Kelly, Your description is incredibly similar to Oliver Fox's descriptions. He mentions exactly the paralysis, breathing difficulties, seeing the room through closed eyes, and sounds in his head. You may find it interesting to read some of his work. I too sometimes hear voices or music while I am initiating a WILD. The sound sometimes seems too realistic to be products of my imagination. Sometimes they do seem to be more like radio broadcasts and other times they seem more like me eavesdropping in on someone's conversation. Whatever they are I am not really concerning myself with them at this stage however, as I am focusing on trying to hone my technique to produce the WILDs in general.

Thomas

Thomas

Most of my Ld are DILDS until now. But for this year my goal is to master the WILD technique to a point where I can have them at will. At least with every second try. My favourite (most reliable) technique is a combination of 61 points and MILD exercise after 5-6 hours of night sleep.

But actually I often try to keep consciousness while entering normal nights sleep, which didn't work so far (after all the four years...)

But waking up after 2-3 hours of sleep worked fine for me, too, sometimes. I had some LD, when I had to care for my son, too.

Hi, fellow dreamers. I have not posted or ld'd in a long time but I got lucid two nights in a row recently so I got encouraged. Neither time went on to much, but both times I became aware I was lucid because something was odd. In one, I was trying to hold onto an object that was floating upward. So I started setting my alarm for the middle of the night, which has been my most hopeful method. And the other night I became aware I was lucid because these strange dark green things that were for sale that I was looking at turned out to be alive. They were kind of like those clay worm things people can put in plants to control watering, only they were more like goofy-looking dragons. As soon as I realized I was lucid I took off flying. I seemed to recall that the last two times I became lucid I was too uptight about the lucidity lasting, so I decided to just relax and assume it would last. I created beautiful scenery to be flying into, although I barely recall it now. At some point I realized that there was beautiful classical music playing in my head the whole time ' nothing I recognized. It just played on it's own ' I didn't try to do it. I didn't wake up immediately after the dream ended, so I can't recall many details. I think that the lucidity kind of waned as I continued on in the dream, which had some plot about a married couple I'm friends with and a construction site where some men were working. I recall talking to one of the men and he turned out to be totally different from what I'd thought. But it was great to be lucid! A real gift. There seem to be some differences in style from my former times of lucidity. For one, I did not have to convince myself I was lucid and try to run tests. As soon as I realized about the oddity, I just knew. I think that the level of lucidity may not have been all that strong in that I felt as if maybe I dreamed I was lucid instead of really having been lucid. I think there have been discussions about that subject ' is there such a thing as dreaming you're lucid or is it just different levels of lucidity, etc. But I'm not going to worry about it either way. I just want it to keep happening. Regards, Kate.

Hi Kate,

I'm a newcomer to this LD'ing, having bought a NovaDreamer just a few weeks ago. I've not posted on here before, as I haven't had a full blown LD yet, but - I have had several WILD's, and, most intriguingly, several instances of what I've come to call semi-lucid dreams...

These seem very strange and I don't recall reading about them in the LaBerge book. I'm dreaming (obviously), I have control over the dream (maybe 50% control for instance, over where I'm going) and yet it is not fully lucid. They can be extremely vivid, more so than any other dreams I have had in my life, and yet they are not the fully lucid that is described in the literature I have read / and here on the forum.

I think, perhaps, that this is possibly one of two things. Either A) I'm dreaming that I'm lucid dreaming, or B) Lucidity is coming a bit at a time and I'm just learning, getting better at it, and becoming more lucid as I go. I support this with the fact that although I have seen lights from the NovaDreamer in my dreams and not yet been aware enough to identify the cause (and become lucid) I have also had dreams with very bright lights when I haven't been wearing the NovaDreamer. What I'm getting as it that the whole world of Lucid Dreaming seems to be getting into my head, and perhaps I'm currently dreaming about lucid dreaming - a sort of half way house, if you like. With regards to the vividness of these dreams... if you've ever wondered what being chased by a T-Rex through what looked like a huge indoor glasshouse / forest feels like, I'm your man.

Whatever being lucid feels like, if it's anything like that it's going to be one heck of a ride!

Regards,

Dean

Hi, I'm also new here as well. My experinces so far sound much like Dean's, no fully lucid dreams, just little semi lucid dreams. I can't afford the NovaDreamer, but I did recently pick up the Course, which I plan to use in summer or perhaps spring.

I've tried the Trance Induction CD, and so far I have at least had a few dreams in which I'm talking about lucid dreaming. I seem to have the problem that even though I do many reality checks while I'm awake somehow I can manage to have a long conversation about LD and yet even if crocodiles fly by in the clouds or a dog run past chasing a minitaure semi truck through a field I never once think to do a reality check.

I'm still working on it.

The last time I can remember I went semi lucid was that I jumped out of a plane, and, falling, I realized I was dreaming, and could feel my whole world turn to jelly "Oh no...no point in trying, I'm waking up". Upon thinking this, my whole body turned into a pretzel and I awoke, only later I found that it was a false awakening, and I woke up again for real.

The Trance CD is very relaxing as well.

Well, I hope I haven't been too off topic or anything, I'm still getting famaliar with these boards. It's nice to meet you all

Greetings, Brian

Hi Brian

Good to hear from another newcomer

Seems we're having similar experiences. I shouldn't be too concerned that you don't have a NovaDreamer - although it's a great piece of kit and promises to be very useful, I've already started to find that it's mental preperation that's more vital.

In the same way that flying crocodiles seem normal in your dream state, I've chatted with relatives who've been dead for years, been chased by dinosaurs and found myself floating above the South of France and not realised the strangeness of such goings on. With regard to lights, and the NovaDreamers' capabilities, I've had plenty of dreams (including WILDs) whilst not wearing the mask. The constant observation of light in the real world seems enough to create lights in dreams - it's just learning to realise them, recognise them, and awaken within the dream that's tricky.

Not that my little NovaDreamer isn't trying hard. In one dream, enjoying an amazing view from a high vantage point,what looked like a nuclear bomb went off in the distance, bright enough to cause me to raise my hand. Did I become lucid? Nope - I said;

'Blimey, that's a bit bright,' and carried on.

