TMNs Misconception cleaner. Apply when needed.

Introduction:
Hello there, novice Oneironaut! I am TheModernNinja. When I first started Lucid Dreaming, I had a look online for a good tutorial on how to Lucid Dream. The problem was, that there were so many tutorials, and most had weird names like WILD, DEILD, DILD, FILD, MILD, etc. that I did not know where to start! I have since learned a lot, and I want to give back to the community. I started out on a lucid dreaming forum called dreamviews.com, and although I checked out other forums, I stayed as it seemed like the best one. Recently, however, I have started being active on a website called reddit.com, and decided to take a look at their sub-forum /r/luciddreaming. Although it is an extremely active sub-forum filled with mostly enthusiastic users, in comparison to DreamViews, the general users knowledge was severely lacking. Questions like: How do I lucid dream?, Was this a lucid dream? and How many reality checks are enough? were extremely common. I have made this guide to help educate not just Reddit users, but internet users as a whole. I will try to include everything I know and have learned through my experience as an Oneironaut, and I will also include information that I wish I had received when I was starting out. If you have any questions regarding this guide or Lucid Dreaming, feel free to contact me through either DreamViews or Reddit.

The very beginning:

I think it is important to start from the very beginning; to clarify the most basic questions like: Was this a Lucid Dream? What is Lucid Dreaming? Lucid Dreaming is the act of being aware you are dreaming, while you are dreaming. To put it into simpler words: A Lucid Dream is a dream where the oneironaut knows they are dreaming, whilst still being asleep. Let me give you an example: Eg: Jack finds himself in a golden room, with a fish sitting on a throne. He tries to remember how he got there, but cannot. I must be dreaming! he shouts, and proceeds to fly away. The easiest way to identify a Lucid Dream, is to ask yourself if your dream matched the definition above. If you were aware you were dreaming, while you were dreaming, then yes, that was a Lucid Dream. Congratulations!

How do I Lucid Dream?

Finding good information on this topic is probably the hardest thing when starting out, solely because there are so many different tutorials and opinions. Another factor is that different methods suit different people, so you have to find what suits you.

Recall
Arguably the biggest factor in determining your chance of getting a Lucid Dream. Recall is, in the context we are talking about, remembering the dreams you had during the night. Lots of people think they only have 1-2 dreams a week. However, most people have about 7-9 dreams per night, but cannot remember them all. Ideally, you want a recall of at least 1 dream per night before you start trying out techniques. Here are my two most successful ways of increasing recall: Dream Journaling (DJ) The name essentially speaks for itself. In the morning, when you wake up, you write down the dreams that you can remember from the night before. This trains your brain into remembering your dreams, and helps you look for dream signs (see DILD). Even if you do not remember any dreams when you awaken, write down something similar to: No dreams recalled. This get your mind into the habit of recalling dreams. *TIP: When you wake up, stay still and think about the dreams you had, before doing anything else. This will make recalling easier. 2. Getting lots of sleep This is a very important, since it boosts your memory, and gives you more dreams (see WBTB/Stages of Sleep), therefore increasing the chance of recall/Lucid Dream. Get the most sleep you can get, with your schedule. Not doing this in conjunction with other techniques will diminish your chances of recalling dreams, thus diminishing Lucid Dream frequency.

There are quite a few other ways of improving recall, but using these two I have described should get you to 1 dream a night in as little as 2-3 days, to a maximum of 2-3 weeks. Dont feel discouraged if it takes you longer than most. Remember, the more work you put, the more you get out of it! Getting Lucid Once you have achieved a constant recall of at least 1 dream per night, you have a few options. There are a lot of different techniques you can choose to focus on, so I will only list the common ones. I will also give personal opinions that might save weeks if not months of wasted efforts. Although it is not compulsory to follow my advice, it is for your own benefit.

