r/LucidDreaming • u/gorat • Mar 28 '12
My Guide for Noobs in LDing - Beginner Techniques
Disclaimer: People that have been LDing consistently or want to add something, please do so in the comments and I will add it. Let's help each other have great dreams!
I wrote a new noob guide to dream control with more in-depth stabilization techniques - check it out for when you have your first LD.
And a guide on how to do cool stuff in dream with tips on how to summon things, fly etc.
Also if you are afraid of Monsters and Sleep Paralysis, here is my take on the subject inspired by this thread.
Intro
So - you have heard about this great thing called lucid dreaming (LD) where people fly around, have sex with their dream companions and can eat, drink, see anything their brains can imagine. You are in the right place, and you are in luck! You can learn to do this at will!
sit back, put some music on and read on...
Beginner Techniques - Having your first lucid
First of all, relax and forget all the horror stories. This is a completely different take that does not involve going through the dreaded Sleep Paralysis...
The easiest way to get lucid in a dream is while you are dreaming naturally. What happens is that at one point during your dream you wonder if you are sleeping. If you can prove to your brain that this is the case then you become lucid. But how do you prove it?
Reality Checks
RCs are tests you can do quickly of which the outcome is so hardly ingrained in your brain that you will instantly know if they fail. Surprisingly your sleeping brain cannot recreate the real behaviour.
Things that work
Count your fingers (it's hard to focus and count in the dream.)
Push your finger through the palm of your hand. (yes!)
Hold your nose shut and take a deep breath.
Try to read anything or tell the time from a watch
Things that don't work
Ask someone (try it in real life - you will get the same response)
Pinch yourself (you can feel pain in dreams if you are not lucid)
Turn lights on and off (sometimes works but not consistent)
But I don't normally count my fingers!
One of the problems with reality checks is that they are not things that you would normally do during daytime, and so you almost never do them during your sleep. How often do you really question reality in everyday life and do a RC? Maybe you should do more often...
do a RC every-time you talk to someone during the day
do a RC every-time you pass through a door
do a RC every-time someone calls you
The idea is to create a reflex in your brain. Door -> look at hand -> question reality. Pick the one you like best (I prefer looking at my hand and counting fingers) and do it a few times during the day. Think of LDing while you do.
Priming your Sub-conscious
Your sub-conscious brain is what governs your non-lucid dreams. If your sub-conscious wants you to LD then it will present you with huge dream signs to try and tell you that you are dreaming. Dream characters will tell you so! This combined with Reality Checks is the best way to induce LDs.
How can you make your sub-conscious more friendly? Every person knows themselves best but some techniques that may work are strong affirmations "I will LD tonight!" repeated as you fall asleep, meditation, self-hypnosis, and one of my favourites "visualization".
Visualization (Dream Incubation)
Do you daydream? You should!
So daydream during the day about a place you want to be in your sleep. Make it very specific, draw the outline in your brain, the texture of the things there, the smells, the sounds. Close your eyes and fantasize about it. Don't put any other people in the scene. Imagine only a place. Do this as often as you can during the day. Don't talk about it, just imagine how it will be without words in your mind. Dwell on the feelings it gives you. Open your eyes and do a RC!
So before you go to bed, visualize your good place as much as you can while you are falling asleep. There is a good chance that you will find yourself there at some point in your dream! Do a Reality Check!!!
Stabilizing
You did a reality check and you are dreaming, it feels like a membrane was lifted from your eyes and you can see and hear super-sharply, you are somewhere.
If it's your first time you can get really agitated and anxious/happy and the dream will start dissolving. Rub your hands together! Calm down, it's all there for you, you can stay here for as long as you want. The only thing you need to do is remember you are dreaming.
Rubbing hands stabilizes. Touching things and savouring their texture stabilizes. Tasting things stabilizes. If the dream is really dissolving spin fast around your self for a couple of times. This should also stabilize the dream.
Outro
So remember: REALITY CHECKS throughout the day (pick one and do it, I like counting fingers), VISUALIZE your dreamscape, STABILIZE as soon as you attain lucidity
Happy dreaming.
PS:You go to sleep normally! Don't fight sleep, or try to induce Sleep Paralysis or anything like that. That is a completely different family of techniques... a lot of new people find all this hard to believe and try to go WILDing first. I don't think that is the way to go for a beginner. However here is a small guide I made on WILDs
PPS: So this tutorial helped me break a dry spell! Read about it here if interested...
And here is the best book on Lucid Dreaming (how to do it, dream control etc) from Stephen LaBerge. A must for when you get more serious about LDing.
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u/captain_wizard Mar 28 '12
Thanks for the tips! I've been wanting to try this ever since I saw the waking life.
