Lucid Dreaming

[Jia]

I’ve had this book about "lucid dreaming" sitting in my bookshelf for years now, and a few days ago I dusted it off with the intention to give the whole thing another try.

In case you’re wondering what “lucid dreaming” is: it’s when you become fully aware that you’re dreaming, while you’re dreaming. This state of consciousness allows you to manipulate your dreams without limitations. The trick behind this is to become aware that you’re dreaming, and not to lose your grasp on the dream once you’re “in control”.
I’ve had the occasional lucid dream every once in a while (without even knowing that there was a term for it), but with varying success of actually staying in control. Since this was a recurring experience throughout my life, I finally did some research on the topic a few years ago and came across this book. I remember having some tangible success with lucid dreaming when I started reading the book, but for some reason I didn't have the time or nerve to continue with it, so it ended up in one of my book shelves, all but forgotten.

I was wondering if anyone was interested in this topic, or if you’ve had any experience with lucid dreaming that you’d like to share?
If there’s any interest, we could use this thread as a bit of a “journal”, and I can post exercises that you can also do, allowing you to accompany me while I (hopefully) make progress in this venture.

For the record, I know that this topic sounds strangely esoteric. However, lucid dreaming is real, and I’ve made the experience that it works for me if I actually put some effort into the exercises.

 

[tr1age]

I've heard of this book.

 

[Jia]

sweetloaf Don't knock it until you've tried it, foo!

 

[sweetloaf]

A few of my friends do this as a sort of recreational drug. I've had a few of them myself but I usually wind up having a weird cartoony experience and then lose control and wake up. I'd be interested in trying to unlock my brains crazy parts with you guys, though. I'm interested in the book you've got, any chance you can share what it is?

EDIT: totally just realized you linked the book....

 

[Jia]

Yea, you can get the paperback for just a few bucks, second hand.

I read the first 75-ish pages back when I bought it, and the first thing that I noticed after doing some of the exercises was that I started remembering my dreams after waking up (most of the time I'm not even aware of dreaming at all). After a few days I even started recalling multiple dreams that I had during the night.
I started gaining consciousness during my dreams after a while, but quickly lost control of them due to over-excitement.

 

[Keleynal]

I used to have semi lucid dreams. By semi, I mean that I realized I was asleep, but I seemed to have control only of myself. The setting remained the same, unless I left the area. The way I sensed things in dreams was different than real life, though. It was more of a knowing what was going on around me rather than actually seeing, hearing, feeling, and smelling. There would be fleeting images, but not a fully realized world.

Typically, the dream would begin without me knowing it was a dream, but then something weird or impossible would occur and I'd realize I was dreaming. I would then usually spend the rest of the time flying around randomly, which was a lot of fun. If there were other people there with some kind of issue, I would usually help solve the problem. Every once in awhile there'd be an attractive girl and stuff would happen.

I think I stopped having dreams like that after I got into college, so I think it was a puberty thing.

 

[Zakis]

Does this involve Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page and folding buildings together? If it does then I'm in.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4

 

[tr1age]

I used to have semi lucid dreams. By semi, I mean that I realized I was asleep, but I seemed to have control only of myself. The setting remained the same, unless I left the area. The way I sensed things in dreams was different than real life, though. It was more of a knowing what was going on around me rather than actually seeing, hearing, feeling, and smelling. There would be fleeting images, but not a fully realized world.

Typically, the dream would begin without me knowing it was a dream, but then something weird or impossible would occur and I'd realize I was dreaming. I would then usually spend the rest of the time flying around randomly, which was a lot of fun. If there were other people there with some kind of issue, I would usually help solve the problem. Every once in awhile there'd be an attractive girl and stuff would happen.

I think I stopped having dreams like that after I got into college, so I think it was a puberty thing.

I've had the girl one. Then forgot again mid way in the dream I was dreaming an freaked out cause we didn't use a condom.

 

[TIG]

I've had lucid dreams. I do have trouble staying in them cause I get fixated on one thing I want do make right and then loose control. I have had some success with techniques to gain more control, just never put a ton of effort into it. I have flown a few times, and beaten up people I hate a few times. Most of the time I start trying to do a thing or control the dream, but get sidetracked and the dream takes back over.

One way I can tell I am in a dream is if I try to write something down, or dial a phone. It comes out super garbled and then I concentrate all my focus on getting it done right. I actually concentrate so hard, that I trigger the memory I always have the next day that dialing a phone is only hard in a dream, then I realize I am in the dream, then I mess around.