-DILD DILD stands for Dream Induced Lucid Dreaming. It basically means that you figure out that you are dreaming while being in the dream. Perfect beginner method, since it can provide a steady Lucid Dream frequency, without wasted sleep/time. DILD is one of the

easiest method to use for achieving your first few Lucid Dreams. This is the method I recommend you start on, and master first. -WILD WILD stands for Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming, and it means that the dreamer will transpose directly from an awake state into a dream. There are lots of misconceptions all over the internet that this is THE WAY to achieve Lucidity, however, it is actually a very difficult technique to master. I say this because it takes a lot of personalizing and experimenting, and I do not recommend this technique to start with. You want to start experimenting with this method only AFTER you have a steady stream of Lucid Dreams (see WILD).

*Note: Nearly all other techniques will fall into either a DILD or WILD category, but will have different names depending on the characteristics of the techniques.

-MILD MILD stands for Mnemonically Induced Lucid Dreaming, and it uses mantras to improve prospective memory (memory to recall intentions for the future). This will make it easier for you to remember to do reality checks (See DILD), therefore increasing your chances of attaining Lucidity. This is an incredibly reliable technique because once you have good prospective memory, you can Lucid Dream at will. I recommend it in conjunction with a form of DILD for a starting technique. -DEILD DEILD stands for Dream Exit Induced Lucid Dreaming, and it essentially uses the moment when you wake up from a dream to transition directly into another. I would describe it as an accelerated WILD. Although I do not recommend it for beginners to focus solely on, I recommend you keep this technique in mind, since it is actually relatively easy to do accidentally, and can be used to get back into a Lucid Dream after waking up from one. -EILD
EILD stands for Electronically Induced Lucid Dreaming and it is basically Lucidity induced by external electronic sources. If you have the cash for something like a NovaDreamer or Remee, I definitely recommend it in conjunction with DILD/MILD/WBTB (see WBTB below).

-WBTB This is actually not a technique per se, but it is used in conjunction with other techniques to maximize the success rate. It is however, very important. WBTB stands for Wake Back To Bed and it means to wake up for a period of time during the night, then go back to bed. You do this because you want to apply your techniques during REM (see WBTB/Stages of Sleep). Techniques such as WILD without WBTB are virtually unheard of,

and although some practice MILD without WBTB, it is not as successful. Unless you are focusing solely on DILD, learning how to WBTB is necessary.

Although there are a lot more techniques out there such as SSILD, FILD and PILD, to name a few, these are the most popular techniques that have shown results over the years. I have had at least minimal experience with each method. Now, I will take each individual technique, dissect it, tell you my personal opinions, give you tips, and link you to other great tutorials.

DILD
-Reality Checks

Since DILD is all about figuring out you are dreaming while being in your dream, you have to have some way of identifying if you are dreaming or not. The last thing that you want is to ask yourself if you are dreaming, conclude you are not, only to wake up a few seconds later. The way you figure out if you are dreaming or not is through the use of Reality Checks (RCs). They, hence the name, check if you are in reality or not. Common Reality Checks that have worked for me are: -Finger through palm: Try pushing your finger through your palm. If it goes through, voila, youre dreaming! -Counting your fingers: Count your fingers. If the number does not equal 10, you are dreaming! -Nose pinch: Pinch your nose in such a way that it blocks air from entering or leaving your nostrils. Now try to inhale through your nose. If you have succeeded, then you must be dreaming! -Memory RC: Try to think about how you got to where you are. If you cant remember, chances are you are dreaming. These Reality Checks are to be used together, not by themselves, since they are not 100% accurate. I usually do a combo of Memory RC, Finger through palm and Nose pinch. If the first Reality Check doesnt work, the next ones surely will. *IMPORTANT NOTE: There is a common misconception floating around the internet. A lot of people believe that they must do as many RCs as possible, as often as they can. This is not necessarily the rght way of thinking. Doing this will form RCs to be a mindless habit, and it will make your mind expect the RC not to work. This will most likely result RCs failing too. The way to do it is to have the right mind set. Let me give you two examples of wrong and right ways to perform RCs.

