Hi, lucid dreamers. I don't know what an LOL is yet, but I really enjoy Owen's image of a cat standing on it's hind legs saying "normally" over and over. Ralf's information re how the dreaming mind will just rationalize oddness was interesting. It's the frustrating thing I'd noticed in my mind - that it take's something really, really "out there" to alert me to the fact I'm dreaming. For instance, in one recent ld it was the fact that someone had three heads (and odd-looking ones at that) that told me I was dreaming. In another, it was someone's face changing from old to young and different skin-color that alerted me. But not enough things like that happen in my dreams, as far as I can tell. It's all a matter of training myself to look at things a certain way, I know. I appreciate all the shared experiences.

Owen - it occurs to me that maybe you are locked up in logicalness. Does that seem possible, in terms of this mindset hampering your ld experiences? Just a thought. I loved Keelin's term of "bizarreness antenna." It says it all, and sounds great, too. Good luck with ld's, Kate

Hi, all -

Over in another part of the forum Ralf expressed an interest in funny dream cues, so I went back through my LD reports from the last couple months and pulled out the ones I thought were funniest - either for the dream sign or my subsequent thoughts and actions - to post here. Two of them involve oddly-behaving cats. Actually I think I'll save the second cat one for a separate posting, as this one is getting too long. Hope you enjoy these anywhere near as much as I did! - Joy

28/29 August

In a long, annoying dream sequence, my African drum class's weekly session was co-opted by a friend-of-a-friend who offered to host it but turned it into a damned Avon demo or Tupperware party! With little sandwiches! I got disgusted enough to get lucid and choose to leave the scene....

4/5 September

My nieces were engaged in a lively, creative, colorfully messy pursuit - making collages or something - on the floor of the high-ceilinged living room of my old childhood home. I took off and began flying around, this being one of my favorite places to fly (but I noticed it didn't seem as big as it used to). I said, half to myself and half to my nieces, "Isn't this great? I can always fly in this room. It's fun - I love it. I wonder if I'm dreaming? This seems perfectly real, so much so I have no reason to doubt its reality, and I would rather it be real and believe I can really fly, but on the other hand, if it's a dream - and I suppose it probably is - I can do anything I want. So what do you think: should I be dreaming?"

"You should be dreaming," my nieces concurred. "Definitely dreaming...."

3 / 4 October

In the course of a dream I saw a woman in a red camper van in which I'd been camping - straight shoulder-length dark hair, open friendly face - and wondered, who was she and why was she there? "Am I dreaming you?" I asked her, but she denied it, looking at me very frankly and sincerely and with her face very stable and unchanging. We conversed normally, but I still had the feeling it was a dream. So I made an effort and transformed her into a man - naked so that the evidence was clear - and triumphantly declared it a dream.

I woke up in a sleeping bag on a floor upstairs in a white room in some unknown building, with my 19-year-old son in another sleeping bag next to mine. He looked absolutely like himself in every detail. I watched his face until he scrunched and wriggled and opened his eyes a little and then I said, quietly in case he wasn't quite awake, "Am I dreaming you?" He very realistically blamed me for waking him up and the complaints, insults, wrestling and romping that ensued seemed very real. I was enjoying it because I hadn't seen or heard from him for a while. Finally I said, "I'm glad if you're really here, but I think I'm dreaming...."

13/14 October

I woke up from a very long series of very bizarre dreams in which I would realize how bizarre it was, become lucid, and promptly "wake up" only to find myself in another bizarre dream in which I would realize how bizarre it was, become lucid, and promptly "wake up" into another bizarre dream.

Examples, in brief: A trucker shows up with a load of topsoil which he's accidentally brought to the wrong address, and dumps it in the yard near where I'm trying to sleep on the porch.

He shows up again because he lost his keys, and turns on the porch light to look for them. K comes out and says he's leaving the cat out on the porch because she's been laying eggs in the woodpile, and if she can't incubate them all those valuable eggs will just rot.

K and a friend dress to attend a wedding: K puts on a yellow and orange plaid jumpsuit which is covered with lint and adds a Cub Scout cap, neckerchief with official neckerchief slide, and clip-on bow tie; his friend dresses to match....

