Lucid dreaming: Breaking the barrier

Lucid dreaming, for those of you who don't know, is a dream in which the sleeper is aware that they are dreaming. When the dreamer is lucid, they can actively participate in and often manipulate the imaginary experiences in the dream environment.

It's a powerful way to dream, and for those who do for the first time, normally either fly around or have sex.

Though, I want to do something entire different.

If I am able to manipulate the dream world, I can do ANYTHING. That means, I am able to change myself as well, since I'm part of this dream world.

I became interested into lucid dreaming when I heard of the name Robert Monroe.

He was a researcher in altered consciousness. He died in 1995, but he reported once that he had a 100 year out-of-body experience in two hours. What that means is, he went to sleep, he had an out-of-body experience which lasted 100 years to him, and when he woke up, two hours had only passed.

It was here that I became interested. If I was able to spend 100 years in a dream, doing whatever I could do, the possibilities were endless.

Begin to think about it. If I'm able to manipulate every dream, I could manipulate myself to be able to read books in a second, to research without stop.

The metaphysical world would be at my whim. But then, imagine else.

Let's say I've never been to China. I have a lucid dream, and I decide to go to China. What would China look like? Would it actually be China, as in the same towns, cities, landscapes, or would it be from images I've seen?

And if China was as it is in real life in my dream, would other areas be the same, such as area's within the universe that are thought of to inhabit life...

Oh, the possibilities are endless...

The single hardest thing about lucid dreaming is to keep from getting so excited when you realize that you just became lucid causing you to wake yourself up.

I had a few of them that were very brief, and out of the excitement I awoke every time. Unfortuantely for me, a certain lifestyle choice of mine suppressed my dreams for many years following those experiences, now I am back to trying again, chanting in my head, "Hey, I must be dreaming" while I attempt to sleep.

Sex and flying sound good, but for some reason, I just wanted to be a ninja and kick butt.

I'll always remember one of the first, because I punched a guy, and woke right up, seems I punched my poor girlfriend next to me.

Need to work on that... Must be why I sleep alone now

The possibilities would indeed be endless. Perhaps my interpretation of a lucid dream is off, but as far as research, travel, whatever, wouldn't your experience be limited by your actual knowledge? For example, you could read a book in seconds, but instead of what is actually contained, wouldn't it be what you assume it to be about? I suppose I'm questioning how much knowledge can be gained here as opposed to "play time".

Lucid dreaming is the smoking gun when it comes to proof we are living in a simulation. I have had lucid dreams that were pure reality in my mind. The detail was uncanny to reality. The resolution of the dream in every way was reality, at one point I had no idea it was a dream. Therefore if that can take place in my brain then imagine a computer system with the power of a trillion brains. Such a system could create the simulation easy.

The brain is a powerful too, is it not?

reply to post by Mak Manto


i taught myself to lucid dream, its awesome fun -all you need to do is get into an alpha state (that the science alpha state not the newage nonsense of the same name) and lay down aware that you want to remain aware while you slip into a state of sleep.

the best thing is that you have a higher access to your lower brain functions, it;s easy to create a very complex dream world in which you are aware of hundreds of things in explicit detail -its a really interesting place to be.

reply to post by contemplator


hehe don't be silly - it seemed real.... maybe that's because the bit of your brain that decides whats real was part of the dream? thats the awesomeness of lucid dreaming, your whole brain is in the dream world -you have access to all that computational power, you can create entire simulated situations and react to them as if they were real, something your subliminal brain will NEVER allow you to do while you're awake (its a safety catch)

Originally posted by sticky
The single hardest thing about lucid dreaming is to keep from getting so excited when you realize that you just became lucid causing you to wake yourself up.

I wish you were describing me lol...
I get the opposite problem, I get lucid dreams when I really wish that I was awake enough to get up and get going. I just start dreaming that I'm doing the things I'm trying to wake up and do, and get frustrated because I KNOW that I'm just dreaming it, so I try to end the dream and wake up, only to find that things are changing and getting weird, and I'm just dreaming another round of what I should be doing for real. It takes probably 20 times of thinking "Ok I am going to wake up NOW!!" and then me doing things I hope are real, and dreaming that I've gotten up, and then partway through each bit, thinking, great, I'm still dreaming.... before I may finally wake up, and it's a fight to then stay awake...I'm lucky if I don't roll over and fall back into it....ugh.
.
The thing is, is that I find that scary, and then I get anxious that I'm missing work or an appointment or not getting stuff done that is important, so I don't feel it's the time to take advantage of the lucid dream when it happens....so it's always crap lol
And they always happen during daytime naps, not at night when I have hours left to sleep away, so it really IS a bad time to try and take advantage of it/play with it...
I think it's got to do with some kind of sleep disorder. I set 4 alarms, all different sounds, sometimes 5 if I have my cell charged.....and will sleep through them all, on a bad day....just unbelievable....

