Help me, uh, incept?
July 26, 2010 9:48 AM Subscribe
Help me improve my lucid dreaming.
OK let's get this part out of the way. Yes, my interest has been renewed by Inception.
Anyway, I dream lucidly sometimes. Usually very briefly. Maybe once a month. I'd like to improve this.
I used to work on and think about these things actively and would lucid dream much more often and with better results. I followed the thought of Carlos Castaneda in this area. I'd have extended dreams sometimes in which I acted lucidly without being explicitly aware that I was dreaming. When I did realize I was dreaming and tried to find my hands I'd wake up or forget fairly quickly. I could find my hands sometimes and only once shifted from my hands to another object of my choosing.
Any recommendations on other systems of thought about lucid dreaming, or resources in the Castanedan vein that are specifically about dreaming? I already know about The Art of Dreaming.
OK let's get this part out of the way. Yes, my interest has been renewed by Inception.
Anyway, I dream lucidly sometimes. Usually very briefly. Maybe once a month. I'd like to improve this.
I used to work on and think about these things actively and would lucid dream much more often and with better results. I followed the thought of Carlos Castaneda in this area. I'd have extended dreams sometimes in which I acted lucidly without being explicitly aware that I was dreaming. When I did realize I was dreaming and tried to find my hands I'd wake up or forget fairly quickly. I could find my hands sometimes and only once shifted from my hands to another object of my choosing.
Any recommendations on other systems of thought about lucid dreaming, or resources in the Castanedan vein that are specifically about dreaming? I already know about The Art of Dreaming.
The reason why most people give up on this...
Naturally, "this" refers to lucid dreaming practices in general, not the eating of bananas or pills before bed.
posted by hermitosis at 9:58 AM on July 26, 2010
Naturally, "this" refers to lucid dreaming practices in general, not the eating of bananas or pills before bed.
posted by hermitosis at 9:58 AM on July 26, 2010
2nding the melatonin--but the effect seems to dissipate the more frequently you use it.
posted by mpls2 at 10:01 AM on July 26, 2010
posted by mpls2 at 10:01 AM on July 26, 2010
The reason why most people give up on this is that the number one aid seems to be journaling ...
Repeating "I will remember my dreams" over and over as you fall asleep helps a lot too.
posted by new brand day at 10:01 AM on July 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Repeating "I will remember my dreams" over and over as you fall asleep helps a lot too.
posted by new brand day at 10:01 AM on July 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Dreaming in general ...
Don't drink alcohol. Don't smoke marijuana. This is purely anecdotal but whenever I cut these two additives out of my evening fun, my tendency to remember my dreams goes WAY up.
posted by philip-random at 10:01 AM on July 26, 2010
Don't drink alcohol. Don't smoke marijuana. This is purely anecdotal but whenever I cut these two additives out of my evening fun, my tendency to remember my dreams goes WAY up.
posted by philip-random at 10:01 AM on July 26, 2010
A few things that worked for me.. The most vivid and long lucid dream I had was after eating a thick, fatty soup (i.e with a lot of butter) before going to sleep. It lasted about a minute and I tried flying and looking very carefully at the sky and the walls (it was more like a huge room with with real skies "painted" on the ceiling.) If you feel that you're exiting the dream, try spinning like a top. That worked for me for a bit of time. As per "Waking Life", try turning light switches on/off and see if they work. If they don't, you might be in a dream (or you need to change the bulb). This works really great for me to improve vividness of dreams: if you wake up at 8am, for instance, set the alarm for 7am, wake up for 10 minutes, walk around, drink some water and then go back to sleep another 45 minutes.
I'd have to disagree that Castaneda is a fraud -- the core of his books is Don Juan's world view and the vitality of connection between the most abstract and the most practical and physical parts of life, existential poetry -- and that's something you can agree or disagree with but can't just go and lift from other works (not in a way that'd work). IMNSHO, blah blah.
posted by rainy at 10:31 AM on July 26, 2010
I'd have to disagree that Castaneda is a fraud -- the core of his books is Don Juan's world view and the vitality of connection between the most abstract and the most practical and physical parts of life, existential poetry -- and that's something you can agree or disagree with but can't just go and lift from other works (not in a way that'd work). IMNSHO, blah blah.
posted by rainy at 10:31 AM on July 26, 2010
I have two concrete recommendations. The first is that instead of "looking for your hands," you make it a point of pausing briefly to ask yourself "Am I dreaming?" every time you walk through a doorway, perhaps even tapping the doorway as you walk through it. Eventually you'll have done this enough times in waking life that it will start to occur in your dreams, and when you stop to ask yourself if you're dreaming, you'll realize that the answer is "Yes."
