Hello All,

I had an interesting lucidity cue this morning - like I was "given" a lucid dream. Walking along I realised I had just dialed someone on my phone. I looked at the display and the name was Jack. Just as someone answered I thought "I don't know anyone called Jack". I was just about to hang up when I thought I recognised the voice, my girlfriend. I decided to listen to what she was saying and it was "Maybe you're dreaming ?" with a tone implying I was. I looked around and sure enough I was. I said my thanks and went for a fly. Before the phone call I had no idea I was dreaming.

So much easier to be told than to have to figure it out yourself !

Happy Dreams,

Rob

Owen,

Very interesting. All your fuzzy-void breakout attempts seem to be tactile based, whereas it has never occurred to me to verify or evoke LD by using this sense. My focus is always visual. I always try to 'see' my way out of the void into an LD, whereas you instinctively use your touch. Hmmm.

I'm a designer/writer. What do you do for a living?

With warmest good wishes,

Alan T.

Rob,

That was great with your girlfriend calling you to trigger your lucidity. Sounds like a go relationship.

I'm envious because the last (non-LD) dream I had was about me being a Chinese peasant trying to herd a flock of sheep across the Mongolian steppes to a particular destination, but I was repeatedly turned back by the 'authorities' . Then outside political pressure was exerted to allow me to complete my journey, which I never enjoyed because I woke up.

I tell you, normal dreamin' sucks s.

Alan T.

Dear Alan,

I'm a scientist. I used to use my hands a lot at work when I was younger, but now seem to be stuck behind a desk. I would not classify myself as a particularly "tactile" person.

I see my experience in a different way. I was simply spinning hoping that a dream scene would appear (I have had no success saying "the next scene will be a dream scene") when it occurred to me to reach down and touch the ground, and my brain created it for me. Then I found I had clothes on and so it went.

If, when a dream fades, sight goes first there is every reason to assume that touch will remain during the spin. If it does, then it might be useful to exert this sense since the hands/fingers (together with the mouth) have the greatest number of cells in the motor cortex of the brain devoted to moving them - hence the value of rubbing? Also, in the dark (though I have not tried this yet) one can use ones mouth/tongue, as well as hands, to explore the environment with impunity.

In my opinion, crawling around in the dark on hands and knees is preferable to rubbing while spinning......could be more exciting than a dream with vision, who knows what one might bump into!! So perhaps it's possible to have lots of fun while waiting for the dream scene to appear.....and the fun increases the likelihood of it appearing.

Next time I'm in the dark I'm going to see if I can find the piano I've failed to locate so far in my sighted lucid dreams.

Someone posted (Nathen?) that although light switches do not work (and this is my experience on the two occasions I have tested) what does work are those dimmer switches that gradually gradually turn up the light. So I'm going to look for one of those too and see if I can create light that way.

Best wishes,

Owen

"Flying Performance in Vast Vertical Space" 8:40 a.m., Fri, Apr. 6, 2001

I'm in a narrow room just off a city street [I think that's where I was living in the dream]. My phone rings, it is a woman calling, asking about a co-worker - when her new book will come out, how she can get a copy. I help her as best I can, though I hadn't heard that Jane's new book was out yet, and take her number so I can call her back when I have more info. As I leave the room, emerging onto the street I think, "How did she know to call me there? That's totally bizarre!" I don't actually think, "Is this a dream?" but I start casually double-checking text as I walk up the street. In RL I've been doing that a lot when I walk around [though unfortunately not very rigorously], so it may have just been that habit. The text changes but I think I've mis-read it, or have some other explanation; this happens three times. The third time I see a large oval chrome sign that says "PHOENIX," and when I look back again it says "FLAME." I think I've just mis-read it. As I keep walking along the street, though, I now start getting a creepy or eerie feeling and think, "Wait a minute, could this be a dream?" I have a strong suspicion that it is, and I want to jump up in the air but I'm afraid I might not be dreaming and don't want to embarass myself on this crowded street - especially not in front of an attractive woman a short distance away. Then - suddenly, without transition as far as I recall - I'm floating in a very high vertical column lined with rows of people who are watching me fly. At this point my lucidity is fairly high, though the visual, kinesthetic and proprioceptive sensations range from moderate to low in quality - often I feel as if I'm imagining them in an almost intellectual way. I fly in complex patterns, trying a)not to feel self-conscious because of the "people" watching; b)not to let a fear of falling kick in, which starts to happen a few times; and c)to focus on the visuals and sensations, trying to make them more real. Sometimes I fly closely around wooden columns that are near the top of this space. At some point I wake up in bed and right away or after a short time feel an enormous pain, which frightens me. Then I think I must still be dreaming and try to relax into it. It starts to feel better. I realize that this is actually a friend of one of my roommates - he and his wife are staying here temporarily, and he has crept into my room to practice foot-massage on me. Lucidity has been lost completely now. In RL I live alone, and my apartment is completely different than it was in the dream. I go through some other non-lucid dreaming, including starting to write down my lucid dream. By the time my alarm really wakes me up I have almost forgotten the lucid but manage to retrieve it by lying back in the same position I woke in and relaxing my focus. A note on day-residue: there is a bus strike here and yesterday I did three hours of brisk walking in addition to going to my tai chi class - my muscles are SORE! Last night I was talking to a friend on the Net who said she'd give me a foot massage if she was here; so that part of the dream is probably wish-fulfillment.

"Experimental Sex in Dreamland" 7a.m., Fri, March 8, 2001

I'm with a group of people inside somewhere - looks like a living room, but somehow I feel like I'm in a more public space. There is a woman there who seems crazy and aggressive, threatening. She fascinates me, but I'm afraid of her. Somehow I realize I'm dreaming [that part is vague for me - I believe I had a thought like "This has happened before. But this time I know I'm dreaming, I can do it all differently." However, I don't think I'd had that exact dream before, unless the dream sequence doubled in this dream up to that point.] I decide to offer the crazy woman a hug instead of avoiding her. She accepts and we have a warm hug. I start to feel attracted to her then and we start making out. At this point we're alone. Our interaction is warm and friendly; I trust her. She does something novel and I find it intensely pleasurable. In fact, it feels far too intense and several times I tell her to stop for a minute, then let her continue. Then I leave her for a few minutes - I think I want to get my bearings - and wander the streets. It looks like Gastown at night. I think about relating this dream to Enana and telling her "It felt so pleasurable it practically blew my head off and spattered my brains against the wall!" Then I think: hey, in a dream that could literally happen, that would be very funny.] It's now snowing, but the flakes look like huge hailstones; however, they behave like insubstantial fluffs of snow. I go see my friend Viv, she's about to get into her truck - a much bigger, newer vehicle than RL - she doesn't offer me a lift because she already has several other people in the truck. Lucidity has slipped by that point; I feel a bit insulted. Around that time, maybe a bit earlier before it starts snowing, I'm marvelling at how stable and long lasting the dream is; it feels like it could go on indefinately if I concentrate on it. After Viv leaves, I can't find the woman I was with. I think I decide to go home, thinking it could be a long journey by bus; but then realizing in a dream it needn't take long. Then I'm in my apartment - transition forgotten or perhaps there was none - and see that it is 1:30. Lucidity basically gone at this point. I decide to go somewhere, a store or something. On my way out of my apartment I take a bunch of coins out of my pocket. They look bizarre and I decide they must be new. They have no text on them, and no indication of denomination. One looks like a rectangle with little squares in a pattern on the face. The coins remind me of stamps I saw recently, but in RL I hadn't seen any such stamps. [I don't recall having the "Wow, I'm dreaming!" sort of feeling, so this may be a low-level or ambiguous lucid. I seemed to pragmatically acknowledge that I was dreaming, and act accordingly; however, I did not think of any things I might like to try - I was dealing with the material as presented. For a few moments I didn't recall the dream after I awoke - the alarm banished my recall - but then did remember it using the technique of lying quietly in the same position as when I awoke, and doing associations.]

An interesting dream occurred the other night... I suddenly awoke in the middle of the night and was wondering what time it was. As I looked for the clock, I seemed to have a problem reading it. I leaned forward in the bed attempting to focus my eyes on the clock and suddenly noticed that the reason I couldn't determine the time was due to the fact that I was reading the brand name of the timepiece! The style of the clock is one of those old "flipping white number" clocks that "page" through time like a flip chart. As I focus on the numbers, I see that they are flipping like crazy! Suddenly I realize that I'm dreaming. (I was wearing my NovaDreamer and I can't help but thinking that the rapidly flipping numbers were actually the cues from the ND!) At the moment of lucidity I realized that this was not my bedroom at all. It's amazing how we are so complacent and "ride the wave" when we are non-lucid. Had I not become lucid, I would have only recognized the unfamiliar scene upon awakening. I quickly arose from the now unfamiliar bed and searched for an exit. I wanted to go outside and fly. I found a door and stood in awe studying the extreme detail of the wood grain patterns on it. When I opened the door, I found that it led into a hallway. I suddenly thought that I might awaken before I got outside so I decided to attempt to fly down the hall! The sensation of flight in this dream was more like falling forward onto a "giant invisible marshmallow" rather than flight. I curved upwards at the end of the hall and landed back on my feet. I turned to open the door at this end of the hall and found that it opened into a garage filled with boxes and clutter. At the end of the garage stood a co-worker. I called her name and she started to walk towards me. Suddenly I awoke. Short LD but nonetheless an interesting one! Darren

Darren,

Short LDs? I've never had one that I did not wish to continue longer. I'm determined to remember the techniques of hand-rubbing, staring at the floor, and spinning on the spot that seem to be the key to LD longevity. Tonight I will remember! s

My last LD happened after I saw a motorbike rider and pillion passenger drive off the edge of a bridge. I sprang up from the sidewalk cafe where I was sitting and rushed over to see what had happened to them, expecting to see the splash in the river below. Instead I saw them SPINNING AROUND on the surface (missed the hint!) and then the bike unfolded into an enormous floating bed.

