My problemo, again. :)

Very deep sigh

I’ve been attempting to lucid dream for 8 months now. How many lucid dreams have I had? Err, I think over 10. But those were all just dreams where I knew I was dreaming, but I still wasnt there “realtime”, everything was third person, and I definately did NOT have any control.

Now, just for the record, about normal dreaming. I’m confused. For me, normal dreaming is just going to sleep, waking up 2 sec later with hopefully “memories” printed in my mind that I recognise as dreams. It’s not like I have actually experienced them when they actually happened, they are … well, memories.
I’ve talked to a lot of people, and some say they have the same as me, and some people say they experience their dreams when they actually happen, as if it were waking life, except they don’t know they’re dreaming and thus recognise pink monsters and flying elephants as common everyday things. They still experience it like, well, a lucid dream with full control, except for the knowing youre dreaming part. For me, it’s like watching a movie.
So question 1: Which of the two (or maybe you have something else? Tell me) is it for you? How do you experience normal dreams?

So, as I said, my lucid dreams… I knew I was dreaming so they were LDs, but I did not have any control, I followed the flow of the dream, I wasn’t there realtime… It’s like an ND, except I did stuff like flying. I did not experience it like waking life or anything: being there.

I’ve done reality checks. Hell yeah. If I got lucid it was because of reality checks. I’m guessing that method works best for me. Still, I did not gain “true” lucidity; being there realtime, I mean. As I do not control myself and it is just a memory and like, someone else is in control, I cant do “more” reality checks unless my dream self decides to.

Question 2: How do I get more control? Attain lucidity with actual control? Even just being there and having a LITTLE control is fine, but I want to consciously stabilize my dream, etc.

I’ve attempted WILD a couple of times but I always lose consciousness. I never even came close to HI, I did have a falling sensation once, but I did WILD without having slept first so I knew on forehand I was going to fail that WILD.

Help meeeeee.

"Now, just for the record, about normal dreaming. I’m confused. For me, normal dreaming is just going to sleep, waking up 2 sec later with hopefully “memories” printed in my mind that I recognise as dreams. It’s not like I have actually experienced them when they actually happened, they are … well, memories. "

this is a confusing post, but I know what you mean by this. This is hypnagogic hallucinations. They can be dream like, but they are not engaged in consciously, usually, to be conscious in them almost necessitates complete lucidity and control.

you are dozing off, you walk down the street, you trip, you fall and wake up, that kind of stuff? You are dozing off and a voice says random things and some images unfold? Yeah those aren’t dreams!

Draems are like being awake, except you aren’t awake, but think you are. Why you don’t have them I’m not sure.

But look at my thread on this page called “waking up consciously” yes you can control to the point of being a control freak, if what you want to happen happens is another story.

yes you can use your body.

and you can have a normal dream in third person too though, i often times used to dream of playing video games or watching a movie and the dream was very passive, third person, and hardly involved “me” doing anything at all.

WBTB + WILD / MILD + reading what I said in my thread about “waking up consciously” will be a good method for you.

you may have to bite the bullet and try to actually consciously enter the dreamstate from being wide awake… sort of like having an OBE . this will guranatee full lucidity and control.

and WBTB + WILD / MILD is the best way to do that. it should wield success within a week if tried every day, possibly immediately. you generally ought to set the alarm for about +5 hours after going to sleep, and then all you need is to be relaxed, but not drowsy, if you are drowsy, get up until you aren’t, if you aren’t drowsy at all then you can just turn the alarm off and start practicing WILD and MILD.

and to ensure success after you turn the alarm off you may want to set it forward an hour and a half, incase you fail and fall back asleep. depends on how much time you have in the morning.

you can also just wait til you are really sleepy at the beginning of the night, then set your alarm forward 2 hours. when it wakes you, set it forward another 2, and try to dream. when it wakes you set it forward another 2 and try to dream, etc.

might make you pretty sleepy and disoriented though. it’s kind of neat to try on a day off though.

Actually, that is not what I meant. I’m talking about how I experience normal dreams.