The second technique is a biochemical kickstart to lucid dreams. Begin by limiting your sleep somewhat; if you're used to getting eight hours of sleep, give yourself six or so. After two or three days of this, you'll be really tired; at that point. At that point, drink a bunch of coffee and go right to bed. Physically, you'll be tired enough that you'll be asleep almost as soon as you hit the pillow, but the caffeine will keep you from sinking too deeply. I discovered this by accident, but it seems to work pretty well.
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:32 AM on July 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
The second technique is a biochemical kickstart to lucid dreams. Begin by limiting your sleep somewhat; if you're used to getting eight hours of sleep, give yourself six or so. After two or three days of this, you'll be really tired; at that point. At that point, drink a bunch of coffee and go right to bed. Physically, you'll be tired enough that you'll be asleep almost as soon as you hit the pillow, but the caffeine will keep you from sinking too deeply. I discovered this by accident, but it seems to work pretty well.
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:32 AM on July 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
Um, forgot to add: the soup caused a bit of indigestion and a nightmare-like dream (not really intense or fearful but mostly unpleasant), but the lucid dream itself was really awesome. Best thing, ever, no kidding. Kava kava also sort of kind of helps but I hate the taste.
posted by rainy at 10:32 AM on July 26, 2010
posted by rainy at 10:32 AM on July 26, 2010
To respond to Burhanistan, I should clarify that no, it's not a technique I'd recommend for long-term use, but it's a good way to sort of "get over the hump" and shock yourself into lucid dreaming if you haven't been able to achieve it before.
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:57 AM on July 26, 2010
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:57 AM on July 26, 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B6
posted by An algorithmic dog at 11:02 AM on July 26, 2010
posted by An algorithmic dog at 11:02 AM on July 26, 2010
After seeing Inception last friday, my boyfriend and I got into a really long discussion about this. I didn't realize that everyone didn't lucid dream all the time. I'm usually always in control of my dreams - or at least the ones I can remember them when I wake up (at least a few times a week).
Thinking about this, I realized it is because in a lot of my dreams (at least in almost all of the ones I can remember) at some point something weird happens to my teeth. Like I'll be dreaming about being at a friend's house, and suddenly I'll bite into an apple and three of my teeth come out. Or I'll tap my teeth against each other in my mouth and one of them randomly shatters. It used to freak me out, but now I just think to myself "Oh, my teeth thing is happening, this must be a dream." The weird thing is, usually whatever happened to my teeth doesn't impact the dream at all, everything else just continues as if nothing happened.
Yes, should anything weird ever happen to my teeth in real life, I will be screwed.
My boyfriend was saying he read somewhere that having something like that - what infinitywaltz suggests with the asking yourself if you are dreaming when you walk through a doorway - is what you need to help yourself realize that you are dreaming. You just need a "dream totem" instead of the reality totem they use in the movie.
posted by CharlieSue at 11:04 AM on July 26, 2010
Thinking about this, I realized it is because in a lot of my dreams (at least in almost all of the ones I can remember) at some point something weird happens to my teeth. Like I'll be dreaming about being at a friend's house, and suddenly I'll bite into an apple and three of my teeth come out. Or I'll tap my teeth against each other in my mouth and one of them randomly shatters. It used to freak me out, but now I just think to myself "Oh, my teeth thing is happening, this must be a dream." The weird thing is, usually whatever happened to my teeth doesn't impact the dream at all, everything else just continues as if nothing happened.
Yes, should anything weird ever happen to my teeth in real life, I will be screwed.
My boyfriend was saying he read somewhere that having something like that - what infinitywaltz suggests with the asking yourself if you are dreaming when you walk through a doorway - is what you need to help yourself realize that you are dreaming. You just need a "dream totem" instead of the reality totem they use in the movie.
posted by CharlieSue at 11:04 AM on July 26, 2010
The three major things that made a difference for me have already been covered but I'll second them. One is journaling. Even scratching out a few words on a dream while half-asleep made a difference. Soon enough after waking up I could recall so many vivid details it got rather tiresome to get them all down. Hence the difficulty in sticking to the practice.
