Hi Robert,
I have been having a repeating thing that happens when I try to have lucid dreams. In the dream state I seem to get confused about the goal of becoming lucid. I often end up hooked on an idea that my aim is to follow out some obscure and odd task and this will get me lucid. For instance I just dreamt last night that I have to find some wood and paint it and that this will get me lucid. And then later the same night I dreamt I had to hit a water melon with a shot-put in the dark whilst using a laser sight?! And to give another example I dreamt that there was a hole like a letter box and to get lucid I had to find something the right size to put through it.
When I have these sorts of dreams (I’ve been having them a lot, 9 times in the last month) I rarely shake off the confusion and actually get lucid, I just try very hard to carry out the odd task not realising how odd it is. I can see that there are some positives to them in that I am remembering that I want to get lucid but what this means is getting quite distorted once I am in the dream state.
These dreams seem to be mostly when I use the wake back-to-bed technique. The routine I follow is to get up at 5am and meditate for 20 mins on the breath and then I goto sleep also following the breath, with the intention of recognising the dream state.
Can you suggest anything I might try to help get the aim of lucidity through to the dream state in a clearer way? I seem to have got stuck in a bit of a rut with this type of experience and it seems to happen again and again. I need some sort of nudge to help shift the pattern.
Thanks from
Arthabandhu
Ledbury, England