Right, I woke up this morning (or should I say noon) and had no idea what to write today. But, lo and behold, in my comments section I saw a request by zach.kirsteins, who wanted to know more about some LD techniques.
So, let's start from the basics.
There are quite a few different techniques you can use to become lucid. Some might be better suited for people who fall asleep faster, while some are best used in combination for a good result. The first thing you should do before trying to become lucid, however, is to improve your dream recall, that is to say, you need to be able to remember your dreams when you wake up. What's the point in having an incredible dream if you can't even remember it, right?
In order to improve recall, start writing a dream journal, basically a diary where you record your dreams. Get yourself a notebook and a pen and you're all set. Or, if you prefer it, get a tape recorder, or use your cell phone to record your dreams orally. Whichever works best for you. I find it most convenient to write my dreams down, so I always keep my notebook and pen right next to me in bed. That way, I can write down my dreams as soon as I wake up.
It is important that you write down your dreams fast. After waking up, your memory might be a bit fuzzy and hard to focus, but don't panic. Just lie still and let the memory of the dream come to you. When you have a piece of memory clear in your mind, grab your pen and start writing! As you write, you might even remember more details of the dream, so just keep going. Make it as detailed as possible, this will help you later on. If you don't have much time in the morning, due to school or work or some such, you can write down short notes instead. Then, when you have more time, you can use the notes as a base for a full entry.
As you keep recording your dreams like this, your dream recall will surely improve. By recalling your dreams regularly, you signal to your subconscious that dreams are important, and it will become even easier to recall. Should you not be able to remember anything, don't be disappointed. Write anything down, any specific feeling you had when you woke up, a certain thought that you might have had, anything is fine. It is probably connected to your dream in some way.
Once you are able to remember at least one dream each night, you are definitely ready to move on to the next step towards lucidity. More on that next time. Until then, sweet dreams!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Just a quick one
So today I don't have a lot of time to write here, since I'm going to a LAN at a friend's house. I'll just give a quick retelling of my dream this morning, because it was the first lucid one I've had in a while. Here goes:
I am on my way to a school, riding a bike. When I get there I feel a strange sensation, and wonder if I'm dreaming. I run into a strange woman who starts telling me a story about a miracle that happened long ago. (I can't really remember the details of the story now.) As I listen, I realise that she is stuck inside a sink. I approach the sink and start trying to open it. It is clogged with old leftovers, soggy with water, so I start scraping them out. There's a lot of rice and lettuce. It feels kinda gross, so I think to myself: "Why not just think it away?" I close my eyes and visualise the leftovers disappearing. When I open my eyes again, the leftovers are gone, and I can open the plug in the sink. I open it, and see the woman's face. She is actually my girlfriend. She thanks me for getting her out of there, and as a reward, starts telling the story from the beginning. Right then, my alarm goes off and I wake up.
Well, as lucid dreams go, it wasn't all that spectacular, but it still felt nice to be lucid again.
Have a good day, everyone!
I am on my way to a school, riding a bike. When I get there I feel a strange sensation, and wonder if I'm dreaming. I run into a strange woman who starts telling me a story about a miracle that happened long ago. (I can't really remember the details of the story now.) As I listen, I realise that she is stuck inside a sink. I approach the sink and start trying to open it. It is clogged with old leftovers, soggy with water, so I start scraping them out. There's a lot of rice and lettuce. It feels kinda gross, so I think to myself: "Why not just think it away?" I close my eyes and visualise the leftovers disappearing. When I open my eyes again, the leftovers are gone, and I can open the plug in the sink. I open it, and see the woman's face. She is actually my girlfriend. She thanks me for getting her out of there, and as a reward, starts telling the story from the beginning. Right then, my alarm goes off and I wake up.
Well, as lucid dreams go, it wasn't all that spectacular, but it still felt nice to be lucid again.
Have a good day, everyone!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Flying over the ocean - In a dream
Here is a Lucid Dream taken from my Dream Journal, first really awesome one I had.
April 21 2011
I am at a museum for musical instruments with a friend. He is looking for a specific type of electric organ, and is dead sure that he can find one here. We walk through the museum, pass by countless of guitars, violins and assorted bagpipes, and as we turn a corner into a narrow corridor, we see an electric organ just standing there. My friend says it resembles the type he is looking for, but it's not quite right. So then I say to him: "Then why not just make it into the right type?" He holds out his hand towards the organ, and starts altering its shape slightly. I help him out, making sculpting motions in the air, watching the organ's shape shift little by little.
By now, I am aware that I am dreaming, and am enjoying it. My friend asks me what I'm going to do now, to which I reply: "Whatever I want!" and decide to do a Reality Check in order to make doubly sure that it is indeed a dream. I pinch my nose shut and attempt to breathe, and it works.(And let me tell you, it's a weird feeling, breathing with your nose shut.) Confident after my successful confirmation, I go back through the museum, through a door and end up at home. My mother is there, and I tell her I'm going to go flying. I open the window and perch myself on the sill. It's only the second floor, so it doesn't look all that high, but I steel feel a hint of vertigo. I hesitate, and my mother notices this. "It's okay" she says. "You don't have to do it if you're scared."
