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+ Show Spoiler +
+ Show Spoiler +I'm not a very good writer, so beware
A few years ago, my friend would always tell me about his lucid dreams. I had no idea what he was talking about; nor was I interested, and then 1 night a couple months ago I had one.
It was the most amazing experience I've ever had in my life, although I don't remember it vividly, I can't believe how real it was, for the people that have never had 1 before, think of it as you have control over everything. In a non-lucid dream, you are pretty much just witnessing a story or scene unfold, and anything can happen w/o a given reason, but when you lucid dream you have complete control, you are the actor and the director of your dream, and the strange thing is you know that you're dreaming, and aware of everything that's happening under your thought of command. You can travel the world by flying, or even teleport to a select location in a matter of a second.
I don't know how other people lucid dream, but for me I just had to think of what I wanted, and in that split second it would appear, for instance.. if I wanted a gun or something in my hands, or even that brotherhood sword from Final Fantasy X that I loved, it would instantaneously pop up in my hand before I even stopped thinking of it, that's how powerful it was. There's different tricks to train yourself for lucid dreaming, so that you can have more of them and remember them more vividly. My first lucid dream was very blurry, but I could remember bits and pieces as it was still very real and under my complete control, I remember sitting on a bench next to my local city park at night time, in fact the time of day during my entire dream was at night. ofc I could've changed that if I wanted to, including the weather.. but I love night time 
![[image loading]](http://photo.accuweather.com/photogallery/2007/4/500/d2c011ba0.jpg)
What I also love about lucid dreaming is I still had my sense of touch, smell, and even tasting, the world I was in was completely realistic.
before I knew it, it hits me, I've entered the lucid state of knowing I'm asleep and I was still dreaming.(how a lucid dream is created is when you're in a eery or normal dream, and suddenly figure out that you're dreaming and still sleeping.)
It was a summer night, but it wasn't hot at all, there was almost no humidity and a slight cool breeze(this is very rare in Florida for the summertime).
When I figured out I was dreaming, I sensed this wasn't something normal because I could move around and control where I wanted to go, so I just started thinking of random things I could try and do, I've never had a lucid dream before so I didn't have an exact idea of what was really happening, I just knew if I thought of something it would happen. Suddenly I thought of wanting an m4a1, and bam the second I look down I have a rifle in my left hand. Then I thought of wanting to go to Japan, and I suddenly ended up in the middle of tokyo at night time, it wasn't crowded at all either(I have no idea why I thought of japan). I just remember standing next to a building on the sidewalk of a large 4way cross, it was like something you saw out of tokyo drift
![[image loading]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QNS7K4eWV1g/SmIXl4HZnxI/AAAAAAAAABk/kmV4UIl9cUw/s400/tokyo-at-night.jpg)
It looked like this, excluding the large amount of people.
I then decided I wanted to fly around with my m4 in my hand, I really have no idea why I wanted a gun.. I didn't feel threatened at all, and I didn't want to hurt any1, not only that I don't like guns =|
I flew around the top of the smaller buildings just outside tokyo before things started to get blurry
![[image loading]](http://www.nospoon.com/blogages/tokyo_night.jpg)
I could still feel the cool breeze, the weather and time of day never changed.
That's all I remember, I hope I have more lucid dreams in the future, it's a crazy experience.
If you've had a lucid dream before, please share it
 
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V. intersting. I've never had one of these, but if I do have one i have plans already... All of it involves NR17 content so i won't share.
I remember this really hot girl in college talking infront of my psychology 101 class about her lucid dreams and she had the hugest smile ever the whole time... It'll be interesting to see how much lucid dreams actually affect REM's normal functions as a rest and also as a way to consolidate memory. Thats one of the main reason why I haven't tried this yet.
Also this is what i could remember from her presentation 3 years besides her cleavage and the huge satisfied look she had.
1) keep a dream journal and try to remember dreams that just happened after you wake up
2) try to use something as a cue that your in your dream.
3 (this is from american dad)) Don't tell ur roommate ur cue or they'll fuck with you and make you think ur dreaming when ur awake. LOL i loved this episode.
