I have! I'll share some unique experience with it. I'm certainly not alone in this but it's a side of lucid dreaming I didn't hear much about before digging into online groups about it. Even then...
I have! I'll share some unique experience with it. I'm certainly not alone in this but it's a side of lucid dreaming I didn't hear much about before digging into online groups about it. Even then it wasn't much discussed. Be forewarned though: I'm gonna detail some mental mistakes I made that I never really recovered from. I'm sure many would consider them trivial, but for me they were an unnecessary roadblock that put me off of it indefinitely. For fear of instilling the same behavior in yourself, you might not want to read this!
Most people go into lucid dreaming expecting the hard part to be becoming lucid. This is certainly challenging, and it takes discipline and time to achieve that. When I first did, the best word to describe the feeling would really be one of euphoria. I was sort of surprised by the sense of fullness and color that it brought during the dream. Unfortunately, in my case another issue would arise that would render that effort null.
In that first dream, the moments preceding my lucidity were a bit weird. My dog was having a coughing fit/dog hiccups (something he has occasionally in the real world), and I was comforting him as I usually would to try and get him through it. That was about the time I realized something felt amiss. To see if I was dreaming, I checked my hand and counted the fingers one by one, and found that they didn't sum to ten. I pinched my nose shut and tried inhaling deeply through it, and found that I could still breathe. At this point I was becoming truly lucid, but I felt this sort of malevolent presence creeping along my skin.
It seemed like an unfriendly aura was emanating from my dog at this point, and it was a little scary in the way it directly touched my feeling of fear. It wasn't that there was something to be afraid of that was making me feel that way, it's just that I knew that my dog had this intent that I should feel that way. He started to growl, baring his teeth. At this point though, I sort of told myself that it was all in my dream, and that for that reason I could control it. I sort of commanded that he should stop, and it just worked. I guess the confidence carried through, because the fear was gone and I felt electric instead.
I wandered around just taking things in and was sort of amazed at the quality of it all. It was very raw somehow, and really it was just my house (so nothing unfamiliar/new), but stepping out the front door everything was just saturated in some sort of good feeling. It was fantastic.
But somehow I feel like this first step into lucid dreaming didn't carry the lesson that it should have. As I continued to try lucid dreaming again in the future, I would find elements of the dreams that were malevolent somehow. In my head I even started just calling it that. It wasn't just a quality of the things, there was a genuine malevolent presence that reared its head whenever I began to realize I was in a dream. And it wasn't different each time; it was the same entity, just in different shapes. It would be things like a strange, unfamiliar child at a family gathering that just would want to hurt me, or just an air from down an empty hall. The second time it appeared I think I mentally geared myself to start expecting it, and I think at that point I was doomed.
Early on I knew I should be able to control it, but every time I would be too distracted by it in the dream to complete a reality check and really become lucid. It would just become a nightmare. Later on, the malevolence would actually trigger lucidity, because its personality was so familiar to me that I came to associate it with my dreams, but I would be so afraid of it during the initial shock that I would just want out, and I'd simply wake myself up. Even today, years later, I'll sometimes have a dream with that feeling of someone dragging a finger along my spine, deep under my flesh, and I'll have that moment of realization. In that moment, I'll impulsively imagine the worst possible thing that it could take the form of and basically kick myself out of my rest.
Way back then I read a few posts about "lucid nightmares", as some might call them. I think some folks had it worse. I can't remember if anyone ever felt sort of trapped in them, but that wasn't an issue I ever had. I just couldn't control them. I did try a few times, in the commanding way that I did the first time. I think, however, that there was some uncertainty that I could never truly shake. Am I really in full control of my mind? Are there not corners where those impulsive thoughts hide, that I would normally reject as if they were no creation of mine? Insofar as the subconscious was concerned, I was never able to fully convince myself that I could perfectly shape my thoughts and feelings, and every single time I tried to face that presence in the dream, there would be just a sliver of doubt. And it would immediately, with no delay and with absolute power, attach itself to that doubt, and everything would crumple around that.
To be honest, the experience of all of it was really something. I have no regrets about any of it. It was exciting, and I loved writing about the feelings and the fears and the shadows when I woke up. But it wasn't the lucid dreaming experience that I expected. I never really managed that.