Slightly annoyed with those words, I decide to do it just to show her I can. I climb up on the sill and fall out the window. I fall and hit the ground feet first. It doesn't hurt at all, and encouraged by this I take a deep breath and leap as high as I can. I shoot off into the sky, above the clouds. I descend a little, balancing my speed and altitude. I hover for a while, looking around. I am above a bay with crystal clear water, and a port in the distance. I descend a bit more and fly fast over the water surface. It is an incredible rush. Suddenly I sink too far and end up in the water. I have a false awakening, I sit up in my bed and start writing about the dream, and then I wake up for real, feeling like I can take on the world.
This was the most vivid LD I have had this far, and it really left me with a good feeling. I'm hoping for lots more!
April 21 2011
I am at a museum for musical instruments with a friend. He is looking for a specific type of electric organ, and is dead sure that he can find one here. We walk through the museum, pass by countless of guitars, violins and assorted bagpipes, and as we turn a corner into a narrow corridor, we see an electric organ just standing there. My friend says it resembles the type he is looking for, but it's not quite right. So then I say to him: "Then why not just make it into the right type?" He holds out his hand towards the organ, and starts altering its shape slightly. I help him out, making sculpting motions in the air, watching the organ's shape shift little by little.
By now, I am aware that I am dreaming, and am enjoying it. My friend asks me what I'm going to do now, to which I reply: "Whatever I want!" and decide to do a Reality Check in order to make doubly sure that it is indeed a dream. I pinch my nose shut and attempt to breathe, and it works.(And let me tell you, it's a weird feeling, breathing with your nose shut.) Confident after my successful confirmation, I go back through the museum, through a door and end up at home. My mother is there, and I tell her I'm going to go flying. I open the window and perch myself on the sill. It's only the second floor, so it doesn't look all that high, but I steel feel a hint of vertigo. I hesitate, and my mother notices this. "It's okay" she says. "You don't have to do it if you're scared."
Slightly annoyed with those words, I decide to do it just to show her I can. I climb up on the sill and fall out the window. I fall and hit the ground feet first. It doesn't hurt at all, and encouraged by this I take a deep breath and leap as high as I can. I shoot off into the sky, above the clouds. I descend a little, balancing my speed and altitude. I hover for a while, looking around. I am above a bay with crystal clear water, and a port in the distance. I descend a bit more and fly fast over the water surface. It is an incredible rush. Suddenly I sink too far and end up in the water. I have a false awakening, I sit up in my bed and start writing about the dream, and then I wake up for real, feeling like I can take on the world.
This was the most vivid LD I have had this far, and it really left me with a good feeling. I'm hoping for lots more!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
My dream last night
Good morning, everyone! (It's always morning somewhere, right?)
Last night I had a strange dream, and I thought I'd share it, through an excerpt from my Dream Journal:
I am in a gym, which looks kind of like the gym at my elementary school. A bunch of my old class mates are there, playing around with the equipment. They have made a makeshift zip-line and ask me to join in. I refuse, thinking that they are going to get busted soon, and I sure as hell am not going to be with them.
Suddenly, a girl I haven't met in real life, but for some reason was familiar to me in the dream, walks in and approaches me. She looks sad, and tells me she is going to leave the country the next day. I hug her, she looks like she is about to cry and I want to comfort her. She whispers that she has a gift for me, that she will give to me at the time of farewell. I kiss her on the cheek and tell her I am looking forward to it.
Then, I have a good old False Awakening: I am in the kitchen of my mother's old apartment, and I quickly grab my Dream Journal and start writing about the aforementioned dream. I am interrupted, however, by my mother, who yells at me for not having started preparing dinner. I put the journal down and start cutting tomatoes. Mother walks up to me and yells at me some more for being slow. I get mad and start cutting faster. When the tomato is cut up, I take a knife and start cutting it, too. The handle of the knife is hollow, and stuffed with tomato. (Here, I really should have realised I was dreaming, but I didn't, unfortunately)
Mother complains that we can't eat that because it's made of metal, but if I scrape the tomato out of the handle we can have it for dinner. I tell her that I was just about to do that. I grumble and want to tell her to go to hell, but I don't say it.
Then, I woke up. For real this time. I wrote the dream down and got up, had breakfast, and now I'm writing this. So that's my day so far. I hope you all have a good one!
Last night I had a strange dream, and I thought I'd share it, through an excerpt from my Dream Journal:
I am in a gym, which looks kind of like the gym at my elementary school. A bunch of my old class mates are there, playing around with the equipment. They have made a makeshift zip-line and ask me to join in. I refuse, thinking that they are going to get busted soon, and I sure as hell am not going to be with them.
Suddenly, a girl I haven't met in real life, but for some reason was familiar to me in the dream, walks in and approaches me. She looks sad, and tells me she is going to leave the country the next day. I hug her, she looks like she is about to cry and I want to comfort her. She whispers that she has a gift for me, that she will give to me at the time of farewell. I kiss her on the cheek and tell her I am looking forward to it.