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16971 Posts
I'm always very aware of when I'm dreaming, and I remember each of them very vividly when I wake up (I keep a dream journal), but I've always never taken the step of actually lucid dreaming because I'm scared that were I to actively participate in my dream (instead of just observing), I wouldn't get as restful a night of sleep as I would otherwise.
T_T
Can someone address my fears?
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I've only had 1 lucid dream ever, I had been smoking the whole week and had a fucked up sleeping schedue. Anyways I remember waking up on my couch, but then just thinking to myself ill go back to sleep. I start thinking of a room and then as if my eyes open I see this plain room and think wait a minute im dreaming then like after changing the room at my will I just decided to fly around for a while..
Not that great yet.. I hear theres some vitamins you can take to help you lucid dream.
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On July 15 2010 23:23 Empyrean wrote:
I'm always very aware of when I'm dreaming, and I remember each of them very vividly when I wake up (I keep a dream journal), but I've always never taken the step of actually lucid dreaming because I'm scared that were I to actively participate in my dream (instead of just observing), I wouldn't get as restful a night of sleep as I would otherwise.
T_T
Can someone address my fears?
There's nothing to be scared about, like I said before you have complete control
if anything it would give you more of a restful night's sleep, you become completely relaxed
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16971 Posts
You don't get tired of being awake all the time though? I don't mean physically fatigued, but I mean mentally drained. Having to control everything for every moment would get tiring, wouldn't it? I think one of the things I like most about sleep is that even though I know I'm dreaming, I'm not an active participant in directing its course.
Actually, and this just popped in my head now (and I'm too lazy to delete what I just said), dreams only happen for a very short real-time duration.
Yeah nevermind.
Ha, maybe I'll give lucid dreaming a try :D...I'll keep you posted.
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On July 15 2010 23:23 Empyrean wrote:
I'm always very aware of when I'm dreaming, and I remember each of them very vividly when I wake up (I keep a dream journal), but I've always never taken the step of actually lucid dreaming because I'm scared that were I to actively participate in my dream (instead of just observing), I wouldn't get as restful a night of sleep as I would otherwise.
T_T
Can someone address my fears?
I had it happen a couple of times, it does seem like I either forget I was dreaming quickly or I wake up. It doesn't last very long
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On July 15 2010 23:30 Empyrean wrote:
You don't get tired of being awake all the time though? I don't mean physically fatigued, but I mean mentally drained. Having to control everything for every moment would get tiring, wouldn't it? I think one of the things I like most about sleep is that even though I know I'm dreaming, I'm not an active participant in directing its course.
Actually, and this just popped in my head now (and I'm too lazy to delete what I just said), dreams only happen for a very short real-time duration.
Yeah nevermind.
Ha, maybe I'll give lucid dreaming a try :D...I'll keep you posted.
No, it's no different from a normal dream, it doesn't mentally drain you at all
and yeah I heard from somewhere dreams actually only happen for around an hour in real time, but they can also jump to different dreams, or even skip to different times
I'm not an active participant in directing its course.
I've only had 2 lucid dreams, but this is what makes it so fun
the feeling of how real it is will almost shock you when you wake up for your first time(at least for me it did), you can experience the feeling of flight or anything pretty much, you can go to anyplace on the planet, or even travel to different galaxies
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If you're trying to lucid dream, here are a few tips that have worked for me:
Have a tv playing a movie or show you know very well ( and will recognize). Hearing this in the background while you're dreaming should be enough of a queue to let you know you're dreaming but semi-concious.
Once you're sleeping and hear the tv, try to look at a watch, a mirror, a reflective window, or something. When you look at these you won't see your face reflected, and that will make you know you're dreaming for sure.
Now you can do whatever, just 'will' your reality to whatever you desire.
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Two years ago I was really in to lucid dreaming. I kept a journal of my dreams, I did constant reality checks (I'll explain in a second) and I would spend hours on "lucid forums" trying to figure out how to get more faster.
