I keep falling Asleep!
So I began to attempt a Lucid dream these past few days and it has been a difficult journey. I've done the Reality checks and journal and every night I relax my body so it becomes heavy. I always repeat "I am lucid. The world is vivid" and i combine that with the fact that my body is heavy. After a while, i can feel my body beginning to fall asleep and I can feel this weird sensation in my brain like when im taking a hard test. But! I always fall asleep and never lucid. Every time i've tried to become lucid, i end up falling asleep and accomplishing nothing but your average sleep. What can I do?
ninjah42 wrote: I've done the Reality checks and journal and every night I relax my body so it becomes heavy. I always repeat "I am lucid. The world is vivid" and i combine that with the fact that my body is heavy. After a while, i can feel my body beginning to fall asleep and I can feel this weird sensation in my brain like when im taking a hard test. But! I always fall asleep and never lucid. Every time i've tried to become lucid, i end up falling asleep and accomplishing nothing but your average sleep. What can I do?
What you're describing is trying to "fall asleep" and then "become lucid" during the dream. So of course you're falling asleep. :)
You're not doing anything to prevent that. You're kind of mistaking two separate methods for one.
As I said, the "reality check", "dream journal" and affirmations ("I am lucid") all point towards what I mentioned above. They're ways to increase the chances that you'll randomly become lucidly aware while you're dreaming.
Now, the problem you're specifically talking about regarding "always falling asleep"... means that you're trying to induce a WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dream). This requires something slightly different than reality checks, dream journals or affirmations... doing a WILD requires you to keep your mind awake and consciously aware as you slip into the non-physical state. There are plenty of WILD techniques out there, do a search on this forum... or on google and give'em a try. :)
Most of them focus upon keeping your mind active in some way as your body slips into sleep.
Give one a try, let us know how it goes and if you're still having issues.. please feel free to ask. :)
ninjah42,
You may be trying to hard and this can be counter-productive. This is one of the things that Stephen LaBerge has pointed out. Have a relaxed approach by using autosuggestion, for example, as the cocksure approach usually leads to frustration.
Get into the habit of performing reality checks during the day after asking yourself "am I dreaming"? Look around for anomalies, look at the tip of your index for more than 10 seconds...does it become distorted? Can you remember how you got to the environment that you are in? Can you remember what happened a few moments earlier? Pretty soon, you will be inducing many lucid dreams.
Ryan - interesting comment. I tried for a while to repeat "I am dreaming" while drifting off to sleep and it worked that a couple of times I recalled those words after getting to sleep, acted on them and became Lucid. As a way to induce a WILD it sucks as all it does is focus you and helps lose awareness. I do find it a great way to get to sleep and even tried " I will not go to sleep" its great and counting back from 100-I will not go to sleep, 99-I will not go to sleep, I can get to about 60 something each time and go to sleep.
Peter
Peter wrote: Ryan - interesting comment. I tried for a while to repeat "I am dreaming" while drifting off to sleep and it worked that a couple of times I recalled those words after getting to sleep, acted on them and became Lucid. As a way to induce a WILD it sucks as all it does is focus you and helps lose awareness. I do find it a great way to get to sleep and even tried " I will not go to sleep" its great and counting back from 100-I will not go to sleep, 99-I will not go to sleep, I can get to about 60 something each time and go to sleep.
Peter
Hi Peter :)
The counting you mention is a really good way to practice WILDs. It would seem that you're losing focus around the 60-mark though. Which is why you're falling asleep. If you lose focus for even a split second, especially when you're physically tired, you will fall asleep.
Doing this right before bed probably isn't the best of time for it. If you wake up in the middle of the night often like I do, that's a good time to practice as you've already had a bit of sleep and your mind is still in that "perfect state" for Phasing (WILD). :)
thanks, will work on that Peter
I've been trying to naturally go into a LD. But over the past 2 weeks I have had no success. I keep having normal dreams and i can never go into a state of lucidity. I've tried everything.
ninjah42 wrote: I've been trying to naturally go into a LD. But over the past 2 weeks I have had no success. I keep having normal dreams and i can never go into a state of lucidity. I've tried everything.
You mean trying to do a WILD? If you're "naturally" trying to just fall asleep and retain your conscious awareness, then you might encounter a bit of trouble.
Your goal is effectively to keep your mind consciously aware and active as your body slowly drifts off to sleep.