Second, reality testing. This is covered in Castaneda but it's never really made clear enough that finding your hands while awake ("Am I dreaming?") is the important part. You can use all kinds of cues to test reality, like observing the static or mutable nature of text on a page, the light switch thing. Can be anything really.
Third, basically what Burhanistan said...Wake up briefly after about six hours then go back to sleep with the intent to have a lucid dream.
When I was younger I was an avid reader of Castaneda, but I think there's better and more practical information out there. Stephen LaBerge is excellent and honestly I found this site to have some useful tips, but as with a lot of material on lucid dreaming you have to take it with a grain of salt.
posted by domographer at 11:13 AM on July 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Second, reality testing. This is covered in Castaneda but it's never really made clear enough that finding your hands while awake ("Am I dreaming?") is the important part. You can use all kinds of cues to test reality, like observing the static or mutable nature of text on a page, the light switch thing. Can be anything really.
Third, basically what Burhanistan said...Wake up briefly after about six hours then go back to sleep with the intent to have a lucid dream.
When I was younger I was an avid reader of Castaneda, but I think there's better and more practical information out there. Stephen LaBerge is excellent and honestly I found this site to have some useful tips, but as with a lot of material on lucid dreaming you have to take it with a grain of salt.
posted by domographer at 11:13 AM on July 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Try Tryptophan, it's now available as an over the counter supplement again. If you don't get intense enough results, switch to 5-HTP (5-Hydroxytryptophan). Both can be purchased at most natural foods or supplement stores.
They're precursors to the production of the neurotransmitters serotonin and melatonin and will give you dreams like you've never had before. I became familiar with them after use post MDMA to restore balance and avoid any feelings of darkness, and the dream side effects were unexpected but welcome - and now I occasionally use them for that. Of course, read about them and possible interactions with you/medications you're taking, etc.
In conjunction with the very wise advice above, I bet you'll find them helpful.
posted by jardinier at 11:24 AM on July 26, 2010
They're precursors to the production of the neurotransmitters serotonin and melatonin and will give you dreams like you've never had before. I became familiar with them after use post MDMA to restore balance and avoid any feelings of darkness, and the dream side effects were unexpected but welcome - and now I occasionally use them for that. Of course, read about them and possible interactions with you/medications you're taking, etc.
In conjunction with the very wise advice above, I bet you'll find them helpful.
posted by jardinier at 11:24 AM on July 26, 2010
Dream Views is a very active Lucid Dreaming forum that contains a lot of information that you can also find in LaBerge's books.
Sadly, neither are a guarantee for improvement - I've had a grand total of one lucid dreaming since I started trying to induce them (a few before that), despite weeks of keeping a dream journal and all sorts of stuff. For now I'm crediting the fact that I haven't actually had more than 5 nights of uninterrupted sleep in the past 14 months (thanks to my beautiful baby girl). But I guess we'll see...
Good luck.
posted by HopStopDon'tShop at 11:48 AM on July 26, 2010
Sadly, neither are a guarantee for improvement - I've had a grand total of one lucid dreaming since I started trying to induce them (a few before that), despite weeks of keeping a dream journal and all sorts of stuff. For now I'm crediting the fact that I haven't actually had more than 5 nights of uninterrupted sleep in the past 14 months (thanks to my beautiful baby girl). But I guess we'll see...
Good luck.
posted by HopStopDon'tShop at 11:48 AM on July 26, 2010
I first learned this from my folks battered copy of Monroe's "Journeys Out of the Body." It does lean a lot towards astral projection territory, but the techniques are solid -- and it differentiates between the lucid dream entered when in dream state, and that you can enter before falling asleep (which can give rise to the "out of body" experience -- an interesting type of dream, but noticeably different).