Thanks for sharing. I use the same reality checks (counting fingers, breathing through a squeezed nose) and they have been really effective for me. As far as your sub conscious limiting your...
Thanks for sharing.
I use the same reality checks (counting fingers, breathing through a squeezed nose) and they have been really effective for me.
As far as your sub conscious limiting your control, myself and a few others think that if you don't truly believe that you can make the change in your dream that you want it just won't happen.
Your last part reminded me of some kind of semi lucid sleep paralysis.
I used to enjoy lengthy and frequent lucid dreams, but I stopped having (actually, recalling) dreams for over 10 years. I cannot find dreams nearly as much any more, lucid or otherwise. I used to...
I used to enjoy lengthy and frequent lucid dreams, but I stopped having (actually, recalling) dreams for over 10 years. I cannot find dreams nearly as much any more, lucid or otherwise.
I used to float around my campus, fly beside airplanes, and mend bridges that were impossible to mend in real life. It felt good.
If you're having trouble with dream recall the only thing I can think of to help would be keeping a dream journal and writing whatever you remember as soon as you wake up. It can be a long process...
If you're having trouble with dream recall the only thing I can think of to help would be keeping a dream journal and writing whatever you remember as soon as you wake up.
It can be a long process but eventually your dreams will stay in your mind longer after waking.
That's just been my experience, your milage may vary.
It may sound strange, but I don't recall dreams even immediately after waking up. I don't mind not having them though. I find it weird, but I'm not missing it too much.
It may sound strange, but I don't recall dreams even immediately after waking up.
I don't mind not having them though. I find it weird, but I'm not missing it too much.
I don't really experience dreams (or you know, I don't feel like I do because I don't remember even having dreamed) anymore except on very rare occasion, and it's not very eventful when it does...
I don't really experience dreams (or you know, I don't feel like I do because I don't remember even having dreamed) anymore except on very rare occasion, and it's not very eventful when it does happen. Typically it's just when I'm really homesick I'll dream of just existing at home.
I used to semi-regularly lucid dream and if I'm entirely honest with you it always almost always a sex thing. Occasionally as a kid I had a lucid version of the classic dream where it's christmas and you get all the stuff you want, but it was mostly the sex stuff.
To be honest, I didn't really know it was called lucid dreaming until after I was 17. I thought everyone did it occasionally. And I typically remember at least 5-7 dream threads when I wake up. My...
To be honest, I didn't really know it was called lucid dreaming until after I was 17. I thought everyone did it occasionally. And I typically remember at least 5-7 dream threads when I wake up. My lucid dreaming usually happens in the last three threads of the sleep session.
My favourite types of dreams are when they're lucid and also hyper real. The ones where senses seem to have gone in five dimensions, and the people you meet have a strong mental/spiritual density.
I used to visit Ld4all.com way back when. I had heard the lead singer of Incubus was into lucid dreaming which is why I got started. Managed to have a few semi-lucid dreams, but the need to do...
I used to visit Ld4all.com way back when. I had heard the lead singer of Incubus was into lucid dreaming which is why I got started. Managed to have a few semi-lucid dreams, but the need to do "reality checks" throughout the day made it too cumbersome.
I got into it back when I was a teenager, but only ever managed to have a couple of lucid dreams before my hormone-addled brain got distracted by the next pretty girl to walk by, and it fell off...
I got into it back when I was a teenager, but only ever managed to have a couple of lucid dreams before my hormone-addled brain got distracted by the next pretty girl to walk by, and it fell off my radar. But I wouldn’t mind giving it another shot one of these days...
I've had two dreams where I knew I was dreaming and was able to control certain parts of it. I'm working on getting better at it, keeping a dream journal helps.
I've had two dreams where I knew I was dreaming and was able to control certain parts of it.
I'm working on getting better at it, keeping a dream journal helps.
I've had one luicid dream. In the dream I was in my bedroom, and the first thing I did was smash the window (not sure why), and then I was so scared that I wasn't asleep and that I had literally...
I've had one luicid dream. In the dream I was in my bedroom, and the first thing I did was smash the window (not sure why), and then I was so scared that I wasn't asleep and that I had literally just gone nuts and broken my bedroom window that I deliberately woke myself up.
I meditated a lot for about a 10 year period. I never tried to lucid dream but i had several during that period. Especially when I would do a meditation retreat, meditating for about 10hrs per...
