In a recent blog post I made( https://dailydeluge.com/2007/04/26/ignorance-is-the-enemy-of-dreaming/), I went over how I thought society was responsible for dreaming being an “out there” topic. I want to encourage the dreaming community to spread the word on dreaming! If you mobilize and start getting the public awareness up, more research can be conducted and more people can benefit from dreams! Just think what 10,000 people all over the world could do!
-Hatter
Well I try to get the word out as much as possible… I always tell my friends and anyone I meet even my psyche doctors about lucid dreaming… I also try to spread it around on different forums that I go to so I feel I’m doing my part in getting the word out… there’s not much more I can do besides try to inform people about it. It’s funny how a lot of psyche doctors don’t even know anything about it even after all the work Stephen La’berge did on it.
That is rather funny. I’d guess that a lot of philosophy teachers might know about it though.
Sounds like you’re doing a great job already!
Hrm… any suggestions on what to do, perhaps?
Tell your friends about it, post on other forums about it, etc.
Just let people know that it exists, it’s true, and it’s not weird.
Been trying that, but I got alienated by most (exept for some people at school. I did have a short speech introducing the basics of Lucid Dreaming…) and after both my mom and grandmother started to get that “Yeeaah-I-belive-you-if-it-makes-you-happy” face I kinda stopped bothering.
We should make a documentary about it! Scientifical and very sceptical one, so we don’t scare people off though.
Send it to the Discovery Channel! They tend to show a lot of weird things nowdays.
Heh, I first heard about lucid dreaming from someone who was brave enough to breach the subject to a group of associates.
Of course he was ridiculed, and I just kept my mouth shut. I then looked it up on Wikipedia and eventually found this forum.
Later on I readdressed the subject with him so he didn’t feel that his effort was for naught.
Now i spend my time being jealous of every one else’s successes 
Well, if anybody here goes to Stanford, they could go interview Stephan Laberge…
Doubtful that anybody here does though.
Myrmior, that’s what I’m talking about. People mention it and get made fun of. But at least you benefited from it.
Feral, I really hate that face, I’ve seen it a lot of times myself. But I’ve discovered that if you lead people in a little by telling them how to remember their dreams easily, and THEN tell them about lucid dreaming, it works a bit better.
-Hatter
The problem with telling people about (lucid) dreaming, is that in most cases they will either think you use drugs, have lost your mind or maybe a combination of both. Also people might ridicule you because they think you’re nuts. (Telling them that it’s scientifically proven does /not/ help. )
And IF they do understand the concept and believe it can be done they will simply ask: Why not play a video game? Or something similair. I simply stopped telling people about it because all of this happens too much, one of my friends was interested for a while, he even had some lucid dreams. But in the end he just stopped being interested in it (after 2 months!)and he said it was boring o_o.
What I hate the most is when you tell someone about it and they say something like “Oh yeah, I have them all the time.” very matter-of-factly.
I want to strangle them. Do they simply not understand what I am saying, or is lucid dreaming actually so mundane and simple for them that it doesn’t even produce a twinkle in their eye?
That’s quite a good idea…
Well I almost hooked a guy up when I answered his joke (“so can I get myself a nice chick in one of those dreams?”) with “Why just one?”. But no. People are way to lazy even to bother.
And thus, the idea of something big, great, large, HUGE enough to make people get the rant fact that lucid dreams exist in their head is very appealing! We should think of something.
Problem is that people might associate LDs with other pseudo-scientific stuff, (that can be found on this forum for example) which could scare people off.
~Feral
Edit:
Boah, a lot of people have the same reactions as me!
Myrmior, should we start a club with a mission to apply napalm in the face of these people? (pretty please?)
I vote for the b!tch slap their teeth out method. Napalm will get ya landed in jail, i’m sure
Boy, I’ve been trying to be kinder lately, too…
I don’t have to light it…
We should at the very least find some nice sources other than wikipedia, if we are to convince someone.
Do anyone have anything?
I tend to get good reactions from people when I tell them about LD’ing. I rarely get people that don’t believe me. Of course, I have gotten people that give me the “You’re weird” kind of face. Then again, I get that a lot anyway. 
As for good sources, look for some psycology books. Sometimes they have sections for dreams. People will believe it if it’s in a psycology book. As for actual dreaming books, well, you have to be a bit more careful. People will be more turned off by books that mention pregog dreams or Shamans.
I’ve found that the best way to tell someone about LDing is to first start talking about dreaming in general. Often I’ll start the conversation by remarking how amazing it is that the brain can generate graphics and physics greater than mankind’s most powerful supercomputer. I compare it to videogames, then say “What if dreams could be controlled like video games?” I’ve gotten 3 people at least somewhat interested in LDs that way. 
That sounds like an awesome idea to make a documentary… i don’t think i’ve ever seen a documentary on lucid dreaming… the closest thing i’ve seen is that movie “Waking Life” which is awesome btw.
I talk to lots of different people about LD’ing because i’m very passionate about it. When I started telling my first few people about it they were all looking at me weird but over time i’ve got much better at telling them about it.
It’s best not to just talk about it out of the blue… wait for the right opportunity in the conversation so that the conversation continues to flow. A lot of people talk about weird dreams they had last night every now and then so this is a good time to talk about it too.
It helps if your well educated about it and very passionate about it too, which i’m sure most of you are.
What if you start a conversation about dreaming in general, go with some lines around ‘what if you could control it like a video game’, and then end the discussion to continue it, say, the day after or so.
“Yeah I looked it up… turns our that you really CAN control your dreams! And better than a video game!”
I managed to get one perso nto read the LD guides by claiming it could solve all basic matters, exept hunger, thirst, and reproductional needs.
Of course, he didn’t belive me at first (which is kinda good. Otherwise he’d be looking for pills named Lucid Dreaming in the drugstore…) but when he said killers, and I explained that killers cause suffering and that LDs can be good to blow off some steam (or alot in that case) he got quiet.
Ha! I still vote for a documentary.
I say we, oooh, make a reality TV show detailing the, oooh, dream-lives of, oooh, LDers… Repent! Oooh.
That would scare people off… 
Reality show. Yuck! What’s with your ‘ooohs’ anyway?
…yeah of course you are.
Hey, do you have any specific titles for those psychology books?