Lucid Dreaming

[Raydeus]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Yeah like Feba said, it isn't about gravity/weight or something like that, it's about accepting none of that really exists in your dream.

The first time I tried to fly/glide/jump I felt gravity pulling me down, but it was just that my mind couldn't accept I could fly. It's just a matter of freeing your mind more than anything else.

When I was finally able to fly it was because I remembered a line from the Matrix, I was fully aware I was having a lucid dream by then, but still had problems accepting I could levitate. It was when Morpheus tells Neo "Do you think that's air you are breathing now?" at the dojo (mixed with a little "There is no spoon"). Then it hit me, "I'm in a dream so gravity and all the rest don't exist here, it's all in my mind". I know it's pretty obvious, but it took me a lot of effort being able to think that clearly while in a dream without waking up.

After realizing it was my own mind doing everything -from the things people would say to the way I felt when I moved- the rest was easy. I have the most fun flying, but appearing things out of thin air or trying to use something like a kamehameha (yeah I've done that too ) got much easier after that.

But everyone is different so I guess it's just a matter of knowing yourself enough.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

No, I didn't say gravity. >< It's a force thats trying to bring me down. It's distracting me so that I lose altitude so that I can't accomplish whatever I'm supposed to do. I can do whatever I choose yet I always feel that force trying to slow me down or manipulate me in some way which is usually very distracting.

[Feba]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

I still don't see your point, Raydeus.

Obviously if I'm fucking flying my mind isn't very tethered.

I might fly weird, but it's not because of gravity.

[Raydeus]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

My point is that force bringing you down or that weirdness when flying is because your mind is still thinking in terms of what happens in the real.

Dreaming and lucid dreaming seem to have different degrees of control. I'll try to explain myself as well as I can, but I suck at explaining what I'm thinking.

- A regular dream is like watching the auto play in a FPS. You see what happens but have little control/interaction with what's happening.

- Lucid dreaming starts when you realize you are in a dream. It's like when you start playing, you can control your character and explore, but most of what happens is still happening on auto.

- Then you start getting more control over your dream, you can fly or do things you think about, but many "rules" still play on auto, so it's like using cheat codes to do things you normally can't in a game.

But you are still bound by things that are common sense to you. If you jump high then you must fall eventually. If you get hit then it must hurt. If you fly then there has to be some force trying to make you descend.

- Then you realize everything that's happening in the dream is created by you, and I mean everything, it's just that your brain does everything on auto, if you are walking down the street everything you see and feel is generated by yourself. Once you realize that -and accept you can change it- everything becomes much easier to change or create.

I can summon a location, spawn something, change something, put everything in blank like a construct from the matrix. Everything I can imagine. I can go underwater and not feel I should be breathing or flying really fast or warp, it's easy because I'm the one creating everything around me.


The problem for me is I'm so concious about it I soon find myself fighting against my body so I don't wake up, and that really shortens the amount of time I can spend lucid dreaming. And since I still don't have the ability to have lucid dreams at will they don't happen very often either.


And I think that was my point, or at least I hope so.

[Boldfinger]

...

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

My point is that force bringing you down or that weirdness when flying is because your mind is still thinking in terms of what happens in the real.

Dreaming and lucid dreaming seem to have different degrees of control. I'll try to explain myself as well as I can, but I suck at explaining what I'm thinking.

- A regular dream is like watching the auto play in a FPS. You see what happens but have little control/interaction with what's happening.

- Lucid dreaming starts when you realize you are in a dream. It's like when you start playing, you can control your character and explore, but most of what happens is still happening on auto.

- Then you start getting more control over your dream, you can fly or do things you think about, but many "rules" still play on auto, so it's like using cheat codes to do things you normally can't in a game.

But you are still bound by things that are common sense to you. If you jump high then you must fall eventually. If you get hit then it must hurt. If you fly then there has to be some force trying to make you descend.

- Then you realize everything that's happening in the dream is created by you, and I mean everything, it's just that your brain does everything on auto, if you are walking down the street everything you see and feel is generated by yourself. Once you realize that -and accept you can change it- everything becomes much easier to change or create.

I can summon a location, spawn something, change something, put everything in blank like a construct from the matrix. Everything I can imagine. I can go underwater and not feel I should be breathing or flying really fast or warp, it's easy because I'm the one creating everything around me.


The problem for me is I'm so concious about it I soon find myself fighting against my body so I don't wake up, and that really shortens the amount of time I can spend lucid dreaming. And since I still don't have the ability to have lucid dreams at will they don't happen very often either.


And I think that was my point, or at least I hope so.

No, thats not it. I've been lucid dreaming before you were even born. lol When I was 12 I started to have very scary dreams like many here have described. (Black blob under my bed/in my closet, sits on my chest, can't breathe, trying to kill me, try to call for help but no sound comes out, yadda yadda yadda) So this was back in the hippie days and a friend of my parents, who I told my dreams to, put me on track with lucid dreaming (though he didn't call it that). I had to learn to control my dreams because I was turning into an insomniac because they scared me so much. Now I have some pretty fun dreams but they always have a point to them and I always feel like there is a force I have to deal with.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

I don't recall ever having a lucid dream, but lately I've had some consistant themes in my dreams - zombies. Can't really think about what caused it other than perhaps a Resident Evil Comic book I dug up a few weeks back.

