I've decided I want to try and learn to have Lucid Dreams. I've read the Lucid Dreaming How To thread and found it very helpful. The reason I want to learn to do this is because I've been very bored lately and why not try it? It's not like it's a waste of time, I would be sleeping either way.
So my first step which I will start tonight is keeping a dream journal and writing down what I can remember when I first wake up. Also, telling myself "I will remember my dreams when I awake" before I fall asleep.
Is anyone interested in attempting this with me? We could share experiences and any difficulties we may have, besides, sounds like fun!
By the way, I was reading the Lucid Dreaming arcticle on Wikipedia and stumbled upon a phenomenon called Exploding Head Syndrome. Basically, it's when you hear loud noises (like explosions, name-calling, screams, or even your doorbell) or see flashing lights. When experiencing this you wake suddenly and feel fear.
Upon reading about EHS I recalled an event, maybe two months ago, when this occured. I came home from school and fell asleep in bed at around 3 PM when I usually do. Suddenly I heard a noise which sounded like a loud boom and awoke suddenly scared out of my mind. I even texted my friend when it happened telling her I was sleeping and heard a loud noise and it scared the crap outta me.
Now that I know what EHS is i've been wondering. Is it the same as falling down in a dream and waking up startled, or is there a difference? When I wake up startled from falling I don't remember hearing loud noises when it would happen (which it would often).
Right now I'm sort of dreading going to sleep. I feel like now that i'm aware of EHS it will happen, lol.
What do you people think? Feel free to share any experiences of EHS or waking up startled.
I have some trouble remembering dreams. When I wake up I have the same routine...hop in the shower within 30 seconds and by the time I step into it, they're gone. I'm going to say I can remember only half of them.
I've been noticing lately that I dream of what I think about before going to sleep. This is known to work but it's been happening very often (the last two nights).
On March 29 2011 12:55 Aruno wrote: I have had the whole boom thing in my head before. It was surreal. Told my girlfriend. She just said "I think you might be a little crazy"
>_>
It sucks, lol. Scared the hell outta me. I can't even imagine hearing screams, that's some crazy stuff right there.
Maybe it's ghosts, oooooooooohhhhhhh. Damn! Now i'll never get to sleep :D
From the ages of 13-17 ish I used to do some crazy lucid dreaming. All of my dreams were epic adventures and I had them often. I also had the same dreams over and over growing up. I had a reoccurring dream that I was sliding down a super long slide in total darkness and when I would get to the end I would fly through the air and just before I would land I awoke. That one was annoying because some nights I would have it two or three times and wake up from it every time.
I rarely have dreams anymore so I think I might start keeping a dream journal. Maybe I'll dream more as a result.
On March 29 2011 12:55 Aruno wrote: I have had the whole boom thing in my head before. It was surreal. Told my girlfriend. She just said "I think you might be a little crazy"
>_>
It sucks, lol. Scared the hell outta me. I can't even imagine hearing screams, that's some crazy stuff right there.
Maybe it's ghosts, oooooooooohhhhhhh. Damn! Now i'll never get to sleep :D
man, if you hear strange voices calling for you... it's definitely weird. but i'm a little pussy, so i beg you to be different. please don't be like me. don't freak out. it's definitely the wrong way.
GOOD LUCK BRO may you discover the secrets of the universe!
On March 29 2011 12:59 beg wrote: i naturally had lucid dreams throughout my life... i'd say skip lucid dreaming and go for astral projection. i might try too again
ps: when i was trying astral projection, i always would hear people call my name. i totally wanna try it again.
On March 29 2011 12:59 beg wrote: i naturally had lucid dreams throughout my life... i'd say skip lucid dreaming and go for astral projection. i might try too again
ps: when i was trying astral projection, i always would hear people call my name. i totally wanna try it again.
isnt that just dreaming?
If I'm not mistaken astral projection you become your spirit and leave your body. People sometimes experience out of body experiences while Lucid Dreaming.
On March 29 2011 12:59 beg wrote: i naturally had lucid dreams throughout my life... i'd say skip lucid dreaming and go for astral projection. i might try too again
ps: when i was trying astral projection, i always would hear people call my name. i totally wanna try it again.
isnt that just dreaming?
maybe yes, maybe no. the major difference to regular (lucid) dreaming is your degree of consciousness. no one knows what this stuff really is
so if you want the maximum amount of consciousness while "dreaming", astral projection is the choice.
edit: another big difference is that you consciously perceive going from awake to "astral"(or dreaming). a lot of people feel like actually leaving their body. at the moment i'm guessing that this could be due to them being conditioned to feel that way... cause when you read about astral projection you will always read about your astral body actually leaving your real body. i just have no clue at all... and no one really has. conditioning is everywhere. can't escape it . we'll get the real answer when we die.
My lucid dreams tend to suck... I've been through the false awakenings a number of times and I've had checks fail on me (I couldn't breathe through my pinched nose though I was still dreaming). And usually when a check works I get insta-head explode syndrome. It's usually a screeching/static noise in my head accompanied by visuals akin to what you would see on a T.V. on an empty channel with colors.
I have heard some exploding head syndrome things recently. The thing that has me wondering if they are real or not is they started after I moved to a new apartment, which very well may have some sounds I'm not used to. I also frequently see bright white flashes to go along with the bangs which leans to EHS thoughts.
Lucid dreaming is pretty awesome when you can manage it, I trained my self to do it a while ago, but since have lost the knack. Just keep performing dream checks and you will eventually get it. Light levels, digital displays, and having friends from different times/places all present in a dream is what alerted me to the fact that I'm dreaming. Honestly the hardest part for me was not waking up after I realized I was dreaming.
I would be down for attempting this. I once tried and lost the dream journal and ended up forgetting all about it. Luckily, I have several new notebooks ready to go.
Alright Displace, lets do this. I'll be your sleeping buddy. Or dreaming buddy, if you prefer. ;P
I've been wanting to have lucid dreams for a very long time now. I've researched it a decent amount and always thought it would be just friggen awesome. I efel like I'd have a lot of trouble with this, though: I rarely ever remember my dreams. I could probably still remember less than 20 of the dreams in my life (although I'm sure I've had way more).
The main reason I never got around to it is becuase of the dream journal. I'd just feel so... gay? I think that word about covers it. Also I don't imagine I ever want anyone finding this journal of mine. But your post has inspired me. I'll do it, although I may start in a few days since I've got a midterm coming up on Wednesday. I don't have time to write about my dreams when I should be rushing to school ^_^
Where'd you find this Lucid Dreaming guide, btw? Should probably read that before I start.
EDIT: Just read a bunch of the posts that were posted while I was reading. Shit. Is there a way to avoid sleep paralysis? I fucking hate it. About 30-40% of the time I fall asleep in class, I get sleep paralysis... scary every time.
I have had one of those exploding head things. I was young (about 10ish) and was falling asleep in a house that was near a harbour. I dreamt of boats and lots of flashing colors then suddenly explosions. Did not fall asleep for the rest of that night
On March 29 2011 13:28 Coagulation wrote: I can instantly achieve lucidity by counting my fingers I always have 6 or 7 fingers on each hand in my dreams. never fails
Same thing here... I started to have lucid dreams after my mom passed away. I always try and dream about her and some how it turns so real that I never feel like I want to wake up. Then when I try to hug her, I see my hands and they have way to many fingers. I realize that it's only a dream and I feel depressed afterwards when I awake.
