Newbie questions on lucid dreaming

Greetings ATSers, I wish to ask a few questions on lucid dreaming since it's been a fascinating idea for me for years and i'm really into experiencing that.

I've tried a basic guide for it a few nights ago (laying on back, staying completely still for about 30 mins) and kind of waited for the sleep paralysis symptoms to arrive (which was sort of explained at that guide as a pre-condition prior to lucidity dreaming). At some point I felt a pressure on my chest and after some 30 mins I opened my eyes to figure in which state I am, I felt I couldn't move (couldn't lift my arms up) but it lasted only for a few seconds, and no REM symptoms were penetrated into the wakeful state (no visual hallucinations or anything)
I haven't done any reality checks, I just felt tired and figured i'm in the "real world" so I went to sleep.

Could anyone please provide some helpful tips for me to experience that? Have I done something wrong or missed a crucial point or two in my understanding of it? I know that i'm not the body, haven't done any psychedelic drugs before, but i'm into experiencing other states so I would really appreciate any bits of information on that. Will be much much appreciated as I value ATSers opinions far more than what I could possibly find on Youtube or Google.

Thanks for any help!

What you are trying to experience I believe is astral travel, or out of body experience (OOBE).

Lucid dreaming is simply when you realise you are dreaming while it's happening. When I become aware I'm dreaming, first thing I do is stop walking and float around instead. It's great fun.

People who haven't experienced an OOBE will tell you it's not real, but it is. I have had someone pull me out of my body while I was asleep and the next day while I was telling them about it, they grinned and told me what I was even thinking at the time.

One tip I will give you to try (if your life allows) is to stay awake for 24 hours so you're dead tired. Then try the same technique (lying on your back etc) while concentrating on keeping your mind awake and letting your body shut down.

A friend of mine does it this way and he says it's easy, but I haven't had time to try it myself but it does make sense to me. I intend to try it the week after next when I'm off work.

reply to post by NuclearPaul


Yes, I do understand that lucid dreaming is related to astral projection and OOBEs, but I do wish to experience the lucid dreaming part in particular since I wish to explore that alternative state, I have experienced myself as not my body through meditation before.

Thanks for the tip. I came home extremely tired last night but I felt I was too tired to ever laying on back without falling asleep right away. I guess i'll have to transcend it.

something that really works ...is try it in the daytime when usually don't sleep!
nothing to do before like standing on your head for 30 minutes then do three back flips then try n sleep lol.
just pop a few sleep aids and hit the sack with the mindset that you will know your dreaming and you will remember it. with this technique you can even go in n out of dream state wake up then fall right back in. this is just to get started not saying abuse sleep aids just for a try or two to get some experience.
guarantee it will work!

reply to post by Shuye


I have a very simple way for you to start lucid dreaming, although it really does sound like what you have been trying is astral travel.

The trick with lucid dreaming is to realize that you are in a dream.
In order to do this, you need to set up a situation where you catch yourself dreaming.
Easy way to do it:

Everywhere you go, read every sign you see twice. You loomk at it, read it, and then ask yourself if you are dreaming.
Look away, and then look again at the sign, read it, and ask yourself outloud if you are dreaming.

Keep doing this for weeks.

What happens is your mind will start to do it on it's own. It becomes a habit. When you dream at night, you start to do this in your dreams because it is a habit. You will notice first that in a dream, a sign never says the same thing twice, and then you will reaize you are dreaming, and whalla!! You have achieved a lucid dream.

This does work, as I learned how to do this in high school many years ago. I read it in an issue of OMNI magazine, and when I tried it, it really did work. My problem was always when I tried to go against the dream, I could not a lot of the time and would wake up, so I just became an observer most of the time, but still had a blast with it.

Good luck!

I've had the fortune, or miss-fortune, of having a very active dream state most of my life. They are very vivid, very active, and often very crazy.

Things like I can almost always remember my dreams and the details. I often physically wake, but still see aspects of my dreams in my waking vision. Not necessarily bad, unless it was something like, oh, a giant green spider running across your bed. Yep. Not so cool.

Anyways - when I got more aware of the oddity of being able to recall my dreams, I started looking into being more aware of my dream state and in more control of it.

