Lucid Dreaming

[Piggy]

Wow! Thank you, everyone. I'm so glad to hear that so many other people have been able to cultivate the practice. Makes me feel like somewhat less of a freak.

I find that I cannot just "materialize" things in my lucid dreams.

I find this difficult, too. It's easier for me to stop a dream, or "dissolve" the current scene, or make small changes like transforming objects, or bend the physical laws like jumping over a house. But materializing characters is more difficult -- I think this is because I know that the invoked character is "artificial". That sounds nonsensical, but I do have a sense of what is "dream natural" and what is "dream artificial". But I bet if I really worked on it, I could get better at materializing characters.

I doubt I will, though. After getting the technique down pretty solid (took a few years) I found that I was less and less inclined to alter my dreams. First of all, nightmares became more revelatory than scary. So now, if I'm being chased by a monster, I still usually run, but I'm interested in where the dream is going, and I know that I'm in no danger. In other dreams, I want to see what the dream has to say, what it's going to present me. Altering things, while a big kick at first, now is no fun most of the time.

And so here's a potential down-side. When I do have nightmares, they usually fizzle. They're not scary. They're not threatening. They generally veer off into benign scenarios, or into something like watching a movie. So I wonder if I'm missing what the dream could have shown me if I'd believed in it.

 

[Jon the Geek]

It seems like part of my brain likes to "play with" the rest of my brain when I dream. For example, once I had a dream in which I fell asleep and had a lucid dream. I couldn't directly control the lucid dream, but rather my sleep self controlled it in the usual crazy dream version of reality. I woke up very angry with my brain

Another time, I dreamt that I had had a lucid dream, and was telling someone about it. My brain is a jerk.

I've also had dream-friends try to convince me that it wasn't a dream before, but at least once that I remember I wouldn't take that, and flew away to prove it (apparently my dream friends are skeptics, and needed proof).

The funny/sad part of this is that I almost never remember my dreams unless I really work at it. While I was actively keeping a dream journal and working on lucid dreaming, I could remember between 2 and 8 dreams every night. I think I'll try to start keeping a dream journal again, and see if I can repeat that performance...

 

[Piggy]

If you dream that you're tripping... are you tripping?

 

[lister]

I've also had dream-friends try to convince me that it wasn't a dream before,

I've had dreams where my dream friends have told me that THEY are dreaming, and so I don't really exist. I remember trying to work out how I could tell if I was real or not.

The funny/sad part of this is that I almost never remember my dreams unless I really work at it.

Same here, unless I'm awoken half way through a dream.

Have you ever had a revelation whilst dreaming, like a really simple invention or something, and then can't remember it when you wake up?
Only ONCE have I managed to drag that invention back to the real world with me, when I became lucid just as I was waking up.

It was the wierdest experience trying to keep the image in my mind. It kept trying to "snap" one way or the other - either lost to a transient jumble of meaningless dream images, or to the nearest real world object as I awoke. It was a real balancing act to slowly ease myself awake without losing it.
When I was finally fully concious the resultant device was totally ridiculous just a sort of amorphorous blob of object parts and textures, but it was interesting to be able to examine it with my conscious mind. And when I was alseep, this object was the best thing since sliced bread!

 

[Godmode]

I have a high level of lucidity in my dreams, but usually very low level control. I went through a period of time were becoming lucid was actually a nightmare, and I'd spend the rest of the dream in a panic trying to wake up. I still occasionally get the "I need to wake up now" feeling, I'm not sure where that comes from. But I'm usually aware I'm dreaming, even though I don't seem to have the control ability many describe, which may account for the panic...who knows.

Has anyone else noticed how much more intense emotions are in dreams? Like when you're happy, you're REALLY REALLY estatic, and if you're scared, it's beyond all proportions... ect.

 

[fls]

Have you ever had a revelation whilst dreaming, like a really simple invention or something, and then can't remember it when you wake up?
Only ONCE have I managed to drag that invention back to the real world with me, when I became lucid just as I was waking up.

It was the wierdest experience trying to keep the image in my mind. It kept trying to "snap" one way or the other - either lost to a transient jumble of meaningless dream images, or to the nearest real world object as I awoke. It was a real balancing act to slowly ease myself awake without losing it.
When I was finally fully concious the resultant device was totally ridiculous just a sort of amorphorous blob of object parts and textures, but it was interesting to be able to examine it with my conscious mind. And when I was alseep, this object was the best thing since sliced bread!

