Oneironauts: A Quick Tutorial on How To Have Lucid Dreams

For the last two years I've been having a lot of spontaneous lucid dreams. I've since developed a technique that causes it to happen about 80% of the time. I posted some of the details here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Basically it's a three step process. You'll need an alarm clock, in-ear headphones, and the cord from the headphones should be long enough that it can reach from the computer to your bed.

1. Set your alarm clock to go off at about 4 or 5 AM (it's typically best to go to sleep by 10PM or 11PM so you get 6 hours of rest).
   
   
2. In the morning when the alarm goes off, put your headphones on, and start the sbagen program (here's the download link) using

   
   ## .SBG file – Theta 6 Hz, on 759 Hz carrier wave at 25 dB.
   
   ts: 759+6/25
   0:00 ts

   
   or from the command line,
   

   
   ./sbagen -i 759+6/25

   
   
   
3. Next, load up the lucidology timer (using the swf or download the exe). I typically use "Ramp 5" and I set it to play the alarm sound 27 times. If you're having a hard time getting back to sleep set the "interval 1" time a little bit higher.

Now lay on your back and don't let yourself rollover to fall asleep. I find that it's helpful while trying to fall back asleep to mentally state some goals about what I plan to accomplish. For instance, if you want to have a lucid dream in the Grand Canyon try to actively imagine what the scenery would look like. Don't be disappointed though if you don't materialize exactly where you intend to.

The real reason for imagining the environment is because it helps to keep your mind lucid as you begin to slip into the hypnagogic state (the transitional period between wakefulness and sleep). In the hypnagogic state you might start to see colors, patterns, or symbols floating in the air. The next and most noticeable change happens after you've fallen asleep and the lucidology timer wakes you up. As you dip from awake to back asleep on the third or fourth alarm beep (typically 35-40 minutes in) you'll start to notice the transition into paralysis. It's an unmistakable feeling. Here you'll begin to feel your nonphysical body disassociate from the physical. Often the sensation is one of disorientation or a feeling like an electric buzz.

For me it's not uncommon once it starts to feel as though I'm rolling around my physical bodies central axis (like a pig on a rotisserie) from head-to-feet into the bed. It took awhile to learn how to control this. Once you've disassociated you can move your body parts no different than how you normally would. However at the start, if you're not fully disassociated, it's common to mistakenly move the physical rather than the nonphysical appendage. This will wake you up. To get around this, professionals have come up with what they call "movement-free reality checks." I haven't tried these techniques (usually I just ad-hoc it) so your mileage will vary.

I've since gotten to the point where I can somewhat reliably disassociate my legs and slide myself to the right. Almost like a ghost pictured hovering above a bed. Then at that point I pivot about my navel like a seesaw and pitch my body forward so my feet come in contact with the floor. After which I can walk around normally.

The next big hurdle is getting visibility. It's really helpful once you get out to be patient and try to find a light source in the environment. If you exit into an OBE this can come in the form of a night-light or the light in the refrigerator. When the environment is completely black like a void, points of lights will occasionally pop up in the distance. Once you find something that's luminous focus on it. This will cause the rest of the world to draw in. Often in the interim while waiting to be able to see, I typically use my hands to feel around my environment. Right next to my bed I have a dresser. So the first thing I always do is place my right hand on the top of the dresser. Then I stand up. At this point I try to feel my way around my apartment as I look for a light.

Whenever you notice yourself starting to wake up. The best thing to do is to not "over-think." Over-thinking will almost always drag you straight back to wakefulness. Instead, just patiently move about and insert intentioned discernible pauses between your actions. As you get better the need for pauses will get shorter and shorter. Other good techniques that help keep the lucid-dream environment stable include shouting, clenching your virtual hands (I find my nonphysical skin feels somewhat like a silicone gel ‒ particularly the eyelids ‒ which can be a bit disturbing), and spinning around in circles.

And that's about it! I'd be curious to know if this works for anyone else.

I just set an alarm for 5 am, wake up, make sure im up, put headphones on with a low hrtz static sound. Gets me in every time. I am bad though at staying in. Im too analytical for my own good, I always end up playing with gravity and my mind snaps me out.

I do the same with a file I got from unexplainable store. Most vivid lucid dreams ever.

