Lucid Dreaming and OBE Discussion Board

Michael,
I'm curious about your thoughts on dry spells. Do you have them? What way have you found best to deal with them ?

For myself: I've found them useful for building up strong intention.They usually don't last more than a week and I've learned to be patient. The phase always returns,it's become a natural part of my life-but I still dislike dry spells...

Do you mean you cannot concentrate on techniques upon awakening because of dry spell? Sometimes I can get the phase through it. Usually I drink water and wait for next awakening

He means a period where -for some reason- you don’t succeed entering the phase.

Like me right now. Last week I did it four times and i thought “now I’ve got it! I’ll be able to do it whenever I want soonâ€

[quote="Bo"]
He means a period where -for some reason- you don’t succeed entering the phase.

Like me right now. Last week I did it four times and i thought “now I’ve got it! I’ll be able to do it whenever I want soonâ€

I seem to have dry spells occasionally but always have the knowledge i will get back into the phase eventually. Last week i had 4 OBE's after 2 weeks of nothing, but convinced myself each time it was a failed attempt, it's progress in a way, more than i've ever had in a week, just a shame i missed the opportunity! Learning curve i guess.

[quote="Jeff"]
[quote="Bo"]
He means a period where -for some reason- you don’t succeed entering the phase.

Like me right now. Last week I did it four times and i thought “now I’ve got it! I’ll be able to do it whenever I want soonâ€

Very interesting Michael,thanks it sounds like good advice.I may do this myself without realizing it ,because many nights I am very physically tired and do not try.I still phase 3-4times/week though. Last night I entered the phase twice after only 'regular' dreams for 4 days or so....

Here is a scientific paper I like that might explain why this works:
http://www.quantumphil.org/SuarezRandFinQM
(scroll down to page 5 )


Maybe our conscious time in the phase must be balanced with our waking hours in order to satisfy an overall statistical distribution governing both realities.

Jeff wrote: Maybe our conscious time in the phase must be balanced with our waking hours in order to satisfy an overall statistical distribution governing both realities.

Would this not mean that if you have more sleep and less time in a waking state that phase entry would be easier? I seem to find the opposite, when i have had less sleep over a couple of days than normal, entering the phase comes much more naturally.

Sorry if i have mis-interpreted what you are saying.

Hi Breadbassed,
I think that's the idea if I understand what he's suggesting in the paper;but I would imagine the sleep would need to contain dreamless nREM-which would cause REM rebound. I don't know if it's really true but it seems to make good sense.

I suppose it could also depend on what time scales are involved and whether conscious and 'unconscious' periods balance out or not in the long run. Also,as I understand,the body needs REM sleep and may go straight into it when sleep deprived.

I've had the experience of Lucid Dreams and OBEs right after sleep onset only a couple of times. It seems to be an oddity for me, people I've talked to believe REM rebound 'caused' this.I didn't pay attention to whether or not I 'payed' for it later with regular dreams or dreamless sleep. It would be cool if someone would test the idea in the paper with phase practitioners in a study.

Is it your consistent experience to have phase experiences after a couple of days with less sleep? Are you more physically tired after and make up for the lost nREM sleep at some point?

Man, this is a GREAT topic!  I do this all the time too!  I'll get 3 days straight of good attempts or actual phases, then....nothing for 1-2 weeks.

breadbassed wrote:

Jeff wrote: Maybe our conscious time in the phase must be balanced with our waking hours in order to satisfy an overall statistical distribution governing both realities.

Would this not mean that if you have more sleep and less time in a waking state that phase entry would be easier? I seem to find the opposite, when i have had less sleep over a couple of days than normal, entering the phase comes much more naturally.

Sorry if i have mis-interpreted what you are saying.

As I observed,when i had lots of phases per week,i was in vacation,no work no nothing,and i was thinking almost all day at the phase!!
So I guess more sleep is good,when i'm tired and sleepy I tend to believe that is much more easy to get the phase,cause I am close to sleep,but in fact there are greater possibilities to just blackout into sleep,if you are tired and sleepy!!This happens to me all the time!Also Our day to day lifes could cause Dry Spells,cause our mind becomes very busy with walking life toughts,and i guess that's why it shuts off if one is tired enough,and just wandering in dreamland....and in the morning  you can't remember anything:P

Yay I am so glad you brought this up!
Because I have had some dryspells too, and I even asked on this forum and Michael said that I should take breaks, and I did. But the weird thing was that I got lucid dreams on the breaks and failed on the attempts. But now I haven't pracctised for a week so tomorrow I am going to start pracctise again, with breaks too of course.

I kind of stopped my dry spell this morning.

For the first time I tried to do the Direct technique and the book said that the WBTB should be about 10 minutes, so when I went to bed again and started with the techniques I suddenly felt that my mind started to wonder and I doze of a little here and then.
Then I had a daydream that become a normal dream, and then I woke up and noticed that I was laying completely still and with my eyes closed. Allready here I have succeeded because if I notice my awakening all I have to do is the techniques and I get to the phase.
But ... the book said that indirect techniques and direct techniques shouldn't be pracctised on the same day, and for some reason I did not do any technique even if I heard the beeping noise that's perfect to listen in to...

But I am still happy because I solved my dryspell problem, the problem was that the WBTB time was too short. So next week I hopefully get some more results. And I will do Indirect techniques, because I didn't like to have that much control that you have with the Direct tehniques.