Patience, and perseverence, appear to be the way forward...

Regards to all,

Dean

Thanks for the welcome Dean. I hope to get to know all of you here, seems to me like a great forum.

I must remember that about lights.

I have a hard time being aware of my own self even when I'm awake at times. Get too much into a pattern and you forget about everything but what you're doing in your everyday rut.

I think the mental concentration is the most important too, after all, you'd need that to be aware of the NovaDreamer lights anyway.

I'm just trying to keep my mind steady and keep trying. Sometimes when I think back on my waking day, I catch all sorts of times during the day I should've done a reality check- I know it wasn't a dream, but often strange things happen in waking life and I really need to train myself to often do those reality checks.

On a more humorus note, one of my friends finally went lucid the other night. Some things happened somewhat without his intending it though. At one point he looked out his window and for some reason the phrase "Ferret Man" suddenly came out of his mouth and he saw a sort of half man-half ferret blob, he said it was kind of disembodied.

Also, in his experimenting, he wanted to see if the view outside his window would change, and at one point all the trees surrounding his house ended up being stacked on top of each other into the infinity of the sky. He also saw a beautiful evening sky with a huge moon and a smaller one orbiting it. Most of my dreams, unlike his colorful ones, are very dark. The skies always look grey and black or dark red and black, swirling. I think it might be something I could use as a dreamsign but so far no luck.

Anyway, nice to be here, pleasant and lucid dreams all Brian

Hi Dean and Brian! Yes, it's very frustratin to wake up and recall a dream with weird and bizarre components and wonder why none of it qued you to the fact you were dreamin. (One of my letters won't work.) I don't know why, but my dreamin mind is cooperatin much better that way suddenly. In my last ld, I was walkin in an alley at nite drinkin tea and I started thinkin I probably shouldn't be in this place at nite. Immediately I realized I was dreamin and took off flyin. I left the cup on the road and also dropped the spoon as I was takin off because I knew nothin was real so the posessions didn't matter. (A wonderful, free feelin) I flew down the alleyway and looked in many windows of houses I passed, and saw interestin thins, the way thins are in dreams. (I sound like Ricky Ricardo.) There is a conversation here called "Dreamsines, hits tips and misses" that mite be useful to read. As to only dreamin one is lucid instead of the real thin, I posted a response re this on the conversation "What defines lucidity" - Or somethin like that - if you care to check it out. Very ood luck to you, Kate

Hi Kate!

osh that was ood! So nice to see you back on the Forum. ;)

And a very warm welcome to ALL our newcomers!

Hope to catch up with all soon. Aloha & sweet, wild dreams! Keelin

Hello to you, and thanks. I'll try to remember to check out those conversations.

Incase I ever post anything off topic or off subject, let me know. I have a try not too ramble, and I'm still getting myself used to this new forum.

If the question isn't off topic here, does anyone here have experience with music in dream or lucid dreams?

In a few of my dreams I've had some music play as if I was hearing it on tape or CD.

I was in a supermarket and two of my friends showed up, and suddenly on the intercom system I hear Bob Dylan singing "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" from my Live at Budokan album. I don't listen to that one all that often, and the song is a weird reggae version which I like but as I said I don't often listen to, so what truely amazed me was that it played so realistically and exactly. I didn't conciously memorize all the lines and sounds of it, so is it possible my subconcious did? Truely amazing dream experince to me, to have it play as if it were in waking life.

I also think I'm closer to an ld.

I had a dream last night which was one of those rare, truely blissful dreams (for me rare). Somebody dropped me off on the side of an old country road, and also rare for me was it's vividness, and the brightness.

I walked until I found a city, the countryside was amazing. After being in the city awhile it lost vividness and started warping, but after waking I really feel very close to a lucid dream.

Wish me luck and thanks! Glad to be here! Brian

Hello everybody.

I am new to the forum, and decided to post today because of a strange ld I had this morning. But first, I would like to respond to Brian's music question.

A little over a month ago, I became lucid after hearing my clock radio repeat a song multiple times. In a non-lucid dream I had this morning, a song was playing on a car radio, only after I woke up, I realized the lyrics were a combination of two songs (one being "Girl Right Next To Me," which mentions dreams twice in the chorus). Had I caught this in the dream, I may have become lucid. You say you haven't consciously memorized the song you heard, so are you sure it was playing exactly?

As for my lucid dream, it was strange (to me) in two ways. First of all, it happened around 1:30 in the morning. Now, typically I am downstairs on my computer until about midnight, at which time I go into my bedroom (also in the basement) and try to fall asleep. I usually wake up between 4-5am, not remembering anything, eventually falling back to sleep and remembering dreams after this point. Last night, I sat upstairs reading until midnight, tried to fall asleep on the couch, and eventually gave up just after 1am, went downstairs and fell asleep.

I am driving down the road my subdivision is off of. I approach an intersection and go through it, missing a car that crosses the other way just before me. I make a u-turn and cross the intersection again, then make another u-turn, apparently trying to keep turning until I am on the other street. I lose control and swerve for a few seconds, but then am driving on the other road.

I now can see nothing at all. I attempt to turn on the car's lights, but the only ones that come on are inside the car. I realize this is a dream, and I want visuals, so I try to spin.

There is pressure against my legs when I try to turn, but eventually I overcome it and spin with my eyes closed. After a few seconds, I stop and open my eyes, but instead of a new dreamscene, there is still complete blackness. I then feel pushing against my left leg and right arm, as if I am being forced to the ground. I wake up.

I have heard of dreams without visuals but do not remember having any of my own before now. Has anybody else had the problem of not being able to create visuals even after gaining lucidity?

Jamison

I'm fairly sure the song played exactly as it sounds, but I suppose perhaps it was off. But this is just speculation, I do remember waking up with a sense of wonder at the vividness of the song.

Visuals are very hard for me. I have a hard time imagining all of the things Stephen LaBerge asks you to imagine on the Trance CD.

