Lucid Dreams

[JUN]

Lately I've been having lots of lucid dreams... Weird lucid dreams with stupid details in which I actually seem to make decisions.

For example, today I dreamed that I was playing a sorts of game in which me and a friend had to do the following to two "dwarfs":

They were stuck to a chain, so we had to let the chain go in order that they would go underwater, here's a quick sketch:

Under this water there was a very very dusty place where you could hardly breathe.

The point of the game was to be able to bury these dwarfs... And people were making holes in the rock so that they could bury them and i was doing it too, until I, actually me, not the me in the dream but me, decided that i should build a coffin instead of burying it because it would be faster. And indeed I did so in the dream.

Not only this but I've had dreams in which I almost got to fly on command, but then I always woke up after I actually got to achieve something.

Anyway, does anyone else here seems to have lucid dreams or wants to ? What are your thoughts on it ?

The hard part is really trying not to wake up after you're lucid... I wonder how it works in a biological/chemical level.

 

[asdfasdfasdfsdf]

dont mean to spoil your fun, but as a kid, i lucid dreamt more than i didnt lucid dream.
in the past year or two, my lucid dreaming has slowed down.. but i still have at least one a week.

 

[JUN]

Hah ! You're not spoiling my fun at all, I'm curious to try and figure out why some people do it more than others. Do you think there are any reasons as to why it happens so much to you ?

 

[asdfasdfasdfsdf]

Do you think there are any reasons as to why it happens so much to you ?

not too sure.
i also have quite a few recurring dreams.. but recently, when the recurring dream happens.. i go "hey, ive been here before.. oh wait this is the dream i always have.. the world is about to burn.. .heh... im dreaming" and then im in control.

but idk why as i kid, i just had them all the time.
the thing i almost always end up doing is flying over endless fields of what could be corn? .. idk.. i feel.. freedom.
it sucks when your dreams are more fun/fulfilling then real life.. because then you like to sleep in ALL day..

 

[chloé]

I've been able to do it a lot in the past, but it was with training. I never had the problem of waking up right after becoming lucid. The difficulty I sometimes had was sustaining lucidity and not getting distracted by something in the dream.

For me the whole thing was about seeing if I could train myself to achieve it, and see if it's really awesome and makes dreams more fun. It's fun at first ("Wow cool I'm in a dream and I'm aware of it! What should I do!?"), but after a while I realized I prefer letting my subconscious dish out whatever twisted things it has in store for me every night. It's also a control thing. Now I'm ok with not being in control, I don't mind nightmares, etc.

By the way, that's cool how you drew your dream. I've always wanted to do something like that but it seemed too enterprising.

 

[Toad]

New medication, perhaps?

 

[JUN]

Oh yeah, might be it, I guess some medication might improve the capacity of lucid dreaming, thinking about it, I had the most lucid dreams when I took Alprazolam.

@chloé: Just draw it really, a quick sketch, sometimes, is enough :) And that's weird that you gave up on controlling your dreams, i guess sometimes we're better off going with the flow huh...

 

[Melkor]

I have dreams which are realistically unrealisitc.


That is, they have perfect detail, while being about things I really and truly cannot find detail of in the real world.

 

[JUN]

By the way chloé, is there any way to stop yourself from waking up ?

 

[Da Blob]

I think there are a couple of old threads on this topic,
http://www.intpforum.com/showthread.php?t=1571

i know that i have posted this link before..

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Lucid_Dreaming

I have been a lucid dreamer since I was about eighteen months old. One can learn to manipulate dreams and take control of them... I do not know how useful this wikibook is in that regard, but i believe that lucid dreaming is a skill that can be cultivated and developed. I do know that there are quite a variety of dreams and there seems to be distinct levels...

 

[Wish]

For the past 2-3 years or so I've barely dreamed at all and the dreams I do have are usually pretty short or just the most bizarre sequence of events. When I was younger, though, I had a lot of recurring dreams and eventually it came to a point where within what felt like minutes of entering the dream-state, I would recognize it as a dream and would be able to 'control' it. This usually involved me just jumping up and flying around Neo style, going places I wanted to be. Sometimes I even felt like I could completely control whether I was awake/dreaming/not dreaming or whatever.