Journals are probably the way to go. Chances are you're lucid dreaming already, and just don't remember it.
posted by iamck at 12:00 PM on July 26, 2010
Journals are probably the way to go. Chances are you're lucid dreaming already, and just don't remember it.
posted by iamck at 12:00 PM on July 26, 2010
Reality checks like flicking a light switch or tapping a doorway are definitely helpful. Here's my favorite: Hold your nose and try and breathe through it. If your dreaming, it'll work, even though your airways are blocked. This one's nice because it's very quick and easy, and fairly discrete. Try and tie this check to a common event, like every time you look at your watch.
If you start a dream journal (highly recommended), then after a week or two you should be able to go through your journal and pick out common events in your dreams. Then you can start using your reality check every time one of those events comes up in waking life. That vastly increases the chance that you'll do a reality check in a dream.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 12:08 PM on July 26, 2010
If you start a dream journal (highly recommended), then after a week or two you should be able to go through your journal and pick out common events in your dreams. Then you can start using your reality check every time one of those events comes up in waking life. That vastly increases the chance that you'll do a reality check in a dream.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 12:08 PM on July 26, 2010
Response by poster: I always feel the need to come back in to say how great AskMetafilter is. It is.
I'll be checking out LaBerge and that forum. The idea of better establishing the hands as a dream totem seems like a good one. The hands only because I've already got them connected to my lucid dreaming.
I was a little worried this could turn into a Castaneda derail. It hasn't, but I'll say this: I'm aware that it's unclear whether Castaneda was actually in Mexico when he was supposed to have been and stuff like that, and he actually touches on that in some of the later books. However, in this context, the distinction between reality and story seems pretty irrelevant to me and maybe not even sensical. Don't worry, I'm not going to any tensegrity crystal powwows or whatever they're charging for out there now.
posted by cmoj at 12:09 PM on July 26, 2010
I'll be checking out LaBerge and that forum. The idea of better establishing the hands as a dream totem seems like a good one. The hands only because I've already got them connected to my lucid dreaming.
I was a little worried this could turn into a Castaneda derail. It hasn't, but I'll say this: I'm aware that it's unclear whether Castaneda was actually in Mexico when he was supposed to have been and stuff like that, and he actually touches on that in some of the later books. However, in this context, the distinction between reality and story seems pretty irrelevant to me and maybe not even sensical. Don't worry, I'm not going to any tensegrity crystal powwows or whatever they're charging for out there now.
posted by cmoj at 12:09 PM on July 26, 2010
Before you start trying any dietary supplements or specific foods, there are several important things that you can do.
1. Journaling. As soon as you wake up in the morning, write down everything that you remember dreaming about that night. If you don't have time in the morning to write down all the details, you can jot down a few key words to trigger your memory when you go to write it out later in the day.
At first, you may have many days when you don't remember anything at all, and this can be really frustrating. But whenever you remember anything at all, be sure to write it down, and your memory will gradually improve.
This step is very important because it improves your dream recall ability--what good is having a lucid dream if you don't remember having it when you wake up?
2. Reality checks. Reality checks are simple tests you can do at any time to test whether you are in a dream or not. (Like the totems in Inception, except more mundane.) Here are a few:
* A common one which has been mentioned is looking at your hands, and/or counting your fingers. If they look weird or have the wrong number of fingers, you will know it's a dream.
* One that I like personally is plugging your nose and then trying to breathe through it. If it is a dream, you will still be able to breathe through your nose because your real-life nose isn't being plugged.
* You can look at a digital clock or any sort of text, look away, and then look back. Digital clocks and text have an uncanny ability to change in dreams, so if you see something different when you look back, you'll know it's a dream.
The real strategy with reality checks is to perform them frequently throughout the day, even when you're awake. This way, you'll eventually perform one in a dream simply by habit, and then suddenly realize you're dreaming!
As HopStop recommended, DreamViews is a great resource for any lucid dreamer, beginning or experienced. There are many long threads on there with advice for aspiring lucid dreamers and ways to increase your frequency of lucid dreams.
I've been trying to improve my lucidity myself, so this question is very relevant to me. Good luck!
posted by mekily at 12:42 PM on July 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
1. Journaling. As soon as you wake up in the morning, write down everything that you remember dreaming about that night. If you don't have time in the morning to write down all the details, you can jot down a few key words to trigger your memory when you go to write it out later in the day.
At first, you may have many days when you don't remember anything at all, and this can be really frustrating. But whenever you remember anything at all, be sure to write it down, and your memory will gradually improve.
