I usually try to induce an OBE every night before bed, but even though I've been doing it for years I have only had several. That's just the nature of the game for some people. I have heard very good things about keeping a dream journal in relation to building your lucid dreaming skills. Reality checks throughout the day will also leak into your dream time if you make a point to do them often. When you have a reality check in a dream and realize you are not in reality the only step after that is actually staying in the dream.

Also, if you smoke cannabis before you sleep it effects your dreams and really dulls them and makes them harder to remember. Good luck!

Everyone can become lucid during dreams, it just takes more time for some people to achieve.

Silene capensis will help along with Entada rheedii and Calea Zacatechichi. They will increase the vividness of your dreams and can help a lot in helping you become lucid.

There are also some other rare herbs that you can get, I've sent you a PM.

I use Melatonin for it is a hormone produced from the pineal gland. I take 6 mgs a night.
It helps with sleep and dreaming all together, Or you could try staying up for a couple days and then get some sleep. Ive had some of the craziest dreams due to not getting sleep for 2 days. Must be all that DMT built up and released all at once when your a sleep.

You've probably heard this before but in your dreams try looking for things that are odd or out of place to let you know you are in a dream. For example one of the only lucid dreams I have ever had I was back at my high school and realizing that I had graduated a year before allowed me to become lucid, even though it didn't last too long . Also I've noticed (at least for me) that when I am dreaming I will have two identical objects in a dream where in real life I only have one: two cell phones, two pocket knifes, etc. Though having two identical objects or strange happenings in dreams that shouldn't be won't necessarily let you in on that you are dreaming, if you look for it you may make the realization quicker. I also heard that once you realize you are dreaming if you rub your fingers together it helps solidify the dream in stead of you waking up immediately which is my problem with lucid dreaming. Anyone remember the last scene in waking life where he floats up into the sky into oblivion? that happened to me in my first lucid dream when i realized i was dreaming. anyway look up lucidipedia on youtube, that guy might be able to help you

That's true, we all have some sort of clue that can help us identify that we're dreaming. One that always works for me is I can't see my reflection in a mirror. And electronic things never work (stereos, computers, etc.)

There's all sorts of techniques that you can use to realize you're dreaming, but those things can be very different from one person to another.

Hey Lotusmuncher

1st off, I can't stress enough that Lucid Dreaming and OOBEs are skills that require a great deal of practice to master. In many traditions, they don't even teach the techniques until an acolyte has been training for a decade or more.

There are threads here dealing with the subjects, and you might want to go through them. Many good techniques can be found on websites like http://www.lucidology.com/ (which gives a complete basic to intermediate course for free)

That said, I will give you a big secret. Just like science has now proven that everybody dreams every night whether they remember any of it or not... I am relatively sure that everyone also Lucid Dreams already. Memory is the key here. Even advanced dreamers only remember a tiny fraction of the actual dreams they have every night.

When you factor in the time dilation and realize that you can have hours (even days or years) of experience in the course of a few minutes of REM sleep. Then you start to get a glimpse of how much you don't remember. Most of what the average person remembers is just the last few seconds of dreaming and a bit of the hypnogogic state before totally awakening. And even then, if you don't struggle valiantly and immediately to hold on to them... those meager memories will also slip away like sand between your fingers.

Increasing your dream recall is essential if you want to consciously work with your Lucid Dreams in your "waking life." If you are remembering about 5 or 10 minutes worth of dreaming in the morning, then you are probably only retaining something like 0.1% or less. Even should you increase your dream recall by a factor of 10 you will still only be remembering 1%. If you think these numbers are low, I am actually being generous.

Try setting random alarms and waking up at odd hours to remember the dreams that are more likely to already have some lucidity. Your dreams from 3 to 4am for example.

Writing down your dreams (even just the act of buying a dream book) is a powerful signal to your subconscious that you are ready to take your dreaming seriously. Learn to honor and cherish your dreaming and never say things like "It was just a dream." This is programming you to disregard the experience.

