This is a continuation of the first post here.

How to Lucid Dream

So, now that you know what is Lucid Dreaming. How do you get started? These are some methods I know that worked for me, but you'll probably have to do some trial and error of your own. It's mainly, how do you transform to become a self-aware version of yourself from someone who is only an observer in your dreams.

Method #1 - Remembering your dreams

Source A good way to structure your Dream Journal
The first step to self-awareness is memory. So, the most well-proven method I know is to start remembering your dreams. Have a book or laptop handy beside your bed. As soon as you wakeup each morning, start writing down your dreams. Try your best to remember the details to write them down.

By doing this, you are actually training your brain that it has to start remembering your dreams. The first few times is going to be difficult because your brain never knew it had to record your dreams. But as you struggle, your brain will start realising "Oh, I guess I have to start remembering dreams now". Automatically, while you're dreaming, your brain will turn on to start recording and that's when you can start becoming aware in your dream.

This is the easiest way, but not the most effective. You may end up just being really good at remembering your dreams but not actually becoming self-aware although this is definitely the first step. It'll also be fun to remember your dreams and it may give you a lot of new material to write on Steemit!

Method #2 - Give yourself cues

Source This was the cue Leonardo DiCaprio used in Inception

You need to start building little habits of noticing details. Such as, always looking at the time every 10 minutes. By doing this, you train your body to recognise 10 minute durations. You should get so familiar that every time you look at the clock naturally, it has been exactly 10 minutes from the last time you looked at the clock.

Now, when you enter your dream. The non-self-aware you will naturally have a need to look at a clock/watch/phone. And because your brain seeks it, there will be one somewhere in your dream. But, these level of details don't really manifest that well in your dreams. So, the first time you look at a clock, it may say 1:10PM. But, the second time you look at the clock, it may be 11:20AM. Third time, it may say 5:42PM. You may even be looking at the same clock. This is when your brain will realise, something is off, this isn't the real world. Then, you'll gain self-awareness in your dream.

It doesn't need to be a clock. If you try to read a book or newspaper, or maybe look at the stars, things that are small and detailed. They don't manifest that will in your dreams. So the non-self-aware you may open the same page of a book multiple times if you make it a habit in real life, and each time you open the same page, the words may be totally different.

Method #3 - Buying cues!

Source I do not endorse this method, I think its a waste of money
I've never tried this method myself, but the logic behind them is the same. These are devices that send cues to your senses while you sleep. These may be visual headbands you wear on your head that will detect your brainwaves to identify when you're in the dream mode of your sleep. It will then flash subtle red-light into your eyes while you're asleep. This actually causes your vision in your dream to start flashing in red as well. This will then notify you that you are in a dream, and you will gain self-awareness.

There are also audio headphones that do the same thing. That will play certain sounds/music to you at the right time. So, the non-self-aware you will start hearing the music in background coming from nowhere, and it will be an indication to you that you are in a dream, which will lead to self-awareness.

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My Current Experiences

Source

Right now, I have some pretty amazing and peculiar adventures in my dreams. I'm still pretty noob at Lucid Dreaming but it serves me well enough.

• By that I mean, I do not Lucid Dream every night, nor do I want to, because it prevents you from entering really deep sleep. Your brain is active while you Lucid Dream which prevents it from getting a full rest while you sleep.
• I also do not have full-control of my dreams. While I can control myself, it is harder to control the world around me. I do not control the story of my dreams, I appear in a story and it plays itself out. But I control myself. A better Lucid Dreamer will be able to alter the story and reality of their dreams.
• My dreams are always about monsters and adventures and conflict and teamwork. While that may sound very adventurous, they can actually turn really dark really fast. I've died many times in my dreams in gruesome ways and sometimes do feel it. Like getting smashed in the chest by a mace and feeling it when I wakeup although not at the same intensity of pain I'm sure.

A recent interesting observation I've found is that my dream periods are getting longer. That doesn't mean that the time I dream in my sleep is getting longer. When you dream, time is warped, I'm sure you've realised that by now. That 1 hour of dreaming you have while your sleep may feel like 5 hours in your dream, or 10 hours.

Recently, while I try to remember my dreams more and more, and I've become more self-aware in real life as well as I continue learning how to meditate and talk to myself. An indirect consequence of that is my dream periods are now in days or weeks. I literally live out days or weeks of my life while I'm asleep and I'm usually quite aware of it.

This is fun and interesting but it also fucks me up a bit because when I wakeup, I gain these memories that don't exist in the real world. At extreme situations, I sometimes forget which is real life which is the dream.

Multidimensional Theory

Source Multidimensional Planes
This is just a theory that I'm just toying with for fun. I'm starting to question the possibility that each time I dream, I am entering an alternate version of myself in another dimension/reality/plane/whatever you want to call it. This theory came out precisely because of what I mentioned before, where I enter a dream and may spend days or weeks there.

In one of these last dreams, I entered a dream with my current memories and not with the memories of my "self" in that reality. I had friends I didn't know, a girlfriend I've never met, they all thought I was playing a prank on them when I said I don't know where I was or who there were. I knew I was in a dream, and I told them they were only part of my dreams. But over the next few weeks, I actually got to know them, fell in love with that girlfriend etc. The dream actually started to feel real.

It was actually really upsetting when I wokeup and I'm suddenly back in my current life again knowing that I won't see them again. But I couldn't help but wonder, whether they really existed and that I took the place of that reality's "me" for just a few weeks. I wondered where did he go then? Is he back there? Are they telling him about me right now?

Further thoughts

Source How it feels
I've actually went through quite some wild adventures with my dreams, especially in my last semester of university when I only had 6 hours of classes a week (and I attended on 2 hours). This was what got me so interested in further understanding how dreams work particularly with me.

In my last semester, I was basically having fun, drinking a lot and doing some recreational...stuff. Looking back at it, I was basically asleep and dreaming 8 hours a day, awake and being a normal human being less than 8 hours a day, and being drunk or high for another 8 hours a day.

Needless to say, my psyche was quite messed up through the whole semester (4 months). There were moments in my life when I couldn't tell whether I was awake, or in a dream because everything was so blurred between each other. Overtime, I developed a test for myself, by seeing if I could bend reality which I know I could do slightly in my dream. This has obviously led to some pretty stupid moments in real life as well.

How it looks most of the time

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You may think this is all some mumbo-jumbo stuff. But there's no harm trying and it's actually really fun to Lucid Dream. It allows you to do things you could never do in real life, and has also led to some interesting experiences ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Hopefully, my methods work for you. Ask me any questions in the comments if you have any!