First time on ld4all. I just learned about lucid dreaming. My first thought was that it sounded really cool, to be able to do ANYTHING I can imagine and be totally aware of it.
However, a moment later, as awesome as it might sound, I realized that there are things that I’m afraid would traumatize me if I got to experiance them vividly in my dreams. For instance, I’m a big fan of astronomy but I am very scared of it. My fascination with the cosmos is nothing but mathematical. I have had scary dreams about being out in space but I have been able to cope with that when waking up because I didn’t really remember them very clearly so it was never a problem.
I read some dude’s experiances on another forum. He claimed that he was running in his vivid dream and “thought” that a wolf was chasing him, he turned around and there was a wolf. So he thought “I really wish that wolf was my cat” and the wolf turned into his cat. Even though I would be able to change 200 meter high grizzly bears that are about to eat me into an erotic experiance with so hot piece of mama in matter of seconds, those seconds would be horrifying! And I don’t want that. I don’t want to do the most amazing things imaginable if I have to go through even 2 seconds of horror. Am I making any sense?
I hope I have gotten lucid dreaming all wrong. Can I really control my dreams 100%? Is there any risk that I might fall into my greatest fears? There are a lot of things I would like to do in my dreams, relive some wonderful moments from my past, fly, trying out jobs that I never got the chance to do in real life and so in. But I don’t want my fears to take control of my dreaming.
Thankfully there’s lots and lots of great information on how to dream lucidly on the internet but I think there is way too little information about what the experiance is actually like. Also there seems to be very little constructive information on what the risks are; what do I do when I don’t want to lucid dream anymore, how can lucid dreaming go wrong, what are the cons etc.
Thanks for reading my post and I hope you guys give me some useful info on my topic!
No, you will not get scarred for lucid dreaming . Like that other guy said, you can take your worst fears and overcome them. If a bear is chasing you, turn around and demand to know why it is chasing you. Also, your fears will only come true if you expct them to. It’s all in your control.
Your fears cannot take over your dreams. I’ve never heard of someone losing out to their fears in an LD. Lucid dreaming can’t go wrong (well, not it the sense of your fears gaining control), there are no risks, no chances of long term damage. If you want it to, it will, but it’s in your hands.
And even in a worst case scenario, because you have control you can wake yourself up. This isn’t like Nightmare on Elm Street where you are stuck there as the monster tortures you. Even ifyou don’t wake yourself up, you SC might. As a form of self-defense it would awaken you or send you into a false awakening. Think of regular nightmare; at some point you woke up when you got too scared, or you dreamed you woke up.
The only time I’ve even heard of someone unwillingly facing a fear in an LD is when the became lucid in a nightmare. In that case the lucid dream actually saved them! If you have phobias and fears, lucid dreaming maybe your best tool against them.
Don’t worry about, and don’t let it keep you from trying to LD.
Yeah, things like fear and pain aren’t fun… but I think it makes more sense to face them anyway, for the growth and unsullied joy that would come after.
Lucidity and reasoning are a part of your mind. Fear is a part of your mind. Dreams are a blender of stuff that’s in your mind, so the symbols of things you fear may pop up, or they may not.
It’s very rare that I get to control even my lucid dreams 100%, but they’re more fun when I let my SC surprise me with some details anyway, so that’s fine with me.
If I didn’t want to be lucid at all anymore, I could stop thinking about everything so hard and just go with the flow, let the mental sharpness fade back into a normal dream. Actually, pushing for control too hard in a lucid dream is what got me into a nightmare this one time. But I still say the only con in lucid dreams is that they don’t happen every single night for me …
Well that’s the thing. I’m not so sure that I couldn’t lose control over my lucid dreaming to my fears. Let’s say I want to try lucid dreaming and I do the techniques correctly to put me in the state of LD. I would keep telling myself that I don’t want to be chased by a giant bear and that I want to relive some great moment in my life instead. I can imagine that that damn bear would show up eventually!
On the other hand. Facing my fears in a lucid dream is probably a one time thing. Once I face it, and it doesn’t kill me (which something imaginary can’t do!) I would probably get it out of my system, at least in the context of lucid dreaming.
And what Rhewin said actually makes a lot of sense, waking up from a nightmare is probably a natural form of self defense. Also what I see in my dreams is made by my brain and it seems unlikly that it would terrorize itself and not giving me the choice to stop.
Thanks again, if you have any other thoughts on the topic keep posting them! You have no idea how greatful I am.
That’s the trick, don’t think “I hope that bear doesn’t show up.” Don’t even think about bears. You’re the only one that will make the bear appear, and fetting about it just makes it more likely. There’s so many good things to spend your time on, why spend it on worrying? Enjoy your dream, don’t worry about your fears, and don’t worry about being scarred for life .
Another thing that I do in my LD’s when something unwanted appears is I see it as an actor in a role. A bear, for example. I’d turn to the bear (if it even appeared in the first place) and say something like
Me: “I have other things to do, go away”
Bear: “But I want to eat you! MUHAHA”
Me: “yeah, well not’s a good time, just leave me alone”
Bear: “uhm, ok.”
I’m not sure I’m explaining it well. It’s like looking through the bear and seeing that it’s actually your SC in a bear form. Like, a few times, I’ve searched for my SC. I just went up to a random DC and asked
Me: “are you my SC?”
DC: “no, I’m not.”
Me: “cut it out, I know your my SC. Everything here is created by my SC, so you are too.”
And then the DC smiles awkwardly as if saying “drats, you caught me”. I think I’m just saying something very simple in a more messy way There is no bear, only the image of a bear. If you stop to talk with him you’ll see he’s probably a very nice guy
You have no idea how greatful I am.
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There is no bear, only the image of a bear. If you stop to talk with him you’ll see he’s probably a very nice guy 