I have what I think to be an unusual case. I'm 42 years old and do not currently even remember dreams much less have lucid ones. But, when I was 7 or so years old, I had a few repeating, horrifying nightmares that seemed to be destroying my young life. Every night in terror, I would beg my father to do something, but all he could do was to tell me that the monsters were not real. But that didn't stop me from being terrorized every night.

I don't recall any transitional period, but ultimately, somehow, I became aware that I was in a dream during the dream. Then, I was empowered to truly know that the monsters were not real. It went further. I developed a silly little method for instantlly waking up. I would simply snap my fingers 3 times (sometimes it took a fourth snap!) in the dream and I would instantly wake up. Then I was truly liberated. I would just wait for King Kong to stomp and rumble while he made his way toward me from miles away, and when he would be within a few feet of me, snap, snap, snap, and I'd be snickering, awake in bed. Another recurring nightmare that became fun was the one where I would unavoidable fall off the Washington Monument. After lucid dreaming kicked in, I would intentionally fall off and enjoy the free fall, making sure I snapped myself awake before hitting bottom. Kind of a lucid dream precursor to bungy jumping.

Anyone else have similar experiences?

At the age of eight I used to have similair horrible nightmares, including complete re-run nightmares which would repeat identically for 3 to 4 nights in a row...in many ways, these nightmares were way worse than unique nightmares, because I knew what was going to happen and was unable to prevent it.

One night I got tired of nightmares. I stomped my eight-year-old foot during one dream, and said "Dammit, this is MY dream! I'm going to dream what I want to dream!", turned into an 8 year old's version of an Aslan/Kimba hybrid (my ideal of the most powerful creature back then), and poof, the dream changed.

From that point on the nature of my nightmares changed...I would not have a 'terrorizing' dream again, although I do still have dreams in which I am being chased by someone for some nefarious reason. Unfortunately, until my recent aquisition of a NovaDreamer, I've become unable to distinguish between dreams and real life due to the incredibly vivid DVD Dolby surround sound/Technicolor/full taste/full sense dreams that I have.

I'm confused...I thought lucid dreams were dreams in which you know you are dreaming. Were you aware when you screamed at the animal-man that you were dreaming?

I've been nothing but delighted upon discovering I was dreaming (see Post Your Lucid Dreams for one of mine). I've been wanting to spend a couple nights lucid-dreaming snorkelling again; and to solve some issues where I've been yelling furiously at loved ones in non-lucid dreams for no apparent reason.

Perhaps having a plan has some effect: you've made your contingency plans, and once you know you're there, you pick a plan to go into effect. There's no wondering or fear about what to do.

Perhaps having accidentally used lucid dreaming as a child to end nightmares has some impact also: I used lucid dreaming to stamp my foot in a nightmare, shouting "This is MY dream! And I'm going to dream it the way I want it!"

Greetings, Fellow Oneironauts!

I'd like to briefly respond to R. Mac (Anastasia)'s mention of the term "lucid nightmare". When I first heard that term, I was completely perplexed as, according to the definition of lucid dreaming, one must be aware that one is dreaming. My question was then: How could it be a nightmare if one knew it was a dream? I've since come to understand, however, that the fear (emotional response) experienced in such situations may indeed be very real -- while the danger of the situation is not. There is more on this fine point in LaBerge's book "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming", which I would highly recommend to anyone bumping into these kinds of initially unsettling experiences. I say "initially" because, on a positive note, once these types of sensations are understood in relationship to the phenomenology of lucid dreaming, they can become welcomed, definitive cues to the blossoming dream state.

Wishing you all great dreamy vibes, -Keelin

At the on set of life-like or lucid dreams an individual may have tremendous anxiety and fear because of a lack of reference bases and experiences with alternative realities. I had considerable fear in the beginning with these experiences due to not knowing that I was dreaming. In addition, once I learned how to recognize that my experience was a dream I did not have satisfactory skills to handle these anxiety provoking situations.

Here is an example to illustrate how confusing these experiences can be... I went to bed early one night and suddenly there was a man I knew kneeling on all fours at the foot of my bed, fully clothed, with black and white stripes painted on his face. He was snarling at me like an animal. I screamed, and suddenly I was sitting up in bed awake. I looked around the room terrified, expecting to still see him. Since he was not in the room I began to realize that it was a nightmare. Unfortunately I could not conceive how a dream could be so real and an utterly accurate representation of reality.

As this example illustrates, these experiences can be very frightening in the beginning due to not knowing which world you are in or what the rules are.