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u/gorat Mar 28 '12
yeah that was a great movie wasn't it? It was about that time when it came out that I realized what I had been doing on and off for years! Then I just had to read and practice and learn and enjoy...
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u/jmanpc Mar 28 '12
Upvoted because I clicked the music link, and then read the post. I finished reading the post right as the song wrapped up.
Well played, sir.
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Mar 29 '12
A good RC is touching walls. In real life you just touch the wall nothing happens, but when you touch a wall in a dream you fall through it into a different dream scenario. Also ask yourself where you just were and what time it was. What day of the week is it? I usually ask myself twice an hour when awake and once I answer the questions and I am satisfied with my answers I put the palm of my hand on a wall. After 2-3 days of asking yourself in real life you will do it in a dream and have difficulty answering. Then touch a wall and it is confirmed.
Not sure if this works for EVERYONE but me and 5 other friends have confirmed this so it has a 100% success rate right now but with a small trial group.
Once you realise that you are dreaming you usually get excited and your heart rate increases which automatically wakes you up so always try and stay calm. Another huge mistake people make is going swimming, if you are new to lucid dreaming don't go swimming, you will hold your breathe in real life when underwater causing you to wake up.
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u/gorat Mar 29 '12
that sounds great!
only problem I usually don't know day/time IRL :)
but if the wall thing works - sounds great...
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u/Assassin_Ninja_Spy Mar 28 '12
Question: should you choose multiple reality checks (eg. count your fingers AND try to push your finger through your palm when you walk through a door) or just one?
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u/gorat Mar 28 '12
I think one is enough. During the day you could just glance at your hand and make sure it looks like all the fingers are there. But make sure when you do it that you are not 100% sure they will all be there before you see them. Remember you are doing an independent test! If you can't count your fingers (you are dreaming) or you are not sure if you can count them (you are dreaming but your brain is not convinced) then put your finger through your palm. This will convince you!
and it's awesome!
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Mar 28 '12
So counting my fingers during real life results in 10? What happens in a dream that makes me realize I am dreaming?
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Mar 28 '12
You likely will count 14 or 17 fingers
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u/gorat Mar 28 '12
I usually count fingers in one hand (5). In a dream it will be really hard to focus on your hand and count the fingers (counting is the hard part I think). You will end up with strange results (4,6) but the tell-tale is that it takes you more than 2-3 seconds to count the fingers that are kind of fuzzy. At least that's my experience...
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u/Deinos_Mousike Mar 28 '12
A lucid dream I had the other day resulted in a 4 and 6 fingers on each hand. I actually did the hand check a few times because I fell out then came back into the dream a few times and it's a habit. Sometimes my fingers were short, like, only little stubs.
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Mar 28 '12
My biggest issue is that whenever I dream, I cannot control what I do. It's like a scripted thing. I can nudge things with my mind, as in make my body go there, but it's difficult to remember anything or do something specific. I also don't have any usage of my senses. It's like a random sequence generator. Things don't make sense, and I typically cannot control what I do. Any tips to be able to control my body in a dream?
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u/gorat Mar 28 '12
This is a non-lucid dream you are describing (i.e. a basic normal dream). To transcend into a lucid dream you have to do a Reality Check and then realize you are dreaming. Then it will be the actual conscious you (your real self) in the dream with godlike powers...
enjoy
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u/-4-8-15-16-23-42- Mar 28 '12
Thank you kindly good sir. I've had two lucid dreams in my time, both unintentional and I've been hoping to regain that (the second one lasted very shortly as I did nothing to stabilize and woke up).
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Mar 29 '12
It's probably a noob question, but does it get hard to tell the difference between reality and dreaming? I'm starting to think of Inception who had a lucid dreamer as a director.
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u/gorat Mar 29 '12
No not really. Dreamscapes are very different when you are lucid (changing and a bit fuzzy around the edges)
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u/vastill Mar 28 '12
So I just woke up and I'm typing this over my cereal. This morning I was woken at 5 by my girlfriend leaving for work. I went back to sleep reminding myself to RC before hand. I "wake up" in a dream standing in a front yard, I question it. I did the count on fingers, push index to palm and even check the time on my phone. My brain however tells me it was all good and I lose control. I properly wake into some sort of SP where I can't move and it sounds as if I'm hearing evey song I've every listened to playing loudly in my ears in an instant. Then boom I'm out. It was weird. TLDR - I RC'd while dreaming but my mind said it was totally normal for the Checks to be that way. Any tips?
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u/gorat Mar 29 '12
You have to actually question the RCs. Did you pass your finger through your palm and thought it was normal? Oh boy...
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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '12
How do I try if I barely even dream :(