Lucid Dreaming

[A Beautiful Mind]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

In my first lucid dream, I tested reality by jumping off the side of a 10 floor building.. most exhilarating feeling ever. Although, I wouldn't recommend trying this in the case that it might turn out that you're not dreaming.

[sakura080789]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

im guessing in a sense i have had one or two lucid dreams

[leonid]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

I used to lucid dream a lot, even though I was too lazy to write dream journal.

And I could control it to a certain extent (e.g. flying)

Not anymore though, probably because my sleeping habit is seriously screwed up due to univ.

[rushyrulz]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

I don't recall ever having a lucid dream, but I've had some pretty vivid ones that almost seemed lucid (but weren't, because I wasn't changing anything). I also had a dream when I was young where I fell asleep in 3 times inside other dreams >.< it was hard to wake up. Speaking of hard to wake up, there was also an instance when I was fully conscious, but I couldn't open my eyes no matter how hard I tried. This might have been a dream as well.

[TC_Halogen]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

The problem is that most newbies will try to focus really hard, in their dreams, at some spot on their desk and wait until an apple shows up. They manage to think "I want an apple. I want it to appear here," and then they basically try to envision an apple appearing in the same way you'd envision an apple appearing on your desk in real life -- only you expect it to stay there in your dream after you get it to appear.... but in such a way that you can interact with it as a function of your automation. That is to say, you made the apple appear and now your dream automation involves an apple. Such a common mistake will make you wake up almost every time.

I'd describe it as a sort of "confidence," instead. Instead of just "imagining" an apple into existence, it's really a kind of "I know there's an apple here already." Ever have dreams where you "know" something is true in your dream when, realistically, there's no way it could be true? Or perhaps you've had dreams where you have "false memories" of something but blindly accepted as true? I guess it's a similar sort of function. For me, control is a function of already-fulfilled expectation. If I want to completely change my dream, I might think, "I want to go to Disneyland, and I know it's behind that door over there." Then opening that door will usually lead you to Disneyland if you "know" it's back there.

Of course, with more practice, you can actually use that expectation to make things appear out of nothing. I can actually look at the desk and make an apple appear as part of my dream automation because I know it'll happen -- I don't have to "wait and hope" that my mind will do it for me.

Marcus is bringing up exactly what I was trying to do after first reading about this, and it was extremely frustrating because I would always get the same result - absolutely nothing. Simply trying to force your mind to randomly generate an object will not get you anywhere; think about what you're doing. You are -trying- to create an object, but creating this object will revolve your entire dream around it, because you've focused so hard about it. Lack of addition to anything you dream about will cause you to wake up because you are aware that you created this.

The way that I was able to pick up lucid dreaming was to keep track of certain objects that would appear in dreams and write them down. Regardless of what the dream was, an key item would appear in the dream, and it was either completely out of place, or there was something completely wrong with it. This is where your reality test kicks in. Certain things will be askew, and the toughest part about this is realizing that it's nothing more than a dream. When just starting, seeing random things out of place will be more than enough to pull you out of lucidity.

The way that I practiced lucid dreaming involved exhausting myself greatly with some form of exercise or just having a very long day (in terms of how long I was wake). Because of the extreme fatigue, I was able to gradually push myself down to the dream state (WILD), and even better - it's considerably harder to wake up. However, trying to start lucid dreaming in this manner might not be effective because the fatigue may prove to be difficult to control. It just took me a lot of practice, and a lot of patience.

I'm still finding it difficult to get lucid dreams through DILD -- it's extremely difficult to gather control, unless I get something extremely bizarre.

[bender5]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Hallucinogenic drugs completely unlocked my mind as far as my sleep pattern goes.

Because I know what reality is and what is total bull****, when I go into deep sleep, during the cycle where your body releases DMT, I have wildly vivid, completely alternate reality dreams. My photographic memory helps me remember every single dream I have, and it's quite wild the things your brain can create in the span of about 15 minutes.

As far as lucid dreaming goes, I can hardly ever induce myself into a lucid state, unless I'm in an environment where I need to "turn off" externalized function. It's really difficult to explain, because the only time I can do it on command is under the influence of mushrooms.

I just wait until I have the ability to get fully comfortable and rested 'til I sleep and it causes me to enjoy my nights so much more.

[sameoldbloodrush!]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

I've only had one lucid dream and it was so weird. I've tried to read things and do it again, but it's so hard.

[tangomango]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

I've had a few accidental ones, but I was not exactly able to control what was happening. It would usually happen when I was dreaming something totally ridiculous.

I would be like "Wtf, this can't be real", but I would always end up thinking "lol w/e" and going along with the rest of the dream.

[HoneyMelonCalibrator]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Hallucinogenic drugs completely unlocked my mind as far as my sleep pattern goes.

Because I know what reality is and what is total bull****, when I go into deep sleep, during the cycle where your body releases DMT, I have wildly vivid, completely alternate reality dreams. My photographic memory helps me remember every single dream I have, and it's quite wild the things your brain can create in the span of about 15 minutes.

As far as lucid dreaming goes, I can hardly ever induce myself into a lucid state, unless I'm in an environment where I need to "turn off" externalized function. It's really difficult to explain, because the only time I can do it on command is under the influence of mushrooms.

I just wait until I have the ability to get fully comfortable and rested 'til I sleep and it causes me to enjoy my nights so much more.

What's hallucinating like? I've always wondered, but I just don't have the balls to take drugs that'll allow me to. Like LSD or Shrooms.



On topic; whoever brought up the idea of maintaining a dream journal is absolutely correct. Taking daily notes of what you dream of definitely helps enable lucid dreams. It also has to be something that you're constantly consciously thinking of. I've had a countless amount of lucid dreams, they're fun.. flying through walls, jumping off buildings. I personally think the most euphoric feeling experienced during a lucid dream is the moment you realize you're dreaming.

[rushyrulz]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

So basically..

1. Make a dream journal that you keep track of after every dream that you remember.
2. Notice some patterns of things that are weird.
3. Train yourself to notice these things while dreaming
4. Lucid Dream

right?

[leonid]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

My favorite method to know whether I'm dreaming or not is bending my fingers back.

If the fingers bend so well they touch the back of your hand without any pain, you are dreaming.

Another good method is to try to breathe with your mouth and nose shut.

[[TeRa]]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

A while ago I came across Robert Monroe while searching for lucid dreaming, OBEs, and sleep paralysis type stuff, interesting to say the least: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4_-PDqQ9bM

I also found out about alternate sleep patterns, mainly this: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/15/103358/720
Due to only having 30 or so minute naps, you pretty much fall straight into REM sleep, it makes dreams easier to have/remember, which I would imagine would make achieving lucidity easier. You pretty much optimize your wake time, but you'll need a nap every like 6 hours or you'll be exhausted. I dunno if there are any real health hazards or benefits to this though.

Anyways, I was able to remember my dreams usually 3-4 days out of the week, I tried to make reality checks pretty much a natural reaction but I never got far with that, I wanna get back into this because it's pretty interesting and would be awesome to have a sense of control over.

[DossarLX ODI]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

So why would you want to be a Lucid dreamer? Just a question to ask since that hasn't really been addressed in this thread (at least, not clearly).

I mean I myself am able to know when I'm dreaming since they're usually bat**** insane in many aspects, lol.

[leonid]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

For me, it really helped me getting idea for various creative activities.

[Patashu]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

dang didn't know there were so many lucid dreamers on ffr