I would like to study the novices intial response to dreams that are an accurate representation of reality as well as their initial responses to lucid nightmares and lucid dreams.

Therefore if you have recently began having recurrent like-like dreams, lucid nightmares or have been contending with lucidity and are currently searching out ways to resolve your frightening dreams, lets discuss what reactions you had or are having, and how novices can deal with these experiences.

Hello fellow dreamers!

I am quite aware of the "lucid nightmare" experience. The majority of my lucid dreams are wonderful, thrilling experiences. In a small percentage of my lucid experiences however, I am confronted by hostile and terrifying dream characters. These characters rarely speak. I am fully aware that I am dreaming and the dreams are extremely rich and detailed. Being lucid does little to reduce the terror I feel in these dreams. I am very curious as to what this could mean. Any thoughts or similar dreams? New to the forum - Chad

I had a lucid nightmare a year or so ago. I was driving along in a red convertable with my dad in the pasanger seat when I realized that it was a dream. I was just about to tell my dad, when I came accross some people standing in the middle of the road. I slowed down as I approached them and realized that they were in a sort of gird pattern. I slowly kept driving into the crowd, as there were large spaces between the people and I figured they would get out of the way, and besides, this was just a dream. As I was driving past them I was wondering what the heck they were doing standing in the middle of the road like that. When I got to the middle of the group I realized that they were mindless shells...like zombies or something. It was absolutly terrifying! I think I was more scared by the knowledge that these dream characters were a part of me, than I was about what they were going to do to me (they were just standing there, so I don't think they had the intelligence or drive to attack me). I paniced and put the petal to the metal! As I was trying to get away, I was thinking, "I shouldn't be scared! This is a dream!" but it didn't work. I hit a lot of them on the way out, and I was flung out of the car and up into the air with the other bodies/zombies that were up there from being hit. We just stayed up there and were flying around in chaos and I lost lucidity. It was like we were in a tornado and I was going out of my mind in fright. I woke up. I felt guilty later on that day for not trying to 'wake' them or something. I'm not sure what they represented, but still to this day, I wonder what it meant. *Jeremy

Thank you for your responses to this discussion. I believe Keelin's response to fearful dream scenarios and scary characters is very appropriate. However, many people don't have that degree of insight and I am hoping to hear from beginners and study their reactions to life-like dream experiences and anxiety provoking lucid dreams.

I use the term lucid nightmare to describe the dream in which one knows they are dreaming and are simultaneously afraid and anxious. Certainly when these situations arose I became increasingly afraid due to a lack of definitive or positive responses. It became a downward spiral due to reacting emotionally, the dream then escalated into greater depths of anxiety provoking scenario's which in turn reinforced my fears and so on. It was my experience to know I was dreaming yet I was unable to get past the fear and confusion that these hostile experiences evoked.

Chad's experience was similar to many I have had, and fear was my initial response to terrifying and hostile dream characters whether they spoke or not. It took a tremendous concentrated effort to "respond" in different, more productive ways to these emotionally charged dreams. It was in Stephen Laberge's book "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" (specifically chapter ten which discusses overcoming nightmares) where I found techniques to use as alternative responses with frightening dream situations.

A technique that Stephen illustrates in his book to use when you are facing a hostile dream character is to look them in the eyes (assuming they have some) and project feelings of love and acceptance toward them. This technique can also be practiced by quietly visualizing the hostile character (while awake) and practicing projecting love toward them. Aferall, in an emotionally charged situation our dominant response will surface. Therefore if your dominant response to these characters is currently fear, it can become feelings of love and acceptance with visualization and repetition.

Lets discuss the many alternative responses you have used in frightening dream situations in order to transform the experience.

Hello, regarding lucid nightmare, here's an experience I had in 1988. I learned that night that aggressiveness is not always the answer to annoying dream character!

June 25,early in the night: "I enter sleep state, start floating and move in a vertical position. I don't see anything yet (usually, at that point, images start forming, sometime it's my bedroom and sometime I enter a different scene). Then, without warning, someone jump on my back and start attacking me. We start wrestling (it was a little scary since I wasn't able to see my opponent). Finally, a dream scene start forming and I enter a full dream, at least one I can see something! We continue fighting. I try to throw him away, crush him (usually I'm like superman and can manage annoying dream characters very easily) with no effect. He's still after me, not letting me the time to think of anything else than defend myself.

I'm very annoyed, this is my dream and I cannot dispatch that character. Dispelling the scene isn't an option (I'm sure he will remain with me).

