How to I submerge into a Lucid Dream?

[Space-is-the-Place]

During a psychedelic experience you have to give up control, whereas lucid dreaming involves taking control of the experience. This means you can dream of putting a blotter or a mushroom in your mouth, for sure, but you can never dream the ego-death experience. It's wishful thinking.

Well, maybe you can, maybe you can't. But you can open up a lot of doors that psychedelics also open during your LD.
As for ego-death, yes the aspect of letting go is very important and I don't advocate trying to LD instead of "the real experience" but it can enhance your experience during non using periods.

Now that would be a beneficial application of lucid dreaming, but does it really happen?

Yes, a lot of people can summon their guide's during LDing and use them to gain more knowledge about themselves.

Is a lucid dream ever a challenging experience, like taking psychedelics or visiting a skilled psychotherapist?

It can be very challenging, it's just what you make of it.
But I wouldn't necisarrily compare these 3 things.
I think these 3 things can all be very benificial, so it's not like the one thing is better then the other.

 

[Space-is-the-Place]

I usually cant remember dreams, for the past 2 weeks, I can only remember 3, and i wrote the 3rd one, last nights, down.

Well it's a start. For a lot of people auto-suggestion does work.
So during the day and/or before you go to sleep just say in your head something like:"I will remember my dreams this night"
And if you keep on putting them down, your memory will improve

Can anyone provide similar data for experiments with lucid dreams?

Well, Lucid Dreaming is a pretty new subject in study land, but I believe Laberge has started collecting data about Lucid Dreaming some time ago.
Don't know if studies for benificiallity are yet being performed

 

[JJJ]

Lucid dreaming can also be quite a mystical experience in a way, just like the psychedelic experience can be. Especially the feeling of becoming lucid from a normal dream has been profound for me. It's like a reality that you accepted as real all the time, suddenly becomes relative, and your role suddenly changes from completely determined problem-solving and following a strange story like a zombie, to complete freedom and self-consciousness. First you are completely unconscious of yourself, part of some kind of movie that is the regular dream, and then you think 'hey.... uhh, huh, this is not real at all, I am dreaming, I can stop everything I am doing right now as it's an illusion, and I can start to explore this world around me in complete freedom. Wow!'. And that moment has been very special to me, it feels really liberating and mystical in a way. Imagine that a lucid dream on many occasions is extremely realistic, your eyesight is perfectly sharp, you can feel the sunshine on your skin and the wind. And you know that it's all in your mind, that you're walking around in your own mind. I am happy to have experienced that a couple of times in my life . [edit] well-known amongst lucid dreamers is also the good feeling that you can have the day(s) after a nice lucid dream. Feeling a bit lighter and more self-conscious, like you are still a bit more 'lucid' in your waking life. I found that feeling quite similar to the feeling the days after a good psychedelic experience.

I think also the pathways to lucidity are interesting. Even if you do not archieve lucidity, it's interesting to think about your self-consciousness and how to bridge the gap between unconscious, habitual acting, and self-consciousness in your dreams.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

Have you ever had a nightmare?

Not during a lucid dream. And a psychedelic experience is always challenging, whereas nightmares happen sporadically. Lucid nightmares happen even less, if at all.

 

[IJesusChrist]

Have you ever had a nightmare?

Not during a lucid dream. And a psychedelic experience is always challenging, whereas nightmares happen sporadically. Lucid nightmares happen even less, if at all.

Caduceus, you should challenge yourself in a lucid dream... lucid dreaming is under your control, yet you should be able to make it out of control, no?

 

[Zerodyme]

I usually cant remember dreams, for the past 2 weeks, I can only remember 3, and i wrote the 3rd one, last nights, down.

Well it's a start. For a lot of people auto-suggestion does work.
So during the day and/or before you go to sleep just say in your head something like:"I will remember my dreams this night"
And if you keep on putting them down, your memory will improve

I guess it would be a start, but I think the main reason I don't remember my dreams is I stay up so much during the night, when I wake up for school, I got about 4 hours in on average, then sleep at school. I dream at school, and I did right down what happened of course, but for the past 3 days I have had suspension for being caught with my cell out, so I go back tomorrow. I slept till 1 today and I probably wont get to sleep till late again. My point being, its sometimes hard for me to have a dream, or if I did dream, not knowing I did.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

and then you think 'hey.... uhh, huh, this is not real at all, I am dreaming, I can stop everything I am doing right now as it's an illusion, and I can start to explore this world around me in complete freedom. Wow!'. And that moment has been very special to me, it feels really liberating and mystical in a way.

I remember when it happened to me, it was a very special sensation. Suddenly there was a lot of light and I felt very light myself, so flew up in the sky (much like that final scene in the first Matrix movie). The lucid part lasted only a couple of seconds, however, but long enough to vividly remember the next day what had transpired. The only technique I employed was looking at my hands several times a day and asking myself whether I was awake or dreaming.

 

[Zerodyme]

Yea the post before this was horrible, anyways.

Just for research/discussion purposes, I do want to put it out there that I have tried to control my dreams before just for study, before trying to induce a lucid dream, just by stating before I go to sleep "I will walk down a street and bounce a ball" a lot. Didnt really work. Last night I . . .well, to be honest, can't remember what I was saying that I was trying to lucid dream about. I did try letting my body go to sleep but keep my mind awake. Really tough. Tonights always another experience though ha.

 

[JJJ]

The only technique I employed was looking at my hands several times a day and asking myself whether I was awake or dreaming.

Yes, I used that one as well when I had (quasi...) frequent lucid dreams. If you're in doubt, just look at your hands and you will know if you are dreaming :shock: .

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

Caduceus, you should challenge yourself in a lucid dream... lucid dreaming is under your control, yet you should be able to make it out of control, no?

I have no idea, perhaps it's possible. I think it would be better to have relaxed and happy lucid dreams, as that will help relax the body for better recuperation. You might even imagine sitting down and meditating to achieve deep states of relaxation and healing.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

before trying to induce a lucid dream, just by stating before I go to sleep "I will walk down a street and bounce a ball" a lot. Didnt really work.

I think doing something just prior to falling asleep will generally not work. You need to repeat a certain ritual many times a day to remember it during your dream. Have you tried the method of regularly looking at your hands (like every half hour) and asking yourself whether you're awake or dreaming? Try it out for a couple of days, and see what happens.

I had a real freaky coincidence yesterday. In the morning I dreamed of a weird incident that happened in my local supermarkt, and remembered the dream after I woke up, which doesn't happen often. That evening an even weirder thing happened in the actual supermarket. I'm flabbergasted.

 

[Zerodyme]

I'm flabbergasted.

Loling at the word flabbergasted. But yea, I guess I could try that method.

 

[overman]

Good to hear everyone's experiences with lucid dreaming. I've been interested in it for some time, and started to keep a dream journal a couple months back. I found it to be helpful in making dream recollection easier, as Space mentioned. For some reason I've procrastinated implementing periodic actions, like seeing if an index finger will penetrate the other hand's palm, but I'm sure this will make it easier to realize that I'm dreaming. I tend to meditate for some time before going to bed, just to clear my mind and focus on breathing. Only had two lucid dreams that I can recount, one in which I started driving wildly GTA-style, and another in which I was in a grocery store (probably not the same one as yours CM lol) and started eating whatever I wanted.

Of course, I want to get better at initiating and sustaining lucid dreams for many of the reasons already mentioned. Dreams are considered to be a window to our subconscious selves, and I want to try and really confront my fears/anxieties, as well as memories of events that I've buried away. It sounds almost scary but I'm hoping it will be a liberating experience. I'll update when I make some significant advancement.