I could go on and on about this topic, but I will just say this... Lucidity is not an on or off thing, but a spectrum of awareness. Flying, but still believing the dream to be real is already more lucid than simply going through the motions. Recognizing that you are dreaming and remembering it when you awake is a watershed moment, but it is not the goal. You have to have clear ideas of what you want to do in that state, and be able to carry them out. So, first comes awareness. Next comes focus and intention. Then comes will. All of these must be developed. They are like mind muscles, and most people are ridiculously out of shape.

All advanced skills take time to develop. Walking, speaking, skateboarding... Dreaming is waaaaay harder than all three of those put together. Herbs will not do it for you. Some chemicals may increase recall. Some may seem to intensify the dream experience somewhat. But they are like the pinch of oregano in your pasta. You have to develop your art of dreaming the hard way; there are no plug and play options.

Good post, and I definitely agree with this:



I agree, but I do think that some herbs can help tremendously, especially in the beginning. When I started to play around with some of these herbs, things immediately started to get exciting and new. So they can most certainly help you develop a more keen interest in dreaming, well, more so than you have already

Actually, when I first became interested in herbs that are known to effect dreaming, I had some old fears resurface. My dream states became more real and intense, and I started to feel like a child again. Many of my dreams as a child were so intense and frightening that I would sometimes be genuinely afraid to go to sleep. I developed a taste for nighttime and I would stay up for days, trying to avoid dreaming. But then when I did finally sleep, the dreams would be even more intense. I still have a very vivid memory of a dream I had in kindergarten. I had fallen asleep by the dress-up center in the classroom and I had a terrible dream of birds attacking me. I woke up screaming, with the teacher shaking me and the whole class looking at me. Even as late as high school, I would fall asleep on the bus and dream something bizarre and wake up really freaked out.

Anyhow, some of these old feelings started to resurface when I actively sought these herbs and started experimenting. They can be incredibly powerful if used over a period of time and with the right intentions.

All that said, I do still agree that it takes work to develop these skills. The herbs won't magically give them to you, but they can help you greatly.

^
I can only really speak to my experience, and I have noticed that things like Calea and Silene do have an effect on dreaming and recall. I never really found that they increased my ability to become lucid or what I could do when lucid, though. Naturally, if you remember more dreams, you will have more chance of remembering a lucid one. Not smoking marijuana increased my dream recall more than any herb or combination of herb, though.

Remembering more dreams is important, but not as important as increasing the percentage of lucid vs. non-lucid dreams. You could up your dream recall to 10 or 20%, but if only 1% of your dreams are lucid... then each of the dreams you do remember is only 1% likely to be a lucid one.

And this is still very basic beginner stuff as far as dreamwork goes. Once you can regularly recognize that you are dreaming, you have to learn how to stabilize and maintain the lucid state. Then the real practice begins. Training your dream abilities.

I have not found that any tea or smoke, melatonin, mate, or nicotene... nothing really helps with the main work. Developing awareness, sharpening intent, and increasing willpower. Creatine and whey might help a bodybuilder, but not if he doesn't lift weights.

I believe it was in Thomas Yuschak's book Advanced Lucid Dreaming that he hypothesized that low levels of acetylcholine were to blame for some people's difficulty in achieving lucidity, even after they "tried everything". Galantamine/Choline supplements will boost acetylcholine levels and will cause extremely vivid and long dreams, thereby possibly triggering lucidity, especially if other LD induction techniques are used together with it.




Could be the REM-rebound effect too. When you're deprived of REM sleep for a while you will experience a lot of REM when sleeping patterns are normalized. (now that's a fancy word, now I feel smart!)

Forget binearul beats..forget dream herbs for now and self suggestion etc. Here is what you do..