A big building is near us. I run through the walls of the building and rooms in straight line. I should have some peace now..... not really. He's following me through the walls.

Hopefully, there's a motorcycle on the other side of the building. I don't have the key, but some magic will do. I'm able to outrun my opponent and have a good ride."

I woke, it was still night... so plenty of time to induce another lucid dreaming.

" I enter sleep state. I can't wait to have some fun, but again, before fully entering a dream scene and seeing anything, my new friend jump on me again. We wrestle this time in my house. (I lost lucidity at the end)"

I woke. I coudnt believe what was happening. That annoying dream character was wasting a good LD night. I tried to enter sleep state again:

" I enter sleep state. Guess what... here's my new friend already on my back. I'm tired, really tired. That time I have no intention of wrestling him. I grab his arm and shake hands without aggressiveness (he left and I was able to have a normal dream)".

Jocelyn

Hi,

Almost each time I become lucid and try to talk to dream characters, they (kind of) "stop playing their role" (like actors) and come toward me in a menacing (nasty smiling) way...

I keep telling them to stay where they are otherwise I'll leave, but they just continue...

A few times, at the begining, I decided to stay to see what they wanted to do. Some try to scare me, but usualy it doesn't work, so they leave me alone. But other times they do some bothering things: mainly VERY VERY STRONG kind of tickles (very unpleasant), or they (girls) just aim at my sex and etc... I wake up.

So I keep switching from one dream to another.

Sometimes, I don't have enough time to switch and they grab me. At that moment it is quite difficult to leave, since my mind keeps focusing on the grab.

Does anybody have a trick to get rid of them? Again, staying relax just work for some of them... For the others, I have to fight or leave.

Nicolas.

Dear Nicolas, I suggest you try to explore in a vertical direction. Try to leave the ground by pushing off and flying upwards into the clouds and beyond.

I have found that the higher I go, the more beautiful the surprise.

As humans we have created a habit of living and perceiving horizontally, not realizing that in the dream state we are in a vehicle that has the possibilty of vertical flight and exploration.

We also tend to assume the habit or belief that there is nothing but sky or stars above us, thus we do not actively explore in a vertical direction. We unconsciously hold on to this horizontal habit that we have ingrained so deeply into our physical consciousness through our normal daily lives..

An easy escape from your bothersome "friends" is to fly up and out of trouble...you will find that it is VERY rewarding to leave your troubles behind : ) There is much more "above" us than we anticipate...fly up and see for yourself!

Good luck and let me know of your wonderful discoveries above! Sincerely

Jeff

Dear Jeff, Nicolas & Fellow Oneironauts,

True enough that in a lucid dream we are free to flee from trials and troubles, but then again, what better opportunity to address our monsters and demon twins? Facing our fears in the lucid dream arena, where we know no harm can come to us, is certainly a more integrative approach -- and, in the long run, can better serve as practice for similar encounters in the waking world. Once we're able to make the shift from fear to curiosity, many doors to creative response can open.

Perhaps a combination of techniques would be interesting -- as in extending an invitation to "bothersome" characters to join hands with us in vertical flight. On the ride up, there might even be time to ask a few important questions.

Flight or fight? I'd choose Light! Keelin

Dear Nicolas,

I've had similar experiences. I recall a dream from several years ago where I began to overcome this sort of thing. In the dream I became lucid and began conversing with some people at a bar. I started telling them that this was only a dream and that they weren't real. They seemed very confused about this, but they did nothing to harm me. At that point, however, I began to hear some ferocious dog barking coming from a very dark corner of the room (ferocious dogs have been a recurring nightmare since childhood). I figured that, since this was a just a dream, there was no way the dogs could hurt me (but I was still quite scared). Anyway, I decided to walk directly into the dark corner, right into the dogs. At this point I woke up, but at least I confronted the problem. From that point on, I decided that I wasn't going to let my dreams (me) get away with this kind of stuff any longer. This type of thing kept on happening over and over again: become lucid, become disrespectful toward my dream characters, some sort of recurring nightmare thing starts to happen, I confront it, I wake up.