Reality checks are things you do every day to make sure you're not in a dream. The theory is, if you do these things throughout everyday life then the habits will carry on into dreams. Once you realize that something is impossible, you realize you are dreaming, the dream usually becomes lucid. For instance, clamp down on your nose with your fingers and try to breath through it. Mentally say "Am I in a dream?". If you can't breathe through your nose, say (mentally) "I am not in a dream". If you can, ur welcome enjoy the dream dood. Other things are also super common. Look at a clock on the wall, note the time, look away then look back. In a dream the times will have changed dramatically.
It's amazing how much power you can exert using only your mind. I remember the first night I fell asleep after repeating over and over again to myself "I will remember my dreams, I will remember my dreams". That simple act of willing myself to remember my dreams actually leaded to one of the must dream filled nights I remember.
This 2 month long experimentation of mine met it's end when I tried doing a WiLD. Most lucid dreams are SiLD (Sleep induced Lucid Dream). You fall asleep, then realize you have entered a dream. A WiLD is an attempt to take the express route to dream land straight from consciousness. WiLD's can be pretty bumpy rides. It takes half an hour of meditation to get your mind sleepy enough, then you have to focus on something distinct, like counting your breathes, to avoid becoming unconscious. I lost my shit when sleep paralysis kicked in. Basically your body paralyzes itself when you fall asleep so you don't roll around, kick and jump during the restful periods. You don't notice this because you're asleep duuuuurrrr. After 20 minutes of meditation and concentration I felt my entire body grow extremely cold, and had the distinct feeling that I was melting into my bed. Even though I knew this was supposed to happen, and was a step in the right direction, I freaked out and jumped out of bed as it was setting in.
Kinda lost my taste for lucid dreaming after that. Lots of work. Lots of self nagging. If a drug got me as high as a lucid dream, but I had to spend the entire day nagging myself and half an hour writing in a journal, I wouldn't do that either. The dreams are great though. Especially if you're into physics defying fucking.
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there's a lot of reality tricks u can do but yeah, you just have to get into the habit of asking yourself if you're awake or sleeping
man I need to start keeping a dream journal, Lexpar that sounds crazy.. I'd love to hear 1 of your lucid dreams
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Hey man, do you think you could teach me how to lucid dream? It sounds extremely cool, I never actually remember my dreams at all, and i guess i never realize when im dreaming. If you have some time and could teach me please, let me know <3
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You want to start telling yourself to remember your dreams over and over before you sleep(almost like you're praying), there are a ton of sites that you could help you get into that lucid state while you're sleeping
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I seem to naturally lucid dream to an extent, but.. I don't really get into taking actual control (I seem to lack the desire to do so). I mean, I can tell that what happens in my dreams is related to things I want, if not at a conscious level then subconsciously - but I don't try to force anything.
This leads to incredibly strange dreams which I remain aware in. I also often have a waking phase within the dream (in which I "wake up" while still dreaming). When this happens I will be in my room and very strange shit will happen, I'll often see bizarre entities and wake up feeling somewhat disturbed. I'm ok with that though. It always happens shortly before I actually do wake up.
A month or so ago, when I smoked weed, I never remembered dreams. I think it's because marijuana kills that level of awareness - or rather the type of short term memory necessary to stay aware of one's dreams.
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lol, gotta protect yourself from dreaming man
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I always wake up when i realize im dreaming-.-
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i've begun trying to initiate lucid dreams over the past few nights. first i got to sleep. i always wake up around 6 hours or so after falling asleep. at this point i have phased through the sleep cycle and when i fall asleep i should directly start REM. then i try to fall asleep while staying conscious so i enter dreams knowing i'm dreaming. it is a technique called WILD for wake initiated lucid dreams. i attempt to stay conscious by seeing with my eyes shut. u know when your eyes are shut u can see like light and stuff... lol.
anyways no success yet. i always just fall asleep. i smoke weed every day and that is a problem. weed seems to affect my ability to remember my dreams.
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I never remember anything about my dreams. The only dreams I remember at the ones where I'm scared of something which is usually caused by me having my fan on when it's like 50 outside. Cold weather = nightmares.
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Asking me to tell a story? Oh I am excite.
