Speaking of dreams...

Z-Ha-Dum · Post by **Z-Ha-Dum** » 2003-04-12 11:09pm

I am curious. Is anyone in this forum an adept at lucid dreaming (or practitioner)? How do you do it? I've read a few books about it. I've never experienced it before, and I tried to develop the skill but couldn't produce a single one.

For those who aren't familiar with the subject: lucid dreaming is a mental state where the person who is asleep is aware that he is dreaming and can interact freely in the dream as if he is in the waking world - being conscious in the dreamstate. With the descriptions I've read, it's like being in another world. A person can even speak to the charcaters in his dream.

Those who are skillful enough in lucid dreaming can manipulate the reality in their dream. Tibetan monks use lucid dreaming to break through illusions. A person in Germany used it to improve his skill in martial arts by simulaing his teacher. It is even claimed that sexual pleasure is heightened while in the dream state.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-04-12 11:14pm

I've had a couple of lucid dreams. Interesting stuff. I usually can't hold on to them too long, however.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2003-04-12 11:17pm

*Lasgun poke* Zzzzzzap.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-04-12 11:19pm

I've had several, I think, although I do not dream anymore...

aphexmonster · Post by **aphexmonster** » 2003-04-12 11:20pm

lucid dreaming eh ? Sometimes when im sleeping, and i realize its a dream, i try to take advantage of anything and everything in the dream... it usually never works, im too much of a realist for it to work out for the better most of the time. I have found that i can break stuff without getting hurt, run for an infinit amount of time, and get stabbed, shot, and poisened to no affect. Although once, i was held under water and i really couldn't breathe

-monster

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2003-04-12 11:21pm

The key thing is to recognize that you're dreaming and take conscious control of it. I can do it a fair bit but I usually wake up before I get the dream going to where I want it to go. I've actually used my dreams to review course notes to help understand things and study for tests, but most of the time I'm just having weird adventures.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-04-12 11:46pm

I've done it before. Seems that one needs to be able to tell that it's a dream, before you wake up. And simulatenously not attempt to wake up upon realization that it is a dream.

Cyborg Stan · Post by **Cyborg Stan** » 2003-04-12 11:51pm

I sometimes can do it. Great fun. One of the more interesting things is to fly around (My post is a bit down the page) from place to place.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-04-13 01:04am

Sometimes I dream lucidly (usually not too long before I wake up), but more often, I simply hear sounds from the 'outside' (that is to say, the concious world), and realize "Hey, I'm dreaming", and continue to follow the dream along, to see where it goes. I'm kinda weird like that, not messing with stuff I could...

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2003-04-13 01:05am

I used to be a lucid dreamer frequently, but I've lost the ability as I got older.

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2003-04-13 01:24am

I lucid dream, the problem is I usually only remember just the part where I realised I was dreaming, and about 90% of my dreams leave me with this really unpleasent feeling, which makes me not try to remember more of my dreams.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-04-13 01:33am

Z'Ha'Dum wrote:I am curious. Is anyone in this forum an adept at lucid dreaming (or practitioner)? How do you do it? I've read a few books about it. I've never experienced it before, and I tried to develop the skill but couldn't produce a single one.

For those who aren't familiar with the subject: lucid dreaming is a mental state where the person who is asleep is aware that he is dreaming and can interact freely in the dream as if he is in the waking world - being conscious in the dreamstate. With the descriptions I've read, it's like being in another world. A person can even speak to the charcaters in his dream.

Those who are skillful enough in lucid dreaming can manipulate the reality in their dream. Tibetan monks use lucid dreaming to break through illusions. A person in Germany used it to improve his skill in martial arts by simulaing his teacher. It is even claimed that sexual pleasure is heightened while in the dream state.

Ive had lucid dreams in my worst nightmares. you are dreaming, in a world of horror, and you cannot escape.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-04-13 01:35am

That would have the potential to be really cool. I've realized that I was dreaming quite a bit, but I've never been able to take control of the dream.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2003-04-13 01:40am

Breifly, once. In what was the truly most terrifying dream of my life. I'm not a big fan of dreams anymore, maybe because of it.