I'm so glad you posted this. I had a lucid dream last night for the first time in years and although it seemed to last 5 minutes, it was fun. Run, jump, fly then float at speed (which I guess is flying but I normal fly in standing up position)
But when I have good lucid dreams they normally get outweighed by bad ones where I think I wake but I'm stuck where lay and can't move.
I would like to know with your methods if you've had the bad ones?

reply to post by AaronWilson

Im too analytical for my own good, I always end up playing with gravity and my mind snaps me out.

Yeah, I agree, the analytical mind can be a big hurdle. I tend to count things. Just a few nights ago I became lucid in a dream in what appeared to be movie theatre. I started noticing how the arrangement of the seats were a bit odd. Leading my dream self to wonder, "Hrm, that's 5 in that row, 12 over there, and ... look at the texture of the seats." It was at that point my conscious mind clued-in and realized "Hey! I'm sleeping!"

So, being curious, I walked out of the movie hall and quickly became aware the building was a huge multiplex. The place was so big in fact that when I walked over to the railing I noticed I was on the fourth or fifth level overlooking the entrance. What surprised me the most (of all things) was a bathroom in the distance. Over it the sign read, "Knights." This kind of cracked me up. I couldn't believe the dream environment was clever enough to give a themed name for the bathroom entrance.

This got me thinking, while still in the lucid dream, "How did I create something that actually surprised my own conscious mind? Hrm, what would be the naming convention for the women's bathroom? How in the world can I be creating all this? " Then, of course, over-thinking it woke myself up.

If only I could take my own advice and just got go with it.

I got a question.
From time to time I get sudden drops in energy that make me want to fall asleep.
This once happened during a session with a phsychic who was in a trance.

She was going around the room asking people questions.
When it got to my turn she told me she saw me floating around the room out of body.
I don't remember this. However I do remember suddenly being very sleepy and then next moment waking up with her asking me questions.

This happens occasionally to me. Could I be having oobe without my even knowing it.
If so how can I control that.

Originally posted by DAZ21
I do the same with a file I got from unexplainable store. Most vivid lucid dreams ever.

Cool! What's the name of the album? Or is it just an SBG file? I've tried some of the Hemisync stuff and it never worked. Well, I suppose that's not entirely true. There was one time where I gave it a go. Halfway through the tape (I think it was called 'Flying Free') Monroe was describing flying around in little single engine aircraft. Then, as he's describing the plane flying through the air, he tells the person to step out of the craft. As he said that I started to turn into what can only be described as a cloud. I haven't experienced anything like it since.

Originally posted by Xtraeme
reply to post by 2manyquestions

 

I had a lucid dream once where I felt like a cloud (well I felt puffy). Does that count?

At first I felt like I was expanding and becoming floaty or somehow less solid. Then at a certain point it felt as though I had stopped expanding and just sort of bobbed about.

What was so strange about the entire thing is I couldn't isolate where I myself was located. Most people I think usually identify their conscious mind with their head. It felt like I had expanded to encapsulate the whole cloud. There was no central spot that I could identify as my thinking self. In fact there really wasn't even much thought. It was more just "being."

This gave me the thought afterwards that maybe "beingness is a conscious focus." It was definitely one of the stranger things I've experienced. But it was pretty fun!

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Personaly one of the hardest things i found to do was to stay calm. Basicaly as soon as I realised I was dreaming I would either A start laughing uncontrollably or B try and move extremely fast usualy in the form of flying and or leaping over buildings. This is a sure fire way to start your adrenaline and knee jerk reaction you out of your sleep. Often I would get this odd sense of vertigo and the last thing I can remember in my dream is saying godamit and waking up.

As soon as I realise I am dreaming I often find it best TO DO NOTHING, take in my surroundings, gauge where I am then as stated move without moving your body if that makes sense, try not to actualy move your feet around or swing your arms and take it nice and slow. After that first hurdle you can pretty much do whatever you like.

