Lucid Living is COMPLETELY Necessary

I had a lucid dream last night where I was at my old house playing pool on a sideways pool table and still wondering If I was still Dreaming or not. Lucid Living is required for a vivid and clear insight of which state you are currently in.

I mean, just think about it. A lot of people reality check without meaningfulness, which, habitual or not, reality checking in a dream would be the same reaction unless you truly mean it. Who’s to say you’re dreaming right now? Don’t say you’re just not dreaming, because you could wake up in five minutes and find out you actually were. PROVE you’re not dreaming. Prove it to yourself right now. In dreams, unrealistic things seem completely realistic and slip your attention like no other. Look around you. Anything unusual? Of course not, because you can’t recognize it. Its the same in a dream. See what I mean? Reality Check right now and do it with meaning. I, personally think LL is an inevitable part of Lucid Dreaming.

I agree. But it may be just a matter of people.
I’m also unable to lucid dream without LL.

Lucid Living is a by-product. Not necessary, but useful.

Just a by-product!? You must be pretty smart :smile:

I agree. Its meaningless to do RCs in habit. In order to really build awareness in your mind, you have to really question yourself all the time. In dreams, everything seems normal. So how do you break that? You need to question yourself and surroundings all the time. I think you can have lucid dreams without lucid living but it won’t be consistent.

Yeah, I do this as much as I can. One problem, though, is remembering to stay aware while playing video games or simply browsing the internet. A lot of my dreams are of video games or something on a screen and I often find that I don’t have a body and aren’t aware at all during them. Also, I’m considerably less sensitive to dreamsigns because I just think anything can happen in a video game.

Does anyone have a decent way of keeping themselves fully aware and lucid living while immersed in a video game or online stuff?

I think you’re mis-understanding me. I’m not that smart, but think about it, we won’t be able to ‘live’ lucidly unless we are already ‘dreaming’ lucidly. I’m reading a book about lucid living right now, and it goes in waaayyy deeper than you could ever suspect. It’s not about the dreams, it’s about the Dreaming, with a capital D. It’s a crazy concept I can’t explain but if you do want to read about it, check out Arnold Mindells “Techniques for 24-hour Lucid Dreaming” which is not about LD in the sense that we know, but about living lucidly.

I agree, going on a weekend away with people i’ve never met (except one) took me out of my comfort zone, which basically made me more aware, and without trying i had a lucid dream for the first time in ages, albeit a very short one

I have the same thing happen to me :neutral: Maybe in waking life, think about what the games you know about look like, and whenever you’re playing a game look to see if you recognize the scene and characters in it. Make a habit of doing this and you’ll eventually do it in a dream, and therefore become lucid :smile:

I agree also, my reality checks are always just like going lucid IRL. My only problem is that when I get absorbed with a task I forget to disengage and evaluate my state - it’s easiest for me to be lucid when just walking or something.

Back when I started, a few months ago, I would reality check by pretending I was dreaming and trying to make it seem real. It was harder in the familiar surroundings of my house, and very hard in my room. I think this was because I take these settings for granted and am less critically aware when in them.

Tibetan dream yoga is based on the concept of lucid living, constant awareness of where you are.

You’re right about the RC’s. They must be done with a thoughtful and focused mind. A RC won’t make you lucid alone, a good concentration is a must. RC is just a tool. Just like IRL, you can have the tools, but without knowledge and effort, you won’t get anything positive.
Lucid Living is pretty difficult if you try to do it 24\7, though the ideas of it are good and can be applied to RC’s. Doing RC’s should be a habbit, but you must make sure that you do these RC’s in the right way.

The way I do Lucid Living is that I constantly ask myself what exactly it is that makes reality “real”, and try to get a strong feel for how reality works.
I don’t know if that’s a good method, but it feels right. :smile:

How foolish of me! Making remarks I have no idea about… lucid living is another step for support… not a necessity! The other techniques are perfectly effective… Should I delete this post?

Thank you, but I was wrong… A reality check can make you lucid alone if you truly believe it will. You don’t need anything else as long as you have faith that it will work; you don’t have to believe it has to be done a certain way… How could I forget the first day I did a reality check?? THAT night I had my first induced lucid dream…

I did mis-understand you. You we’re right, it is a byproduct

May be lucid living isn’t necessary but,

As Wagonner said, a great lucid dreamer and author in an article:
The secret about frequent lucid dreamer, he asked a lot of them how do they do it.
Because it was disturbing for him.
These people just get lucid without any RC’s or inducing techniques. So WHY?

Well he figured out that these people got in the habit of asking themselves about their situation.
Like a girl who since she was a child asked herself “What was i doing”, this can work with “am i safe here” or anything wich make you consider your situation.
So you can see how effective it can be to ask you during the day “am I dreaming”

And as another author said :
Even when you get in the habit of doing RC’s, you think about doing it only when you have some second to think. I found it really true.
So it is important to remember to take some times during the day to RC and to be more aware in your waking life.

Exactly when i didn’t know what lucid dreaming was, i was already checking my situation like: Uhm what am i doing? or, something very (stratagycal no idea how you spell this strategy?) like uhm if he entered the building from that side people could see him. And i was doing this in my dreams aswell this caused me to be lucid in the past, not a clear state of lucidty but still. It really brings you to yourself!

I kinda have a way of doing that while using your computer.

It is a simple program I made that times for a random amount of time (between 10 and 40mins.) and at that amount of time a popup appears on screen telling you to do a reality check.

If there is enough interest in it I will find a way to host it on the web for people to download.

→ I also have an iPhone app designed for lucid dreamers which reminds you (randomly) to RC.

About Lucid Living, even if I didn’t precisely identify the concept, I try to be as aware as possible when I’m walking on the street. I try to notice all the details I can such as the color of the sky, all the sounds, all the smells, what people look like, what they are doing, what they might think, every architecture stuff and when I see something strange, or shouldn’t be here → RC.

Confirm me if I’m doing the right thing or if I’m wasting my time for a week lol

Do you think it’s a good idea to simply pretend that real life is a lucid dream?
That’s the way I do LL right now, and it feels pretty cool, everything gets this surrealistic and magical feeling and if I imagine that I walk through a dream door then even walking into a new room feels interesting and exciting. :lol: