How do I start a 6-7 year own natural LDer?

I started talking to a 6 year old and we started talking about LDing. She is an amazing “old soul” and immediately began asking about how I handle the scary things, how we classify dreams. Unfortunately she lives in upper San Diego county and although I am friends with her grandfather… I’m afraid her parents think I’m a little wierd. Is it ever too early to teach a person? I taught her a protection “spell” (she likes Harry Potter) of wrapping herself in light if she got bad vibes and keep a dream diary. I didn’t think of how a 1st grader would keep a diary! What do I teach in a condensed form next time I see her?

Why do you want to teach her? There are different reasons that I think would not only conclude in different approaches but also in a different answer to the question weather you should spend a lot of time teaching her at all.

Some LDers seem to want to share their experience with children whenever the opportunity arises just because they think it would be a waste of opportunity to bring something very positive to the child’s live. Small children are often much more open to the topic than adults and they are more likely to get the hang of it after a short amount of time. But I think that alone is not a good reason to invest a lot of time and/or effort in teaching it to them.

If she has nightmares, which many do at this age, or if she has a deep interest for some other reason, that’s something else. In that case you should probably also talk to her parents, or her grandmother in this case, about lucid dreaming and that (and why (and how)) you want to help the girl. It sound like especially her parents might tell her contradicting things otherwise.

Audio recording devices are cheap nowadays. Maybe she wants to start her journal with one of those. Any old smartphone would do (doesn’t need internet access or even a SIM card).

Now for your actual question: That depends a lot on what she wants to achieve and what her basis is. If it’s nightmares she wants to treat I guess the most important thing is to convince her (not just mention it once) that the monster (or whatever it is in this case) can’t harm her in any way. As for a strategy for the next dream how about asking the monster a question? The most basic principle would be to change something in the usual course of the dream to allow a different outcome. You know her (and her case) better than me. So you may think of something better.

If you can tell us more about her dreams and especially about what she wants to accomplish, I might be able to think of a better advice.

She had brought the subject up…well not entirely but seemed very anxious for me to ask questions. Why I like LDing? I’m living 24 hours a day; not 16 then sleep. This young lady seems to be very spiritual; not religious, just wants to know why things live, what animal feel, things I can’t answer but dreams? That I may be able to help with. And thanks for the audio recording idea. My intentions, I hope, are pure. A child wants to learn and I hate it when people treat kids like they’re stupid… or “I’ll tell you later”. So how do I condense the short and infrequent conversations I have with her. What’s top of the list? The important ones?

It’s always possible that she isn’t interested in LDing as much as some of the members in this community. But if it can help her answer some questions, why not. I think I would either talk to her parents (or grandmother) and ask them if they think it would be good if you teach her, or I would not pursue the topic too much as long as she doesn’t bring it up again and has no open questions. It should be clear to her, though, that those dreams are still just dreams and never (the same) reality. I imagine at age 6 she might not have the experience with dreams and their connection to waking life that we could easily assume.

I would say to go for it. Spend as much as time you think it’s ok to teach her as much as you can, world needs dreamers, world needs people who asks themselves this questions. If you have time share it with her, teach her and guide her, there is no harm you can do, only good things can come out of this.

One day she might be just this one person that will help you when no one else could just because you spend a little more time on the subject no one else could/want. Don’t push her, let her come to you and then all you should do is to guide her, but trust me one day she might become a teacher and that’s what we need, teachers not
conquerors…

I feel that our society doesn’t know what matters and what doesn’t, we are caught up in this stream of bad news, bad habits, bad people, bad choices, bad moves and we need to work more on new generations, it’s the little things that count because there’s nothing bigger then little things which defines us and our lives and what we do with our life, one small thing can change so much…

Children are extremely good at acting on their intuition. There’s a very good chance that she has opened up to you because she sees in you a teacher and access to the world of spirituality which it sounds like she has a great interest in.

My advice would be this; if you want to teach her because it excites you, and if you see that it excites her also I would say, without a doubt, definitely do it. Excitement is the best vibration anyone can be in and it is great signpost as to which direction to take in life.