9 outa 10 ten times though I end up imagining myself in a particular situation with a particular movie actress *ahem*

Ive also never bothered so much with the timer, but yes, forcing yourself into a REM sleep pattern is probably the best time to try this.

reply to post by Xtraeme

Thanks for the great post!!
I remember my dreams almost every single night.
I've had lucid dreams for years but I have yet to try wake-initiated lucid techniques.
Tonight I'll give it a shot, thanks for the links

Lately they have become more vivid than ever, and after realizing I'm dreaming, staying asleep is now just a matter of focusing on "here and now".
Once recently I experienced the paralysis stage you mention
"you'll start to notice the transition into paralysis"
I had dozed on the couch and at the time I still thought I was fully awake and was quite terrified at my inability to say or do anything, despite trying as hard as I possible could. Took me about a minute to actually wake up, completely terrified of course
Only time I had a bad experience in years, no nightmares anymore, really glad to find out that its completely normal..

I hope this works for me.

Also since you guys clearly like lucid dreams I'm wondering if anyone has similar experience with flying..
It seems every single time I have some kind of flight or free-fall experience. Whenever I go to jump, as soon as feet leave the ground suddenly gravity is
A: completely gone
B: only a tiny fraction of normal
but it returns when i make contact with the "ground" even if that's a vertical wall.
Sometimes there are flying vehicles.. 2 months ago i had a small item in my hand that you would "pump up" and it would lift you, hanging just from that hand, as high as you wanted to go (thrust came from willpower). Reoccurring flying motorcycle-like vehicle.

But yeah, I'll describe the effects if this works for me. Very intriguing.

reply to post by Jack3182

Hey Jack, I know a couple of people who have experienced the "demon sitting on the chest" syndrome that's common with sleep paralysis. I've been lucky enough that I've never had it happen. I think the trick is in realizing it's just a process the body goes through as it falls asleep. Once your mind is oriented to the fact that paralysis is a normal biological process it makes it less likely to think someone's holding you down.

Another thing that perhaps helps is a sense of fearlessness. For instance, most people (if they're normal) try to wake themselves up out of a nightmare to escape the dream. I'm a bit odd. I've had numerous nightmares where I'm falling out of an airplane without a parachute, only seconds later to literally crater into the ground. Yet I don't wake up! There have even been instances where I just stand back up like nothing happened.

I had another nightmare a couple of years ago where I was standing in what was otherwise an empty field with three columns of pine-trees spaced about 100 feet apart from each other. In the dream there was a person next to me who instructed me that I had the ability to summon lighting. So, naturally, I tried casting down a thunderbolt.

This knocked down one of the trees on the left column. I didn't intend to do this. After it had come to rest against one of the middle trees. They all started to go down in a domino fashion. Watching this I experienced a pang of guilt. Knowing I had just destroyed what was otherwise a beautiful picturesque vista.

After half the column had fallen, strewn about like so many matchsticks. It happened. All the sudden, out of nowhere, the trees from the three rows started uprooting themselves. Then they reoriented themselves to face my direction. After a moment once the creaking noise died down and the branches stopped shaking. They charged.

I can't even begin to describe the sense of terror that washed over me.

I quickly turned and tried to run as fast as I could in the opposite direction. However, as I was in a full sprint, a thought struck me. "I'm responsible for this. I should face whatever's about to happen."

So I stopped and turned around to see the forest of tree-trunks only fifty feet from my location. Then as all the tree-men flew up to me. I prepared for the inevitable.

As the moment arrived, and they were on me.

They simply ran past.

Leaving me completely unscathed. Not only was I relieved for my safety, but I was also profoundly shocked that they hadn't killed me.

I think mindset is a huge part of all this.

I would suggest that you guys try and become aware of how vulnerable a place you are putting yourselves in when playing around with this type of stuff. Lucid dreaming is a step in a long journey in which you have to be very strong in order to protect yourself from others and other energies that can prey on you in this vulnerable state. It is also a step that one takes after much training and practice in protecting ones self. There are many pitfalls along this road, and you are playing with fire if you do not take it very seriously. The energy practices are becoming trendy these days, and many who claim to be on a good path, have no understanding of it in reality. Many of those are being driven by an ego that gets stronger by these practices and are not at all aware. They become vampires. And they are not at all the most dangerous elements that you may cross paths with. There are elements that will take your life when you are not prepared to meet them.

reply to post by grey580

When it got to my turn she told me she saw me floating around the room out of body.
I don't remember this. However I do remember suddenly being very sleepy and then next moment waking up with her asking me questions.

This happens occasionally to me. Could I be having oobe without my even knowing it.