19 October

I dreamed I was sleeping at another location near here [in the mountains], hearing cows and calves call loudly to one another over long distances - two or three miles. Maybe they were recently separated for weaning, I thought - their calls were so loud and persistent. I thought, weren't they off this allotment for the season by now? Then I realized I was hearing my own snoring!...

23/24 October

[Sleeping in a truck in the mountains again, on a very cold night] I kept dreaming I was waking up to find I'd moved the truck to different, lower-elevation locations - or got a motel room. Finally I "woke" parked at an athletic field near Bridgeport, embarrassed that kids were up early to play ball and I was still in bed. Then colleagues showed up while I was looking at my clock: 8:71? 7:69? I asked AH, "What time is it?" She said disapprovingly, "8:15!" I said, "Well, my clock keeps saying different times so I think I'm probably dreaming. If I am, I should be able to fly. I don't feel as if I could fly, but I should make an effort'." And so on, until I was airborne....

24/25 October

I was waiting indoors for someone who was to be of assistance to me. It was something like a sporting goods shop and the guy for whom I was waiting was perhaps a hunting guide, although I don't hunt. His name plaque was on the wall: "Luke Comfort." As I was looking at it, it changed: "Look Confused"! This cued lucidity right away....

Joy

Thanks for your funny cues! Yes, you seem quite alert and in these cases couldn't be deceived by dream characters or strange situations.

"With little sandwiches! I got disgusted enough to get lucid and choose to leave the scene...." The Senoi way would probably include to broil the friend of a friend...

"You should be dreaming," my nieces concurred. "Definitely dreaming...." Very rare, that dream characters help to make me lucid.

"Look Confused"! This cued lucidity right away.... Yep. I sometimes do...

Last night I had my 2nd long (over 20 sec) LD. I've had about 18 short LD over the past 1 1/2 yrs since I began working on LD following Steven's course and this website and was getting frustrated at the inability to extend my Lucid Dreams. (I'd try spinning & hand rubbing but couldn't go longer) What seems to have helped was, I decided at least for now I'd stop trying to control the dream upon realizing I was dreaming. I still mentally repeat "stay calm, it's a dream" and hand rub to hold and extend the lucid state. At the end of the this 2nd long dream I decided to spin to try and keep the dream going & took the hands of a child & we spun around together. The child smiled and said "When you don't try to control the dream it is much easier!" I laughed at the obvious wisdom & awoke to think it over. I supsect the spinning wasn't fast enough to keep me going. If there are other "control freeks" like me who cannot get beyond 10-15 sec. try letting go.

Hi, Ted

Congratulations. I think, too, it is important to get a "medium" level of control, and a medium level of excitement. It is like learning to keep the balance in riding a bike.

Interesting incidents of wise and helpful dream children posted here by me and Ted and in the Maui thread by Toko-pa around the same time. This led me to notice that in three samples I posted above, I asked dream characters if I was dreaming: an adult, who lied; a teenager, who ignored the question; and children, who enouraged me to be honest with myself!

Here's the other cat-cue that I said I'd post later (I just love that "normally" cat). I thought you-all might enjoy reading the whole dream - on re-reading it I found that it has some pretty funny parts all the way through, along with some examples of other interesting things we've discussed lately.

This was September 5....

I found myself dreaming one thing after another, all disconnected, and trying to sort of stack them up in my memory. I may have been slightly lucid already because I would think without entirely waking, "There's another dream, gotta remember it" - having gone to sleep determined to remember, not to know I was dreaming! I vaguely recall some scenes involving exploring an abandoned mine. Later, things seemed to be taking place within a brightly-lit house with cheerful colors: bright yellow, pink, orange. My best recall begins with a scene in which my mom was on the phone describing her past experience with exploring abandoned mines herself, and making plans for a future expedition. This was absurd: my mom is old, fat and multi-phobic; never in her life would she have set foot in an old mine. Why was she talking like this? "Gotta remember this one," I thought, and then went into the kitchen and told Kirsten from drum class how absurd it was.

Kirsten shrugged noncommittally - she was busy making toast in an old toaster with rounded contours - and pointed out what she thought was interesting: in the adjoining living room one of my cats, the male one, was playing with a kitten that looked very much like him, lying on his back with the kitten on his belly. Two of the female cats were there too, one playing in the same manner with another kitten, the other playing in a similar manner with three Klutz juggling cubes [square beanbags made for beginning jugglers] - almost as if she were juggling them. I looked back at the first cat and he now was sitting up on his haunches with five juggling cubes, and he was juggling them!

