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  • 10 Comments
Joined 4 months ago
Cake day: March 3rd, 2026
  • Santati@lemmy.mltoComic Strips@lemmy.world•Free Range comic by Bill Whitehead
    2·
    13 days ago

    If you’re not already training for lucid dreaming, you can start there.

    If you are, you already know about prospective memory, intention setting, and mindfulness. Those pillars can help you do some pretty insane things in LDs. Some things that might help you out:

    • Make a list of things you’d like to do in a lucid dream. Review and think about this list often and regularly.
    • Train mindfulness. Bring your mind to the present throughout the day. Feel your senses. If you wanna do more than this, you can also do structured, dedicated meditation sessions. Think of it as exercise for your brain. Helps brain fog, reduces pain and heightens pleasure. Here’s a relevant post. Important part is It’s Good For You, So Do It.
    • Revamp your schemas. Schemas are associations in the brain. They can be consciously known or subconsciously picked up. Dreams rely on schemas (expectations), since there’s no outside data coming in. There’s just your brain, and your brain does what it programs itself to do. Got all that? Good. Negative schemas are bad, because they limit you. There’s a whole lot of misinfo about lucid dreaming: Mirrors, so called “dream stability”, sleep paralysis. If you’re into LDing at all, you’ll find tons of these. This is one of the reasons to Steer Clear of YouTube Videos; while there are some good ones, the topic’s been so bastardized you’re better off going to books or forums or blogs. Anyways, because lucid dreaming depends so much on your expectations, convincing yourself of something makes it true. Your brain essentially writes up a piece of code saying:
           If LucidDream=true
         Then InitiateWakeUpProtocol;
       #can you tell I don't write code?
    • Aah, but here’s the rub, though. This happens, so then you take this as an example of the eternal truth that if you have a lucid dream, then you will wake up. Your newfound certainty of this facts then reinforces the schema. Then you go online and see other people talking about the same experience, boom, even more fuel for the fire. Thus you end up in a vicious cycle limiting yourself. Meanwhile other people who never learned about this schema or never gave it credence in the first place are getting on just fine.
    • Good news: Schemas can be replaced, Bad news: It might take time. And it’s going to be, because remember what I said at the beginning: They can be consciously known or subconsciously picked up. They’ve got roots, and depending on multiple factors, those roots can be easy or difficult to upend. C’est la vie. So how to change a mind? I don’t know, I’ll tell you what to do regarding dreams though.
      • First, remember this: You Can Do Anything In A Lucid Dream. Anyone who says otherwise is misinformed or lying.
      • Second, use affirmations. They are, as CGP Grey put it, unreasonably effective in mental change.
      • Third, be mentally flexible. This is nebulous and kinda hard to pin down, but the moment you read it, you knew what I meant, so I’m moving on.

    Just this morning, I had a dream where I realized I was lucid. The dream didn’t end, I flew to a mountaintop overlooking a colosseum and summoned lightning from the clouds like Storm. It was as vivid as anything else, and I got lucid through application of these and other principles. I won’t belabor the point here – I know telling others about your dreams can be boring to the recipient – but I’m just trying to illustrate this working.

    Anyways, sorry for text-blasting you, just really passionate about the topic. Hope this helps somewhat.

  • Santati@lemmy.mltoBuddhism@lemmy.world•Nine Questions About Vegetarianism
    0·
    4 months ago

    This is a good article. The Buddha taught compassion for all beings, and the path which leads to the end of suffering. Naturally, his followers would also like to see the end of suffering. Animals suffer when they are farmed, abused, and killed, thus any follower worth their salt would like the see the end of these too. I may take a less charitable approach for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. If it truly were that the Dalai Lama was enabled to eat meat because of his spiritual attainment, then why would Sakyamuni Buddha not eat the most meat, given he has attained perfect enlightenment? The Dalai Lama eats meat because he is not perfect. This is my belief.