Lucid dreaming...

[Earth_First]

Any lucid dreamers out there?

The last few months, I have noticed that I have been having lucid dreaming experiences with greater ability, intensity and duration. I cannot express how intrigued I am with these experiences.

Anyone have any experiences they'd like to share?

[immoderate]

1. I find this happens to me...

...after of few days of not smoking grass. I'd love to know if anybody has the same experience. (Not that I would accuse.)

--IMM

[bubblesby2002]

8. Yes the same thing happens to me too

I just don't like to go too many days without my :smoke:

But the only time the dreams are really lucid is when I am at a party or some kind of gathering and I am looking for my husband (who is dead in real life) and I know it's a dream. I always find him though and then lose him again. Then I leave the party and go back to bed.

[amazona]

2. yes I have lucid dreams

I think you can get to where you over-control your dreams and it isn't necessarily a positive thing, but at the beginning, since you are just starting with this, the important thing is to have any control at all. When you become aware you are dreaming, think of different ways to change the plot to whatever entertains you. I always found that Uzi-ing various people I didn't like in my dreams was an amusing past-time but I'm not going to claim this is necessarily healthy. Another thing I like to do is when I get to a mirror or a window is to push myself through the glass. At first you will be reluctant to do this but once you have done it a few times, you can sort of flow through. It is a bizarre situation but can be highly entertaining.

I guess I am proof that lucid dreaming does not lead to wisdom or enlightenment! But it can be fun. :-)

[WillyBrandt]

3. How do people do this?

[amazona]

7. well i just started very early

I think the first dreams I controlled were in 6th grade when we got involved of a discussion of, is it true that if you dream of dying, you will die? We all agreed that if we were about to be killed in a dream, then we would wake up.

I just didn't believe that dreaming about being killed was fatal, so I decided I would see if I could stay asleep and dream my way through being killed in a dream. I often (still do) have dreams of falling or jumping off high buildings. I decided I would continue to fall until I hit bottom. Before going to sleep, I would think about having a falling dream, and I pretty much did every time. However, the first few nights I kept jerking awake before I hit bottom. Finally I did hit bottom, and my spirit (still in the dream) lifted out of my old body and started flying around. Having satisfied myself that I was immortal in my dreams, I started flapping my wings and flying whenever I started to fall off a tall building. I still do this very often.

It seems I stumbled on the path to lucid dreaming by chance but if you want to try it, start by meditating or daydreaming about what you want to have happen in your dream before you go to sleep. When asleep, if you are dreaming, try to notice that you are dreaming. Next, see if you can fly, walk through walls, etc. Maybe jumping off buildings or using an AK to your worst enemy is the not the FIRST test you should make to be sure you are dreaming, but I was a kid! It would be more advisable to be sure that you can flap your wings and fly. When that works, you know you're dreaming, so suggest to yourself anything else you would like to do. Don't be shy. Your body can take different shapes, it can rise from the dead, it can be another person or another gender, it can even engage in sexual activities...just play around with it.

I have also heard if you have real trouble with getting any dreams to work with, add some vitamin B supplements to your diet. I've always had vivid dreams but I've heard from former non-dreamers it can be a big help.

On Edit: Alcohol can cause shallow sleep or sleep disturbances. Once you are already experienced at lucid dreaming, you can control these shallow dreams without waking up; however, when first starting to practice lucid dreaming, I might recommend avoiding alcohol or caffeine for awhile.

[Khephra]

4. I usually lucidly dream

for some period each night.

[havocmom]

5. me too

If I go more than a couple nights without them, I figure my sub is trying very hard to get a message up that my ego isn't supposed to tinker with in a lucid dream.

[scottcsmith]

6. It's happened to me a few times

The dreams were very vivid, and I remember that, in the dream, I was aware that I was dreaming. I'd wander around in the dream and try to find objects to touch, and when I did the touching generated the sensation of actually touching an object.

I didn't seem to have much control over the dream, and I'm not sure if what happened to me qualifies as a lucid dream, but it was a pretty cool experience.

[haele]

9. When I take Valerian at night to help me sleep

I have some serious lucid dreams. Almost novella length, clear (including memories of smells, taste and color!)with somewhat of a logical sequence that can be remembered for a day or so afterwards. If I'm lucky, I can write them down and see if they fly as a short story. Otherwise I tend to have more or less a few lucid important bits of dreams that can be remembered for a half hour or so after I wake - just enough time for me to write down if they're important. Some are okay - mind candy, some are "prophetic" - the mind putting two and three together while I'm asleep so that I've got a jumpstart on situations that are developing, others - well I've got some scary-bad memories that tend to seep out when I'm stressed. I've just learned to live with those.

A vet co-worker of mine won't take Valerian for his insomnia for that reason - he gets horrific flashbacks in his dreams if he does.


Haele