I have been watching the topic for a while since before the first reply.
I didn’t reply earlier because I was worried about spoiling this topic.

I am rather curious regarding the results of this attempt and I would also like to point the possible confusion about what is a “natural LDer” and whether it’s really nice being one.

It’s just philosophical, sandy doesn’t need to worry about this specific part.

[spoiler]In most cases I have seen around here, “natural LDer” means someone who has LDs since childhood without needing specific incubation.
If that’s the correct definition, then how can you teach someone to be natural? Is teaching natural?

In the topic’s question, it seems that sandy is asking how to make someone to get LDs naturally. Would it be still naturally if you have learned about it unnaturally? Can we be sure if that 6 year old is actually natural regardless of sandy’s help?[/spoiler]

Now, to point something useful:

[spoiler]According to my currently accepted LDing theories, there are at least 3 special elements that you must have in order to LD:
recall, awareness and a good opportunity (to make it simpler, the correct dream, but there’s more to it that is not important now).

Recall is not only about recalling dreams and writing DJs, you could teach someone to train themselves to try to memorize every imagination, daydream, test their memory.

Awareness is complex to teach a child. When I was a 6 year old, I think my imagination would help me to get LDs to the right awareness state. I could eventually think what would I do if it was a dream and I would check my surroundings in something similar to a RC, but simpler. This is something I have learned after having LDs, not the way around, but they are probably linked to it.

Now, about the good opportunity… Just tell her to have a good sleep schedule.[/spoiler]

The yet again necessary “why teaching”:

[spoiler]I cannot point if naturals or early taught LDers really have some advantage. I have no idea if my life would be better if I didn’t have natural LDs. I know some are going to bash me about this but… Perhaps things would be better for me without these LDs, who can tell? Even if there are several things you can do with LDs, by not having them I could have lived a different and possibly better life. I don’t want to discuss this, and it’s not possible to [un]prove this either.

The best advantage I see about being early taught or natural is being open minded to LDing as a whole, and she is already like that. Is it really necessary to do something else?

There are several NDs that more enjoyable than actual LDs. I do still recall my RL in LDs. For example, while I am stressed, I am still stressed while in a LD and they don’t seem to help me at all in that case. When I get natural LDs while I am overwhelmed with work, I usually spend them thinking how can I overcome these problems instead of having fun. I cannot validate if it’s a good practice, perhaps just resting would be the best instead of worrying during all times.[/spoiler]

Cultural Issues:

SPOILER - Click to view

Many people I know outside this community think that this thing is mostly plain stupid, fake, related to mentally ill, dangerous about spiritual entities, addicted to substances and so on. I think they may have some valid points there, but it doesn’t make me happy having to hide this most of time. Having someone to talk about is really good. Maybe that’s what she really needs and that’s why she asked about it. Maybe she doesn’t need techniques or to keep diaries.

My actual point here:

[spoiler]It doesn’t exist yet (or perhaps never will), but… It would be much better if, instead of having natural LDs, we could have a 100% effective/easy/accessible/safe LD inducement technique, so we would be able to choose when to have LDs without worrying about any other issues.
Natural LDers could actually be overrated. It’s hard to tell if it’s actually good being a natural LDer.[/spoiler]

I think for a child of that age maybe just her being aware that it’s possible to be ‘awake’ in your dreams might be enough, or it might be all she can do. I don’t think it’s really appropriate to teach her complicated techniques, and it’s doubtful she’d have the discipline to do them in any case. Maybe you could teach her an age-appropriate version of a MILD mantra, and tell her she’ll have better dreams if she goes to bed on time (her parents will love that!).

Just let her know that dreams are enjoyable and important. I think for a child the biggest benefit in lucid dreaming would be the ability to manage nightmares, and you may want to focus on that.

And you can just be led by what’s she’s interested in. Does she want to talk about dreams more? What does she dream about? What would she like to know?

do it. teach her, and stand by her through the process. this is a natural ability we all have.