"That's odd," I said (in best Keelin style), "better do a reality check".

I looked at my watch and saw weird graffitti all over its face. It then dawned on me that I was LDing, so I rushed off thinking what I could do. I remembered that someone in waking life had mentioned that they played guitar better in dreams, and at that moment I found myself walking past a cafe with a live band playing inside. I thrust through the crowd towards them wondering if I could possibly snatch a 1945 Gibson Hummingbird (reputedly the finest accoustic ever made) off one of the musicians - then I woke up. Cruel.

Alan T.

Alan, great LD! I'll have to remember to "bring along" my '76 100 W Marshall Super Lead Next time!

I really enjoyed your comment concerning the watch face. During a reality check I once was looking at a toothpaste tube and the words were replaced with paisley patterns. ...which reminds me, Fender once produced a Statocaster in the 60's that had a paisley body... Ah, perchance to dream of guitars! Have a great weekend!

Darren

Aloha everybody;

I had a short lucid dream the other day when I was lying on my bed taking a short nap in the afternoon.

The day before my dream a girlfriend of mine was over and she was sewing a ripped seam in a dress, using a needle and thread that I gave to her to use, which after she was done using it I took it off the bed and put it away in my sewing box.

Anyways, I dreamed that I felt a needle poking through the comforter of my bed. I wasn't using a pillow at the time. But I told myself that I had put the needle and thread away after my girlfriend was finished using it the prevous day. Again, I felt the needle so I started to grab it with my teeth to try and pull it through the comforter on my bed, I could even feel the thread on my tongue. I kept telling my self that there shouldn't be any needles in my bed, but what I was feeling was totally real! Then I forced my eyes open from my dream reached up to my mouth and there was nothing there, no needle no thread???? I went back to nap land.

Mahalo & Aloha

ox

Aurora

This is my first post here... Although I've had lucid dreams in the past, they have been few and far between, and I've never been able to maintain lucidity for more than a few brief moments. I found this site after having what was (for me, anyway) a particularly intense dream several nights ago, which compelled me to do some research on the subject. After reading a few articles, and many of the posts here, I was interested to find that some of my instincts during my latest LD were right on. (I'm also excited to try out some of the "tips" I've learned here!) I've noticed that almost none of the posts here are of an "adult" nature; I hope I'm not out of line for posting too many details, but a prior attempt to accurately portray my dream without those details kinda fizzled.

I was aboard a bus with two friends of mine, one of whom was driving. The bus was driving through a ruined city... reminiscent of WWII footage of destroyed city blocks in German cities. Settings like this are common in my dreams; I believe now that my lucidity might have come from recognizing this.

Immediately upon realizing that I was dreaming, I decide to waste no time, since in the past my lucidity has never lasted long. When the bus stops, I get off and separate from my two friends. I think to myself as we part that I should say "good-bye" to them, but decide to just ignore them and go on my way after remembering that these were only dreamed representations of my friends, and that my actions in the dream wouldn't affect my real-life relationships with them.

I walk down the street and around the corner, while deciding what I want to do. There are about a dozen people milling around the streets and sidewalks (all of whom, by the way, act as if the ruined city they inhabit is perfectly natural... as do I). There are several women around my age among the people down the block a ways, and I decide that a sexual encounter is what I would like... but the girls I see are all too thin for my taste.

I then focus on a large pile of rubble nearer to me. On top of the rubble is a fat young woman sitting atop a washing machine. The machine is not running... she is sitting cross-legged, facing toward the rear of the machine. I quickly approach her, and wrap my arms around her... hugging her from behind. I think to myself how remarkable it is that, even though she's a figment of my imagination, she feels entirely real... and I press myself tighter against her back. I also take note that I don't remember having seen her before (in real life), and wonder whether I made her up entirely, or if she is based on someone I have seen before but fail to remember.

The girl turns around to face me with a big smile on her face... it would appear that she has been expecting me. She grabs my arm and leads me away to her nearby apartment. During the walk to her apartment my lucidity is fading. In retrospect, and after reading some articles on this site, I realize that it was a mistake to think that I needed to find privacy for my encounter. I also wonder whether or not giving over control to the girl (she grabbed my arm and led me away) affected my lucidity. Along with my fading lucidity during this portion of my dream, I also find it difficult to remember much more than brief flashes of the walk, the arrival at her apartment, or the beginning of our sexual act.

I suddenly snap back to lucidity when I realize that she has changed into a less attractive and much thinner girl. I think to myself that "this is my dream... I can change her if I want", and "morph" her back into the fat girl that I find more appealing. I think to myself, though, that I'm disappointed at my lack of ability to control the situation entirely... for while I was able to morph her into a fatter girl, I still found the girl to be less attractive than would normally appeal to me. Even so, I continue the act of sex. My next realization is that, although she is still there, I can no longer feel her... this frustrates me.

Then, very suddenly, I experience a false awakening. My roommate has opened a door, and there is a bright light shining in from the room beyond. He's laughing at me, and asking why I'm sleeping in the closet... I look around and realize that I am, in fact, laying on a pile of clothing, inside a small closet. (I don't actually have a roommate anymore... the one in my dream is from years ago. Also, in retrospect, I don't recognize the place in which I "awoke". Next time, hopefully, I'll recognize these oddities and regain lucidity)

This is the last I remember of my dream.

3 LUCID DREAMS !!!!!!

Hi everyone. Thought that mention that this afternoon Sunday I had 3 Lucid Dreams in about 2 and a half hours worth of nap time. It's my first in a while - been going through a bit of a dry period, which looks as if is over !!

I also got to try some very interesting things. Here is what I experimented with :

1. First Lucid Dream - I was walking down a street and across the road was a shop window that was made of mirrored glass. I could see myself walking along the other side of the pavement in the reflection. I then knew I was dreaming - dont know how exactly - but I had the sudden rush of energy - the first thing I tried for some reason was to see if I could manipulate my appearance, and it worked. In the reflection, I made myself change into a whole black outfit with a hat which at that point I jumped up and started to fly towards the the roof of the buildings - then I awoke.

NB - this next one is the best experiment yet!

2. I awoke in a room. I think it was the room that my girlfriend and I are decorating at the moment, and I remember it had a think carpet. I was Lucid - VERY LUCID !!! I was able to even realise that I was bust taking a nap. I was extactic with excitement, but managed to contain my excitement. I then wanted to try something. I wanted to touch something and see exactly HOW real it was to feel. I got down on the floor and started to wake up. I could feel myself sleeping in the bed, but also in the dream - almost lying on the bridge between the sleep and wake state. I looked at my hands and concentrated on them and it really helped me become more stable in the dream. Then came the experiment. I touched the carpet and gave it a good delicate few strokes. It was a strange sensation. It made my fingers tingle and feel almost numb ! Almost like when your hand has gone to sleep and you touch something !! Quite vile actually. What I also noticed was that concentrating on my hands and trying hard to focus on them, made my eyes feel strange, like when you look at a repetetive pattern and the patterns make you go cross-eyed..... if you can imagine it ... hehe.

3. This one was kinda strange. I shall keep it as Censored !! hehe but it was DEFINATELY Lucid. I'm sure you can all imagine..... ;-)

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy that I finally broke the drought I was having. It has been about two months since a PROPER Lucid Dream. It may be due to the fact that I am nearly on Chapter 3 of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming book ! Well worth the read !!!

I wish you all the best dreamers. Again, for the people that want to try something to stay inside the dream, try the hand focusing. IT WORKS. And also try the touch thing, it's really strange !

Good luck all !!!!!

Warmest Regards, Daniel PS - I've been feeling a little DIZZY sick since the dream ... it was after I concentrated on my hands. Anyone had this before ?

CONGRATULATIONS

For Daniel.

Inspiring success.

Ralf

Dear Johnny

"I hope I'm not out of line for posting too many details, but a prior attempt to accurately portray my dream without those details kinda fizzled."