Cool/creepy dream drawing by the way

 

[EditorOne]

I've had a recurring dream of living in a house where we never went on the second floor because there was something really, badly, Stephen-King wrong there. Glimpses showed a huge, shadowed bedroom, dust, a bad smell. Had the dream again this weekend, thought it was stupid to be living in the little rooms on the first floor when we had all this unused space, grabbed some light bulbs, went up and put them in, found out the second floor was big and spacious and airy and clean, with some odd furniture and odd architecture, but really it turned out to be pleasant and surprising rather than furtive and scarey.

I don't know what it means, but I'll take pleasant and surprising any day over furtive and scarey, even in a dream.

 

[Cogwulf]

Whenever I have a dream that becomes lucid I wake up quite quickly, 2 of the times I had a dream turn lucid I saw a nuclear missile hit on my city, which was slightly worrying

 

[asdfasdfasdfsdf]

about the medication idea:
i heard melatonin (you can buy it over the counter, its a hormone that tells your brain "go to sleep") increases odd and lucid dreams.. i took it quite frequently last year for insomnia issues.. and i didnt notice much of a difference.. but i was already having strange and lucid dreams.

 

[Darby]

My experience with lucid dreams is much the same as Cogwulf, I have lucid dreams often, but as soon as I realize I'm dreaming, my mind wants to grab the dream or kind of hold it still, and then I wake up

 

[Adymus]

I haven't been able to successfully lucid dream in a very long time.

Last time I did was several months ago: I dosed off waiting for my Former Boss to come pick me up. And I was dreaming I was sitting at my desk and waiting for her there. It occurred to me that I can't be at my desk because I never got up, so I must be still asleep, and that's when I made the jump into lucid mode. So then I walked through my wall to see where the voices outside were coming from, and then I got woken up by my phone.

If you figure out the trick behind Lucid dreaming at will then I am all ears. I used to do it really often several years ago, but I just kind of lost the ability to do it naturally.

 

[asdfasdfasdfsdf]

dr. google tells me you need to constantly do reality checks in real life, and then truly consider "is this realistic".. and if you do it enough, then you will pick up your habits in your dream.. and do reality checks.. and you should seriously think hard enough.
supposedly in your dreams.. if you look at a clock.. and then look again after looking away.. they often do very unrealistic things.. so i guess checking the same clock twice within 30 seconds or so is a good reality check.
i have never really used this, though.

 

[warryer]

A few years back I read up on this to see if I could induce a lucid dream. One way that worked for me was to periodically throughout my day ask myself 'Am I dreaming?' and really mean it. Eventually I would become concious inside my dream but, as soon as I realised it I got excited and just ended up waking up.

The times that I have done this successfully though were always stumbled upon. The BEST part about these is that they are always those epic dreams that you will never forget because they make such an impression.

Other than that, I can't really remember my dreams anymore... kind of sad really. In the mornings during that half asleep rolling out of bed phase I can remember but I don't think that counts.

 

[echoplex]

I'm not sure I've ever lucid dreamed. Well, to be exact, I think I've had lucid moments in dreams, but they're never the entire dream itself, just one aspect of the dream I seem to be able to control. My dreams are just so damned powerful to me that I'm rarely, if ever, able to realize I'm only dreaming. I've also noticed that even when I feel a sense of control in a dream, I tend to make really stupid choices in the dream that are uncharacteristic for me. Like, I'll do something I'd never want to do, or pass us something I wanted to do. It's more of an illusion of control than actual control, because if I was really in control, wouldn't I choose actions I actually wanted? It's as if it's not "me" making the choices, but some stupid alter ego.

 

[Pythia]

I had a couple of lucid dreams during my childhood, but now my mind has taken such control over me that it makes me believe I'm awake and doing what I have to do when I get up, when in reality I'm still dreaming in bed.

 

[Toad]

Alazopram dreams are the freaky deaky fishikies.

 

[chloé]

By the way chloé, is there any way to stop yourself from waking up ?

I've never had the problem of waking up. Hmm, read my next bit about my method because I think it might have something to do with it.

dr. google tells me you need to constantly do reality checks in real life, and then truly consider "is this realistic".. and if you do it enough, then you will pick up your habits in your dream..

I heard about this theory eventually, after I was already able to lucid dream (also, anyone seen Waking Life? It gets into that idea.)

IMHO, that strikes me as a lot of unnecessary effort and complication. My method (which I invented when I was like 8, but it did work) was as follows ... every night as you lie in bed, with great discipline, concentrate really hard on a line like "This is just a dream" - something that will trigger lucidity once you're in the dream. When that's the last thing you think of as you fall asleep, you'll eventually embed that "realization" into the subconscious dream-state, and become lucid.

