Lucid Dream Induction.
Inducing Lucid Dreams is all about consciously deciding to have a Lucid dream.
The intention to dream has to be there, you have to say to yourself, I firstly believe that I CAN Lucid dream, and also that it's going to happen tonight.
It might not happen right away, but the intention has to be there or it probably won't happen at all. You have to believe you can do it, before you can do it.
How To Induce A Lucid Dream..
Inducing Lucidity can be done in a number of different ways, I'll cover the main ones here, then go into much more detail in the blog, and I'll link to relevant blog posts on this page.
The first step and this can't be outlined enough, you need to be remembering your regular dreams and writing them down every night/morning. This is the first step. Only once you've done this for eat least a few days can you begin trying to induce your Lucid Dreams.
That being said, if you're ready to start Inducing them, here is the first induction technique.
1. WILD. Wake initiated lucid dream.
The basic and probably most commonly used method for Lucid Dreaming.
This is a method where you start off relaxing and focusing mentally, laying in bed relax every part of your body and try to keep inner dialogue to a minimum, it's easy to drift into internal conversation and memories, try to just relax and focus on your
breathing and pulse.
Now that you're relaxed and calm, make sure there's no tension in your muscles, specially the jaw, as this normally locks up with tension when you think about things. Let all your muscles relax and focus on not moving at all.
Just focus on your breathing, and try visualizing simple shapes. Start with things like a circle, or a star, then add colour, maybe make the shapes move or spin round. Start switching between the shapes, calling different shapes up at will. After a few minutes the shapes will appear quicker and in more clarity.
Once you've done that for about ten minutes, try hearing sounds. Listen to your mind and as you imagine different places and scenes, hear the birds singing if you're visualizing somewhere outside, hear people talking in the background, the soft noise from the radio in the distance, what sounds can you hear?
Don't fight the sounds or try and identify them, rather just listen to them and let them get louder and louder. As they get louder you might start hearing parts of conversations you've had the previous day, or people that you're thinking about talking. The sounds might generate images and scenes, This is normal and it's a sign you're starting to drift off and enter the dream.
Throughout this whole process it's important to not move at all. Every time you move you make it harder for the dream to take hold. When you move you're telling your body that you're not ready to fall asleep yet, so keep your mind awake but don't move your body.
The intention to dream has to be there, you have to say to yourself, I firstly believe that I CAN Lucid dream, and also that it's going to happen tonight.
It might not happen right away, but the intention has to be there or it probably won't happen at all. You have to believe you can do it, before you can do it.
How To Induce A Lucid Dream..
Inducing Lucidity can be done in a number of different ways, I'll cover the main ones here, then go into much more detail in the blog, and I'll link to relevant blog posts on this page.
The first step and this can't be outlined enough, you need to be remembering your regular dreams and writing them down every night/morning. This is the first step. Only once you've done this for eat least a few days can you begin trying to induce your Lucid Dreams.
That being said, if you're ready to start Inducing them, here is the first induction technique.
1. WILD. Wake initiated lucid dream.
The basic and probably most commonly used method for Lucid Dreaming.
This is a method where you start off relaxing and focusing mentally, laying in bed relax every part of your body and try to keep inner dialogue to a minimum, it's easy to drift into internal conversation and memories, try to just relax and focus on your
breathing and pulse.
Now that you're relaxed and calm, make sure there's no tension in your muscles, specially the jaw, as this normally locks up with tension when you think about things. Let all your muscles relax and focus on not moving at all.
Just focus on your breathing, and try visualizing simple shapes. Start with things like a circle, or a star, then add colour, maybe make the shapes move or spin round. Start switching between the shapes, calling different shapes up at will. After a few minutes the shapes will appear quicker and in more clarity.
Once you've done that for about ten minutes, try hearing sounds. Listen to your mind and as you imagine different places and scenes, hear the birds singing if you're visualizing somewhere outside, hear people talking in the background, the soft noise from the radio in the distance, what sounds can you hear?
Don't fight the sounds or try and identify them, rather just listen to them and let them get louder and louder. As they get louder you might start hearing parts of conversations you've had the previous day, or people that you're thinking about talking. The sounds might generate images and scenes, This is normal and it's a sign you're starting to drift off and enter the dream.
Throughout this whole process it's important to not move at all. Every time you move you make it harder for the dream to take hold. When you move you're telling your body that you're not ready to fall asleep yet, so keep your mind awake but don't move your body.
