Thread: Who started "Lucid Dreaming" & "Dream Control" on their own Naturally?

Originally Posted by MethodAces

In the recent years I'm more partial to knowing the entire time that I'm having a "normal" dream that I can control it at any time. I kind of enjoy not simply powering through everything and seeing what my mind comes up with. It's already been mentioned that Zombie killing can be fun, I get a kick out of those dreams. Advancing hordes are pushed back easily, immolating them as they run forward. Usually I'm protecting a group of people be it family, friends or complete strangers in those dreams.

After reading this thread I'm really, really happy I never looked up lucid dreaming until now. I think seeing any kind of limitations would totally choke my ability now. I can completely understand why someone would seek out information if they had just started. I guess my general apathy toward the subject left me a window of opportunity to learn it myself.

You sound like me. I know what you mean about doing the "Free Dreaming". It gets boring after awhile to control everything. It is fun to let the the dream takes its course without too much interference. Welcome aboard.

I'm 43, and was lucid dreaming and controlling my dreams from as far back as I can remember... years before I knew the terminology. I used to think everyone could control their dreams, and feel as if they were real, and remember every detail as if you were awake. I was about 12 when I figured this was not the case.

I'm 38 y.o. I started to have lucid dreams around the age of 12 i guess. I mean, i did not know that it had that name, or techniques to control it, bur everytime i had a bad dream, i knew that i was dreaming and i knew how to wake up: i had to find a way to die or to have a great shock (running into a wall, diving to and ocean to drown, jumping from an higher ground,...). So, i was lucid on these dreams. I thought it was normal. But talking to my brothers, none of them had this. Since then, i've been having more lucid dreams where i could study what was going on (paying attention to details, characters, colors, etc).
Just 1 or 2 years ago, i started to question more about this, what was it called. Now i'm all interested in this, studying techniques, reading books and all that.

I was able to lucid dream naturally, but I never got good at it until I gained my interest in it.

Old thread but timeless.

I was about 10 also when started lucid dreaming. Started with nightmares. I asked some advice from someone I trusted and they told me to confront my dreams, gave me a few ideas to start with. Its been over 30 years now, but from that first foray into dreams I learned that through meditation, I could AT. At the time I had no idea that there were names for these things, I just kind of learned as I went...same as many others posting here. Been doing dream readings for most of my life too. Newly discovered RV. Also something that I had done once or twice w/o knowing there was a name for it.

Glad to know there are so many that are "older" now that were natural as youngsters. I am curious to know why.

Originally Posted by kadie

Old thread but timeless.

I was about 10 also when started lucid dreaming. Started with nightmares. I asked some advice from someone I trusted and they told me to confront my dreams, gave me a few ideas to start with. Its been over 30 years now, but from that first foray into dreams I learned that through meditation, I could AT. At the time I had no idea that there were names for these things, I just kind of learned as I went...same as many others posting here. Been doing dream readings for most of my life too. Newly discovered RV. Also something that I had done once or twice w/o knowing there was a name for it.

Glad to know there are so many that are "older" now that were natural as youngsters. I am curious to know why.

I don't visit this site too much anymore. After talking to several people I found out there wasn't much the others here could teach me. It looks like the people that learned naturally at a young age just figured it out on their own. If you check my posts from the past you can learn more about my experiences. The one thing I was trying to figure out here was never answered. I want to try to connect to someone in a dream and pass information that could be verified. I always wondered if the dream was only in your head or was it something more. I'm still trying to figure that part out.

I am kind of wondering the same thing now, but only because I came to this site and saw some others posting about shared dreaming. So I guess old dogs can learn some new tricks. I am also skeptical about what and why people LD now. Seems like a lot of video game stuff. Since I could care less about video games, and throwing fireballs and fighting zombies I don't lucid dream much anymore. I still use it if there is a recurring theme or recurring dreamscape to break through and find the reason. Even that is rare.
At any rate, I'm glad you started this thread. Until now, I have only interacted with one or two natural early LDers.

For me, it went hand in hand - I had a few vague lucids and strange dream experiences. Through then researching in that direction out of interest, I begun to have more experiences, and continue to read.

