From: KC@none.invalid   
      
   Timothy wrote:   
      
   > I've woken up my bedroom, in the dark. I tried turning the lights on,   
   > but the light switch wouldn't work (of course it shouldn't). Since I   
   > realized that I'm dreaming, I tried "making" the lights go on, by saying   
   > "lights!" or snapping my fingers, or whatever, but the lights wouldn't   
   > turn on. Is there something I'm not doing right here? Since simply   
   > "willing" it worked in the first dream (where I seemed to make jeans   
   > suddenly appear on my legs), I would think that it would work the same   
   > way with the lights, but it doesn't.   
      
   The bigger the change you are trying to effect, the harder it is for   
   your brain to "accept" it. The trick is not to look straigth at where   
   you want something to happen, at least in the beginning. So if you want   
   to turn the lights on, try walking out of the room so you can't see it,   
   will the lights on, and when you come back in, it'll probably be   
   lighted. With practice, you'll be able to change the dream more "directly".   
      
      
   > The other problem is that I can't seem to prolong my dreams. I tried a   
   > couple of methods, such as looking at my hands or looking at the ground,   
   > but I don't really see how it helps.   
      
   Looking at details generally does help. If this doesn't work for you,   
   try something more physical that involves your tactile/kinetic sense,   
   like spinning around. The idea is to keep your brain busy with the dream.   
      
      
     I've also read about dreams "fading   
   > out" (which may allow me some time to stabilize the dream), but this   
   > doesn't seem to happen with me. I just seem to instantly wake up with no   
   > warning. In the last dream I had, I just got out of bed, tried to make   
   > the lights come on, and before I had time to even try leaving the   
   > bedroom the dream had ended. Can anybody give me some advice on this?   
      
   Just more practice, that's all.   
      
      
   > And something else I'm wondering about is if I could practice something   
   > during a lucid dream, and master it in reality. I play a few musical   
   > instruments, so I could try practicing a song during a dream (I've read   
   > about using LDs to practice some kind of performance or speech, and   
   > overcome the fear of being in front of people, but what I really want to   
   > do is to actually physically improve on playing a song. For example, if   
   > I can play Für Elise on the piano by memory, but very slowly, could I   
   > practice it in a dream and greatly improve my speed?)   
      
   Not sure. Some people have reported they can compose in the dream state.   
      
      
     but something I   
   > would really like to try is to learn how to touch type with a new   
   > keyboard layout (the Dvorak layout), but only by practicing in my   
   > dreams. I already learned one new layout (Colemak), and I found that   
   > after the first couple of days I already knew where all of the keys   
   > were, but I was still typing slowly because I had to think of where each   
   > key was before I typed. So if I memorized the new layout, and then only   
   > practiced typing in my dream, could I actually learn to touch type with   
   > a different layout at full speed?   
      
   Not without practicing in real life, too. In the dreaming state the   
   memory storing parts of the brain are not functioning at their best   
   ability. You'd probably gain some benefit from dream-practice, though.   
      
      
   Cheers, KC   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)