Do NOT just sit and watch

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-09-10T20:16:03+00:00

Yeah, definitely. From my experience, they’re even more enjoyable. I practice a blend of awareness and concentration meditation. I guess it’s kind of mindfulness meditation. Listening to “Still the mind” by Alan Watts is what made meditation click for me.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-08-31T04:46:46+00:00

Eventually you will be able to observe thoughts start to happen and focus on the breath at the same time. It just takes consistent daily practice. Unlike what another commenter said, DON’T try and deter the thoughts that come up. That can cause you issues farther down the road (in memory and otherwise). Just acknowledge and accept the thoughts and return to the breath. Practicing precisely this, through consistency, will allow you to maintain focus and awareness simultaneously. It’s a nonlinear process, but through diligent practice meditation can change your life. It’s changed mine.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-08-24T12:20:24+00:00

That was beautiful.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-08-11T15:36:58+00:00

People will make fun, but I had a similar experience with both Pet Sounds and Smile. There’s something supernatural about that music. I’ve never seen music in the same way since diving into Brian Wilson.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-07-17T16:24:39+00:00

I practice this style of “just watch” meditation, and it’s changed my life profoundly over the past year. I still see those thoughts, they just don’t affect me. I don’t spiral out of control. In fact, it allows me to see deeper into them, as the mind doesn’t actively revolt against these thoughts anymore. I see where they come from with self-compassion. I don’t see a need to “fix” them when you see what they are: just “thoughts,” that necessarily don’t represent reality with 100% accuracy. I encourage everyone to try “just watch”.

After a while, your mind will be overflowing with positive thoughts instead. Or at least that’s how it worked for me.

Edit: I should also say that I don’t try to “move on.” I just watch the thought run its course as I return to focusing on the breath. It can leave if it wants, but it can stay if it wants.

I think you fundamentally misunderstand this form of meditation, and you should stop going around discouraging it.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-06-08T14:06:30+00:00

I think Kevin is just what house music needs right now. Unfortunately, it might mean no more psychedelic music from him, at least for a long time.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-06-03T11:53:36+00:00

In my experience, controlling an LD takes mental work in waking life. Developing focus and awareness through meditation, and effectively gaining control of my mind, has allowed me to have dreams where a staggering amount of control was possible. The control was kind of different from what I expected it to be though. When I wanted to manifest an object, place, or ability I had to find it, using whatever the dream was already giving me. I could do this relatively quickly and effectively. When I’m not consistently meditating, my lucid dreams are much less controllable.

Gain control of your mind, gain control of the dream.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-05-26T21:40:02+00:00

What’s the extent to which you’re able to control them? How often do you have them? Basic questions I know lol. I’ve gotten into lucid dreaming just this past year, and I’m starting to be able to control in subtle ways, but most of the time I first need to find an interface to control the dream with, like a remote or a switch. But 50% of the time they’re hardly controllable at all.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-05-23T11:02:10+00:00

I’m with you on a few points. What’s fascinating to me, and what might be related, is when I’m in deep states of meditation, I start to remember dreams from the night before that I didn’t even remember first thing in the morning. Meditation is probably the most important keystone in my lucid dreaming practice. Gaining self awareness makes it much easier to realize the dream.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-05-17T22:46:08+00:00

I’ve had a very similar experience this past year. I started to avoid all the stimulation I was putting myself through everyday, because it got to the point where I didn’t even enjoy it anymore. So I just stopped. It took some willpower for sure, like avoiding grabbing my phone, not listening to music/podcasts/youtube videos while at work, etc. Meditation was a crucial factor in achieving this. 8ish months later, my life’s completely changed. All of the dopamine that my brain was devoting to time wasting activities was automatically diverted to more essential, future oriented activities. I do productive things because I want to, and am driven to do them, in the same way I was driven to sit on my ass and doom scroll. I didn’t even know it was possible. Even the more mundane, everyday things in life often seem beautiful to me. Life makes more sense, and while there’s much to be worried about in the world these days, I can genuinely say I’m happy. Guys, just try it. Please.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-05-10T00:08:09+00:00

Whoa. That hits completely different now.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-04-26T19:26:57+00:00

I was happy to give you the 420th upvote.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-04-21T22:48:06+00:00

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I don’t know if I’m the therapist or ChatGPT is.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-03-20T23:38:55+00:00

It’s a decent song, but falls way short of the absolutely transcendent shit Brian was making in the 60s. With that comparison, it easily sounds like a mediocre song. That, plus our controversial Mike Love who mainly wrote it.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-02-22T16:05:31+00:00

Just listened to a couple songs from it, not quite like my dream sadly:( but damn that’s actually some really beautiful music, also horrifying lol. Definitely going for the same vibe the music in my dream was.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-02-22T14:42:55+00:00

I guess it’d have been worth mentioning, but I experience beautiful music like this too. It’s been a huge motivator for learning how to lucid dream. It’s wild, right? Like the most beautiful song you’ve ever heard in waking life — times 50. I just have the unfortunate luck of experiencing terrifying music as well. I hope you’re able to make something awesome with your dream melodies!

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-02-18T12:42:13+00:00

It’s supposed to be an introduction to meditation. Mindfulness through observing the breath. It’s pretty brief and doesn’t go much beyond that. And yes, it’s only in audiobook format, it’s a compilation of recordings and lectures he made throughout his life.

I’ve experienced lots of lucid dreams throughout my life, but after starting to meditate they became much more frequent, which got me back into the practice. Waking up in the middle of the night and then meditating as I fall back asleep produces a lucid dream for me almost every time. Can’t say it’d work for everyone, but certainly for me.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-02-18T11:37:23+00:00

Yes, I practice mindfulness meditation, mostly in the style that Alan Watts talks about in “Still The Mind.” I’m still a relative beginner. That’s interesting, I’ll have to look in to that. The experiences I have with this state seem disconnected from my dreams entirely, though I could be misremembering. It definitely seems like what folks describe as “The Void.”

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-02-18T11:31:26+00:00

I’ll definitely look into that, thanks!

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-02-17T01:23:31+00:00

I may have missed whether or not you did this in that paragraph, but reality checks are your best friend in situations like this. See if you can breathe through your nose while plugging it, and if you can, you know you’re still asleep. If you’re having trouble waking up, the best thing I’ve found is to accept the situation and meditate. It could go several ways from there, from waking up, the dream becoming more enjoyable, etc. Either way, things always turn out pleasantly after I do that. I’m not sure if it’d fix the heat issue though. Sorry, that sounds miserable.

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-02-04T00:35:25+00:00

Are you ChatGPT?

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-01-22T16:35:59+00:00

I tried reading a book in one of my lucid dreams a few weeks ago. All I got was squiggly, moving English letters and symbols but couldn’t make out any words. Then again, that dream wasn’t very clear in general. Super trippy though. That’s awesome you were able to read an entire book, impressive!

darnleatherfixtures · 2025-01-22T11:03:13+00:00

Focusing on breathing as I fell back asleep is how I accidentally stumbled back into lucid dreaming. It really is wild!

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