I chuckled to myself: "How absurd. My son can barely juggle five, let alone my cat. I'm definitely dreaming." And I began to wake up. Then, with the juggling cat and awareness of myself-in-bed both juxtaposed, I thought, "Wait - wait - I'm lucid - I should keep on dreaming! I should try the spinning thing."

Still quite aware of my physical body in bed and thinking I might be too far gone toward awake, I worked on generating a convincing self that was spinning. It seemed to be taking a lot of time and effort but I persisted and even switched from counterclockwise to clockwise to see if that would help. I didn't think it was working - but then to my complete surprise I started having a dream orgasm. "Wow! I wasn't expecting this - guess I'm dreaming after all," I thought and I kept spinning.

Two or three disjointed dream scenes flashed by that I don't remember now, and then I found myself crouching on the bathroom floor of the house I lived in two years ago, still feeling pleasantly post-orgasmic, hoping K wouldn't come in and distract me as I puzzled out whether I was dreaming. All my sensory perceptions were extremely vivid and realistic and I had to think hard to conclude that given my odd situation I must, indeed, be dreaming. "So the spinning thing worked and I ended up in a dream," I thought.

Again there were a couple of quick, unconnected dream scenes I've forgotten. Then I woke up in a sleeping bag on the bank of a cold, wide, fast-flowing stream with several ducks floating past me. The foot end of the sleeping bag had slipped into the water and my feet were cold and wet. (In reality I was sleeping outside and a cold breeze had come up and was blowing the blankets off my feet.) I lay there watching the ducks, first wondering what kind they were - small enough to be some kind of teals, but colored like redheads - and then wondering if I was still dreaming. I could see every feather quite distinctly, along with the light glinting off their eyes and the rippling surface of the water. But I had to admit that again, despite the vivid sensory realism, there was no reason to think that in real life I'd be lying in a sleeping bag by an unfamiliar stream with my feet in the water. Meanwhile one of the ducks had untucked its head from its breast feathers, making it appear larger, and I concluded they were redheads. I willed the next one to untuck and look at me and it did. "Yep, definitely dreaming," I thought, "no use lying here with wet feet," and I got up - sleeping bag and all - and lumped along eastward, gradually shedding sleeping bag and damp outer layers of clothing, until I walked into a house.

An old-burned-out-hippie-type character was standing in the middle of the living room. "I need my water pipe" I think," he mumbled as I walked on through.

I came into the old-fashioned kitchen and stood there looking eastward into a back entryway that was flooded with bright morning sunlight coming through the multi-paned window in the back door. I felt a sharp, pleasing nostalgia; I thought it was my aunt's house (although I don't recall any house exactly like that from the many aunts of my childhood). Still entirely aware that I was dreaming, I reveled in the incredible vividness and realism of everything I saw: the entryway with its white painted shelves full of small items, including a little bright red box; the window and the yard outside; a single bright pink, tall-stemmed, multi-blossomed flower something like a gladiola standing just outside the door. K was in my peripheral vision but I ignored him, again not wanting to be distracted.

I thought, "This being a dream, I should be able to do something remarkable. Let's see if I can make that tall pink flower come inside the house." Everything seemed so very solid and real, the door and walls and window glass and all, I found myself doubting I could do it. Then another person entered my peripheral vision, having just come in from outside through another door to my right; the person was wearing the same color of pink; and before I could see the person clearly I quickly put the person's image into the position where I meant to put the flower and transformed it into the flower itself, very realistic and beautifully back-lit by the morning sun. Rather startled that I could accomplish that, I held the image for just a shimmering moment and then woke up.