Pretty sad and I always wish to stop having these sort of dreams and just dream memories of her rather than false dreams.
I see lights so bright that I sometimes wonder if my eyes glow while I sleep or if I'm being molested while asleep, it's really weird. Lucid dreams are pretty cool, be sure to KAMEHAMEHA the universe ♥
On March 29 2011 13:30 Crazyeyes wrote: Alright Displace, lets do this. I'll be your sleeping buddy. Or dreaming buddy, if you prefer. ;P
I've been wanting to have lucid dreams for a very long time now. I've researched it a decent amount and always thought it would be just friggen awesome. I efel like I'd have a lot of trouble with this, though: I rarely ever remember my dreams. I could probably still remember less than 20 of the dreams in my life (although I'm sure I've had way more).
The main reason I never got around to it is becuase of the dream journal. I'd just feel so... gay? I think that word about covers it. Also I don't imagine I ever want anyone finding this journal of mine. But your post has inspired me. I'll do it, although I may start in a few days since I've got a midterm coming up on Wednesday. I don't have time to write about my dreams when I should be rushing to school ^_^
Where'd you find this Lucid Dreaming guide, btw? Should probably read that before I start.
EDIT: Just read a bunch of the posts that were posted while I was reading. Shit. Is there a way to avoid sleep paralysis? I fucking hate it. About 30-40% of the time I fall asleep in class, I get sleep paralysis... scary every time.
I would feel the same way with the whole journal thing, but it's not like we're putting our deepest secrets into the thing, just dreams. If you ask me it's pretty awesome.
I'll see if some real-life friends want to try it as well.
On March 29 2011 13:33 XXGeneration wrote: For a person who rarely dreams in the first place, how viable is it to try to lucid dream?
You are dreaming, you just aren't remembering.
Start a dream journal, and your recall will increase a lot, really fast. When i started a couple years ago, went from remembering maybe 1 dream every 2 weeks to 3-4 per night in less than a month.
I'm not sure if it's ok to link to other sites, so I wont. But if you want real in-depth tutorials, i mean really in depth, google dreamviews and check out the tutorial section. By far the best source of information i've found on the net.
WOW, i have never even heard of this EHS before, but it has happened to me all the time. The most recent was about 2 weeks ago when i got a pretty serious concussion, that night i woke up and was like freaking out when i thought i heard a really loud sound, but there was like no sound at all
The other times that happens is usually when i am right on the verge of falling asleep, and it is the most off-pissing thing in the world!!
On March 29 2011 13:33 XXGeneration wrote: For a person who rarely dreams in the first place, how viable is it to try to lucid dream?
You are dreaming, you just aren't remembering.
Start a dream journal, and your recall will increase a lot, really fast. When i started a couple years ago, went from remembering maybe 1 dream every 2 weeks to 3-4 per night in less than a month.
Basically when I say I dream very little I mean I just dreamt about a week ago, and my last dream before that was probably at the beginning of the school year in September or so.
Of course, I know that I'm dreaming and not remembering. The thing is, I don't know if I can make myself more aware whether it would be timing the REM cycles or something.
On March 29 2011 13:33 XXGeneration wrote: For a person who rarely dreams in the first place, how viable is it to try to lucid dream?
You are dreaming, you just aren't remembering.
Start a dream journal, and your recall will increase a lot, really fast. When i started a couple years ago, went from remembering maybe 1 dream every 2 weeks to 3-4 per night in less than a month.
Basically when I say I dream very little I mean I just dreamt about a week ago, and my last dream before that was probably at the beginning of the school year in September or so.
Of course, I know that I'm dreaming and not remembering. The thing is, I don't know if I can make myself more aware whether it would be timing the REM cycles or something.
Train yourself to, when you first wake up in the morning, do nothing but try to remember what you were just dreaming about. You'll have a much better frequency of catching dreams, and then you can write them down and get started.
As long as you get 7-8 hours of sleep at least (optimally over 8) your night will almost always end on a REM session, so that's not the issue. You can always be more aware of dreams if you work at it.
Sometimes i find it easier to remember dreams in the morning if i try to remember what I was just thinking about. Sometimes weak dreams seem like I was just "thinking" about them.
Like anything good, it takes work. You really, really have to get used to trying to remember your dreams FIRST. It's one of the more important basics.
Now that I know what EHS is i've been wondering. Is it the same as falling down in a dream and waking up startled, or is there a difference? When I wake up startled from falling I don't remember hearing loud noises when it would happen (which it would often).
No it's not the same at all, EHS happens when you are in a state of sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is essentially when you're mind wakes up before your body does, so you are kind of awake and asleep at the same time. I remember the first time i had EHS, i was in a state of sleep paralysis, my eyes were stuck looking out my window, and i couldn't move my body. My window was flashing orange. All if a sudden out of no where i hear this blood curdling women scream directly in my ear, it literally sounded like her head was right next to me. It was absolutley terrifying haha.
This first happened to me about 2 years ago when i was trying to achieve lucid dreams as well. If you find your self experiencing EHS and sleep paralysis then that's a good sign. (sort of haha) It means you are getting close. If you are trying to achieve lucid dreams, then you have to not be afraid of sleep paralysis and EHS, because you'll be getting allot of it unfortunatelyy (at least in my experience) I've had many lucid dreams; and every single time i have one, i wake up to find myself in sleep paralysis, which can lead to the scary EHS. =/
What really helped me achieve lucid dreaming was to write the letter 'D' for 'Dream' on the back of my hand. So everytime I saw the 'D' I gave myself a dream check, I would just ask myself, 'am i dreaming right now?' It's a super simple and super effective way to achieve lucid dreams and i definitely recommended you try it. I only took me a few days of doing this to achieve my first lucid dream. Also i would try drinking caffeine before sleep, that seems to work for me for some reason. Good luck.
On March 29 2011 13:33 XXGeneration wrote: For a person who rarely dreams in the first place, how viable is it to try to lucid dream?
You are dreaming, you just aren't remembering.
Start a dream journal, and your recall will increase a lot, really fast. When i started a couple years ago, went from remembering maybe 1 dream every 2 weeks to 3-4 per night in less than a month.
Basically when I say I dream very little I mean I just dreamt about a week ago, and my last dream before that was probably at the beginning of the school year in September or so.
Of course, I know that I'm dreaming and not remembering. The thing is, I don't know if I can make myself more aware whether it would be timing the REM cycles or something.
Train yourself to, when you first wake up in the morning, do nothing but try to remember what you were just dreaming about. You'll have a much better frequency of catching dreams, and then you can write them down and get started.
As long as you get 7-8 hours of sleep at least (optimally over 8) your night will almost always end on a REM session, so that's not the issue. You can always be more aware of dreams if you work at it.
Sometimes i find it easier to remember dreams in the morning if i try to remember what I was just thinking about. Sometimes weak dreams seem like I was just "thinking" about them.
Like anything good, it takes work. You really, really have to get used to trying to remember your dreams FIRST. It's one of the more important basics.