This step is very important because it improves your dream recall ability--what good is having a lucid dream if you don't remember having it when you wake up?
2. Reality checks. Reality checks are simple tests you can do at any time to test whether you are in a dream or not. (Like the totems in Inception, except more mundane.) Here are a few:
* A common one which has been mentioned is looking at your hands, and/or counting your fingers. If they look weird or have the wrong number of fingers, you will know it's a dream.
* One that I like personally is plugging your nose and then trying to breathe through it. If it is a dream, you will still be able to breathe through your nose because your real-life nose isn't being plugged.
* You can look at a digital clock or any sort of text, look away, and then look back. Digital clocks and text have an uncanny ability to change in dreams, so if you see something different when you look back, you'll know it's a dream.
The real strategy with reality checks is to perform them frequently throughout the day, even when you're awake. This way, you'll eventually perform one in a dream simply by habit, and then suddenly realize you're dreaming!
As HopStop recommended, DreamViews is a great resource for any lucid dreamer, beginning or experienced. There are many long threads on there with advice for aspiring lucid dreamers and ways to increase your frequency of lucid dreams.
I've been trying to improve my lucidity myself, so this question is very relevant to me. Good luck!
posted by mekily at 12:42 PM on July 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
Snooze alarm.
posted by finding.perdita at 1:35 PM on July 26, 2010
posted by finding.perdita at 1:35 PM on July 26, 2010
Sweet gale (Myrica gale), available as a tea, is supposedly useful for enhancing dreams. Might be worth a shot!
posted by greatgefilte at 2:20 PM on July 26, 2010
posted by greatgefilte at 2:20 PM on July 26, 2010
I remember my brother telling a story about eating a large plate of fresh fiddlehead ferns for dinner and how he and his wife both experienced amazing dreams. In my brother's case it also resulted in his dreaming about a casual friend neither of them had seen for twenty years and hardly thought of in that time. The next day this same friend drove into their yard (in a different state than where they had known him) just to say hello. It seems worth a try.
posted by InkaLomax at 6:00 PM on July 26, 2010
posted by InkaLomax at 6:00 PM on July 26, 2010
Two things:
1) A friend of mine suggested the awake-test thing, but left out the part about triggers, so I drew a question mark on the inside of my wrist in sharpie, to remind myself to ask if I was awake. Someday I may get a tattoo instead of occasionally doing the sharpie thing. It worked great the first few times I did it, but I don't do it with any regularity.
2) An uncle told me once about the following: Don't eat anything for several hours before bed, and then eat a lot (not sure how many; whatever you consider a lot) of white seedless grapes. I've done it a few times, and dreams were definitely very weird. Dunno how sustainable this is, though.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 7:46 PM on July 26, 2010
1) A friend of mine suggested the awake-test thing, but left out the part about triggers, so I drew a question mark on the inside of my wrist in sharpie, to remind myself to ask if I was awake. Someday I may get a tattoo instead of occasionally doing the sharpie thing. It worked great the first few times I did it, but I don't do it with any regularity.
2) An uncle told me once about the following: Don't eat anything for several hours before bed, and then eat a lot (not sure how many; whatever you consider a lot) of white seedless grapes. I've done it a few times, and dreams were definitely very weird. Dunno how sustainable this is, though.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 7:46 PM on July 26, 2010
My trick to knowing if I am dreaming is to read something, look away, and read it again. Every time I have done this in a dream, the text has changed. The most memorable time this worked, I was dreaming I was in high school band. The music changed from Stars and Stripes to Teddybear's Picnic. I stood up and told the band director he was a complete asshole and threw my music stand at him. Most satisfying dream ever.
posted by Foam Pants at 7:50 PM on July 26, 2010
posted by Foam Pants at 7:50 PM on July 26, 2010
I used to lucid dream as a child and I think it was journalling that helped then, primarily.
I loved writing as a kid, so I used to write down my dreams as stories. The reason why journalling works is that it commits your memories to paper, with the seal that they were in a dream. Typically, you tend to remember only the realities of your life and not what goes on in your subconsciousness. The more you repeat what you've said and done, the better it gets embedded in your brain. This is why when you want to learn something, you need to revise and test and practice, regardless of whether it's a language or a school subject or a job skill.
