Let's get lucid

[Haddas]

This isn't a lucid dream... But it's weird anyway!

It was right after christmas. My friend was on sleep-over at our house. I had gotten GTA3 that christmas, and it was the only game i played. We played it until 2 a.m and when I fell asleep, I dreamt that I was standing in a bus from GTA3. It was in 3rd person perspective too! Like in the game!

Anyways I get REALLY easily sick in buses, so I woke up at about 7 a.m, ran to the toilet and threw up . It wasn't all that fun. I felt someone was punishing me. I'm so gonna sue Rockstar games

[m0ds]

What about aspects of time when you're lucid?

I mean, say you were guiding your dream could you repeat something several times, if you're able to stay in absolute lucidity? Your body has to wake up some time... I'd like to know a bit more on this.

[Pumaman]

Wow, fascinating stuff. So the first thing is to actually be able to remember your dreams, and progress from there to trying to control them.

I was wondering, does sleep-walking figure into this at all, or is that something totally different? You know, like where people wake up to find that they're in their car, crashed into a tree, in their pyjamas.

Is that a result of taking the lucid experience too far and starting to control your actual body from within the dream - as Yufster was talking about - or is it something else entirely?

[Haddas]

I think sleep-walking is more when the dream controls your body. You don't have to be lucid to sleepwalk... or sleeptalk fot that matter!

I myself am afraid of the dark(result of too many horror movies as a child).
I had my cousin over to our house from sweden. She uses to sleepwalk. I woke up in the middle of the night when the floor was creaking, guess how freaked out I was! So I grabbed the closest knife to my bed (2 on my nightstand + 1 under my bed) and shouted: "Bring it on!" Then I turned on the lights and my cousin was standing in my room with a newspaper in her hand! I led her back to her bed. I'm glad she didn't do this every night.

P.S
I realize most of you think I'm a total freak having knifes all around my house like Rambo or something (Well not like Rambo, he has so small knifes), but it's only because I've started collecting knifes since my grandfather recently died and left me his knife from the wars (Finnish-Russo). I haven't yet got a monter to put them in so they lie around my room. My most violent act so far is slaying a snowman. It was childish and useless, but so am I .

[Gregjazz]

There's another aspect of lucidity that I've experienced. I'm not sure if you guys have talked about it yet.

I was waking up from a lucid dream, and I felt myself waking up, so I tried to stay asleep. I actually soon found myself in a state between sleeping and dreaming, where I could actually see through my eyes in real life, and be dreaming at the same time.

[Felipe]

There's another aspect of lucidity that I've experienced. I'm not sure if you guys have talked about it yet.

I was waking up from a lucid dream, and I felt myself waking up, so I tried to stay asleep. I actually soon found myself in a state between sleeping and dreaming, where I could actually see through my eyes in real life, and be dreaming at the same time.

I mentioned that in my first post:

(...)It's like being awake and sleeping at the same time - 'IN' my dream I realise I'm about to wake up, and I can hear both "Worlds" - the "sounds" from my dream and the 'noises' IRL - for a few seconds before waking up...

But, as I said, I don't manage to 'stay' in my dream and see it fading out slowly :'(

[Gregjazz]

Hmmm... but the interesting thing was I was both dreaming and awake at the same time, if you know what I mean. And rather than being pulled towards being awake, I was in a balance between the two. Almost like a mix of both worlds.

[m0ds]

Geoffkhan, that half awake half asleep thing sounds cool

And a note to anyone who's thinking about lucid dreaming, although I'm only on the first step (dream diary) - I've been doing it for about four days now and each day I've remember my dreams more and more clearly. I wrote a lot down today about what I dreamt last night, as I have remembered a lot. I'm sure you will too.

[Pessi]

CJ, I think the sleepwalking issue stems from the fact that body is paralyzed when you're sleeping. If the body isn't paralyzed for some reason you probably end up walking around or something. But that's not really textbook knowledge.