For me, here's what I've found works best:

The night before a day that I decide I want to try being in control of my dream, I will think exclusively about the theme I want the dream to follow. The topic, if you will. I will spend anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour almost obsessing over the idea. When I dream that night, it will feature that topic, usually only briefly, but the "seed" is planted, so to speak.

The next morning it will be on my mind, and from there I will spend ten to fifteen minutes every hour from the moment I wake up about a specific topic. I vary my focus on it through different cycles. I might spend one slice of time thinking about it in a broad sense, what it is.

Let's say it's the Sistine Chapel. I might first just think about what it is, what it looks like. The next time segment I'll think about the apostles from start to finish in detail. The next segment I'll think about the nature of the art, the way it was painted in frescos, how he blew charcoal through perforated outlines of his paintings to mark where he'd paint. The scaffolding he used to get up to the ceiling.

The next segment I'll focus on the changes its gone through, the gradual blackening from the torches, and the subsequent cleaning it had. Then maybe I'll think about it's affect on people. The visitors and the Pope who commissioned it, who was frustrated greatly with its progress for a number of years. Then I'll think about what it would be like in it's original version, which was a starry sky. Or if it was still blank.

So you can see where I'm going with this. Because I've triggered the thought (to be corny and borrow the tagline) in an 'inception' form, the next day I'll have the basis to "obsess" over it. By the time I go to bed, I'll have spent anywhere from three to four hours thinking about the topic in great detail. Spread over the day so it's always there as a persistent thought. By the time I sleep, I'm almost guaranteed to have it as a major feature of the dream.

Here in is the trick: Because I -know- I've thought about it constantly, because I know I fully intended to dream about it, in my dream I'm usually able to make the association that it is a dream almost immediately, once the Chapel is there. I know, in reality, that I've never been to it, but I know it in detail. Those two things clash, and there's a moment of "How did I get here?" or "How did this get here" , etcetera, and at that point it clicks that it's a dream.

Works for me, but your mileage may vary. Best of luck!

Originally posted by NuclearPaul
What you are trying to experience I believe is astral travel, or out of body experience (OOBE).

Agreed.

OP, try to find the Monroe Hemi-sync tapes to download as .mp3s. They are very good inducers of astral travel if that is what you are after. PM me if you need assistance.

Darkblade71 has a good suggestion.

The thing I always try to keep in mind is: if I'm wondering whether or not I'm dreaming, then I am dreaming. Keeping that in mind is very useful for getting to the moment when you become lucid.

I've had many vivid dreams, but only three that I would call perfectly lucid. They all happened within a month of each other about eight years ago. So, it takes some practice, and the knowledge going in that you are dreaming.

One important thing to remember is that the people in your dream act just like real-life people. If you try to tell them "this is a dream", they'll look at you like you've lost your marbles.

Falling to sleep is very hard for me, and therefore I only do William Buhlman's lucid dream technique.You can read about that method (and other methods as well) from his website:

Bulman Technique

I will use affirmation when I go to sleep: "I know that I'm dreaming and I will remember all my dreams" When I wake up, I will write my dreams to a diary.

If I have a lucid dream, I will say "awareness now!", or something similar. Lucid dream is just a tool and my goal is to have OBE.

When I'm using this technique, I'm having lucid dreams frequently and my dream recall is better. I have had some strange energy sensations, non-physical movements and sleep paralysis.

Hello,

Lucid dreaming is basically all about intention and state of mind before and during your sleep cycle.
The easiest way to have a lucid dream is to start during the day...nap time.

2 hours total, wake up halfway through the nap, go back and resume the nap.
This is where you will make your attempts to lucid dream.

Get tired enough to take a nap: Do some activities during the noon hours to make you want to take a nap (around 2 hours but not longer), the longer you sleep, the further away you drift from beta into the theta state of sleep.

When you take "naps" and then awaken after an hour, you are in between the mind awake, body asleep phase (or beta phase).

Awaken after an hour, go get a drink, go back and state your intentions again to re-affirm your wanting to lucid dream. It is here at the half-way point of your nap that you should get some results.***

The halfway point is also a good time (if you wanted) to experience OBE, but that is another thread entirely.