No zombie movies or TV shows in recent memory.

First one was me picking up me up my girlfriend from the airport. For whatever reason, the airport in my dreams is always the same and its rather oddly constructed. Its a hangar with the little pod on the ceiling where people wait to board or get off and airplane. There's an escalator you can take to get to it. Its also surrounded by a parking deck and kind of a mall type area. Very weird airport, but its recurring.

Anyway, I pick up my girlfriend and we're walking through the mall area and its just a very lovely dovey kinda dream. Just walking together. Then there's a series of explosions and zombies start pouring out of all the stores. Suddenly she's dressed up in the RE4 Ada Wong get up, tossing me a gun and I look and I'm decked out like Leon from RE2 and we just start blasting everything and escape the city after killing all the zombies.

Second zombie dream was in a mansion and I was getting chased by a friend who was gradually turning into a zombie. He started talking about how he always wanted to be with my girlfriend and then graaaaaaah he's a zombie now and I reach a cupboard with a shotgun stored in it. I blasted him.

Most recent one I was taking a shower at some kinda gym and I hear all this groaning, when I come out to get dressed all the people in the men's locker room are laying around, thier skin a sickly pale yellow, thier skin sagging and they started coughing up lots of projectile mucus. No heroics here, I didn't even grab my clothes, I just ran the hell out with the towel on.

I don't consider them nightmares, though, just dreams. I don't really feel fear in them or anything. In fact, i don't think I've ever had a nightmare save for two in my childhood, and those only happened once. I've had the falling dream, but we all have those. I just don't feel much of anything in my dreams, kinda just like watching a movie to me.

A poorly directed one with no focal plot, but a movie nonetheless

[Feba]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

I think a nightmare depends on how it is after you wake up, not the dream itself.

I've had dreams where friends die that bug the shit out of me, but didn't really scare me; I'd consider those nightmares. I've had ones with scary situations (mainly falling dreams), but they don't really bother me when I get up.

[Raydeus]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

No, thats not it. I've been lucid dreaming before you were even born. lol When I was 12 I started to have very scary dreams like many here have described. (Black blob under my bed/in my closet, sits on my chest, can't breathe, trying to kill me, try to call for help but no sound comes out, yadda yadda yadda) So this was back in the hippie days and a friend of my parents, who I told my dreams to, put me on track with lucid dreaming (though he didn't call it that). I had to learn to control my dreams because I was turning into an insomniac because they scared me so much. Now I have some pretty fun dreams but they always have a point to them and I always feel like there is a force I have to deal with.

Like someone else is tampering with your dream? o_O

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Like someone else is tampering with your dream? o_O

I never quite thought of it that way but I guess it sort of feels like it. It's just a very odd sensation, guess I'm the only one that has experienced it. LOL

[DakAttack]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

I don't really 'dream' very often but I get something similar to what's described here, where I'm aware that I'm lying somewhere but I can't open my eyes, or move, or talk and I'm not sure if I'm even breathing. I can kinda sense something else in the room and I start to get a bit freaked by it all and then I start to feel as though the pressure in the room is gradually going up or something and I'm kinda being squeezed, and no matter how hard I try I can't wake up or shout for help...

and then I wake up. Usually sat upright in my bed, soaked with sweat and on the point of shouting something out, but not quite. It happens a lot. I should prolly go and see someone about it

I talked about this earlier. Wiki hypnagogia.

I think it might have something to do with sleep apnea.

[Boldfinger]

...

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

I had a weird dream last night. It was like I was watching one of those stupid reality shows that involve people singing (though, I couldn't tell if I was watching it on TV or if I was part of the live audience), and there was this weird, "funny" guy ( "funny" is in quotes, because I remember he was described as a funny guy, but I forgot exactly why), and I think he was singing something about HDTVs and "Cable Remotes" (actually Remote Controls, but for some reason, my mind keeps wanting to remember the phrase "cable remotes" ).

Obviously, my first response to it was . It still is, as a matter of fact.

EDIT: As for the vividity and lucidity of the dream, it was . . . almost vivid. I wasn't anywhere near lucid at all, however.

I do reality checks and try to recall my dreams every morning I remember to, though. Maybe that'll help somewhere along the line.

I think I need toresearch it more seriously some time.

[DakAttack]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Aye, that'll be it then. Not sure how I managed to miss your links first time through

It seems like most people try to bring some sort of positive meaning, hippy-ish at times, to what hypnagogia is. That, to me, is as far away from what it is as it possibly can be.

There have been times where I knew what was going on and woke up as expected, but there have also been times where I woke up expecting something completely different. Most recently I dreamt that I was in a car, it fell off a bridge, and the ground opened up into darkness which then became a hypnagogic experience. I could feel hands pressing down on me, and people screaming, but I instantly knew what exactly was going on. It becomes a practice in patience but it's hard not to panic when you're in the moment.

I wish there was more research out there about it because I get the feeling not everybody is on the same page about it.

[Akashimo]

Re: Lucid Dreaming

Just woke up from the strangest, yet most enjoyable dream.
Only thing in it was I was making out, deep second base non stop kissing and feeling up with this chick who called herself Tsunade, but looks like a mix of Rei Ayami, Ryoko, and Sakura. And in it, the tongue action felt so real, like so much better and breath taking compared to the only kiss I gotten in real life. v.v; Then I woke up from the alarm /sigh.