Maybe this are too many sexual details for most of the people here, as for me. But most of us agree, that sexuality plays an important role in our lives. What you say about dream characters is one way to look at them. But if you consider them being part of you, aspects of yourself, wouldn?t that change the way, you behave in your lucid dreams? We?re not that much into dream - interpretation here. But what is the meaning of the recurring setting WWII in your dreams? How does it relate to the way you feel? Is there something to learn for you? In your LD you seem to be on the way of so called "magical manipulation". There are different ways, to act in the dream, i.e. a more "learning" attitude, a "surrendering" attitude. One can control the dream or control oneself. All depends on what you expect your dreams, your life and yourself to be. My way is controlling myself, letting things evolve by itself, if I can, and to learn, what I can.

Keep on posting and LDing and learning

Yours Ralf

Ralf, My apologies for offending you. In regards to the meaning of the recurring settings in my dreams, I'm really at a loss. Something that I feel is probably closely related, though, is that in addition to the "destroyed city" settings, many of my dreams are also set in weird "half indoor, halfoutdoor" settings. For example... I might be in a room that is furnished normally, but only has 2 walls and no ceiling. (these rooms are also typically on a much larger scale than you would see normally) I'm not sure what any of this means for me... but in my dreams it always seems very natural.

"Distorted Face, Heavy Body" [lucid] 8:06 a.m., Tues, May 29, 2001

There is some earlier, non-lucid stuff which I forget, then I am on a bus. I'm thinking about something from eariler in the dream, and looking at a plastic card which I'm holding in my hand, with a woman's name on it - "ELLINA" I think. I glance at it again and see that it actually says "ELLIKA" or something. I'm amused that I mis-read it, then become suspicious and read it again and find it has changed once more. I'm astonished to realize that I'm dreaming and immediately find myself back in bed. Dissappointed, I decide to lie there and try to re-enter the dream. After 10 or 15 seconds I think, "Hey, what If I'm still dreaming?", so I try to get out of bed. It's extremely difficult to move, as if my body is very heavy and I have little control over it - so I know that I'm still dreaming, having had that sensation a few times before [have I really? it could be from reading a post on Lucidity Institute Forum about this; but I think I really have had that sensation in past dreams, but had forgotten until this dream]. I say "Increase lucidity now!" and "increase lucidity X 1000!" a few times, which doesn't seem to have an effect on me or the dreamscape, except that I gain more control over my body - but that could be from the effort to move. I look around a bit to see how realistic things look, and feel fairly impressed. I leave my bedroom and start wandering through the house - finding nothing unusual in the fact that I'm in the house I grew up in. I'm being a bit quiet so as not to wake my family, then realize that's silly. I go into the bathroom, noticing there are two sections to the tub; a large one with rubber animals floating in it, and a smaller one that looks like someone used it as a toilet [yuck]. I look out the bathroom window and notice a somewhat broken down path leading crookedly off into a dark field. Despite the fact that there is no such field in consensus reality, I think something like "Oh, there is that ordinary path. But it a dream it could go anywhere, so I think I'll go explore it." I look at myself in the mirror, and look completely different. My lips are really big for one thing, and it sort of seems like the central part of my face is pushed out. The distortion changes several times as I look at it, back and forth. It looks weird. I leave and as I am going through the living room on my way outside, I remember my desire to take "dream ecstacy;" however I don't want to do it "alone," so I consider "dream LSD," but that seems too powerful. Just then I wake up. Realizing I am already starting to forget the dream, I decide not to try to re-enter it, but turn on the light [which works, so I'm awake], and start writing.

Dear Adastra and fellow oneironauts!

Interesting, that your lucidity emerged in a false awakening situation, just like in my dream. I admire your experimental approach, especially the "increase lucidity x 1000" command. It seems to be very important to remember and perform tasks. Like your dream, mine seems to fade, once I run out of tasks.

I'm glad to present this one after a long dry spell concerning worked out, fully blown up LD: Before night sleep, I set my intention to recalling two dreams and to remember to recognise, I'm dreaming, the next time, I'm dreaming. 01:05 am. I put on ND Mask, do 61 Point exercise. My legs are real restless. I continue to point 61 while watching this restless legs. I reason the peripheral nerves are affected by the sudden lack of nicotin. I turn to the right and sleep. 03:00 am. I'm awake. Get up. Reassure my intentions. Drift into sleep. 04.05 am. I wake up from a lucid dream:

I'm in Badendorf, the village, where I grew up. I see a small black car driving slowly from right to left in the misty night. I hurry and get inside my car, to catch the other car up and warn him to switch the light on. Or simply to arrest him, because the driver must be drunken. Just as I take seat, the black car accelerates and is soon out of sight. I can't drive, because I've got no key. Where is it? Have I been this foolish? Not to take my key with me and lock myself out? I'm angry. I search my pockets. Ah there it is. (Maybe I woke up) I'm driving in my car, the way from work back home, do the usual right turn to climb up to a bridge way. Just when I'm in the curve, all red lights begin to blink, the hydraulic electric booster for the brake - and steering - system quits, and I've got difficulties to stay on the road. There I stand in the middle of the road and can't get the car started. That's embarrassing. I awake. But something is wrong. It's too dark. I remember the break of dawn, when I awoke earlier. I try spinning. It works! I'm dreaming! I get up. But I'm not this excited. Feels like finally accomplishing a longer planned task. OK. I wanted to fly. I jump. Seems to work. I jump one more time and hit the ceiling. My knuckles are hurting. Should I tolerate this in a lucid dream? No. I try it one more time with the same result. I stretch out and try to slowly push through the ceiling with the intention to permeate it. It doesn't work. There's a window. I could fly through the glass. But the pane stays stable. There is a door. Should I leave a lucid dreams room by simply using the door? No! Never! I turn to the window one more time. Press my hands against it. Now I slowly permeate the pane. Finally. But I get stuck in the curtain. It takes some effort to get free. I jump into a yard. It's night. A wonderful starry sky, not like the last ND, I remember. The moon is small, but full. Should I fly to the moon? I think, it's too much for this time. I will simply try to hover. I jump, but it feels, as if my feet are glued to the ground. OK. I've had enough struggle this time. I just walk down the road and look around. To my left there is a hedge. A few feet away there seems to sit something on the hedge in the darkness. I watch it for a short time and feel being stared at. But it could be a stone, too. I have a try and provoke the possible cat by hissing. Then it comes to my mind, that it is rather stupid to act hostile in a dream. It's a way to call for monsters. I'm somewhat afraid, waiting for the ogres. Something touches my legs. It is the cat. I stroke her head, somewhat released. And the next is a gigantic ... insect. OK, just kidding. It is a rather huge midge. I watch it flying up and down right in front of my face. A man stands in front of me, telling one gets lumps by its stitches. His face looks "bubonic". I think, everything gets stranger. The dreamscape is paling fast. Too fast for handrubbing or spinning. I just lie there, the ND delivers the next cue. I press the RC button, it works properly.

Since the dreamcamp, I set my ND mask for the night from a medium to a deep sleep mode. I did wear it nearly every night, doing some extra light RC/RI in waking time. I often awoke, just to find my mask somewhere, but not on my head. Tired. Then I took of the mask for one night, to get more sleep. This night, I seemed to have been woken up by an ND cue (the cars red lights), but had a false awakening and recognised it. The dream (lucid and nonlucid period) lasted ten minutes. This is what the ND - data seem to say (I had to edit the time scale, because the characters don't have the same width in forum's display):

RECORD START: 06/02/01 1:06 MODE: 1. Adjustable Sleep END: 06/02/01 7:11 DURATION: 365 minutes CUE COUNT: 5 CUES NOT DELIVERED: 0 CUE PLOT: .............................|.........|.|......|..................|..................... Hours........1...........2...........3...........4...........5...........6........... ............................................ 7...........8...........9...........10......

HELP:

DREAMS: 2 LUCID DREAMS: 1 RTLDs: 1 QLDs: 0 WILDs: 0 DREAM CUES: 2 CUE AWAKENINGS: 1 COMMENTS: Um 3.00 knallwach, aufgestanden. Keine Träume aufgeschrieben. Um 4.05 aus luzidem Traum erwacht. Beim schreiben den WA mitbekommen. 70 Minuten Delay. Nach 6.00 ein Traum mit Cue Inkorporation.

CUE DURATION: 10 CUE INTENSITY: 4 CUE RATE: 2 CUE TYPE: 2: Light only, alternating eyes WAKE-ALARM: ON WAKE-TIME: 4:30 DREAM-ALARM: OFF INITIAL DELAY: 12 SENSITIVITY: 8 CUE PERIOD START: 12:00 CUE PERIOD END: 11:59

Packet version: 1 Nova software version: 0x3036 IB software version: A4.00 W95 software version: W95 SuperNova v1.1 Nova TOD clock: 1 11 5 30 Nova delays pressed: 27

Thanks, Ralf. Experimentation is good! Actually, though, the onset of lucidity preceeded the false awakening. I became lucid and immediately found myself back in bed, but soon realized I was still dreaming. The previous time I became lucid was a low level of lucidity but the same pattern happened: suspicion that I might be dreaming, followed immediately by being back in bed; but in fact I was still dreaming. In that case I suspected I might be still dreaming because I was aware of strange energy flows.