Wrong way: Jack is walking down a road. He remembers to RC. He tries to push his finger through his palm. It doesnt go through. He keeps walking, not giving it a second thought. Right way: Jack is walking down a road. He realises that the road is unusually wide. He seriously starts questioning reality. He tries to push his finger through his palm. It doesnt go through. He keeps walking, looking for any other unusual things.

The difference between them should be fairly obvious. Essentially, you have to do RCs to make sure youre not dreaming, not as a mindless habit. Forming a habit is good, but the habit must consist of RCs + Awareness. The best way to describe it, is you have to do ADA (see -ADA) while RCing. I call these types of RCs MRCs (Mindful Reality Checks). Now you know about Reality Checks and how to use them. The problem now is how to make yourself remember to question reality while in your dream. You again have a few options. Here are in my opinion the best choices: -ADA (All Day Awareness) -Prospective memory training (from Stephen LaBerges Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming) -Incubating a dream -A variation of MILD -Dream Signs

-ADA All Day Awareness. Pioneered by a DreamViews member called KingYoshi, ADA is arguably the most effective method of questioning reality while being in a dream. ADA consists of being aware of all the senses as often as possible during the day and for as long as possible. Once this becomes a habit, the awareness carries over to your dreams and you will be able to point out anything abnormal and perform a RC to check if you are dreaming or not. Check out KingYoshis extensive tutorial on it: http://www.dreamviews.com/inductiontechniques/113253-all-day-awareness-dild-tutorial-kingyoshi.html

-Stephen LaBerges Prospective Memory Training Pioneered by Stephen LaBerge in his co-authored book Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming (page 76). In my opinion the best DILD technique in terms of effort to success ratio. Like MILD, it trains prospective memory, therefore making it easier to remember to question reality in dreams. It basically consists of you mentally assigning objects. After doing so, the next time you see those objects, you have to mentally tick them off. If you forget about mentally ticking off the object the next time you see it, it is considered a fail. The goal is to be able to consistently spot objects that you have assigned. It sounds a little confusing so I will give examples, since Jack is pretty eager.

Eg: Jack mentally assigns the following objects: flower, traffic light, tree. A few hours later, the training forgotten, he gets in his car and drives to the bakery. Once he gets to the first traffic light he remembers about the training, and mentally ticks off traffic light. He realises that he forgot to tick off flower and tree, since there are many of both in his garden. Ideally, if he had mastered the technique, he would have remembered to tick off every object. Master this method, and you will be able to essentially assign MRCs, and as a result, get Lucid! -Incubating Dreams To be honest, I dont have much experience with this method, but I will update this once I get around to experiment with it. It basically consist of pre-planning a dream, and then making it happen. The way you can use it to get Lucid is to incubate a dream where you are questioning reality/ do a MRC. If you succeed, then you have your Lucid Dream! Stephan LaBerge has a very good tutorial on incubating dreams on page 69. Here are a few other good tutorials I have found on this:
http://www.dreamviews.com/general-dream-discussion/130133-dream-incubation-tutorial.html http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-lucidity/134585-incubating-dream-signs.html

-MILD A very good technique, and it is quite underestimated in the Lucid Dreaming community. See MILD.

-Dream Signs This a very practical application to the Dream Journal youve been keeping. It consists of you looking through it and identifying your Dream Signs. Dream Signs are things that occur in your dream often. Different people have different dream signs. Once you have found your dream sign, you can make a mental note to perform an MRC, or you can use a technique such as MILD to make sure you remember to MRC when you see it again (See MILD). During a WBTB (see WBTB/Stages of Sleep) you could use a mantra such as: The next time I see X, I will question reality