An interesting related issue is that it's possible to wake up with your body paralyzed. I don't think it lasts more than a minute or something but it really would be scary to notice you can't move your body. I suppose it's one of the many variations of somewhere in between dreams and reality experiences.

I think the point of dream diary and similar methods is that you remember how it feels when you're asleep. So that you can learn to recognize the dream state. Or did someone already point this out? I probably missed it.

[Evil]

I had my first OBE when I was five. It was werid. I had gotten up and went downstairs. I made notice of what my mother and father were doing. But they wouldnt talk to me. I woke up. I found it odd, but I was hungry so I went downstairs. Parents were doing the same thing as in the dream, same spots, same clothes, same look outside, everything. I didnt know what it was until a few years ago.

As for my last lucid dream, well it was only semi-lucid. Meaning I know I am in a dream but I cant control it. That was a few weeks ago. Normal thing for me. Last time I had full control was last year, about march. Pretty average stuff, jumping high, backflips, the normal stuff I do.

Anyway, the easiest way I have found is what they say most everywhere, a dream journal. Once you wake up from a dream, write down everything you can to the max detail, drawing pictures helps a bunch. Once I started doing this I sort of have flashbacks, like I just had to pause because I had one. It stops your thinking. The one I just had was as vivid as the dream, but only seeing half a second. This helps to acheving lucid dreams, and they also make good stories for little kids I find.

Dreams are feelings, emotions, and thoughts that build up, and come into view as an image. Even if you cant lucid dream, but can remember your dreams and what happens, its still great. My dreams have taught me a lot. Well I'm done.

[Felipe]

And a note to anyone who's thinking about lucid dreaming, although I'm only on the first step (dream diary) - I've been doing it for about four days now and each day I've remember my dreams more and more clearly. I wrote a lot down today about what I dreamt last night, as I have remembered a lot. I'm sure you will too.

Yep. That helps a lot.
I've been doing it (though not writing nor recording them, but just remembering) and... well, the first day I just remembered a short 'scene' of a dream. Then the next day I managed to remember TWO parts of my dreams (two different dreams) and each day I remember more and more.
This is really helpful.

[Ishmael]

I have kept a dream diary for like a week now, and my notes show my memory oscicaltes (that the word?)... It's like, first, I remember a still image, then small shatter, then nothing, tne shattert, then nothing, then a coulpe of secs of my dream, then again nothing, then again a clip of the dream, then nothing, and the, I remembered nearly the whole dream....

About the self hypnosis thing, I've tried it on the past two nights.. the first night, I just got myself completely numb.. then I forced myself to change my pose, after which I could feel again, but very shotrly after that I fell asleep and rememberd most of my last dream, which was interupted by my alarm clock... had to wake up for school... and last night, I got myself completely numb, so I could feel myself nor the bed, but I was fully conscious of my surrounding. I heard all the noises normaly, I could open my eyes and stare at the ceiling and just think... that's what I'd call relaxing... But anyway, after a I continued the relaxing some more, I got this feeling like I'd be torn into several directions, by some sort of invisible forces, with my feet and my hands nailed shut right where they were.. that was bizarre.. but then, quite soon, it went away, and I was numb for a short time, after which I got the feeling of a freefall... AND WAS THAT AWSOME! Next time I get to that I'll try to think I'd be in CJ position... but the fall didn't last long, it just slowed down, after which I started spinning very fast... and that was awsome aswell. When I slowed down my breathing, the speed fell, and when I inhaled harder, the speed grew, very fast. For some time I spinned there (I even could open my eyes, it was wierd) after which it just stopped and I was completely numb again... Then I had the feeling I have to change my pose, which I forced myself to do, and the numbness was gone. After a while I fell asleep, but I couldn't remember anything from my dreams. But, for the whole time I was there falling or something, I could hear the sounds that came from the world around me, I could sense the bed there under me... It was an odd but great feeling.. Now I think I understand buddhas...