Joy

Hi, everyone. I just wanted to post about a missed cue that happened this am. I was standing outdoors with my husband, watching some men digging something up. There was a little girl there who was supposed to be able to offer testimony, or something, regarding whatever the men were digging up. All the men had silly masks on, and the idea was that this was to make the situation non-scary for the little girl. There were some puddles of water left over from a big splash from the ocean that had evidently occured. I went to look in one puddle and found a big fish stranded in the puddle. We made eye contact, and I wanted to help him get back to the ocean. My husband said that the kind of fish this was, he couldn't breathe in that little of water. I was trying to help the fish. The main thing is, I kept saying to my husband: "This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen!" But I didn't get lucid. The good thing is, that my mind ws definitely in there trying, to alert me this was a dream. But how could I have been missing it in the first place? I think the dream was in part inspired by my walking by the ocean in the rain yesterday and walking through lots of puddles run-off streams, one of which met me just as I was going uphill and it was going downhill. Also the men in masks reminds me of a dream book I have with illustrations I really like - very childlike and dreamy, with lots of mask wearing, floating, and fish. Any thoughts? Kate

Dear Kate,

Putting fingers into a hard object is a good RC for me, less disorienating than reading writing. But I need to be suspicious that I am dreaming. As Ralf said I doubt it will work if you think your are awake, you will meet resistance.

I have quite a lot of strange animal dreams. But I don't think I've ever become lucid with a talking animal, strange I'm not sure why.

Probably my best dreamsign for inducing lucidity (after coins on the ground) are things or people disappearing or a familiar scene (eg my garden) or object changing.

Regards,

Owen

Hi, Owen!

Yes, I'm hoping your idea of pushing my fingers through solid objects will work well for me. One of the best aspects of this RC is that in waking life, if you push your fingers through loose dirt or something like water on a leaf, it seems at first as if you really are going to push totally through. So there's not as much of a stark discrepancy between the two worlds. The text NEVER changed in real life, of course. But I'll still do this also, since it's such a tired and true RC method, and since it's known text rarely stays the same in dreams. Sooner or later, I'm sure this will come up for me in a dream. Practicing transforming things in waking life has already worked for me once in terms of being lucid, so I'm going to stick with that also. (Pretty soon I'm going to be in my own little world and scaring the heck out of everyone around me, I suppose.) Maybe you've never become lucid with a talking animal because they are so common in your dreams. But I guess this idea doesn't fit with the idea that familiar dream themes should be good cues for us. I think a familiar scene or object changing would be a good cue for me, also, since I tend to notice things like that in waking life. But my dreams often seem to be set in some made-up place or a place so different from the real place that it's only nominally the real place in my mind. In which case I don't think much about the changes until I'm reviewing the dream after waking. One of the most frustrating things the dreaming mind does, and it's been commented on often in this forum, is to explain away what strikes us as odd, so we never get cued. As in your dream where you tell yourself it's not strange the dog was speaking German, because Germans are good at languages. Ralf suggested that my mind may make it seem as if my lucid dreams were not real once I wake up because it is trying to protect itself. I imagine the "explaining away oddness" we do in dreams is part of this same survival/protective mode. I love plants, too. (You mentioned your garden.) I don't have a yard, but I have some plants and bonsai on my balcony. One time I dreamed about one of the bonsai having a problem and when I looked at it the next day it did. It had an insect problem. But I imagine I only dreamed this because I had had a waking concern that the plant might have a problem. Enjoy your dreams, Kate

Hello All,

After several months away from lucid dreaming, I've been trying to get back into it for the last few weeks - although judging from last night's dream, I'm not sure if my mind agrees"

I'm walking along a track through some hilly bush and grassland. There's a few tracks off to the sides and I notice that there's a sign at the beginning of a steep uphill track that says "Lucid dream and OBE track closed'. At the time I thought this must be the start of two walking tracks, one called "Lucid dream" and the other "OBE'. Talk about missing a "dreamsign" !

I don't do a great deal of dream interpretation, but it would seem that part of me thinks I have other things to concentrate on at the moment. However during the dream, I thought the track looked overused and must be closed to allow regeneration.

Strange things these dreams '

Rob ;-)

Hi, Rob

Nice to hear from you again

Real dream signs...

The steep hill - a hard task? I hope, you can find an easier, (but maybe longer) way to the top.

Nonetheless, I wish you all the light

I had a funny one, too this morning:

I'm in a house, maybe in Badendorf (where I grew up). I see a wagtail (a fish) flying in the floor. That is amazing me. I follow him to the aquarium. My Corydoras are flying, diving into the water, going up again. Wonderful. I never thought, that this is possible. I hurry and fetch Nils, to show him the news. We sit in front of the tank and nothing besides the ordinary happens. Did I hallucinate? It strikes me, that maybe I've gone mad. We commence staring into the fish tank. Ah! One of the fish enters the tank through the back pane. I draw Nils attention to it. He quits it with a grunt.