I was on a moped traveling up a paved, winding, country road (one I am familiar with). I feel frustrated because I am not able to go as fast as I would like. I see an older lady who passes me on a bicycle. At the top of the hill, I am with a couple other women under a park shelter, and I look at my vehicle, but instead of a moped, I see a box-like cart. I say, "That's not what I came up the hill on!' The incongruity led me to realize that I was dreaming. I look at my two companions and say, "I know that this is a dream. Will you help me to stay lucid?' and they nod affirmatively. I see my daughter, which I find exciting, and tell her that this is a dream, and that I want to fly. I jump in the air and fall to the ground (very soft landing,) and tell my daughter, "Well, this may be a lucid dream, but it does not seem to be a dream in which I have a lot of control.' I decide to try to fly again, and as I am falling, I think, "At least I cannot get hurt,' but it feels like I do get scraped. While I am on the ground, one of the women that I had been with sticks a needle (an injection) in the left side of my forehead, pulls it out, and covers the area with a band-aid. I feel this as an intrusion, look up and the two women are leaving. I at least want to know what was in the needle, and ask, "That was not something that will make me lose lucidity, was it?' And she looks over her shoulder, shakes her head to say "no.' I think, "What do I most want to do now?' and decide that I want to look at myself sleeping and see my bedroom while in the dream state. I tell my daughter that in order to go somewhere, a person has to will it. I close my eyes, and will myself to be in my bedroom. I become aware of being in my body and waking up--not what I had planned.

This is the first lucid dream in a while. Earlier in the day, I listened to one of Anna Wise's tapes on controlling your beta waves, which I suspect helped precipitate the lucidity.

The injection in the head probably relates to my work environment. I work in an adolescent psychiatric ward, and I have ambivalent feelings concerning the use of injections there, as well as other issues.

Ralf,

"A man stands in front of me, telling one gets lumps by its stitches. His face looks "bubonic"."

What?.....:-)

Alan T

I found a red binder that I had been looking for for a month, sitting on a shelf in plain sight. I went to work and nothing was normal. On my way home, I witnessed a truck run a red light, smashing into another truck. I stayed to fill out a police report. On the way home from that, I saw two teenage girls making out in the back seat of a car driven, apparently, by one of their mothers. When I got home, I found my wife's car in the garage, wife's bag in the house, and wife's keys on the rack, but no wife.

That night I had my first lucid dream in two weeks. Go figure.

Lucid Dream #2

I was very disappointed in myself after this one. I don't recall what was happening in my dream to make me realize I was dreaming, but upon that realization I decided to try Adastra's trick. I spoke out loud "increase lucidity" several times in succession. I then remembered that Adastra had used "x 1000", so I said (with authority) "Increase lucidity times 1000!". The scene I was in immediately started spinning around me at a very high rate.... this only lasted for about one second before I awoke in my bed with a start. (False awakening) I won't get into details, but at this point I had one of the most intense nightmares I've had in years... which I think is why I had troubles remembering more details of the dream that came before, and how I came to recognize it as an LD.

Looking back over my last two dreams, in both cases while dreaming I felt a great sense of urgency... impatience (the 2nd dream moreso than the first). Next time, I'm going to try to remember to take a deep breath or two before proceeding.

Hi Guys,

I had an experience a couple of nights ago that I would like to share with you. It was kind of wierd and I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience or what might of caused it.

I had just woken up at 3:00 in the morning after having an extremely vivid (not lucid) dream to work on some LD exercises. After about ten minutes I started dozing back off hoping for a Lucid experience when my phone rang. I jumped up and answered it.... wrong number. I was awake at this time (I verified that the phone call had happened with my wife in the morning). My wife fell back asleep and I was laying there concentrating and focusing on my inner self trying to find my center of being (which I have never been able to find), when I felt this "orgasmic" tingling move all through my body. It was the most pleasureable feeling I have ever had. I don't know where the energy came from. It lasted for about 10 minutes before it slowly went away. I just layed there for another 15 minutes before I could finally go to sleep. The last few nights, I have just layed in bed before going to sleep, trying to get that sensation to happen again. I could feel it like it was a word that is on the tip of you tongue. It is right there but just out of reach.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience with you! Hope you enjoyed reading about it.

Jake

On Friday I tried to post a message about a dream I had that morning, but I had problems staying connected. Here is the dream in an edited form:

As the dream imagery began I knew I was dreaming. I told my wife I was a superhero and I went off flying. I was in my boxers and I had my red and blue comforter for a cape. I fly by a group of people who are flying kites in the park. As I pass by a red, white, and blue kite, I holler down "nice kite". I head out toward the desert. I witness the start of some sort of race. All the cars and trucks look like normal family cars. I try to catch up to the cars as they race off in a cloud of dust, but the winds shift and I can't fly fast enough. The police arrive on the scene and I go to fly away. Now I have police chasing me. I begin to hear Christian music and my wife is talking to me from outside the dream.

As I'm flying back home I continue to hear Christian music and my wife is still talking to me. The dream scenery fades as I go to land. I wake up (actually a false awakening). My wife has been playing Christian music and talking to me in order to change my dream content (this would explain the music and conversation with my wife in the previous dream). She said that she doesn't like it when I leave my body and she wants to make sure Christ is with me if I leave my body. I tell her that I heard all of the music just fine and thank you, but as for being out of my body... "I was just dreaming of flying and there IS a difference. We have had this conversation before." (We have had this conversation a couple times in real life) She gets upset and I wake up. This time it's for real because I check the alarm clock.

In the past I have been in lucid dreams and had sounds come through from the outside world, but they were usually from outside the dream. There have only been a handful of times when the sounds were actually part of the dream and I did not recognize it, but it happened twice last week. Both times were related to an awakening or false awakening. The first incident might have been an actual awakening in the middle of a lucid dream.

Any one else have dream sounds they swear are coming from the real world?

I've had an interesting though neither clear nor pleasurable LD about a week ago. It was the one of the kind that seem like obstacles on my way to gain lucidity in my dreams as well as in my life and ganerally to understand myslef. The kind of experiences that don't fit the idea of how things should happen according to my self-image - they feel so discomfortable I immediately tend to reject them or clasify as "unimportant" while somewhere deep inside I know the opposite is the truth. I have noticed, that during past years I have been doing the same mistake again and again - I always start to work with my dreams, record them regularily etc, and thus increase my poor dream recall and have some LDs. And then, immediatelly after one of these dreams occurs, I reject it, don't write it down and - bang! - I loose the ability to remember dreams and sooner or later loose my passion for dreams at all! So, by sharing this one I want to somehow prevent myself from making the same mistake again. I want to be sincere to myself as well as to others. And it's not so easy as it seems.

Prior to falling asleep, I drunk some alcohol with my girlfriend, not enough to make me drunk, but enough to make HER fall asleep without even taking off her clothes... So I undressed her without waking her and then went to bed, too. And here's where the dream begins:

Well, the memory of it is not much clear but I suspect the experience itself wasn't clear either, probably due to the alcohol in my body (though the dream occured at least 5 hrs after I went to bed - I woke up once during the night prior to it and recorded a non-LD and checked the clock). My memory of the dream starts with the very moment I spontaneously gain lucidity, and as my thought is sort of dull/distorted (as if I was still drunk), I grab the first female in the sight and try to have sex with her. I behave as if everything and everyone must obey my desires. Shortly, I behave as a stupid indeed. However in "real" life I always try to be sensual and gentle and I feel a strong sympathy for everyone who suffers. On the other hand, sex plays and important role in my life/thoughts, I'm just a 22y old college student you know... At this point the dream looks exactly like those I tend to reject - the one after which I feel ashamed and even sad - for I love my girlfriend and absolutely have no conscious ugre to engage in sexual activity during the precious moments of lucidity!

However, the dream continues - and what happens is exactly the opposite of what the drunken "dream-myself" expects! - the female character (whose appearance has been of no importance for me until this moment) refuses to have sex with Mr.Drunk - and appeares to be a Czech actress which I respect and like but would never ask to engage in any form of intimate contact! (she might me my mother, so to speak). She as well as the other characters standing near us express their disgust by shouting at me to stop. I loose lucidity and have no memory of what happens next.

Now, I have been thinking about this dream a lot and eventually decided to record it and even share it with you, although I feel discomfortable about it. It's because it probably shows that something in me is finally trying to force me to be sincere about my goals in LD as well as in waking reality. Because those dream-characters were part of myself, and that part has clearly expressed its disapproval of the way I tend to respond to such opportunities as lucidity. Of course there are other interseting explanations, eg. being "drunk" or distracted in the dream due to my body being in fact affected by alcohol has lead to unclear thinking and distraction of my dreaming mind and thus to loosing lucidity/magic control over the dream's content. I believe all explanations would do, but I prefer to think of this dream as a part of my inner dialectic - me telling myself to concentrante on self-control rather than trying to control others, be they physical or dreamed...

