I just had an interesting thought, I was wondering if those who have a pessimistic attitude (not about dreaming etc but of life in general) have a harder time becoming lucid in a dream?
These are the folks (yes I have been guilty at times) who will often dream of falling and of things being out of control.
So I suppose my question is: those of you who find it (for lack of a better term) natural or easy to have lucid dreams, do you consider yourselves optimists in RL? Is the reverse true for the pessimists out there.
I guess I would have to say that having a pessimistic outlook on life would generally be bad for lucid dreaming. If you are pessimistic about everything in life you are likely to have the same opinion about your dreams. If you believe lucid dreaming is hard you will likely find it to be very frustrating experience. However, if you are pessimistic about life yet somehow manage to have a positive outlook on your dreams you will increase your chances for success.
So the answer to your question is that it depends.
Personally, I didn’t really notice any big differences in LD rate whenever I was a bit depressed. However, LDing made me become more optimistic afterwards. It was part of the healing process if you like. LDing might become more difficult when you’re depressed and have a pessimistic view, but in time I think LDing might be a useful tool to transform your waking life into a more optimistic one.
I aint pessimistic but I won’t just go around believe anything from the word go. What I believe about everything is how should we know what to believe? Anything is possible! So I sit back and try to see that anything could happen and I try to find my own little proofs but if these proofs aint all together certain then I won’t judge. Keep an open mind everyone! It’s the same with LDing but not just believing in it… doing it too! I was reading a post by someone well known here… Can’t remember who it was but I wouldn’t want to name names anyway. This is a quote from a veteran of this site: “LDing is not easy”. Great, that’s what people need to hear. If you aint a pessimist and you just see what you think then you should find LDing very easy. The easier you THINK it is then the easier it REALLY is! As JaRoD said: Fear is the mindkiller.