Maybe I'm too tolerant with myself in daytime, when it does't appear dreamlike to me, that I'm hallucinating. Maybe I am mad!?

Anyway, next time I'll catch the flying fish cue.

Rob, such literal dream signs! That's a funny one.

Ralf, I have a recurring dream event involving all the fish in the aquarium flying around in the air about 10 to 20 cm above the tank. You'd think it would be a great dream cue, but every time it happens I just think, "There go the fish flying around above the water again; now, why do they do that sometimes?"

Next time may we both catch the flying fish!

Joy

Hi, fellow dreamers. Interesting missed cues. I had one last night. I was in some realistic storyline dream where Treat Williams was a dangerous psycho who had me and two other people (whoever they were)captive. At some point I was thinking about what a good job he was doing portraying this psycho, and would I have cast him in the part, etc. It never occured to me to think "wait a minute, this is an actor playing this man, so how can the situation be real?" And then on to lucidity. But it seems this kind of thing happens all the time to me. I don't think I can rely on "logic" alone to get cued. I'm hoping the habits of trying to transform and RC's and trying to push through solid objects in waking life will carry over into my sleeping mind. May we all follow the flying fish down that lucid dream track, Kate

...my dream fish feel like salmon swimming upstream to spawn...

Inner Awareness, my best cue.

I've been flying the backside of the clock the last two nights/days, flying from midnight to noon the next day, so I'm pretty exhausted. I decided I'd likely be flying again last night, so opted not to use the ND mask, and just get as much deep sleep as I could, while still recording dreams.

I got to sleep about 5pm, and at about 2am, I had a rather vivid dream about being in my darkened bedroom, and trying to do some basic cleaning up, which I haven't had time to do letely. I was placing a small, wooden framed picture on my dresser, but "felt" the dizziness, and fogginess associated with exhaustion. Since I realized I was "feeling" these things, and it caught my attention, I wouldn't let it go. I thought to myself this was an IA dreamsign, and I wasn't going to assume I awake until something proved it to me one way or the other. Suddenly enough awareness kicked in (do to my desire, and focus) that I simply realized I was dreaming. Unfortunatly, I was already in a light state of sleep, and awoke quickly.

I post this simply because it shows the major premiss that I have incorporated which has really helped me to have lucids. That is, when I am confronted with ANYTHING that gets my attention, I assume I AM dreaming, and look not for something to tell me it's a dream, but rather something to prove to me I am indeed awake.

I've found time and time again that many of my dreams are not so far fetched that they couldn't be be physical life, nor do they normally entail things so abstract as to be incomprehensible in physical life. Thus, I realize I could be dreaming even now (check check).

Try this approach, and incorporate it into your own training. I think you'll find a great advantage here.

Dream signs I often miss are things like: Performing acts safely which could not be performed by a blind person. I've had lots of dreams featuring me driving a car, or navigating a busy street without sighted guide or mobility aid. Multi-modal Experience: Both living the experience while simultaneously reading it or listening to it on TV in movie form. Anachronism: I was a passenger in a friend's car, in the year 1566. And of course, a long succession of mythical beings such as trolls, fairies, aliens, and fictional characters from the movie studios of the USA. I never get it. I never get lucid. So far, the only dream signs that actually got my lucid attention was once, a radio I turned off kept playing, and another time, some Braille text changed under my fingers while I read it. Oh yes, and a visitation from my deceased mother. But that's about it ... so far.

Hi, Thea!

Isn't the mind a fantastic thing! I wonder if it just likes the good times before.... I have had the same sort of experience as you described: At age 9½ I lost my right hand and that's 58 years ago. But I quite often dream about doing things with both hands or even with my right hand alone, like painting. But as yet I never have become lucid, noticing that this is out of the ordinary. For you, I imagine, it must be wonderful that you at least in your dreams can see.