For dreams, it's the same. If you keep yourself convinced that you dream often, that you see the following things in your dream, that knowledge will come to the forefront of your subconscious, and you will be reminded of it when you are actually dreaming. Your brain will run a mental flowchart like this:
Is something weird? >> Yes >> Have I been dreaming a lot lately? >> Yes (because I remember what I have dreamed before) >> Could this be a dream? >> Test >> This is a dream. I can now do anything I want.
The last time I had a lucid dream was about a couple years ago when I used to attend gym. I hated getting up in the morning to go to gym, so right after coming back, I used to dump myself to sleep again, which was from about 9.00 to 12.30. I used to get very vivid dreams them, and I got one or two lucid dreams in which I floated and seemingly did somersaults in the air (or did I make the rest of the world rotate? Hard to say).
Only lesson that can be learnt from that incident is that screwing around with your sleep cycles helps. You usually dream a lot more than your remember - only your memories are wiped after you finish dreaming. If you can interrupt them by sleeping at odd times than you usually do, you'll have better luck remembering dreams and in turn, lucid dreaming.
Good luck!
posted by Senza Volto at 10:25 PM on July 26, 2010
I loved writing as a kid, so I used to write down my dreams as stories. The reason why journalling works is that it commits your memories to paper, with the seal that they were in a dream. Typically, you tend to remember only the realities of your life and not what goes on in your subconsciousness. The more you repeat what you've said and done, the better it gets embedded in your brain. This is why when you want to learn something, you need to revise and test and practice, regardless of whether it's a language or a school subject or a job skill.
For dreams, it's the same. If you keep yourself convinced that you dream often, that you see the following things in your dream, that knowledge will come to the forefront of your subconscious, and you will be reminded of it when you are actually dreaming. Your brain will run a mental flowchart like this:
Is something weird? >> Yes >> Have I been dreaming a lot lately? >> Yes (because I remember what I have dreamed before) >> Could this be a dream? >> Test >> This is a dream. I can now do anything I want.
The last time I had a lucid dream was about a couple years ago when I used to attend gym. I hated getting up in the morning to go to gym, so right after coming back, I used to dump myself to sleep again, which was from about 9.00 to 12.30. I used to get very vivid dreams them, and I got one or two lucid dreams in which I floated and seemingly did somersaults in the air (or did I make the rest of the world rotate? Hard to say).
Only lesson that can be learnt from that incident is that screwing around with your sleep cycles helps. You usually dream a lot more than your remember - only your memories are wiped after you finish dreaming. If you can interrupt them by sleeping at odd times than you usually do, you'll have better luck remembering dreams and in turn, lucid dreaming.
Good luck!
posted by Senza Volto at 10:25 PM on July 26, 2010
Meditate. It will make you more aware of your different states of consciousness.
posted by Obscure Reference at 1:35 AM on July 27, 2010
posted by Obscure Reference at 1:35 AM on July 27, 2010
hah ... i was going to suggest that you look into tensegrity/magical passes ... and will still do so! in spite of seeing your last response!
you do not have to go to a powow and get all wooo-wooo'd with crystals, though i would definitely recommend watching the videos/dvds (yes ... thousands of years of toltec sorcerers' mysteries is now available on DVD) in addition to the magical passes book, because, while casteneda's writing is beautiful and informative in terms of the knowledge don juan passed to him, it is very hard to understand what you are supposed to move where from the written descriptions.
the premise is that everyday experience pulls your personal energy away from your life centers and packs it into a crust at the edge of your personal sphere. tensegrity/magical passes are a way to loosen that energy and redeploy it so that it is available for your intent (in this case, lucid dreaming). reconcilliation is another way.
my take on the casteneda-timeline thing you mention is that much of the plot beyond the first couple of books (i'm thinking of second ring of power as around the time it starts but its been awhile since i've read the series) actually take place in his dream world, which was becoming increasingly consistent and accessible as a result of his practices.
or, take obscure reference's suggestion, as it is mighty fine, and won't cost a dime!