The biggest benefit I have found with this is anxiety dreams. You know, where you are late for something, or show up to school in your underwear. My recurring one is I am a waiter and I have tons of tables but none of the orders are being taken, or the food is behind, and I have to juggle a million things and fix all the problems at once. Super stressful. Now because of my learning how to lucid dream a bit, once I start to feel that stress I can realize its a dream and "change the channel" so to speak. I basically turn off the dream and let another one take its place. The next one is not lucid, but I also don't wake up in a sweat because I'm scared I'm gonna get fired.

 

[Zakis]

I can't say I have had too many dreams where I am in control completely, but I have had dreams where I knew I was asleep, or dreams that were so real, that it translated over when I was awake.

One I remember because it struck such a chord with me. Years ago I had been reading "On the Beach" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(novel) for school and it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world dealing with the aftermath of a Nuclear War. It describes some of the symptoms of radiation sickness, including acute stomach pains as part of it. After finishing that book I had vivid dreams that I was in that world and eventually overtaken by raidiation and I would wake up out of the dream with serious stomach pains. To this day, I haven't really had a book affect me like that.

Another time, way back in junior high, I spent a whole night playing through Half-Life with Corvus Rex if I am not mistaken. That morning after he left and I finally passed out, I had lucid dreams where I was running through Black Mesa as myself, helping Gordon Freeman on his quest to crowbar every headcrab in existence. I knew I was dreaming but I was in full control and in the game world in my head. I cant remember why I woke but as I transitioned to awake I had my hands in position like I was holding a shotgun and running and gunning. It was weird.

These days my work schedule gives me some weird sleep sessions, which results in some wacky dreams. Haven't had a lucid one but just all jumbles of all kinds of stuff.

 

[Jia]

Every once in awhile there'd be an attractive girl and stuff would happen.

I've had the girl one. Then forgot again mid way in the dream I was dreaming an freaked out cause we didn't use a condom.

Having sex in a lucid dream is a classic (the realization that you can have sex with anyone in your dream world is tempting after all!), and from what I know it's also one of the quickest ways to lose control over your dream. I figure it's because having sex is about letting yourself go, and letting yourself go makes you lose control over the dream.

ThatOneGuy
Haha, I was almost certain that you'd have active experience with lucid dreaming, or that this thread would spark your interest in it. You're actually the reason why I decided to post this thread, despite having some doubts about whether this would be the right "forum" for it!

One way I can tell I am in a dream is if I try to write something down, or dial a phone. It comes out super garbled and then I concentrate all my focus on getting it done right. I actually concentrate so hard, that I trigger the memory I always have the next day that dialing a phone is only hard in a dream, then I realize I am in the dream, then I mess around.

For those unfamiliar with this whole lucid dreaming thing, there are a few tell signs for when you're dreaming. The trick is to pay attention to these triggers while you're awake, so your mind will realize that it's sleeping when you encounter them in your dream.

Tig's phone dialing is a good example: Reading/writing is no issue while you're awake, but it's hard/impossible to actually make out numbers or letters in a dream, it's all garbled nonsense. You'll also have trouble reading your digital alarm clock in a dream.

Other things include hitting a light switch to turn off the lights in a room (which doesn't work in a dream, the lights stay on); holding your hand in front of your mouth and nose to stop your breathing (you continue breathing in a dream); jumping and trying to perform a pirouette in a dream (it usually turns into a weird Matrix-like moment where you jump super slow, super high, or you just hover in mid-air).
These are all exercises that you can do while you're awake. The more often you think about these things, the more triggers you'll have in your dream.

There's a lot more to say about this, but I'd be getting ahead of myself (and the book).

The biggest benefit I have found with this is anxiety dreams.

Yea, I've also realized that I can squelch my fear during a nightmare, simply by realizing that it's a dream. While I haven't managed to "switch the channel" entirely, I'm usually able to experience the dream with curiosity instead of panic.

I can't say I have had too many dreams where I am in control completely, but I have had dreams where I knew I was asleep, or dreams that were so real, that it translated over when I was awake. (...) After finishing [On The Beach] I had vivid dreams that I was in that world and eventually overtaken by raidiation and I would wake up out of the dream with serious stomach pains.

The question is: What came first, the dream or the pain?
Waking up feeling the pain that I was experiencing in the dream has happened to me a couple of times before. Though in my case, the pain came by itself during my sleep, and my dream started to interpret the pain.