Lucid and Beautiful Dreams Everyone Brian

Hi, Keelin, sorry to see you're having keyboard problems too. Thanks, your posting made me laugh! Jamison, welcome. I wonder if how well we can create visuals in ld's has to do with levels of lucidity? I know the visuals are often great in my ld's already, and that since they are creations of my own mind, I should in theory be able to create just as well with my lucid mind. But that does not necessarily happen - especillay if lucidity is low or I don't have faith I can do much. So far my unconscious mind is way, way better at creation than my lucid one. But transforming and creating scenes while lucid is exciting. For me it feels like I can do magic. I suspect the dreamer's belief in his or her ability to just think it and therefore make it so is a big factor. After all, if your unconscious mind can effortlessly come up with fascinating scenery or whatever, why not the lucid mind? I feel like letting go of preconceived notions of how to do things helps. Those parameters don't mean much in a dream. As to music, I often have it playing in my head in lucids and non-lucids. Sometimes made up, sometimes a real piece. Only one time did I deliberately play something in an ld. I made Peer Gynt's morning song play to help try and make darkness turn to morning. I think I was tapping memory. I did not get lucid last nght, but will keep trying. Regards to all, Kate.

Hi all!

Kate - interesting points there on the level of lucidity and its comparisom with the level of reality in LDs. I've had several dreams where I'm awake, I'm thinking, and yet the dream-world around me is distinctly shaky - it has the look like you see on TV sometimes when they warp everything as though you're looking through the eyes of someone who's drunk. In these dreams, I often actually fall over, as though the strangely shifting landscape is giving me vertigo.

This has happened several times, in varying ways in my dreams - however, with each successive dream it becomes less and less. The last, a WILD in which I had a false awakening on my bed (couldn't move etc), my room was exact, but I seemed to have slightly blurry eyes. I was blinking, whilst trying to move, and the image was clearing. Unfortunately, what lucidity I was gaining in the visual sense was lost when I woke up for real. As for reality - my conscious mind remains better at visualising scenes etc, but the gap is closing. Perseverence again I think, should keep closing this gap. However, belief seems massively important, as you hinted. If I go to sleep without any intention to get lucid (or at least try), or I let any sense of doubt into my mind about my ability to do so, then not only do I get nothing close to a LD, but also my dream recall seems affected, reduced by as much as half... I don't think it's a self confidence problem - I'm fine in that respect. It's just maybe a deeper sense of belief - the "yes, I can do this and it's not a problem" sort of belief. I don't know - what's everyone else's take on this?

Hi Brian - re' your trouble with imagining all of the things on Stephen LaBerge's tape, maybe don't try too hard. It's a trance induction tape, and as such 'suggestive' - let his voice put the image in your mind, and just go with the flow. Maybe this might be more effective for you than consciously trying to draw the image in your mind... Just a thought.

As to the music - it's the one thing that hasn't happened yet, at all, to me. Can't remember a single dream with music in it. Mind you, early days still for me...

Pleasant and stable dreams to all

Dean

You know, it's funny how one can easily forget simple things, and I think you're right Dean, I wasn't going with the flow of it at all.

And thanks! I think with this in mind, I could really makes some progress here...I'll try it over the weekend.

I've often wanted to have a lucid dream to send myself to this grey floating castle, floating in a black, foggy abyss, and sit and think. It's been in my mind for awhile now, and it's kind of one of my little places in my mind I'd love to have a lucid dream in. The castle is very reflective.

The music, by the way, is a unique experince. Just last night I dreamed I was seeing Bob Dylan (him again, I listen to him alot) in concert, and he played another song I hadn't heard in a long time, and he played it very vividly.

I rememeber one dream where I was driving and I was playing this CD...and the song was Working For The Man by Roy Orbison, but Johnny Cash was singing it...I woke up very surprised at how vividly also I could dream things such as that (because Johnny Cash has never performed that song to my knowledge).

Anyway, stable, vivid, beautiful dreams all Brian

Hello,

Today I had a DILD. The DILD was at one point pretty interesting. Here it goes:

I was in my bathroom and I was doing some teeth brushing. "How can it be? I am in Macedonia right now not in Belgrade", I was thinking. At this point I became lucid and realized I was in a dream.At this point I started to lose my lucidity resulting in picture quality and color-loss. I started to spin. The spinning was so real that it led me to vertigo. But then I regained complete vividness of picture and dreamscape. It was pretty sharp and it actually had brighter colors then in reality.I went to the hallway where a big mirror was. The mirror was attached to the wall just as is in reality. I tried to put my head through the mirror, but I saw the concrete wall. Ok, then I walked from the mirror a few meters away.Then I jumped in the mirror and I was through. I suddenly realized I was in "SUCCUBUS" dimension. I had a false memory of SUCCUBUS telling me that this is actually a nightmarish version of our real DREAMworld. Everything is actually the same as in "real" DREAMWORLD except that it is its NIGHTMARE version. I ran away, losing my lucidity. I was chased by some monsters but eventually I repelled them...

Conclusion: The dream spinning is very, very useful technique. It doesn't just prolongue dreams, it actually enriches dreams with more color and stability. Every time I've used this technique so far, It actually prolongued, enriched,and stabilized the dreamscape.

It was very interesting to realize that dreamworld had another dimension I could switch into. We usually talk about dimensions from our REALWORLD point of view. This time I was pulled into DREAMWORLD dimension. Another dimension that exists in "REAL DREAMWORLD" It leads to the conclusion that DREAMWORLD is actually pretty real.It is not very hard to reach it, once we know of a way to reach it. It exists in some form, where the form is pretty subjective. The shape and its margins are determined by our subconsciousness. My opinion is that at some point in the future we will be able to share dreams. But first our dreams must have a strong foundation,and our lucidity should always be at HIGH LEVEL.