WILD
This technique is arguably the most popular technique with beginner Lucid Dreamers. My guess is that it is popular because of how remarkable the concept sounds. You retain your awareness upon waking (unless its a nap, see WBTB/Stages of Sleep), and you maintain it while transitioning to a dream, tricking your body into thinking you fell asleep. When I first started Lucid Dreaming, I was amazed that people could do this. The fact that some people could experience Rem Atonia (keep reading, explanation follows) was also

something that fascinated me. Another very appealing factor was that if mastered, I could Lucid Dream at will. Although lots of advanced Lucid Dreamers advised me not to start out with this method, I thought: What could go wrong? I will master this technique, and I wont need any others. The reason why I still went ahead, is because I did not find any good, solid arguments against it. All they told me was that I did not have the experience. For me that was not enough. So I focused on WILD for a good few months, neglecting recall, DILD and all the other good techniques. After about 100-150 failed attempts and only 1 success, I became extremely frustrated and essentially quit Lucid Dreaming for some time. Now I look back and understand why WILD is not a beginner technique. It requires a LOT of experimenting. It took me 100-150 attempts of trial and error just to get ONE Lucid Dream. As a beginner, this was extremely frustrating as I was putting in a lot of effort and getting out minimal results. I assure you that if I put that amount of effort in a technique like MILD or DILD, I would have essentially mastered it. Once I was getting a constant number of LDs, I could have started experimenting with WILD. I would have not been frustrated, because I would be getting 2-4 Lucid Dreams a week from my other techniques. Here is a good analogy: You want to get into skateboarding. You have two options: 1. Either buy an average skateboard that is in your budget and practice right away. 2. OR, wait for a whole year to save up for that professional board that is lighter and will give you the extra air. I mean, sure, the pro board is ultimately better. But if you buy the average board, and practice for a whole year, you will still be a better skater than a complete beginner with a pro board. Once you get good enough, you can always start investing in a pro board, but you can never get that one year back to practice.

Now that you know why NOT to start WILDing as a beginner, I will go on to talk about some misconceptions on why people are intimidated by WILD.

-Sleep Paralysis If you have a look on the internet on the topic of WILD, you will see many people concerned about Sleep Paralysis (SP), especially during WILD. Questions like: Is SP scary? pop up often. First of all, in the context we are talking about, these people are technically incorrect. Sleep Paralysis is actually a sleep disorder. What they mean to say is something called REM Atonia. REM Atonia is a type of paralysis that happens in REM sleep (see WBTB/Stages of Sleep), to stop you moving in your REM sleep. Dogs do not have this, and is why they move in their sleep. REM Atonia IS COMLETELY NORMAL.

Sleep Paralysis is essentially REM Atonia, but at abnormal times, such as straight after waking (Naturally, REM Atonia should stop its effects once you come out of REM sleep, see Stages of Sleep). Sleep Paralysis IS A DISORDER.

The reason why some people are concerned, is because in the process of WILD, some people experience REM Atonia while being awake. This it because the brain thinks they are asleep, and paralyses the muscles to prepare for dreams. People experiencing REM Atonia/Sleep Paralysis while being awake have reported visual, auditory, and tactile hallucinations (Hypnagogic Hallucinations, or HH). These HH can be manipulated by thoughts, and it is no wonder that someone who is feeling scared will experience frightening HH. This lead to the myth that REM Atonia (often miscalled Sleep Paralysis) is scary. This myth, in turn, makes HH scary for new oneironauts that attempt WILD. This is similar to a kid who is scared of the dark. His imagination will start to shape every shadow into monsters, waiting to snatch him. Adults however, know there is nothing to be afraid of, and their rationality makes them relaxed, therefore the dark is not frightening for them. To stop REM Atonia being scary, you have to realise that there is nothing to be afraid of, think rationally, and relax. Sit back and enjoy the show. If you still do not feel confident about REM Atonia, but still find WILD appealing, fear not! There are ways of WILDing that will get you so close to being asleep, that you will be too sleepy to even notice HH, although these types of methods have a higher chance of you falling asleep.