Then, I have a good old False Awakening: I am in the kitchen of my mother's old apartment, and I quickly grab my Dream Journal and start writing about the aforementioned dream. I am interrupted, however, by my mother, who yells at me for not having started preparing dinner. I put the journal down and start cutting tomatoes. Mother walks up to me and yells at me some more for being slow. I get mad and start cutting faster. When the tomato is cut up, I take a knife and start cutting it, too. The handle of the knife is hollow, and stuffed with tomato. (Here, I really should have realised I was dreaming, but I didn't, unfortunately)
Mother complains that we can't eat that because it's made of metal, but if I scrape the tomato out of the handle we can have it for dinner. I tell her that I was just about to do that. I grumble and want to tell her to go to hell, but I don't say it.
Then, I woke up. For real this time. I wrote the dream down and got up, had breakfast, and now I'm writing this. So that's my day so far. I hope you all have a good one!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Frustration = Fun?
"Screw this, I'm never playing this stupid game again!" *Shuts off PS2 and punches a wall*
I hate to admit it, but that is pretty much how I sounded a few times yesterday while allegedly engaging in "recreational activity", that is to say, "losing so hard at a video game that I could no longer take it and had to quit to preserve my sanity." If you know the feeling, you understand. If you don't know the feeling, good for you, try to keep it that way for now.
So, frustration and video games. Two concepts that for some reason seem to go hand in hand in a lot of cases. In my case, I was playing Kingdom Hearts 2 and losing to the same boss over and over again. Finally, I snapped and stopped playing, but not before raging violently against the game, cussing, yelling and generally behaving in a way I am certainly not proud of. And for what? It's all just a game, nothing but flashing lights on a TV screen, with absolutely no connection to the real world whatsoever. So why not just ignore it? I've asked myself that question many times, and I always arrive at the same answer:
Because I like it.
Now that sounds like a paradox if I ever heard one. I get frustrated, angry and disappointed, but deep down I like it!? Sounds crazy, doesn't it? How can I like being that frustrated and annoyed at something that doesn't even mean anything to my life in the long run?
I think the first question that should be considered isn't how I can enjoy something that makes so frustrated and upset, but rather why I become frustrated in the first place. While a game shouldn't really make that much of a difference, the fact that I get so worked up about means that it actually means a lot to me. I like playing video games to relax and have fun, but also to test my skills, set records, win against impossible odds. And when that doesn't work, I get frustrated and upset, because I can't achieve the goals I set up for myself in order to "have fun". Now that sounds even more like a paradox. Who needs to achieve something to have fun? Well, me, for a start.
Ultimately, I believe it all comes down to choice. I choose to expose myself to this frustration because I know that if I somehow succeed, and actually "win", that alone will make it all worth it. Someone else might have a different idea of what you need to do to "have fun" and not get as frustrated with their choice of entertainment. But me, I guess I need a few hurdles and hoops to jump through (Or a brick wall to bash my head against) to feel like the "fun" is worth it.
So the next time anyone hears me screaming at the top of my voice for Donald Duck to go kill himself, don't be alarmed. I'm just having fun, that's all.
I hate to admit it, but that is pretty much how I sounded a few times yesterday while allegedly engaging in "recreational activity", that is to say, "losing so hard at a video game that I could no longer take it and had to quit to preserve my sanity." If you know the feeling, you understand. If you don't know the feeling, good for you, try to keep it that way for now.
So, frustration and video games. Two concepts that for some reason seem to go hand in hand in a lot of cases. In my case, I was playing Kingdom Hearts 2 and losing to the same boss over and over again. Finally, I snapped and stopped playing, but not before raging violently against the game, cussing, yelling and generally behaving in a way I am certainly not proud of. And for what? It's all just a game, nothing but flashing lights on a TV screen, with absolutely no connection to the real world whatsoever. So why not just ignore it? I've asked myself that question many times, and I always arrive at the same answer:
Because I like it.
Now that sounds like a paradox if I ever heard one. I get frustrated, angry and disappointed, but deep down I like it!? Sounds crazy, doesn't it? How can I like being that frustrated and annoyed at something that doesn't even mean anything to my life in the long run?
I think the first question that should be considered isn't how I can enjoy something that makes so frustrated and upset, but rather why I become frustrated in the first place. While a game shouldn't really make that much of a difference, the fact that I get so worked up about means that it actually means a lot to me. I like playing video games to relax and have fun, but also to test my skills, set records, win against impossible odds. And when that doesn't work, I get frustrated and upset, because I can't achieve the goals I set up for myself in order to "have fun". Now that sounds even more like a paradox. Who needs to achieve something to have fun? Well, me, for a start.
Ultimately, I believe it all comes down to choice. I choose to expose myself to this frustration because I know that if I somehow succeed, and actually "win", that alone will make it all worth it. Someone else might have a different idea of what you need to do to "have fun" and not get as frustrated with their choice of entertainment. But me, I guess I need a few hurdles and hoops to jump through (Or a brick wall to bash my head against) to feel like the "fun" is worth it.
So the next time anyone hears me screaming at the top of my voice for Donald Duck to go kill himself, don't be alarmed. I'm just having fun, that's all.
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