Dreamy greetings Jan

Hi, Jan. Actually, I cannot see in my dreams, as I have never seen in my waking life, and I have no mental model for vision of any kind. When I talk about performing acts unsafe for a blind person, I am blind in my dreams, and driving a car or whatever. Since your mind has memory of a right hand, a model, it is logical that you would dream of doing things with your right hand. Of course, in both cases, these are great dream signs ... if we would only recognize them. I have yet to say in a dream, "Wait a minute. I'm blind, and I'm driving a car, without the benefit of any kind of sight. Therefore, I must be dreaming." I once had a dream that my husband, who is also totally blind from birth, bought a car and drove me and the kids home in it. I was livid with terror, knowing neither of us could see. I was not surprised when the dream police stopped us, and hauled us in. Hehehehehe. But why I didn't become lucid is beyond me. Sweet dreams, Thea

Hi Joy and Ralf,

Folks, I was interested to read your fish related dreamsigns. Animals and in particular fish are a frequent feature of my dreams, and always capture my atention. I have dreams involving aquaria and ponds/pools containing very beautiful exotic specimens. I guess a lot of people will find fish boring, but in dreams I find them absolutely amazing. Often I am amazed to discover rich sources of tropical fish in places you would not normally expect to find them. I often find myself trying to catch or collect them for my aquarium. Like you I also find that fish are not just restricted to water but can also take to the air, once or twice swimming right past me when I am flying.

I also dream about other animals. last night I dreamt that I was stroking the tail of a beautiful turquoise peacock, it was really incredible. I also discovered a nest of ground squirrels by a tree and 6 Blue Tits all nesting in just one of my bird boxes.

Dispite having these dreamsigns frequently I find it very difficult to recognise them and become lucid. From now on I am going to take the advice of "Lostcolt" and perform a reality check whenever something really grabs my attention as these things do.

I would be very interested to hear of any more fish/animal related dreamsigns.

Cheers Geoff.

Geoff

I still haven't caught the flying fish sign.

But now I had flying fish in my waking physical reality aquarium. One jumped out. I returned the rest of the gang to the dealer.

Dream signs with fish are not easy for people having tanks, I think. I now have a 930 l tank and it is in my office / practice rooms. I see it all day.

But other dreamsigns did I catch succesfully!!

So keep on good work and use those signs, that did make you lucid or at least cause some degree of awareness in the dream. The "Course in Lucid Dreaming" shows you systematic and successful ways to work with dreamsigns. As do the books of Stephen LaBerge. I say that from my experience, as I've learned lucid dreaming through these books.

So, use the convenient way, Geoff...

Light lucidity Lucid light

To all

Ralf

Still working hard at recognising those dream signs. Had one this morning that should have stood out a mile. In my dream my nephew was reading a commic that had moving pictures like TV cartoons. A bit like the books in the Harry Potter movies.

I had plenty of animal dream signs too. Not sure why I keep missing these, because I religiously perform reality checks when I see these in waking life. But this is seldom carried over to the sleeping world.

"Religiously"

We had this discussion on and off during the last years. Every dreamer seems to have to find his own balnace of working hard, letting go, enjoying. Experiment with finding your own pace. Let go for some days of exercises, start over again. Learning theory says best results are obtained at a medium high level of motiviation.

And if you miss the sign: Say "Next time I'll get it." And imagine to get lucid in the face of the missed dreamsign. Feel the joy of getting lucid. Don't punish yourself for missing a sign. PILDs are rare...

Cool, Ralf I like your advice.

I am continuing to read Stephen Laberge's book that came with the NovaDreamer - it is really great stuff. I am trying to learn the Wild technique which involves counting and saying "I am Dreaming" in between each number. I am really enjoying doing this, even though I am finding it extremely difficult. I am amazed at just how easy it is to stop counting and fall asleep, or just start repeating other stuff that doesn't make any sense. None the less each time I seem to get a little closer to the goal of entering a lucid dream - Any how it's a great way to fall asleep even if you dont get lucid - much better that counting sheep.

Hi, everyone.

Had a cool LD last night, lots of flying, with two false awakenings. I went traveling through the cosmos. I asked to see the reality behind the illusion of form, and tore away the dream scene. Before I could grasp what was behind it, a new dream scene formed, and I descended into pleasures of the flesh (hehe!). Then I woke up for real.

Paul

Paul

Your LD qualifies for a wild ;) I must say. Must say for me the pleasures of the flesh are mostly accompanied by ascending feelings...