Thanks for the advice; how long/have you been able to reach consistant lucid dreaming states?
Now that I know what EHS is i've been wondering. Is it the same as falling down in a dream and waking up startled, or is there a difference? When I wake up startled from falling I don't remember hearing loud noises when it would happen (which it would often).
No it's not the same at all, EHS happens when you are in a state of sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is essentially when you're mind wakes up before your body does, so you are kind of awake and asleep at the same time. I remember the first time i had EHS, i was in a state of sleep paralysis, my eyes were stuck looking out my window, and i couldn't move my body. My window was flashing orange. All if a sudden out of no where i hear this blood curdling women scream directly in my ear, it literally sounded like her head was right next to me. It was absolutley terrifying haha.
This first happened to me about 2 years ago when i was trying to achieve lucid dreams as well. If you find your self experiencing EHS and sleep paralysis then that's a good sign. (sort of haha) It means you are getting close. If you are trying to achieve lucid dreams, then you have to not be afraid of sleep paralysis and EHS, because you'll be getting allot of it unfortunatelyy (at least in my experience) I've had many lucid dreams; and every single time i have one, i wake up to find myself in sleep paralysis, which can lead to the scary EHS. =/
What really helped me achieve lucid dreaming was to write the letter 'D' for 'Dream' on the back of my hand. So everytime I saw the 'D' I gave myself a dream check, I would just ask myself, 'am i dreaming right now?' It's a super simple and super effective way to achieve lucid dreams and i definitely recommended you try it. I only took me a few days of doing this to achieve my first lucid dream. Also i would try drinking caffeine before sleep, that seems to work for me for some reason. Good luck.
That story is terrfying, haha.
Thank you for the good luck and i've been drinking Mountain Dew Voltage all afternoon :D
On March 29 2011 13:42 Tenda wrote: Also i would try drinking caffeine before sleep, that seems to work for me for some reason. Good luck.
Please only do that if you can fall asleep easily already. If I try taking anything that makes you even a little more "aware", i'll end up just giving up and staying awake for 2-3 more hours. >.>
On March 29 2011 13:45 ThaZenith wrote: Please only do that if you can fall asleep easily already. If I try taking anything that makes you even a little more "aware", i'll end up just giving up and staying awake for 2-3 more hours. >.>
haha yeah exactly, but i can drink coffee and fall asleep no problem.
Uhhhhh... Wait, people actually want to have lucid dreams? I have them pretty regularly and i fucking hate it. I wake up feeling like i didn't get any rest because my mind was going all night long. End up waking myself up many times during the night to try to break the pattern.
On March 29 2011 13:33 XXGeneration wrote: For a person who rarely dreams in the first place, how viable is it to try to lucid dream?
You are dreaming, you just aren't remembering.
Start a dream journal, and your recall will increase a lot, really fast. When i started a couple years ago, went from remembering maybe 1 dream every 2 weeks to 3-4 per night in less than a month.
Basically when I say I dream very little I mean I just dreamt about a week ago, and my last dream before that was probably at the beginning of the school year in September or so.
Of course, I know that I'm dreaming and not remembering. The thing is, I don't know if I can make myself more aware whether it would be timing the REM cycles or something.
Train yourself to, when you first wake up in the morning, do nothing but try to remember what you were just dreaming about. You'll have a much better frequency of catching dreams, and then you can write them down and get started.
As long as you get 7-8 hours of sleep at least (optimally over 8) your night will almost always end on a REM session, so that's not the issue. You can always be more aware of dreams if you work at it.
Sometimes i find it easier to remember dreams in the morning if i try to remember what I was just thinking about. Sometimes weak dreams seem like I was just "thinking" about them.
Like anything good, it takes work. You really, really have to get used to trying to remember your dreams FIRST. It's one of the more important basics.
Thanks for the advice; how long/have you been able to reach consistant lucid dreaming states?
After the first month of real work, i'd go lucid 1-2 times a week. After a year i got up to 3-4 times a week. But again, you have to actually do stuff like actively keep a dream journal and try to remember your dream anytime you ever wake up.
On March 29 2011 13:50 starcraft911 wrote: Uhhhhh... Wait, people actually want to have lucid dreams? I have them pretty regularly and i fucking hate it. I wake up feeling like i didn't get any rest because my mind was going all night long. End up waking myself up many times during the night to try to break the pattern.
It's really not that fun.
You're going to be going through REM cycles anyway, why would you not want to use them? You're gaining time you never previously had, to do whatever the hell you want. I for one feel just as rested as ever after any amount of dreaming, lucid or not.
You were obviously feeling tired because you kept forcing yourself awake, lol.
Lucid dreams are really awesome. I used to have them when I was younger and it stopped. The best part is when I had them I could actually control what happened. It's happens when mid dream you realize something doesn't make sense you and you realize you must be dreaming, and that your mind is controlling the entire environment. It's a shame I was like 14 so I only thought about tits when I went through that phase because I remember the feeling it gave me to have absolute control. It was better than any drug I could ever imagine.
I remember the dreams were always triggered when I was scared and felt I was going to die. I remember distinctly this dream where Jason from Friday the 13th was chasing me and at some point I realized it didn't make sense, it's a dream. Then I thought how he wasn't there turned back and he was gone, then I started thinking of this girl a had a crush on in 8th grade and.... well, we will leave it there.
Anyway, if you can do it man it's the best feeling I have ever had. There is no drug more powerful than your mind <3
whoa. finally I know what sleep paralysis is! It happened to me 10 years ago and in spite of a couple near-death experiences and bad trips it still remains the single most terrifying event I've ever experienced. It seemed like I was stuck in bed for an hour, trying to scream but not being able to move my head or make a sound.
After describing it to two friends who had no idea what I was talking about, I gave up and just hoped that whatever it was, it would never happen again. Lol now I don't know what to think. Part of me wonders if I'd be just as scared if it happened again now that I know...
I've attained control over my dreams on a few occasions, though the lucidity wasn't very high. One time I've achieved what the TL guide calls WILD completely on my own without knowing what it was -- I had a short, repetitive electronic song playing on repeat, and as I focused on the details of the music while it played over and over and over I sank into some quasi-dream sleep paralysis state while remaining completely aware of myself. It was a pretty crazy experience.
So it's called EHS huh. I've had some nasty experiences with that shit before. But It's usually no sound at all just an explosion of scary feelings blowing up at the same time as I wake up and it makes me so confused cause nothing scary was really happening in the dream.
Also had some fucked up paralysis dreams. They're all practically indetical as well, I'm always facing the wall in my bed and someone is right behind me usually screaming or something.
EHS is part of a hypangogiac state, wherein you're inbetween the awake/asleep boundary.
It varies for everyone, but with practice you can induce it on command, and use it as a way to get into a lucid dream if you're able to overcome the fear.
I think I can elaborate on this lucid dreaming and EHS you're referring to.
Typically, people are in one dream when they're asleep. However, with a strong sedative, you can enter a dream WITHIN a dream. Similarly, if you train yourself to become a skilled architect, you can be in a dream within a dream of a dream that's INSIDE YOUR MIND. Not only that, but you may be able to construct your own dream levels beforehand and change aspects of your dream when you're inside them. This is essentially lucid dreaming.