Exactly, but that’s not how I experience dreams, I in fact, do not experience them at all it seems, I just have a memory of the experience so to say.

Not what I meant, I’m not talking about full control or whatever, I’m just talking about even a small bit of control while I have none.

Wha?

That’s how all my dreams are.

Exactly, since me being “not actually there”, WILD seems the only way to reach that state.

I know >.<! And that’s what I’ve been focussing on lately but I lose consciousness way too fast when WILDing, and it’s either THAT or I cant fall asleep at all anymore … :rolleyes:

I know, but see comment on previous quote.

As I have a vacation, plenty of time. I’ve done that, but I fall asleep after THAT too.

So you get a shot at nearly every REM period… I’ll try that. :tongue:

As I said, it’s vacation.

tweak, maybe you should ask someone to wake you when you are in your REM state. I can imagine that when waking up from a dream long after the rem state, it’s no more than a vague memory. I wonder how it is for you when you wake up right in the middle of a dream?

I feel exactly the same as Tweak. Dreams are only a memory, that is stupid and useless. I hope even other people (and it’s possible to) have dreams in real time, because that’s what for me the awesome thing about lucidity is. Real time, not just a memory. I guess our problem is, that we are sleeping too heavy.

As you said, I’m going to sleep, I wake up “two seconds” later, and I’ve memories of ND’s.

Do you wake up a long time after you had a LD? The best tip I can give you in order to prolong your LD is : stare at your hands from time to time in your LD’s. Now it seems like your lucidity is very low. Try to enhance it by shouting verbal commands as soon as you reach lucidity, like “More lucidity!” or something like that.

Interesting. And when you have DILDs? Is it like a waking up experience then?

I dunno about the time when my LDs occur, and I cant’ do that sort of stuff because my LDs are like NDs except my “dream self” knows I’m dreaming.

1: Mostly like you but sometimes I am there realtime with selfawareness, even if I don’t become lucid. It’s relative to how conscious you are at the time. Your lucid dreams seem to be false ones. I’ve experienced them too, they are interesting but not that satisfactory. Bascially selfawareness is the same as normal dreams and you act without consciousness.
2: You need to get more conscious while asleep. You could try meditating, or maybe getting some caffeine before sleep, not enough to keep you awake though.

Dreams can be anything. I only rember 3rd person dreams much later. Something happens and I think, “oh, I have had a dream about that.”. Most of them are still fist person, but some are third person. Dream recall can affect the way you see the dream. It can seem like you just wake up with memorys, or you can also remember the dream like you rember what happend yesterday. Like some have said, metitation can help, esp. if you work on activly being aware of your surroundings. What you do IRL affects what you do/experance in ND’s and LD’s. That is why doing RC’s IRL can cause your dream self to do RC’s. You might try working on dream recall and see if that doesn’t help.
don

Q, didn’t see your post there. I wake up in the middle of REM sometimes (yay for phone alarms ! :smile:), and then it is still a memory, except it’s a memory of something that happened a minute ago, so it’s not vague at all. But I have that with morning nap dreams as well.

Robin, I was thinking about too heavy sleeping as well… hmm, interesting…

Krakatoa, so my lucid dreams were false? Are you sure that they weren’t just super low lucidity, or something else? :razz: I’ll try being more conscious while sleeping, by e.g. taking some caffeine.

Thanks don, I’ll go for meditation to be more self-aware, I was interested in meditation before that anyways. :smile:

Thank ya’ll.

Oh. I don’t mean to tell YOU about your dreams. You’re the best judge of them ofcourse. It’s just that from your description it seemed that way. I believe you may dream of thinking “i am draming” without being lucid. Although that might still be lucidity. I don’t count it unless i am acting myself and not seemingly from a script.

Yes, it can be vaguely compared to waking up into the dream.

It’s a good start. You have to set up the intent of increasing your lucidity as soon as you become lucid. It’s the same thing than setting up the intent of realizing you’re dreaming. For instance, you can shout “I’m dreaming!” in your LD or something like that. I think that the main thing indeed would be to plan an action to do in your next LD.