Lucid dreams...

[Nagash]

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/09/21/how-to-lucid-dream/

Found this on the internet earlier, and brought me back to some insane dreaming experience I had, a few years ago. Most of you must be aware of this, but controlling your dreams is not only possible, it can be mastered. Though I haven't experienced it recently, I thought I'd give it a try in the forthcoming nights. After all, isn't this the path to our most beloved world, dwelling in our imagination ?

For those of you who don't know what a lucid dream is... well : What is Lucid Dreaming?

What about you guys ? Have you ever experienced a lucid dream ? How was it ?

 

[Devor]

What about you guys ? Have you ever experienced a lucid dream ? How was it ?

I dunno, I dunno, I dunno . . . . .

I don't remember my dreams. I don't remember having dreams. When I wake up in the middle of a dream I kind of realize something insanely weird was happening, but it's gone in an instant.

But every once in a while I close my eyes in the car, or a train, or on the floor at a party, or on rare occasions in bed before a big day, and I get to a weird place. I think I'm awake, but apparently I'm not. The next day I think I was awake all night, but don't feel tired. I'm aware of what's going on around me, but I only imagine responding to people as if that meant anything. And I "daydream," because I'm awake, about whatever I want. But it's a lucid dream, because I'm asleep, isn't it? Or what?

It's a real thing that people in the first stage of sleep can think their awake. I really don't know if it's the same thing as a lucid dream or not.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Thanks for the links, Nagash!

This looks like a perfect thread for me to join, because I am an experienced Dreams Traveler and I have enjoyed Lucid Dreaming in several occasions during the past few years.

The Dreams Realm has always fascinated me, so I began my personal quest back in May of 2008 by starting my first Dreams Journal. I recommend a lot to have a Journal, because it's the first step to improve your Dream Recall skills and reach Lucid Dreaming eventually.

The Fake Awakenings are also quite interesting to experience, I have those frequently but the Lucid Dreaming is far more difficult to achieve...

To me, Lucid Dreaming feels very similar to crossing a gateway between universes and suddenly finding myself in a completely different world... The experience is truly awesome, but so far I have been unable to control myself properly in the other side and truly master that realm.

I can answer questions if anyone feels curiosity about the Dreams world =)

 

[Nagash]

Starting a dream journal is definitely on my list, especially since I've been through some very vivid dreams lately. I can recall one experience of "lucid dreaming" - or at least, i believe it to be - three years ago. Although the memory is fading, I remember very specific bits of the adventure, and as you put it Sheila, it was...truly incredible. This being said, I wasn't able to achieve such level of dreaming ever since.

Can you recall some of these marvelous journeys Sheila ? And when you did experience some of them, was there any kind of trick you had to do before falling asleep, such as controlling your breath, or setting your mind on some noise ? I was told to listen to the "tics" of a clock or watch, but it never seemed to suffice.

 

[Sheilawisz]

My Dream Journals have the records of all of my lucid dreams, indeed. The memories of a lucid dream are also particularly difficult to forget, because they give you a very powerful sensation of wonder and adventure.

The trick that works well for me is to perform Reality Checks in my everyday life, but I have not tried any particular sounds trick to be practiced before going to sleep... The Clock sounds seems promising, maybe I'll try that sometime. I have tried eating cheese right before going to bed, which is good, and also eating a lot of tuna fish can be helpful for dreams.

I want to re-read the old entries from my first Dreams Journal, and then I will share some of my Lucid Dreams in this thread =)

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I've done that a lot, though not as much lately as when I was younger. I also took control of dreams. Freddy Krueger always lost to me. How I won was stupid: I made two claw gloves appear on my hands. I was 16, so my imagination was still under development. Having superpowers that let me casually walk through walls was fun, even more than flying because of the looks I'd get when entering a room through a wall. (Plus I was never once good at flying.)

I was a sore loser. I could lose a real life karate tournament match with grace, but in dreams, I had to win.

In my 20s, I dreamed I was leaving my house and suddenly saw in my rearview that I was being followed. I got shot in the back of the head and died. That pissed me off, so I rewound the dream and ducked to one side. I got shot in the neck and was slowly dying. My real life dorm faded into my vision. I was really angered by this and forced my eyes shut, shouting "No! No!" and I think I even swore at the dream. I swerved, duck, saw my room, yelled at the dream, saw bullet holes shatter my windshield, and drove to safety, said "YEAH!" and let myself wake up.