However, when you distort too many things in your dream, your dream will use a defense mechanism to retaliate, creating a dream militia of armed killers. It is important at this point to not die; or else you will fall into limbo, which is the so called "sleep paralysis" someone referred to earlier in this page.
Instead, it is better to wake up from a "kick". This could be anything, from a doorbell ringing suddenly to someone knocking over the chair you're sitting in. However, it may only take you to the dream level that is one higher than your current one. To get back out of your dream, you may want to coordinate several kicks in multiple dream levels by using music that can permeate through the dream layers. It's pretty much the same thing as Exploding Head Syndrome.
That's all I remember from now, learned everything from a Christopher Nolan film. Hope it helps!
This is serious. I've been experiencing something like lucid dreaming during my whole life, but I never went in for such things at all.
Now, after reading the german edition of wikibooks about lucidity I will definitaley will give it a shot.
We should stick to the lucidity topic, because I really want to hear someones experiences or problems they faced when they try to achieve this state of mind.
On the other side, this whole EHS/sleep paralysis stuff is scary as shit and I don't wanna hear anything more about it. Damn, I'm even sure I'll dream about that shit next night ...
This is so awesome. I am actually super interested in this. Will definitely try this tonight and post my experience.
Also, I always have dreams in which I am "flying". Those are kind of like my favourite.
My least favourite would be the one with the endless stairs, where I am running away from something and we are running on staircases. "thing" is chasing me and I am running up, down, sometimes reach dead end/whitewall, have to run up go into another corridor and flight of stairs. /shudder
I have recently tried to lucid dream more, and I have had 2 false awakenings, but exploring your subconscious mind is really fun and I think you shouldn't worry about EHS.
On March 29 2011 15:29 kellymilkies wrote: thing" is chasing me and I am running up, down, sometimes reach dead end/whitewall, have to run up go into another corridor and flight of stairs.
Is "thing" considered to be visualizable? Or is it just something abstract?
Alright, I'm really intrigued by this (and relieved to learn about EHS; I often wake up after hearing someone loudly scream my name), but I'm also a little wary of trying it.
For the past few years, I've sort of depended on my subconscious to solve problems for me while I sleep. Virtually any kind of predicament seems to apply to this exercise--anything from writer's block to difficulty with math problems to issues in my personal life--and as long as I focus on the matter in question as I'm drifting off to sleep, I almost always wake up with the elusive answer I'd sought, even if I can't remember the dream used to figure it out.
I might be revealing my ignorance by asking this, but would lucid dreaming interfere with this problem solving process? I mean, if I were to really get the hang of lucid dreaming, would I be lucid in all my dreams?
I found a method of achieving lucid dreams by accident. My lucid dreams almost always happen as long as I stay up for 16 hours, take a quick nap for 1-2 hours, then wakeup to do something for 30 minutes to an hour, then finally going back to sleep trying to finish the rest of my 8 hour recommended sleeptime. Once I start on the rest of my 8 hour sleep, I go into a DEEP REM state, so deep that I notice it and become aware during my dream lol. It feels like I get on average a 1-2 hour lucid dream session and sometimes even longer. I do wakeup when these lucid dreams end, only to fall asleep again and go back into another. It's pretty cool & and fun but can be annoying if I just want to seep without any interruptions.
I discovered this method because I always tend to stay up until 4-6 am playing SC2 (lately because of GSL), only to wake up an hour or 2 later to run some really important errands in the morning then get back home to crash hard on the bed.
Alright. Going to sleep. Writing D on my hand. Telling myself I'll remember this shit. No dream journal for tonight. Don't expect much (anything) to happen, but I'm starting.
EHS is when you wake up in the Rapid eye movement state. You are more or less paralyze, and it's quite common to have hallucinations and hear things. Usually resulting in intense fear, if you know whats happening and fall back asleep in this stage you lucid dream. I personally lucid dream quite often, but less that I used too (I would reckon it has to due with drinking).. lucid dreaming was something I strived for months for, I had had it happen, knew it was possible, months after I had first done it I saw the writings of a doctor teaching at the university of alberta, then months after that found the TL thread. i'll never forget the first time I gained consciousness in a dream
Story goes, was dreaming, I was inside a mall shopping and tried to steal something, quickly got cought an ran for my life from cops. Outside the mall still being chased, got caught by a cop running down a steep hill, rode him like a sled down the hill until i saw a cliff. This is when I gained complete consciousness, and I wanted to fly, In the dream i put myself into a superman pose and flew as I lept off the cliff. It was quite amazing in retrospect, My brain put together a whole city below me, I checked a few buildings looking through them, and there were entire groups of people talking, and one point all of them stared at me, they were all looking at me at one point. remembering back they were all talking with eachother but I cannot recall any of their faces, I actually dont think they had any. I left that building and flew to a barn in the distance and went to sleep.
There really is nothing like under your own power flying into the sky and exploring a world your mind created.
As far as this exploding head syndrome, I guess I've had it a few times. I know for a fact that waking up in the REM state can cause hallucinations, hearing things, and causes immense fear and temporary paralysis. I've had it happen to me numerous times in memory. I guess this is what they are classifying as exploding head syndrome. I thought it was just merely waking up in rem, and that there wasnt a medical term for it. It's nothing like falling in a dream and waking up, You are actually awake, your eyes open, you cannot move, you cannot talk, everything is going so quickly, perhaps a loud noise startled you, your eyes arent correctly focusing so you see things. for a few seconds you feel completely helpless. If you have had it happen to you once or twice you know whats happening, you fall back to sleep, and enjoy a free trip into a lucid dream.
Every time i've had a lucid dream since i watched inception some one in my dream tells me i have to go deeper. which i've pretty much used as an RC since then. i told my friends this and now they like to mess with me, and sometimes, not common enough where it's obvious and not even that clearly they will say it to me (while i'm awake). I hate them.
so yeah my advice, if you have shitty friends, keep your RC's private or strictly kept to the world around you and not to people.
also EHS sucks soo much, i've never gotten over it. mostly because for me it's a loud noise and an intense ( and completely instant) pain in my genitals. every time it's a growl and that. -.- it's like a giant evil dog bit me in the crotch. i HATE IT SOOO MUCH.
On March 29 2011 16:32 Crazyeyes wrote: Alright. Going to sleep. Writing D on my hand. Telling myself I'll remember this shit. No dream journal for tonight. Don't expect much (anything) to happen, but I'm starting.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS.
Just going to say, reality checks are a bad way to start. Starting with a dream journal is almost mandatory.
This morning I pulled off a lucid dream and put it in my ipads note app thingy. Damn i got through like a paragraph or two and stuff just came back to me.
I tried remembering dreams from last night and the three hours of sleep I got not long ago...fail. I need to focus more on "I will remember any dreams" and get more than 4 hours of sleep.