Also, I think maybe since this process engages at the start of sleep, you reach the lucid trigger moment during the dream stage prior to REM, or maybe in early REM (I have no idea), rather than at the very end of REM before you wake up, which is when the mind is actually becoming more conscious naturally. It's just a theory, but as I said, lucidity has never caused waking up for me.

 

[Ashenstar]

I've always been envious of people who can lucid dream. I have never had the experience, that I'm aware of anyway.

Years ago when I used to actually remember my dreams I would have so many nightmares and there was nothing I could do but sit there trapped being forced to watch these incredibly horrible things and being pulled along a through thing I didn't wish to experience.

Finally my brain I think just decided enough and now I never remember my dreams.

So now I'm just envious of people who can simply remember their dreams at all.
I just need moar drugz!

 

[Wish]

Come to think of it, being Neo in the matrix (not in the movie in general, but when he actually enters the matrix) is probably a lot like lucid dreaming.

 

[Adymus]

dr. google tells me you need to constantly do reality checks in real life, and then truly consider "is this realistic".. and if you do it enough, then you will pick up your habits in your dream.. and do reality checks.. and you should seriously think hard enough.
supposedly in your dreams.. if you look at a clock.. and then look again after looking away.. they often do very unrealistic things.. so i guess checking the same clock twice within 30 seconds or so is a good reality check.
i have never really used this, though.

Have you ever tried reading small print while dreaming? It's all just random letters, it's crazy. I had a dream I was driving on the freeway once, and all the signs just had jibberish.

 

[asdfasdfasdfsdf]

Come to think of it, being Neo in the matrix (not in the movie in general, but when he actually enters the matrix) is probably a lot like lucid dreaming.

for me - lucid dreaming was very much like being Neo in the matrix.

 

[Beat Mango]

Lucid dreaming, huh. Sounds cool, I'll add it to the "things to do" list.

At the moment my dreams aren't lucid, but I do kind of doze off, and know that I've dozed off because my thoughts are kind of, well, not thoughts that I would have if I was awake. I also remember my dreams somewhat often, and regularly have deja vu in real life which makes me recollect a dream experience. Hopefully that's a step towards this lucid stuff.

 

[amorfati]

When I was a kid I used to pinch myself out of nightmares all of the time. It seemed like once I became aware that it was a dream, the dream would hastily become scarier and scarier as if it knew it was running out of time to scare me. I always escaped the nightmare right before it was about to turn the corner from scary into utterly terrifying.

 

[Kuu]

Why can everybody seem to do this but me

I would dig up some old old threads from around here where I've vented my frustrations on this subject before but... bleh.

 

[Darby]

Why can everybody seem to do this but me

I would dig up some old old threads from around here where I've vented my frustrations on this subject before but... bleh.

you are not alone! I posted something on this thread before, but all I ever do is realize I am asleep, after that I wake up, no fun time, I was reading some people are like flying around and stuff, but I never get to do stuff like that

 

[Adamastor]

I've been able to do it a lot in the past, but it was with training. I never had the problem of waking up right after becoming lucid. The difficulty I sometimes had was sustaining lucidity and not getting distracted by something in the dream.

For me the whole thing was about seeing if I could train myself to achieve it, and see if it's really awesome and makes dreams more fun. It's fun at first ("Wow cool I'm in a dream and I'm aware of it! What should I do!?"), but after a while I realized I prefer letting my subconscious dish out whatever twisted things it has in store for me every night. It's also a control thing. Now I'm ok with not being in control, I don't mind nightmares, etc.

By the way, that's cool how you drew your dream. I've always wanted to do something like that but it seemed too enterprising.

I second that !
I did exactly the same and I haven't been doing it for a while, now I am curious all over!

After a point it is just better to let your subconscious do the work, when I was experimentazing with dreams it kinda of was tiring, maybe because I was/am a noob lucid dreamer.

May I ask a few things?
I always got the impression that this were my world and that I were there alone, I've never got the feeling of anyone being there besides me, does anyone relate?

I too knew that things kinda happened like I wanted them too, but not without struggling a bit (I think this is wrong word). I have never got an all-mighty feeling, like I wish things happened and they instantely happened. I always thought this was a consequence of my way of thinking, drawing, creating things.

About recurring dreams...