I meditated a lot for about a 10 year period. I never tried to lucid dream but i had several during that period. Especially when I would do a meditation retreat, meditating for about 10hrs per day, I would have really vivid lucid dreams which even, and as i recall, one bled over into the waking world.
In some of the dreams i would be visited by the rinpoche's who were long dead, and have really insightful conversations.
Unfortunately, all these years later, i'm just left with the knowledge of these dreams but not so much the content. I may have journaled some of it back then. I like to believe that it has entered my subconscious and it's been integrated into my self now.
I just googled lucid dreaming and it seems to describe me a lot of my dreams. I didn't really do anything or "experiment" to be able to lucid dream. It just happens. I know I'm dreaming in a lot...
I just googled lucid dreaming and it seems to describe me a lot of my dreams. I didn't really do anything or "experiment" to be able to lucid dream. It just happens. I know I'm dreaming in a lot of my dreams, and can control what I dream about. I also tend to vividly remember my dreams.
I have! I'll share some unique experience with it. I'm certainly not alone in this but it's a side of lucid dreaming I didn't hear much about before digging into online groups about it. Even then it wasn't much discussed. Be forewarned though: I'm gonna detail some mental mistakes I made that I never really recovered from. I'm sure many would consider them trivial, but for me they were an unnecessary roadblock that put me off of it indefinitely. For fear of instilling the same behavior in yourself, you might not want to read this!
Most people go into lucid dreaming expecting the hard part to be becoming lucid. This is certainly challenging, and it takes discipline and time to achieve that. When I first did, the best word to describe the feeling would really be one of euphoria. I was sort of surprised by the sense of fullness and color that it brought during the dream. Unfortunately, in my case another issue would arise that would render that effort null.
In that first dream, the moments preceding my lucidity were a bit weird. My dog was having a coughing fit/dog hiccups (something he has occasionally in the real world), and I was comforting him as I usually would to try and get him through it. That was about the time I realized something felt amiss. To see if I was dreaming, I checked my hand and counted the fingers one by one, and found that they didn't sum to ten. I pinched my nose shut and tried inhaling deeply through it, and found that I could still breathe. At this point I was becoming truly lucid, but I felt this sort of malevolent presence creeping along my skin.
It seemed like an unfriendly aura was emanating from my dog at this point, and it was a little scary in the way it directly touched my feeling of fear. It wasn't that there was something to be afraid of that was making me feel that way, it's just that I knew that my dog had this intent that I should feel that way. He started to growl, baring his teeth. At this point though, I sort of told myself that it was all in my dream, and that for that reason I could control it. I sort of commanded that he should stop, and it just worked. I guess the confidence carried through, because the fear was gone and I felt electric instead.
I wandered around just taking things in and was sort of amazed at the quality of it all. It was very raw somehow, and really it was just my house (so nothing unfamiliar/new), but stepping out the front door everything was just saturated in some sort of good feeling. It was fantastic.
But somehow I feel like this first step into lucid dreaming didn't carry the lesson that it should have. As I continued to try lucid dreaming again in the future, I would find elements of the dreams that were malevolent somehow. In my head I even started just calling it that. It wasn't just a quality of the things, there was a genuine malevolent presence that reared its head whenever I began to realize I was in a dream. And it wasn't different each time; it was the same entity, just in different shapes. It would be things like a strange, unfamiliar child at a family gathering that just would want to hurt me, or just an air from down an empty hall. The second time it appeared I think I mentally geared myself to start expecting it, and I think at that point I was doomed.
Early on I knew I should be able to control it, but every time I would be too distracted by it in the dream to complete a reality check and really become lucid. It would just become a nightmare. Later on, the malevolence would actually trigger lucidity, because its personality was so familiar to me that I came to associate it with my dreams, but I would be so afraid of it during the initial shock that I would just want out, and I'd simply wake myself up. Even today, years later, I'll sometimes have a dream with that feeling of someone dragging a finger along my spine, deep under my flesh, and I'll have that moment of realization. In that moment, I'll impulsively imagine the worst possible thing that it could take the form of and basically kick myself out of my rest.