On March 29 2011 16:57 Phayze wrote: EHS is when you wake up in the Rapid eye movement state. You are more or less paralyze, and it's quite common to have hallucinations and hear things. Usually resulting in intense fear, if you know whats happening and fall back asleep in this stage you lucid dream. I personally lucid dream quite often, but less that I used too (I would reckon it has to due with drinking).. lucid dreaming was something I strived for months for, I had had it happen, knew it was possible, months after I had first done it I saw the writings of a doctor teaching at the university of alberta, then months after that found the TL thread. i'll never forget the first time I gained consciousness in a dream
Story goes, was dreaming, I was inside a mall shopping and tried to steal something, quickly got cought an ran for my life from cops. Outside the mall still being chased, got caught by a cop running down a steep hill, rode him like a sled down the hill until i saw a cliff. This is when I gained complete consciousness, and I wanted to fly, In the dream i put myself into a superman pose and flew as I lept off the cliff. It was quite amazing in retrospect, My brain put together a whole city below me, I checked a few buildings looking through them, and there were entire groups of people talking, and one point all of them stared at me, they were all looking at me at one point. remembering back they were all talking with eachother but I cannot recall any of their faces, I actually dont think they had any. I left that building and flew to a barn in the distance and went to sleep.
There really is nothing like under your own power flying into the sky and exploring a world your mind created.
As far as this exploding head syndrome, I guess I've had it a few times. I know for a fact that waking up in the REM state can cause hallucinations, hearing things, and causes immense fear and temporary paralysis. I've had it happen to me numerous times in memory. I guess this is what they are classifying as exploding head syndrome. I thought it was just merely waking up in rem, and that there wasnt a medical term for it. It's nothing like falling in a dream and waking up, You are actually awake, your eyes open, you cannot move, you cannot talk, everything is going so quickly, perhaps a loud noise startled you, your eyes arent correctly focusing so you see things. for a few seconds you feel completely helpless. If you have had it happen to you once or twice you know whats happening, you fall back to sleep, and enjoy a free trip into a lucid dream.
Thats sleep paralysis you're describing, its not the same thing. EHS is a bang and a bright light, like a flash grenade or something. It happens to me every once in a while when i'm awake. After it happens I feel as if my mind has 'rebooted' or something, its really wierd.
I've had several sleep paralysis , they were scary as fuck at first, one time it happened in a hostel room with a girl. We have just had sex and we fall asleep, then I remember waking up in the same room and looking at her, but she was some kind of a scary witch-like demon that freaked me out, i still couldn't move and i heard some loud noises and shit around me, it lasted for like a minute but i was very awake, just couldn't move or say anything, then i finally could move and breathe properly but i was too scared and felt this evil presence in the whole room, it scared the shit out of me and I just couldn't be in that room anymore, and i woke the girl up and we switched to another room :p
That was before i researched a lot about sleep paralysis because i was having so much of them and it was anoying everytime, now that I know most of the cientific explanations around them whenever i have one of those I just remain very calm, and tell to myself i'm just having that and try to breathe slowly and don't try to force anything, sometimes it still takes some time before i can move but sometimes i can move much more faster, but I don't get really as terrified as before
I find that natural supplements such a valarean root and melatonin help in creating vivid dreams as well as allowing for lucid dream states. Valarean root also helps day time tension and anxiety and melatonin removes the grogginess when you first wake up.
On March 30 2011 11:48 Erotheis wrote: I wish I could experience all of this. I can't even experience dreams nor have I in quite some time Any tips from anybody on how to HAVE a dream?
Get 8-9 hours of sleep. Anytime you wake up, before you have a single thought, remember what you were just dreaming about. You'll really have to strain to catch dreams if you rarely remember them.
The real problem is just remembering to remember your dream. Usually when you wake up, you probably start thinking about the day ahead. Don't, just remember your dream.
And when you finally remember, write it down is the greatest detail possible. Do that for all your dreams, your recall will increase fast when you start writing them down.
On March 29 2011 16:32 Crazyeyes wrote: Alright. Going to sleep. Writing D on my hand. Telling myself I'll remember this shit. No dream journal for tonight. Don't expect much (anything) to happen, but I'm starting.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS.
Just going to say, reality checks are a bad way to start. Starting with a dream journal is almost mandatory.
But good luck with your efforts.
I half assed taught myself to do reality checks... Started Turning lights off and on in a specific room in my house. I never kept a dream journal
Had 1 lucid dream, i realized it was lucid, started to fly, woke up cuz it scared the shit outa me lol. Lost interest after that, I was pretty bumbed out QQ
On March 29 2011 13:22 Coagulation wrote: just watch out for the sleep paralysis and false awakenings.
This happens so often for me it's crazy. Seriously... like few times a week at minimum. T_T However I find trying to "power through" it and use all your strength and willpower to move eventually works, lol. Still freaky shit.
On March 29 2011 16:32 Crazyeyes wrote: Alright. Going to sleep. Writing D on my hand. Telling myself I'll remember this shit. No dream journal for tonight. Don't expect much (anything) to happen, but I'm starting.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS.
Just going to say, reality checks are a bad way to start. Starting with a dream journal is almost mandatory.
But good luck with your efforts.
haha, today then! I've been doing reality checks all day.
Like its actually annoying. I got to make the D in a slightly less noticable place so I'm not doing it every 5 minutes. ;/
Still... Got some random notebook ready. No dream remembering, though. So really, even if I had the notebook ready yesterday... I didnt remember any dreams... so there was nothing to write down. :x
Oh weird I might have had that exploding head effect also. I heard super loud bang and/or vehicle driving by when there's really no way anything around where I am could possibly make that much noise really.
I always thought it was real though, although it didn't scare me, just really annoyed me cause I wanted to stay asleep lol.
On March 29 2011 16:32 Crazyeyes wrote: Alright. Going to sleep. Writing D on my hand. Telling myself I'll remember this shit. No dream journal for tonight. Don't expect much (anything) to happen, but I'm starting.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS.
Just going to say, reality checks are a bad way to start. Starting with a dream journal is almost mandatory.
But good luck with your efforts.
haha, today then! I've been doing reality checks all day.
Like its actually annoying. I got to make the D in a slightly less noticable place so I'm not doing it every 5 minutes. ;/
Still... Got some random notebook ready. No dream remembering, though. So really, even if I had the notebook ready yesterday... I didnt remember any dreams... so there was nothing to write down. :x
Getting an actual notebook is a great step. Just remember to think about your dreams the second you wake up. It's tough to get used to not thinking about your day ahead, but it's essential.
And the thing about reality checks is you don't want to do them very often. If you do it that often you won't be paying attention to it, which is the whole point. When you do a reality check, you have to actively question reality. Just glancing at the D is pointless.
For example, take the "look at my hand, is it normal?" check. When you do it, you have to actively think "how many fingers do I have now? looks like 5, ok that's normal. how long are my fingers right now? looks like my thumb is my longest one, and it's crooked. that's not normal, thus I must be dreaming, whee i'm flying" If you do it more often than, say, 10 times a day, it's unlikely you can stay focused through the repetition.
If you just glance at your hand and go "cool my hand" without really thinking it through, you will do the same in a dream and it will accomplish nothing. Same with your D, if you do it that many times in a day it's unlikely you're thinking through how it should be, if this is reality, every time, which defeats the purpose.
If you want, feel free to pm me, i can help you out more if you have questions or guide you to good information, even after the thread inevitably dies in a day or 2. ^^
I made a point of trying to remember my dreams and it worked pretty well. I didn't think of reality checking while I was dreaming though so I didn't realize I was dreaming even though a t-rex was chasing Dr. Malcolm and I. The mind is a crazy place
On March 29 2011 13:22 Coagulation wrote: just watch out for the sleep paralysis and false awakenings.