Sorry for the lenght of my "confession", be sure it's much harder to write this than to read it - expressing oneself in foreign language is extremely hard when it comes to personal stuff you know... :P

Sweet dreams Mikolas

@Alan:

"bubonic" may have been a bad choice. It derives from bubonic plague and I wanted it to say, that his face has been full of ditches.

@Mary:

Again nice experiments. But your dream characters didn't seem helpful. What do you think concerning that you didn't succeed to see your physical body?

@Mark: Congratulations. Seems a weird day may lead to lucid dreams.

@Johnny:

Seems to be important to be somewhat detached to prolong LDs.

@Jake:

I did enjoy your post. Reminds me of some night life experiences of mine. Keep on.

@Jason

I remember a nearly lucid dream, in which I was frightened and decided to wake up, because I heard loud steps. I doubted, whether they were out of dream or physical reality. I waited some seconds in the dream for the source of noise to appear, but it didn't do so. So I awoke myself, but didn't hear any sound outside.

@Mikolas "I always start to work with my dreams, record them regularly etc, and thus increase my poor dream recall and have some LDs. And then, immediately after one of these dreams occurs, I reject it, don't write it down and - bang! - I loose the ability to remember dreams and sooner or later loose my passion for dreams at all! "

This has been the case for me over years and years. And today I have this problems, too, but not this intense. I just keep on...

"I woke up once during the night prior to it and recorded a non-LD and checked the clock"

That's a very good habit regarding LD!

"but I prefer to think of this dream as a part of my inner dialectic - me telling myself to concentrate on self-control rather than trying to control others, be they physical or dreamed..."

I share this point of view regarding waking and dreaming life.

"expressing oneself in foreign language is extremely hard when it comes to personal stuff you know... :P"

Your English is excellent. I (as a German) can understand it very well. Keep us posted about your progress.

I'm glad to see the "old" and many new forum members posts. Feels good to share experiences and thoughts with you all.

Yours Ralf

Ralf

Thanks. You need not to search for my past posts, because... there are none! I have been present to this forum for a long time, but unfortunately as a reader only! Actually, when I came here for the very 1st time, I sincerly read through all the posts (I was searching the web for LD resources for my BA disertation at the time). Then, I posted one message in the "LD related books" thread (concerning the possible source of H.P.Lovecraft's works). After that I adjusted my profile to make all the posts be re-sent to my e-mail adress, but have never read them (busy with students' life ) until last month or so. The rest of the story you're already familiar with... So, don't waste your time, you'll be able to read many many posts of mine in the future!

As for my english - I know it ain't that bad (actually, I had an english girlfriend and before that I used to play computer games a lot, to name the teachers ), but I often become uncertin when it comes to expressing something really important or personal (note that I no longer date that english girl, huh). By the way, can you feel the differentce between communicating with a native english speaker and someone who, as well as you, uses the english as a communication tool with another non-native speaker? I can't describe exactly what I'm trying to say, but there's a physiological expanation at least - we use another part of the brain to speak our mother tongue and another for the foreing languages, so there's a sense of equality or something. I mean even if our knowledge of the foreing language is proficient, it's still extremely hard to use it exactly as the native speaker would - thus we, being non-english, are not influenced by some rather subtle differencies in using one word instead of another - we go directly to the meaning of it. Another thing is that I, personally, would feel sort of uncomfortable if I were a native english speaker (sorry all you "natives", don't take it personally, it's just academic! ) if I talked to, say, a German or a Czech, in english. It's because he/she has to try so hard and all the difficulty I have is with catching the real meaning of what he/she's trying to say... Anyway, these are just thoughts, I of course enjoy talking to anybody, especially native english speakers who appreciate my english, hehe.

Back to the LD subject: you mentioned my writing down a non-LD in the middle of the night being a good habit. Well, it's not always this easy as when you have to get off the bed simply because you have drunk to much in the evening and thus have a constant urge to pee!

Sweet dreams and open thoughts, Mikolas

I had a semi-lucid occurance last night. It wasn't lucid in the sense that I had all the control and "knowing" I was lucid- which is strange from a lucid dream point of view. I was with other guys and we were just flying around, and I would crash to the ground occasionally. Anyway, when it was all said and done we started conversing upon the dynamics of the state of mind. We came to a point of saying that we are creatures with internal and external, and would we know of this state with just having one. It was interesting because it did actually make sense of the dilema- we have both internal and external, so it made sense to me of the middle layer in this dream. So long, Justin

@Mikolas "(I was searching the web for LD resources for my BA disertation at the time)." Did you a dissertation concerning LD? Could you go into detail about this?

English: It is still hard. What I miss is to be able to joke and to get the jokes. I claim myself a humorous human and very like to play with language in German. And I miss the ability to go into very subtle details with a few words. It takes always half a book to get to the point.

"a constant urge to pee!"

That reminds me of...

QUOTE Hi Keith -

Keelin is right, th ND takes some getting used to. I set mine with minimum strap pressure- an important setting.

Also, try the dominick water torture method --

1. Drink a very tall glass of water at bedtime
2. Get-up when nature calls (usually 4-6hrs later),
3. walk to you know where and do you know what,
4. stay up for 15-20min (or more),
5. don the novadreamer & good luck!!!

BTW, the torture method has a coupla benefits -

1. it does not require the dream alarm or any alarm that might awaken a partner
2. it wakens you slowly so you can capture your last dream
3. it forces you to get up (eventually) and get out of bed so you can a) awaken fully & b) don the mask 2-3hrs before awakening (Max REM * LD-Time).

Let me know how it works for you if you try (dare).

-- Dominick ENDQUOTE

@Justin

Sorry, I think I didn't understand your dream - report. "Creatures with internal and external" Sounds like relating to physical and dream body OK. You and them became aware of having different bodies, different layers, different realities. And surely, if there were only one (physical)state, you couldn't experience this (dreamy) state. But what then is the "middle" layer? Seemed to "solve" the "dilemma" and prevent full lucidity. If you could have had a critical look at the discussion, you would have become "entirely" lucid. But it seems, that you didn't. And the 95% potential dream - characters did play a trick on you, didn't they? They talked with you about states of mind, they don't seem to have had.

But next time...

I think its important to take a critical look on how I am deluded by dream characters. So I'm preparing my critical state of mind.

I wish you lucid state discussions next time, your dreaming.

Yours Ralf

Just a tiny LD:

Maybe we could (in a year or two) erect the category "Movie Induced Lucid Dreams". Yesterday I saw the movie "Dark City", USA 1998, by Alex Proyas (Creator of "The Crow") A very dreamlike film. Human souls (and bodies?) are abducted by aliens and seem to live in a kind of dream. So it seems, because every "night" their memory is rebuilt, and so is the city itself. A nearly perfect illusion. Only with the protagonist there is something wrong. He wakes up (gets lucid!) during memory rebuilding. So he wakes up with no memory. And then he struggles for his memory (his lucidity) and fights the alien race. He has the ability to "tune" like the aliens, that means, he can "morph" the (dream) scene by his sheer will.

In my dream I'm in an unfamiliar city. I'm being prosecuted. I use the subway (like in the movie). Get off and enter a hall. The aliens say via loudspeakers, that they have got me and will kill me anyway. Suddenly all people vanish, like they are remote - controlled. The hall's walls are getting closer. Quickly I'm surrounded by the walls, tightly encased. I'm frightened and in the same moment, I remember, that this is like in the film yesterday. I'm not that lucid, I simply know, that it's a dream and that I have the opportunity to tune (to morph). I focus on a person standing at the far end of the floor, which I can see now. Now it is for me to join the fight and see, who is the stronger "One". I focus and concentrate, the hall gets wider again. With a great feeling of fortification I increase my willpower and ... wake up.

Note: I think, I did focus too hard. That may be the reason for the dream to dissolve. But I feel fortified in my attempt to get lucid, day or night. And the critical look: Seems to be an induced dream. I have a quite good dream control, but a rather low level of lucidity. Because I don't see any other way to encounter the situation, than brute willpower. I'm enmeshed in the dream scene (the film's plot) and don't remember my planned tasks (flying, ESP - experiment, use of prolonging techniques). I'm proud of another LD and next time I will remember my tasks. This is my second "stronger" LD this month. My goal is to get five or more.

Yours Ralf

Another note: I used the SND, set wake alarm to 3.30 went to bed 2.00. I awoke with the intention to write down dreams, but didn't succeed in getting up. My girlfriend left at 5.00. I had a brief awakening. Then I had a ND cue awakening, pressed delay. The LD took place in the later morning hours (7-8.00).

I think it is a good habit to have a dream alarm at 3.30 over some weeks, just to get the body to being used to wake up in the night. That's what I do. (With some brakes). It seems to work, because I start to wake up at this time, even when I don't wear the mask.

Ralf and all interested

My dissertation on LD is not finished yet (I don't know if I used the right term, probably "baccalaureate project" would be propper). I study humanities at Charles' University of Prague - this means that my project is supposed to be more like a psychological/philosophical essay or a sociological study rather than a hard science stuff (psychophysiological or such).