Soon enough you'll drift into the dream. At this point you'll probably freak out and start thinking, how is this possible, it's as if I'm really awake but there's a flying tiger over there?! Then you'll wake up. This is your first taste of a Lucid dream, that waking clarity and focus but whilst you're asleep and dreaming. It's an amazing feeling and the first time you'll probably wake yourself up from the excitement.
Your heart may be racing and you'll no doubt try and go back to sleep but find you're too exited to try again. Don't worry though, keep doing it and you'll get better at staying in the dream. Practice makes perfect. 2. Reality Checks to increase chances of a natural Lucid Dream. Performing reality checks is a useful way of starting to Lucid dream if you've never done it before, basically, if you start performing reality checks regularly while you're awake, you'll eventually start doing them in your dream, thus realizing it's a dream and becoming Lucid. this method is nice because it means you don't have to focus too hard before sleeping, you just sleep as you normally would but after a while your regular dreams become Lucid by default. Reality checks can be anything that makes you question whether you're awake or dreaming. Some common reality checks for inducing a lucid dream are;
There are many more reality checks, these are just some basic ones to get you started. Do these as many times as you can during the day, every day until you see results. What will happen is you'll be dreaming and suddenly find yourself in the middle or something like walking or talking to someone or in a situation, you won't remember the start or how you got there but you'll for some reason get the urge to do a reality check, and you'll do it and realise you're dreaming! Next is another reminder about the dream Journal, without this dreams are harder to remember. 3. Dream Diary or Dream Journal. Having a Dream diary is important to having a Lucid dream because to remember your dreams more often, you need to record them whenever you can. This will make you remember future dreams more accurately as well as increasing your chances of becoming Lucid in future dreams. It might be worth noting down any sounds you hear, as well as emotions, so you can more easily find your dream signs. More on those later.
More detailed look at the Dream diary is here. After about a week or two of recording every dream you remember in your dream diary, regularly performing the reality checks and trying to do a W.I.L.D dream, you should start having some results, they might be small at first, and you'll likely wake up quickly after becoming lucid, this is normal for beginners. After a while it'll become natural to you. 4. The Wake back To Bed (W.B.T.B) technique. This as the name suggests involves sleeping for a good few hours, getting the main portion of sleep out of the way, then setting a 'soft' sounding alarm for about 4-6 am. When you wake up, get up and move around a bit, and either read material to do with lucid dreaming, previous dream journal entries, posts on a forum, or even pages of this site, keeping noise to a minimum and light at a low level, low enough that it won't completely wake you up. After about half an hour or so, go back to bed with the strong intention of having a lucid dream. Relax every part of you when you get back into bed and turn off any lights, make sure there are no noises coming from the TV or radio etc and focus on controlling your thoughts. From here, you can either try the first technique, (W.I.L.D) which is said to be 3 times easier to do at this time of the morning, or you could drift off naturally and become aware in a normal dream. Either way, the chances of you becoming Lucid are a lot higher by interrupting your sleep like this and focusing on becoming Lucid. These last two are things you should do after establishing that you're dreaming, so while you're in the dream do these two things. It will give you a lot more clarity and you'll be a lot more stable in the dream. Total awareness. This is a new idea for us, the basics of it is as follows; To absorb every piece of information from the world around you. notice all there is to notice and feel all there is to feel. Focus on tiny details you normally ignore, look at the intricate patterns on the side of the door, the faint sounds of the road in the distance, the sensation of your bare feet on the carpet, tiny things you normally ignore, pay close attention to them. Reality Checks throughout the day. Ask yourself the question; 'How did I get to where I am now", ask yourself where or what you were doing a few moments ago. Try and remember where you were and if you're dreaming, remember what you did 10 minutes before going to bed. There are other ways to Induce Lucid Dreams; such as using a lucid dreaming mask, or a 'dreaming mask' these are types of headsets that you wear in order to tell yourself you're dreaming, they will either monitor your REM activity and when the mask detects a certain thing it will send you a message while you're sleeping such as an LED flashing in your eye or a sound through headphones. These masks can work but it's best to start off at the bottom and learn how to do it naturally before you invest in a lucid dreaming mask, as they're usually expensive. Keep practicing those techniques, when you're ready go to the blog for more information or the Advanced Lucid dreaming section. Happy Dreaming. |