This happens so often for me it's crazy. Seriously... like few times a week at minimum. T_T However I find trying to "power through" it and use all your strength and willpower to move eventually works, lol. Still freaky shit.
I have only experienced sleep paralysis once but... wouldnt it be easier on your psyche to tell yourself to just go back to sleep rather than try to start moving. I know all I wanted to do was lift my head because I thought there was something watching me... so easier said than done.
I know I've experienced lucid dreaming at least twice during high school, but unfortunately, I can't remember anything about it. Just a feeling of amazing euphoria.
I want to try getting into it again but.. I used to experience sleep paralysis (almost always with a recurring dream involving a multicolored wheel surrounded in fake plants) when I was in elementary school, and.. it's fucking terrifying.
Also, watching Paranormal Activity means EHS would make me pee myself.
Sleep paralisys is annoying as hell, used to have them all the time... it's been a while since the last time I had it, thankfully. I used to have to put so much energy and willpower into waking up whenever I had it, it was just too painful.
When I was way younger I used to be terrified of alien abduction stories (this was around when they were all the rage on Unsolved Mysteries and such). My first experience with sleep paralysis happened around then, and it just so happened that a cop had pulled someone over outside my house. So here I am, 8 or so years old with an alien abduction phobia, waking up in bed, totally aware and totally unable to move an inch, with crazy blue and red strobe lights filling up my room.... I didn't sleep for days afterwards haha :p
I had a horrible experience last week. I thought i woke up in the middle of the night, with my body shaking from legs to my left shoulder, couldn't move except for turning my head around. The reason I said I thought I woke up, is because then I woke up again to a really loud human screech coming from behind. After 20 seconds or so it stopped, and I could finally move, drenched in sweat and my body still buzzing a little. I've never experienced something like this before. Very terrifying.
On March 29 2011 12:59 beg wrote: i naturally had lucid dreams throughout my life... i'd say skip lucid dreaming and go for astral projection. i might try too again
ps: when i was trying astral projection, i always would hear people call my name. i totally wanna try it again.
isnt that just dreaming?
If I'm not mistaken astral projection you become your spirit and leave your body. People sometimes experience out of body experiences while Lucid Dreaming.
I could do that some years ago (not everytime and not everyday), it's damn hard to wake up again...
The training enviroment i had to do this: A Job whiteout ANYTHING to do. No Internet/Games on your Work-Computer. Your own Office-Room. NOTHING TO DO AT ALL.
It's quite the experience but was scary as hell. Controlled dreaming was cooler (at least "influenced dreaming"... But waking up wehn i quickly had to was, again, DAMN hard).
Lol i used to remember i lucid dreamed alot and i got lots of EHS its so scary you wake up and your thoughts are just empty and you are scared. Most time its just a bang or boom or loud voice that wakes me up in my dream.
i remember one time i slept for 3days it was just an ordinary friday afternoon i was 17 back then and tired as hell and I woke up at sunday and my mother told my she tried to wake me up but i wouldn't wake up i told her i was dreaming.... for some weird reason i still lived my regular life in my dream so i thought it wasnt a dream altho i did not eat food or sleep in the dream so i knew something fishy was going on.
One time i woke up and was just staring at the roof i was hungry as hell and needed to go pee but for some reason i had no strenght and i couldn't talk i just stood there like this pokerface and told my self dont piss yourself after 5min i could move again most disgusting feeling ever.
lucid dreaming is cool, i remember trying to get into it a long time ago, and as many have stated, yes, it did come with a side effect of more common sleep paralysis.
as for astral projection? i dont buy into that shit. just a bunch of bs
Problem witj astral projevtion is that it cant be confirmed thru simple tests. When people are questioned about their o.b.e, they often get facts wrong or about as right as typical psychics taking a guess/hunch.
As for Lucid dreaming, its pretty real. They can test your conciousness while in sleep thru couple of ways. I used to do it for quite some time as well until I couldn't keep the regular sleep pattern I needed to make sure I could recall my dreams consistently. If you can't maintain that, its not gonna work and you'll start losing your 'skill'.
I've been following this thread for a bit and I've started a dream journal and reality checking myself regularly just to see if it worked. I remember in a dream I had last night I reality checked my hand and it was all blurry, pretty trippy actually. I didn't obtain lucidity though, when I woke up is was like FFUUUUUUUUU
Alright, so its now liek 12 or 13 days later, and I don't want this thread to die. ;D
Did anyone achieve anything at all? I've had my dream journal next to my bed, and I've been doing checks a few times a day (activley counting fingers and making sure that my hand makes sense), but nothing. In fact, my dream recall hasn't improved slightly. I only have one entry in the journal. Reading it again is funny, though, cuase it legit makes no fucking sense. How it made sense during the dream is beyond me.
Hmmm, just saw this thread now that you bumped it. I can share some of my thoughts on my attempt to do it, and what helps me remember most, if not multiple dreams per night.
Always keep your pen and paper next to your bed, when you wake up don't just get out of bed. Lay there, tell yourself to remember and close your eyes. Let the dreams come to you and slowly start piecing everything back together.
On topic of EHS or awaking from loud noises and such. I use to get it more when I was stressed or sleep deprived. I'd feel myself start hitting a deep sleep almost immediately, but as soon as my body started relaxing I'd hear my dad yell DAVE like it was right in my ear. Wake up, and be scared shitless. I have also had the thing where it seems like bright lights hit you all of a sudden and wake up startled too.
I think it would be cool if everyone wrote down their dreams and report back, some of them are humorous and just go to show how crazy our imaginations are.
On March 30 2011 20:19 Dismantlethethroat wrote: I used to have dreams within dreams like in Inception lol.
Haha I've had a dream, within a dream, within a dream, my brain went deeper! I dreamed I was looking at something in my hands and then I saw that only 2 of my fingers on each hand were there the other 2 were blurred out and i was like hell ya i'm lucid dreaming, then I woke up the first time. Then I was like damn I should have flown in my dream since it was a lucid dream, then I woke up again and I was like double damn. Then I just sat in my bed and thought about it for 30 mins and wondered if I would wake up again LOL.
I skipped through this thread a bit but does anyone get hurt or die in their dreams? because I am invincible. i vividly remember a dream that i was shot in the face and it just bounced off me. i have also had dreams when i fall off tall places and just land on the ground, no problem. do the dream professionals here have any insight into this?
I get EHS every now and then. It's usually if I fall asleep after having kept some unusual sleeping habits (e.g. had to work a mix of all three shifts in one week and finally crash). Every single time it happens I literally think my neighborhood got bombed. Fucking scary.