-How to WILD

The most common types of WILD tutorials have this kind of overall trend: -WBTB or nap (see WBTB and Stages of Sleep) -Relax. -Lie still and dont move. -Once you start experiencing HH try to manipulate it and create a dream. -Once you can see things (vivid scenery, etc) with your real eyes closed, youre dreaming. The major problem is that this kind of tutorial leads to misconceptions, ESPECIALLY step 3. All the time questions like: How do I not swallow? and How do I not move? appear. In a way they are right, but are missing the point. You are supposed to try to fall asleep, but retain awareness. Think about your normal falling asleep pattern. Do you think: Must not move. Must not move. Must not move. Am I asleep yet? Must not move. Must not swallow. Am I asleep yet?

The simple answer is no. You just let your thoughts run wild (pun not intended) and, before you know it, youre asleep. WILDing is no different. The only problem with it is that you need to find the balance between trying to fall asleep, and trying to stay awake. This is why it takes a lot of experimentation. Here are some links for the best traditional WILD tutorials. Keep in mind, however, that you will have to adapt the tutorial to your own sleep pattern, positions etc. Just experiment and see what suits you best. KingYoshis WILD: http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initiated-lucid-dreams-wild/143768kingyoshis-complete-wilding-guide-all-my-techniques-secrets-revealed-wild-deild-wbtb-more.html

-My Anchor technique (A way to WILD without experiencing REM Atonia) This method is the only WILD method that has ever worked for me thus far. An anchor is something (usually external) that helps you keep your awareness while falling asleep. It could be anything: a certain sound, smell, discomfort etc. The anchor I use for my technique is pain. Pain is a very good anchor, since the longer you experience it, the more it intensifies. This is good because the sleepier you become, the harder it is to retain awareness. If you use a pain anchor, the pain will become more noticeable as you get sleepier. Using this technique, you will get so sleepy that you will nearly fall asleep. The only thing that your mind is still aware of is the pain that is at the edge of consciousness. Once a dream forms, hopefully that little bit of awareness will help you realise you are dreaming/help you remember to think rationally and perform a MRC. I will now break up the technique into steps: Wake up in WBTB (see WBTB / Stages of Sleep). This method doesnt really work in naps, unlike other WILDs, because you have to already be quite sleepy to be able to basically fall asleep while experiencing any type of pain. Stay awake for as little as possible. In other words, try to retain your sleepiness. Set up your anchor. You want something that will be on the verge of uncomfortable and painful. Enough so you can feel it, but not enough that will keep you awake. You will need to experiment with different anchors. This may take a few attempts. If your anchor is too noticeable, you will not be able to sleep, and if it is not noticeable enough you will fall asleep without getting Lucid. The way I do it is I twist my arm behind by back, so that the wrist joint is SLIGHTLY hurting/uncomfortable. Fall asleep. Since you have your anchor doing all the work for you, all you have to do is try to fall asleep. As you fall asleep, that little bit of pain at the back of your consciousness will intensify, and once you are in a dream you will be able to identify it and gain complete awareness.

MILD
Mnemonically Induced Lucid Dreaming. One of the best techniques since it does not require any skill. You put in the time, you get the results. There is nothing to master, per se. To MILD, you need to: Either WBTB (see WBTB/Stages of Sleep), or do it before bed. It will wield better results in WBTB because of your brain going REM sleep straight away (see WBTB/Stages of Sleep). Choose a mantra. Something simple like I am dreaming. Make sure the mantra is in present tense, as it is more effective. Having a mantra with a future tense will not make your brain realise the urgency of your wish. You do not want your Lucid Dream in a week, you want it now. Repeat your mantra as you are falling asleep. Your brain will process the phrase in your dreams and, hopefully, make you question reality. Stephen LaBerge created this technique and is in his book on page 73. Here are some other good MILD tutorials to take a look at:
http://www.dreamviews.com/wiki/MILD-Tutorial http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-lucidity/119050-naiyas-simple-mild-technique.html

