Lucid Dreaming and OBE Discussion Board

I have no idea why, but every time I try to separate, I always have the same problem. When I try to remember to separate, I never remember to do so. Every time I wake up, my mind is totally blank, and soon after completely random thoughts begin flooding in. It's sort of like a faucet. For a moment, nothing comes out, then you've got water pouring out of the spout, but you can't really affect how pure the water is that comes out (without a filter of course, we're acting like we don't have one.).

This seems like a problem with intent to me, but when I try to create intent, I keep myself awake before I get fatigued and my mind begins wandering again. I can try to fight it for a short time, but eventually I will fall asleep and waste the night.

What are some things I can do that will help me remember to separate immediately upon waking up? Am I not spending enough time awake? (Usually about 5 minutes)

As an aside, how do I help fight "self-sabotaging thoughts?" What I mean by this is many times when I wake up before my alarm goes off, I'll think "forget it," turn off my alarm, and go back to sleep without attempting. Is it just my cynicism poking through because I've tried for over a year with little to show for it?

Something i'm having some success with is to think of some simple words to alert me when i'm dreaming. I will think "i'm" when I breathe in, and "dreaming" as I breathe out. I imagine what it sounds like when i'm saying it. I don't get caught up in how perfect it sounds, I just get my mind in a pattern that follows my breathing, then I go to sleep like normal once it is on auto pilot. Something like this may help you sleep but also have a flag that you SEE sleeping once it happens.

Personally, I have gotten both phase entry sensations and dream lucidity doing this, so give it a try if you want. I still recommend doing this after you have slept at least 4 hours- preferably 5 or 6. Hope this helps you out some!

I have being having the same problem recently, Anthony (I thought I'd overcome the problem but it has returned). I believe I read something somewhere on here where MR said he/they were working on the problem.

I've got a theory as to why I can't remember: I don't believe my mind is quite accustomed to concentrating to that degree. I'm going to try meditation as a means to teach myself how to focus on a single thought. It'll likely take several months, but I think it'll be worth it if it works.

I've put a lot of effort into focusing and strengthening intent but I can't get it to work. I think the indirect techniques might be good for people who've never had an OBE/LD and want to experience one quickly (within 5 attempts, as it says above) but they don't seem to work in the long run.

At the risk of possibly jumping the gun, I think I may have finally solved my problem, and the solution was relatively simple. All I had to do was drill it into my head. I'd tell myself "I am going to remember to separate" over and over and over until I finally fell asleep. If my mind wandered, I had to put it back to the mantra. Initial analysis shows that I have been able to remember to at the very least think about the practice. Now I just need to work on keeping still when I awaken.

EDIT: I might also add that I did lose a bit of sleep when doing this. It takes me significantly longer to fall asleep when doing this, possibly twice as long, so it's still best to do this on a free day.

Me again. It's been months, and I STILL have not had any separation for some time. I'm still "blanking out" when I wake up. Meditation and concentration worked for a while, but now it's like I never did them at all. I'm getting really sick of waking up, being completely oblivious to the fact that I wanted to practice, then realizing it five minutes later when I've started to become more alert, and getting pissed about it. There's so many things I want to do and I simply can't do them when I don't remember anything.

I heard that Mr. Raduga was looking into these issues. Was there any progress?

I've had the same problem. I haven't been able to get it to work despite a phenomenal amount of effort and experimentation over many months. I'm having a break from deliberate LD attempts now, but when I come back to it I can't really see how I'm going to make indirect techniques work for me.

Looking back on it, I have become rather lazy when it comes to my meditation. Perhaps that's my problem. You can try what I did and meditate for 20 minutes a day on the subject, see if you remember any better. I did have some minor results when I did that. My dream recall was also much higher.