I remember waking up one time from a dream, where it felt like the real world. It didn't feel anything like a dream, everything was surreal, realistic, and my senses were very much alive. I remember distinctly falling asleep in this dream, that I had a dream within a dream. It felt a hundred percent exactly like the previous dream, but I was at a totally different place, in what felt like a totally different world. At this point in time, I wondered when I would wake up, when my alarm clock would ring, when I would wake up and go to my marketing class. After wandering around for some time in this vivid yet estranged world, I closed my eyes for a split second, and opened them to what looked like yet another dream, within the dream of the dream within my first dream. As I started to lose touch with my thoughts, and my senses started to numb, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I was shocked to see the Juno girl, asking me if I'd like to return or to stay, as I had actually been planted in a dream within a dream within a dream, such that my first dream was actually the first dream within my dream, and that I had been sleeping for 40 years. I am now 59, homeless and unemployed. I write this in the hopes that one day, someone will hear my story and make it a movie for the world to see.
a week ago or so i was driving and falling asleep at the wheel. the car was going fast and i couldn't open my eyes for the life of me.. i knew i was about to crash and i knew i had to be getting close to the edge of the road and still my eyelids were too heavy to lift. finally after straining every muscle i could to open my eyes they opened and i was staring at the ceiling of my room
lots of sleep paralysis randomly occurs for me (no crazy noises or visuals so its not really scary), usually starts with me trying to speak in a dream.. when i try to talk in a dream my body actually tries to physically talk and i just start moaning a lot b/c my mouth wont open--usually results in an eventual forced wake-up
not sure if its helpful or not but i definitely seem to be able to overcome the natural sleep paralysis and do forced awakenings
I was in lucid dream and was going to stop the time and I heard very loud BOOM with flashing light and woke up. It was awesome experience.
The thing about lucid dreams for me is that in dreams I do not know to look out for it to be lucid - like count your fingers - because I don't do that in normal life. I get mostly lucid dreams only when the dream turns into nightmare - I notice it's a nightmare / dream and then I just stop the horrific things and do whatever I want to.
e: Sleep paralysis, yeah I've had that one too and it's like one of those most terrible experiences I've had in my life ever. It happened long time ago. I was alone sleeping in room where my brother was supposed to sleep too but he wasn't there (can't remember why). Anyway suddenly I woke up from my dream which I can't remember and heard screaming noise coming out from the window. Something yellow person with coat flought on stick thru the glass very fast and it did go to the hallway. Same kind of persons flought past me many times and I felt like they were looking for me. It's funny that I got huge adrenaline burst from that and I was somewhat able to move but it felt like my arm weighted more than a ton. Couldn't sleep for a while after that... It's 100 times more terrible than it sounds because it's so real and you can't think properly but I know there is worse cases where grim reapers make you cough or zombies try to get in your room.
On April 11 2011 17:20 Bentron wrote: I skipped through this thread a bit but does anyone get hurt or die in their dreams?
Depends on the individual. If you don't expect to get hurt in your dreams, you won't. Your dreams are shaped by what you subconsciously believe. Depending on how strong the dream is, I can feel a great deal of pain. When the dreams are weak/vague I'm invincible, if they're strong I get hurt, and if I go lucid I'm invincible again.
A week or so ago I dreamed I was going down some stairway, and someone pushed me out the window. I fell 3 stories and broke both my legs on the sidewalk. It hurt like hell (not as much as it would IRL, but bad enough), and I didn't wake up until 30 or so seconds later when i realized the people coming down the sidewalk were going to kill me.
I'm glad I seem to always be able to wake up when I want to, that dream wasn't going to get any better.
I've been trying to lucid dream but I can't seem to do it. When I'm dreaming I'm just so out of it that I can't recognize if I'm dreaming even if the weirdest shit happens. It never occurs to me to say "wait a minute, is this a dream?"
I'm somehow always aware of it when I'm dreaming (or I can't remember the ones I'm not, which is probably true). I can wake up if I don't like the dream or change things in it. Kinda have my own dreamland so to speak. Also sometimes I succeed in continuing a dream I liked that was interrupted externally. I hope I never lose the ability, tons of fun
I have both sleep paralysis and exploding head syndrome, i thought the aliens had got in contact with me. Its pretty amazing.
I dont think its too far fetched to think that every persons dream world is connected to some sort of etheral real or something. Could be the same of psychadelic realms.
if you ask me i'd say stop it right now. My friend once started having these kinds of lucid dreams about which he was kinda satisfied. But then it turned out it was the first few sympthoms of a thing called sleep paralysis. My friend would wake up at random times during the night and have no control over his body. His mind was awake and realizing what was happening, but not a muscle in his body obeyed to him. Luckily my friend was "cured" relatively fast and easy but there are cases of further developed sleep paralyzation where people actually start hallucinating when they are in this paralyzed state (like seeing someone in your room who might even touch you and you cant do a damn thing about it.)
Maybe your having different problems etc but this is what it can develop into, and i dont think you want that.
edit: oh sorry didnt read that it was already aptly explained.
I often dream of writing in my dream journal several times in one night, then get really annoyed when I wake up for real and find that I haven't actually written anything.
On April 11 2011 19:50 B.I.G. wrote: if you ask me i'd say stop it right now. My friend once started having these kinds of lucid dreams about which he was kinda satisfied. But then it turned out it was the first few sympthoms of a thing called sleep paralysis. My friend would wake up at random times during the night and have no control over his body. His mind was awake and realizing what was happening, but not a muscle in his body obeyed to him. Luckily my friend was "cured" relatively fast and easy but there are cases of further developed sleep paralyzation where people actually start hallucinating when they are in this paralyzed state (like seeing someone in your room who might even touch you and you cant do a damn thing about it.)
Maybe your having different problems etc but this is what it can develop into, and i dont think you want that.
edit: oh sorry didnt read that it was already aptly explained.
AHHH I've had these hallucinations while under sleep paralysis it's fucking freaky and I never know if I'm too scared to move or I just can't! I always end up seeing black figures of a body and I feel like they're touching me (WHY DO THEY TOUCH ME?) or I feel their movement just like the time I thought my little cousin came in my room but then I realized he wasn't at my house and I just felt my bed moving.
Oh I don't do lucid dreams at all but I this still happens to me =( and if I had a number I'd say it's happened to me about 8 times or so.
I have this kind of dreams, where i realize that i am dreaming and i am able to decide what to do, but i can't do whatever the hell i want. It is strange, because one would think that if i know i am dreaming i should be able to change things into whatever i want, but i still can't.
Many times i have had a dream where i try to run away from something/someone, but i can't run at all, i am running basically in a slow-motion. At the moment i realize it is a dream, i just decide to wake up and i do immidiately wake up. Maybe if my first thought wasn't to wake up, i would be able to change the dream - achieve lucid dreaming.
I also had the experience that i woke up during a dream and if i manage to fall back asleep quickly, i recall the dream and continue it which is pretty cool when it happens.
Sometimes i get the dream within a dream experience too. Basically i wake up from a dream into my normal life, but some things just don' fit and i am having another dream starting at that moment.
I don't think i've ever experienced sleep paralysis, i might have had a few EHS - but i don't rememeber it, as i just found out that something like that exists.
Wow, I've never heard of the concept of lucid dreaming even though i had one while being a child. I was in a nightmare where I couldn't move freely, as if there was a huge resistance on all my body and there were foes. I was so scared that I took conscious of my dream. And was like : "why the fuck I'm moving like this ? then I ran at sonic-the-hedgehog speed and shotted lasers like megaman, that felt great. I still remember it very strongly even though it was like 16 years ago.