Nenad

Hi, Nenad. Pretty interestng dream and thoughts.... I know what you mean about false beliefs inside of dreams. But there are certain dream locations I'm pretty sure my dreaming mind does periodically revisit, although the details change. One of them is a school, and another is a big old house with a lot of stairs and levels, where a lot of people live. Actually the school always a lot of people in it, walking down hallways and in open-doored rooms, whereas in the house, the people are always in their rooms with the doors closed. There's a lot red and yellow in the decor - red carpet in the hallways, I think. Did you consciously know what a succubus is, and did your dreaming mind choose that name for a reason? keep dreaming, Kate

Hi Kate,

Yes, I know that Incubus is the opposite to Succubus, a female demon that makes love to you every night until you die of exhaustion. In my case, I think there is no obvious reason. I don't have problems with girls, although I am very fond of girls. I am a charmer ;-)

The name SUCCUBUS first appeared in my dream 4 years ago. I had already been aware of true meaning of SUCCUBUS. In my dream I was attacked by a very,very attractive brunette while I was having wild sex with her. She suddenly transformed into a succubus and attacked me.

Yesterday I jumped into SUCCUBUS dimension, and as I already told you, I had a false memory of knowing that SUCCUBUS dimension had already existed before although I have never dreamed of it, nor have I ever been there. My dream mind probably picked that name for a reason that succubus simbolizes night demon appearing in nightmares. SUCCUBUS dimension is actually a NIGHTMARISH dimension, where everything has its twisted look of a real DREAMWORLD.

I am pretty sure I will visit it again, even with low-level lucidity as my dreams are almost always lucid( be it on low or hih level).

As for other places I have visited so far, you should go to my post OPEN CONVERSATION>DREAM CREATED CHARACTERS(DCC). Also, I have been visiting school very often in my dreams and details change from time to time, but the school also exist in real world. When I think of places in my dreams I refer to DREAM CREATED PLACES which exist only in dreams not in real world such as (NATURE(read my DCC post), DUNDEE VALLEY(I have also mentioned it), etc..including newly found SUCCUBUS)

I am really glad you could understand what I meant, and I can see you are a dedicated dreamer as me.

See you later,

Nenad

Last night I had the first lucid dream in a very long time, probably years. I've been trying to lucid dream since last July without success but recently I had given up trying. It just happened out of the blue last night. I was driving a car with my mom in the passenger seat and I realized out loud that I was dreaming and said to my mom, "can you believe I'm dreaming?" I was going to ask her if she was dreaming too, which is a question that has been on my mind before in past lucid dreams. Instead, I turned to see a woman in a meditative posture sitting in the middle of the road with no intention of moving out of the way of my car, so I swerved around her. I wondered if she knew she was inside the dreamworld and thus knew that a car could not hurt her. I seemed to just let go of seeking for answers and enjoyed the lucidity while dream driving. I wondered in the back of my mind what I should do next or create, like the dreamworld was my oyster, but when I parked the car, I woke up.

Hi, Alison. Congratulations! Until recently I also had not ld'd for ages, and had stopped bothering to try. It's such a gift when ld's happen. I'ts funny, I also had an ld where I was with my mother and it was while I was commenting to her on a bizaare happening that I became lucid. This ld also involved a car - a van. Interestingly I used to live in Hermosa Beach. And I also used to be 32. Nenad - you always have lucids? Is there something in particular that you do or aspect of your personality that makes that so? If you have any tips, please share them! Almost sort of got lucid this am but it was too difficult to stay asleep. Too much light and too many sounds. Drifted off and immediately saw a red highway cone moving on it's own along the road. But I was so close to the edge that instead of going lucid when I recognized non-reality I simply woke up. Good luck to us all, Kate

HELLO KATE,

Go to TOPICS>OPEN CONVERSATION>DCC(DREAM CREATED CHARACTERS), there is my post, which you should read. Read EVERYTHING I wrote, and some things should be very clear. There are pretty good advices, tips and a little part of my dreaming history. READ and do not hesitate to ask me or contact me again!

Read carefully,

NENAD

I'm not sure what part of the forum I should go to, but I was wondering whatever came of the drawing for the NovaDreamer that was supposed to be announced on the 1st?

As for all the things being said recently, I find alot of it really incredible. I wish I had that rich of a dream life.

My last dream was yet another fairly vivid one, but went a bit off at times. I keep having this feeling when I wake up that I'm one step closer to lucidity....

Wish me luck and best of luck to all Brian

last night I made an interesting move. I am glad I did it. in the middle of a NLD I became lucid and I was going with the flow. I was in the fire between 2 bodyguards, and they ran away. I was chasing them when I became lucid. I was driving a car. Next to me was my friend. I knew he was a dream character, I knew I was in a dream. I started to rub my hands together just to prolongue the dream. The scenario and action in my dream were so intense. I didn't want to make changes to script and scenario. I was, as in every dream I've had the main actor. So I rubbed my hands and went with a flow. I prolongued my dream to the point where I picked up my friends and started to chase evil bodyguards. Interesting..

Nenad

Last night I had another new (and interesting) lucid dream experience. I was in bed, on my right side, trying to fall asleep, and then...

I am on my back, and I think "I can't fall asleep in this position." I am about to turn over, but I see a big picture on the wall in front of me. There are two people, not in focus, standing next to each other in a grassy area. Once they come into focus, I realize they are both me, one the way I looked my senior year of high school, and the other from my freshman year of college. I reach towards it and the high school me is outside of it, next to my bed, and I touch its nose with my pointer finger. It giggles, and at that time I realize I'm dreaming.

I look at my left hand, and notice all my fingers are about as short as my pinky. I then look at high school me, and try to will it to disappear. It just keeps looking at me, and I finally tell it to disappear. "This is a dream, and I should be able to make you go away." It then says, "But, this is my dream." I think or say "So, you know this is a dream?" and wake up.

I don't remember ever encountering myself in a dream before, and I found it very strange to be told by a dream character that it wasn't my dream.

Hi Brian,

We apologize to all for the typo that appeared on our website regarding the February date for our quarterly newsletter. The next issue of Flashes is scheduled to be sent out later this month.

Meanwhile, we wish you all the best that dreams can bring, TLI staff

Thanks for the info, I noticed the date changed.