Lucid dreams are good fun, but recurring dreams troubles me waay more, because of their meaning, I've had many recurring dreams in my life and recently one of them happened again, it is cool how they normally take place at one scenery and people, people faces change, sometimes, from a dream to another.

PS: Ahhh. I am looking forward for my dreams today =)

 

[Starfruit M.E.]

I have a number of Lucid and reoccurring dreams. There are certain places I actually frequent, and I remember them, but I have never been there in real life. And when I go there, my dreams always become lucid because I know what happened there last. But I don't remember any of this when I'm awake, other than a few things. With the reoccurring dreams, sometimes I have the same dream over and over, and then when I finally am Lucid, nothing happens there, and I'll just stand there confused, and then wake up. And I seem to stop going there in my dreams once I know about it in real life. Other times I am dreaming and something bad is happening, and I step out and then change it, then redo the sequence with an alternate ending. One time I actually was trying to escape and created an escape on command. Never mind that it wouldn't work in real life. It worked there.

There was also one dream where I was at the location of a reoccurring dream but I couldn't remember what happened there other than that it was bad. And I realized that I had been there in real life too, although the situation had never occurred. It was strange.

Recently, though, I haven't been remembering my dreams at all. I know I have them, but I just don't remember any of them. Maybe I'm bored with them? I don't know. I don't think any of them were good or bad, but when I wake up, I'm lost in thought about them, and then suddenly I can't remember them at all. After talking about all of this, though, I'm thinking I'll try to put more effort into remembering. Hmm... I think I'll try to write it down next time.

 

[Toad]

I just had a lucid dream today while taking a nap. I took control, flew around the city, and had great sex. It was fun.

 

[bluesquid]

sleep with headline news on the TV. WOW!

I somehow had a shotgun on a delta flight last night. I foiled the bombers plan!

 

[Starfruit M.E.]

... I've done that, but I don't dream when there is talking going on. That's an interesting dream though!

 

[Da Blob]

Hmmm, Once again - lucid dreaming is a skill that can be acquired. In fact, I think one can be trained to become a lucid dreamer. There are even machines that can assist through the monitoring of REM sleep etc. I do not have any sites to reference, because I have always been 'talented' in this area- but I do know of people who have trained themselves to become lucid dreamers or improved the level of their 'lucidity"

Someone should post some good links, if they know of any...(?) The only one I know of is that wkibook, Lucid Dreaming...

 

[Toad]

Da Blob, have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? It's when your body falls asleep but your mind is still partially awake. When I experience this, I close my eyes, relax my body and just fall into it. This is the technique I use to produce lucid dreams. I also find it helps to force your hands together and use a meditation techniques.

 

[Da Blob]

Da Blob, have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? It's when your body falls asleep but your mind is still partially awake. When I experience this, I close my eyes, relax my body and just fall into it. This is the technique I use to produce lucid dreams. I also find it helps to force your hands together and use a meditation techniques.

Sorry for the slow reply.
I think you are referring to the mental state known as the Hypnagogic state. I have found that through effort one can 'freeze' one's consciousness at this stage of the 'falling to sleep' process. Everyone experiences it, but, usually, for only a few fleeting seconds and then they do not remember the experience after waking. It takes a certain degree of mental discipline to maintain this state of mind for any length of time for Sleep beckons, allures and then, demands. It can be a wonderful state of being, including the weightless comfort of the memory of the womb...

http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/hypnagogic-state.html

This looks like an interesting site, I will start a new thread with it...

 

[Toad]

Wow, nice site blob. I have been practicing lucid dreaming all this time without even knowing it. When I was younger, I always thought my sleep paralysis was a curse. But I rather enjoy it now.

Thanks for the site blob, it explained a lot.

 

[Da Blob]

Wow, nice site blob. I have been practicing lucid dreaming all this time without even knowing it. When I was younger, I always thought my sleep paralysis was a curse. But I rather enjoy it now.

Thanks for the site blob, it explained a lot.

You are welcome! I'm glad to be part of the solution, instead of being part of the problem (as is normal)

BTW - this page brings up an interesting technique - that of imposing your will in dreams by expecting to experience the "wished for" change, when one simply turns around in a dream. I use the image of stairs a lot to accomplish the same thing...

http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/how-to-control-your-dreams.html

 

[Cameron]

Have you ever tried reading small print while dreaming?

