So you want to learn how to lucid dream. You've seen all the hyped up videos,
you've tried all the strangely named techniques,
and nothing seems to be working.
What's going wrong? How can you fix this?
Well, this video is different. It's going to take you step-by-step
through the absolute basics for lucid dreaming.
If you're a beginner and you want to know how to get started and put the best foot forward,
this is the video for you.
Let's get started.
Step 1:
As a lucid dreamer, you need to become a more observant human being.
You need to pay attention to the world around you.
This is vital.
When was the last time you seriously asked yourself the question
"Is this a dream"? Probably never.
You may have done so in an offhand way or playfully --
but have you really questioned the nature of reality
on a regular basis? Most of us haven't.
So this is the first step to becoming a lucid dreamer.
As you go through your day, observe the world. Pay attention to the details,
and whenever anything unusual happens,
ask yourself, in all seriousness,
"Could this be a dream?".
Step 2: Pay attention to your dreams.
And not only pay attention to them -- also record them.
Your dream journal is a map of the dreamworld,
and without a map, you're going to get lost.
So every morning, when you wake up, try your hardest
to remember whatever dreams you can,
and record them. Either with a voice recorder or a notepad.
A notepad is generally better.
Record as many details as you possibly can.
Why do you do this?
You do this so that you can start to recognise the difference between
your dreams and the waking world.
So you're becoming more observant of the waking world,
but you're also becoming more observant of your dreams.
And you will start to spot the difference between the two.
And when you do that, you will become closer
to realising that it's all a dream.
Step 3: Don't believe the hype.
Don't be gullible.
Now, those previous two steps -- you're going to need to do those
for at least a couple of weeks before they're even useful.
But you will see, here on YouTube and elsewhere, there are people telling you
that you can lucid dream "easily" and "tonight".
Basically, they're telling you that you can do something difficult without any effort.
That's not true.
So if you're already thinking, "This video is a bit boring, it's not flashy, it's not exciting,"
"I'm getting bored",
then that is the wrong attitude.
Lucid dreaming is going to take a long time. You're going to have to invest your time
and energy into it. So if you can make it through to the end of this video --
if you're not bored already --
then you're the kind of person who's cut out for lucid dreaming.
But you need to be ready to invest time,
energy, and effort into this process.
Step 4: Engage critical thinking.
So what does that mean? It means
you've spent all of this time paying attention to your dreams and paying attention to the waking world,
and you're beginning to notice that the two aren't identical.
Dreams feel a certain way -- the waking world feels a certain way.
Certain things happen in dreams that don't happen in the waking world.
So,
when something strange or dreamlike occurs within the waking world,
don't just shrug it off.
Don't think, "Ah, well, that was a bit dreamlike".
That is your chance to engage your critical thinking.
You need to ask yourself, "Well, maybe I'm being fooled now?"
"Maybe I need to ask myself seriously, 'Is this a dream right now?'".
Step 5: Take active measures.
So you've observed the difference between the waking world and the dreamworld,
and when something dreamlike happens in the waking world, you question,
"Maybe this is a dream right now?".
But you can be more active than that.
You can perform what is known as a "reality test",
or "reality check".
It's a kind of experiment that lets you tell whether you're dreaming or not.
It's conclusive. It gives you a final answer.
So the most simple reality test
is to simply pinch your nose...
... and attempt to breathe through it.
Obviously, when you're awake, you're pinching a physical nose
and blocking your airways.
But when you're asleep in bed and dreaming --
when you pinch your nose in the dream -- you're pinching an imagined nose.
So you're not really blocking your airways.
So what you will feel is this sensation of breathing
through a pinched nose.
That will tell you that this is a dream.
It's a very simple experiment. There are many other reality tests.
You can check out the rest of the channel for those.
But this is a way for you to test whether or not you're dreaming
for certain.
The actual process is a bit more in-depth than that,
and you should perform multiple reality tests --
but for the sake of this simple video, that is what you need to do.
Step 6: Be persistent!
This is going to take time.
So you're learning the difference between the dreamworld and the waking world,
and whenever you notice an inconsistency or a dreamlike event in the waking world,
you question, seriously, "Is this a dream?",
and then you perform a reality test. And you do this
as often as possible.
You're building the muscles in your mind. You're trying to create
a natural reaction to strange events that makes you question
if you're dreaming. So that will eventually,
when it becomes a habit, pass over into the dreamworld --
and the dreamworld is full of these strange events --
and then you will ask yourself, "Maybe this is a dream?",
and you will perform a test, and you will know that you're dreaming.
This is the absolute basics. But it takes time.
So this is going to take...
Quite a long time. It can take a couple of weeks,
it can take months -- for some people it even takes years
for this habit to build, for this way of thinking to develop in your mind.
Don't be put off by the time scale.
It's no different from learning a language or a musical instrument.
You're trying to do something difficult.
Don't be disappointed if it doesn't work straight away.
You're new to this! It takes practice and effort,
but time will pay off.
Step 7: Don't be stupid.
Don't be gullible. Don't fall for things easily.
If something strange happens, if someone tells you something,
always question it. Be self-reliant.
In your dreams, everything is trying to distract you
from the fact that you're dreaming.
And here in the waking world, those sorts of things happen as well.
