A crucial factor in developing lucid dreaming abilities is self-confidence in the ability to use the skills. Initially, these abilities are absent because the human brain, tuned in to ordinariness, blocks confidence in the ability to do anything unusual. As soon as strong confidence is reached in the performance of lucid dreaming abilities, everything becomes easy to achieve.

Although confidence in lucid dreaming abilities may grow strong, practitioners should remain soundly aware that abilities in lucid dreaming are limited to lucid dreaming. Attempting telekinesis, pyrokinesis, or transmutation in the real world may waste time and energy.

Problems with lucid dreaming identification during entry often arise at the initial stages of studying lucid dreaming. A practitioner simply cannot understand whether or not he or she is already in lucid dreaming. This uncertainty can manifest while lying down or while practicing in other postures.

If a practitioner is simply lying down, physically perceiving his own body, and doing nothing, then it is indeed difficult to determine whether or not he is present in lucid dreaming. It is sufficient to note that there might be no signs of a lucid dream state. On the contrary, there may be a host of signs and unusual sensations, but they by no means necessarily indicate the onset of lucid dreaming.

The problem of the uncertainty of a lucid dream state is always solved through actions. If the practitioner is lying down, then standard separation techniques may produce indication of lucid dreaming achievement – in the majority of cases – since such techniques may often be incorrectly performed.

It is possible to perform techniques that are only achievable in lucid dreaming state. If a practitioner stands up and does not recognize his surroundings, then it can be assumed that the practitioner is standing up in lucid dreaming. However, often based on the observation that “everything is as in reality”, a practitioner may stand up and note that everything is in fact “as in reality” simply because the practitioner is still in “reality”. In answer to this dilemma, the phenomenon of hyper-concentration has been previously mentioned in relation to maintaining lucid dreaming. By using hyper-concentration, it is always possible to ascertain whether the practitioner is in lucid dreaming. However, as a rule, hyper-concentration is rarely necessary. Most often, the following signs indicate that separation has occurred in lucid dreaming: unusual sensations in the body during movement, extreme tightness during movement, a strong physical urge to lie back down, disjointedness of surroundings, and blurred or complete absence of vision.

Often, the problem resides in the use of direct techniques where the practitioner expects fast results and attempts to determine whether lucid dreaming has been achieved. As a principle this should not be done. When using direct techniques, lucid dreaming manifests itself clearly; therefore, if an attempt to determine its presence is made, it is an indicator that lucid dreaming is quite likely still far off.

This technique is only used to find living objects. The practitioner must call a person or an animal by name to cause the animate lucid dreaming object to enter or appear nearby. The call should be loud, nearly a shout, otherwise it will not always work. Generally, it is often enough to pronounce a name several times to achieve results.

If the desired animate object does not have a name or the practitioner does not know it, then any name or general summoning will do, like, “Come here!” This should be done while mentally focusing on a clear image of the desired person or animal.

Perceiving the state of dream consciousness as a non-lucid dreaming state even though this phenomenon is one and the same with lucid dreaming.

Attempting dream consciousness while performing other lucid dreaming entrance techniques when it is better to focus on dream consciousness alone.

When falling asleep, lacking sufficient desire to experience conscious dreaming even though this is critical.

Continuing to yield to the plot of a dream even after achieving dream consciousness, whereas subsequent actions must be independent and based on free will.

Incorrectly answering the question “Am I dreaming?” while dreaming.

Forgetting to immediately begin deepening techniques when dream consciousness has been achieved.

When exercising memory development, recalling the most vivid dreams instead of every dream.

Inconsistent concentration while practicing dream consciousness techniques.

Lithuania

I was sitting on a bench, just thinking and doing nothing, when suddenly a woman showed up and said to me, "Maybe you are dreaming". I was in shock. It struck me like lightning: “Oh my God! I am in lucid dreaming!”

A plan, a plan, I had a plan. What should I do next? Since I’d just finished reading Michael’s book, I knew all about deepening and maintaining, and so I touched everything around me, looked closely at my hands and rubbed them. My vision and other senses got stronger and so I moved on to my plan.

I wanted to try flying, walking, teleporting, diving into the ground and jumping through walls. First of all, I tried flying. I jumped up as high as I could and then floated down. I jumped again and started flying. I felt the wind and the sun. I could see far into the distance. When my vision got blurry, I decided to teleport into my room and do some maintaining and deepening.

In my room I found that same woman, and she told me: “try going through walls”. I touched the wall and was a little bit afraid. After forgetting my fear I started running towards another wall and jumped through it. The feeling was amazing. The woman advised me again: “Try diving into the ground, but don‘t forget to imagine where you want to end up“. I walked into the middle of my room and started falling down. I closed my eyes and imagined a beautiful rice field. It felt like I was falling forever, and then – BOOM! I was falling down from a very far height. I was falling towards a huge table full of delicious dishes which had rice as the main ingredient. I started laughing and thought: “Wow, my subconscious played a hell of a joke on me”. That’s when I woke up (M.R.: no maintaining and no re-entering).