What is lucid dreaming and how rare is it to have?

I've found that I can easily become aware that i'm dreaming. I just have problems controlling what happens. I can fly around, and run amuck, but I can't change anything.

Training isn't that hard. During the day, question if you're dreaming. Try to remember waking up, and everything you did leading up to the current moment. Look at something with letters & numbers, look away for a few seconds, and look back. In the real world, it remains the same, but the dream world should change.

Do a lot of reading on it, especially before bed. I find if I really read into it before going to sleep, I have a better chance of becoming aware.

Hey everyone,

Im a long time reader first time poster and today I've been trying to do a bit of internet research on this topic and I seem to be finding a lot of "How to" guides on this topic, OBE's and astral projection etc

Now I've had these experiences since I was quite young, but over the last few week's I've been experiencing them more and more, such as last week I had three of these, the first being my first OBE, then dream control, then a Lucid dream, which I can remember quite vividly, I think I also once may of astrally projected to another plain but its hard to say

A question I find rarely asked is, what are the implications/applications of this? and how could I use this to develop myself/world further? Any suggestions?

Thanks

reply to post by pepesilvia


You do realize it's not necessary to take Benadryl or any medicine to lucid dream though? I mean really it comes across as if you do in your posts.

Originally posted by $£XXX

A question I find rarely asked is, what are the implications/applications of this? and how could I use this to develop myself/world further? Any suggestions?

Thanks

The implications are staggering. Dreams can be very spiritual. As for developing your world and yourself further... There is nowhere to get, nowhere to go. To be here and now is the goal. Being awake in your dreams is just an extension of being awake in life. You may soon find your dreams are a second home, and they distincly have "that" feeling of paradise. A place where you can go and NOTHING can harm you. For a while it's fun to fight in one and use whatever "powers" come naturally to you, but after a while you realize there IS no fight, and experience itself will suffice. No matter how good of a place you are in, if you don't know how it enjoy it, then it won't matter. I don't know if that directly answers your question, but the dialogue is meant to.

I would recommend dreamviews as well. It's tutorials are spot on. I post over there sometimes, same name.

I've been lucid dreaming since I was born... I don't think it's rare

reply to post by little_green_man


It is, I've never actually met anyone that ever experienced anything of the sort other than on the internet. On the internet there are many who come together that can and have, but the actual number of people that have lucid dreamed is probably less than 1 percent and those who actively pursue it are even less than that.

Then you have the number that are trying to get their first lucid dream, and those like me who just have a few a month that are somewhere in the middle. Some people will spend countless hours before they get their first lucid, and in a way they earned it and worked hard towards it. I wouldn't be in a hurry to make light of it. On one side it's not hard, shouldn't be hard, and not made a big deal of it, but truth is most lucid dreamers have strong self-discipline and daily do tremendous work internally towards their goal of lucid dreaming.

[edit on 31-5-2010 by Novise]

Originally posted by Novise

Originally posted by $£XXX

A question I find rarely asked is, what are the implications/applications of this? and how could I use this to develop myself/world further? Any suggestions?

Thanks

I don't know if that directly answers your question, but the dialogue is meant to.

To be honest any answer Is appreciated and I yours is definitely inspiring,

so far the main rational I've found for dreaming by mainstream science is escapism, but I find I can be quite creative in my dreams, only last night I was having another OBE themed dream which led into a bit of a musical number and I find if I actively get out of bed at the point of hearing the music in my mind I can quickly jump over to my keyboard and write it out.

So I've kind of just realised one possible answer to my own question, I'm going to focus one aspect of my lucidity onto one of the things that makes me feel most alive outside of the dream world, being creative


Sweet dreams

I've read you can train yourself to have lucid dreams. Not sure if it works but a way you can do this is too first keep a diary log of your dreams, and slowly you should start remembering more and more, and process a habit of touching the door frame on your way out of a room so during your dream you will mirror your real life actions and tocuh a door frame in your dream when you move between rooms (this is when the dreamworld kind of teleports you places rather than seeing the room you usually would). So in this case touching the doorframe would make you realise its a dream

I've read you can train yourself to have lucid dreams. Not sure if it works but a way you candiary log of your dreams, and slowly you should start remembering more and more, a do this is too first keep a nd process a habit of touching the door frame on your way out of a room so during your dream you will mirror your real life actions and touch the door frame in your dream when you move between rooms (this is when the dreamworld kind of teleports you places rather than seeing the room you usually would). So in this case touching the doorframe would make you realise its a dream

[edit on 31-5-2010 by TheNewKid]

People dream without lucidity?

How bizarre . . .

I have been having lucid dreams for a long time. And don't know what the dream means a lot of the time, I recently had one where I was swimming in a glass see through tunnel and I was able to make myself fly in and out of the water, as well as breathe under water.

Then a few days ago I was dreaming about going into my grand mother's basement to another dimension with some sort of advanced ancient technology and it had books on the table of the technology and information I assume I needed to know or read in my waking life, but I don't know what the information is I need I just knew to grab the books so I did. And the background looked foggy as I couldn't see clearly in the dimension I was in, the technology was bright yellow. It was weird.

Someone said my dream meant I went through some spiritual ritual to be initiated in the underworld or spiritual world not sure what that means or if that's a good thing.

