Lucid dreaming

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Last night I had a nightmare I was in the Nightmare on Elm Street universe, Freddy Krueger was in my dream(within a dream) of course about ready to kill me and knowing the movies I must have just been following the logic of the movies telling myself that I need to wake up so I can survive. But then I actually realized that I was dreaming in my dream(within a dream) and promptly woke myself up.

I had heard of lucid dreaming before, which is when you are consciously aware that you're dreaming and then can control it, but I'd never experienced it before like that. So I'm looking online to figure out ways for me to be able to go into sleep prepared to take control of my dreams and to consciously mold them to my liking. Just imagine the possibilities. Flight, super powers, awesome scenarios where we're storming the barricades, Ive always had a thing for Emma Watson, etc. It sounds fun if you can get good at it so I'm going to give it a try. Any links about lucid dreaming and how to more effectively train your brain for it would be appreciated.

If you've had lucid dreams before please share too. Now that I look back I wish I wouldn't have commanded myself to wake up...

[Quail]

Mostly when I lucid dream it's in a kind of nightmare situation and I realise that whatever is happening is too bad to be real, and I just wake myself up by like forcefully opening my eyes. I haven't really tried doing anything else though. Maybe I should. I have vivid dreams and/or nightmares pretty much every night so it might be nice to have some control.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Right, the immediate reaction is to Gtfo but if you can control your own dream world... It's such a crazy thought. I basically just meditated last night listening to Beethoven thinking to myself "I'm going to have a lucid dream, I'm going to fall asleep now." After a while I did fall asleep and I actually did become conscious that I was dreaming but didn't have much chance to actually do anything because I was awoken sadly by my step-mom

[blake 3:17]

I made some attempts at lucid dreaming, and I dream a lot, and wake up from dreams and go back to them, but sure that's what it is.


I have kept dream diaries at various times. Sometimes I'd only be able to recall a word or sound or taste or colour, but I found keeping it up for a while, I could pages and pages. I'd stop cuz... uhhh... it'd be too much. I do recommend to people, at least as an experiment.

[d3crypt]

I almost never have dreams :-( Any ideas?

[Tenka]

As far as I understand it, Lucid Dreaming is just becoming aware that you're dreaming as you dream. It has happened to me a few times before, the realisation often resulting from flying and similar things. I don't think it's possible to consciously "control" your dream as you're dreaming it, but perhaps various forms of suggestion prior to falling asleep could help to consciously shape it, I think.

I've heard more than a few personalities embroidered* in the Occult attribute lucid dreams to their spirit leaving their body and travelling on another plane of existence or something to that effect. Don't buy it!

*I don't know if one can use "embroidered" like that but whatever.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

I had a lucid dream once. I tried to read a book on the wall but there was nothing in the pages and the cover was blurred. It lasted for like 6 seconds.

Bloody weird.

[ChrisK]

A basic torrent search will reveal a whole slew of books that you can get that help you obtain lucid dreams. And yes, you can consciously control them.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

I almost never have dreams :-( Any ideas?

I had the same problem, but if you just think before sleeping about dreaming you're more likely to at least remember that you dream. There's also some herbal supplement that is supposed to make dreams more vivid but I forget what it's called.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

I almost never have dreams :-( Any ideas?

Supposedly everyone dreams, its part of the sleep cycle, only some people have better recall. The human mind deliberately tries to repress the memory of dreams, for some reason.Interestingly a chemical similar to THC and various canniboids seem to be involved in surpressing or dissolving memories..

A technique which works for some people is to keep a dream journal. Keep it by your bed and if you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night immediately write down what you can remember.You might want to set an alarm for 2,3 AM or whatever. Whatever dream fragments you can reccall write it down. The longer you do this the better your recall will be.

I've dabbled in lucid dreaming, so far I haven't gotten it to work for me.

There are several interesting LD forums on the interwebz, can't recommend any offhand.

[Ele'ill]

the worst lucid dream I ever had is where I had a gun pulled on me and I acted relatively brave, felt in control of the situation in the dream, and got one step away and the person shot me in the head. It was the flash, the sound, and the concussive impact all at once immediately. It was like the loudest bell being rung, one time, inside my head while one firework mortar went off at the same time. It was the dream that taught me what it is actually like to get shot in the head and die. The darkness followed almost immediately but I was aware and saw (1st person) myself collapsing in place/forward for a split second.

[Lobotomy]

the only times I've ever experienced lucid dreaming were the times that I was also experiencing sleep paralysis. the first time it happened I dreamt that I woke up in my bed like normal but there was a big ambiguous dark figure approaching me, and a screeching mechanical sound getting louder and louder. I knew what was happening right away because I'd read about sleep paralysis in the past but it was still scary as shit. I just gritted my teeth and told myself it would be over soon. afterwards I woke up and turned on the light and I was too afraid to go back to sleep.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Supposedly everyone dreams, its part of the sleep cycle, only some people have better recall. The human mind deliberately tries to repress the memory of dreams, for some reason.Interestingly a chemical similar to THC and various canniboids seem to be involved in surpressing or dissolving memories..