I think I'll add this experience to my list of reason why it's best I didn't have a roommate.

 

[Rinzei]

Freddy Krueger always lost to me. How I won was stupid: I made two claw gloves appear on my hands.

Lara Croft with a bazooka against Resident Evil zombies. It was the only way I started getting a decent night's sleep after watching my cousin play RE at a young age.


I have certain themes or motifs that show up frequently, so I suppose that's almost like my reality check in a way. I almost immediately realise it's a dream at that point. For the most part though, my dreams tend to be very story-based - they are completely removed from reality, smack in their own setting and background. In most cases, I tend to let them play out as they will, because there's usually a good story to be had (hence, story-dreams!).

Cheese does work - hooo boy, does it work. Try some brie if you like it - brie gives you the really weird ones.

 

[Spider]

I’ve actually had quite a few lucid dreams. I remember my first lucid dream was when I was around 8 years old. I could have taken advantage of it, but I was quite scared of the whole situation and tried to find a way out of the dream instead.

I noticed that when I was younger, I didn’t have as many lucid dreams as I’ve had in the past few years. Interestingly, the dreams in which I'm aware that I’m dreaming are usually nightmares. I tell myself to calm down, remind myself that I’m dreaming, and try to solve the problem as I would in real life (sometimes with the benefit of powers or resources that I wouldn’t have in reality).

I’ve considered keeping a dream journal, but I feel like waking up at 6:30am for school would get in the way of that.

 

[The Blue Lotus]

I don't know about lucid dreaming, but I do think that when we are asleep some people have the ability to sense things they would normally not pick up on.

For example, when I do dream which is not all that often, I can figure out problems that have been bugging me, I have written chapters in my dreams, I have learned dance steps that were giving me issues back when I was considering moving up from Semi pro to pro in the clogging scene ( I miss doing that.)
But sometimes I dream about people I know, this never ends well for me or the person I dreamed about. Within a month of dreaming about someone I know they always and I do mean ALWAYS experience something really bad.

Recently I had a dream about the servants who ran the house I stayed while in India. I called India and tried very hard to translate my message to the boys in question. Eventually I gave up and called my friend who in turn called the boys and told them to be careful. About two weeks later they were heading to the market on the scooter and some idiot ran them off the road, the youngest broke his wrist the older of the two thankfully had bought a helmet second hand, after the phone call. His head hit a rock in the accident, but he is alive and unharmed, the same can't be said for the helmet however.

The Mother of my friend called my friend to ask him to call me and tell me thanks for "saving them." I don't think it is a good thing, all I did was express my concern for them since history has taught me to pay attention to my dreams.

Now, if you ask my dad, he swears he can see the future in his dreams and talk to people who have passed on. I don't know if this is true, it is just what he says.

The time before the scooter thing I dreamt about someone I felt very close to but had not met, I never did find out if he had any near misses after my dream, we kind of fell out of touch. But, that particular dream was very unnerving, because I could feel everything, the glass shattering in my dream as the truck rolled was loud enough to make my ears ring and my body ached when I woke up. This happened every night for nearly a week. Finally, I broke down and rehung my dream catcher because the images in my head were very disturbing to say the least.

Since the dream catcher went up I dream, maybe once every six months or so.


it is interesting to note that the dreams I do have only happen when I'm sleeping on the sofa, never in bed under the dream catcher.

Anyhow, I just thought I'd chime in with my .02 cents. Interesting stuff; dreams, superstitions, and perhaps some type of extra sensory abilities that we all might have hidden within.

 

[ThinkerX]

I've had a very few precognitive dreams or flashes or whatever you choose to call them. Unfortunately, while accurate, they were all very brief (real world actions lasting seconds) and very mundane (staring at an industrial sink I did not see until years later - how's that for exciting?)

When younger, I had a ...sequence... of 'future self' dreams. I was 'me', yet I was not 'me'. This 'future self' lived in a really run down future America - suburbs turned into shanty towns, dodgy law and order, most things worn out and shabby. Yet here and there were bits of tech straight out of 'star trek'. 'Future Me' was a man 'with a mission', though I was never certain what that mission was. He did end up in some unusual places.

I also had a few dreams I suspect might have been past incarnations. Flat out scariest, hands down, was the 'soldier dream'.