I'm gonna follow the wiki guide to lucid dreaming starting today, I'll keep you in touch I'm very motivated and I'm not scared of going insane or head exploding, so that might accelerate the processus.
On April 11 2011 20:30 Ricjames wrote: I have this kind of dreams, where i realize that i am dreaming and i am able to decide what to do, but i can't do whatever the hell i want. It is strange, because one would think that if i know i am dreaming i should be able to change things into whatever i want, but i still can't.
I think it works much better if you don't know that you're dreaming, but instead just suspect that you're dreaming and have this powerful, weird feeling that the universe is "on your side" and everything will work out the way you want it to. If you instantly try to imagine yourself in a different place as soon as you're lucid then everything falls apart quickly and I usually have a false awakening. But I can set off looking for something with the expectation of finding it behind the next door or corner, and it won't be long before it shows up.
when I was a kid I would always have very vivid dreams. One of the ones that sticks out the most was when I was around 6-7. In my dream I was chasing after this mad scientist who had created these genetically mutaed dog wolf hybrids that he could control by speaking to them. He sends these dogs chasing after me and I am running from them. I run to my room get on my top bunk under the covers. I lay still and then hear these pack of dogs jump through the big window in my room. I try to control my breathing so they don't hear me but I hear one clombing up to my bunk @ the foot of my bed. I then feel this very strong sensation on the back of my ankle, like something is bitting me. I immediately wake up and there is nothing in my room but I have a very strong pain sensation on my ankle. I try to ignore and go back to sleep. The next day I wake up and there is a mark on my ankle on the back, not very big and it hurts for a few days. I was a little weirded out to say the least, I even asked my lil bro if he bit me....also I made it a point to make sure my parents didn't see it.
If you're serious about lucid dreaming, dreamviews.com is bar none the best repository of information on the topic, and the forums are very active to boot. The best advice I can give to you is be very patient, be diligent about keeping a dream journal, even if you can only recall hazy fragments.
I tried giving this a go last night, and I remember 3 dreams really clear, and they all seemed to be lucid and I used my better judgement in all of them to do what I want, but I had trouble trying to figure out if it was a dream or not. There was 3 times (I do not remember what happened in these) but there was crazy shit happening and I was able to deduce that it was in fact a dream (nose pinching, mirror test) and as soon as I realized that, I would wake up with no memory of the dream. The three times that I do remember, nothing out of the ordinary ever happened and I had no memory of what I was thinking before I fell asleep and did not check if it was a dream or not. This will get better with practice I assume?
Cool thing was, I went to sleep repeating "I will wake up after every dream" and this did in fact happen, even after I tried WILD after I went to sleep again and didn't say anything at all.
How long did it take you to learn hwo to lucid dream??
I remember all my dreams now in an amazing amount of detail... to the point when I can remember direct quotes and if I close my eyes its like I'm there... I have listened to Theta Binaural Beats before going to bed. I really want to be able to Lucid Dream... have I no spent enough time its been a month since I started trying
On April 11 2011 19:50 B.I.G. wrote: if you ask me i'd say stop it right now. My friend once started having these kinds of lucid dreams about which he was kinda satisfied. But then it turned out it was the first few sympthoms of a thing called sleep paralysis. My friend would wake up at random times during the night and have no control over his body. His mind was awake and realizing what was happening, but not a muscle in his body obeyed to him. Luckily my friend was "cured" relatively fast and easy but there are cases of further developed sleep paralyzation where people actually start hallucinating when they are in this paralyzed state (like seeing someone in your room who might even touch you and you cant do a damn thing about it.)
Maybe your having different problems etc but this is what it can develop into, and i dont think you want that.
edit: oh sorry didnt read that it was already aptly explained.
I highly doubt you get sleep paralysis from lucid dreams. The moment i learned how to lucid dream I never had any sleep paralysis anymore.
Teamliquid loves its dreams threads, every few months there's a new thread about the same old stuff.
Rehashed topics: Cool dreams, Lucid dreaming, Sleep Paralysis, but Exploding Head Syndrome is a new one.
Anyone who wants to learn more about sleep paralysis watch this video, it is pretty indepth. Since sleep paralysis is such a common thing, it's almost 'normal'.
On April 11 2011 17:20 Bentron wrote: I skipped through this thread a bit but does anyone get hurt or die in their dreams?
Depends on the individual. If you don't expect to get hurt in your dreams, you won't. Your dreams are shaped by what you subconsciously believe. Depending on how strong the dream is, I can feel a great deal of pain. When the dreams are weak/vague I'm invincible, if they're strong I get hurt, and if I go lucid I'm invincible again.
A week or so ago I dreamed I was going down some stairway, and someone pushed me out the window. I fell 3 stories and broke both my legs on the sidewalk. It hurt like hell (not as much as it would IRL, but bad enough), and I didn't wake up until 30 or so seconds later when i realized the people coming down the sidewalk were going to kill me.
I'm glad I seem to always be able to wake up when I want to, that dream wasn't going to get any better.
I get hurt all the time. I remember some so vividly. Like this one time out of no where, a great white shark popped out of the water and his jaws tore me in half. I woke up in a pool of sweat and sprung myself out of the bed. Other than the whole getting ripped in half bit, it was pretty frigging ridiculous. :/
The worst is when you cannot wake yourself up from the dream or you hop into another one. I can totally relate to all the shit they did in Inception, lol.
White noise helps me have lucid dreams, whenever I play rainymood.com on my laptop before I fall asleep, I am usually able to control my dreams and they will have an ending when I see fit. Then I usually awaken after that, sometimes at a reasonable hour, sometimes only getting like 4 hours of sleep...
What happens if you cannot wake up and in the distorted time, you end up spending years inside a nightmare? (when it's only like a few mins IRL) Does this ever happen? because that might seriously fuck you up, my friend brought it up today when I was talking to him about it.
On April 11 2011 19:50 B.I.G. wrote: if you ask me i'd say stop it right now. My friend once started having these kinds of lucid dreams about which he was kinda satisfied. But then it turned out it was the first few sympthoms of a thing called sleep paralysis. My friend would wake up at random times during the night and have no control over his body. His mind was awake and realizing what was happening, but not a muscle in his body obeyed to him. Luckily my friend was "cured" relatively fast and easy but there are cases of further developed sleep paralyzation where people actually start hallucinating when they are in this paralyzed state (like seeing someone in your room who might even touch you and you cant do a damn thing about it.)
Maybe your having different problems etc but this is what it can develop into, and i dont think you want that.
edit: oh sorry didnt read that it was already aptly explained.
I highly doubt you get sleep paralysis from lucid dreams. The moment i learned how to lucid dream I never had any sleep paralysis anymore.
IDK, some say its associated with lucid dreams, but my anecdotal experience also say otherwise. Its also associated with lack of proper sleep, which I find is inverse of practicing lucid dreams (you need regular sleep pattern otherwise you wont recall dreams all that well consistently)
regardless, yes I did have sleep paralysis a few times in my lifetime. And yes it was scary as hell when it was my first when i was young. I also didn't know what the hell it was and i was young and uninformed and superstitious. Now that I know what it is, there is no 'hallucination' without the irrational fear trying to be creative and misinterpret things in my half conscious state. I simply waited to regain control of my body the last time I ever had one.
EPT
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