i have tried many times explaining to my friends abou lucid dreaming and they think: “cool, but no way im gonna waste so much time on it”
i havnt found the right way to describe the feeling. because i want my friend to be dreamers to. for their own sake and for mine, so that i have someone IRL to speak about it with.
to the point, i have now found out how to describe it.:
(me to my friend)
“think about what you did last weekend. how much do you really remember of it?” think about one special thing, like a vase, do you remember the surroundings?
one cant recall so much from what have happend…
when you compare the memories from the “reality” and from dreams they are more like eachother than many have even thought of.
now think about that you would just REMEMBER your life, this comversation for exampel, you would never EXPERIENCE it anything just remember.
this is how you live your dreamlife right now. the difference is that you suddenly experience the dream! that is why its hard to think about that dreaming could be so real, you have never experieced it!
this is just a basic exampel. and it is just a thought, not scientific evidence.
and i dont know if the word experience is right but it was as close as i could get.
Yeah, I get what you mean. I doubt any of my friends would take me seriously enough, except the guy who told me about lucid dreams, and he doesn’t even understand it at all. He just doesn’t, which is a shame.
If I ever felt the need to tell my friends about lucid dreams, I would try to make it sound as fun as possible. I’d tell them that everything seems very realistic and you can do absolutely anything you want. Then I would tell them about my experiences and hopefully get them interested.
The best way to do it, is to get yourself and a whole bunch of friends drunk. Then, spend the entire night talking about how it’s possible to experience anything you can imagine using all of your senses, just as if it was real life. Lay down the heavy scientific explinations before they remember how to disagree with you, and hope they get the message.
A lot of people will probably say “That’s pretty cool” but will then make no effort whatsoever to begin doing it themselves. This happens when you haven’t convinced them how realistic it actually is. They probably walk away thinking “Yay, I get to control my blurry-ass random dreams. Big deal.” Then you just keep trying.
Force them to watch Waking Life before you actually seriously tell them about LDs. That’s what I did.
Most people aren’t really intrested when I tell them about lucid dreaming because they can’t relate to the feeling of having one. Out of my entire soc/physc class, I’m the only one that got into lding after it was explained. My family thinks that I’m nuts and living in a fantasy world. Oh well, they don’t know what they’re missing out on.
We are mostly definately the lucky ones. I truly feel people who do not LD are seriously missing out on a whole other side to life almost. A side with far more possibilities than our waking reality, so often, … far more entertaining. I’d give up almost anything before my LD ability.
I explained Lding to one of my friends and he was excited by the idea, but as far as I know he never tried it.
My family sort of thinks I’m nuts as well. I don’t really tell them about LDing. What I don’t understand is why everyone makes such a big deal out of “waking life” and “everyday life”. As far as I’m concerned they are just fantasies and solidified dreams.
It doesn’t matter anyway. All the Eastern teachers say that only a very small number of people ever use their inner abilities, and virtually everyone just wastes their lives in stupid crap. LDing is one example.
The response I usually get is, “Oh, I’ve done that before.” but after further conversation. I realize they have only known they where dreaming, and not lucid dreaming. If someone was to differ. I would have to debate the fact that they are two different things, and that is usually what happens with the person I am talking about it with.
Some of them tell me “I do that all the time” but still after further conversation. I realize they are not lucid dreaming at all. I always end up trying to figure out how to explain to them the difference in what they say they are doing, and what lucid dreaming is.
Here is an example of what some people have told me.
“Yah, I’ve done that before. Like when I have a nightmare, and there is a monster chasing me. I realize I am dreaming. So I wake myself up.” This isn’t lucid dreaming is it???
This can be a very touchy subject if you want to do it right, that is, get your friend interested in LD-ing as a life pursuit. I can remember the day after I first learned about lucid dreaming. I was extremely excited and told 3 or 4 people, trying to convince them how amazing it would be. Unfortunately none of these people took the advice. It could be because I gave too brief and general an explanation, or that my radiating excitement scared them away. I was dismayed, but eventually I discovered the method that works. Get them to ask you the question. This can be difficult but in the end it pays off.
For example, you and a friend are discussing the Matrix. You say, “Isn’t it amazing how Neo can fly and manipulate his surroundings like that…” And your friend replies, “Yeah, it would be awesome to actually be able to do that.” And you say, “Hey, you’re not going to believe this, but I know a way…”
So you see, the most effective method is to not just blatantly throw the skill in their face but to get them to ask you through subtle goading and persuasion.
We should also ask ourselves whether we should tell others about LDing. I hate evangelism. Not many people will have the diligence to see any technique through anyway, so trying to convert others is pointless.
One of my friends at school told me about it, and since I had experienced LDs before, I thought I’d give it a go. No I’ve told a few more peeps about and they seem very interested!
if you explain to them what it is and they think it sounds cool, but don’t seem like they’ll actually get interested… tell them some of your own experiences and about how real/amazing/fun it was. you’ve got to intrigue them to have one, tell them to try it until they have their first LD. that should hook them so they want to have more… and by then it could be a habit for them.
when people say it’s a waste of time, this is what i say. I explain that it is actually giving you more time because we spend around an average of thirty years of our life asleep… why not take that time and use it. go, have an adventure you never could in reality. go, learn about yourself through your dreams. that would convince me that it isn’t a waste of time! it’s not too hard to take a little time out of your day to do RC’s, or to take some time to write in your journal, etc. just look at the rewards.
If they have seen The Matrix (and who didn’t see that movie?) I use it as an analogy. The identification with Neo awakening to his “true powers” makes it easier to help them understand why I like LDing so much. They like the idea but never get to the point of trying it themselves… Not so strange, getting only one LD is really hard work for most people!
i feel sorry for you. I told all my friends about lding lasy year and was pop last lear at high school so i was tellin every one about it, about all the yr 10s new and heaps of ppl wanted to know more, now at college it is diff more ppl harder to tell but i get there, i am spreeding da word, i did an oral on it and i had heaps of people talking about it. Just find some 1 u can trust and infront of others talk to ur friends about lding and how awhy blah blah blah all ur other friends soon catch in
Yeah, I’ve tried some things to get my friends interested. Once, my friend was drooling over Dairy Queen, and she said “What if I could go to Dairy Queen every day…” and I said “Well, maybe you could” and told her a little bit about LDing. I also once told a bunch of my friends about it, and a bad thing happened. They all got very nervous and freaked out. A bit later they lightened up, and even said they might be interested in trying it, but only one of them ever did anything, and she stopped fairy quickly.
It’s a shame, really, because talking to other real people about LDing is a major influence. Once I talked on the phone with a friend about it for about 1/2 an hour and had a great LD that night.
Ever since my friend incident, I haven’t really talked about it much. People think you’re crazy. My mom said it was “nasty”. That kept me from informing the family about it! sigh
I introduced it to a friend while I was watching vanilla sky with him. It was the part where they are at a bar, and tom cruise say Shut the F Up, or something. Then it gets completely silent. He looks around all weird and the guy tells him that he is in control of everything. I told my friend, “You know you can do that in your dreams and control everything around you and it seems just like real life.” I got him into it and gave him my EWLD book and he read like 1/4 of it in one night, so I thought it went pretty well with him.