There are lots of people trying to grab your attention, trying to distract you, all the time.
If you're performing a reality test -- if you're questioning whether you're dreaming --
be engaged. Be there in the moment.
Don't let anything distract you.
And certainly don't let other people tell you
whether you're dreaming or not.
And with that in mind: don't be gullible in general.
Don't fall for those who tell you that lucid dreaming is easy.
They are trying to trick you for their own gain.
This is a difficult skill,
and you need to be a self-reliant, intelligent, wise human being.
Wise up. Be smart. Think for yourself.
Step 8: Disruption.
Okay, so this is a slightly more advanced technique,
and there is much more to it than what I'm about to say,
but we are more than just psychology.
So far, we've been exploring the software of the mind.
We've been programming the software of our mind to behave in certain ways.
But the brain is software and hardware,
and if the chemistry of your brain is wrong --
the hardware of your brain is wrong --
then it doesn't matter how hard you think -- you can't make something happen.
And we all know this. If you've had a few drinks,
you can't think clearly. If you're sleepy,
it's very hard to think clearly.
And when we're asleep at night,
generally, we enter into this state where our acetylcholine levels drop,
and we are therefore less clear-minded.
So how do we change that? What do we do to make that different?
Well, disrupting our sleep pattern is one way to do that.
And this is something I call "sleep disruption".
Many people call it "the Wake Back to Bed technique".
But essentially, all you need to do -- and this is what researchers told us --
is sleep normally for most of the night, wake up a little bit early,
stay awake for an hour, and then have a nap.
And during that hour, your brain chemisty is going to move more towards
clear thinking and wakefulness.
So you will go back to sleep with a more clear-headed,
biochemically primed mind, ready for lucidity.
So that nap -- that nap after your full night's sleep --
that is a really good time to get lucid.
Step 9: Embrace your individuality.
Now, a lot of people come into lucid dreaming and they think there's going to be
a perfect technique. Something that will get everyone lucid.
But you are an individual.
Your psychology, your brain chemistry,
your sleeping patterns, your life
are completely different from everyone else on the planet.
So you need to build a practice -- a lucid dreaming practice --
that suits you perfectly.
Because it's not the same for everyone.
There are certain commonalities between all of us,
but the burden of this falls onto you.
No one else is going to get you lucid.
You need to put in the hard work,
you need to observe your dreams and to get to know them,
you need to become more observant in your life --
and you need to put it all together and be
scientifically minded to work out what works best for you.
So embrace the fact that you're an individual.
Don't take anyone else's word for it,
because there is no simple trick to lucidity.
It is a process that takes time.
Step 10: Become a deeper person.
Now, what on Earth do I mean by that? Well...
Don't just sleepwalk through your life.
Start to think about the bigger questions --
what it means to be human, what it means to be in this universe --
and really start to look at the world, and your dreams, in a different way.
What does all of this mean? What does consciousness mean?
What does it mean to be aware?
What does it mean to become lucid?
Who becomes lucid?
Are you the same person all the time?
Are you changing from moment to moment?
These are questions I can't answer for you.
These are questions you need to start asking yourself.
Because what you're trying to do is to develop
what a lot of people call "mindfulness". This kind of ability
to be in the now, and to realise the nature of existence.
The nature of self, the nature of the mind.
And it's incredibly complicated stuff that cannot be conveyed in a single YouTube video.
Impossible. You will spend your life doing this.
So be ready for a lifelong journey of self-exploration
when it comes to lucid dreaming, because every new lucid dream
is a new answer and a new set of questions.
Every single step of this journey is a constant
evolution of yourself.
Now, that sounds a little bit hippified, but it's the truth.
This is what life is. We're constantly growing, and we're constantly learning.
So don't expect to get to a point where you're "now a lucid dreamer".
It doesn't really work that way.
There is no -- like I've said before -- no simple trick to this.
This is a journey that you undertake.
So be ready for this to be a long journey.
Be ready for the long haul when it comes to this.
And equally, that mindfulness, when you're
returning to sleep for your nap in the morning,
or if you wake up in the night and you're returning to sleep then,
you need to be aware of the moment, aware of your consciousness,
and try and hold on to it as you fall into sleep.
Try and maintain whatever it is you believe consciousness to be.
And that way you will fall asleep into the dream, consciously.
So if you're trying to learn how to lucid dream
and you've just been trying individual techniques,
remember that the things we've just talked about are the absolute foundations.
The techniques require you to be doing these things to work.
There's a lot more, so much more, to lucid dreaming
than I can fit into this one video.
But if you start doing these things, they will be a perfect bedrock
for everything else you learn.
Subscribe to the channel, and you will learn much, much more.
It gets very, very in-depth, all of this.
But these things alone, if you just do those,
you will start your journey into lucidity with a really good foundation.
So forget about trying to find "perfect" techniques,
or anything like that.
Put the foundations in place first.
And if you're a long-term lucid dreamer and you've been struggling,
ask yourself, have you been doing all this seriously?
Have you really been living this way?
Because if you're not, that's the problem.
The foundations are what you build your house upon.
The house will fall without the foundations.
So that's it for today.
I'm Daniel Love, The Lucid Guide,
and until next time, stay lucid!