I don't have difficulty remembering my dreams, but sometimes realize I can vividly remember them when I wake up, and try to forget them. The most common thing for me is hearing things from my consiousness, like an alarm going off, music being plaed, and occaisonally my dad tapping on the window because someone locked the screendoor.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-04-13 01:42am

well, you can bring yourself to orgasm from a dream, so imagine an hour long lucid dream induced orgasm! O_O

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2003-04-13 01:46am

kojikun wrote:well, you can bring yourself to orgasm from a dream, so imagine an hour long lucid dream induced orgasm! O_O

I'm not sure that even possible chemically. When you orgasam certain chemicals are released in your brain, I'm not sure that you would be able to produce these molecules fast enough to orgasam for an entire hour.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-04-13 01:50am

bah. shut up.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2003-04-13 02:06am

Hell, I have lucid dreams all the time. Of course, most of them consist trying to run from something but moving incredibly slow...

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-04-13 02:20am

The two key things that work for me (they worked the first time then I grew unbelievable lazy to do them) are:

1) keep a dream journal: as soon as you wake up, write down everything you dreamed, with all the details you can remember. While the journal itself is useless and you probably will never ever read it again, it encourages your mind to try to remember these things (the memory of a dream is placed on the lowest priority in your memory, and when you need those megabytes of free space they're the first thing to go

).

2) right before going to sleep, make a COMPLETE mental walkthru of your entire day from the moment you woke. What you had for breakfast, etc. Try to be as exact as possible, and if you can, bring up all the details, what did you put on, what the guy in the cab looked like, what work did you do at your job, etc. When doing the walkthru, DON'T remember emotional things like "that guy looked like an idiot" or "my damn boss asked me to do another stupid whatever" or "again we ate beans, which taste like crap", etc. Just remember the FACTS, not how you felt about them.

I did that ONCE, and I had something like 3 VERY LONG lucid dreams in a single night, waking between them. Pretty cool.

There are other things like asking yourself every hour or so during the day whether you're dreaming or not, and imagine some kind of "pet" or "friend" that will supposedly visit you in your dream so you know it's a dream. There's a big-ass document in the net somewhere, called "lucid dreaming", you'll do well in looking it up.

Another problem is that becoming aware you're dreaming tends to wake you up, so you have to be extra careful. Specially if everything starts becoming black & white, it means you're about to wake up. A good practice is to turn around repeteadly (like Wonder Woman... I'm not making this shit up!).

There, hope it helps

EDIT: you're not supposed to actually do twirls in real life, I meant that you, during your dream, should "dream" that you're doing it. After all you'll be pretty much in control of all your actions.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-04-13 04:45am

I've had a couple lucid dreams. My big problem is I don't remember dreams any more. I wake up with no memory at all of what I dreamt. The most incredible (i.e. least realistic) thing I ever did in a lucid dream was fall from a thirty-story building and walk away from it.

Post by **haas mark** » 2003-04-13 04:49am

[bites the n00b] Welcome to SD.Net, enjoy your stay!

As for lucid dreaming, I'm not a lucid dreamer (if/when I dream), but I have had some pretty fucked up dreams before.. As for interpreted dreams (if you believe in that), then I have some abilities there.

Darth Gojira · Post by **Darth Gojira** » 2003-04-13 07:45am

The closest I got was when I dremt of being attacked by the wolfman some 6 years back. He was rushing up the stairs, so I decided to make myself wake up(or at least change the dream) by smashing myself through the window.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2003-04-13 11:53am

I have been able to control my dreams all my live. I don't know how but i know when i'm dreaming and i can take control. It never works if i fall asleep drunk or high though.

My friend taught himself to lucid dream he says it's very hard to learn. He needs to leanr it because he has a tumor in his spint right next to a najor nerve centre and when he's dreaming it;s the only time he's not in pain.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-04-13 07:08pm

The closest things I've to a true lucid dream are-

- Once I was dreaming, I then realised "Hey, this is a dream, lets wake up", I was annoyed.

- Once, I was dreaming where I was falling (I do that a lot), and as you would guess, I was scared, then near the ground, I realised "I don't ever remember this hurting", I hit the ground and I was ok.

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2003-04-13 07:17pm

Hmm, I made a thread about this some time ago. Basically, yes. I've managed it a couple of times. In fact the other night I remember one. The only problem is that by the time I manage to take control, is usually just long enough for me to do something and then wake up. Sucks. If I could only get control early. Natalie Portman would be MINE!!!

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