I have lots of lucid dreaming stories, but this reminds me of one that I am particularly proud of. <g>

My mother and I had been trying to remember (for several days) a melody from a mini-series that we had watched (The Thorn Birds, if you must know), but were unsuccessful. I was having an afternoon nap when I started to dream about sitting at the piano and playing this melody from a piece of sheet music. I realized that I was dreaming, but I wanted to be able to remember the melody when I awoke, so I grabbed the sheet music and memorized the notes. As soon as I woke up, I pulled out a sheet of music notation paper (I was a music major, so there was always some scattered around) and wrote down what I remembered from the dream. I went to the piano and played it, and it was exactly right. I couldn't remember the melody when I awoke, just the visual memory of the notation.

Linda

 

[luchog]

Although... am I the only one here who would spend most of his LD time materializing, and then having sex with, gorgeous women?

That used to be my primary LD activity, when I had them. During my peak of lucid dreaming frequency, I began to use the time more to explore odd dream landscapes; particularly in a certain recurring dream involving underground labyrinths (searching for the Gate of Deeper Slumber? I dunno).

I used to have the quite frequently for a period of my life. I experienced LD very rarely as a child up until my mid-20s, when i started to have them more often. For a period in my late-20s to early 30s, I had them very often, particularly when using small amounts of cannabis as a sleep aid (and only with very small amounts). Unfortunately, my sleep disorder has gotten so bad that I am no longer able to dream lucidly.

 

[Silly Green Monkey]

I fly in my dreams all the time, and pass through walls. I don't think I'm actually dreaming lucidly, because the actions I take in the dream aren't what I would do if awake.

 

[alexi_drago]

As far as i can remember I've never experienced LD but have had periods of sleep paralysis on waking up which could be pretty scary but eventually realised when it was happening and could put up with it even though i had no control. Not had it for a few years now thankfully.

 

[galla]

I've also been flying in my dreams since childhood, but these aren't usually lucid dreams. I've had only a few lucid dreams and yes, I tend to jump the bones of the nearest bod when that happens because the experience is so vivid. I usually wake up a few seconds after realizing I'm dreaming, unfortunately, so it's necessarily a hurried affair.

I've suffered from episodes of sleep paralysis since I was a teenager (less frequently now) - accompanied by the malevolent being in the room (the "Hag Phenomenon"), levitation, visual and auditory hallucinations, feelings of abject terror, etc. It happens more often when I've been getting too much sleep - too much sleeping in. Carl Sagan posited this phenomenon as an explanation for alien abduction experiences and that seems plausible.

The fear is very real even when one knows it's caused by sleep paralysis and that the hallucinations are just that. A few years ago I found information about how the part of the brain that generates fear is overstimulated during these episodes, but I don't know if research has been done.

 

[Piggy]

Welcome to the board, galla!

 

[andyandy]

I've also been flying in my dreams since childhood, but these aren't usually lucid dreams. I've had only a few lucid dreams and yes, I tend to jump the bones of the nearest bod when that happens because the experience is so vivid. I usually wake up a few seconds after realizing I'm dreaming, unfortunately, so it's necessarily a hurried affair.

I've suffered from episodes of sleep paralysis since I was a teenager (less frequently now) - accompanied by the malevolent being in the room (the "Hag Phenomenon"), levitation, visual and auditory hallucinations, feelings of abject terror, etc. It happens more often when I've been getting too much sleep - too much sleeping in. Carl Sagan posited this phenomenon as an explanation for alien abduction experiences and that seems plausible.

The fear is very real even when one knows it's caused by sleep paralysis and that the hallucinations are just that. A few years ago I found information about how the part of the brain that generates fear is overstimulated during these episodes, but I don't know if research has been done.

welcome to the forum

your post makes me rather glad of my dull and wholly non-lucid sleep...

....no actually, i've been spurred on by some of the posts in this thread to try to teach myself....
day 1 - no result

 

[andyandy]

Welcome to the board, galla!

damn! you beat me to be the first to be friendly

 

[alexi_drago]

I've suffered from episodes of sleep paralysis since I was a teenager (less frequently now) - accompanied by the malevolent being in the room (the "Hag Phenomenon"), levitation, visual and auditory hallucinations, feelings of abject terror, etc. It happens more often when I've been getting too much sleep - too much sleeping in. Carl Sagan posited this phenomenon as an explanation for alien abduction experiences and that seems plausible.

No one else I've told about it has knowingly experienced it and I never knew what it was until i put sleep and paralysis into google, it was happening once every month or so and was usually at times like if i'd just got home from work and fallen asleep for an hour or so. Usually autidory hallucinations and a feeling of something moving around me while totally paralysed and desperate to do something like move a finger so I agree that the alien abduction thing sounds plausable.

