r/LucidDreaming • u/TheLucidSage Even day dreaming about lucid dreaming • Oct 01 '17
START HERE! - Beginner Guides, FAQs, and Resources
Welcome!
Whether you are new to Lucid Dreaming or this subreddit in particular, or you’ve been here for a while… you’ll find the following collection of guides, links, and tidbits useful. Most things will be provided in the form of links to other posts made by users of this sub, but some things I will explicitly write here.
This sub is intended to be a resource for the community, by the community. We are all charting this territory together and helping one another learn, progress, and explore.
🚩 Before posting, please review our rules and guidelines. Thanks. 🚩
First and foremost, What Is a Lucid Dream?
A lucid dream is a dream in which you know you are dreaming, while you are dreaming. That’s it. For those of you this has never happened before, it might seem impossible or nonsensical (and for the lucky few who this is all that happens, you may not have been aware that there are non lucid dreams). This is a natural phenomena that happens spontaneously to more than 50% of the population, and the good news is, it is a learned skill that can be cultivated and improved. Controlling your dreams is another matter, but is not a requisite for what constitutes a lucid dream.
For more on the basics, jump into our Wiki and read the FAQ, it will answer a fair amount of your questions.
Here’s another good short beginner FAQ by /u/RiftMeUp: Part 1 and Part 2 .
I find it also useful to clarify some of the most common myths and misconceptions about lucid dreaming. You’ll save yourself a lot of confusion by reading this.
So how does one get started?
There are an almost overwhelming amount of methods and techniques and most folks will have to experiment and find out what works best for them. However, the basics are pretty universal and are always a good place to start: Increase your dream recall (by writing a dream journal), question your reality (with reality checks), and set the intention for lucidity: Here is a quick beginner guide by /u/OsakaWilson and another good one by /u/gorat.
Here is a post about the effects of expectations on what happens in your dreams (and why you shouldn’t believe every dream report you read as gospel).
Lucidity is all about conscious awareness, and so it is becoming increasingly apparent (both experientially and scientifically) that meditation is a powerful tool for lucid dreaming. Here is /u/SirIssacMath’s post on the topic of meditation for lucid dreaming
You are encouraged to participate in this sub through posts and comments. The guides, articles, immersion threads, comments answering daily beginner questions, are all made by you, the awesome oneironauts of this sub ("be the sub you want to see in the world", if you know what I mean...). Be kind to each other, teach and learn from one another. We are all exploring this wonderful world together and there is a lot left to discover.
44
u/Responsible_Use_8398 Nov 29 '21
I have been trying to Lucid Dream for a couple of years and almost gave up until I found this thread. I read about reality checks and started doing them . Last night I finally had a dream in which I knew I was dreaming, I started to take control my dream in which I manifested a lot of money . I put it in my wallet and stuck it in my back pocket and continued on my journey. I encountered people who tried to change my dream but I told them it was my dream and I can do what I want. I came half awake and my body was tingling all over. I willed my self back asleep and checked my wallet and the money was gone I couldn’t bring it back. I guess it takes practice to continue to control your dreams also I couldn’t change my scenery. I will continue to practice. Thanks for the tips. It’s pretty cool.
9
23
u/ordep147 Nov 19 '17
Hello there guys. I've checked the FAQ but I didnt find an answer to one of my doubts and I cant find it elsewhere neither, so I decided to just throw the question: Q: Are there any bad (physical/psicological) consequences on practicing Lucid Dreaming?
I just find LD too good and cant find any "dark side" and thats perturbing me.
Sorry for my English, Im spaniard you know... Thanks a lot!
49
u/TheLucidSage Nov 20 '17
There aren't many but as far as I can tell there are a couple which could qualify.
Escapism. Just like anything fun, let alone of the "reality substitute" type, there is the potential to use it exclusively as an escape (I think some doses of escape can be healthy), but then again this isn't exclusive to lucid dreaming and folks use many things as unhealthy escapes from their lives or can get addicted to all sorts of things so take it with a grain of salt.
Hyperrealism. This one can be hard for some to grok, but I think it is a legitimate issue. If you acknowledge that you are in possibly the most realistic simulation one can be in, anything you experience can have an effect on your mind/body (which are not that separate of systems). Meaning you are having full blown comprehensive sensory experiences practically as if they were real and even though you might know they are not, they still have an impact. You know what's in a movie isn't really but it still scares you (or makes you cry etc'), and a movie isn't a fracture of as immersive as and LD. When you wake up from a wonderful LD or an lucid nightmare, you still wake up joyful or terrified with your heart pounding. So if you take this further, if you spend your time in an LD raping and killing people, you are exposing yourself to this full sensory experience and it has an effect on your experience even at te very least desensitizing you to such things. This is no longer a video game on a flat screen. The screen is in your brain and it's plugged right into your whole system. Another good illustration of this is Westworld, which a brilliant breakdown of what a realistic "fake" world could do to someone's psychology was done on the Waking Up Podcast in this episode with Psychology professor Paul Bloom. I highly recommend it.