Actually I only ever had half a dozen lucid dreams after a month of trying. The best one involved me flying around my hometown. Everyone reading has to understand: a lucid dream is the equivalent of being fully conscious inside dreamland. You can make the same reasoned decisions you could make right now, smell the same smells and feel the same emotions. You mentioned this in you OP Loki. Everything is the same, except you have complete control. Wanna fly? Go for it. Don't like that tree? Now it's blue. Whats that smell? Who gives a fuck time to go have sex. My favorite lucid dream had all those things. So to get back to what I was saying, I was flying around my hometown. As a quick note this dream is especially satisfying because I became lucid after doing a reality check inside a dream (Score: Lex-1, Dreams-0). I was flying because I realized after checking out a park for a bit that I had never really had any of those "flying dreams" everyone always told me about. Flying rocks pretty hard. Anyway being 15 I got bored of that, flew to what I assumed was my high school crushes house (I'd never been -_-) and started fucking. This is totally awesome because having virgin sex in a dream is pretty baller. Loads of stuff happens that doesn't make sense. I closed my eyes at one point and woke up.
Don't close your eyes in a lucid dream you WILL wake up when you open them.
Anyway thanks for asking it made me feel special. :p
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On July 16 2010 01:44 Vain wrote:
I always wake up when i realize im dreaming-.-
When that happens start occupying your mind to keep it from waking your body up. Count to ten over and over or draw circles in the air or something.
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You drink a cup of allergy medicine before going to bed? Thats not a lucid dream, thats just called getting high.
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I have experienced lucid dreaming a couple of times but I have no idea what caused me to experience it. It was at random times but yeah, controlling your dreams is very awesome. The first thing I always do is fly! haha!
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On July 16 2010 18:08 nerium wrote:
I have experienced lucid dreaming a couple of times but I have no idea what caused me to experience it. It was at random times but yeah, controlling your dreams is very awesome. The first thing I always do is fly! haha!
Really just flying? *chuckle*
But yeah, I've only had a couple lucid dreams myself. I wonder if lucid dreams it at all related to having experienced sleep paralysis as well. Consider that sleep paralysis occurs when your brain is awake before the body. Also how many of you have good dream recall?
I.e. I can recall the shapes of the room, architecture, hell, I can sometimes read posters/newspapers in dreams as well. I would think headlines have some psychological significance...but sadly I don't recall writing as well as geometric arrangements (room/buildings).
Anyway, hope more people contribute, in light of the Inception movie :D
*hah just saw Lexpar's post - looks like sleep paralysis is somewhat of an indicator haha.
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I only had lucid dreams( a lot of them) when I had trouble sleeping last summer, I don't know if it makes sense, but since I can sleep well, I never have lucid dreams anymore.
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I don't have lucid dreams often, but my adventures in my dreams are pretty cool anyways haha.
BUT I usually can wake up from a dream, then go back to sleep and continue the same dream. I dunno what that would be called 
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I've had lots of dream where I knew I was in a dream but I still didn't really have control over what was happening.
For instance, I had a dream where I was climbing this ladder up into the sky, for miles and miles. After a layer of clouds, I saw that there was this giant floating concrete building at the top of this ladder. At this point, one of my friends appeared and was flying next to me. I was like "dude, have you seen this ladder?! it's like 10 miles high! And there's a muthafucking building at the top! Just floating there!" My friend replied, "You idiot.. ladders can't go this high and buildings can't float". So then I said "well yea, but this is a dream man.. it's alll good". He replied "whatever" and flew away. So i just kept climbing the ladder. After like 10 minutes of climbing, I woke up.
fin
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I listen to music before I sleep and generally end up having a lucid dream. It's a great experience but my mom thinks I'm going crazy because I wake up and am still semi-dreaming. Freaks the hell out of her but so fun for me.
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I've only had "semi-lucid" dreams? I'll suddenly realize I'm dreaming or something, but the instant I try to take control I get a horrible mess of colors and screeching noises... and then comes the sleep paralysis.
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On July 21 2010 17:04 Loser777 wrote:
I've only had "semi-lucid" dreams? I'll suddenly realize I'm dreaming or something, but the instant I try to take control I get a horrible mess of colors and screeching noises... and then comes the sleep paralysis.
