Lucid dreaming

[squibbles]

Incidentally, I don't have dreams that often now, but over the last few years I have had dreams. When I was 13 I had a week where I dreamed every night and could remember each dream clearly. I can still remember them today. I won't go over them, as they are really vague and odd (In one I was Wolverine :D).

I used to believe that I didn't dream too. After a bit of training, with a dream diary, I found that the problem was not that I didn't dream, but that my ability to retain a memory of it was so poor that I didn't realise I'd had one, as the dream never even made it into short term memory.

I would be /extremely/ surprised if your case was not the same.

On that thought, I should add that that is the hardest stage to surpass, and that once you reach that, your ability to retain the memories will increase much faster.

[chume14]

I frequently lucid dream probably at least once a month. I become aware that I am in a dream but it's not like a realisation, I don't deduce that I'm in a dream because the dream is unrealistic or anything like that, I merely just suddenly know it's a dream. It's like I've known all along but it's slowly floated from my memory into my mind. Once I'm concious that I'm in a dream state I have to be quite careful because if I push the boundaries to far I can feel it and soon after I wake up.

For example I once had a dream that I was running through some woods on this leafy pathway and there was something chasing me I could hear its loud breathing and it had a sort of shadow over me but I'd never looked back to see what it was. When I became concious I was in a dream I slowed down and eventually stopped running I looked back to see what it was and there was nothing there just a sort of shadow. I knew at this point I was supposed to continue along the pathway but I decided not to, I decided that this was my dream and I could do whatever I wanted. I started to walk into the woods adjacent to the path. At first this was ok but after a short while once I'd got about as far from the path as I'd been able to see from the path it started to strain. This is a hard thing to describe but it feels a bit like dizziness overcoming you it makes you not want to do what ever you did to cause it. As I walked my legs started to move slower and it was sort of like I was moon walking because I was taking steps forward but my feet were sliding backwards and I was moving slower and slower. Soon everything started to go hazy and I realised I was waking up I tried to turn back to continue the dream but it was to late and I woke up.

Always when I become aware in a dream I know what I was going to do before I became concious and I can follow this route sort of as an observer in my own body just experiencing the dream consciously and I often do this. Alternatively I can try and do something else that I want to do or think would be interesting like start yelling at the top of my voice or attacking whoever I'm with. Though as I was explaining above particularly leaving the geographical area in which the dream is 'supposed' to take place often leads me to wake up.

When I become concious I know the laws of physics do not apply and nothing I do has further consequences but I still can't just do whatever I want. For instance I know I can jump from a great hight and have done so but I can't fly unless I could fly in the dream before I became concious I just don't know how. I have had many dreams where I could fly and at least two where I had telekinesis and other powers over the world which I could then use once I became concious. I've also had dreams where I've had guns and weapons where I've basically gone on a spree once I've became concious and killed everyone even my friends or destroyed various buildings and vehicles in my dreams this kind of drastic action and destruction of the dream always leads to awakening.

In my more surreal dreams where I often float in a world of abstract colours and shapes I have greater control of the environment and can even change the colour and structure of the various shapes and planes at will but there is rarely anything visually recognisable form the real world in these dreams there more like what I imagine trips to be like. These abstract dreams are the only one in which I ever have WILD and they are much more rare nearly all my lucid dreams are DILD.

My frequency of lucid dreaming is probably related to the fact that I have very good dream recall (I can nearly always remember at least one dream when I awake) and the fact that my dreams are often very vivid and bizarre. I tend to find I usually have lucid dreams when I've woken up some time in the morning and then gone back to sleep I then have the lucid dream and this is also the time when I have best dream recall from. In addition to lucid dreams I also have sleep paralysis and bad nightmares so it's not all great.

[Destiny]

I really know what you mean with the strain part. I have only ever had one lucid dream, and in it I was sat on a roof. It was like a shanty town, or part of one. There were poorly constructed houses in the shape of a square, and in the middle of the square a little open space of dirt, with weeds poking out from the cracked soil. There was a large bin against one of the building (Think those you climb on in call of duty games. It was identicle.). As well as that there were other kids on the roofs. Some of them were chasing each other and playing games, but one in particular caught my eye once I became aware I was dreaming. Previously in the dream I had just been sitting, and thinking. When I became aware of the dream I started to think how everything was very realistic and clear. I had been expecting dreams to be full of holes and visual inconsistencies, as they appear in my memory when i think about them. I then focused on a single kid on the roofs to my left. He was talking about the rat problem they have around here to a friend of his. And I remember thinking 'this is amazing. I'm not thinking about what he says next or what actions he should do next. It's totally automated - almost as if a seperate personality within me. The same deal with all the other kids too. It was like my dream had created AI. I then tried to stand up, but found I couldn't. It was the strain, just like you say. As if because I wasn't supposed to stand up in the dream, I wasn't allowed to.