 

[The Blue Lotus]

Thinker,

This "soldier dream" care to tell? I'm interested in the topic of past lives since it is something that people the world over believe to be a real thing.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I had some very vivid dreams which involved lots of worms and a clumsy coworker whose ponytail dipped into my coffee. I never forget I'm married in dreams, so while she was trying to be cute, it was a very awkward situation for me. Her hair was dirty, with bits of styrofoam in it. I dumped the coffee.

I thought, wow... been years since I had multiple dreams running this long, and funny how I was on MS posting about dreams. I thought that in the dream. It was cool until I woke up at 6:13.

I try to leave the house at 6:30. I was out at 6:35 today, which is still plenty early. But I just liked the dreams. They were dumb and creepy, but it really has been a while since I had such a clear, long lasting dream. For about 15-30 minutes, I wondered if the worms were really, as in inside me? I asked myself, is THIS why I'm losing weight?

By the time I arrived at work I realized it's because I stopped bringing snacks to work. I'm going to hold off on calling the doctor about worms. (As in I'm seriously not worried at all. Just some odd post-dream jitter I hadn't experienced in a long time... which was kinda cool in way.)

 

[ThinkerX]

This "soldier dream" care to tell? I'm interested in the topic of past lives since it is something that people the world over believe to be a real thing.

Don't know when or where. Light colored skins, and rifles, so maybe early 20th century...if real at all.

Dream opens with me milling around with maybe twenty or thirty other guys in a clearing at the bottom of a steep sided valley, its slopes covered in grass, brush, and short trees. We're dressed in...well not really camo, but something that did kind of blend in with the shrubbery. I'm keyed and nervous, so are the other guys, though they try not to show it. It's pretty apparent none of us have much in the way of training, nor is there a great deal of discipline. I hear a bunch of popping sounds from the 'open' end of the valley. One of the people I'm milling around with falls. Lots of shouting and running.

Me and four or five others run into the brush at the base of the slope. We decide our best way out is to go right over the top of the ridge, drop into the next valley, climb the far slope there, and drop into a third valley where we believe our side has a major camp...though we are less than sure about that.

We start climbing the hill. Its hot. The rifles we were issued weigh a lot; worse they're not very accurate, and we don't have much ammo...a few bullets apiece. A couple guys abandon their rifles. Every now and again, we hear more popping sounds from downslope, and rustling in the brush. I never actually see any of the people shooting at us; once in a while one of the people with me will take a shot at a rustling sound with their rifle.

Part way up the slope, the guy I'm climbing next to falls face first into the dirt and doesn't move. I think he's been hit, but again I can't see the shooter. I try to pull him to the side, rolling him over in the process. I discover he's been carrying a pistol all this time. Very shiny and very thin. I'm impressed at how light it is compared to the rifle. I fire a couple shots downslope.

It's hot, I'm tired and thirsty, but I can't stay where I'm at. I make for a particularly thick clump of trees and brush and start climbing for the ridge top. There are only two or three others with me at this point.

At the top of the ridge, I'm breathing hard and can barely stand. Only one of us is still fit for much - he takes off running down the far slope. Me and the last person start moving along the ridge top, looking for a place where we can catch our breath. After a bit, we come across a half caved in bunker of some sort - maybe an observation point. We go inside after hearing some rustling sounds. The guy with me goes ahead, and finds a sort of crack at the back which he begins shimming up.

I'm standing behind him, waiting for him to get far enough up the crack for me to follow, when I hear a sound from the entrance. I turn to see an enemy soldier, rifle pointed right at me. End of dream.

 

[Writeking]

I can recall some of the most important parts of a lot of my dreams. I'm not sure but I may have had a couple of lucid dreams, unless I was just dreaming that I was lucid dreaming. I do a lot of flying and hovering in my dreams

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I had several dreams last night, one of which involved slaying orcs (like those in my sig, but gray-skinned) and another that involved this valkyrie that I drew last night.

She wasn't running with a weird expression (that I'm not really crazy about), but she had those exact wings. They were flat and rectangally. I also had another dream I was working in an office, and I was wondering at the time if it was the same office I had dreamed of the night before.

What's odd is that I haven't remembered dreams in quite some time, and MAYBE there was a time or two in this decade that I could recall multiple dreams, but it's only since I stumbled on this thread a couple days ago that I had more than one dream which was long, vivid, and I had that self-awareness and a degree of control. Two of the dreams involved my characters, which was very cool. It's been too long since I dreamed of one of my characters.

 

[The Blue Lotus]

Geez Thinker,

I'd be a tad freaked out too.

Glad the dream has stopped.