Silvercrow's Book of Shadows

💭💭💭LUCID DREAMING 💭💭💭

Lucid Dreaming tips for beginners!

– Where to start?

These are key points or ‘milestones’ if you like for you to tackle on your journey, and also areas for you to research and get up to speed with before putting the theory into practice in a lucid dream.

As a lucid dreamer, getting all the theory in first will help out a lot with the practical side of things. Every lucid dream is different and no set method or technique will work each time – so the more you know the better. Imagine it as a guidebook built upon your own knowledge of tips and tricks for each and every situation you come across. The more you know the quicker and more easily you’ll get the hang of actually being in a lucid dream and manipulating it.

Remember your dreams!

What’s the point of trying to lucid dream if you won’t even remember your experience? A lucid dream is just like any other dream and can be just as easily forgotten. Ensure you have great dream recall, remembering at least a couple of dreams each night. Better dream recall has lots of benefits aside from this, and helps you to get to know your dreams a little better.

Keep a Dream Journal!

This is the best tool there is for remembering you dreams – writing them down each morning before you forget (which is all too easy). It also allows long term storage of dreams so you can flick back through your dream journal and see if there are any reoccurring themes. Such ‘dream signs’ are themes you can look out for in future dreams to indicate that you’re lucid (like spontaneous flight).

Induce your first lucid dream!

Dreams are either induced from being awake (WILD) or from being asleep (DILD) with all methods being categorized into these two groups. DILDs are something I’d recommend for beginners – where you set up good habits in your waking life which will effectively ‘carry over’ into your dreams if you repeat them enough. As dreams mimic reality somewhat,  keeping your waking thoughts focused on dreams will mean that so too will your ‘dream thoughts’ be focused on recognizing if you are dreaming.

Knowing you’ve had a lucid dream!

A lucid dream is a dream in which you are aware of the fact you are dreaming. ‘Dreams-about-lucid-dreams’ are irritating for in all senses the content of the dream is exactly as you’d imagine it to be – but the awareness and understanding that you in a dream is not there. This means you are not lucid dreaming by definition. Lucidity itself is a way for us to more reliably influence our dreams into an outcome we prefer.

Use Reality Checks as much as possible!

For DILDs where we cannot directly influence our dreams we have to use the fact that dreams naturally mimic much of what goes on in waking life. Frequently checking if you are dreaming when awake will mean you’ll soon be doing reality checks in your dreams. The point of a reality check is to practice ‘getting lucid’ so much so that you start doing it in your dreams – Thus you actually get lucid.

Do Reality Checks properly!

Yep, learn what’s really behind reality checks. These shouldn’t just be mindless actions as in a dream the outcome will be ‘rationalized’ and you won’t get lucid. Lucidity itself is a state of awareness and it is this that you should be practicing – your own understanding of the reality you are in rather than mindlessly doing a physical action. Also make sure you research lots of different reality checks and find the ones that work for you!

Keep dreams in shape!

Whenever you are in a lucid dream make sure you keep everything stable. It’s easy to get caught up with what’s going on only for the dream to collapse – so practice multi-tasking and focus on the structure of the dream. This is based upon stability which is mostly affected by your own lucidity (which is all too easy to lose if you are doing something and forget you are in a dream). Your first lucid dreams will likely collapse due to intense emotions so practice by trial and error until you get a feel for it – stabilization techniques will help and are defiantly worth researching. 

Keep an eye out for false awakenings!

These are interesting for it simply appears that you wake up but for the fact you are still in a dream. False awakenings exactly mimic you waking – up to the point where it’s a near perfect imitation of reality. These can happen repeatedly or not at all and affect various people differently. Practice doing a reality check every time you wake up and not only will prevent false awakening but you’ll get lucid every time you have one.

Experiment to find what works for you!

That means going through different induction methods for both DILDs and WILDs, as well as stabilization techniques, reality checks and much more! We’re all individuals and our experiences, dreams, as well as both strengths and weaknesses differ. It’s easy to get caught up with ‘fool-proof-work-every-time-techniques’ which just don’t exist. Find what works for you as an individual and adjust methods to focus on your strengths! Don’t feel worried about giving up on methods or sticking with them to see how they work out – it’s all up to you.

Open your mind to the possibilities of the dream environment!

Work with the dreams you have rather than trying to create your ‘perfect dream’ each time. Explore the dream within its own limits before creating your own and see what wonders there are out there waiting for you. Each dream is different and gives you a new experience to explore how you see fit. Simply overpowering a dream to create what you want will collapse it most of the time. Indirect methods of control are the most effective for many situations you’ll encounter.

Don’t give up!

Lucid dreaming requires a lot of effort pretty much continually to keep you knee deep in lucid dreams – so stick to it! If you’re doing everything right, the more effort you put in the more lucid dreams you’ll get. Typically things are hard for beginners due to inexperience but as soon as you get lucid a few times and get a feel for what’s involved things will get progressively easier. So don’t give in.