 

[osmosis]

Have you ever had a revelation whilst dreaming, like a really simple invention or something, and then can't remember it when you wake up

Once when I was very young, I had a dream that went something like this:

-----
I'm out playing in the yard, and a stranger walks up and utters some mathematical formula or something I don't understand.
The next day, I'm walking up the stairs to the kitchen and pass my grandfather on the way up. When I get to the kitchen, he's sitting in a chair at the table. I am shocked, and start saying "huh? wha?"
He looks at me and says "don't you remember?" and then I start thinking back to the stranger and the formula, and it dawns on me that the stranger had told me "the answer", the secret of all existence.
I hear myself screaming "you mean.. you mean.." as everything fades to white.
-----

Dangit, I still can't remember that formula.

 

[Brian Jackson]

...no actually, i've been spurred on by some of the posts in this thread to try to teach myself....
day 1 - no result

I did the LD Course from The Lucidity Institute. Dr. LaBerge stresses keeping a dream journal such that, over time, you can see patterns of things that you dream of often. He calls them "dream signs." I noticed that mine tend to be aquariums, high places and public gatherings at night. So I've trained myself to do "reality checks" (read some text, look at hand, etc.,) when I'm in those situations. When the reality check fails I know I'm dreaming. Reality checks throughout the day become habitual, so you carry this habbit with you into the dream.

Back when I was first using the NovaDreamer, which flashes lights into your eyes during REM, I trained myself to do reality checks whenever I'd see blinking lights (traffic lights, brake lights, etc.) My trouble has been that, upon reaching lucidity, the excitement of having acheived that state would often wake me up. This was frustrating, but now if I rub my hands together or jog in place during the dream, I tend to stay lucid for much longer. Perhaps it's the imagined tactile interaction that makes it seem more "real" and the mind is less likely to reject it. Just a hunch, but it works.

 

[Piggy]

I've trained myself to do "reality checks" (read some text, look at hand, etc.,)

This might sound odd to others at first, but many years ago I noticed that reading was one of the better cues to use. I don't know why this is the case, but I generally cannot read in a dream. Maybe the dreaming brain doesn't have access to all the brain modules involved in reading. But for whatever reason, when I scrutinize text, it's blurry and weird.

But for me, flying was the most vivid cue.

To induce flying dreams, I used another technique I read about -- meditate on what you want to dream about for several minutes a little while before sleeping. Then distract yourself a few more minutes before going to bed.

When I first started, it took months and months before lucid dreams were anything more than a rare, seemingly chance, event. But once I started getting the feeling for recognizing the dream state, things went much more quickly.

Btw, re paralysis, the most common nightmares of my youth ended in paralysis -- me on the ground not being able to move or speak while whatever-it-was closed in on me. Turns out I was also trying to speak or scream physically. I often woke up shouting from these dreams, sometimes suddenly sitting bolt upright.

I still will have a dream like that very rarely, when I don't know I'm dreaming. Absolutely terrifying. Paralyzed and watching the thing come at you, with its knife or its teeth or its claws.

Once, in my very early teens, I woke up and the things in my dream were in the room. I could see the room, even sit up, but the dream world was superimposed on it like a double-exposed photograph, then slowly faded.

 

[Demigorgon]

Brian, I don't know if this has come up, but has anyone mentioned using the nicotine patch? A few years back when I was trying to stop smoking, I fell asleep with one on and..o boy was that nuts. I had the most vivid dream in my entire life. Unfortunatley it turned out to not be a pleasent one. I have also heard other people mention it happening to them. I know vivid dreams and lucid dreams are not the same thing, but what about somehow incorporating the two?

 

[Brian Jackson]

Brian, I don't know if this has come up, but has anyone mentioned using the nicotine patch? A few years back when I was trying to stop smoking, I fell asleep with one on and..o boy was that nuts. I had the most vivid dream in my entire life. Unfortunatley it turned out to not be a pleasent one. I have also heard other people mention it happening to them. I know vivid dreams and lucid dreams are not the same thing, but what about somehow incorporating the two?

Boy howdy... I've done the patch during sleep and had some freaky dreams as well. I don't recall any points of lucidity during wearing them though. Might be interesting to research though.

 

[Brian Jackson]

...I noticed that reading was one of the better cues to use. I don't know why this is the case, but I generally cannot read in a dream...

For me, text often mutates in creative ways. Digital clocks are good reality checks as well... I glance at it, look away and glance back. In dreams the time will usually be different. Light switches never work in dreams either. Try flashing the lights on and off in your next LD... they're never "wired" to the bulbs.