But letting your body fall asleep, how do you do that without falling asleep? I can get my body to be completely heavy and very numb but I can't seem to be concscious, i get tired and fall asleep
ninjah42 wrote: But letting your body fall asleep, how do you do that without falling asleep? I can get my body to be completely heavy and very numb but I can't seem to be concscious, i get tired and fall asleep
In a nutshell, you relax your body to allow it to fall asleep... yet at the same time you keep your mind busy by focusing it upon doing something else.
is there a easier way to explain that ryan? i tried to seperate the body and mind, and fell asleep. tried it like 3-4 times
Absolutely, Ryan! I think he explained it pretty well, ninjah42!
Mind awake, body asleep as they say. People may think this is hard to do but a nap or sleep prior to induction can help immensely.
It helps because the brain is still craving for REM sleep after a nap (or is still prone to REM after a sleep) and it will enter it quicker than it would have done before sleep. Atonia will ensue while the mind is still aware and free to wander...
ninjah42 wrote: is there a easier way to explain that ryan? i tried to seperate the body and mind, and fell asleep. tried it like 3-4 times
Well see, that's where learning to meditate becomes paramount to long term success without having to rely upon "taking a nap" or "going to sleep" first.
Once you can meditate towards the "Point Consciousness" state, which is where you exist as simply a point of consciousness... no physical body, no physical reality... just you in a void of nothing, then you ARE projecting.
For anyone looking to learn to project, I highly suggest learning to meditate first. Basically, what it sounds like that's happening to you is that you're falling asleep when you lose focus. Work on holding that focus... then work on holding it for extended periods of time with no "mind interruptions". You'll be surprised at how hard this is.
Sit there and try this... and do it honestly... the more you lie to yourself about this the more frustrated you'll become. But if you sit there and just count slowly in your mind from 1 upwards... see how high you can get before a stray thought comes in. That "stray thought" is what I call a "mind interruption".
If you can count to 10 without any mind interruptions, you're doing well. Most people can't.
Ninja:
Got any good links where I can learn more about meditation technique?
fuzzylogic wrote: Ninja:
Got any good links where I can learn more about meditation technique?
If you're serious about learning to meditate, then I've got a few for you.
http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2011/07/11/three-exercises-for-specific-learning-types-tom-campbell/ http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2011/08/16/how-to-meditate-tom-campbell/ http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2011/08/22/another-meditation-gem-from-the-mind-of-tom-campbell/
Enjoy :)
If you're serious about learning to meditate, then I've got a few for you.
http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2011/07/11/three-exercises-for-specific-learning-types-tom-campbell/ http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2011/08/16/how-to-meditate-tom-campbell/ http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2011/08/22/another-meditation-gem-from-the-mind-of-tom-campbell/
Thanks so much Ninja. These are great links.
I highly recommend these for those who want more on meditation.
It's also perfect for those who would like a possible glimpse into the alternative reality that lucid dreaming, and other mystical modalities may be accessing. Tom Campbell describes a level of reality that I've felt all along was there but couldn't really describe.
I have a personal view of the world that is built around the model that the "real" world that we experience every day is only a simplistic interpretation of what actually exists. What is really there is deeper and richer and completely interconnected at a quantum mechanical level. I think that both these views of reality are accessing the same set of data, but one interpretation uses a crude device (our waking reality -which is mostly limited to our five senses-) as a "display device" and one uses a much more capable system (our unlimited consciousness) as a display device. The latter gives us a much more complete and unobstructed view of what is really behind the curtain. Tom Campbell describes this perfectly.
Sound interesting to you? Watch the video.
So I've still been trying to lucid but i keep falling asleep... the technique im using is picturing where i want to go and saying to myself i am going to have a a lucid dream...
NInjah-
Have you lucid dreamed using other techniques? The reason I ask is that I'm working on entering dream as we are talking about here, but haven't been able to yet. But it's not too frustrating because I've have many LD experiences by either spontaneously or actively becoming lucid within a dream.
So while you are working on this method, you could still prepare to LD with another method. For me I find it's nice to be able to experience it even while learning to use another technique.
I tried a WBTB yesterday. It was the closest I ever felt to being lucid. I felt the numbness of my body and literally i saw things being even lighter than before. And the most scary part was my eyes actually began to rapidly go up and down and i was like woah what the heck and then my breathing became more intense and i tried to control it but it didnt work. I was saying to myself, "woah im actually gonna lucid!" but a moment later, my eyes stopped moving rapidly and i lost it... and went to sleep. No lucid :(