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Author Topic: Lucid dreaming  (Read 1180 times)

EclecticWheel

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Lucid dreaming
« on: February 07, 2017, 09:32:29 pm »
To all who are interested in this sort of phenomenon, what kinds of techniques have you used to successfully induce lucid dreams?  Do you find spiritual value in them?

I have not had fully lucid dreams since childhood.  I have had partially lucid dreams, out of body experiences within vivid dreams (as in looking down on my body but not recognizing the dream state), and I have had spiritually meaningful, vivid dreams, but no full stop lucidity and control within a dream during my adulthood.  And I would love to induce one.

I am thinking a nightly (or daily - I work night shift) ritual and prayers with offerings before bed may be a good cue to kickstart my mind to get in the right mode to do it.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2017, 09:33:42 pm by EclecticWheel »
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Faemon

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Re: Lucid dreaming
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2017, 11:26:29 pm »
Quote from: EclecticWheel;202459
To all who are interested in this sort of phenomenon, what kinds of techniques have you used to successfully induce lucid dreams?  Do you find spiritual value in them?
Ooh! I had my first lucid dream by accident—fell asleep while doing a symbol-focus mediation, so for a lot of the mental-spiritual stuff, I'd say the skills are transferable. Most newbie onieronauts get so excited or startled that they're lucid, that they wake up right away...I find that habitual meditation can help modulate that.

After that, I started to pay attention to how natural it actually is to wake up before you've had as much sleep as you're really supposed to—most people don't remember because we go right back to sleep, but there's an article about it somewhere out there called "the myth of the 8-hour sleep" because it was documented during medieval times that people recognized "first sleep" and "second sleep" and had these fertility superstitions about it, or would actually go out of bed and have quiet short conversations with neighbors who were also awake between sleeps...and I've read of lucid dreamers who induce these with alarm clocks, but I think that can become unhealthy? If the priority becomes getting lucid dreams rather than sleeping well...but, wake-back-to-bed made the wake-sleep joggle into lucidity much easier than meditating into it (though I did combine them too.)

Some spiritual dreams, I wish I were lucid for...but, oddly, fully-lucid dreams tend to be less spiritually significant, because my lucid ego is in too much control. It's certainly fun and can be wonderfully vivid, but in my experience there's some trade-off with lucidity, in that even if I invite some sign to come in, part of my mind will still have limited expectations. So, nonlucid spiritually significant dreams are probably as they ought be, in my case at least :) I hope this helps!
« Last Edit: February 11, 2017, 11:28:07 pm by Faemon »
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AsraiDouglas

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Re: Lucid dreaming
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2017, 03:30:42 am »
Quote from: EclecticWheel;202459
To all who are interested in this sort of phenomenon, what kinds of techniques have you used to successfully induce lucid dreams?  Do you find spiritual value in them?

I have not had fully lucid dreams since childhood.  I have had partially lucid dreams, out of body experiences within vivid dreams (as in looking down on my body but not recognizing the dream state), and I have had spiritually meaningful, vivid dreams, but no full stop lucidity and control within a dream during my adulthood.  And I would love to induce one.

I am thinking a nightly (or daily - I work night shift) ritual and prayers with offerings before bed may be a good cue to kickstart my mind to get in the right mode to do it.



I was obsessed with lucid dreaming as a kid, so I did as much reading as I could on the topic.  I was plagued with terrible nightmares, and hoped it would help.  It did, and so much more!

There are a few techniques I use, and I sometimes find I have to jump around to really kick start one.  Lately, I've been having a hard time lucid dreaming, mostly because my nightly routine has been interrupted.  I also find that I can't lucid dream if I've had any alcohol within a few hours of going to sleep.

One set of techniques I do while awake, like "reality checks" when you know you're awake.  These are things that, in dreams, normally wouldn't happen or would be difficult to do.  For instance, watching a clock tick.  In a dream, clocks will often move at very strange speeds.  Another one is counting your fingers.  These are things that, once they're habit, you'll notice you can't do in dreams.  Now you know you're in a dream, and that's the first battle!


When I fall asleep, I try to have as much control as possible over how the dream starts.  Sometimes all I can do is plant a seed, but I find that if I have at least a clear idea of how I want to start, even if it gets away from me a little, I have more control in general over what happens.  Mine usually start with a doorway or opening depending on what my eyes focus on when I first close them.

With my eyes closed, I start to find shapes (usually round) and start to pick out door-like details.  Once the door is there, I open it up and let the story I've "seeded" start to take shape.


The other thing that really helped me in lucid dreaming, especially picking up a dream where I left off, was keeping a dream journal.  The moment I wake up, I grab my pen and write down as much detail as I can remember.  I don't even usually keep these notes, but the exercise has helped a lot with dream recall.  I find that when I can remember the fine details and feelings of a dream, I can somewhat pick it up where I left off the next time I tuck in.


I have absolutely had spiritually valuable dreams.  A lot of the practice I did in improving my dream recall actually set me on my current spiritual path.  It's a long (and probably boring?) story, but a lucid dream helped me pass a test, and I was hooked.  I don't have spiritually significant dreams very often, but when I do, I've enough practice now to really engage with the event and recall it afterwards.


I hope that helps!  Lucid dreaming can be a lot of fun, and very eye-opening.  Everyone is different though :)

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