not woken up by outside noises. My hearing seems to be extremely good at night so my sleep gets interrupted a lot more than I care for. Unless I'm really tired.

So many of my dreams would be out of this world or have something defying what is considered normal that I could easily try to remember things like, if I'm flying, if I'm in space, or on an alien planet, or some other place that is not normal, then I am dreaming. I would need to try to remember this and possibly plant a mental thought and I might remember it in my dream. Then as soon as I remember, I could alter the dream however I wanted. My problem might be realizing something is not normal because normal for me now is to have superpowers on occasion or to be doing things in weird places not necessarily on Earth. Even different ages in the past and future if you could remember it's not normal, might be opportunities to remember you are dreaming.

My dreams are messed up on occasion. I remember having one dream where I walked down a road not far from my neighborhood and I spotted very large dinosaurs in the woods. Then I saw one in the distance standing on the road. I ducked in the woods before it spotted me because it was a large meat eating dinosaur. Obviously I could have made this dream lucid if I remembered without waking up. I may have remembered but then destroyed the dream and woke up because it ended shortly after I ducked in the woods beside the road. I did not want to be dinner for a T-Rex.

I've been lucid dreaming for quite some time now. In my mid forties and have it down fairly pat.

A journal won't help you much.

Before you go to bed, tell yourself that you are in control of your dream state. This may take a few weeks until it starts working.

Every single night say to yourself that you are in control and that nothing can harm you. Give yourself absolute powers in your thoughts before bedtime. After awhile, you will have complete control. Especially when you have nightmares. Take control.

Imagine yourself with super special god like powers. For instance, give yourself any ability your imagination can come up with.

Imagine that you have laser hands that bolt out energy to disable your dream foes. Imagine you have total control of flying and make your body a complete futuristic military weapon. Your imagination is your limit.

Practice a mantra every night before dream time to confirm that YOU are in control of everything. In time you will have dream powers. Just practice.

This is something I'm an expert at doing. There are 3 things that cause me to luicid dream (I lucied dream on a next to daily basis, The best best us ti wake up 3 hour befor you're done getting the amount of sleep you require,emediatly go do something yo do on a daily basis. For example: wake up, walk to the gas station and buy something you buy from the gasstation every day, walk home and put it where you would normally keep it. You want to be awake for about an hour before you go back to sleep. I have lucid dreams so dramatic that i thought i was waking up from my dream in my dream. When I finally woke up, It took me a few minuets to figure out what the hell was going on. 2nd best way is to have a really long stressful day at work, atleast 13 hours with no real break. I've had days like this and id actually wake up from the dream and get up and try to do something work related in my own house only to realize I'm at home. The 3rd is stop relying on your alarm clock when you don't have to, I personally don't trust my alarm clock and will wake up every hour to half an hour worried that I need to be getting ready for work/school. I've been failed to many times not to. Also on days off when I don't have anything to do, I'll just sleep cause I have the chance to sleep, and will wake up every hour or 30min thinking I have to do something. When after a couple times you will start to have vivid dreams. If you think about something in the short amount of time you're awake, it often times plays a role in your dream.

I'm some one who has them allot, but I'm also some one who has a weird schedule. Daily routines do not cause lucid dreams. you contentious mind has to be some what active at the same time you are in REM for it to happen.

I'd also like to add that its a good idea to write down what happens in your vivid dreams as soon as possible. I've had tuns and they are easily forgotten. If you really want to experiment, there is a drug called Piracetam that you can get online. It is legal and safe, I suggest looking in to it. But I've never had more lucied dream than when experimenting with it. Its an old nootropic, designed when they were trying to figure out away to help people with dementia. It's not its basically a more effective vertion of a chemical your brain makes everyday.