This happened regularly until one night when I received a "sign" in a lucid dream that these dream characters might not be such "dumb" non-beings after all (I won't go into the details now, it's quite a long story). From then on, I began showing great respect for my dream characters (after all... they are me!). I'd go to bed at night "asking myself" a question about a problem I might be having in hopes that my subconscious would answer my question in the form of a lucid dream. Upon "awakening" in my dream, I'd ask my dream characters the question... almost demanding that they answer me, and they do! (in great detail)

The bottom line here (for me) is that if I am mean to them, they are mean to me; if I'm nice to them, they're nice to me. Perhaps the next time your dream characters "stop playing their roles... and come toward you in a menacing (nasty smiling) way," you could have a pre-planned question to ask them, and insist on getting an answer. As the Platinum Rule goes: "Do unto yourself as you would have yourself do unto you?"

dv

Hi everybody,

and thanks for your comments. I agree that fleeing or fighting is not the answer, but I already tried to be "nice" (maybe too indifferent... but at least not bad). Maybe a bit of lack of respect.

Maybe that: In real life, I just ignore (don't listen to) the thoughts of the "mad/nasty/selfish monkey" in my head which keeps talking... but in dreaming, has the thoughts arise, it's too late...

If I'm right, that means that I'll have to make him shut up! And I'm just so used to let him talk to itself... It's going to take a long time until I can quiet my mind!

Or maybe I'm just too lazy... and take the "mad monkey" as an excuse...

Thanks, Nicolas.

Hello Everybody,

I'm not sure that this counts as a nightmare, but I'm at a loss as to where to post it.

This is very weird, and I'm hoping some one out there can help me with what has become a serious problem with my lucid dreaming experiences. I've been lucid dreaming on a regular basis for 10+ years now, and I've never had a problem until fairly recently. The problem is that in more and more lucid dreams I start to feel a deep, maybe sharp, pain in my chest, or at least I think I do. I believe this all started (but I'm not sure) when I decided to never again allow "scary" dream characters to intimidate me (at least in my lucid dreams). Fighting them wasn't a problem, but when I stopped fighting them, and started letting them try to hurt me (because, of course, they can't), they seemed to become very frustrated with my lack of fear. In one recent dream, a huge and horribly scary looking monster was ordered to attack me by what seemed to be his superiors. I fought for a while, but soon just stopped and let him try to hurt me. He started doing all kinds of horrible things to me, but I just let him. I told all of them (the monster and the other dream characters in the room) that there's no way they can hurt me. (Actually, I did feel some strange uncomfortable or tickling sensation when the monster was jabbing me, but I didn't act like it was hurting me.)

Now these chest pains are occurring in lots of lucid dreams, mainly ones where I'm attempting to get information from dream characters (problem solving) which is in my opinion the coolest thing about lucid dreaming. This also seems to happen when I start doing experiments. I don't recall it ever happening when I'm just in a "goof around mood."

This pain feels like real chest pain, and gets more and more intense until I force myself to wake up (out of fear that it may be a real physical problem). It's as if my unconscious mind can no longer scare me with evil monsters, so it's resorted to real physical pain.

I was so worried about this, that I actually went to the doctor complaining of "waking up with chest pains" (like... what else was I supposed to tell him!). They did all the big tests including a stress (treadmill) test. The results were that my cardio system is in "great shape."

SO... what gives? Has anybody heard of such a thing? This is really cramping my style here. I used to be able to go on and on while lucid dreaming, but now they're mostly short ones (just until the pain starts up). Could this be real physical pain cause by my unconscious mind, or is my mind just playing tricks on me?

I appreciate any help anyone has to offer.

Thanks! dv

Hi Don,

When the chest pain occurs, try to completely relax and let go of the tension in your dream body, especially in the chest area, along with some deep breathing. I have remedied occasional tension in lucid dreams this way. I would like to hear what you experience.

Nathen

This is a "piss me off" lucid dream. I have the flu and was awake for three hours last night between 3 and 6. When I finally went to sleep I had the following. I was walking down some narrow streets with my bag of clothes and two-thousand dollars. I saw a friends daughter and stopped to say hello. She took me inside to a "store" with multi-levels full of little knick-knacks. We went up stairs to a big room with lounging chairs and soft beds. We were talking away and she ask me for twenty dollars. I was taken aback when I realized I was being hustled. I thought about it and decided I best give it to her and get the hell outta there. Some guys stopped me and said I better pony up the rest. I gave them $100 and left. Then I was somehow in another part of the store where a bunch of young males were. One of them gave me a half a dog bisquit. I realized there was another hustle going on so I tried to leave. Lo and behold my bag was missing. When I squaked about it the "boss" and his thugs told me it was missing but gave me $100. They told me that was all that was left and said I owed them for something. They were pushing me around so I ran. I was able to jump down three flights of back stairs and hide behind some cheap glass figurines. I scared myself awake on that one. The thing that pissed me off was that everytime I tried to go back to sleep I was back in that freakin SHOP! The reason I was pissed off about that is because I have been trying to lucid dream for years and now I couldn't get out of one. I am sure my fever had something to do with my assidious lucidity ($10 phrase). Thanks for reading this..........David