Unlike my fellow students I have been sure what would I write about since the very beginning of my time at the Uni. However, I have spent a lot of time searching for LD resources and especially thinking about the absolutely fresh ideas my work should present, those that would make the project worthwile. I thought I should come up with some new insights on LD to satisfy the professors, but then I realized that it would be hard enough even to convince them that LD was really possible! Therefore I have chosen a rather general approach - in the project I'm going to present:

• some facts (specifics of LD plus something about its history, research and of course the possibilities it offers)
• some of my ideas concerning various states of mind in general and LDs in particular, based partially on the buddhist concept of (perception of) reailty as an illusion, partially on Lucidity Intstitute's findings and finally, on my humble knowledge of psychology.
• also I would like to speculate why have lucid dreams been ingored for so long and why they still partially are (particularly here in Czech Republic, a survey on LD will be a part of the project as well) and stress that if we consider we have been ingoring such a possibility of human mind we (well, the professors I'm in fact adressing) should definitelly admit that there are more questions than definite answers in regard to human consciousness and its abilities.
• project's conclusion: the still widespread ignorance of LD should be fought agains and my project is meant to take a part in this battle. Therefore I'm going to make up a huge website providing info on LD in czech (there's none yet) as a part of the project plus I'm translating Stephen LaBerge's "Lucid Dreaming" (I must translate an english text to become a bachelor anyway) and I plan to publish it if possible (if this really happens, I'll probably translate and try to publish more books on LD).

I must say that I'm really looking forward to the moment when I'll be defending the project, in fact lucid dreaming itself, face to face with the board of examiners!

In regard to my ideas concerning LD's potential, I think that the general psychological approach to dreams should be revised at last. Let me explain why do I dare to say such a thing: Well, even if we happen to be lucid in our dreams, we still believe that besides having some fun we are here chiefly to LEARN something. This of course is right, but I think there is more to it. I think that Freud's conception of dreams as the royal road to the unconsciousness is right, but also that we don't take it seriously enough. We suppose that we're mere passengers in a bus on that road and all we can do is stare outside and LEARN from what we see. But even if we get out of the bus (become lucid) we still just sit down and LEARN by looking around. We do not act in the sense of transforming or cultivating our environment, which is in fact our mind itself (its unconscious part or just something that remains if you subtract the consciousness percieving it). You might object that the dream environment (including dream characters etc.) is not in fact the unconscious part of the mind itself but rather a model created by it or at most its representation/projection. But is it really so? Or, differently, does it matter? We all know, that what we do in the dream and what happens there has an effect on ourselves. And "ourselves" refers to the mind/soul/personality, compound of 1) the tiny point of self-consciousness and 2) the unconsciousness sorrouning it (I admit that the consciousness/uncousness separation is just a model/map, but it works). Let me be more particular to clear this. Do you think a nightmare should be considered a "symptom" of some disturbance in one's personality (unconsciousness) - thus a representation/projection of the problem - or rather this inner problem's "materialization"? Though "materialization" sounds silly for something happening in the dreamworld, what I'm trying to say is that if you do what Stephen LaBerge and others suggest - rather than surrendering to the fear, you choose facing it, embrace it and even unite with it - the problem might disappear at once. If you awake kind of refreshed and no other nightmares occur, it seems that the thing you have met in your dream was more than just a representation of something, for that "something" would then stay alive and keep frightening you with more "representations" of itself.

To this point I have said nothing new. But what happens if we confront this idea with the general psychoanalysis' approach to "healing" psychological problems? Among Freudians there is a strong belief (I dare to suppose), that the only way to heal some psychologically disturbed person, we have to:

1. find the cause of his/her problem, which most probably is something that happened long ago but still remains in the unconsciousness (to find it we use among other techniques the dream analysis - we search for "representations" of the cause of the problem)
2. we "heal" the problem by telling the person "the truth", thus make the cause of the problem conscious. As you probably know, the success-rate of psychoanalysis is the same as of any other therapy - 1/3 gets better, 1/3 gets worse, 1/3 unchanged.

What I consider important is that the original "cause" of such a mental "problem" is in my view only a first step on the person's own way to develop the "problem". Firstly, even if that "cause" was that someone else did something really bad to us, it's still our own thought or a response, just INITIATED by the event, which becomes the "first step" on our "bad" way. And secondly, all the other steps we make on this way derive from that first wrong mental response to an external event. And on our way the steps (I'm still refering to our thoughts and mental responses to events that life brings) transform and finaly lead us to become a neurotic for example. What I think is, that we can get rid of our purely mental problem not simply by making it's external "cause" conscious (you know these "I can't change myself because my father has slapped me when I was 11" types). Even if we know that the real cause of our problem is that we have developed ill habitual responses to some particular things, it might seem impossible to change ourselves. But if there is something in our dreams, "a representation" of the problem as a dream analysist would say, I suggest that facing it and changing one's attitude towards it might result in the things in waking life getting better. I suspect that what we take for a representation of a problem is in fact the problem itself, present in one of its possible forms. Or at least that if we deal it as if it was the problem itself, it would have the same effect as if it really WAS the problem itself. We might even get rid of the problem without knowing what was the primary "cause" that had initiated it. Now, is that clear?

Well, I didn't think I would become so absorbed in writihg this that it would become so long! Actually, I could simply use this text as an entire chapter in my project, I just have to translate it to czech! However, what I wanted to say is simply that I believe that the discovery of lucid dreaming should lead to a revision of dreams-considering psychological conceptions, that had been developed BEFORE lucid dreaming was know to be possible. Unfortunately, people tend to chose the reverse approach - they try to explain lucid dreaming in terms of those sort of outdated conceptions - for expample some of them think, that lucid dreaming may "distort the fragile message from our uncousciousness"! As if dreams were letters, that can be either opened or left unopened, but not replied to...!

Thanks for the patience. I would like to ask those who have read to this point that I would appreciate any links to online articles concerning the non-western traditins of lucid dreamig (Senoi, Aboriginals, Tibetans, Sufis and others if there are any). I know there are many books on this but I have neither the money nor the time to order and read these. Just sharing some of your knowlegde from the books you have would be greatly appreciated. Another of my questions is what you all think is the reason lucid dreaming have been ignored so much in the course of our history.

I would also invite any comments on the above presented ideas or on my baccalaureate project in general.

tired by typing but ready to dream, Mikolas

Mikolas:

Unless I only dreamed it, I believe there was a Czech scientist named NEVOLE who wrote about lucid dreaming during the 1950s or so. Do you know of him?

As for unequivocal references to lucid dreaming in other cultures, I have not seen anything in those "many books" you mention that I didn't already put into LUCID DREAMING. That doesn't of course mean that there aren't any, but ...

As for the question of why lucid dreaming is ignored or believed impossible, I say this is the fate of most if not all innovations. When forks were first introduced, some thought the notion a blasphemous imitation of the fingers God gave us. Many similar examples can be found in diverse areas, from women's rights to medicine. One example that combines these two areas was the great initial resistance shown the 19th Century innovation of giving women anesthesia for childbirth. Otherwise intelligent physicians (mostly male, of course!) argued that it was healthier for both mother and child to experience the pain of birth. "In sorrow shall thou bring forth" sayeth the Lord.

One sees the roots of the social resistance to innovation in primate culture, as shown in the "Hundreth Monkey" story. Those who read the original article before it was converted into a newage myth know the hundreth monkey was the alpha male. The least creative member in the entire society, but the most influential. Conversely, the innovator was an adolescent female with great creativity, but alas, little influence. Such is the way of men...

"...every man who is not a clod hath visions" --Keats

Happy Translating! Stephen

Mikolas,

"I would like to speculate why have lucid dreams been ingored for so long"

I don't know how far you want to stretch your Professors' incredulity - maybe getting them to take LD as a serious academic subject will be far enough - but I'd like to make the point that lucid dreaming has never been ignored.

I think there's a pretty good case to be made that lucid dreaming has been the source of many 'visions', 'visitations' and 'inspirations' that have played a significant role in the development of all human cultures - it's just that they called it by other names, and thought of it as messages from the gods.

Best wishes,

Alan T.

Mikolas, Stephen and Alan - I am not sure this ties in directly with what you are saying, but I find that a lot of people in todays lifetime do not want to recognise Lucid Dreaming because of the social impact. I know myself as I have been called a "FREEK" and a "WEIRDO" after trying to seriously tell people about it. I do not mind myself, but it goes to show you that 'what others do, others follow'. Today it's all about clothes, good looks, fast cars and ladies - back then it was about God and religion ?

I tend to mostly keep it to myself now. I am kinda lucky in a way. If I were living 300 years earlier, I could have burned at the stake ;-)

From England, with love: Daniel

Stephen:

I am happy that my post provoked one of your sort of rare but undoubtedly worthwile comments. I must confess that when you mentioned Otokar Nevole, it was me who was almost sure he's dreaming! Though I know of him I haven't been able to get any of his papers so far, but now I surely will try thousand times harder! How the hell do you happen to know him? I mean though one can find some mentions of his work it's sure he's been ignored and generally forgotten by czech scientific community and I have found nothing about him in any book about dreams published since the 50s.