Once I had stomach/chest pains from something that I ate, and in my dream I was flying an old WW2 biplane. Every time a wave of chest pain set in, the plane would stall and nose-dive towards the ground, and I'd have to struggle to regain control over it in my dream. After a while I woke up to the pain and realized that it came from something bad that I had eaten before going to bed.

I also having those game-dreams every now and then, particularly after a gaming marathon. When I've spent literally the entire day playing a game, I'll still "see" the game when I close my eyes. And since that's the only thing my mind is occupied with, it seems logical that I'd end up dreaming about it as well!

 

[Corvus Rex]

Spoiler

I can't say I have had too many dreams where I am in control completely, but I have had dreams where I knew I was asleep, or dreams that were so real, that it translated over when I was awake.

One I remember because it struck such a chord with me. Years ago I had been reading "On the Beach" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(novel) for school and it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world dealing with the aftermath of a Nuclear War. It describes some of the symptoms of radiation sickness, including acute stomach pains as part of it. After finishing that book I had vivid dreams that I was in that world and eventually overtaken by raidiation and I would wake up out of the dream with serious stomach pains. To this day, I haven't really had a book affect me like that.

Another time, way back in junior high, I spent a whole night playing through Half-Life with Corvus Rex if I am not mistaken. That morning after he left and I finally passed out, I had lucid dreams where I was running through Black Mesa as myself, helping Gordon Freeman on his quest to crowbar every headcrab in existence. I knew I was dreaming but I was in full control and in the game world in my head. I cant remember why I woke but as I transitioned to awake I had my hands in position like I was holding a shotgun and running and gunning. It was weird.

These days my work schedule gives me some weird sleep sessions, which results in some wacky dreams. Haven't had a lucid one but just all jumbles of all kinds of stuff.

Ha... Crowbar Cleanup Crew... I remember that.

I don't remember this "junior high" to which you are referring though. :alien5:

 

[Keleynal]

I also having those game-dreams every now and then, particularly after a gaming marathon. When I've spent literally the entire day playing a game, I'll still "see" the game when I close my eyes. And since that's the only thing my mind is occupied with, it seems logical that I'd end up dreaming about it as well!

I used to dream about WoW on a fairly regular basis. Makes sense since I was playing it for about 40 hours a week during my peak time.

 

[ToxicAsF]

Not to be a downer, but I'd rather sleep and escape reality, rather than re-creating it.

 

[Baldoraxx]

I sometimes get hit by a truck, the falling sensation, running away from something scared to death, getting caught and waking up. I have an occasional "good dream". Never had a "wet dream". Remembered some of my dreams and half the time fall asleep and wake up. Not a very fluidness to my schedule

 

[TIG]

I've had dreams about GW2 when we were just starting and putting lots of hrs/day into it. Never did with WoW. I've had sexy dreams but never "finished" in them, something always gets in the way. I honestly think that part of that is that I go from relationship to relationship with very little single dating time in between. I have an incredibly strong aversion to cheating so that even in my dream I put obstacles in my way.

Jia is right, one of the best ways to get yourself lucid in a dream is to do things in your every day life and observe the fact by asking yourself if you are in a dream or awake. That way you train yourself to do it in the dream, and if you are in a dream it makes you aware.

Things like writing, dialing a phone, telling the time, going through doors, turning around, all are different or harder to do in a dream. Like when you go through a door or turn around many times in a dream the scene changes from what it was. If you can train yourself to automatically look for those signs then you can get lucid.

Another was is when you wake up and had a particularly high emotion dream, link that emotion from that specific dream to you telling yourself you are dreaming. Like with my anxiety dreams that emotion triggered me realizing I was in the dream after I had a few and told myself it was a dream.

 

[sweetloaf]

Not to be a downer, but I'd rather sleep and escape reality, rather than re-creating it.

I've never recreated reality in my dreams, I have however been a Samurai Wizard, a Dragon Slayer and a pimp.

 

[ToxicAsF]

No, my dreams aren't ever crazy or weird, it's always a real life scenario recreated or modified.

 

[TIG]

Not to be a downer, but I'd rather sleep and escape reality, rather than re-creating it.

Lucid dreaming is escaping reality because you know its a dream and you suddenly gain super powers pretty much. You can fly, or change the world around, or whatever you want comes true.

I keep coming back to the anxiety dreams, but its a perfect example. Anything shitty in your dream "life" you can fix and wipe away the bad stuff. And its not just the feeling of ignoring it, its like you re-wrote reality and everything is good in the world. If that isn't the heart of escaping reality, I don't know what is.