I have been around for some time now, but I have the following problem: When dreaming I do not ask myself “Am I dreaming?” (Crucial faculty) I just dream my dream…
I managed to ask this question 2 time in 6 month. The questions leads to a RC and that leads to lucide dreaming, but without the question you are just dreaming…
What I did till now: (and still doing…)
Kept a dream diary (I can remember my dreams very well).
I keep a list of my dreamsigns.
I do RC’s in the Awake time.
Do the MILD.
When remembering my dream I often thing “I know this is a dream scenario, why don’t ask the question then?”
But that didn’t lead to LD’s a lot…
Can someone tip me in how to engage the “crucial faculty”?
A suggestion: try the WBTB method. Set your alarm to go off about six hours after you go to bed. When it goes off, stand up, walk around a bit and keep yourself busy for about half an hour. You could for instance do some LD reading, do some RCs or visit the forum. Make sure you’re fully awake! Then after half an hour or more (you have to experiment on this, to see what time period works best for you) go back to your bed and do MILD.
This WBTB method highly increases the chances of becoming lucid in the next dream.
However, if you want to ask yourself the crucial question “Am I dreaming?”, you first need to develop the proper critical state of mind which allows you to ask this question. So, when you do the usual RCs in real life you have to put your environment or the object of the RC to a profound critical test. Really doubt about your current state. Convince yourself that you’re dreaming right now, and then try to find clues which would prove it otherwise. Don’t use one simple RC to check it but really examine it in-depth. Observe the people around you: do they act weird as in a dream? Observe the room you’re in: is everything truly in place? Do some more RCs and when you finally KNOW you’re awake, imagine how it would feel when you discovered you’re in a dream right now. How would that be? What would you do then? Visualize it as clearly as possible. Take your time for this critical examination and do this a few times a day.
With practice, this critical state of mind can also be adopted during the entire day (it’s always there, in the back of your head). It may also help when you have the same attitude during WBTB.
When you develop such a critical attitude by day, you’ll soon become clearly more critical in dreams too, which then allows you to ask yourself this question more often.
From my own experience I can tell you that I’m critical pretty almost every night, but still not enough: often I’m just surprised by some weird action and I ask myself “what’s going on?” but this doesn’t always lead towards lucidity. Still need to keep practicing I guess But LD-rate has definitely increased.
How often do you do reality checks? You should do them at least once an hour (approximately) whilst you’re setting into the habit of it. Sometimes setting a watch with an alarm to go off helps to remind you, but you can’t rely on that (because the watch might not go off during a dream).
mystic
I think that’s my problem then, not being critical during the day leading to a non critical state in my dreams. I think you are referring to “Lucide Living”. And I will give that one a go a 100%. And then do the WBTB.
WaNnAbE
The frequency of the RC’s in the “wake” state must be 5 to 10 times. I associated them with dream signs, going to the toilet that is… But also when I see things out of place, strange etc…
I thought of the alarm clock idea, but I can’t get my hand on one that’s just activated one’s an hour, and is easy to carry, and vibrates not going “beep beep”. Can’t implement that in my day job. When LL-ing, the RC’s are automatic increasing, so that’s a good thing.
Not only am I sure Lucid Living will pay off, but it’s just damn fun and enjoyable. I find it very trippy to randomly clear my mind throughout the day, preferably outside. I just observe, feel the wind blowing, hearing the leaves rustle, the sounds of the world. Very calming.
Thx 4 the reply.
Do you think clearing your mind during the day will lead to being aware in your dreams?, now that’s the question. I am trying to find a way to become aware in my dreams. Everyone is talking about “must do RC’s and stuff in the dream” but I do not get to that point. I just keep on dreaming the dream.
As I understand from other posts is that when you ask the question “am I dreaming” you are already LD-ing. That’s very logical because you are aware that something is not in place, etc.
So what do you think helped you to become aware? Is it the clearing your mind during the day thing or is there more?
Well, look at it as less of a chore, and more of something habitual. Do it whenever possible, and try to keep a clean train on thought during the day. It’s not easy, since we need to deal with trivial fears and concerns day by day. But you might be trying TOO hard, you know what I mean? Like mentioned above, when you have these moments, assume you ARE dreaming, and make sure you feel and observe your enviroment, make it a state of mind, not just a “RC”.
Has it helped? I’d say yes. I’ve only had one LD, and it was quite unexpected, so I’d just say, it can’t hurt!
Note: I do notice my Dream Recall is better, which is a huge step as well.
Yes ill try it and see what happens, that is I’m trying. Maybe that I’m trying to hard but I already tried not so hard and that didn’t work.
In the book “Exploring the world of LD” from LaBerge, there is an exercise named: “YOUR PRESENT STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS” I think that’s what you are referring to.
I’ll give that one a go.
But LD-rate has definitely increased.