Whoa screeching noises? I'm sure there's a way we can psychoanalyze what that means =D
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Lucid dreams used to be kind of a hobby of mine. What really tended to induce them for me was to get up when I was still really tired, to go to class. Only one class though, then I would go home and go back to sleep for like an hour long nap. I would then have a vivid and intense lucid dream, like clockwork. It really can be an incredible experience.
I haven't had one in quite some time though... hmmm
I also smoke weed, and when I've been smoking quite a bit, I tend to not have -- or at least not remember my dreams at all. This thread makes me want to get into it again.
Oh, sometimes I get bouts of frequent sleep paralysis as well, but it seems to come in waves. May have something to do with my erratic sleep patterns.
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If any of you want to get serious about lucid dreaming (I recommend it, especially during the summer when you have more free time), check out http://www.dreamviews.com/forum.php . It's where I learned everything I know, and it's grown quite a bit since I was browsing it a year ago. Enjoy guys!
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Awesome blog, seeing as how this is the basis for my username!
Hey man, do you think you could teach me how to lucid dream? It sounds extremely cool, I never actually remember my dreams at all, and i guess i never realize when im dreaming. If you have some time and could teach me please, let me know <3
The first thing you want to do when learning lucid dreaming is developing good base recall. One dream a night is a pretty good goal to shoot for. This is important because if you don't have the recall you can actually forgot lucid dreams and seem like your having none when you might be having a few. Second reason for good recall is that you'll remember your lucid dreams more vivdly. Instead of them feeling like a distant 5 year old memory, they be as sharp and clear as if they had happenned 5 minutes ago. Best way to start remembering dreams is just to tell yourself "I want to remember my dreams" as you go to sleep, focusing on the meaning of the words. Do not mindlessly repeat them. Then as soon as you wake from a dream, right down whatever you can remember in a dream journal, if all you can remember is a mood or impression, still write it down. You need to teach yourself that remembering dreams is important. If you find yourself struggling you can set an alarm at 90 minutes intervals (4.5, 6, 7.5 hrs, no shorter) from the time you go to bed which will help you awake from REM sleep, the stage in which we dream.
At the same time you are doing that you can start doing what is called reality checking, or state testing. State testing is just confirming to yourself whether or not you are dreaming. RC's work because dreams tend to be inconsistent in certain ways. For instance, in dreams text rarely stays the same (same applies to digital displays), so on classic RC is to check a digital clock, look away, then look back and see if the time has changed oddly. If it has, then your probably dreaming. Another reliable RC is to plug your nose and try to breathe through it, if you can, you're dreaming. A third reality check would be see if you can fly or levitate yourself at all.
There are 2 keys to successful state testing. The first is that your legitamately questioning whether or not you are dreaming. In real life, you will know your not dreaming, so its easy to slip into the habit of mindlessly RCing knowing that the result will be that you are not dreaming. If you RC this way though, you will mindlessly assume in dream that you are NOT dreaming, defeating the point ogf the RC. The RC needs to be a serious questioning as to whether or not your dreaming. The second part about RC's is to do them routinely. You can do them every thirty minutes, everytime you see something thats odd/stands out, everytime you do certain common real life activites etc. What you base your routine on is entirely up to you, but the key is to make RCing a habitual routing activity.
After you have your dream recall down, your ready to begin Lucid Dream induction techniques. There are to basic, overarching types of induction techniques. One is a DILD (Dream Induced Lucid Dream) and the other is WILD (Wake Initiated Lucid Dream). DILD's are any LD in which you become lucid during the dream, and WILD's are any lucid dream in which you enter the dream state conscious from wakefullness all the way into the dream.
My preferred method for DILD is the Mnuemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams, or MILD, technique. MILD basically involves repeating a mantra to yourself as you go to sleep such as "I will remember to recogonize that I'm dreaming." Its much like practicing dream recall in that you need to focus on the meaning of the words and ensure your not mindlessly repeating them. If you find your attention wandering, recfocus it and begin the mantra anew. You can enhance the effectiveness of MILD by setting an alarm later in the night in order to get more "chances" and, for the visually oriented person, it can be helpful to visualize yourself in a dream situation, such as flying, and recognizing the impossibility of the situatuion. This is a pretty darn effective technique, and the one I first used to learn to lucid dream at will.
