The BIG "Was this a LD?" topic - Part II

Quest for Lucidity
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Part I of this topic can be found HERE !

I had the most frustrating night! I was successful in recognizing I was dreaming on numerous occasions, but it must have been at a very low level. My dreams were mostly unpleasant, and my level of control over them was nil. In one, I was running through a house with the feeling of being pursued when I realized I was dreaming. But this weird evil cartoon-like creature kept popping up next to me laughing, shaking me, and yelling gibberish. I wasn’t afraid, just really angry and annoyed that it kept bothering me, and I couldn’t get rid of it. I tried willing it away, but it didn’t work. I tried focusing on something in the dream (like a floor or object), which usually increases my lucidity. At one point I yelled, “Go away! I’m lucid right now!” Still didn’t work. But tonight, every time I developed a degree of lucidity, there was some weird creature bugging me or chasing me.

I just had to vent. I’m pretty sure I was lucid, albeit at a very low level, but I have a little bit of doubt b/c I had absolutely no control.

Also, something else frequently happens to me if I lose lucidity and a dream fades: everything goes black and I have the sensation that I’m floating kind of upside down and curled up in the fetal position above my body. I just float in the darkness, and it’s the most relaxing feeling. Could this be a false awakening of sorts? I’m mentally fully aware, but it feels different from sleep paralysis (my body always feels tingly and heavy in SP)

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Hi Aodnait!

Most of the times, DC’s reactions and appearance will depend on your own emotions, reactions and behavior. For instance, if you run away, they’ll chase you. If you’re angry, they’ll try to exasperate you, etc.

So you have to change your reactions or your lucidity level. You can try to reach a higher level by shouting “More lucidity!” or by performing very simple arithmetics (like counting, doing multiplications). You can also change your behavior, and the most simple way is to ask questions to the DC’s : “Hi! Who are you? What are you doing there? Why are you laughing?” It may make them more cooperative, or sometimes “freeze” them.

Another possibility is transforming them. I succeeded in doing this once and transformed a stupid DC who was always following me into my brother. But it seems that some DC’s try deliberately to make you lose concentration and lucidity. I don’t know what to do in this case… :sad: (Has somebody a good idea? :grin: )

Do you think OBE’s are LD’s?From what you describe, it seems to me that you didn’t lose lucidity, you only lost visuals. It’s not a FA (in a FA, you believe you’ve woken up in your bed). IMO, it looks like what Xetrov and Popov refers as a pseudo-OBE in the thread.
Some people say that this state is more interesting than classical LD’s, because you can do some spiritual stuff in it, like meditating. But I can’t be a great help to you, as I haven’t experienced this state up to now. :sad:

You perhaps can find some ideas in the Advanced lucid dreaming thread. If you absolutely want to go back in a “normal” LD, you perhaps can try and rub your hands or spin (or just wait a little, doing a little mental exercice so that you don’t completely lose lucidity) in order to have visuals again.

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Thanks for the reply, Basilus West. :smile:Yes, It did seem that the DC’s reactions was based on my emotions. Through the whole dream I was anxious, irritated and feeling like I was being pursued. Maybe if it ever happens again I’ll give the DC a big hug and kiss, not focus on trying to get rid of it and instead concentrate on increasing my lucidity.

A pseudo OBE, eh? Very cool! It’s such a relaxing, floating state to be in. I’ll have to research it further.

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Hello, I would like to know if the two dreams I described here: ld4all.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 987#151987
are really lucid dreams. I would copy+paste them here but it’s an extremely long post.
Thanks

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Hi Da_Grunt! Welcome to the forum! :smile:

I’ve read your 2 dreams, they are both lucid. In the second you seems to have already a quite good control and lucidity level. :good:

A dream is lucid as soon as you know you’re dreaming. But generally this fact is accompanied by a sudden increase of consciousness: the dream is often more realist, and above all, you feel present in it, what differs completely from normal dreams.
So I was wondering why you weren’t sure your dreams were lucid, because I’m quite convinced that you experienced all these changes (at least in the second dream).

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I had what could have been the beginning of my first lucid dream last night. However, my actual first lucid dream occurred when I was a little boy, perhaps 8 or 9. I remember being in a big room with a lot of people, it may have been my church. I was about to make a speech or participate in something I really didn’t feel like doing, and I suddenly realized I was dreaming. Not knowing of the endless possibilities, I was simply happy to not have to do whatever it was I was going to have to do, and walked out of the room. I then woke up.