That's an interesting question. I can only offer advice based off personal knowledge. So without going into too much detail. What really got me started investigating different states of consciousness was an extremely bizarre experience back in 2009. The entire thing happened while I was awake. I still don't know how to completely articulate it, but it was almost exactly like the process a person goes through while lucidly descending into sleep paralysis.

However again this happened while I was awake. I don't meditate. So I'm not sure if that's comparable. As a matter of fact I didn't, nor do I, have any hard-fast spiritual beliefs. Since I knew nothing about any of this when it happened. It freaked me the hell out. What was stranger is that the vestigial effects of the paralysis lasted over several days. This included the electric feeling that runs up and down the body as the "nonphysical self" starts to separate from the physical.

Again, I knew nothing about anything of this as it was happening. This was the strongest I've ever felt that feeling. I was left exhausted. Even a year later when I finally figured out what had occurred and I tried to intentionally induce it. The "electric" sensation wasn't half as strong.

So is it possible that you separated, but don't remember it? I don't see why not. If Robert Monroe is to be believed. Normal dreaming is basically an unremembered out of body experience.

i've found it so much easier to have lucid dreams by simply sleeping on my back. during the course of your day give yourself what we call "reality checks" by asking yourself whatever it is you are doing if you are awake or asleep. do this for anything from opening a door to using the restroom. when this has become a pattern through your daily life eventually in the dreams you will become used to asking if you are asleep or awake and in your dream when you do something that you do reality checks on you will become conscious in your dream. too easy, no cords or cables needed.

Lucid dreaming is great...most of the time.

I do it almost every night. People dont even realize the potential to do so much while you sleep.

When I'm having a good one, it usually involves doing incredible feats of physical ability, like backflipping off a three story house, or doing crazy stunts on a skateboard, dirtbike, whatever. I generally try to have at least one great sexual encounter, preferably with someone I know, it makes it more fun the next day when you see them! But sometimes I'm involved with women who I have never seen before, and it makes me wonder if they're out there somewhere, maybe having the same lucid dream. (ever met someone in real life and felt somehow you knew them for sure, from somewhere?)

I've also had fun taking out aggression on bad guys by turning things around on them and massacring them with an awesome weapon of some sort.

I used to listen to self hypnosis tapes when I was drifting off, to help me get there and stay there, but this is no longer required.

Whats crazy is sometimes I'm able to stay in for so long, when I finally wake up I feel like I already lived my whole day, and now have to live it again. I'm basically living two lives. Not very many people understand.

The bad experiences usually are when something like a demon (for example) appear in my dream state, and they're immune to my mind control. They laugh at me and start harrassing me, forcing me to wake up prematurely in a puddle of sweat. I've also died in my dreams many times, trying to do something to0 crazy and maybe doubting myself even for an instant. (saying is this really a dream? what if it isnt?!) This also wakes me up with heart pounding anxiety.

Fun Times!

reply to post by Ixtab

Personaly one of the hardest things i found to do was to stay calm. Basicaly as soon as I realised I was dreaming I would either A start laughing uncontrollably or B try and move extremely fast usualy in the form of flying and or leaping over buildings. ... As soon as I realise I am dreaming I often find it best TO DO NOTHING, ...

To start I think everyone experiences this. It's hard to dial it down a notch when you realize you've entered into a place where you can get away with basically anything. So even though I agree that the person has to learn how to control their emotions and start out by taking it slow. It is equally as important to make sure there's some stimulus. I say this because there have been numerous occasions where I've gone through steps 1 through 3 and I can sense that something has happened. However because I'm uncertain if I've fully disassociated I wait to try to move my nonphysical body. Waiting too long I just fall back into sleep. Striking a balance, knowing when to get up versus over-reacting and flying around is a fine art-form.

reply to post by Z32Driver

I remember my dreams almost every single night. ... Lately they have become more vivid than ever

I think there's a direct correlation between memory of dreams and the ability to become lucid while asleep. I say this because for whatever reason over the last two years I've been remembering most of my night-time excursions. Each morning I wake up and I can typically recall at least one or two complete sequences. According to sleep researchers, we have four or five REM cycles in an single nights rest. So I imagine 20% to 50% memory is pretty good. I can typically trace through most of the details. What I find curious is that the memories aren't faint. They're in many cases more vivid than memories of real life events (even from just the previous day). Is the same true for you?