[scythe]

I don't think I've ever had any lucid dreams. Usually my dreams are completely nonsensical, e.g. I'll leave a room, walk back in, and suddenly the room has changed or the door now leads outside, etc. Whenever I remember a dream I wake up and wonder what the hell is wrong with me.

[chume14]

I really know what you mean with the strain part. I have only ever had one lucid dream, and in it I was sat on a roof. It was like a shanty town, or part of one. There were poorly constructed houses in the shape of a square, and in the middle of the square a little open space of dirt, with weeds poking out from the cracked soil. There was a large bin against one of the building (Think those you climb on in call of duty games. It was identicle.). As well as that there were other kids on the roofs. Some of them were chasing each other and playing games, but one in particular caught my eye once I became aware I was dreaming. Previously in the dream I had just been sitting, and thinking. When I became aware of the dream I started to think how everything was very realistic and clear. I had been expecting dreams to be full of holes and visual inconsistencies, as they appear in my memory when i think about them. I then focused on a single kid on the roofs to my left. He was talking about the rat problem they have around here to a friend of his. And I remember thinking 'this is amazing. I'm not thinking about what he says next or what actions he should do next. It's totally automated - almost as if a seperate personality within me. The same deal with all the other kids too. It was like my dream had created AI. I then tried to stand up, but found I couldn't. It was the strain, just like you say. As if because I wasn't supposed to stand up in the dream, I wasn't allowed to.

Yeah the AI thing is weird, I've had conversations in lucid dreams and suddenly thought wait a minute I'm talking to myself but that kind of thought in itself is a strain on the dream reality. I once asked someone I was with if they knew it was a dream but they just looked at me quizzically and I woke up almost strait away. This is especially odd for me as my dreams regularly feature just generic characters who I've never met in the real world its strange to think I created their entire reality.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

I was previously about to non-contribute to this thread by saying that I've never had a lucid dream but have been interested in a while in rectifying that, but then this morning I did something that I realize I've been able to do for a while:
I was having a dream that I was enjoying (though I have absolutely no idea what it was by now), but I was interrupted by someone knocking on my door. After getting up and talking with the person knocking on my door, I lay back down and proceeded to push myself back into the dream again. For a little while, it felt like I was simply imagining something fully consciously, but then I slipped back into it and kept on dreaming as though I had never woken up in the first place. But I never gained any amount of control over the dream once I was back in it; it was only lucid so long as I was actually awake and imagining it, before I handed that over to my sub-conscious.

[otters]

For a little while, it felt like I was simply imagining something fully consciously, but then I slipped back into it and kept on dreaming as though I had never woken up in the first place. But I never gained any amount of control over the dream once I was back in it; it was only lucid so long as I was actually awake and imagining it, before I handed that over to my sub-conscious.

This exact thing often happens to me. I can't decide if I prefer the lucid, less vivid "dreaming" or the actual non-lucid dreaming.

[chume14]

I had another lucid dream last night. I was in some sort of cinema/bowling-ally/arcade complex type building and it was totally empty apart from me and a few staff walking round and behind the cinema food serving place. I ended up downstairs and was playing some kind of strategy game like Command and Conquer on a computer which looked like some sort of cross between my own laptop and a powerful desktop and it had my own personal desktop setup and everything even though I think it belonged to the building. I went back upstairs and was wondering around this marble floor when I heard shouting outside. When I ventured out there was a crowd of strange looking people in white raincoats or some sort of radiation costumes. They were protesting and holding signs and the little of their faces I could see were deformed, some where wearing gas masks and holding sings. Some time around this time I became lucid. I went back inside because the people were somewhat distressing and unusually I didn't know what was 'supposed' to happen next in the dream. There were no staff any more inside it was totally empty. I wanted to return the computer and test it because I had never had access to a computer in a lucid dream before but as I went downstairs I felt the whole dream starting to strain. I managed to get to the computer and open up the internet browser (it was internet explorer I don't know why I haven't used that for ages) and I was thinking its amazing this entire computer was working in my head but before the page loaded up I was awake.