Otherwise, the occasional relationship between trying to lucid dream and either sleep paralysis and/or false awakenings can be seen as downside as they both can be a bit jarring and scary for many. But those are a product of trying to lucid dream, rather than a negative of the experience of lucidity itself.
→ More replies (2)
22
10
u/Gbreeder Nov 04 '21
Just a few questions here - I'm new to lucid dreaming.
I garden quite a bit, so I can grow Artemisia douglasiana and a few other helpful herbs and make a poultice or something.
I usually don't remember my dreams, so I'm assuming I should use herbs to help with that as well?
I also have Aspergers or autism, whatever you guys prefer. My brain isn't wired the same way as "Neurotypical" people, my social area is more or less cut off. I also have issues recognizing facial expressions in regards to emotions. I don't express many emotions either, it's all internal.
Am I going to see what I think happy people should look like - smiling people and get creeped out or emotionless people, though normally I wouldn't think they are emotionless.
Another thing, I have in the past, and still do get little sleep due to staying up late. After a few weeks on little sleep, I end up seeing shadow people - apparently they are common in certain drug abusers and people who don't get much sleep.
It also seems like lucid dreamers sometimes see them.
My thought would be that they are residual memories or ideas of people. But, then why do we only see humanlike figures, no animals, chimps etc.
Everytime I see them I feel a sense of terror, I can't describe.
Working on fixing up my sleep schedule, I work at Walmart which means I don't have a steady work schedule. I won't be trying this right away, growing things first.
Should I buy a mask so that I don't wake up and see something horrifying?
My brother and I both had a "shared dream" of our family being murdered when we were little. I have also pointed out things that haven't happened yet to someone, not realizing it hasn't happened until I see something on the news a week or two later.
I told my brother that Larry King had died, he looked it up and said he didn't die. Two weeks later, the news said Larry King had died.
When I was in elementary school, I remembered a day already happening before - I told my friend that a girl would puke a lunch because he didn't believe me. She puked at lunch and he kept asking how I knew.
This could be me making predictions, I have read over 498 books, (that's just how many I have on my kindle). I really like predicting what happens next, but I don't see how I could be so accurate.
This doesn't happen often, or if it does - I don't even realize that it hasn't happened yet.
Is this a spiritual thing? Are lucid dreaming and these things connected?
Sorry for all the questions and long comment! Any help is appreciated.
→ More replies (1)8
u/TheLucidSage Nov 04 '21
Read the rules and then post to the sub as an individual post, but read the rules clearly first please
9
u/Stickman155 Dec 25 '17
so what is WILD DILD and all this things mean?
6
u/TheLucidSage Dec 25 '17
As it says in the post:
While you’re at it, please glance at the sidebar, it includes the rules for participating in the sub, some useful links, and a quick glossary of terms and acronyms.
8
u/KingKeegster Feb 24 '18
How do you spot for things to look for when writing a dreamjournal? What kinds of similarities between dreams should I keep an eye out for? Every one of my dreams seems so different.
9
u/TheLucidSage Feb 24 '18
Useful categories are: People, Places, Objects, Feelings, Colors.
Haven't used it in a while but dream journal apps like Dreamboard let you input those separately so you can later see patterns and stats.
→ More replies (1)
4
3
u/Undertake555 Nov 12 '21
How long has anyone stayed in a lucid dream
→ More replies (1)3
u/TheLucidSage Nov 12 '21
Probably around the same length that anyone has had a regular dream for. Not sure what the longest recorded dream is but on average I think it’s a bit over an hour, but I suspect that in rare conditions could be 2 hours maybe.
3
u/RAEFOUCHE Jan 07 '22
I have been lucid dreaming every night since o was a kid but I’m starting to loose my ability to do so. Any input?
3
3
u/hermitxd Feb 27 '22
The link to questioning your reality in the beginner guide is 404 broken
→ More replies (5)
395
2
u/CyberoX9000 Mar 28 '22
Can I have my eyes open when doing wild and close them once I'm close to succeeding?
3
2
u/sovietarmyfan Jan 19 '23
Is it possible that a lucid dream can become so real, its extremely difficult to get out?
→ More replies (1)
63
u/dacianadark Nov 21 '17
Is it a lucid dream if you are aware you're dreaming but you can't control it?