Originally Posted by PlanesWalker

Sounds like more than a few of us have gained our lucid ability in part because of nightmares. I find it interesting that these traits show up in childhood. Perhaps all people naturally have an inclination towards lucid dreaming, but only those that choose to make something of it, continue to do so. It also seems that a person can regain their awareness of it at any time. I used to try to WILD without knowing it as a child, although I can't remember any successful tries. I would try to force myself to recognize the point in time that I began Dreaming, by trying to remain aware while I fell asleep. I became extremely interested in Dreams early on because it struck me as fascinating that they paralleled waking life in many ways, but yet they didn't seem to have any lasting effect. Then of course the déjà vu was always intriguing.

Yes that is very interesting. I used to also have constant horrible and often demonic nightmares. I also had a few nice lds starting way back since age 4 (am now 25). I also used to practice working on controlling my vision every day in a game i used to play. http://www.dreamviews.com/dream-cont...-tutorial.html

This also led to daymares which when not just full on schizophrenia type hallucinations would often lead to my death in a way that seemed completely real, i would live it out, then experience car crash, falling, getting shot, and pain, then death, and then i would snap back to reality as if it never happened. Kind of like the premonition in the beginning of final destination movies cept these never came true.

I was raised a Methodist, and back then i used to think this was demons messing with me, and often called out to God for help, which never did any good, then usually ended up running away from the dream and waking myself up to escape. This persisted until i became the scariest thing in my night and daymares and began fighting back.

In most of my dreams back then i was an adult, i guess because i wanted to be older. Some of my dreams were even power ranger or dbz themed lol. I very early on i got pretty good with teleportation, flight, and general manipulation through my vision control system thanks to the mind games i would play every night before bed.

I got into psionics in around my early-mid teens, which drastically increased what i could do in my dreams through creation and programming of thoughtforms, and some other stuff. I didn't know what an LD was until around my mid teens as well. I didn't know how our why things worked, i just knew that they did, and so i tried expand on what i was capable of and see how far i could push things.

Most of the reason i didn't find out about LDs until so late is because like others, every time i tried to mention things to a family member or friend, they would think i was crazy, and i usually tried to mention just the tame stuff, leaving the daymares, ect, out of it. So for the longest time i didn't talk about any of this. I think i learned a bit about dreams in the psion community. I mentioned some things to some of my friends there mostly because they seemed like much more open minded people.

Thank you for making this thread, I'm interested in reading more about other natural LDers.

Between the ages of about 9 and 12 I had about 8 or 10 lucid dreams. (Heck a few of them are in my Dream Journal, when I got bored, I entered some of them in.) Most of them were pretty short, and I didn't really know what lucid dreaming was or that it could be induced. But what was strange about them was that my dream control was really powerful.

Just curious, but any of you older natural LDers ever successfully mess around with shared dreaming or manipulating the perceived flow of time within dreams so that a single dream feels like a very long time?

Originally Posted by Mylynes

Just curious, but any of you older natural LDers ever successfully mess around with shared dreaming or manipulating the perceived flow of time within dreams so that a single dream feels like a very long time?

I've tried to connect to another person during a dream. To verify I was trying to pass some piece of information to the other person during the dream. I was never successful. I was just trying to figure out if dreams our only in your mind or something more. I've heard of others here that said they have done it and do it all the time. But by reading their comments I doubt it. There are tons of people that brag of all the things they can do in the dream world on this site. A lot of them of just full of it. It seems like the best Dream Controllers are the ones that learned on their own at a young age.

Time in a dream always seems much longer than in real life. I've tested this. I have the ability to wake myself up anytime during a dream. I have a clock that projects the time on the ceiling. I would look at the clock before the dream and have a pretty long dream. Then force myself awake. It showed only a few minutes have passed in reality. But in my dream it seemed like hours or even days sometimes. I just figured your mind can think much faster when the body wasn't involved. At least that is my theory. What is your experience?

Will answer a bit more - fantastic thread - there are many posts I want to answer to and ask questions.
Myself - I had LDs as a young child - must be somewhere from 4 to 7 years of age.
But the only thing I remember is opening the kitchen window - they started from my bed - don't know if I had OBEs (as in "experience" - not AP).
Then I jumped out - imagined a resistance in the air, against which I could "swim" - and went exploring.

I think, I lost them because of the many removals following that time - my mother changing job and/or stepfather.

