…you mean…like houses and people (because I dream so much about houses & people) and everything that does not feel right and does not fit in my day to day ‘reality’? To me that does not make any sense, because if I am identified with the dream there is no awareness to catch a sign! No observer there wakeful enough to get it. I guess that comes into play when you are in an in between state of non-lucid - lucid, when there is already a bit of lucidity, right?
3 Likes
This is so important, but if you do it wrong, it will hinder you.
When you ask “am I dreaming” you must do it will 100% conviction that this reality you are seeing is quite possibly a dream.
Think of it like you are a good Prosecuter lawyer, but in this court of law, waking reality is assumed to be guilty of being a dream, until proven innocent.
- Slowly do a 360 scan of the enviornment around you, ask yourslef is anything out of place, or different?
- Ask yourself how you got where you are, and flash the memeory of the day getting to that point. (and the past reality checks you have done)
- Look for a light source, are there lights indoors, or is it the light of your mind illuminating things. If outside is it sunny, where is the sun? Are you casting a shadow?
- Feel your body, are you lighter than usual, less aches and pains, or zero body pain? Does gravity feel different on your body?
(Squeeze your nose after each of these questions, if you cant breeth, tell yousourself it is possible this is a hyper lucid dream and the RC failed, I will try again in the next 5 or 10 min, to see if the dream is less stubbborn)
Jumping up in the air is another high success RC.
The more time, and attention you spend interrgogatimg reality, the better quality your reality checks will be, and the more likely they will form into habits that will then permeate into your subconscious and into the dreams. The RCs are not as important as forming the serious habit to question reality, amd doing that so much that you start to do it in the dream.
3 Likes
Thank you for sending the two affirmations - I like them both and will definitely use them. Theys really do both apply!
3 Likes
in the dream world there are no limits and there are things that only happen there - such as light conditions like @NightHawk999 explains so well in the next message.
there are things that can only happen in dreams 
and the task is to notice them first in your diary.
with the example of houses and people: do I know this place? or this person? no? then I’m dreaming.
there are three steps to creating dream signs (also learned this with Charlie):
1- choose a specific dream sign that you wish to manifest. if you have a recurrent one, that’s the one. it should be strong for you (if possible, in a good way);
2- next time that you wake up after five hours of sleep, in the hypnagogic state, say an affirmation that includes that sign - example:today I will dream that I am levitating and I will know that I am dreaming.
3- repeat step 2 with enthusiasm and determination, at least seven times.
this triggers something inside you, originating a spontaneous lucid dream.
3 Likes
I like that…how you put it…“permeate into your subconscious and into the dreams.” Yes, I hope very much it will … eventually.
And yes, I need to do every reality check and every inquiry fully conscious as I notice already sometimes I slip and it becomes just an automatic question…
Thank you for all the input. It’s all very helpful, I guess.
There is a saying in German “Steter Tropfen höhlt den Stein” which translates something like…“constant drops hollow out the stone”, meaning drop by drop the hardest material disappears.
I find the whole process also in that regard interesting that I never thought that I am soooo identified with this ‘wake’ reality! Somehow shocking! Identification with samsara seems like a hard stone!
3 Likes
you can thank Charlie…
I’m just being a messenger for his love and wisdom to pass directly to you.
3 Likes
Oh, I love his longer talk about lucid dreaming I found in youtube. That was what started the whole process for me. I have since written down so much of his stuff - and I just like his vibe, his energy and enthusiasm. Reading right now one of his books and also Clare Johnson’s, listened to Andrew’s podcasts with both…
Just beautiful place I found myself in here
3 Likes
yes, Charlie’s enthusiasm is contagious and, this is the number one factor - in his perspective, to become lucid, in dreams and in life.
3 Likes
Great advice! Have I been here before? Is this a new enviornment, a new person?
I agree, most of the skilled LD I follow have said this WBTB method is one of the most powerful. Most people have a natural alarm clock waking up to use the bathroom, @Michele1 , you can use this as an opportunity to read a LD book for 15-20min, then setting the intention as you are dozing off to sleep like @BlessingsDeers said.
3 Likes
I did this too, and I think thats why it took me so long to finally start having LD.
Really beautiful phrase, you are spot on.
You are absolutely right. Think of how many thousands of hours (a quarter million to half a million or more) of our lives we have spent not questioning reality!
In my mind, a huge mile stone accomplishment will happen when you start doing reality checks in your dreams, regardless of whether you become lucid or not.
That will show you how long it takes to turn the RC behavior into a subconscious habit.
4 Likes
Totally agree . . . . . . . . . . . … . . . . . . . . .
4 Likes
@Michele1 , @KhyungMar made a post about shooting all his guns and practicing his second amendment rights, will try to find it and tag you in it.