A technique which works for some people is to keep a dream journal. Keep it by your bed and if you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night immediately write down what you can remember.You might want to set an alarm for 2,3 AM or whatever. Whatever dream fragments you can reccall write it down. The longer you do this the better your recall will be.

I've dabbled in lucid dreaming, so far I haven't gotten it to work for me.

There are several interesting LD forums on the interwebz, can't recommend any offhand.

I read somewhere that you shouldn't go to sleep drunk or high if you want lucid dreams because, as you point out, they mess with your memory especially during REM sleep(which is when you dream the most I guess.) I always seem to have cool dreams when I fall asleep high though, I just never remember them five minutes after waking up.

[argeiphontes]

I had my one and only lucid dream in the late 90s after an acid trip. The alarm rang (in real life) and for some reason I realized it was the alarm. I woke myself up, hit the snooze, and went back into the dream. I did this several times. (I did actually have to get up at some point).

The only thing I did not realize was that a figure in my dream was not sharing my dream but only a figment of my imagination. So, I spent some time trying to convince her it was only a dream. I would say, "If this wasn't a dream, could I do this?" and then lift up a car, or reach through a store window to grab something (thru the glass itself), or make a gun appear in my hand. I needed the gun to defend myself against the Asian gangsters :grin: who were after me. I also engaged in some Kung-Fu fighting. :laugh: Basically, I was completely aware that I could do anything I wanted because it was my dream, so I had a lot of fun.

For the people who don't dream, it could just be that you don't remember it, like Lenina said. Also, I guess there's a link to depression, based on what a therapist told me--she was happy that I was finally starting to remember dreams after starting paroxetine. (There's no such thing as depression but that's for another thread...)

It was one of the best experiences of my life. I wish I could repeat it but I'm not dedicated enough to use any of the techniques.

edit: Yeah, alcohol suppresses dreams (interferes with REM sleep), but I haven't heard or read that getting stoned does.
edit2: I also woke up feeling really good, and really refreshed, unlike most nights. Maybe I needed some exercise and Kung-Fu was just the thing! ;-)

[DasFapital]

I have a decent amount of experience with it. You can train yourself during the day by periodically asking yourself "Am I dreaming?". That way it can become a habit and start to show up in your dreams. Also falling asleep while listening to some sort of radio program or podcast can help because you can hear it while dreaming and remind yourself that you are not awake.

[blake 3:17]

I have a decent amount of experience with it. You can train yourself during the day by periodically asking yourself "Am I dreaming?". That way it can become a habit and start to show up in your dreams. Also falling asleep while listening to some sort of radio program or podcast can help because you can hear it while dreaming and remind yourself that you are not awake.

That's a bad idea -- folks need dream time -- never mind if they remember or not.

[Comrade Jacob]

I have lucid dreams every other night but that only means I know I'm dreaming, I am unable to do shit I want for some reason and everything isn't lucid it's really confusing. Does that still class as lucid? I'm aware I'm in a dream but I still don't have control and it ends up being like some sort of bad trip.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

^I think it does.

[Comrade #138672]

If you want to learn how to lucid dream, then read the work of Stephen LaBerge. He is a psychophysiology scientist who has studied and experimented with lucid dreaming for a long time. He was able to empirically prove the lucid dreaming phenomenon as a real thing. At the peak of his research, he was basically able to induce lucid dreams at will, even in his uncomfortable laboratory.

There are multiple ways to induce lucid dreams (even though it mostly happens by accident).

[1] RCILD (Reality Check Induced Lucid Dream). Basically you are going to practice reality checks during the day when you are awake (like looking at your hands for suspect details, trying to levitate, etc), at the risk of looking somewhat silly. After a week or so, this should become routine and you will likely start to do it in your dreams as well.
[2] MILD (Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dream). Before going to bed, you need to relax and visualize yourself becoming aware of the fact that you are dreaming. Repeat this and visualize whatever you want to do. Make it as concrete and "realistic" as possible.
[3] WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dream). Rather than just falling asleep and having to realize you are dreaming afterwards, you enter a dream directly by means of meditation. This is only for advanced lucid dreamers, though. I have only been able to do this right after I had awoken from another (lucid) dream. You can, after some attempts, easily repeat this and "chain" one lucid dream to another. So you don't need to worry about waking up from a lucid dream anymore: you can re-enter the lucid dream within a few seconds.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

One of the ways I learned to figure out if I was dreaming or not was to try and look at a clock, or dial a number on a telephone.

For some reason, it is impossible to do anything involving numbers or letters whilst in a dream. The numbers on a standard wall-clock will bend and swirl, making it impossible to effectively read a clockface. The buttons on a telephone's keypad will switch around with no rhyme or reason, making it impossible to dial a familiar number sequence even if you've internalized it so much that you can dial it without looking at the pad.

Apparently the subconscious is unable to replicate something as specific as numbers or words.

[Hrafn]

I had a brief lucid dream some days ago. I flew, for some reason. T'was glorious.