[Eggie]

That's happens to me quite a lot without reading how-to guides.
Usually in the early morning.

The only bad bit is when I come back to reality. I feel like I've just fallen onto my bed from a great hight.
Quite unsettling...

[PeaceMan]

I just read through this thread. Very interesting. The nearest I've ever got to controlling what I do in a dream is when I am nearly awake. I have had conrol for a few minutes but it then fades out.

Just one thing. If some people can control basic bodily functions. Isn't that kind of like hacking the mind? controlling it directly through commands you enter rather than the low level stuff beng handled by itself and you controlling your movement through a kind of high level shell? It sounds like you could really f**k yourself up if you mess around with your body too much. Just as you can your pc by changing settings in your OS or bootsector. Or you might not come back to reality and could be stuck in your mind. Just thinking about the risk factor here.

[Ishmael]

You came here to freak us all out? jk

Hmmm... I remember a dream from like 8 years back. And I wasn't a nightmare or anything, despite that it ended in a forrest fire blazing towards me and the other people there...

[Czar]

I think the spinning around your axis, and the hands thing is a thing ba C. Castaneda, right?
And your OBEs, those are Astral projections, right? I remember those, with nostalgy.
The thing with dreams is really crazy, or better, fascinating.
I think the thing Rode and Felipe were talking about is more of a feeling that you're falling/drowning (have you already finished this discussion?).
It happends to me occasionly ( i think) while i'm sitting on this chair in front of the PC, or on the couch (more oftenly), but i think of it more as a experience, than a unpleasant feeling.

Youre lying (or sitting) and suddenly you feel like your back and your head are going backwards, like you're gonna roll over, if your head is vertical you feel it then more horisontal, and if it's horisontal, then you feel more vertical, if not youre feeling like this:
 V legs
/ back
0 head

Well, at least that it for me.

Anyway, are you guys familiar with the feeling when you are suddenly getting up from a long couch nap or something, and then you feel that there is a change of blood in your brain, and you feel weak, you're loosing balance, and your sight is blurred ( like when you're doing big pressure in a F-18).
Have you ever tried to control it, going against it, thatis?
You have to try that.

[Ishmael]

Youre lying (or sitting) and suddenly you feel like your back and your head are going backwards, like you're gonna roll over, if your head is vertical you feel it then more horisontal, and if it's horisontal, then you feel more vertical, if not youre feeling like this:
 V legs
/ back
0 head

Something similiar happens to me sometimes when I'm lying on my bed, trying to sleep... I feel like I was sinking on the bed, yet the "top side" of my body is still... that's a wierd feeling...

But anyway, after a I continued the relaxing some more, I got this feeling like I'd be torn into several directions, by some sort of invisible forces, with my feet and my hands nailed shut right where they were.. that was bizarre..

Seems also similiar, but in an already paralyzed state...

[PeaceMan]

You came here to freak us all out?  jk

I haven't even started yet...  


Anyway, I sometimes get the feeling I'm falling when I'm in bed and I suddenly grab it in some kind of reflex action. It's quite real.

The being pulled around in different directions thing happens when I lay completely still for a few minutes. You can also make yourself feel like you are rolling around or moving your limbs by moving without using your muscles (hard to explain but its like trying to move a part of your body with an extremely small force so there is no movement, if you do move your muscle it breaks the illusion).

[Ishmael]

Yeah, after lying still for some time, I couldn't move my limbs... when I tried to move them, I felt them, but they didn't move...

[Haddas]

Have you people experienced the feeling before you're supposed to sleep.

You lie in the bed, thinking: "this is so comfortable, I don't want to move" and then you have to turn the lamp off, but you don't want to. Then you DO turn off the lamp, and it's not the same anymore.

I also have these "wake up!" reactions. When I'm falling asleep, starting on a dream and happen to die in the beginning, I suddenly jump up to a sitting position and have this "WHEW!!!" reaction.

OR, should I go see a shrink?