Only with 20 and reading Castaneda did I get back there.
First time having such an intense experience - and together with superstitions, also from the books - I had enough of it for 10 years.
And later in the beginning of my thirties again. But only a handful on both occasions combined.
And now - with (almost) 40.

Since I lost it again - also as a child - I do not have great dream-control now - but some things seem surprisingly easy to me.
For example upgrading my flying manoeuvres - I tried out almost all techniques for it I came across now - and they worked out instantly and perfectly - incl. extremely fast flight - which unfortunately scared me, since I took off at an angle which would have led me into space.
Could hit myself for not going there.

@EricinLA...you might check out the Beyond Dreaming section. Member WakingNomad has a shared dreaming thing going on. He has a lot of experience with it. Ill get on here later and give you a few links or PM me if you like.

I've had lucid dreams ever since I was a child. I didn't know what they were and thought they were a lot more common. I will just sometimes realise something odd is happening and I'm dreaming. I just don't normally have a lot of control. I dreamed a few weeks ago I was at my old school and it caught fire. I realised I was dreaming but instead of flying or whatever I made the fire stop. I can control it but I'm not thinking rationally enough to do anything fun.

Originally Posted by kadie

@EricinLA...you might check out the Beyond Dreaming section. Member WakingNomad has a shared dreaming thing going on. He has a lot of experience with it. Ill get on here later and give you a few links or PM me if you like.

I've messaged WakingNomad in the past. After going back and forth with him, I have a lot of doubts on what he saying he has accomplished. This is based on my own experience over the last 35 years of LD & DC. Don't believe everything you read on here. Many tend to brag about things. I only know 100% on what I can do in a dream. Take things with a grain of salt. I just decided to keep growing on my own and maybe help others here now and then.

The only shared dreaming experience that I had which I would consider somewhat successful was back in High School. I was in a long-distance relationship with this girl that was extremely open-minded about things like lucid dreaming and she also happened to be brilliant. I decided one night to try to visit her in my dreams. I didn't tell her about it either, to keep the experiment solid. That night I meditated in my dreams and I focused on the image of her and felt the energy that came from that image. Then I looked for that unique energy signature in the world around me. I eventually found her in this one direction and she was laying down in her bed, so I got in with her and held her/cuddled for awhile. The next day she called me and we were talking and she suddenly asked me, "So...was that you in my bed last night, giving me a hug?" I was like " O.O wtf, really?" She then said, "I knew it, I was just wondering who it was". I was shocked about how blasé she acted, I guess this was something that she had experience with. I don't know what this whole experience was about because it wasn't similar at all to how people on this forum describe astral travel or out of body experiences, it was just like a regular dream in which I was in control but I used my intent to visit someone.

anotherdreamer,

Thanks for sharing. I've yet to accomplish shared dreaming with any verifiable proof that meets my simple standard. Passing some information to the other person that they can tell me the next day. I've thought sometimes I did it. But the person can't tell me the message the next day. Maybe it can't be done.

Almost 22 and have had clear, vivid, lucid dreams that I most of the time can control when I so choose. I remember my dream most nights, though I will occasionally go several weeks without remembering, typically due to stress..... actually seemed to be easier before I came to this site and tried some of the things. So now I mostly write down in the dream journal and occasionally ask possible meanings (yep I'm that weirdy). I'm thankful for this site as I've learned a lot of new things.

I on command switch into my animal forms that I am so named after in my dreams. I fly on a whim. Have a dream guy (though that has gotten a tad awkward lately). Pretty much if I actually want it to happen it will, but I still enjoy following along with what my mind lays out... sure someday it may not have anything new but for now I can enjoy it. I love dreaming for sure.

I have had 2 LDs as a child. IN the first one, I was performing dream control very well(teleportation, summoning), but was a short one. The second was a longer and weirder one, but I didn't really do anything, just walk there and observe how the edge of the dream was nothing, wight.

Originally Posted by EricinLA

You sound like me. I know what you mean about doing the "Free Dreaming". It gets boring after awhile to control everything. It is fun to let the the dream takes its course without too much interference. Welcome aboard.