DEILD
If I could pick one technique to get Lucid with every night, it would be Dream Exit Induced Lucid Dreaming. The lack of effort involved, and the ability to chain Lucid Dreams make DEILD a very ideal technique. It is practically an accelerated WILD. It consists of the following steps: Upon waking from a dream, you do not move. Stay still but retain awareness. In about 20 seconds or so, your brain not realising you have woken up, will start to form a dream. Once the scene is formed, perform a MRC. That is really all there is to it. If you can catch yourself from moving when you wake up, then you practically have a guaranteed Lucid Dream, provided you do not fall asleep in in the process of your dream forming. One of the biggest perks of this technique, is that you can use it to chain Lucid Dreams. Let me give you an example: Jack gets Lucid using the DILD technique. He flies around and has fun. All of a sudden, the dream starts to fade, and he awakens. He does not move, and proceeds to perform the DEILD technique. He succeeds, and goes back into a Lucid Dream.

You can chain lots of Dreams in this way, provided you have mastered DEILD. Here are some good tutorials I have found on DEILD:
http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-lucidity/53266-ninjas-deild-tutorial.html

EILD
Electronically induced Lucid Dreaming. This technique varies depending on what method/device you are using. I do not have much experience with EILD, but I will give a list of the most popular EILD devices and other EILD methods. However, I cannot give any personal opinions. Remee: http://sleepwithremee.com/
Nova Dreamer: http://www.lucidity.com/novadreamer.html Binaural Beats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats Isochronic tones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isochronic_tones

WBTB/Stages of Sleep
WBTB stands for Wake Back To Bed, and it is essential for lots of techniques. It is not an induction technique per se, but more of a probability improver, if you could call it that. To understand how to WBTB correctly, you have to first understand how your brain behaves during sleep, and what the brain state is optimal for Lucid Dreaming. -Stages of Sleep When you go to sleep, you will go through these sleep stages: Stage 1: Very light sleep, most people, if woken at this stage, will report not having slept. Brainwave frequency: Mid to High Alpha Low Theta (4-7 Hz) Stage 2: REM Atonia (see WILD) starts setting in, preparing your body for deep/dream sleep. Brainwave frequency: Low Theta- High Delta (4 Hz) Stage 3: Beginning of deep sleep. It is a dreamless sleep, but also most likely when sleepwalking and sleep talking will occur. Brainwave frequency: Delta (0.5-4 Hz) Stage 4: Deepest sleep you will experience. Similar to Stage 3. Brainwave frequency: Low Delta

REM sleep: After completing a full set of Sleep stages, your brain frequency returns to theta, but has frequent spikes. This and the Rapid Movement of the Eyes marks REM sleep. REM sleep is when most of the dreams that you remember occur. It is the perfect state for Lucid Dreaming, since it is the closest your brain gets to being awake during dreams. -WBTB WBTB is basically just waking up at the right time, so you can go back to sleep in REM sleep, thus increasing the chances of your technique working. NOTE: When you go to sleep during the day, you will automatically go into REM sleep. As a general rule, you go into REM sleep every 90 minutes. As the night progresses, rem periods become longer. Thus, the more you sleep, the more time you will spend in REM. The problem is, however, that everybody is different, and your REM timing might differ. Here is my suggestion on how to WBTB: Go to http://sleepyti.me/, and wake up at one of the times suggested.
If you wake up directly from a dream, then you are in REM. Make a note of how much sleep you need before WBTBing, and use that for your WBTB attempts. If, however, you do not wake up from a dream, set the alarm for 10 minutes, and go back to sleep. Keep doing this until you wake up from a dream, therefore in REM.

Here is another great WTBT tutorial: http://www.dreamviews.com/wiki/WBTB-Tutorial

Thank you for reading my guide! You should now have enough knowledge to start on your Lucid Dreaming journey without misconceptions. I wish you all the best.

Happy Lucid Dreaming, TMN