Yes! I vividly remember part of a dream I had once where, at some point, I was checking my email (exciting, I know). When I decided to look closer at the subject lines in my inbox, one of them came into focus as "TACO MAIL". Go figure. It was very satisfying realizing that my mind was totally winging the details, and I could just go around calling it out.

At the moment my dreams aren't lucid, but I do kind of doze off, and know that I've dozed off because my thoughts are kind of, well, not thoughts that I would have if I was awake.

If we're talking about the same thing, then I've also found I can observe this decay of standard "waking" logic structure. It's exciting to follow my train of thought as it spirals off, while still maintaining enough grounding to realize that's what's happening.

You can also see the process in reverse if someone tries to wake you from a deep sleep. In particular, I recall some incredibly elaborate rationalizations of why I needed to remain asleep that made perfect sense while I was half-asleep but were only distant feelings of stress and obligation once I had fully woken up.

Da Blob, have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? It's when your body falls asleep but your mind is still partially awake.

Every once in while I will find myself waking up into this state. If you try to fight it, it's really scary, because you can't move, your voice doesn't work, and you may hallucinate things happening around you (I've imagined an earthquake, for example). But if you realize what you're experiencing and go along for the ride, it's pretty interesting.

That said, I was under the impression that sleep paralysis is distinct from the hypnagogic state.

 

[Words]

1. I have ordinary dreams 50%
2. I have nightmares 32%
3. I have lucid dreams 14%
4. I have telepathic dreams 2%
5. I have premonitory dreams 2%

 

[Darby]

I read the page Da Blob gave, and I noticed that it said that when you notice something odd(like flying was their example), you have to remind yourself it's a dream, my problem is that there appears to be no difference between the real world and my dreams(for me) and then all of a sudden, something will be odd(like my moms friend is fixing a shirt that isn't ripped), and all of a sudden I realize it's a dream, and then I'm awake, there is no change for me in the "real world" and my dreams, so I can't tell until it's too late.

 

[Words]

I read the page Da Blob gave, and I noticed that it said that when you notice something odd(like flying was their example), you have to remind yourself it's a dream, my problem is that there appears to be no difference between the real world and my dreams(for me) and then all of a sudden, something will be odd(like my moms friend is fixing a shirt that isn't ripped), and all of a sudden I realize it's a dream, and then I'm awake, there is no change for me in the "real world" and my dreams, so I can't tell until it's too late.

you have to keep thinking about the world, your world...till you sleep. the difference of these two worlds are so obvious...yet so hard to be conscious of.

its strange...the knowing of it being a dream comes in a flash...in a way that you'd actually wonder why you've been so oblivious.

my first lucid dream allowed me to have as much as i want. somehow like a trigger. but i'm avoiding because when it happens, demons ....yeah. i can control the dreams scenery etc...its that what i think i don't want to appear also appears.

 

[Renk Fasze]

I have been curious about lucid dreaming for a long time and just recently i read a book about it by Robert Waggoner, not surprisingly, called "Lucid Dreaming" Gateway to the Inner self. He brought up many interesting points and some very far off thoughts. Offers some theories behind lucid dreaming, methods helpful in increasing the frequency of them (including taking some types of supplements). He also suggests ways to keep from waking up after realizing you are in a dream( such as looking at your hands or as many veteran lucid dreamers say helps, spinning in a circle).

Another thing he addresses is ,what he calls the common problem to lucid dreamers, waking up when you are just about to fly or after one has taken flight in a dream and becomes so excited they wake themselves up. Overexcitment in a lucid dream tends to make a person wake up or pull out of lucidity.

I also wonder why some people have regular or even lucid dreams more than others...my guess is that beside the obvious drugs or supplements i would put my money on differing modes of concious thought. A concious persons mindset must have some sort of effect on the uncioncious mind. I think they might go hand in hand to some degree or another...you can be in an almost unconcious day dream state while being awake and you can accept in an unconcious state that you are awake/concious.

I love dreams though. I do wonder the purpose of lucid dreams. I would love to ask all the unanswerable or difficult questions i have in a lucid dream. That would be awesome!

Check the book out, its a pretty good read, i recommend it.

 

[Geminii]

I get 'em every so often. Usually the flight and Jedi telekinesis gives them away. If I'm lucky, I can even warp reality itself, getting the effect of a telepathically-controlled holodeck.

Man, I really miss the TK when I'm out in the real world.

 

[ashitaria]

I have lucid dreams about a few times a week, and I usually remember them for a day or two. My most recent one was about a band of band members.