It seems every single time I have some kind of flight or free-fall experience. Whenever I go to jump, as soon as feet leave the ground suddenly gravity is
A: completely gone
B: only a tiny fraction of normal
but it returns when i make contact with the "ground" even if that's a vertical wall.

I'm not that great at flying. Call me boring, but once I get a couple hundred feet up in the air and I start looking down I get a bit queasy. So I tend to prefer to walk or merely hover. Just a couple of weeks ago I had one where I was outside my old house in NY. Looking up at the grey overcast sky I started levitating up into the trees and I had to catch onto a couple of the branches to steady myself. There was definitely some sort of repulsive or antigravity effect. It appears there's a connection between what you want to have occur and another competing rule system.

Thanks for the great post!! But yeah, I'll describe the effects if this works for me. Very intriguing.

I have to admit I'm definitely curious to find out if this works for other people. Please report back!

reply to post by Quauhtli

I would suggest that you guys try and become aware of how vulnerable a place you are putting yourselves in when playing around with this type of stuff. Lucid dreaming is a step in a long journey in which you have to be very strong in order to protect yourself from others and other energies that can prey on you in this vulnerable state.

I take it you believe lucid dreams are some form of astral projection? I've yet to be completely convinced this is actually the case. Even when I have out of body experiences, I've noticed elements that suggest the environments are simply my mind generating the information. How the brain is capable of such stupefyingly complex environments is beyond me. But I've attempted to remain objective. For instance, I know in some cases when I pull myself out and I walk around my apartment I notice certain objects aren't where they're supposed to be. This tells me I'm not actually outside my body walking around my real physical building. So even though this leads me to believe it's my mind creating an environment and therefore just a lucid dream. I can't say this is definitively true because I've had a series of bizarre encounters with a lady who for all intents and purposes appears to be someone who lived back in the early 1900's (Mae Murray), but who I had no acquaintance with till meeting her in an OBE (see the story here). How is something like that possible? I have no idea. That makes me think these environments might be part real and part imaginary.

So how to distinguish between them? A good way to test the realness of nonphysical localities is to have a team attempt to identify some shared object. If upon return the members of the group can describe the same thing and they can do this reliably that's pretty good evidence there's really something to out-of-body experiences. Establishing a protocol for how people report their observations is important though if the goal is to determine whether people are really seeing and encountering the same thing. For instance, if I hypothetically tell some person (B) that I saw object (D), person (B) may agree after the fact that he saw the same object (D) when in reality this wasn't the case. This isn't even necessarily an issue of honesty because the participants may earnestly be trying to tell the truth, but after a person recounts their memories it's inevitable that it going to color the groups interpretation of what everyone else encountered. The question becomes then how do we prevent this sort of thing from happening?

The best quick solution I can come up with is for each person to post their memories to a third party pastebin site that records a date and time stamp. If everyone does this before hand, then after each person finishes their write-up they would chime in to tell the group that they've written their story. Once everyone agrees that they're all done, and that everyone's written down their experiences, then and only then would each of the participants provide the link to their pastebin URL. The date and time would allow us to empirically know whether or not a person lied and did it after the fact.

Unfortunately there aren't many organizations interested in this sort of research. Though I do remember reading an article not too long ago, that UCLA is associated with a researcher who investigates OBEs [1, 2]. Then there's the Monroe Institute. They've certainly done some interesting research [3]. However the work that I see coming out of the Noetic institute and SRI appears to be a rehashing of older studies (Laberge,[4] et al.).

The only reason I go over this is to point out that a mental framework should be used to try to test something. Without a testable hypothesis we're left with supposition and philosophy. This isn't terrible, it's just not as satisfying as knowing for a fact how things work.

Hey gang, here's a quick PDF file that contains the instructions in the OP. I figured in a PDF format it would be easier to print out. Also I included some handy links on the side. Hope it helps!

In the spirit of the holidays, and the end of the world , here are a couple of improvements to help speed up the process of learning how to lucid dream ...

www.scribd.com...

Even though the Scribd interface is definitely convenient for viewing the document. I would still suggest downloading the PDF, to take advantage of all the links in the bookmark panel.

Happy holidays folks!

reply to post by Xtraeme


Doubt anyone cares, but since the old link went dead. Here's the new one.

www.scribd.com...

Hopefully this one has less problems.