Wake up at about 4am, drink a sip of green tea, not too much. You want just enough so thaty your brain wakes up a bit but you are still tired enough to go back to sleep. Do this on a regular basis for a while. Thats it. That is the best way to learn to WILD IMO..you have slept for long enough for your brain to be in that mode, but there is a slight shift from waking up and drinking a bit of caffine and then going right back to bed. Eventually it will probabily just happen, or you will go into a deep hypnogogic state.

If you really want to use herbs I would use them that way as well. Wake up after a few hours of sleep, dose the herb and then go back and lay in bed. Waking up the brain a bit is the key, becasue the body is still so tired that it slips back into sleep but the mind has a better chance of remaining lucid.

sleep derpivation works well also, but some are really against it. Always worked for me whenever I stay up too late one night and only get lik 3 hours of sleep,the next night I get hypnogigia as soon as I lay down and my body is so tired that it just falls asleap but my brain stays awake.

I have had the best success with using them this way. Once, my sleeping pattern was all out of whack, I was up at night and sleep during the day (working a night shift). On my days off, I would wake up in the middle of the day all the time. So I woke up in the middle of the afternoon and was dead tired still, and having smoked some Calea right before bed I just grabbed some more and smoked it, and immediately went back to sleep. A very vivid (and sexual) lucid dream followed

In my experience you have to approach lucid dreaming in the same way you should approach meeting women

Now it is possible to meet a drunk girl at a bar and talk about dumb stuff that neither of you care anything about but you are uninhibited enough to get her number, maybe call her back, very unlikely that she will call you. (I won't go further because the analogy does not really fit with having a one-night-stand with a really slutty drunk girl or a really drunk slutty girl)

Now if you go out to something like a cooking class, co-ed sports team, dance class, festival or something for YOUR enjoyment because YOU enjoy going there and you meet a girl, hey believe it or not chances are that she like *blank* just as much as you do and you can have really enjoyable and easy-going conversation about stuff you both like and actually get to know them and it will be easy and even logical to exchange numbers and likely meet again.

Well in this analogy you could consider the quality of the interaction with event and maybe a girl as the quality of the dream and I suppose you could consider seeing her again as becoming lucid.

In my experience I have had about two dozen or so lucid dreams of varying length, quality and vividness. 1/2 to 2/3 I would not even really consider real lucid dreams due to their hazyness and excessive dreamy-ness.

I have tried for 3 or 4 periods of a week or so I focused really hard on trying to become lucid and only one time I was sucessful but each time I was left annoyed with the lack of sucess and the motivation faded. Notice only one of the 2 dozen were when I was trying to become lucid. I suppose dissapointment/stress probably doesn't help the chances of being lucid.. somehow.

My advice is have a fun and layed-back approach to obvering the tendancies and importantly ENJOYINH them for themselves
A good method would be to just keep a very brief dream journal (or a detailed one if you feel like it, I find detailed dream journaling tedious)
It can be as simple as
Tuesday, March 3rd "I barely dreamt at all, can't really remember... something about my childhood neighborhood" or
Friday, March 6th "Man that was adventurous and vivid to real-life. I totally thought I actually gain the ability to fly ... until I woke up"

Then you can observer whether lots of exercise, lots of sleep, lack of sleep, waking in the middle of night or mid-morning, psychedelic use, caffeine use, alcohol use and all other factors affect your dreams.

I find that my most vivid, long and adventurous dreams which feel true to life are when I am dead-sober. Exercised that day a decent amount, exercised my mind too.
Also if I set my alarm for an hour or two before I generally wake then just shut it off then go back to bed then the mid-morning dreams are MAD VIVID and I've had some crazy dreams then, not too many lucid though I haven't really tried to become lucid for months really.
I'm not sure if eating something before bed would raise the chances but I know it makes it much harder to get up immediately in the morning.

So what I'm rambling about is that you ENJOY and observe just your dreams (dreams = going out somewhere you like and maybe meeting a girl) and after you get to know them (the place and the girl) then you can try to become lucid (Lucid = going out with the girl)

I dunno it doesn't fit like a key in a lock but I hope it makes enough sense to help you.