Thread: All about lucid dreaming

I'm going to assume that nobody on here knows about lucid dreaming, so if you do, you might not need to read some of this...



Lucid Dreaming!

Lucid dreaming is basically becoming aware or lucid that you are dreaming during a dream. Because it's a dream, you can do anything you want... when I say anything, I mean anything. Fly, walk through walls, shoot fire out of your hand, teleport, shapeshift, play any instrument, have massive sex orgys, ANYTHING!

How does this happen, and why?

Nobody knows for sure why you dream. Some think that your mind is cataloging everything, some think that you are just daydreaming without any real life input, but there's no real answer. However, when you do dream, some things happen.

There are basically two types of sleep. REM and SWS. REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement, which is what happens when you dream (more on that later). SWS is Slow Wave Sleep, or deep sleep. No dreams here.

During REM sleep, you are very lightly asleep, almost waking, which provides the possibility for dreams. So close to awake, but not yet. However, when you are dreaming, the part of your brain that uses logic is basically shut down, which is why we have crazy dreams about strange worlds and never know that anything is wrong.

So how do you finally realize that you are dreaming? You learn your dreams. Make a dream journal and record any dreams that you had the night before the instant that you wake. Instead of hopping out of bed, sit for a moment and try to remember anything. If you can only get a color or emotion, even write that. Anything that you write down contributes to better dream recall. Everyone dreams, but we forget them very quickly for some reason.

Once you begin to know the patterns of your dreams, you can start doing reality checks. (Pinching yourself is not a reality check... you actually can feel pain in dreams.) A reality check is just that, a way to make sure that you are dreaming. Some include holding your nose and trying to breathe (you cans still breathe in a dream), pushing your finger through your hand, looking at your hands and counting the fingers (there might be more or less, or they might look weird in a dream), looking at electric clocks (they are usually crazy), reading text then looking away and reading it again (it will usually change or be illegible), among others.

So, if you begin to see that your parent or friend is in your dream a lot, you can do a reality check every time you see them. If you begin to notice that you are happy in dreams, you can reality check when you get pretty happy. Some people even go to extremes and reality check every time they enter or leave a room!

Now, there are two main categories of ways to become lucid. DILD, and WILD.

DILD is Dream Induced Lucid Dream. This is when you are in a dream and realize that you are dreaming. When you first start practicing lucid dreaming, this is the first way that you should go about it. There are some different techniques that you can go through to help aid you through this, but I won't go over them now.

WILD is Wake Induced Lucid Dream. This is when you go straight from the waking state into a lucid dream. The usual way to achieve this is by waking up after 3-6 hours of sleep, getting awake and mentally clear, then going back to sleep. However, instead of drifting into sleep, you keep your mind awake and allow your body to go to sleep. This allows you to go straight into a dream, and is pretty effective. However, this is a pretty hard method, and should be tried after you become comfortable dreaming.

So, this is the basic outline of lucid dreaming. I challenge everybody on these forums to start a dream journal and attempt to lucid dream!

Lucid dreaming can be a great outlet for stress relief, creativity, fun, and many other great uses. The possibilities are endless. And besides, when you spend years sleeping throughout your life, why not make some use of them?

If you already lucid dream or are a natural LDer, talk about it! Give some advice.

For more information, and some pretty cool forums, go to:

Lucid Dreaming -- Dream Views
or
Mortal Mist . . . Dreaming . . . Lucid . . .

(I am only a member of these sites, so I'm not advertising, just giving a link for more info... if I need to take these down, tell me. :laugh:)

yes i do. ive been lucid dreaming since i was 14-15

my grandmother taught me some sleep meditation techniques when i was young. this has allowed me to become lucid (aware im in adream) much easier. controlling your dreams is great but it doesnt come easy and most people dont think you can or just dont care about that stuff. Most of the time when I become aware in a dream I like to fly. best feeling in the world. next to sex but its close

How realistic is the lucid dream? Can you smell or touch the things around you?

yeah i want to know. you compare it to sex but i would compare drugs to sex. now how can you convince you to convince me that lucid dreaming is as good as x. thanks lol. ok ok i will try to stay on topic. great post btw. cool ideas

This is so cool! I don't even remember half my dreams. Write more! It would be awesome controlling my dreams.

I have had several dreams where I realize that I'm dreaming, but that has little effect on what happens. I haven't gone out of my way to attempt lucid dreaming, but its definitely something that I'm interested in.

I have tried several methods of inducing lucid dreams, but I never succeeded. Some things I tried were binaural beats, someone telling me that "you are dreaming", hypnotic background music or mental exercises. The experience of having one sounds exciting, but it demands so much involvement for it to work.