Has anyone made any ld progress recently?

I had a few fairly realisitic dreams but it seems like I always end up inconsistent with my reality checks. Most of them occur when I'm talking to someone about lds.

Funny thing is, I encounter a conversation about them in a dream and I never check. Strange. Wish me luck, and happy dreaming! Brian

Hi Brian,

Maybe you could try reading the thread on the 'Discussion of Primary Techniques - Reality Testing', which has some very interesting postings over the last 2 weeks or so regarding the Automization of reality checks. I'm a newcomer to Lucid Dreaming, but have found myself having several in a row with my own take on the Automization method. It's outlined there by Gordon Wilson, so have a look and see if it might work for you.

As to remembering to do things in dreams, this was happening a lot to me too, but doing reality checks in the day enough to make it automised goes a long way to alleviating this problem.

See how you get along. Good luck!

Dean

Hello all,

Just a brief mention of a lucid dream last night, which occured without any incubation, automisation, MILD or anything whatsoever. This, I believe, is the first time this has happened to me, a lucid dream completely at random.

It may have happened because of the sheer wierdness of the dream. I 'awaken' in a sort of hay barn with beds, to the sound of a child crying. I'm not lucid at this point, but am alarmed by the cries, and get out of bed, walking down to where a friend, Lizzie, is tending to a baby. The baby, she tells me, has spilt chocolate all down itself and she is cleaning it. (Don't ask) Anyway, the baby starts to crawl off, but in my mind there is nothing but blankness - I'm aware that something's wrong but not actively thinking anything, as though waiting to see what happens next. I follow the baby, which proceeds to do a forward roll along the floor like a miniature gymnast, and bingo. Out loud in the dream, I say "That's not a baby, I'm dreaming". Lucidity comes in with a rush, that deep tingling sensation in the chest that I always get, and I'm there and lucid.

However, as is still my problem, lucidity lasts only for a short while, and in this case, perhaps because of the random way in which I reached lucidity, I lost it almost immediately (rats). Same ending, blackness folds in on me, and then I awaken in bed.

Not a radically exciting LD I admit, but the fact that it was spawned without any action on my behalf, just a randomness about it, I thought was worth reporting. Anyone else get this, occasional LD's without actually any attempt to make them occur?

Best to all,

Dean

I had a lucid dream this morning. It's the first i've had for a long time. Here's what happend:

It is nighttime, and I'm at a house I am not familiar with. 3 cats that live at the house come running up. Every time I try to walk somewhere, one of the cats stands right in my way. When I try to move them, They attack me. I eventually throw each one of them in turn. Once each cat had been thrown, they tended to stay away from me. Then a police man with a mag light shows up. I decided to follow him around, because I don't feel safe. He walks outside, and I watch while I stand next to the house. He seems to be walking up to 2 or 3 zombie looking figures. Then the police man transforms into a zombie right before my eyes. The zombies all face me, and start to approach me. Zombies?? I think to myself. I must be dreaming! I become lucid, and it feels great. But the zombies are still approaching me. I don't have much time to react. Instead of becoming afraid, I become very positive, and feel very safe. I face the zombies, and even start to approach them. I collide with the first zombie head on. There is an explosion of lucidity and dramatic Matrix sounding music as I willfully remove the zombies out of existence. Then I am standing at the top of the mountain the house is on, right before sunrise. There is a beautiful view of a lake, and a city around it. The water shimmers very realistically, and the rising sun makes it very beautiful. I study the water for a few minutes. It starts to look a little artificial, but still fully believable. The ripples are traveling in directional lines, and expanding circles. Then I fly down and look at the side of a building still blown away by the realism. I pick up an odd shaped piece off the side of the building. I run my hand over it. It's unlike any material I have ever seen, as if it's from the future. Metallic / Plastic, smooth and shiny. From there it gets fuzzy, and I have a false awakening before really waking up.

It was a visually intense dream. I enjoyed it immensely.

-Richard H http://www.bulbmedia.net/lucid_dream_documentary/

I had a dream last night that may have been lucid and may have been me dreaming I was lucid. A few days ago I was talking about lucid dreaming with my lifelong friend and that night I'm pretty sure I only dreamed I was lucid. In that dream, I started dancing because it seemed like a good way to experience lucidity. It was really jerky dancing, like a marionette someone was pulling the strings wildly on. And during it, I was thinking about, and picturing, how lying in my bed, I must be jerking my limbs the same way. I also pictured someone watching my sleeping body but in reality no one would have been there. The whole thing felt, once I woke up, as if I just dreamed I was lucid. The dream I had last night I'm not sure about. I was having a nonlucid that involved a sub sandwich. (Sausage and meatball.) First I dropped it on the floor and picked it up, then I was in a car with some other people, some of whom were children. I remember I had bare feet, and my foot touched the bare foot of a child in the back. I kept trying to pay for the sub, but I couldn't find the sub people. I was considering just eating it anyway and forgetting about paying, since the people were so hard to find. I had gone inside a building and still could not find the sub people. In the next scene, I was sitting at a vanity kind of table with a mirror that was apparently in my bedroom, but nothing like it in real life ' it was a very crowded place, more like an attic room or something, packed with eclectic items. Very comfortable to me. My ex-husband was there (which in real life he would not have been) but he was out of sight behind a partition behind me, and he was saying something about, not to complain to him about the sub people because there was no point. He was saying this in a pleasant, matter-of-fact way. Then, for some reason I realized I was dreaming. I told my ex-husband not to say anything more to me because I was lucid and I was going to explore. I was really excited and pleased about this, the way I always am when realizing I'm lucid. He said "Hmmm-hmmm,' the way people acknowledge you when they are barely conscious, and I realized he must be in bed ' that there was a bed behind the partition. I started walking very carefully so as not to wake him or possibly anyone else. I was conscious of what I was wearing ' cutoffs and my long gray sweater I wear a lot. I was very psyched about checking out my dream surroundings. I ended up outside, and I decided I should take the opportunity to fly. My sweater was sort of half off over my shirt, and I was trying to go through the process of pulling my arms all the way out of the sleeves and getting it off without waking myself or getting nonlucid. Then my friend was there on the sidewalk with me, and I said to her, "We're in a dream. I'm going to fly, you try it too.' And I took off. At first I was kind of encumbered, as with the sweater, by some branches on a tree I was under. But I stuck with it and flew under and past the tree. After that I started pumping my arms hard as if swimming, to get more speed, and it was really fun. I decided I should fly way up into space the way some people do, and see what I might encounter up there. I flew straight up, very fast and far, and I could see the earth with it's dark blue night sky and tiny lights way below me. I wondered what I would encounter, and I had some fear, but I pointed out to myself that since this was not real, nothing bad could happen to me. But I was very conscious that I had left my friend down there, and I decided to go back down. I sort of dove and plummeted, to get down there fast, and I recall my body started moving from side to side, the way I imagined an aircraft would do when plummeting out of control straight downward. But I didn't think I was out of control. I woke before reaching the ground. I have not posted in a while because I have not been LD'ing. Good lucid luck to everyone, Kate