Geoff

Fine. I think the WILD is the way to dreaming lucid at will. Did it this morning. But nothing out of the ordinary to report from those few seconds of handrubbing. You had lucid dreams, I know, although I didn't read everything carefully in the last months.

But another hint: Be mentally prepared when you then enter dreamstate in the WILD way. Be sure to know how to stay in the dream and what tasks to do. In my experience the WILD is much more elusive, than DILD.

wild and Wild dreams!

Oops...

I meant to write "wild and WILD dreams!"

Yes they do seem a bit illusive don´t they. Monday night I had success with the counting method. I became lucid and continued to count and say "I´m dreaming". I kept saying this throughout the lucid dream whilst I was examining everything around me - I was walking forward whilst doing this. Everything was clear and was going fine until I looked behind me over my shoulder and this caused me to awake. I don´t think it was a true awakening though and I did not remeber doing a reality check, so I think I was duped into falling into normal dreaming.

Hey, Geoff!

Cool WILD. Congrats!

You did very fine, I think. You should teach me...

Hi Ralf,

I have been trying to repeat my success with the counting, I have not succeeded yet. I seem to remember that last time it took great focus/concentration, it is very difficult to concentrate when falling to sleep - all those hypnogogic images are whizzing past and floating around.

Lately I think I have been iether too tired and have fallen to sleep immediately, or have not been sleepy enough and have lost track of the counting procedure.

I am practicing focussing on the counting procedure whilst awake, counting from 1 to 100 without loosing count of what number I am on, or going past 100. I am doing this whilst performing other tasks that would normally distract me (e.g shopping). I think this will help me when I do it whilst falling asleep.

P.S - I had a dream last night where I was watching a video recording on a TV. It all seemed prety normal and true to life; however I found that the subject of the video changed to pornography, and I felt embarassed and had to leave the room (I was with other people).

I post the above because I cannot remember seeing TV in dreams before, at least not for a long time. Is there something significant about dream TV´s, their behaviour perhaps, or some kind of experiment that can be performed. I thought I had read something about this was not sure.

Geoff.

See "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" p.153 f."

Good luck!

Ralf

hi fellow dreamers..Im not quite sure what this dream means.Mabey Im getting closer to learning critical awareness or these are hits and misses? That night I was using my nova dreamers I awoke to a dream sometime early in morning where I woke up took off the novas examened them closley with my eyes stareing at the the little red lights to acess if they are in alighnment or not??Because the alighnment was a concern of mine when I first went to bed.. All this was a dream a posable false awakening? Then the dream took me to a resterant bar where I was sitting feeling somewhat grogy like I was drunk.. And GUESS WHAT I KNEW I WAS DrEaMiNg!!! WOWEE!!! Then the proprieter [owner] of the bar complained that I was DREAMING TOO MUCH! SHE had me escorted out to a back room.. Where I told a friendly fellow that I did not understand? Because I was only dreaming! He agreed and laughed and said dont worry about it and showed me where I could sleep it off.. Then I woke up... Even though I knew I was dreaming Im not sure I saw them as part of the dream?? I may have seen them as real people? Anyway this dream makes me feel that Im getting closer to critical awareness!? But the awareness of my dream suroundings as being a dream Im not sure? But I knew I was dreaming???? Also I have a question about dreaming lucid or just vivid.. Does dreaming drain a person to where you feel a little tired in the morning or is it that I was kept awake??? any coments?

Last night I had a funny dream. It was not lucid, but it was about lucidity and shows how far the brain can go not to notice dream signs.

I am together with Peter, one of my brothers, standing somewhere in the open countryside. We are looking at a landscape of exceptional beauty, clarity and detail. In front of us is a wide meadow full of poppies, cornflowers and marguerites softly sloping down into a valley. The reds, blues and whites of the flowers are nearly unnaturally dazzling in the lush green of the grass. To the right, somewhere down the slope, is a little grove of deciduous trees, where the rays of the sun shine on the silvery lower side of leaves quivering in a light breeze. A brook meanders along the lower border of the meadow ' partly seen, partly hidden behind bushes. From its ripples the sun shoots unruly arrows into our eyes. On the far side of the little river the landscape climbs up to the edge of a dark forest. But the distance is close enough for us to see the pine needle floor between the firs and the murk farther in. We stay there a long time just looking. Then I tell him: "You see, this clarity and this richness of detail, which you in reality hardly ever see as beautiful as now, is exactly as it would be in a lucid dream, when you know that you are dreaming!'