A good way to check while you're in the dream state is to look for the time, once you spot the time whether it be on a digital alarm clock or analog, look at the clock again and check the time. You will never see the same time when dreaming.

Find other keys to look for to clue you into when you are dreaming. For me it is when things start to become nonsensical or silly or moving from one place to an entirely different setting in a split-second.

Once you find these keys, use them repeatedly to attain the state that you seek, and never forget to state your intentions to yourself in your head, even during the day when doing other activities as constant repetition will only aid you in your quest for lucidity.

Sleep deprivation and/or Sleep aids are NOT needed for lucid dreaming. If you will it strongly enough, it will come to fruition. Keep practicing your naps and set yourself an alarm for 1 hour into your "downtime" as I like to call it.

Do not expect immediate results. Most people will become discouraged if they don't get the results they were looking for. Don't give up!

I hope this helps you and good luck with your endeavors!

Peace,
Frank

Great tips so far. Here's my two cents.

Just a couple dreams ago I had an incredible lucid dream.

The experience was really dreamlike really, because inside my head I realised that I was actually still out of it in bed even while I was sailing all across the world at a few thousand kilometres a minute. While I understand that it required a lot of practice to attain this level of lucidity, I certainly believe that it was worth the investment.

When I first tried lucid dreaming I tried a bunch of free online "courses" I found while skimming Wikipedia. Nevertheless, after attempting these techniques for about three months I still had no dominance over my dreams.

I believe the component that they were missing was the compelling audio tracks that I got when I bought a professional lucid dreaming course with markedly exceptional reviews, the Lucid Dreaming Fast Track - www.reviewspanel.com...

When I dream now I can pretty much go to anywhere I'd like (yet often I prefer zipping over the world).

Maybe I've had too many lucid dreams. Anyway if I recognize that I'm floating in the air, flying or doing anything else that you can't typically do while awake, then I will realize that I'm in a dream and can alter it. Being able to dream with super powers at times has really expanded my ordinary dreams. I have had some weird dreams on occassion.
If astral travel is related, I might want to explore the possibility. I remember dreaming about going to war in the astral plane but I thought that was just a dream. I and my brother were a couple of super powerful entities and we single handed took something from some type of skeleton like creatures just to screw with them. I believe I may have destroyed a castle full of them. We took a sword they liked. I think my brother returned it because he got tired of it all. I think that was just a dream.

I read a story about someone supposedly doing astral travel to heaven and it was in the future and he saw friends much older appearing in combat clothing. He suggested a war was going to break out in the middle east. Not really a stretch there. Considering I read the story maybe 15 years ago, it was interesting.

reply to post by Darkblade71


Thanks for the tip! I have done reality checks every so often, and I remember actually laying on back trying to induce a lucid dream and I went to the bathroom and did checked my fingers and there were 6 of them haha, I then knew I was dreaming but I couldn't tell whether I dream that i'm in a dream or I got excited about it and it ended the dream. I never reached any real lucidity state anyway.

reply to post by UnmitigatedDisaster


Thanks for the tip, will try this one as well.

reply to post by TheOd


Thanks! I found them, going to try some of them on Youtube first.


Thanks for all the replies and tips, some of them were really informative. Hopefully i'll experience it soon.

Can someone please clarify on what are the differences between lucid dreaming and OOBEs? Can I induce an OOBE while trying to induce a lucid dream?

Originally posted by orionthehunter
Maybe I've had too many lucid dreams. Anyway if I recognize that I'm floating in the air, flying or doing anything else that you can't typically do while awake, then I will realize that I'm in a dream and can alter it. Being able to dream with super powers at times has really expanded my ordinary dreams. I have had some weird dreams on occassion.
If astral travel is related, I might want to explore the possibility. I remember dreaming about going to war in the astral plane but I thought that was just a dream. I and my brother were a couple of super powerful entities and we single handed took something from some type of skeleton like creatures just to screw with them. I believe I may have destroyed a castle full of them. We took a sword they liked. I think my brother returned it because he got tired of it all. I think that was just a dream.

I read a story about someone supposedly doing astral travel to heaven and it was in the future and he saw friends much older appearing in combat clothing. He suggested a war was going to break out in the middle east. Not really a stretch there. Considering I read the story maybe 15 years ago, it was interesting.