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 8:33 PM on July 27, 2010
you do not have to go to a powow and get all wooo-wooo'd with crystals, though i would definitely recommend watching the videos/dvds (yes ... thousands of years of toltec sorcerers' mysteries is now available on DVD) in addition to the magical passes book, because, while casteneda's writing is beautiful and informative in terms of the knowledge don juan passed to him, it is very hard to understand what you are supposed to move where from the written descriptions.
the premise is that everyday experience pulls your personal energy away from your life centers and packs it into a crust at the edge of your personal sphere. tensegrity/magical passes are a way to loosen that energy and redeploy it so that it is available for your intent (in this case, lucid dreaming). reconcilliation is another way.
my take on the casteneda-timeline thing you mention is that much of the plot beyond the first couple of books (i'm thinking of second ring of power as around the time it starts but its been awhile since i've read the series) actually take place in his dream world, which was becoming increasingly consistent and accessible as a result of his practices.
or, take obscure reference's suggestion, as it is mighty fine, and won't cost a dime!
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 8:33 PM on July 27, 2010
Day dream, keep a wild imagination and let yourself be creative!
I use to experience strong lucid dreams when I was a teenager, as I grew older I started to forget my dreams and become just a back seat driver in them. I feel like the cause of this might be spending less time during the day day-dreaming and being artistic, which were the two main things I would spend every day that I could doing.
posted by tokidoki at 8:55 PM on July 27, 2010
I use to experience strong lucid dreams when I was a teenager, as I grew older I started to forget my dreams and become just a back seat driver in them. I feel like the cause of this might be spending less time during the day day-dreaming and being artistic, which were the two main things I would spend every day that I could doing.
posted by tokidoki at 8:55 PM on July 27, 2010
B vitamins have a reputation for making dreams more vivid.
Nthing the reality checks and asking questions "How did I get here? Why am I here? Where are my hands?" etc. Don't drink before hand, make sure you're *very* tired. I can usually provoke a lucid dream that way - Melatonin seems to help but it will make you super-groggy in the morning.
posted by The Whelk at 10:25 AM on July 28, 2010
Nthing the reality checks and asking questions "How did I get here? Why am I here? Where are my hands?" etc. Don't drink before hand, make sure you're *very* tired. I can usually provoke a lucid dream that way - Melatonin seems to help but it will make you super-groggy in the morning.
posted by The Whelk at 10:25 AM on July 28, 2010
I lucid dream often, and pretty much any time I start to have a nightmare. I used to have bad dreams all the time, and got into lucid dreaming as a way to stop them.
What I do:
Every night, before I fall asleep, I think about dreams, and how they take place in my brain. And I think about my brain, and how only I control it. And I think to myself, very firmly, the following script:
"I am in charge of my dreams. Only I get to say what happens in my dreams. If something happens in a dream that I don't like, I'll realize I'm dreaming, and change the dream."
It can be changed around; sometimes, if I want to lucid dream, I'll say "while I'm dreaming, I'll realize I'm dreaming and take control of the dream."
It doesn't work right away, you have to say it to yourself every night for a while, and it works slowly at first. But now, I never have bad dreams without suddenly realizing I'm dreaming and fixing it.
Oh, the other thing that helps: when you're first starting, and you wake up from a dream that you weren't able to control, visualize the dream again but with yourself becoming lucid and changing it.
posted by smoakes at 10:38 AM on August 10, 2010
What I do:
Every night, before I fall asleep, I think about dreams, and how they take place in my brain. And I think about my brain, and how only I control it. And I think to myself, very firmly, the following script:
"I am in charge of my dreams. Only I get to say what happens in my dreams. If something happens in a dream that I don't like, I'll realize I'm dreaming, and change the dream."
It can be changed around; sometimes, if I want to lucid dream, I'll say "while I'm dreaming, I'll realize I'm dreaming and take control of the dream."
It doesn't work right away, you have to say it to yourself every night for a while, and it works slowly at first. But now, I never have bad dreams without suddenly realizing I'm dreaming and fixing it.
Oh, the other thing that helps: when you're first starting, and you wake up from a dream that you weren't able to control, visualize the dream again but with yourself becoming lucid and changing it.
posted by smoakes at 10:38 AM on August 10, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
The reason why most people give up on this is that the number one aid seems to be journaling -- recording all your dreams in as much detail as possible, right after waking up. This is a difficult habit to adopt, and it's easy one to let go of. But it really has a profound effect, and I recommend it above anything else.
posted by hermitosis at 9:57 AM on July 26, 2010