David,

If you were lucid... what was the problem? Why would you want to get out of it? I've had similar experiences where I almost wish I wasn't lucid so I could just dream normally. I've found that in these cases it's best (for me) to just "sit down" and, as S.L. says, "surrender." Just sit back and watch it unfold, realizing that there is no reason to worry about anything. The outcome, for me, is usually much less stressful.

On the other hand, a fever can really put a damper on things!

Hope you feel better, dv

This is an excerpt from lucidity email. N:

Early this morning, shortly after my husband kissed me goodbye on his way to work, I had, what I am guessing from the information that I have read on the net,a lucid dream. It was very frightening. I felt very cold and then it felt as if someone was holding me down and I was so scared that I couldn't scream or move. I was praying frantically because it was so dark and I thought someone was actually in my room holding me down. I finally got up enough courage to run out of my room or maybe I finally just woke up. I went into the living room and watched television. After about 2 hours I couldn't keep my eyes open and drifted off to sleep again and the same thing happened. I felt as if someone or thing was holding my head down. Both times after awakening I felt cold chills as if my hair was standing strait up. I am wondering if this was actually a lucid dream or was there a ghost in my room or what is the deal. This was very frightening and the ony other time that I have ever experienced anything like this was as a teenager. I was taking an afternoon nap and it felt like someone was pulling my arm back. I had been sleeping on my arm while it was bent backwards so I think that I was not fully awake and all the blood was rushing back into my arm and it made it feel like someone was pulling it. Please tell some sort of explanation for my dream early this morning. I am almost scared to go back to sleep tonight. Sincerely, J

P.S. The reason that I wonder if it was a ghost is the fact that I live in New Mexico and there are tons of things that are spiritual around here.

Hi J,

An experience like that can be frightening, but not always.

The definition for a lucid dream is a dream in which you are explicitly aware during a dream that you are dreaming. From the above account of your dream I would judge that you were not lucid dreaming since you did not mention that you knew you were dreaming during the time you were having your nightmare. Instead, I would call what you had a very vivid nightmare. However, if you had become aware that you were dreaming, you could have changed your nightmare into a wonderful experience.

I guess what you were experiencing was sleep paralysis which your mind interpreted as someone holding you down. Every night, our bodies become paralyzed during dreaming, but normally we are not conscious of it. But, sometimes we do become conscious. It may prove a frightening experience if one is not familiar with this phenomenon and its origin.

I suggest that next time you have a nightmare of the above kind, determine that you will realize you are dreaming. Once you know that you are dreaming, you are then free to realize that you cannot physically be hurt, because what you are experiencing is not of the waking world, but a dream. Instead of being afraid, you can try something fun like dream flying. You can do it Superman style, or whatever style you might prefer. In any case, I'm sure you will find this to be a thrilling experience, with the side benefit of banishing your nightmare and turning it into a good experience.

Good luck, Nathen

I had a really frightening lucid nightmare about 10 years ago, when I was 13. I was walking around the town I lived in, when all of a sudden this huge black "hole in the world" that was vaguely shaped like a dog appeared. It started running towards me and I got scared and then realized "Oh, this is just a dream" and willed the black thing to go away. It didn't.

I decided to teleport away. Within 5 seconds, the dog thing was back, running towards me making this horrible screeching noise. I decided I had had enough of this and woke up.

I sat up in my bed and sighed. Suddenly, the dog thing crashed through my bedroom window. Apparently, that was a false awakening. I woke up again. OK, this time, it felt like I was in the real world. I got up and walked into the bathroom and turned on the light. The dog was there in the mirror. I thought to myself, "This is really scary" and tried waking up several more times in rapid succession, shouting really loudly, trying to get back in contact with my physical body. I couldn't do it. Every time was a false awakening, and every time, the dog reappeared and started chasing me.

I decided I needed to find help. I flew out through a wall and sped through the town, taking sharp turns around corners while the dog chased me. I found one of my dream guides, who appeared to me in the form of a priest I knew from back when I went to church with my parents.