I have a nagging feeling, that my LDs now are comparatively plain - maybe because of the expectation to have to produce everything consciously.
I sometimes wonder, if I read too much about stuff - also on here - which now hinders me in developing dreams.
The most beautiful experience in terms of a complete world full of wonders and details and seeming independence of me - really almost heart-breakingly beautiful - was a semi-lucid.
I knew, I was dreaming - but wasn't aware of having dream-control.
And a real lucid around that time too - having control - but it was taking place in a fully rendered and wondrous world of it's own, too.
These were in my last little dip into it - with 30 and without having read about dream-control and difficulties and the like.

I have plans for my LDing, which are plain practical - like practising darts - but I wish, I had more of my natural dream-generation when lucid now.
Seems I do not tap the full wealth of imagination automatically these days - and not having the capacity to create something as marvellous directly (yet?).

Hm, hm. What to do?

Originally Posted by kadie

I am kind of wondering the same thing now, but only because I came to this site and saw some others posting about shared dreaming. So I guess old dogs can learn some new tricks. I am also skeptical about what and why people LD now. Seems like a lot of video game stuff. Since I could care less about video games, and throwing fireballs and fighting zombies I don't lucid dream much anymore. I still use it if there is a recurring theme or recurring dreamscape to break through and find the reason. Even that is rare.
At any rate, I'm glad you started this thread. Until now, I have only interacted with one or two natural early LDers.

I guess, this is a state, I would want to have one day as well - having a background lucidity to go after recurring themes and try to decipher them and the like. But mostly just follow my dreams semi-consciously without messing about with them overly much. That seems to me more interesting.
But only after I got the hang of all the possibilities to do the interfering in the first place and feel really proficient with it.
That besides using LD for defined purposes connected to real life.

Originally Posted by EricinLA

.. The one thing I was trying to figure out here was never answered. I want to try to connect to someone in a dream and pass information that could be verified. I always wondered if the dream was only in your head or was it something more. I'm still trying to figure that part out.

Originally Posted by EricinLA

I've messaged WakingNomad in the past. After going back and forth with him, I have a lot of doubts on what he saying he has accomplished. This is based on my own experience over the last 35 years of LD & DC. Don't believe everything you read on here. Many tend to brag about things. I only know 100% on what I can do in a dream. Take things with a grain of salt. I just decided to keep growing on my own and maybe help others here now and then.

Originally Posted by EricinLA

anotherdreamer,

Thanks for sharing. I've yet to accomplish shared dreaming with any verifiable proof that meets my simple standard. Passing some information to the other person that they can tell me the next day. I've thought sometimes I did it. But the person can't tell me the message the next day. Maybe it can't be done.

How come, you expect shared dreaming to be possible in the first place?

Looks like you put time and energy into the project without having found success at all.
This is hard to understand for me - for me to throw overboard all counter-arguments towards the possibility in general - would require me to at least have several occurrences of my own, which defy my rational understanding, if I took them at face value.
I would go further in contemplating, that all experience could be my mind deceiving itself anyway - but something overwhelmingly strange would have to occur to myself for me to be interested so much.

I am totally unimpressed by what I read on sd-experiences on here, too. Mostly without doubting the honesty of the reports - just they lend themselves super-easily to other interpretation. Yeah - and people bragging, too of course - and biasing reports/recall from so much wanting to believe.

I think I fell just short of starting naturally, I always felt very...connected...to dreams. One day I was reading around random things (as I do) and read up something on dream control/lucid dreaming. I had no particular focus on trying it, I simply found the subject interesting and had approached it with an open mind, then I had an LD that very night.

This was a long time ago and even when I had phases where I'd lost interest and was putting no effort into it I would get an LD once every few weeks. I think reading the sentence "to take control of a dream you have to know that you're dreaming" made it all click for me.

Here is a quick link to a SD site as well as other dream info.
Dream Related Sites on the Net - International Association for the Study of Dreams

Origionally posted by StephL

This is hard to understand for me - for me to throw overboard all counter-arguments towards the possibility in general - would require me to at least have several occurrences of my own, which defy my rational understanding, if I took them at face value.
I would go further in contemplating, that all experience could be my mind deceiving itself anyway - but something overwhelmingly strange would have to occur to myself for me to be interested so much

I feel the same as you on this, but shortly after coming here and reading about shared dreaming, I had a very strange experience. See my post "Is it rude" for the example.
I have never had that feeling before, but I am not yet willing to say it was anything other that my overactive subconscious.