Anyway, maybe I'll be able to figure out how to lucid dream like....during my night sleep hours someday lol It's happened once in a while, spontaneously, during non-nap sleep, like....at night....but those are always very short lived lucid spells and then I go into deep dreamless or other sorts of sleep I guess.

reply to post by phoebeflakes


I really wish I had your problem. OK, maybe I don't, that doesn't sound like tons of fun.

It does seem to be a paradox.


[edit on 11-5-2009 by sticky]

[edit on 11-5-2009 by sticky]

reply to post by phoebeflakes


Lucid dreaming happens mostly in REM sleep which is toward the end of your sleep at night, or during daytime naps which is why yours happen during naps. If you want them to happen during normal sleep, sleep a good amount of hours like 8 or 9, then awake for about 30 minutes while thinking about random crap, then fall back to sleep. If you do this right it will happen almost every time.

I'm not sure if you are looking for instructions on how to do it, but here is how I learned.

Before you sleep tell yourself that you want to lucid dream, that you want to be conscious during your dreaming.

Decide on the first conscious action you are going to take, make it extremely simple. Don Juan recommeds looking at your hand.

So when I dream, I am going to look at my hand. I am going to be aware that I am dreaming, take control, and look at my hand.

When you have looked at your hand through an act of will, you will know that you are lucid dreaming.

Here is a warning to you, your concept of dreaming is not that of lucid dreaming. It can be quite a shock to the psyche when you discern that others in your dream are not a product of your imagination.

Meaning, once again keep it simple. Don't just go around causing mayhem. You do not want to be someone else's nightmare!

Well, I've been trying several ways to have a lucid dream, no luck so far, but I'm not despairing.

reply to post by Cyberbian


So your saying other people in my lucid dream are real?
Let's see some proof..


[edit on 5/11/2009 by bl4ke360]

reply to post by bl4ke360


What kind of 'proof' could really prove this sort of thing to you other than trying to experience for yourself? I mean if you're creative enough, you can come up with a pretty legit reason to disbelieve anything so what is the point...

If somebody posted studies done by top notch, reputable researchers, even for me, that would never be good enough. As if people are infallible just because they have a PhD, or immune to motivations like manipulating studies in interest of hidden motivations, just because they're 'reputable'...
And the smarter they are, probably the better they would cover up any connections as to how they were profiting from their 'findings', so even if you want to believe them, if you're at all concerned with proof and being objective, then as your next move, you better start asking for proof that they have pure motives and didn't manipulate the studies...proof that they did everything in those studies exactly as they reported....proof that the participants were honest....oh my, looks like we have a problem here...
So there's that as an example.

In the end you're going to find out that everything will just fall into categories like maybe convincing, not so convincing at all, somewhere in between, and after everything, you'll still have to resort to actually trying to verify things for yourself, or go run some studies yourself, or something.

Or just forget about it eventually...which is my unfortunate tendency lol

I'll try to meet you in my next lucid dream, how's that?

Btw I've never personally seen any reason to believe that the people I see in dreams are real, but I'd also like to find out...

Edit: Erm...and that would be after I learn how to lucid dream better too lol...hopefully thanks to your suggestions
But maybe somebody else would be willing to experiment?? Cuz I would probably suck at it right now...



[edit on 12-5-2009 by phoebeflakes]

reply to post by Cyberbian


I thought lucid dreaming was taking control consiously of your dream, not actually astral traveling to the location where you dream takes place.

I do think there is a parallel reality that we visit when we dream. I go to the same place every night, remember every detail from the night before-- its like my 2nd life when i go there. Different personality, different memories, different needs and wants. Im still aware that It is a dream- the sky might be purple or something is off as dreams are- but the difference is its real. My dreams are becomming as real to me as my waking life.

Sometimes I wonder too if we are just living in pods like the Matrix and that this is all just a game.

reply to post by searching4truth


Research has indicated that true OBE's are much more than Licud Dreams, but have a real world correspondance. In other words, where you go, you actually go, and the things you see there are actually there.

Btw, two ways to stabalize a lucid dream are one, look at your dream hands, or two, spin your dream body and know that the next scene you end up in will also be a lucid dream. So if you cannot stabalize it by looking at your hands, you can spin up a new one by just spinning your dream body.

reply to post by OmegaPoint


I find it very interesting. Do you have any sites or books you can recommend to learn more on the subject. Thanks in advance.

I have a question,
Is lucid dreams the first step to a OBE ?
I would have lucid dreams every so often like twice a year. But the last few months I am able to do it almost every time I take a nap it seems to get easyer every time.
Also does everybody feel and or hear a vibration sensation just before ?
Thanks,
Preston

reply to post by OmegaPoint

Research

Really? got any citations? anything peer reviewed?

It's a nice idea and it really does seem like it sometimes, however it's just not the case - dreamlife is just that a dream, no more. Pretending theirs more too it i feel stops you exploring so much of the awesomeness which is possible when you learn how to understand and access your brain.

made a mistake, edited out and moved, sorry.

[edit on 13-5-2009 by OmegaPoint]