Way back then I read a few posts about "lucid nightmares", as some might call them. I think some folks had it worse. I can't remember if anyone ever felt sort of trapped in them, but that wasn't an issue I ever had. I just couldn't control them. I did try a few times, in the commanding way that I did the first time. I think, however, that there was some uncertainty that I could never truly shake. Am I really in full control of my mind? Are there not corners where those impulsive thoughts hide, that I would normally reject as if they were no creation of mine? Insofar as the subconscious was concerned, I was never able to fully convince myself that I could perfectly shape my thoughts and feelings, and every single time I tried to face that presence in the dream, there would be just a sliver of doubt. And it would immediately, with no delay and with absolute power, attach itself to that doubt, and everything would crumple around that.
To be honest, the experience of all of it was really something. I have no regrets about any of it. It was exciting, and I loved writing about the feelings and the fears and the shadows when I woke up. But it wasn't the lucid dreaming experience that I expected. I never really managed that.
And that's my lucid dreaming story. :)
Thanks for sharing.
I use the same reality checks (counting fingers, breathing through a squeezed nose) and they have been really effective for me.
As far as your sub conscious limiting your control, myself and a few others think that if you don't truly believe that you can make the change in your dream that you want it just won't happen.
Your last part reminded me of some kind of semi lucid sleep paralysis.
Just my armchair opinion.
I used to enjoy lengthy and frequent lucid dreams, but I stopped having (actually, recalling) dreams for over 10 years. I cannot find dreams nearly as much any more, lucid or otherwise.
I used to float around my campus, fly beside airplanes, and mend bridges that were impossible to mend in real life. It felt good.
If you're having trouble with dream recall the only thing I can think of to help would be keeping a dream journal and writing whatever you remember as soon as you wake up.
It can be a long process but eventually your dreams will stay in your mind longer after waking.
That's just been my experience, your milage may vary.
It may sound strange, but I don't recall dreams even immediately after waking up.
I don't mind not having them though. I find it weird, but I'm not missing it too much.
I don't really experience dreams (or you know, I don't feel like I do because I don't remember even having dreamed) anymore except on very rare occasion, and it's not very eventful when it does happen. Typically it's just when I'm really homesick I'll dream of just existing at home.
I used to semi-regularly lucid dream and if I'm entirely honest with you it always almost always a sex thing. Occasionally as a kid I had a lucid version of the classic dream where it's christmas and you get all the stuff you want, but it was mostly the sex stuff.
To be honest, I didn't really know it was called lucid dreaming until after I was 17. I thought everyone did it occasionally. And I typically remember at least 5-7 dream threads when I wake up. My lucid dreaming usually happens in the last three threads of the sleep session.
My favourite types of dreams are when they're lucid and also hyper real. The ones where senses seem to have gone in five dimensions, and the people you meet have a strong mental/spiritual density.
I used to visit Ld4all.com way back when. I had heard the lead singer of Incubus was into lucid dreaming which is why I got started. Managed to have a few semi-lucid dreams, but the need to do "reality checks" throughout the day made it too cumbersome.
If you don't mind, what reality checks were you doing?
I got into it back when I was a teenager, but only ever managed to have a couple of lucid dreams before my hormone-addled brain got distracted by the next pretty girl to walk by, and it fell off my radar. But I wouldn’t mind giving it another shot one of these days...
@lobster Have you ever had any yourself?
I've had two dreams where I knew I was dreaming and was able to control certain parts of it.
I'm working on getting better at it, keeping a dream journal helps.
I've had one luicid dream. In the dream I was in my bedroom, and the first thing I did was smash the window (not sure why), and then I was so scared that I wasn't asleep and that I had literally just gone nuts and broken my bedroom window that I deliberately woke myself up.
Still pretty annoyed about that.
I meditated a lot for about a 10 year period. I never tried to lucid dream but i had several during that period. Especially when I would do a meditation retreat, meditating for about 10hrs per day, I would have really vivid lucid dreams which even, and as i recall, one bled over into the waking world.
In some of the dreams i would be visited by the rinpoche's who were long dead, and have really insightful conversations.
Unfortunately, all these years later, i'm just left with the knowledge of these dreams but not so much the content. I may have journaled some of it back then. I like to believe that it has entered my subconscious and it's been integrated into my self now.
I just googled lucid dreaming and it seems to describe me a lot of my dreams. I didn't really do anything or "experiment" to be able to lucid dream. It just happens. I know I'm dreaming in a lot of my dreams, and can control what I dream about. I also tend to vividly remember my dreams.