don’t be afraid to take a break, i’ve had plenty of LDs when i stopped trying and one just came spontaneously
i’m normally the guy telling all the frustrated LDers to take breaks, but if you’ve been at this for a year w/ no success that’s a very long time, i think it’s time to change up your technique. WBTB is very effective, but personally… i HATE alarm clocks, they screw up my dream recall more often than not, so whenever you can i suggest waking up naturally w/o an alarm clock
i’ve found going to bed repeating the intnetion “I will wake up after every REM cycle, I will remember my dream” was quite helpful, and now i wake up naturally a couple times during the night w/o doing the intention. a lotta times i wake up before my alarm clock even goes off
if you are not writing down your dreams, then write them down because you will remember your dreams. Also, you can find dream signs. (for me its being dark, getting into fights, meeting celebreties, having chicks instantly like me, being around family members while im in college, etc)
And yesterday these dream signs triggered two of them.
You cant rely on machines, you need some skills too… and all the rem detecting goggles thing does is shine light in your dreams, making light a dreams sign.
wbtb is very effective for myself wbtb+wild
took me a year to really get it going, that’s practicing 2-3 times/week and still at it
If you’ve been close to what you call “obe” it means you should be able to WILD with practice
also writing down your dreams after every rem (if you can wake, else use alarm clock), then going back to sleep trying to MILD is good too. 3-4 times of this at night and surely you’ll remember in the dream.
if alarm clock bothers you, try this: put radio to go off, tune to good static and put volume low (once I dreamt of a waterfall doing this )
regular meditation should help, also practicing trance like using binaural beats (hemi-synccd’s are nice but $$) and relaxation will improve your WILD ability.
Are you keeping a DD and doing RC ‘s during the day? I think that these are both very important to do with all induction methods. Nope, sorry WILD does not get you out of them. In fact doing RC and keeping a DD can yield you some LD ‘s just buy themselves !! That’s how powerful and important they are.
Now for WILD:
I agree with everything areomancer said so I wont repeat it the whole part about the alarm.
If you read any of my posts I talk a lot about doing WILD at bead time and yes it is possable. However, it is a little harder so your decision to try WBTB is a excellent idea. With the WBTB/WILD method you do not stay up very long only a few minutes at the most. So your sleep will not be disrupted. In fact we all wake up briefly many times per night but we just don’t remember it. WBTB is much faster and is easier. After you get proficient with WBTB you could try it at bedtime again.
As for counting:
I find counting into a WILD impossible try and keep your attention on something else breathing, HI, etc… I find that counting will keep you too awake. You can find a discussion on this in the big WILD topic part 11. You can still count until you get good and relaxed. Then change your focus to something else to keep your attention on. Contrary to what many believe WILD is not that difficult and it can be learned. Just keep in mind that as you fall asleep you don’t want to keep your self too awake you just want to maintain a slight awareness by staying focused on one small thing. Hope this helps.
I find the same thing happens when you go overdrive in anything for that long. IE:When I am obsessive with my martial arts, I start to overload, then start doing “worse.” I will usually take a break, and when I come back, I feel I have renewed interest, and im doing much better. Its happened with just about every aspect of my life.
This is supposed to be fun, so dont strain over it !
yes but dont do it for 2 long. i did that and i lost all of my lucid ability and dream recall. try a week off, dont een think about it, still record your dreas, then get back into it stronger and harder then b 4
madhatter my friend, you have my utmost sympathies…as i have been struggling to acheive lucidity as well, though i have not reached the one year mark.
all i can say is patience is a virtue…good things come to those who wait
my little theory is that all who struggle for months and possibly years to attain lucidity, will have the greatest natural control when they finally do attain it.
I’ve been trying for almost 2 years and i’ve only recently had my first one a few months ago, but it was cut short due to my excitement . Now i’ve been trying again and again but I’m still not getting any LD’s. Oh well, I’ll stop and hopefully I’ll get one spontaneously.
You ever hear how people get so motivated that they have a lucid dream on the first night they hear about it? Whilst it is not reliable to rely on motivation exclusively, it totally has the potential to carry you into breakthroughs. Kinda go like “Oh, I can’t wait to have a Lucid Dream!” or “Tonight may be the night.”
Even if u use a lot of techniques, they won’t work to the fullest, and probably not work very well at all if u don’t have motivation. It’s with everything else, motivation always gets you more progress.
I would agree with that. Motivation does play a important role. I would add however, that you also need to really believe that you can do it. Many people have a belief that LD is complicated and hard and believing this makes it true. You can make things easier on yourself by seeing LD ing as a simple skill that everyone can do if you practice and don’t give up.
I definantly agree with milod789 on the fact that you should nOT think of it as a hrad state to acheive because dreams arte a mental thing and very sensitive to your opinions about it.
Kepp in mind that eevn if you don’t have LDs and have changed you’re thinking nit to get frustrated, it takes time practice and pateince, everybody learns at a different rate.
So far everyone has assumed that you’re not having LDs. But what if you are and you just aren’t remembering them. I have a feeling I LD quite often, just forget later. In fact I think that most people have LDs even if they’ve never heard of one before and they just don’t remember it. So try focusing on increaing your dream recall and stop worrying so much about inducing an LD. I’ve never (in the 3 years I’ve been LDing) successfully induced an LD, they’ve always happened by chance. In anycase, this is just another road you can try. It works for me.
I agree that dream recall is very important to LD ing. However ( in my experience) I find it hard to believe that you can forget a LD. I retain a very clear memory of even “low level” LD’s. I suppose it is possible for someone to forget a lucid dream. I just don’t think it has ever happened to me. ( but there is no way to know for sure)
I know for a fact that I’ve forgotton LDs before. I’ll wake in the morning with a vague memory of a lucid moment. And by the time I can grab my journal it’s gone. This happens at least twice a week. So I assume I have LDs quite often. I just forget the damn things. The LDs I do remember I recall in very vivid detail though. Just like a conscious memory.
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