Kate:

Wonderful to hear from you again! And thanks for sharing your dreams, be they non-lucid, semi-lucid, or fully lucid (I sure couldn't tell!).

Peter

Peter, Thanks so much for your prompt and friendly response! I really think the first, dancing dream was me dreaming I was lucid dreaming, and the second one was lucid, but not as fully lucid as the kind where you are so conscious inside the dream that you know everything about your waking reality. I think tonight I will try and incubate a dream, and also do the alarm-setting thing. My dream was actually a WILD, because I woke up during the night and then went back to sleep. Hoping to hear other LD's posted here soon - they are always inspiring and interesting. Good luck, Kate

I had a whole series of lucid dreams this morning, some very short some quite long (at least for what I am used to). I am quite surprised at this latest success. I haven't had a decent LD since my last post here several weeks ago. I was very pleased with my ability to prolong and control the dreams, much better than usual.

I attribute this success to a recent interest in meditation, I have found that meditating is helping me. Anyone else with similar findings.

Geoff,

Try meditating once you become lucid. Here is what has had amazing results for me. Once you become lucid, fly up and then suspend yourself in the air. Focus on the wonderful feeling of weightlessness, then do whatever works for you to increase the lucidity. (I verbally say "increase lucidity now.") Then contemplate briefly the limitlessness of the lucid dream and close your eyes and meditate. Maintain a relaxed focus on whatever you are experiencing. (Focusing on the physical sensation of weightlessness keeps my attention and therefore my lucidity.) Do this as you would normally focus on your breath during meditation.

Tibetan dream yoga says that meditating while lucid dreaming is seven times as powerful. For me its been a thousand times more powerful.

I don't know what elements of what I described are contributing to the results and which I am just repeating needlessly, but this is what worked for me.

BTW, if you run into a female deity who strips you of your ego and any remnant of the concept of duality by transforming you into a radiating point of ecstatic light, please say "Hi" for me and that I wanted to contact her again, but didn't have the nerve. : )

Geoff, you might check out the work of Jayne Gackenbach (I hope I spelled that correctly.) She has articles posted through the ASD (Assoc for the Study of Dreams) website that look at lucid dreaming and meditation. I really like her stuff.

Paul

Thanks Gordon and Paul for your replies.

One thing I want to ask on the subject of meditation whilst actually in a LD: During conventional meditation I have learn't to meditate on the concept of "no thought". Will this cause me to loose lucidity, or will there be enough other sensory input to keep me going. Sometimes I feel that actually thinking too much is my problem, so it might help, I guess I just have to take the chance and try it.

Geoff.

Geoff,

I haven't had much luck with "no thought". I imagine that it would be easy to lose lucidity while attempting that. I certainly lose lucidity quickly while doing that in waking-life meditation.

Will there be enough sensory input to keep me going.

I'm not convinced that its sensory input that helps maintain lucidity. I routinely lose lucidity with loads of sensory input. Its the cognizant attention to the sensory input that seems to allow me to maintain my lucidity.

Rather than "no thought", I vigilantly remain "in the moment" and focus on sensation and emotion. I observe what's happening in this way and after a while, it becomes so powerful that it is no longer an effort. I don't know whether it becomes out of my control or its just so wonderful that I have no motivation to try to act on it, or whether I'm just in a state of being that doesn't include will. (I'm getting off topic.)

Anyway, I'm aware that to stop interacting with the world around you is supposed to bring an end to lucidity (its the opposite of LD prolonging activities), but it is not always necessarily the case for me. I've had my longest-by-far LD this way, which lasted so long that it seemed that the REM period was no longer able to sustain it.

I'd say its worth the chance of losing a LD when you try it.

Gordon,

Thanks for your reply, I will give it a try. My LD's don't always start off that exciting. Often I feel I have to make something happen i.e. get out of bed and walk to a window, jump out and see if I can fly. I wonder what would happen if I just looked out of the window, or just sat on the floor and examined the room. If you do this kind of thing, do other events take place that you haven't contrived, or would you just be sat there for the whole dream? I am wondering if I need to take a break from directing my dreams, or at least attempting to direct them.

Geoff.

Geoff, How weird! I posted a lucid dream last week in which I did just what you suggest. Nothing much happened as I sat on the curb of a city street just "witnessing". No one else was around. It was a deserted city. I did not lose lucidity or the scene, but the image began to waver like air over hot asphalt, then I floated up and away like a balloon. It was the feeling of peace that was the best part. I highly recommend giving it a try, witnessing without acting I mean.

