Hrethic said:

Yeah, i hear it's much easier for some people. I'm getting better at relaxing to the point of near drifting off, it's that gateway between awake and sleep that i keep falling off.

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for me at least, lucid dreaming doesn't work like that.  My lucid dreams are always precipitated by periods of total non-lucidity.  I don't hold onto my consciousness all the way into the dream, I wake up within it.  i think thats the way it works. 

The only method that really makes any difference for me is to make a habit of questioning whether or not you are dreaming during the day.  if you do it enough, you will create those pathways of memory, which will become available during the dreamstate.  Your brain will randomly select the "check for dreaming" program one time, and you will, and realize that you're fucking asleep in your head.  I'm so conscious when that happens that I remember where I am sleeping, and understand the fact that my body is paralyzed in bed, while I am free to roam in my brain.

As much as I am annoyed by the Matrix movies, the best analogy that I can come up with is this, to me the state of lucidity is like knowing that you're in the matrix.  You know its not real, and that you theoretically can do whatever you want, if you can muster the zen or chi or whatever you call it.  My lucid dreams are almost always spent probing that threshold of power, seeing what I can do, change, create, etc.

I always try to make DMT appear, so I can smoke it and trip.  I've never been able to, but I did eat San Pedro once in a dream and had a mescaline trip (I've never eaten mescaline before, so it was probably drawn from my memories of shroom trips, everything was so REAL, and stunningly bright and beautiful)

not to hijack your thread, but I'm super into this stuff, so i'll just put a post I made at another website forum here, cause its related.
reading about lucid dreaming in any form helps you get there anyway, so here's my recent dream:

I'm not too experienced with lucid dreaming, I have probably had about 8-10 in my entire life, most of them lasting only a minute or two. This morning I had one of the longest and most realistic/solid/lucid yet. I don't remember exactly how I gained lucidity, I just remember finding myself in my house, but realizing that, in reality, I was sleeping at my girlfriends apartment. Lucid dream, allright! First thing I wanted to do was take a hallucinogen to see if I could induce a drug-free psychedelic experience (I'm somewhat experienced with psilocyibn mushrooms). I tried to create some mushrooms or DMT out of thin air, but wasn't able to. I remembered that there is some mescaline-containing San Pedro cactus growing at our house, so I ventured into the garden and found it there. I was so lucid that I doubted the fact that I was dreaming, and was hesitant to cut down the cactus, for fear of ruining my dad's prize in real life. I reassured myself that I was dreaming, and cut a foot off the plant. I had to consume the entire thing, so I decided to see if I could manipulate reality a little bit. Sure enough, I was able to condense the thing into a little juicy ball, which I consumed.

I woke up shortly thereafter, but managed to fall back asleep and continued the dream.

As I descended back into the dream world, I was outside of my house, and definitely under the influence of the mescaline I had eaten, although I'm not sure if I was aware of that fact during the dream, or if I"m extrapolating that now based on the imagery. The world had the colorful, crisp, hyper-real clarity as seen through the eyes of a psychedelically-augmented individual. Blue sky, bright sun, the most beautiful array of plants everywhere, it was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen. I was lucid, and free, and very excited.

This was when the fighters arrived. As I walked up my street to explore this beautiful dream-world version of the real world, a white van with no windows pulled up. I 'looked' into the van, shifting my perspective in a way difficult to describe, it was like a movie camera-shift. Inside were two people I know from the real world who have had authority over me, and who I dislike. 'why is my psyche showing me these guys, what are they here for?' I thought. Terror struck, I realized they were here to fight me, to ruin my lucid dream. They didn't like what I was doing, as trite as it sounds, they hated my freedom in the dream world. Typically in a dream, when I encounter a foe, I attempt to escape by running away. I never have the balls to fight them, for my dream-enemies are seemingly omnipotent and extremely terrifying. This time, for some reason, I stood up to the bastards. I started punching and kicking them, and though my punches landed quite softly against their bodies, they were startled to see me fighting back. they hadn't expected this. suddenly, I went out of my dream body and created another perspective. I was backing away from the fight, as they continued to battle the old 'me.' They were fighting a now-defunct version of me, I was quickly escaping in a new body. I hopped into their van and shifted into reverse, worried that they might jump into the windows and give me more trouble. They were so shocked at what I had done, they just stood there, already defeated, even as the van accelerated so agonizingly slowly.

i'm goin to bed