2 Likes
Yes, that sounds like a big milestone - doing RC when dreaming.
Did not happen yet. But - I am sure - it will.
I am somehow surprised to hear that 60%, 70% or even 80% of people participating in lucid dreaming workshops experience lucidity kind of in their first night. Is it the group energy? The hight expectation?
More difficult when practicing alone…obviously…
A bit annoying to hear that - happy for them, but un-happy here…
I added though to my routine getting really clear about my intention - what I will call out for when lucid. That intention-thing seems to be very important, just like when going into an ayahuasca session or any induced state of expanded consciousness - effectively using the time lucid or non-lucid.
3 Likes
Me too. The fact that you had them before when you were younger is a big achievement already, keep up the hard work and it will pay off. Read as many books on it as possible, watch as may videos on here as you can, and eventually good things will come.
All of the above.
Also think you can get an empowerment of sorts from a teacher like Andrew or Tenzin Wagnle Rinpoche.
Its a marathon, not a sprint. Just because they got it their first night does not mean they will maintain the practice when they get home.
Think of every time you do a reality check as a chance to do a 30second or 60 second meditation. What is your current mental state, body state, is your mind racing, angry, depressed, etc.
These RCs are extremely powerful in that they can derail the ‘thought train’ that we have jumped aboard unconsciously, by bringing the light of awareness to our mental activity. This in itself is a powerful spiritual practice becuase it sheds light on how often during the day we slip into unconsciousness.
Setting random alarms (keep on vibrate) on your phone or watch really helps with this realization. The more the better. 6-12 an hour may seem excessive, but the more ‘drips’ that faster the stone will start to weaken. If that is too much during the work week, do what is feasible, then on the weekend turn it into a mini retreat, and crank up the alarms to 100-200 a day.
Have you tried doing Prospective Memory techniques?
3 Likes
“I had a very vivid dream of a woman I had felt close to on a psychotherapy training. After the training we had gone different ways and I did not reconnect with her neither did I hear from her. When she appeared in my dream over twenty years later, I felt the same deep connection of the past and decided to see if I could find her online somehow. I managed to get her partner on the phone. I asked to speak to her but he said that she had left her body. It turned out that my dream had been a sort of premonition - for an unknown reason she had come this way to say Goodbye. I was very, very touched.”
Very important to not lose focus on what a huge accomplishment this premonition dream was.
Regardless of whether you attain lucidity within the next few months, or years (I believe it will be the former), you are cultivating a relationship with a truely deeply sacred space. Dreaming is a sacred art, and the more you connect to this sacred space, the more you will be rewarded. Highly reccomend this book, it will deepen your appreciation of this time tested sacred art:
4 Likes
From what I know from Charlie Morley, one of the things done at his retreats is multiple wake ups and they all meditate and pray together, which brings out the energy higher, there’s a lot of love and people feel confident.
4 Likes
From personal experience, he’s also in the forefront of using lucid dreaming to treat PTSD from the military and from other forms of abuse!
4 Likes
source? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …
4 Likes
"A study on lucid dreaming workshops, specifically for individuals with PTSD symptoms, provides some insight into the effectiveness of these workshops. Forty-nine adults participated in a 6-day intensive online lucid dream healing workshop. The workshop included teaching on the neuroscience of lucid dreaming, mindfulness practices, sleep hygiene, dream recall enhancement, and various lucid dreaming induction techniques [❞].
Remarkably, 76% of the participants achieved at least one lucid dream during the workshop. Of those, 68% were able to recall their healing lucid dream plan and direct their dreams towards specific healing goals. Additionally, 72% of these participants experienced more than one healing lucid dream during the workshop. The participants reported significant reductions in PTSD symptoms, nightmare distress, and negative emotions, along with increased overall well-being both at the end of the workshop and in a one-month follow-up [❞].
The study concluded that the lucid dream healing workshop helped reduce self-reported PTSD symptom severity, nightmare distress, and negative emotions, and increased overall well-being. It was observed that the benefits from the workshop were similar to those seen in group-based psychotherapies for PTSD, suggesting that social connection might be a contributing factor. This points towards the potential of altered states of consciousness, like lucid dreaming, in facilitating healing in complex health conditions [❞].
This evidence suggests that the high success rates in achieving lucidity in these workshops might be due to a combination of structured learning, focused techniques, and perhaps the group environment and expectation setting."
3 Likes
I was part of that study, which was a-typical is many ways to other, similar workshops. The results here can be said to be valid for that unique (self-selected) population treated with that particular methodology, at that particular time. So it can be accurately stated that for this one workshop, these results were found. Can’t really generalize it to others, at least in my own experience, where the lucid dreaming frequency was a lot lower. Just trying to be a bit precise is all. It does offer hope for additional workshops and studies!
4 Likes