Paul

Hi Dreamers..In this dream..I was walking down a side walk and saw this cool motorcycle sitting in front of this building.. I aproached it and noticed somthing unusual about it . It was equiped with a boat propeller!! I thought it strange but interesting. My brain rationalized that propeller was just a conversion kit making the cycle usable on lakes.. I also noticed that it had some wires just hanging and needed to be fixed.. The cycle was just outside the front entrance of a large building. I saw a sighn say {city offices}..I decided to fix the cycle even [though It wasnt mine] after I spent some time working on It some lady steped out the front door and asked me what I was doing? I happly told her I was repairing it.. She then left and returned with guy in a tux who gave me the stare !!!I then said I WAS ONLY TRYING TO HELP! They started telling me to leave it alone or else! So I said ok have it your way and I walked off..As I was walking the dream scene changed..A stranger was giving me a ride in a car and it was dark out.. This stranger seemed not happy with me and I felt uncomfortable and didnt know how I got there.I said where are we going? he said Ill find out!..{In this dream so far I was not aware of It being a dream..} So then I felt in danger.AND SAID [I DONT HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS! THIS IS A DREAM! Ill JUST WAKE UP!! I then realy did wake up and remembered my dream! and said Im glad that was only a dream! I guess I got lucid at the end of this dream.. I guess lucidity kicked in when confronted with a stressfull situation.. Any one else experiance lucidity this way? Happy dreams.. tom.

Had a LD this morning. I tried to resist getting to carried away, I was trying hard not to be tempted to control the dream. It was all very exciting, and for a while I was quite absorbed by what was going on. I remebered that I wanted to try meditating. I tried, but I think I attemped to meditate in the conventional way, i.e. trying not to think. This wasn't so good for me, because I became very distracted by the thought that the dream might disintegrate and I might wake up. I was trying to get this thought out of my mind, but I wasn't able to, and the dream did indeed disintegrate.

What this suggests to me, is that the mind and the power of suggestion, is incredably strong in these instances. I concurr that there have been many instances where I was unable perform a certain activity in a LD, just because I thought I would not be able to. I have had moments of hypnogogic paralysis where I have been unable to move or speak, only to find that with some careful relaxing of the mind that I have been able to speak very well. To me, controlling subconscious thoughts is the key. I feel that if I become concerned that the dream will end, it invariably does. I feel that if I have no doubts that the dream will continue, it will continue. This is why waking meditation is helping me, by giving more practive in managing my thoughts.

I intend to try the LD meditation excercise again, but this time I will tell myself to focus on what is going on around me, rather than trying to meditated in the waking sense.

I'm new to the forum - thanks to the tireless moderators! in response to Tom, I too am often spurred into lucidity by stressful dream situations and powerful emotional responses. in fact, one consistant "dream sign" for me is being extremely angry and yelling in the dream. in my waking life, i'm a pretty low-key individual, so when i start to yell, lucid awareness kicks in frequently. i previously used the awareness/energy generated to fly off and have adventures, but now i try to turn back to the situation that initiated the lucidity and work with it. i figure that the dream situation must be worth paying attention to if it was what jolted me into lucidity in the first place.

Had my second lucid dream last night after only 3 1/2 weeks of the course. Maybe that's a slow pace, but I'm pretty happy with my progress! I am now working on the exercise where you ask yourself several times (8-10) per day whether or not you are dreaming, using the "reality probe" as a test. I have to say, the use of text as an indicator is a very powerful tool. As soon as I suspected that I was dreaming last night I looked for the first printed text I could find. I was riding the EL to work (elevated train, for you rural folks!), and as I was on the train several things didn't seem quite right, so I got a rush and asked myself - quite literally, and out loud - "am I dreaming?", and looked at a newspaper that one of the riders was reading; one of the words in the banner headline was "Iraq". So I looked away, looked back and it said "Iran". Now, that may appear to be a very minor difference, but contextually it is significant. Just to make sure, I looked away again, and when I looked back this time the headline just looked like gibberish. I had my awareness! It's just such a cool feeling. I again decided to "play god" a bit, and did some rearranging of the universe, just for practice. Unfortunately, I awoke before getting to experiment as much as I would have liked. I am hoping, and assuming, that later in the course I will learn tricks to extend the dream once I know that I am dreaming. But I'm being patient, since staying the course has so far yielded very promising results!

From March 13th 2005

Went to bed around 1:30 am EST so this was about 3A.M. I had been reading on the L.I.'s site discussion about OBE and Lucidity, both subjects which are of interest to me, before going to bed. I found myself in a dream "OBE" in a bedroom which was not mine, which clued me into the fact that it was a dream and not a genuine OBE, of which I've had very few compared to lucid dreams. At the same time however I was aware of my body lying in bed. Odd that as I write this that there is recall that there was an awareness of both simultaneously. Lying in my bed there was a rememberance that the idea of spinning has helped me more than any technique to leave the body, but this is not always able to be consciously controlled. But in this instance my "dream body" was somehow very much "In the know" and spoke to me, I have to say without words, telepathicly, but something like "OK get ready we're going to do this" and suddenly it felt as if some kind of lever had been thrown and a gear came into place because I immediately, almost as if lying on top of a rotating, felt the spinning sensation beginning, faster and faster and then feeling myself separate from my body.

Now at the same time my "dream body" I feel like saying "Wisdom body" because it seems so absolutely sure of itself in guiding me, and it is "me" too, there was as said before the awarness of both at the same time. Well, even though it seemed to be in a different room than mine a room not familiar to me at all, it began to rotate itself as well but "head over heels" very rapidly and with unusual variations, like the way you see a batton spun. I got the impression that this was indeed some form of power generation. After I felt myself spin out of my body which I do feel was a brief actual OOB, I woke up.

Regards,

Daniel

From March 18th

Well, there were two lucid dreams last night!

The first dream was when I found myself sitting arround a table and there was Edward R. Murrow talking to pople, and all of a sudden I realized hey he's not alive anymore, I've got to be dreaming, the thing about it is, that the lucid dream becomes much more clear with lucidity. Edward looked young and healthy, and he was speaking and I looked at him excitedly and he was looking back at me as any person might when someone stares at them. The lucidity hit like a lightning bolt and I was just so happy that there was not much else I could do. The recognition of lucidity with a famous person as the sign to ask or recognize if I am dreaming has been elusive but last night bang! It was there.