As you can see, I have been talking to my (not really interested) brothers and my sister about lucid dreaming.

I wish you all warm and lucid dreams. Jan

Hey, dreamers! I wanted to post this LD because of two interesting aspects, namely its induction and its end.

The induction was a classic DILD. I was looking at my hands, and there was something odd about them, I can't recall what, they just didn't look right. This triggered my lucidity. What was interesting to me was the force of the realization this time. I actually felt it physically, like being whomped with a fly swatter. It was so powerful I thought it would wake me up, but it didn't.

After a very long LD I remembered that I had to get up for a planned activity, only I couldn't wake up! I remembered something from EWLD about "Falling asleep to wake up". First I just stretched out in mid-air, since I had been flying, and tried to fall asleep in the dream. No luck. I then flew to a large tree, and built a nice dream nest in the branches. I lay down in this, fell asleep, and woke up immediately. Pretty cool. Just wanted to share it.

Paul

Pretty cool dream Paul! I wanted to say In a past LD I have felt that kind of overwelming efect also upon [REALIZATION] that I was dreaming.. and my instant reaction was to float upward and out of my body.I felt like a leaf in the breeze as I rose above the buildings and heard a roaring like sound.. I was not at all scared by the experiance.I was simply delighted!! I remember exclaiming out loud IM FREE! IM FREE! Then in my excitement the visuals started to fragment like a jigsaw puzzel and I woke up.. DREAMS CAN BE WONDERFYUL !! Tom..

Hi Paul,

What an image! You do look so comfortable in your little nest of dream twigs.... But are you sure you're really awake now? ;)

Warm aloha, Keelin

Keelin, of course I'm not sure. I'm not sure of anything, anymore. I'm not sure there's really any difference between asleep and awake, between dream and so-called reality.

Gotta go now. My turn to sit on the eggs.

Paul

ps. Any room left in the upcoming dreamcamp? I'm debating joining y'all.

Dear Paul,

Rest assured there is a difference 'tween, but it may be more subtle than we think most of the time. Which is why my own questioning has changed over the years from "Am I dreaming?" to "Am I aware?", which brings the benefit of awareness regardless of state.

And YES, there is still room in the upcoming program -- and we would be absolutely delighted to have you dreaming with us again!

And to all, regarding the retreat: This upcoming program will be extra special because we'll have the very rare pleasure of Alan Wallace joining us. He is a dynamic teacher, one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, and a frequent interpreter for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. As you can imagine, Alan's eastern experiential approach woven together with Stephen's western scientific methodology will make for an exciting and provocative blend. You can be sure with those two presenting, the wit and wisdom will be flying fast. For program details and online registration: http://lucidity.com/daa

Sweet tropical dreams, Keelin

PS: And back to Paul: Happy hatching! ;)

Keelin, you are, as usual, irresistable. I'm registered. I want another crack at that beautiful house in the flow!

Now if I can just talk Lee into coming back...

Paul

Dear Paul,

Delighted! ;)

Looking forward to seeing you 'neath the ever swaying palms, Keelin

PS: My email to you bounced, so when you have a moment, please send a note to keelin@lucidity.com so we can be sure we have the correct address for you. Mahalo!

Hi everyone My first posting on this list.Just recieved my nova dreamer a couple of weeks ago and have had two lucid dreams using this device Before that the lucid dreams were all spontaneous, not too many of them though. Last night I became lucid after using the no 4 setting on the nova. I awoke and noted down a dream non lucid .Then I PUT THE NOVA STTING ON 3 AFTER MY HOUR AWAKE.I Became lucid when I saw three red flashes.I instantly knew it was the dreamer giving a cue so I HAD A GREAT TIME FLYING ABOUT and having great sex.There is more to it but it was the question that came up as I was teaching other people to fly.Ilooked around and asked everyone WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO IF YOU COULD DO ANYTHING.I woke up after that,but another thing I continued to remain lucid 3 times as the red flashes appeared.Strange I saw only three flashes each time and I know there are 12.Regards Serena