But I love when I have lucid dreams. I wonder if it helps with your abilities in your waking life like mentally and spiritually. Not sure, but most of my dreams seem to be spiritual.

if anyone is interested in reading or helping me interpret my dreams you can see these two dreams, and apologies to the op I don't mean to h/j the thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I'm not really sure if I'm capable of lucid dreaming, or what, but there are two dreams that I've had recently that stand out to me. The first one happened when I was sleeping in my bed, and the next thing I knew, I was getting out of bed, but I knew it was a dream, and I could think to myself. It wasn't anything like I was looking down on myself, or the other people in my house, like I was floating outside of my body, but it felt like I was awake, only I knew I wasn't. It sounds cliche, but after that, I was like...flying outside. I was above my house, and it actually felt like I was flying. You know, if I knew what flying felt like in real life. I didn't come back to my house, and walk back to my bed or anything, it was just like one minute I was flying and the next, I felt kind of paralyzed, and back in bed, and then I woke up.

Another dream I had was one where I knew I was dreaming, and it was some ridiculous situation, but in the end, I was falling from really far up, and I felt myself hit the ground, I felt my head hit the ground, especially, and in the dream, I woke up to a different dream, like hitting the ground knocked me back into reality, and all of my friends were standing around me, only I wasn't awake yet, and I knew it. It was just all really disorienting, and I'm not even sure if that qualifies as a lucid dream, they both just stood out to me.

I've been Lucid dreaming since I was a kid when I was little I thought it was how dreams naturally worked. There was many strange occurances with my dreams, my mom told me as a young child I would often make strange comments and remarks about stuff that I had dreamed. For example when I was four, I kept talking about my little sister asking where she was, if I could hold her, play with her. This went on for a few days, Funny thing was I didn't have a sister at this time, A week later my mom found out she was pregnant !

I'm now 23 and after returning from a deployment to Afghanistan late last year. My dreams where terrifying every night I would have nightmare after nightmare,but what made it so scary in my mind was my inability to control what happened. The afghan related stuff wasnt what was disturbing per say, but more the fact that I seemed to have no control over what was happening, and it seemed to manifest that I was losing my mind.

I seemed to have lost my ability to lucid dream all together.


I started to development insomina as I was to scared to sleep because of how bad my dreams where becoming and I would will myself NOT to dream or atleast not to recall anything. I went a good 4-5 months without to my knowledge anyway having a single dream. During that time I was receiving help for my problems.

I've started recalling my dreams again in the last 2 months, and Ive had about 7 successful lucid dreams recently. They have been weak however and hard to control, but its slowly coming back.



Has anyone else had anything similar ?? Lost their ability any tips on getting it back ??

reply to post by LittleSecret


never had any training to lucid dream.... I have done it since I was a child but more in my adult life... not sure remembering is part of it... I remember all my dream lucid or not

reply to post by little_green_man


me too... started as a very small child! thought everyone could. I guess we are the true lucid dreamers.... I cannot imagine what would happen if I trained to learn more...scary thought

reply to post by Sacri


I think stress may play a part in not being able to control it... because I have noticed mine is less during that time... I have lucid dreams almost every night. I find it soooo hard to wake up from them. I also find it hard knowing if I am awake or if I am dreaming that I am awake... as lately I seem to do that toward the end

I honestly wonder if I leave my body and haunt old homes as that is what I dream much of the time...

reply to post by TheNewKid


not sure about tapping a door... what I think is meant is.... notice thing that happen in every day... like in most of mine I lost my shoes, or I do pull ups, or I smoke (quit 10 yrs ago) so those are my mental triggers that I am dreaming.... and when that happens my mind knows I am dreaming and I realize then I can do anything I want
so look for triggers... like being naked, or running and not being able to move (two more of my triggers)... everyone has weird things like that they dream over and over ...the more you have lucid dreams the more triggers you make like if my tooth falls out I can put it back in, I can call ghosts in my dreams, I open drawers and rummage thru them... I read letters and remember phone numbers is dreams...enjoy! but I think 75% has to be a natural ability

I find it is just daydreaming to the depth where one reaches a point of emersion.

All IMHO of course.
Many people when listening to non vocal music like opera or classical can just lose them selves in the images the music invokes and it isn't much of a step to choosing the scenes and then smaller details...

Then repeat as you construct the dream and get it like you want it.
As if it was your movie.

Like building a lie, or an aliby...which I think if a person can do, then they can lucid dream.

A certain extreme segment of the population probably can't lucid dream, but I bet it is a tiny minority.
Even visualizing a plan is lucid dreaming, or visualizing a result... a what if...

To be good at lucid dreaming your mind must have enough experience with reality to model correctly...
and it does such an AMAZING job of it too

Learning to let go while directing it is the trick..like down hill kayaking

a reply to: Romantic_Rebel

This is really weird Cuz I've always been able to lucid dream. I don't think I do every night but probably most nights, sometimes if my dream gets a little boring I just start flying around the world or changing the scenery and people and stuff. I genuinely never knew however that this was uncommon.
Since finding this out I'm reading online about people exploring their mind and consciousness and stuff it sounds awesome!

I could remember lucid dreaming a few times.

The shades of color seem a little different especially if I'm dreaming of a place at night (it's night in the dream).

During the day, the colors are the same. When I try to touch anything, I could feel them but with some numbness and some sort of electrical sensation.

Unfortunately, I could not sustain such state for very long. When I'm lucid dreaming, I'm very near the point of waking up. I'm semi-conscious of some sort. and could sometimes look around my bed. I can see everything even if I can feel my real eyes are closed but perception of time is messed up. I would witness the sky turn from black to blue in just seconds and open my eyes and see the same thing.

Unfortunatley these things are rare for me. Only occurs in a very shallow sleep in subconscious state perhaps.