The other method of lucid dream induction is WILD, of which there are also many varations. My favorite version involves focusing on hypnagogic imagery as I fall asleep. After waking up later in the night I will begin to fall asleep again, and as I do focus on the imagery behind my eyelids. It needs to be a soft focus, like a distant observer, you cannot try to interact with the imagery or force it to do something as this level of intensity will re-awaken the body. As this progresses it will go from random colors/shapes/dots etc, into more clear images, perhaps starting to form patterns or more organized imagery. Your body will also begin to fall asleep and you will experience what is known as SP or sleep paralysis. SP can be very frightening if your not used to it as you can hear all kinds of sounds, from humming, to scratching, to banging, and so forth, and it will often feel as if there are vibrations or sensations running through your body. It isn't dangerous and is actually a good sign: it means your close to being in a dream. Its tough to relax the first few times you encounter this and as is true of dreams, if you get too excited/nervous/etc. you'll wake right back up. As you go through this your imagery will begin to become a moving scene, almost like your watching a movie. At this point you need to allow yourself to be drawn in to the scene. NEVER attempt to force or project yourself into the scene, you will wake up. You must allow yourself to be drawn in. Once you are drawn and are in he dream, feel free to do have fun.
The attitude you need for good WILDing is that of a passive observer. You need to disinterestedly observer whatever is happening around you. Its a delicate balance though. To little observing and youll just fall asleep. But if your too forceful or expectant you'll wake right back up.
As a very general rule of thumb, WILDing tends to favor those that fall asleep faster, because its hard to focus if you have to lay there for an hour before you even start to fall asleep. MILD can favor those who take longer to fall asleep because they often end up affirming there intention to realize they are dreaming much longer. While this is a general guideline, I want to stress that it is very, very general. Both techniques can work fine with both types of people, you'll have to experiment and see what feels best.
anyways no success yet. i always just fall asleep. i smoke weed every day and that is a problem. weed seems to affect my ability to remember my dreams .
Yeah, if your recall isn't good it makes it tough to have lucid dreams, because its very possible to have a lucid dream and not remember it. If your not remembering at least 1 dream per night I would work on dream recall first; then lucid dreaming when thats up to snuff.
You don't get tired of being awake all the time though? I don't mean physically fatigued, but I mean mentally drained. Having to control everything for every moment would get tiring, wouldn't it? I think one of the things I like most about sleep is that even though I know I'm dreaming, I'm not an active participant in directing its course.
Actually, and this just popped in my head now (and I'm too lazy to delete what I just said), dreams only happen for a very short real-time duration.
Well, you might if your having a bunch of lucid dreams per night then yes it does get to be mentally draining. Your still well rested, but the days almost start to feel a bit endless. That said, it takes time to get to the point where you can have LD's at will. It's not hard per se, but it takes time to get used to your induction technqiue and have the belief that you will have an LD. As far as the duration of dreams they aren't super short. Towards the beginning of the night dreams migt only be 5 minutes or so, but REM cycles increase in length as the night goes on and dreams towards the end of the night can be 30 minutes or more.
I've only had "semi-lucid" dreams? I'll suddenly realize I'm dreaming or something, but the instant I try to take control I get a horrible mess of colors and screeching noises... and then comes the sleep paralysis.
Those are lucid dreams. A lucid dream in nothing more than a dream in which the dreamer knows he is dreaming. It might not be a particular useful one, but those are certainly lucid dreams. Sleep paralysis is actually a really, really great way to have a lucid dream, because your pretty much in the dream state anyway. Just relax, passively observe whatever you see, and within a few minutes you'll be right back in a dream and completly lucid. Seriously sleep paralysis is great, Its like defending a 4 pool PvZ with no probe losses. Pretty much a free lucid dream.
Wow, that really turned into a wall of text! Hope some of what I wrote here can be of help.
Feel free to ask away if you have any questions.
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EPT
