When making attempts to enter lucid dreaming, the practitioner should have complete confidence that he will be immediately successful in everything. Even a shroud of doubt will keep the practitioner in his body, this is especially true when it comes to indirect techniques.

Four typical barriers to mastering lucid dreaming encountered by 90% of practitioners are:

1 – Forgetting to deepen lucid dreaming;

2 – Forgetting to maintain lucid dreaming;

3 – Absence of a plan of action when in lucid dreaming;

4 – Forgetting to try to re-enter lucid dreaming after a foul;

Questions

What is a foul?

What is the minimum duration of lucid dreaming?

What do lucid dreaming maintenance (“maintaining”) techniques counteract besides fouls and falling asleep?

Why might a practitioner think that lucid dreaming has ended when it actually is still in progress?

Should “maintaining” techniques always be used?

What primary techniques work against the occurrence of fouls?

How can a practitioner hook onto lucid dreaming?

While in lucid dreaming, what do thoughts about the body lead to?

What question should be asked in lucid dreaming in order to reduce the probability of falling asleep?

What happens to an object during hyper-concentration?

How else, apart from hyper-concentration, might a practitioner effectively recognize a false foul?

While in lucid dreaming, is it permitted to look into the distance for a long time?

What is ID and how does the degree of it affect the duration of a lucid dream experience?

What should a practitioner always do after an inadvertent return into the body?

Tasks

During the next few lucid dreams, dedicate yourself to the single goal of maintaining as long as possible, using as many maintaining techniques as you can.

Figure out which techniques have proven the most effective and comfortable for you, so that you may use these later.

Increase the duration of your average lucid dreaming to at least 2 minutes (evaluated objectively).

Perm, Russia

I woke up on my side. I didn’t feel like sleeping anymore, but I closed my eyes anyway. When I lay down on my back, I immediately felt the sensation that I was about to fall from the couch (I was lying on the edge), and some kind of lapse occurred, as if I was being pulled somewhere. I lay down once again, and this buzzing started, and a green light appeared before my eyes. I lay back even further, and my eyelids started to flutter. I thought that I might fall from the couch at that moment, but then my vision came to me, and I observed that I was already lying on the floor next to the couch! I got up on my feet and noticed that the room was “spinning” as if I were drunk, but everything quite quickly went back to normal. At that very moment, I understood that this was it! lucid dreaming itself (M.R.: no deepening)!

In ecstasy, I forgot about all the techniques and went to look about the room (M.R.: no plan of action). Everything was just like in reality, but some things were out of place. I tried to levitate and bent backwards, and was somehow thrust outside. It was dusk out there, and there was a lot of snow on the ground. I went around the house and tried to levitate. I was able to soar upwards, and saw the horizon and sunset. But then I began to lose altitude. After having flown to the window on the other side of the house, I wanted to go up to the roof, but then a foul occurred (M.R.: no maintaining). In a fraction of a second, I had the sensation that I was “nowhere”. But then, my real eyes opened (with difficulty) and there was once again the feeling of some sort of lapse (M.R.: no re-entering). Awareness was dim during lucid dreaming, apparently due to not having gotten enough sleep.

The degree of enthusiasm that is devoted to any pursuit is directly related to successfully reaching a goal. However, it is very important to know when to ease up, especially with the delicate matter of lucid dreaming entry. One attempt per day using a direct technique is sufficient. If more attempts are made, the quality of each attempt will suffer considerably.

Interesting Fact!

Many approach direct techniques as if digging a ditch: the more – the faster and the better. The result: dozens of attempts that yield no fruit.

A lot of practitioners believe that dozens of attempts over the course of a day will yield lucid dreaming. This is not the path to success and will quickly lead to disillusionment with the practice. Even if after a week or a month no results are seen, direct techniques should be attempted only once daily (2-3 days per week). Persistent, analytical, and sensible, stubborn resolve to practice properly will produce the desired effect.

As noted above, 50% of success with indirect techniques is immediate due to the fact that the first seconds after waking up are the most useful for entering lucid dreaming. The less time that has elapsed after awakening, the better. Conversely, if one lies down expecting something to happen, chances quickly dissipate.

Thus, upon awakening, preferably without first moving, a practitioner should immediately try various separation techniques, like rolling out, getting up, or levitation. If a technique has suddenly started to yield results for approximately for 3-5 seconds, then separation from the body should be attempted up to full separation. Sometimes inertia, difficulty, or a barrier will arise during a separation attempt. No attention should be given to these problems. Instead, resolve to separate – decidedly and aggressively climb out of the body.

Keep in mind that trying to immediately separate upon awakening is a skill of the utmost importance; one that is worth honing from the very beginning, never forgotten.

Interesting Fact!

For some practitioners having trouble reaching lucid dreaming, one motivation for separating without using any techniques is an unwillingness to “bang their heads against techniques” any further. This forces them to catch the right moment of awakening much earlier on and push themselves much harder during it. The result is that they are practically always able to achieve lucid dreaming upon that first step.