I don’t know if anyone shares my fears here but all this seems like a good way to send you over the edge. In honesty, I am not the most down to earth person to begin with, I daydream, get wierd feelings of de ja vu, forget what I’ve dreamt and what I’ve lived - and i’m in two minds whether ld is a healthy option.
I’ve only just started, I haven’t been lucid yet, but the techniques mess with my head. I spend the whole night waking up from confused dreams, and end up sleeping for nearly 12 hours rather than my usual 7. And then the whole of the next day I’m in a daze, and get headaches and no sense of time. For example, just now I was sure I’d started recording my dreams about a week ago, but I look at my notepad and there’s only 2 days worth of entries…
And these reality tests, surely if you start doing that as a habit, you really would start to question whether you are awake, or whether you even exist in reality at all (i’m aware of the philosophical implications here)? I suppose once I get there all this will clear up.
Well…i dont think that those harmless techs can be any danger to normally developed human being.Sure it messes up a bit but it is its purpose.
But reading what you wrote makes me thinking that either you dont do it(if it really causes so much confusion in your head) or change the attitude-knowing the nature of lds its not too good to have scary approach.Know what i mean?Lds are sometimess spirituall,sometimes people see scary monsters,demons so on.I dont think they exist but with the fear not pleasure in your mind,they can cause them to be created.
So,if your doctor says ok,go for it and have fun with them:)
Maybe this is why we don’t have lucid dreams naturaly. Maybe it is becouse not everyone is capable of handeling the fine line between dreams and reality you got when you start experimenting with dreams. But what you decide is up to you, LDing is a big thing to give up. As you say in the bottom of your text, it migth be a starting problem that comes and goes.
And about the reality testing. Try biting yourself is your thoung. This takes no time and its easy to remember.
You may also try to lighten up and just do a simpel MILD before going to bed and stop with all the other stuff like RC, sleeping too long (wake yourself up with an alarmclock at the other side of your rom, then you have to get out of bed) and stop daydreaming while you are together with other persons.
If this doesn’t work I sugests that you stop with everything that have to do with dreaming and start over again in a year or two when you mind is more stable.
“Maybe it is becouse not everyone is capable of handeling the fine line between dreams and reality you got when you start experimenting with dreams”
But hey,thats what we are trying to do-the thiner the line the more success in lding.I stand firmly on my both legs and i guess its one of the main reasons why im not getting lds very often.
People able to “imagine” ,daydreamers seem to be much better at it.We all know why- makeing the difference between reality and the dream smaller is base of most methods.
From what you said you seem to have some issues. The daze, headaches, and no sense of time. I doubt that what’s happened to you happens to normal LDers or even beginners. Unless you’re some type of rare case, LDing is completely safe. You won’t die from it unless you just happen to have an OBE and you loose your body forever… No I’m not serious. Pick your jaw up But seriously. Don’t be afraid of LDing. It will only make your life better. Try to wake up earlier too. Maybe sleeping so long is what’s messing you up.
I don’t really care if i go completely crazy from LD’s (maybe i already am!)
If i couldn’t tell the difference between RL and dreams it would be okay. i would just think i am having one of those really long dreams and i would think it’s cool. It’s hard to describe why i feel this way, i just do. Does anyone else feel the same way?
I had a scary experience of the thin line between dream and reality.
When I woke up today I didn’t remeber a single dream (not good since I’m trying out the TEF) When I opend my door I saw my t-shirt hanging on the door. I thought ok, I put it to wash becouse I had spilled something on it. But I couldn’t remeber what. Then I rembemberd that When I was in the washing room I saw something very wierd that seemed normal at the time, but I just couldn’t belive it happend, then I figured it was all from a dream I forgot to remember when I woke up. Alitle scary dough since I can’t remeber when I trowed the t-shirt in the washingrom (for real).
Well, I learned one thing from this experinece, always remeber your dreams if you are used to remeber them, couse they will get back to you, and when it does you do wanna know that it was a dream.
hi
Sometimes,yes.But my feelings about the world around me are messed up,somehow:
Sometimes i fear i might go crazy,most times i just think “So what?”
I believe in my ethics,i think killing people or animals for any reason is bad… and sometimes i wonder if this makes any sense.
Sometimes i just realize that there is no sense at all,at least no sense a human like me could recognize,so i just try to have fun (CARPE DIEM)
But sometimes it is fun to think about things,partys are fine,but that alone doesn’t make me feel good (not that here are so many partys around anyway)
Ok,i think i am quite off topic no,so something to the topic starter:
I don’t think LDing is unhealthy or something,but IMHO it CAN mess you up a bit.Sometimes i feel like walking in a dream,i am sure i sometimes look as if i had taken some odd drugs…
Anyway,i can deal with that,but if you feel that LDing isn’t good for you you should stop it.At least for some time,this isn’t an once forever decision,you can restart anytime
Mind is powerful so all those head aches and other things you have had might just be because of your fear. It might just be placebo effect, you believe it’s bad for you so then it really becomes bad for you.
So one option would be letting go of those fears and negative doubts and just enjoy the possible chance and go with the flow. But of course it’s up to you to decide what’s good for you.
Maybe you should try WILD method and meditation with it which is good for balancing and relaxing.
Some interesting thoughts here…traumganger, I’m definitely on your wavelength.
Well i’m sleeping much better now, I even became lucid for a few seconds the other night. I still seem to get the occasional headache (which i’ve never had in my life until now). It could be unrelated of course, but i think its because I successfully trained myself to wake up after my dream periods, and its taking a while for me to get used to new sleeping patterns.