I asked him, "What the hell is going on?" He told me, "That thing that's chasing you... it's not just a dream. It's a blood clot in your brain, and if that thing actually catches up with you, you're going to have a stroke in your sleep, and you'll probably die." "So, what do i do?" i asked. He gave me a really terrified look, and shouted "RUN!" and turned into the black dog. I flew away as fast as I could, the dog chasing me around.

It went on for what seemed like hours, me continually trying to wake up, teleporting myself to other dream worlds, flying through mirrors and walls, but always the dog was chasing me. Finally I came up with a plan: maybe if i kill myself first, the dog won't be able to reach me. I teleported to a cliff and decided I couldn't fly anymore. The dog appeared a few hundred feet away and started running towards me. I took a deep breath and jumped off the cliff. I could hear the dog running and diving off the cliff after me. The ground rushed up to meet me and BAM!

I was awake, definitely in the real world. But I was blind. Everything was completely pitch black. I started screaming, thinking I had actually had a stroke and I was now completely blind. My parents ran into my room with a flashlight. Turns out, all the power had just gone out in the town and that's why everything was black. But I think I nearly had a heart attack thinking that I had had a stroke...

AAAaarrrghh!!!!

Tom:

There's a real argument for occasionally questioning the advice of a dream guide!

And talk about perfect timing on the power failure!

Thanks for sharing!

Peter

AnOne nightmare I had... I was aware of many dead people lying all over this big room like a funeral parler..But one person lying there was not quite dead! I also saw several priests walking around! In the dream I had the creepyist feeling that I might be lying there! I began to get afraid for all I could see feel or sense was telling me I might be one of them.. Then a VERY COMANDING LOUD VOICE SAID...[DEATH BE GONE!! It was like god him self interviened and the man did not die! I instantly woke up and personaly I feel that comanding voice may have been mine? Posably An atempt to control a nightmare dream situation??

I think the worst kind of nightmare is one where you find real evedence of threat.. I was asleep one night it was about 4 in the morning I was in a dream where I was driving through the country side and I spoted an old farm house with a for rent sighn on it. I stoped my car did a u turn and went to the farm house it was surounded on 3 sides with a 12ft high corn field. At first I saw no one around the house then the land lady apeared behind me and told me I could look all I wanted and she returned to her house.. So I went inside it to look around.. I saw it needed some work and strangely the kitchen sink was on a cement pad outside the house! I started getting a strange feeling that I was being watched considering the house was empty.. The house was a little creepy inside! I could tell this because of my ghost hunting experiance..I continued to look around and I saw a ball of light [ORB] fly by me and disapear into the wall and reapear in the back room..Then the walls started to vibrate in the house and I started to feel impending danger or evil near by! More balls of light started to apear flying everywhere some merging together in mid air and seperating in other rooms! Then I sudenly WOKE UP in my bed and as I lay there for a couple of minutes I thought I heard somthing outside my window I took a quick look through the courtains that were close to my head and saw nothing! But then looked again and as I was closing the curtain I heard and saw somthing move past the window very FAST! Now I know why the old farm house walls [vibrated] in my dream!!!And I got the impending feeling of somthing evil near by in the farm house and the feeling of being watched!I think a real intruder was trying my bedroom window and my dream incorperated the sound of my window shaking and in the dream the walls in the farm house were rattling and I felt alarmed! I think that was a good example of how the state of sleep unconciousness is never fully asleep. After that experiance I have awoke at 3 or 4 in the morning many times over the next few months and thought I heard somthing move past my window this elusive night creeper was becoming more and more real!! as time went on I slowly lost my fear of this dark being who managed to sneek into my dreams and torment me for weeks afterwords.. BUT NOW I ask myself am sure I woke up from that dream when I looked through the curtains!!!Or was that a FALSE AWAKINING!!!!PLEASENT DREAMS TO ALL! tom

Hi. I'm 12 right now. I have very similar problems. Everytime I have a sream(not lucid) I get killed. Its not scary. I've had them since four, so I'm used to it and they're not scary. But they are uncomfortable and painful. So I developed a method. Everytime I saw a monster, I would scream in my mind,"I'M DREAMING!!!" and jolt wide awake. Also, if anybody could help me become more lucid, please e-mail me at p_borya@hotmail.com Thanks.

How about the other end of the spectrum? Sometimes I absolutely RELISH the terror and adrenalin and vividness of nightmares! Nothing makes me feel more ALIVE than having a really scary or terrifying nightmare, and then BAM I'm awake. I don't know if it's the actual experience, the relief upon awakening, or just the reminder that there's so much more to reality than what we "usually" experience... Keith