Back to last night. I went to bed around 12:30. I usually have a floor fan turned on while I sleep, but I decided to leave it off and instead try to read myself to sleep. I got a bit tired after reading for maybe ten minutes, and then relaxed. My problem is that whenever I try to sleep, I eventually see the bright lights and moving colors that are associated with HI. I then inevitably try to focus on them and have an LD through WILD, fail, and end up more restless than I was before. I’m an insomniac. :bored: Anyway, I focused on the images (one in particular seemed to be a swirling fireball that soared through the air) and eventually I started seeing a bunch of colored dots on a grey background. That image enlarged and turned into the walls of a hospital room, with a door, and, I think, a nurse. Unfortunately, I became excited and it faded away. I spent maybe fifteen minutes trying to bring it back.

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Hi Kashmir1342 :smile:

Yeah those good ol’ childhood LDs… Many people had them though only a few of them actually realized the possibilities at the time… Usually we just wanted to wake up :smile:

About your dream… You’re saying it happened after you just went to bed in the evening? Combined with the fact that it developped out of HI like imagery, I’d say it was still strong hypnagogics, and no real dream yet. The first real REM cycle only appears about 90 minutes after you fall asleep, which, as I understand from your account, could not have been the circumstances here… It’s perfectly possible to become lucid during strong hypnagogics. I’ve had a lot of these experiences, and your account actually sounds pretty familiar. I usually see only a few blurred images, always rather dark, while my vision is usually restricted to the center (peripheral vision is black). These images are usually very fleeting and whenever you try to actively engage with them, you’ll almost always disturb them and wake up as a result. It’s also pretty much impossible to bring these same HI back afterwards (works better with dreams though :smile: ). Hope I didn’t disappoint you here :smile: However, if you should have had these HI after about 6 hours of sleep, you might have had a chance to experience a WILD. This is because after a few hours of sleep, the bridge between waking life and dream life becomes very thin (after falling back asleep then, it usually takes only a few minutes before reentering a dream; while in the beginning of the night it takes 90 minutes as I mentioned above).

Good luck in your LD quest! :happy:

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I’m hoping with all of my heart that this was a LD.

It started with me in Cook Forest, PA and I was in my cabin we stay in looking for clothes. I went over to my chest of drawers. I opened the drawer and noticed that it didn’t look like the real one in the actual cabin. I said to myself, “This is a dream!” So I started flying around the room, but only got to the door. Then I was still dreaming, but it wasn’t very clear. I was sitting on the floor in my sister’s shirt and willing my boobs to grow bigger and to grow taller. Then I woke up and said,“Crap! I’m not lucid anymore!”

PLEASE email me or post a reply to tell me if it was lucid, half- lucid, or normal.

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Half-lucid or lucid, but not normal, btw, U need to constantly keep ur eyes moving + rub ur hands, its for lengthening ur dream.

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Yes I also think you were lucid. Not very highly lucid perhaps, but lucid you were :wink:
By the way, I don’t quite understand what you mean by “half lucid”. Either you realize you’re dreaming, or you don’t. The boundary between non-lucid and lucid is when you really think something is definitely wrong, you may even say to yourself that you’re dreaming, but you’re still not AWARE of what you’re truly saying. This is called prelucid, but it’s still not lucid though. The main criterion to determine whether or not you were lucid is to ask yourself “in the dream, did I REALIZE I was dreaming or did I just say to myself “this is a dream” without even slightly become aware of what that means?” Genuine realization means you go from an unconscious dream puppet to a conscious, actively engaged dream participant/observer. This shift often happens unmistakably and is quite radical. Furthermore, the higher your subsequent level of lucidity, the more radically this shift will happen. Generally speaking ofcourse :smile:

Good luck :wink:

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I think what he meant was low lucidity. (I call it ‘semi-lucid.’) You know it’s a dream, but you didn’t have much control. It didn’t seem like it though, she seemed to be fully lucid. More control than I usually have!

Correct me if I’m wrong. :smile:

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Sometimes, I’ve had very few control in good lucidity level dreams, and good control in low level LD’s. Control and lucidity level seem not to be correlated.

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I’m new here:) I always had quite average dream recall, usually remembered dream/s from every night. So when I heard about LD first I was very excited about it. Now, I wrote this journal thingy for ~4 days, and I think my first LD came! I was dreaming that I’m telling my gf about lucid dreams and that I will show her how to do it. So I fell asleep in the dream and when I entered the “false” dream I became lucid! I exactly knew I’m dreaming, I told myself how everything is so real and tried to make the dream even more vivid(it worked). There was green everywhere with raised platform and tree in center…I also moved my eyes thinking that I should move them now in bed like I read somewhere. It was great, but after some time I fell out from it, because I wasn’t so lucid to realise the techniques for keeping lucidity or even controlling dream…I was just like exploring and watching… Now I had not LD for 3 nights again so I hope my 2nd lucid dream will come very soon:)

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Hi pavel ! Welcome to the forum ! :welcome:
And congrats on your 1st lucid dream ! :beer: You first had a “prelucid” dream (dreaming about dreams or LD’s, without realizing you’re dreaming), then it was a lucid dream when you entered the “false dream”.
You didn’t practice anything, just writing down your DJ and you had it in 4 days? Waw! :eek: You’ll make people jealous. :wink:

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ok, I will tell you my dream and you can be the judge of whether its lucid or not:

So my class goes on a field trip to the moon, so I’m hopping around and I decide to do a reality check. Its not like I saw a dream sign and wanted to check whether I was dreaming or not, I just did it. When I discovered I could breath through my fingers while plugging my nose with them, I decided to ditch the moon and have some fun. I remember showing my watch to my friends, covering it up, showing it again. The numbers changed and there were symbols on it, so I proved to them that what was going on wasn’t real. I also remember being back on Earth, in a school, and running through the halls screaming ’ Im buzz lightyear’ at the top of my lungs. I did it because I knew I wouldnt get in trouble; I was dreaming. Before the teacher could stop me, I ran outside and flew away. I wanted to go higher, so I concentrated and everything, but it didn’t work. this is all I remember.

I wasnt even trying to have a lucid dream that night, and I was still at the stage of dream recall. Maybe I was having a dream about having a lucid dream. what do you guys think? :help:

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yes, in my opinion that was a LD
Congrats!!

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heh that is so awesome… confusing the dc’s is fun ;o)
congrats on your lucid dreaming expirience!

X

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Welcome to the forum, A-dream-within! :wave:

When you realize you’re dreaming it’s a LD. Therefore it was without a doubt a lucid dream (and it was pretty cool). Some friends and I tried two months ago to go on the moon, and most of us didn’t succeed. Just one manage to crash her car on the moon then she wake up immediatly. Congrats! :clap:

LOL! You’ll make a lot of people jealous. :lol:

(I’ll merge your message in the BIG “Was this a LD?” topic. :wink: )

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Ok, after trying this stuff for like two months now, I finally had something happen that seemed like a LD, and it would be nice to have someone say, “Yep, it was,” or, “No, you just were dreaming about being lucid.”

Anyway, it started out with me going to bed and a thought flashed through my mind," I’m frustrated, I’ve tried everything, I deserve a LD!" then I just went to sleep.

After I had been asleep awhile, I had a dream that I was online looking at stuff about WILD variations and decided to try one. I felt my hands start to tingle, then I sort of faded off, then open my eyes and thought, “Maybe I’m dreaming now,” So I did the hand RC, nothing, closed one eye and saw my nose, then I did the other nose thing, and it worked!

I felt rather excited, but I managed to stay in the dream. I went around, constantly doing RC’s and spinning (I remember wanting to stay lucid.)

Then I decided to go outside and look at the sky, since people claim it’s always so pretty. I remember being rather disapointed, because it was night and there were only like two or three stars in the sky (I remember expecting the sky to be filled with stars at the very least.) So I decided I would rather it be light out, so I thought about what I should yell, then I just started shouting, “Noon!”. Eventually the sky started to turn a dark purplish blue and fluffy thunderstorm like clouds began to appear, then it became bright and started to rain heavily. I said to myself, “Ahh, screw it,” and ran inside.

Once inside, I remembered people talking on the forums about music in dreams, so I shouted, “I wanna hear cool music!” I turned around and saw a radio playing some weird stuff (I was sort of disapointed, but rather glad it worked). So I turned the radio off, and thought about reading something, but dismissed it thinking that I had better things to do. (I felt really rushed to get everything done.)

I thought about shooting stuff, and looked for some guns. I found an MP5 and Walther PPK, but they didn’t work and I was in a hurry to do all the stuff I wanted to do before I lost lucidity. (I was doing ALOT of RC’s and spinning)

After doing some things, I started to forget to do RC’s and spinning every 5 seconds, and the vividness started to fade. First my sense of feeling started to get out of whack, then I blacked out a couple of times, then I woke up.

I’m about 60% sure it was a LD, and I was amazed at the vividness, I remember thinking, “WOW! This is better than I thought, it IS just like real life!” But I also started to question, “Wait, this is SO real, it might just be!” (And therefore I didn’t do socially unacceptable and possibly dangerous things like kill people and jump off buildings) which makes me think maybe I wasn’t lucid. Also, I remember DC’s saying stuff like, “You’re not dreaming, this is real,” and I would tell them to shove it, and also at various points I tried to bring up real people that I wanted to talk to, and tried to change the scene to an imaginary place that I had thought up a while back in RL while writing some short stories. (I remember thinking that changing the scene would ‘prove’ that I was dreaming).

Thing was, when I woke up, I felt strange, different then from even the most vivid normal dreams. It’s hard to explain, kind of like a sense of accomplishment and separation at the same time. Wierd.

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Yep it was a lucid dream if you knew you were dreaming and if you were able to control it.A preety good LD :grin: