Hello everyone! This is Jay!
I’d say I’m a beginner in dream yoga as I have only had lucid dreams only a handful of times. I’d really like to increase the frequency but also scared of losing sleep haha. I’m exploring liminal dreaming and invocations recently as it has a low bar of entering the state. I was wondering if there are any other folks near me so we can share our journey and exchange ideas in person.
Thank you!
Welcome, I think you are in the right place if you are looking to increase the frequency. I joined last year with the same circumstances, had only had a few LDs in life, and in the year that followed I had bout 10, over triple the amount I had had in my entire life!
Patience and discouragement were challenges for me in the beginning. It took me almost 100 days after joining to have the first LD of that year, and I was beginning to lose faith that I would be able to do it. Then it hit. Then a month or two later a second one hit.
What do you do for meditation?
What do you do for reality checks, how often throughout the day?
Do you dream journal every morning? How many dreams do you recall on average?
What books have you read on Lucid Dreaming?
Results will vary on the work you put in, I was pretty OCD the first 100 days of joining, and I saturated myself with the resources here, went to the library and emptied out the shelves of all the books on LD, and talked about it nonstop, much to my friends, family members, and strangers dismay. I was a man on a mission, and trying to stay as laser focused as possible. No results. Then I took a break for a week, and after a few days the LD precipitated.
Not too tight, not too loose Andrew says.
Thank you NightHawk999 
that is encouraging
Meditation: Depends on day to day. Most of the time, I focus on thoughts and body tension. Nowadays, if I tend to drift off, I try to stay conscious in the liminal dream
Reality checks: “This is a dream”. I noticed that I only do this when I’m alone and I forget to do it when around other people. I want to change that.
Dream Journal: I used to but not anymore. Probably should start again. I think I only remember 0-2 dreams every night
Books: Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming
and then I have watched some podcasts by Andrew and that’s where I heard about Night Club. What I think I lack most is doing reality checks when around people because I noticed that most of my dreams are around interacting with other people. I’ll start talking to people about lucid dreaming haha probably the best first thing to try
Welcome to the forums!
As far as this goes I have always worried about the same thing with lucid dreaming/dream yoga. At night I already have issues with getting the proper amount of sleep so adding disruptions to it never felt right.
There are two ways to approach this. One, if your set on doing WBTB / WILD and you work a normal mon-fri schedule you can try once a week on Saturday nights.
The other, which is what I do, is to wake up inbetween your REM cycles (for me saying the mantra “I will wake up inbetween my REM cycles” a couple times was enough). After waking up just try to get comfortable then try every cycle to push yourself to keep you mind aware for as long as you can. Eventually, for me, this technique allowed me to have multiple lucid dreams a night. It is the only technique I use now to induce lucid dreams from the waking state (the majority of my lucid dreams now are DILDs).
This is the single most important thing. Journaling is key.
It helps build up your memory so that you can recall more of what happens at night.
Wow thank you both! That was insightful. I went out today and I AGAIN forgot to do a reality check with other people around damn.
I’ll start dream journaling again and I’ll start with WILD invocation. It’s funny, whenever I used my invocation “For the awakening of all beings, please help me awaken in my dreams”, I did wake up a few hours before I wake up and that was out of ordinary. I was mostly frustrated but I think I should use that opportunity lol
I agree 100%. I fought this for about 2-3 years, evem though all the experts said it was a must. Then I watched one of Andrews Webinars (highly reccomend them, if you havent checked them out) and he saidmto do and I finally listened and did it. Its not a hyperbole to say it changed my life, and paved the way for the LDs and DY that started to flow a few months after doing it.
I have heard one expert say, until you are consitently remembering at least 2 dreams a night, you will have a very hard time having LDs consistently, or at all.
Something in your diet (check out Sleep Doctor vids), and or a medication or drug you are consuming can really hurt dream recall, or even completely destroy it. Pot and Alcohol are notorious for this, but there are others too.
Andrew reccomends the incubation technique before you got to bed, to say to yourself (WHOLEHEARTEDLY not half assed):
“Tonight I will have good dreams, I will remember my dreams, and I will realize I am dreaming”
Doing this helped me. As did taking Galantamine during the day, (I cant take it at night or early morning bc it keeps me awake).
Very true I think you are working out your minds muscles. Gotta hit the ‘gym’ consitently.
Try asking yourself for 2 weeks straight:
“Am I dreaming?” throughtour the day, and really mean it. Knowing the only true way to be sure is to do a reality check. Then hold your nose, and try to breath. If you can breath, you are dreaming.
This is one of the most effect RCs I have found, others, I have not had as much success with.
Setting your phone or computer alarm to go off every half hour or hour to remind you to do the RCs is really helpful. The vibrate feature draws much less attention then a sound alarm.
Great book, besides Andrews work, here are some oters I higlu reccomend
Robert Waggoner
Charlie Morely
Allen Wallace
Claire Johnson
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
(All of these authors have interviews with Andrew on here, and they are fantastic! A must listen, Waggoners interview is my favorite)
Heres their books, and a few others I havent read yet:
good list:
Allen Wallaces book I think is the fastest read, and jam packed with great stuff. Charlies is about 3-4x the sze, but a reall easy and great read. Waggoners book was the first one I read that really hit home and made me rsealize just how profoud and deep these pactices are, its not just for cheap samsaric ego thrills, there is so much more paradigm shattering things to experience.
Meditating consistenky ever day really helped me to produce my first wave of Lucid dreams last year.
Hello @zzz_zzz
Welcome.
I had the same experience as @NightHawk999 
Worked intensively and very enthusiastically for 28 days in a row with Charlie Morley’s directions (I did a quest with him):
)What I notice makes the difference is the enthusiasm and persistence to have the energy to wake up in the middle of the night and register your dreams. This part is essential for them to become more vivid and lucid.
Infinite blessings.
Thank you @NightHawk999 and @BlessingsDeers!
I started dream journaling again. I recalled 2 dreams from last night miraculously
Will start reading Andrew’s book and will try different invocations. Thanks a ton!! Will update on how it goes
Another thing that seems to help is what MaryAnn, the new Dream Sharing Group leader calls, “Honoring your dreams” in the daytime. I take it to mean that if you recognize a lesson or indication, then try to do something in the daytime to honor that. There is a group meeting Saturday that you might like to attend.
Very cool. Had a dream last night that resonates pretty strongly with the imagery chosen for the group description.
A dream character was interacting with me and said to start making orbs using my hands (similar to that picture) and then make them levitate, move around change colors etcetera. They were visually showing me more then talking but it is something that has really caught my eye. Neat synchronicity I wanted to share 
.
@_Barry oh cool! Will try to make it
I have done this before and I did it today…
I had a dream in which I was giving something away. And I gave it during the day.
Usually it’s my intuition deciding on that
there’s a synchronicity here…
tonight I had several vivid and conscious dreams and one lucid. In this lucid one, I asked to talk with my brother (he died in 1992) and he came to me (I felt a pull to go and meet him but apparently it wasn’t necessary). He approached with his energy to me and touched my right arm and put it in my heart. it was sooooo beautiful it’s the second time that in a lucid dream I ask for something, feel the pull and the “answer” is given to me with the movement of my hands
in the other lucid dream I wanted to be in contact with my male and female energies, felt a gigantic pull twice and then… my hands did a circle and joined together. I did not get it until I went to nature to be fully in my body. but then I realized… uau… our hands indeed join together as a deep harmony of feminine and masculine energies. from that day on, gratitude has become even stronger and deeply honored in my life.
and yes, more and more I have incredible visions in a state where I’m neither awake or asleep.
thank you for the drawing and sharing.
