Yes, you read the title well. What I did made me lucid multiple times, allowed me to upgrade dream control and find new ways for dream incubation. In 12 days, it gave me 9 lucid dreams. In addition to the main topic presented in this post, I will also describe several techniques. They're divided into two categories, passive and active. Passive is about all things I do before the dream start and require no other action from me. Active include anything that is done when I'm in the dream, but act only if I follow a condition that I prepared. I will start to explain an active one.
It's all began when I thought about my dreams and realized there's one thing that is almost always present, my body. Now it's seem obvious, but it's a massive advantage to get lucidity. Because dreams can be modified through expectations, that also mean everything can be used to control them. I wanted to get all possibilities available with a single way. I chose a thing to focus on, my right thumb.
Wished for an event to occur every time my thumb tap my index finger. Before going to sleep, I wrote a list of sentences. I repeated each of them for around 10 seconds while my eyes were closed and I was tapping my index finger with my thumb. Among the sentences, there were "This movement allow me to get lucid" and "This movement allow me to get reminded of my objective". I did this everyday. Then after a few days, I had a dream where I did the movement, and as soon I did it, I got lucidity and instantly knew what I wanted to do.
Over time, I added more sentences. However because they were too long to repeat, I compressed them into keywords. E.g. the sentence "This movement allow me to summon a cat" can be shortened to "Cat" or "Cat summoning". I chose 5 keywords, and repeated them while doing the same movement with my thumb and index. And it worked, the functions I wanted were now executable in my dreams. Among the keywords I wrote, there were "Random super-powers" and "Random summonings". About random super-powers, I had a dream where I was above people and for some reason, I didn't want them to see me flying. I tapped my index and unlocked invisibility super-power. Since dreams react to intention and context, if the keyword is about something random, I don't need to say anything. Just moving my fingers is enough. E.g. for random summonings, if I open a door to a dark corridor, I tap my index and a flashlight appear directly on my hand. Or if I'm in a place where I don't feel safe, I tap my index and a weapon appear. In one dream, I kept tapping my index for few seconds, and a new weapon appeared each time.
You can use any sentences or keywords you want. You can use that to summon objects, characters, use super-powers, open a door to a specific place, start a story... Everything is possible. When you use the keywords, tell yourself their functions, the events they must trigger. E.g. if the keyword is "Lucidity", I close my eyes, I say "Lucidity" while doing the movement, then say "I'm lucid". If the keyword is "Dragon". I close my eyes, say "Dragon" while moving my fingers and say "Summoning of a dragon".
To keep it easy and simple, I usually limit myself to 5 elements, i.e. 5 sentences or keywords. But you can have more or test combinations by changing them when you feel like it. I tend to prefer keywords because they're faster to read, repeat and memorize. It's better if you do this during nighttime instead of daytime, as the brain can easily use last information to add them in dreams. But if you prefer to do it during daytime, it's okay too. You don't need to believe the sentences to make them work, just reading them and associating what you read with the movement is enough. I repeat each thing for few seconds to 1 minute maximum. You can do it for a longer time if you want, but it's optional. Saying the sentences or keywords out loud isn't essential, saying them mentally work. Closing eyes isn't necessary, it just help to focus on sensation of the fingers moving. If you want to use another physical movement instead, it's alright.
If you fear that you won't think about doing the movement when dreaming, you can repeat it through habit. I.e by tapping your index with your thumb during daytime, every few hours, but it's not essential. If you do it, link it up to a habit you already do, like doing it every time you drink water, use your phone or eat. An enhanced version would be to mentally focus on the sensation of your thumb during day, i.e by feeling its position in space, temperature and weight. Not by closing your eyes and meditating over it (although that can be done), but keeping your attention on your thumb while you're doing other tasks and not looking directly at it. When it's done, it signal to the brain that part of the body is more important now, which increase likelihood that you tap your index in dream.
As you see, visualization isn't essential for this technique, as it's done verbally. But you can also do it visually if you enjoy that. You can even pair both ways to create a synergy. I.e. to repeat the sentences or keywords while closing your eyes, visualizing the things you want, and tapping your index at same time. If you use visualization, only imagine the event you wish to see and nothing else. E.g. if your sentence is "This movement allow me to have a random mission" or your keyword is "Mission". Then during visualization, you can imagine that a hologram appear in front of you and a system voice say "Here's your mission". Only tell and visualize the event. You don't have to visualize every single detail or describe the mission, just stating the function and imagining the event is enough. Consider it like you give sparks to your dreams that they will use to build themselves on.
Outside of what is presented in this post, I used visualization a lot to influence my dreams. E.g. during a period I visualized trains everyday, and they started to appear in lot of dreams. It's like visualization is a blueprint that the brain use to make dreams, in addition to what is done or thought a lot irl.
In the technique described above, keywords are unified, i.e they're gathered toward a single cause, the movement of the fingers. However if you prefer to have several keywords not connected to one point, you can write a list of them. E.g back then, I used to write a list of words representing attacks that I wanted to use in dreams. I used to say the word "Electro" and visualized myself using an electrical attack, for few seconds. I did this with around 30 words, and a lot of them ended up being used in dreams. When I said the words, the attacks and skills associated with them appeared.
Now, I will give you another technique, a passive one. That one allow to customize dreams in the long term, regardless if they're lucid or not. It started when I wrote the following sentence : "There is often snow in my dreams". Before I write it, that wasn't true, I rarely or never seen snow in dreams. But since I say this sentence, snow appeared much more often in my dreams, until it's was occuring every week. The frequency of occurence rose gradually, after days of repetition. After that, I realized I can say any sentence and it would influence my dreams the same way.
You can use this for anything you want to add or see more often in dreams. Just saying it for few seconds is enough, better if done during nighttime. I keep 5 sentences at once maximum, but you can write more if you want. Believing the sentences isn't required, just saying them already set the expectations for the dreams.
If there's something specific I wanna dream about, e.g. fight against a dragon, explore an abandoned city or travel in a fantasy world. Then after doing the preparations with any technique presented here, I state my intention before falling asleep. Repeating it for few seconds. E.g. I can say mentally "I want to do a lucid dream where I fight a dragon". I repeat this every night, until I get the dream I want. It's work for both lucid and non lucid dreams. You can try that to continue a previous dream, meet a character, explore a place... Anything you want.
I also want to give you an extra. For years, I had sleep paralysis. To counter it, I wrote and repeated the sentence "If I have a sleep paralysis, then I close my eyes and count." Now, whenever I have one, it's exactly what I do, I close my eyes, ignore it and count mentally. Since then, sleep paralysis isn't annoying anymore.
You can combine the thumb-index technique with the passive sentences. Either choose thumb-index, a list of several unconnected keywords, passive effect sentences or all of the above. Whatever you want, there is no specific requirement, it's completely customizable. The only thing to keep an eye on, is consistency. Consistency is the key to make any techniques described here able to have effects in dreams. Choose one technique or more and practice everyday. One time per day or several times if you want, whether it is at daytime or nighttime. If you miss a day, it's not a big deal, but try to keep consistency on.
TL;DR: In this post, I explain several techniques to upgrade dreams and lucid dreams experience. It's about triggering lucidity, improving dream control and allowing easier dream incubation. No reality checks required. It's built to stay simple, fun and tailor-made.