I have read your LUCID DREAMING twice so far, thus I know that it's quite a rich source of information about the use of LD among the various non-western cultures, still I wonder if there is a site or an online paper concerning a particular LD tradition somewhere on the Web. I have found relatively a lot on tibetian dream yoga (but still not enough I believe), but I'm especially interested in the Aboriginals' possible knowledge of lucid dreaming in particular and more about the Senoi tribe as well. However, for my project your book surely is a sufficient source of LD history related information and I'm enormously grateful that you've done most of the hard work yourself. Thanks!

Regarding your comment on why LDs had been generally ignored until you scientifically prooved it, I clearly understand your view, but still feel a bit unsatisfied with it. I mean all people dream and have been dreaming every night for millions of years and before that the first hominides have been and before that it was the first mammals who have... I don't agrue that LD should have developed as a part of human or mammalian consciousnes' evolution much earlier, but that it should have become at least GENERALLY KNOWN AS A POSSIBILITY much earlier, at least when first cities and cultures have emerged.

But I suspect you are right after all. I agree with Alan that there were many lucid dreamers in the course of the history, but they haven't considered their experience dreams and thus became known as visionaries and as I believe, before the emergence of civilizations, as shamans. It seems that unfortunatelly LD is of interest only to a certain percent of population, say a certain types of personalities, the adolescent female apes as they were called in your quote. The fact that lucid dreaming is becoming more popular today refers to the growing hunger for spiritual dimension lacking in the western secularized civilization. Thus it seems that lucidity is rather a part of society's evolution that the counciousness'.

As a translator of LUCID DREAMING I must say that translating it is absolutely not that satisfying and joyful than reading it! It's partially due to my own choice. The problem is that there is no word like "lucid" in Czech. It's translated as "bright" or "clear", but though these can be used with the connection to consciousness' clarity (the connection between light and consciousness is omnipresent in western cultures and their languages) I can't use them as a substitute for "lucid", while "jasne sny" ("bright/clear dreams") sounds rather silly. I also refused to follow the few czech authors who have used the unnatural term "lucidni" which absorb the english word only to form a term of no meaning apparent at firt sight. Therefore I have chosen to translate "lucid dreams" as "conscious dreams" ("vedome sny") which seems most appropriate and easily understandable. But by making such choice I got "from smoke into smother"! How would you translate "lucidity", "pre-lucid" or the metaphorical "light of lucidity" to name a few, without using the word "lucid"? It IS possible but extremely hard - and what is more, you have to get over the loss of the wit present in these simple yet expressive idioms.

Well, enough of complaints. It's still a wonderful feeling to take a part in elucidating (another untranslatable one! ) my fellow czech dreamers with the light of lucidity by presenting your great writing to them!

Daniel:

I clearly understand your feelings, but I still believe that openess is better than caginess. When I have learned of the possibility to dream lucidly, I was so excited that I immediately started to "elucidate" others with my breathtaking discovery. At once, I was simply struck by the realization that most of them (happily not my closest friends) seemed to make little account of it and even if they believed it was possible, all my attempts to convince them it's worthwile to learn it were futile. And I have already mentioned the distrust of my professors, whom I believed to be thoughtful and open to new insights. But none of my failed attempts convinced me to lessen the effort I put into increasing the general knowledge of lucid dreaming in my country. It's because I'm richly rewarded by the confidence that what I do is meaningful. And I very much like the feeling of being a harbinger to those who don't yet know of the exciting world of inner experience open to them!

Also, as Ralf has suggested, it's useful to get those around you used to the fact that you are willing to master your dreams, by doing reality checks etc. Partially because the apparent effort you put in achieving your goal might convince them that there actually is something to lucid dreaming (or that you are an irreversible weirdo, of course) and also is makes you feel more comfortable and relaxed when performing such tasks as RCs (I definitely MUST ask my girlfriend to reming me of possible dream-signs, thanks Ralf, it's simply a GREAT idea and your post made me lough out loud!). Generally, being open about LD is a perfect way to make you feel you're doing the right thing. At least for me this works.

So don't fear, we all know you are no weirdo!

May you shine, not burn!

Mikolas the weirdest

Dear Mikolas

"but then I realised that it would be hard enough even to convince them that LD was really possible!"

Most people have had one lucid dream, they remember. And it has often been a nightmare, when they've been finally released by knowing, this was a dream, or rarely a wish fulfilling dream, when they were rather disappointed to recognise, they were dreaming. Maybe you can go into this personal experience in writing or unofficial dialogues with your professors, but I'm not that sure, if it would be clever doing it while defending your work in the presence of the whole "band". They could be somewhat too shy to confess. It is like Stephen LaBerge wrote, there is a resistance against new thoughts and concepts, but understanding and applying lucid dreaming seems to require a new paradigm in psychology and/or the humanities. It's like I've read about psi - research: Many professors non - official take the results of research earnest and worthy of further experimenting. But if they are to state something officially, they hesitate and take conservative / mainstream positions.

"also I would like to speculate why have lucid dreams been ignored for so long and why they still partially are"

Alan and Daniel are certainly right. To ignore scientific proof may be part of a greater context of censorship. I'd like to add some details: Psi - phenomena are common in human history, similar to dreams. There has been a 120 years scientific research, providing strong proof. But still, psi, or anomalous perception is ignored by mainstream scientists. This is what Dean Radin writes in "The Conscious Universe", 1997, p.227, as a summary of the chapter: "A Field Guide to Scepticism"

Quote: Summary

Most of the commonly repeated sceptical reactions to psi research are extreme views, driven by the belief that psi is impossible. The effect on mainstream academics of repeatedly seeing sceptical dismissals of psi research - in college textbooks and in prominent scientific journals - has been diminished interest in the topic. Informed opinion, however, even among sceptics, shows that virtually all the past sceptical arguments against psi have dissolved in the face of positive evidence, or they are based on incredibly distorted versions of the actual research. ... End Quote

Radin's critique of sceptic reaction is moderate, compared to Michael Schiff's (a physicist). He has been researching a case of censorship in the scientific community. He analyses the "uncommon behaviour of common scientist" in detail (pp. 81 - 188). I'd like to give a translation of his summary's last sentences (1): "The long history of dogmatism in science shows, that today's heresies may be tomorrow's truths. If you take a closer look at this history you may suspect, that a sceptical attitude towards experts opinion is appropriate - particularly, when questions of health [in this case of homeopathy] are linked to phenomena presently lying outside of the official science. For the purpose of democracy, public health and free scientific research I think, that the public, the outright usual citizens, is appealed for helping the experts and scientist to understand, what a high virtue is democratic pluralism."

My impression after reading these (and some other) books and after being in contact to mainstream human medicine during my studies are: If anyone (even a scientist) doesn't want to see something, he doesn't. Maybe he does everything (ranging from simply looking in another direction to burning books to killing the one, who points at this "something") to prevent seeing. He does everything that helps him to ignore.

One must understand, that a scientist life, as long as he makes his living by science, depends on being accepted by the greater part of scientific community. He (or she) needs his colleagues comments to develop his own studies and thoughts. He needs money to keep his experiments running. So he needs someone to give him money. These are some facts, but there are a lot more and somewhat more subtle factors. Science is a social phenomenon. That's what we have to keep in mind. The more I know about this, the more I admire the work of scientists, dealing with really new or "outsider" phenomena, like LD, psi, homeopathy, healing arts, etc.

The special case about lucid dreaming and why it is ignored. Hmmm. I think, most people don't realise, that they are sleeping (sleep - walking) in the so called waking life, so why wake up? They ignore their sleep, because it is consensus sleep / trance. And they seem to be afraid, when confronted with the evidence, that it might be possible to wake up. Part of consensus trance is the experience of the loss of consciousness every night. It is simply not thought about, because it is common, trivial. It seems, for most people, unthinkable to be conscious during this period. And many so called scientists refer to this popular thought and ignore lucid dreams, because they like to stay in trance, too. Lucid dreaming reminds of lucid being. And lucid being makes a lucid man (woman). But who wants lucid men? Great psychologists had pointed out, that there has to be repression to keep individual's bad drives under control. And that society needs suppressed individuals to function. A lucid individual learns to control itself. Learns to integrate and live with the shadow. But this way of living and of health, independent of the established health - economy, independent of social control, tending to recognise government oddities (how odd?), who needs it? No wonder, that people are afraid.

Concerning links and books: I'll keep you updated. I think, you have already done www research. I'm still browsing through the different LD - sites, trying to get an overview, what's going on, especially in Europe. Hermine (of the Netherlands) and me are planning to create or enforce an European lucid dreamers "network". Maybe we should join forces. If you are interested in the books I quoted or the links, feel free to email me, my address is in my profile. I'm interested in the links, you have found.

OK. Enough for today. Nearly...