I kind of agree with alex that I don’t care, LDing is too good a thing to NOT explore. I think some of my fear comes from what I’ve read about LSD messing people up for similar reasons, but I’m thinking LD is a decidedly safer option. I’m fascinated by the distinction between dream and reality though, don’t know if any of you read the post by lucidityx1000 in the dream diary, amazing stuff.
I think that that LDing CAN seriously mess with your perception of reality - especially if you regularly use the reality test technique. Is this a bad thing? that is for you to decide. Personally, I like a little chaos and mystery in my life so it suits me fine.
Has anyone here ever seriously doubted in reality that they were awake?
I have a few times since getting into LDing. In each case I did some rigorous reality tests but even then was not entirely convinced. (for the record, I wasn’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol during either of the times and have never tried any psychadelics).
One time was very recently when I saw the movie Waking Life (brilliant movie btw). During the movie it dawned on me - how do I know that i’m not dreaming right now? I did some reality tests - looked at the EXIT sign, looked at my hands, bit my tongue, but not of these techniques are infallible. I applaud the movie for putting me in such a dreamy mood and managing to mess with my mind that well.
Another time, after having an incredibly out of the ordinary day (relative my usual banal existence) i ended up in the early hours of the morning on the side of the road at the top of a mountain looking down at the city. The scenario was so similar to other dreams I have had that I began to seriously doubt that I was dreaming. I told the person I was with and she started doubting too. I then mentioned “wouldn’t it be cool if to jump off the side of the road and fly down to the city if we really are dreaming”. Then the real danger of what I just said hit me.
If someone seriously believed they were dreaming when they were in fact awake, they could do incredibly dangerous things that they wouldn’t do if they knew they were awake.
I later found out that the person I was with happened to be schizophrenic. I shudder to think of what effect what i said might have had on her.
The moral of this all is, that if you have had any history of mental illness then LDing is probably NOT a good idea. and secondly, if you know someone with mental illness, don’t mess with their heads about whether or not they are dreaming.
Well, this is my first official post. That being said and done, I think that your feelings of being a little out of control/disoriented (if I am understanding your experience correctly) are probably quite normal for someone who is attempting to tap into new and possibly unused parts of your brain! (You know what they say, that we humans only use like 10% of our brain’s capactiy–makes ya wonder, what’s that other 90% for, anyway?) I think of lucid dreaming as a capability of the spiritually evolved–or something like that–you are just learning to get in touch with a higher level of awareness of yourself. As in anything else in life, a new experience can be a little disorienting and possibly scary. My advice? Don’t try to force it. When your mind is ready, it will come quite easily, I think. If you haven’t already, read up on LD (Patricia Garfield’s Creative Dreaming is good). I found that just reading about LD seemed to somehow open or trigger my brain into having them more often. (For me, “more often” is more than about 1-2 per month, and at a “low lucid” level. I’m not as cool as some of the rest of you yet!) shrug Just a thought.
I absolutely agree to this.
It never happened to me that i really didn´t know whether i am awake or not.But sometimes (especially when watching certain movies,like you described) i also get this feeling that somehow nothing is real (but i still know that i am awake)
My first false awakening was quite shocking to me.After i woke up for real,i was still a bit messed up.I KNEW that i am awake,but at the same time i thought about that i also “knew” it when i had the FA…
So what happens to me sometimes isn´t the serious doubt if awake or not,but some kind of irrational fear.I walk around and think that,if i dreamed without noticing, there could a monster show up or something any moment.Then i always tell myself that this wouldn´t be bad but a very cool thing,cause if ít happened i´d go lucid and the monster couldn´t harm.
But i don´t mind about these things, an absolutely stable perception of the “reality” would be boring
Hey, I also had this experience of being unsure if one is awake or not while being fully awake! I even posted it here at this forum. Here’s the link: ld4all.vervex.com/bb/viewtopic.p … highlight=
It seems like it goes over two lines, but it works anyway.
I’ve been thinking about this too. I’m already pretty screwed in the head though so it doesn’t bother me as much. When I was young I use to sometimes wake up from my dreams and have psychotic episodes. It was pretty much like I was still in my dream but I was in real life so I would be acting everything out, just like having a dream that was inside my house or something. And so i’ve been thinking, what if this happened again, and I thought I was just dreaming and did something really stupid like jumping off a building thinking I could fly.
sleepwalker, i know how you feel cuz i feel the same. i’m also new at this LD and lately have been having these weird headaches. i’m really scared of loosing my body in a dream or never waking up or going crazy, hell i already think i’m insain. once on the way home from cape town i thought i was dead. it had been a hecktick weekend, anyway, i got this really strange feeling looked around 2 see other cars but there was nothing. i thought the guy driving was satan. i started pinching myself 2 see if i was alive but that wasnt good enough. i wanten to open the car door , thank God i didn’t. i would have killed myself.
sometimes i’m so scared of sleeping i force myself awake the whole night then sleep during the day. i feel better trying to have LDs during the day 4 some strange reason.
The only condition I have heard of where people think that they are dead is when they have a neurological disorder that causes the emotional “parts” of their brain to detach from others, or when they are damaged. People with this disorder or injury can claim that they are dead, or that their parents are imposters, etc, because they unconciously reason “if I was alive/if my parents where real, I would feel like that”. I am not positive, but I wouldn’t be surprised if drugs (I know alchohol for sure) can cause this situation. So I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with LD specifically, but more about the fact that you are questioning your unconcious more often than normal.
No I’m not serious. Pick your jaw up 
But seriously. Don’t be afraid of LDing. It will only make your life better. Try to wake up earlier too. Maybe sleeping so long is what’s messing you up.