Famous people show up in my dreams a lot and if they could be consistantly recognized as lucidity cues, well then the occurance of lucidity would be much more frequent. However experience has shown me that it's not a willful mental grabbing, or grabbing that makes lucidity occur, but something much more gentle and in my experience, elusive. That being said just the gentle suggestions and reminders this week; that if we see a well know person to question it undoubtably has a connection to the Edward R. Murrow dream.

There was a second lucid dream. Was on some kind of movie set and the director a very large man was shouting something at me, had the feeling that he was trying to shame me and having some success, you know when I think about it, it kind of reminded me of Chuck Pease (My late wife's father) and the big man with the handle bar moustach at the tour guide meeting last night.

Anyway he was yelling at me and there were other people yelling too. And I realized I was lucid! And I shouted: This is a dream!

And the people were really hostile in their yelling and I said you don't think so? Watch this! And went over to the director and picked him up like he was a balloon and held him over my head with one hand! The director was amazed and helpless and everyone was shouting in amazement!

Felt free and triumphant, not only in the movie the creator of this whole dream world! And was talking with Ruth B last night, she mentioned the importance the Italian men she knew as a child considered respect to be, that's how Daniel felt he wasn't going to take the harassment, a joyful, playful form of standing up to the inner demons.

Hooray for lucidity! And for where it comes from.

Regards,

Daniel

From March 20th

Wrote my dreams down this morning in my renewed dream journal which has continued off and on for many years. And a dream that I had about Orson Wells make me think ah yes the famous person lucid clue, missed it, getting better at it but the intelligence behind the mind, behind the dream is playfull.

I went back to bed and took and nap. Soon I was in an area similar to a beach where I grew up. There was a man and his full sized poodle, a black one, fully cut in the classic poodle style.

I could not make out the man's face who was older and heavy-set with a cane, sitting in the shadow of an a open beach pavillion he was facing a side walk away from the water, the sidewalk I was standing on. The dog was romping happily as I turned away and walked up a small rise of sand towards the exit of the beach. Suddenly I looked at my hands, The classic Don Juan (Casteneda) technique!

Now I remembered that Orson had intimidated me in my previous dream and now that I was dreaming I wanted to have a careful, conscious coversation with someone. So, excited but aware I turned around and headed back to the beach pavillion.

Just as I arrived where the man had been sitting, he and the whole length of bench he'd been sitting on disappeared!

(As if the (dream) town didn't want people sleeping on the benches so they tore them out.)

And what threw me was that it looked as if the bench attached to the low cement wall running the whole length of the back of the pavilion, had been torn out for years little clumps of dirt drifting into the holes where the legs of the bench had been bolted into the floor.

The surprise of that disappearance before my eyes stunned me into wakefullness.

The playful intelligence of consciousness behind the dream.

Daniel

Daniel, I have lately become more interested in this "looking at the hands" as a lucidity cue, since whenever I can look at my hands I have an excellent chance of having an LD, although it's not 100%.

When you look at your hands, do they look "normal"? Mine always look wrong, which I think is why it works as a dreamsign. Anyway, I have been trying to program my dreams to find my hands more often, with some success. I'm also helping to construct a device to vibrate the hand during REM sleep, thinking that might draw my dream attention there.

I'm tempted to wax on about OBE vs LD, but I've done that so often, think I'll pass this time. Thanks for sharing your dreams.

Paul

Hi Paul,

This last time, they did look normal except for some green stains/patches as if I been handling seaweed.

However in the past, got very self-satisfied with the "hands" technique. Remember looking at my hands one time becoming lucid but this time they were long and hariy like one would imagine a werewolf would have. However they did not stay that way the length of my arms and the size of my hands kept rapidly fluxuating and it unsettled me a lot. Was transfixed at the spectacle of it.

Some part of consciousness was saying "Hey don't take anything for granted, don't be so smug about what you think you "know" Yeah, it shook me up all right and it got me away from taking it for granted as a "sure-fire" thing.

And in a way now it seems there were a deeper questions, "What are you becoming lucid for?" "Just to turn the dream world into an extention of the ego?" And that in a sense has been a philosophical question for me about lucid dreaming. Do my values cross over into the dream world or is it a free for all?

My experience seems to point to an intelligence that is aware of what I am doing in the dreamworld that is tweeking it, ever so slightly towards looking more closely at myself and my intentions, in lucidity and life.

Why limit lucidty to dreaming?

This last time the looking happend and then lucidity came, the urge to look at the hands was from a deeper place than conscious intention. It seems that intention is like a seed that gets planted in the mind, where and when they will sprout is, for me, unpredictable, yet it is clear that suggestion does work, but subtly, the results being out of my control.

And how easy it is to loose lucidity when it happens and there is excitment about it!

That is the goal I'd like to set for myself, not to get carried away by becoming aware, but to calmly be in lucidity and just observe it, choosing actions if any, thoughfully.

Regards,

Daniel

Paul,

The site does have a great little search engine so I see that you have posted a lot and will look through them to see what you've written r.e. Lucidity & OOB. Have been interested in both over the years. Lucidity has been much more frequent for me.

Regards,

Daniel

Hi Daniel & Fellow Oneironauts!

Daniel: Thank you for sharing your dream experience with us here. You (along with others who have experienced OBE-like dreams) may find the following articles of particular interest:

"Varieties of Lucid Dreaming Experience" by Stephen LaBerge and Don DeGracia. The meaning of "lucid dreaming.' How do lucid dreams relate to "astral projection" and OBEs? Variations in lucid dream initiation. Perceptual variations. Emotions. Volition and action. Termination of lucid dreams. http://www.lucidity.com/VOLDE.html

NL3.2: "Other Worlds: Out-Of-Body Experiences and Lucid Dreams" by Lynne Levitan and Stephen LaBerge. Discussion of a laboratory study comparing OBEs and lucid dreams. http://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html

Also: Chapter 9 of LaBerge's book "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming": "Dreaming, Illusion, and Reality" Curiosities of dreaming consciousness: Out-of-body experiences, dream telepathy, and "mutual" or "shared" dreams.

Abundant OBEs (Oddly Blissful Experiences) to all, Keelin