This is a thing, I've never known before, it's called lucid living This is a place, I've never been before and I've been forgiven

Lucid living and I've been forgiven, since you've taken a place in my heart

Waiting Watching Wishing my whole life away Dreaming Thinking Ready for my happy day And some... Lucid living

Adopted from Uriah Heep "Easy living'"

(Joe McKiddin would appreciate it)

Yours Ralf

(1) Schiff, Michael, Das Gedächtnis des Wassers, 3rd edition, 1999.p.188 Original: Un case de censure dans la science. L'affair de la mémoire de l'eau, Albin Michel, Paris 1994. English translation: "The Memory of Water. Homeopathy and the Battle of Ideas in the New Science", Harper Collins Publishers, 1995

Ralf et al,

Re: Science and Psi

I've just discovered a new site inhabited by bonafide scientists interested in psi. You might be interested -

www.scientificexploration.org

Happy hunting,

Alan T.

Very interesting link. I wish I had read all these articles (not only the abstracts). There is something going on!!

Thank you Atlan

"Any one else have dream sounds they swear are coming from the real world? " Jason Bales

Just 2 weeks ago I was practicing multiplying objects and then making them disappear (only my 2nd success at this!) when I heard a loud knocking at the door. I immediately wondered if it was a dream noise or a real knocking that I was hearing in the dream. I ran downstairs and out the door where I found no one at the door. There was a young well dressed black girl lying in the front seat of a car parked outside who asked if I could help her, I replied, 'Probably, this is my dream after all' but was concerned that someone was really at my door so I snapped my fingers and woke up. Of course as soon as I did so I realized that a) Checking the dream door didn't give proof one way or the other whether someone was at my real door b) Someone at my door would almost certainly have been ringing the doorbell instead of knocking

FWIW, I had some experiences why people ignore lucidity.

Most people assume that dreams are irrelevant to reality. In addition, many have poor dream recall and so assume that they don't dream (including me at certain periods in my life). Ironically, we regularly hear about the American Dream from politicians, and hear about people who realize their dreams in biographical accounts.

It is not uncommon that towards morning, in half-sleep, one might say in a dream "I dreamt this before, let's change the ending." But I would not call that fully lucid dreaming. As others said, lucidity is on a scale, so again some people miss the full potential of the state because they already "know".

The most surprising (and sad) event happened with my neighbor, an elderly widow (the husband committed suicide many years ago) whose son died in his early 30s from a heart virus last year. She told me that she has nightmares about it regularly, and that she does Tai Chi to help her cope. So I told her about ld and that it gives a tool to conquer nightmares. After reading Stephen's book, she gave it back to me and said, I guess I care about sleep more than to learn ld. Another barrier then is that some people love to sleep too much...

Chris

"Any one else have dream sounds they swear are coming from the real world?" Jason Bales

Hi, Jason, years ago I had this wonderful dream, I can still remember what a joy it was. I was right in the midst of a group of five-foot tall penguins. They were dancing and singing to the music of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocous," the song from "Mary Poppins." The colors of the dream were beautiful and vivid, and the words and music were a perfect rendition of the song. The penguins' choreography was brilliant. They finished the dance just as I woke and realized that the song was playing on my radio alarm clock.

Joan, Yeah, that's usually how it works with me. External sounds just become incorporated into the dream. Once I had a roommate who played loud music whenever he felt like it. He was playing a Tom Petty song with lyrics like "Chasing down a dream..." and I became lucid because I knew the music I was hearing in my dream was coming from below my bedroom. Lately though I have heard my wife talking to me from outside of the dream world. At least that is the way it seems while I am still dreaming. Then I'll wake up and she will be asleep or not even there (I sometimes nap an hour or two after she leaves).

Jay, What kind of objects were you multiplying? Once when trying to isolate an object as a part of a larger experiment, the one object, a ball of radiance, began multiplying and each multiple danced around my field of vision. It was as if the dream was giving me the exact opposite of what I was attempting. It was pretty hilarious.

If you liked making things disappear, you may be interested in what I was doing. If you do the experiment correctly you will: 1) Make everything in the dream disappear 2) Remain asleep 3) Maintain the awareness that you are sleeping

Here's what you do... While lucid choose and object. The object should be as self-contained as possible. Simple objects are better than complex objects. Symmetrical objects are best.

Once this object is chosen you should center it in your field of vision. Do not make the object too large and definitely do not make it too small. If you make the object too small you will wake up. If you make the object too large then other dream imagery tends to remain.

Slowly scan the object with your eyes in a circular pattern. Do this and just observe the object. Do not think about the object. Just keep scanning it. Eventually the only thing in this dream will be the one object. Now shift your awareness to everything that is not the object. What was done with thoughts and sensation while falling asleep has now been done with thoughts and perception. Move your eyes again and wait--- you'll start dreaming again.

A lot of hard work went into this process. I tried houses, trees, balls of light, etc. You should try it a couple times.

"Jay, What kind of objects were you multiplying?" Jason

I became lucid while having a conversation with a friend (who was trying to convince me he was going to do something I know he'd never do in real life) and just looked around for something small and uncomplicated to practice on. I saw a small blue glass cup (upside down) and used that. The duplicates I made didn't look exactly like the original, I'd probably do better there if I practice the visualization exercises a bit more.

Your technique sounds interesting and I'll certainly set an intention to try it. I've always been fascinated by the lucid dreams where there are no surroundings, especially if I have no body image either. Do you do anything in particular once the surroundings vanish?

Jay, I just sorta sit there. No sensation. No perception. No internal dialogue. It's really very peaceful. Like a vacation from everything.

By the way, I did not think of this myself. I got the idea from the Vigyan Bayrav Tantra. You're suppose to fix your attention onto an object of sensation (while awake) until you are only aware of the object and nothing else. Then you are to switch your awareness to the Nothing around the object. I found that if I tried to fix my gaze while dreaming that I would wake up that's why I developed the circular scanning. I haven't been able to follow the instructions the way they were written, but this is pretty neat anyway.

Dear Jay and Jason

I very much enjoyed your posts. There seem to be some very interesting possibilities, once lucidity is stabilised. Jason, your daytime exercise seems to be a perfect training for having a WILD, too. Looks similar to the "white - dot" technique in EWLD. I focus on the dot, and out of the nothing comes a dream scenery. Seems, that I still have to work on staying focussed. Maybe I could perform your exercise repeatedly for some minutes over the day. Would you be so kind and go into detail how you gain lucidity and prolong it? What kind of techniques do you prefer, what are your daytime habits for example to increase dream recall, reality - checking etc?

Thank you for sharing experiences

Yours Ralf

Jason

Have you ever tried a dream speaker to increase your already incredible high LD rate? Sounds, as if it would pay off, because you incorporate outside noises so well and clear.

Ralph, What is EWLD? Is there anywhere I could read about it? It's probably on this sight and I'm looking stupid for asking.

How do I gain lucidity? The first thing I do is to keep in mind the dream-like nature of everyday life. Just think about where everything comes from. This computer--- many minds have literally dreamed it up. The Internet and the words we see on this page--- where are they? Where did they come from? How do you find a meaning in these words? The building you are in--- is it random or did it start somewhere in someone's mind? Every thought and emotion is the stuff of dreams. The dreams we have at night start with the thoughts and experiences of the day. So I just think of every thought and experience as another dream element--- whether I'm awake or asleep. I don't check to see if I am dreaming because I see so many things that are "dreamed-up" during the day. These are the things I think in the day. I also like reading my dream journal and thinking about the dream events and elements.

At night I visualize things in my forehead and at my heart. I try different things. I think of these things as props for awareness. You see, in the day we have plenty of sensations from external stimulus to prop up our awareness. In dreams our minds generate enough projections to prop up awareness. The visualizations are consciously created props that act as a bridge from one state to another. It is possible to maintain awareness on a subject or visualization all the way through a sleeping period. Even if that does not happen, it is good training to maintain awareness even after sensation ceases. It is also possible to recognize the very beginning of a dream and stop concrete images from forming. The formation of a dream is a very interesting process to watch.

Tenzin Wangyal recommends the visualization of a lotus of four petals at the heart center. Each petal has a different color. The four colors are the colors Tibetans associate with the four elements as well as the four directions, and classes of beings, but I say you do not need to know all of those associations. Get a candle and stair at its flame in a darkened room. Do not blink. When you notice that the flame seems to dim somewhat and your eyes are burning, close your eyes. Now just pay attention to the afterimage until not a trace of it can be seen. A few times of doing this should be enough to discover that the afterimage always fades in the same way. The same fading of sensation and perception happens with all senses as you fall asleep. I have spent much time observing this process also. The general pattern should be recognized by anyone who has read the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

I fear I am just rambling now, but what I'm trying to get at is that the Tibetan meditations and visualizations are very effective because they provide a systematic support for awareness. I have read that there can be no success with these methods without proper transmission, but this doesn't seem to stop me from using them for lucid dreams. I think everyone interested in lucid dreaming should use meditation and visualization techniques.

As for dream recall, concentrate on dreams and write them down every time you wake up. That's it. Lately I have been slacking off and there are days without any dreams recorded. This is because I do not want to disturb my wife. Most of the dreams I have recorded for the past two weeks are from my naps after she leaves in the morning.

And the dream speaker'It seems like a great idea. I would probably get one if I had the money.