Douglas Adams explains how to fly

[NZ_Locke]

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on the subject of flying.
There is and art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying.
The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it.
The first part is easy.
All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it’s going to hurt.
That is, it’s going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground.
Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard.
Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties.
One problem is that you have to miss the ground accidentally. It’s no good deliberately intending to miss the ground because you won’t. You have to have your attention suddenly distracted by something else when you’re halfway there, so that you are no longer thinking about falling, or about the ground, or about how much it’s going to hurt if you fail to miss it.
It is notoriously difficult to prize your attention away from these three things during the split second you have at your disposal. Hence most people’s failure, and their eventual disillusionment with this exhilarating and spectacular sport.
If, however, you are lucky enough to have your attention momentarily distracted at the crucial moment by, say, a gorgeous pair of legs (tentacles, pseudopodia, according to phyllum and/or personal inclination) or a bomb going off in your vicinity, or by suddenly spotting an extremely rare species of beetle crawling along a nearby twig, then in your astonishment you will miss the ground completely and remain bobbing just a few inches above it in what might seem to be a slightly foolish manner.
This is a moment for superb and delicate concentration.
Bob and float, float and bob.
Ignore all considerations of your own weight and simply let yourself waft higher.
Do not listen to what anybody says to you at this point because they are unlikely to say anything helpful.
They are most likely to say something along the lines of “Good God, you can’t possibly be flying!”
It is vitally important not to believe them or they will suddenly be right.
Waft higher and higher.
Try a few swoops, gentle ones at first, then drift above the treetops breathing regularly.
DO NOT WAVE AT ANYBODY.
When you have done this a few times you will find the moment of distraction rapidly becomes easier and easier to achieve.
You will then learn all sorts of things about how to control your flight, your speed, your maneuverability, and the trick usually lies in on not thinking too hard about whatever you do, but just allowing it to happen as if it were going to anyway.
You will also learn about how to land properly, which is something you will almost certainly screw up, and screw up badly, on your first attempt.
There are private flying clubs you can join which help you achieve the all-important moment of distraction. They hire people with surprising bodies or opinions to leap out from behind bushes and exhibit and/or explain them at the critical moments. Few genuine hitchhikers will be able to afford to join these clubs, but some may be able to get temporary employment at them.

-Excerpt from “Life, the Universe, and Everything” by Douglas Adams.

I just thought it would be easier to achieve this in a LD. Good luck!

By the way, I have no idea if this is the right place to put this. These forums are still a maze to me.

[The_Mad_Hatter]

Haha, thats good. “miss the ground” Kind of hard to do in RL with gravity and all…but a LD, no prob.

[krakatoa]

Ah yes. My brother told me about this.
Just to clarify a bit
thefreedictionary.com/pseudopodia

[Presence_of_Light]

what does pseudopodia have to do with flying?

anyway i’d be more interested to try this in real life… fling yourself at the bed [no not the ground!] and try to forget you are falling!

i’ve tried it like 4 times lol. it’s fun though, because you pay attention to the sensation of falling and try to remain in that feeling.

i don’t advise trying it in any dangerous way, nor am i suggesting it possible but…

[krakatoa]

I just thought it was funny. I guessed psedopodia meant false legs. But I had to know for sure so being enlightened by the dictionary the sentence about them became more funny.

[LiQuiDreams]

When i first “tried” to fly in my LD, i was so excited at the idea that i just jumped, spread myself, arms and legs wide…and landed on my face. It didn’t hurt, it was hilarious, i just laughed at my futile attempt. Even though i genuinly believed i would at least float over the floor, i guess at the very last moment a doubt crept into my head and BAM…

Oh well. Live and learn. Or should i say wake up and learn .

[chambered_nautilus]

I’ve done the Hitchhiker’s Guide thing in a ND, but not a LD. I was running from a huge mob of people when I tripped, and as I was falling I looked back and got distracted by the mob again and just sort of floated off.

In LDs, the flying method that works best for me is just jumping as high as I can and not expecting to come down. In all of my dreams I have the ability to jump around thirty feet at a time, and eventually I realized that the only reason I came down afterward was because I was expecting to.