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During the day practice moving your attention from spot to spot in a triangle maybe 10 degrees of a side. Don't move your eyes, just your attention. (Your fovea

During the day practice moving your attention from spot to spot in a triangle maybe 10 degrees of a side. Don't move your eyes, just your attention. (Your fovea is usually served by a lot of extra brain power, but with practice most of that computation (sharpening) power can be shifted. It probably won't happen the first few times, but you can eventually get this result, and it'll be obvious enough that you won't be in much doubt about it. Then when you start to realize you are lucid dreaming, shift your dream eyes (your attention) in similar triangles, while keeping calm as you can. This will help keep the dream from dissolving for a couple reasons, if you can remember to start doing it, and do keep doing it until the dream stabilizes again and lucid dreaming seems less startling. Asking yourself, seriously but very calmly, many times during the day whether you are lucid dreaming helps too; to increase the chances of lucidity, but even more to reduce the excitement of finding yourself lucid dreaming (which adrenaline spike can send you to wakefulness) by making the question a fairly ordinary one. Make sure you always start doing the triangular attention-shifting as soon as you start to ask the question, each time - to make that a habit that goes with that question/realization. Some of this information can be found in Casteneda's writings, some can't.

ReDeiPirati 4y ago
I've started having lucid dreams by reminding me of "watching my hands" frequently and repeating a short mantra as described in Castaneda book (iirc the second one he wrote). It took me less than 3 weeks to start experiencing those. The first one was one of the most powerful and energetic experience of my life. I woke up with "I did it!" and started grasping because of the excitement. Something that help me from dissolving is to frequently reminding of shaking my hands during the dream, it gives a temporary boost of consciousness. The scariest thought that I had during my experiences was a time when I found myself thinking: 'what if I'll not be able to get back...'. I was walking in a dark world lighted by a moon for moments that felt like hours. I discovered that relaxing was enough to get back.
- Nomentatus 4y ago
  Good on you. I remember the hands technique, but I was never conscious of it working for me - which doesn't mean it didn't, necessarily. It's true that repeated waking-but-not-actually-waking (just moving into a new dream in which you're waking) can happens, and can cause anxiety. Bertrand Russell reported it and it's happened to me. However, the fifth or sixth time that happens to you, you know it won't keep going forever, you know you're just waking slowly. After that, repeated false waking is not anxiety producing, it's boring. Soooo boring as you wait to actually wake up for realz. The opposite can happen too. I was sleeping in an unfamiliar room when I saw an interesting invention in a dream, realized that I was sleeping and became desperate to wake up and write it down so I didn't forget it. That urgency accelerated parts of the waking process, but not the whole process. I got my real, waking vision back before I got any body sensation or the inner ear back. So I was frozen for a bit but immensely puzzled by what I saw 'cause what I thought was "up" was actually "sideways" and I was in a new real room that was new to me. I did get to write the invention down in the real world shortly after though, after all of my brain woke up.

ReDeiPirati 4y ago

I've started having lucid dreams by reminding me of "watching my hands" frequently and repeating a short mantra as described in Castaneda book (iirc the second one he wrote). It took me less than 3 weeks to start experiencing those. The first one was one of the most powerful and energetic experience of my life. I woke up with "I did it!" and started grasping because of the excitement. Something that help me from dissolving is to frequently reminding of shaking my hands during the dream, it gives a temporary boost of consciousness. The scariest thought that I had during my experiences was a time when I found myself thinking: 'what if I'll not be able to get back...'. I was walking in a dark world lighted by a moon for moments that felt like hours. I discovered that relaxing was enough to get back.

Nomentatus 4y ago
Good on you. I remember the hands technique, but I was never conscious of it working for me - which doesn't mean it didn't, necessarily. It's true that repeated waking-but-not-actually-waking (just moving into a new dream in which you're waking) can happens, and can cause anxiety. Bertrand Russell reported it and it's happened to me. However, the fifth or sixth time that happens to you, you know it won't keep going forever, you know you're just waking slowly. After that, repeated false waking is not anxiety producing, it's boring. Soooo boring as you wait to actually wake up for realz. The opposite can happen too. I was sleeping in an unfamiliar room when I saw an interesting invention in a dream, realized that I was sleeping and became desperate to wake up and write it down so I didn't forget it. That urgency accelerated parts of the waking process, but not the whole process. I got my real, waking vision back before I got any body sensation or the inner ear back. So I was frozen for a bit but immensely puzzled by what I saw 'cause what I thought was "up" was actually "sideways" and I was in a new real room that was new to me. I did get to write the invention down in the real world shortly after though, after all of my brain woke up.