This is a very good strategy. For people looking to get started on lucid dreaming, doing this sort of "conditioning" with everyday objects is very effective. My post above covers some related effective techniques.

When lucid dreams get mixed up with real dreams or some combination, it can get interesting.

In some of my dreams, I once used to do a neat parlor trick. I would walk into a bar and at some point show everyone a neat trick. I would hold out my hand, palm side facing up. Then a miniature nuclear bomb blast would go off just above my palm and rise up several inches above my palm and spread out in a typical mushroom cloud. It was bright and loud, but didn't burn me, or blind anyone, or blow out any windows from sonic booms. No radiation either. I had control but it was still a dream. Maybe I dreamed that as a response to someone asking me if I had a lighter for their cigarette. Kind of like using a nuke to kill an ant.

I just wanted to add some information of what you can do, when some lucidity mixes in with regular dreams.

This has been a big interest of mine over the last year and I have (for myself) made great strides towards more lucid dreaming with just a few practices that I learned from books on the subject.
1. Look at your hands. Think about it all the time during waking life. Remind yourself to do it throughout the day to make it a habit. When I accomplished this in my dream I immediately gained lucidity and some measure of freedom and control. I think this is because in reality you are creating the visual of your hand in the dream and making it a part of your body. This flexes the dreaming muscle.
2. Keep a dream journal. Your body naturally wants to delete memories of dreams, keeping the journal teaches your brain otherwise. Write as soon as you wake up, even if you only remember impressions. Eventually you'll remember more dreams and will have the illusion of having much more dreams (you were having them the whole time).
3. Try to stay as aware as you can up until the moment you drop out into sleep.
4. Think about dreaming a lot and try to believe that you are an amazing dreamer (psychologically this is very beneficial to feeling less helpless in the process).
5. A more advanced technique is to try and hone your focus (once you've achieved lucidity). Try to look at an object, look at a different object, then look back at the original. If you can retain the original appearance of the first object then you are becoming better at the focus aspect of dreaming. I can only do this with three objects right now but as you get better you become capable of maintaining a more concrete environment, or so I've heard, and don't jump so often from dream to dream.

This is all stuff that has worked for me and I have a lot more techniques I'm working on if you want to chat about it. I honestly think looking at your hands is a great first step though. It opened up the whole world of dreaming to me beyond what I thought possible. Concrete practices and habit, in my opinion, are the foundation of good dreaming, not mysticism.

reply to post by orionthehunter


I honestly think this is the best kind of dreaming. Dreaming where you are not aware of dreaming but are aware of the power that you possess in dreams. It lets you get into these amazing situations where anything can happen. When I first started lucid dreaming I would become completely aware of the fact that I was dreaming and then would start flying. This would lead to me inevitably running out of energy quickly and then waking up or going back to sleep. This was my go to dream for months. I think it is because of how much detail there is in the landscape and the speed of movement when flying, but I don't know. Complete lucid dreaming is like trying to pick something out to do from everything you could do in the infinite realm of possibility. Focused dreaming is better for me because I am so indecisive.

My favorite method to achieve the lucid dream state is very easy and taste's good too.

Make a milkshake with a banana, chocolate ice cream, cool whip and lots of nutmeg.

Drink approximately 1hr before retiring.

When you get to your dream...give my regards to the green man for me. Tell him olaru says Hi!!

reply to post by Watchfire


I've had a lot of dreams where I have powers to do things others seem to struggle with doing when they know they are dreaming. It does make your dreams much harder to figure out when all kinds of crazy stuff is going on.

For instance, questions I could have asked
"Why was I chasing after a helicopter when it was trying to follow me at first?"

When I was levitating looking out over the ocean for a few seconds, why did large whales suddenly float up out of the ocean?

When I was floating in space watching two alien species going at it in a large war, why did I get so ticked off when one species shot at me?


I had a lot of lucid dreams. Then things got crazy. I could probably give ideas to movie writers. Some of my dreams were like prolonged live action block buster movies but from a first person perspective. If anything went wrong, my lucid powers took over.

I often can make my dreams go lucid if I got woke up due to not liking how a dream was going. I go back to sleep and get back to the same people but make them show some respect or change the dream to how I want it to go.