Thread: How do you fly?

Hehe, interesting question. In my first lucid I was like: OMGTHISISAWESOME and without any further ado I rushed out of the window by hacking it into two with a hand-palm-ninja-chop.
Then I launched myself into the air and flew naturally. Then later as I got a bit clearer in my head I thought "heh, this stuff is easy." That realization greatly helped me fly in my dreams,
since it eliminated my uncertainty. Now I can just fly freely on command.

With my arms in front of me like supernan lol

I am still doing the "swim," though I am planning on busting out of that soon. Looking forward to flying at high speeds without moving my hands all the time! What is funny is that in a lucid that turned into a semi-lucid, I flew around with no issues. I just knew I wanted to fly (it was at some black-tie affair, lol) and so I did. It's interesting, but dream control is easier for me when I am only semi-lucid.

I bounce hard of the ground, gain gong air every time I bounce until I just float.

For some reason, whenever I'm in a flying dream (whether it be lucid or not) it takes a ton of effort to get me off the ground and stay off the ground. Usually I end up falling back to earth...

I tried "superman" flying and arm-flapping. Neither work good for me.
I had an LD last night and this time I've tried something different - I imagined impulses of energy firing from my hands and it propelled me trough the air. Worked better but still I can't really reliably fly in dreams, speed and direction seems random, so I can't really give you any tips.

It seems like flying is easy for some, and not so much for others.
I flew in my first LD when I was 9, but I had to figure out how before I could, and I still have to use the same technique.
I have to just let myself fall forward so that weightlessness catches me, if I try to just fly or jump, or dive off a tall place I'll just fall.
Weightlessness has to catch me first, THEN I need some form of propulsion or the wind will just blow me around, or I float whichever way is slightly downhill.
Usually I just imagine that I have rocket boots and that works fine. I've gone from the ground, into low earth orbit, then back down and turned at the last second and zoomed right along the ground, all in about 10 seconds using rocket boots. They are incredibly fast.
I had an iron man suit on once and that was awesome too
Another thing I do once I have my weightlessness Is I can run along the ground (with only about 1/3 of my weight on my feet) and get up to about 50-60 mph then jump and I can glide for about 1/4 mile.
I think the reason I need propulsion, and can't just fly is because I'm a pretty technically thinking person, being able to move without some form of physical propulsion just doesn't compute with my brain. I think with more practice and control I'll be able to fly with no outside propulsion, although having rocketboots is pretty cool.

I used to have lucid dreams as an elementary school child - the ones I still remember all started in our house, and the only thing, I remember properly about them, was jumping out of the kitchen window, second story, and then using swimming motions to fly - that's what I did very many times - maybe always on the onset.
This is still the technique, which never fails me - even when I jump from a standing position, but it's awkward then.
Besides that - floating over the ground - it often happens on it's own - otherwise a little jump is enough, or several.
Meanwhile I tried other methods - for example for the last competition I tried superwoman flight - standing on a trailer - I just raised my arm up - and wooosh.
I almost left the atmosphere so fast did I fly - and to my embarrassment - it scared the living daylights out of me.
Finally I managed to stop the ascent with taking my arm down and accepting a bit of falling, until I caught myself.
One of my dream-goals is to grow proper wings...

I usually jump off the ground, and have an intention or will to fly into the air. Lately I've been having trouble though and had used the superman way recently. Yeah, for some reason arm motions help with floating or flying in the air. I don't know why but I'll be flying up to a certain height and then I start to fall back down, or I can't really float/fly at all. It used to be easier maybe I need more practice lol or a different mindset.

The only way that I could fly for a long time was by flapping my wings like a bird. It was kinda silly, but it was consistent and it worked.
But during one lucid dream I decided I wanted to fly like Iron Man. So I summoned a suit and got in. It was amazing having all of that control! Especially with the use of my hands to go in any direction. From then on in LD's I just imagined I had a suit on and thats how I have gotten around ever since.

I struggled with flying for ages when I started lucid dreaming. I got around it by using a magic carpet, since I found conjuration much easier.
I've used various other methods over the years: flapping, superman pose, jet pack hands, hovering, forming a tornado around me that carries me into the sky...
One of my favourite 'moves' when I first become lucid (if I'm in a place I don't want to be) is making a fist and smashing through the ceiling!

I've flown a lot of ways. It took me a long time to be able to do it consistently. In my head I needed to believe, and since what you believe should change how you act or you don't actually believe it, then I went sky diving without a parachute (out of a car mostly) and it started catching on, but then a DC showed me how to fly and it stuck with me.

@ stephl, most people that grow wings in a dream have them all the time and can feel them even when awake. It seems like something worth trying!

Originally Posted by Sensei

I've flown a lot of ways. It took me a long time to be able to do it consistently.
In my head I needed to believe, and since what you believe should change how you act or you don't actually believe it,

Um. Sorry - but I don't quite understand what you mean here.
So you needed to believe in your ability to fly - and this should change how you act ?
"or you don't actually believe it,"
Do you mean, that proof for actual believing is that it works? Or only that believing should change how you act. Does it mean, you need to believe, and then hope that you change what you do, and then it might work?

Originally Posted by Sensei

then I went sky diving without a parachute (out of a car mostly) and it started catching on,

You went skydiving in real life? Wow!!
Or do I misunderstand you here - how can you go skydiving out of a car - in dreams or reality? I can't picture it.

Originally Posted by Sensei

but then a DC showed me how to fly and it stuck with me.

This is cool - did you ask this DC to do that - or did the initiative come from the DC? Which technique did you use there?

Originally Posted by Sensei

@ stephl, most people that grow wings in a dream have them all the time and can feel them even when awake. It seems like something worth trying!

Well, well, well - I sense an appeal here - along the lines of - you know, I as a born again Christian have something in and about me, which corresponds to metaphorical and/or metaphysical wings! And you can supposedly actually feel them in daily life? Can you really feel something, with your senses, at your back and/or shoulders?
Now such a thing could seriously irritate me, I have to say!
Then you imply that I should maybe "try" as well - try getting born again into Christianity? And these wings come with the deal? Is that what you are saying?

Naa - you probably mean, that once I have been lucidly flying with wings, or after quite many such times - I might also feel "bewinged" in real life and in a beautifully lofty way - and only metaphorically?
Hehe - I guess, I suspect Christian literalism lurking behind every bush of yours lately - sorry, if it was only in my head!
It was, wasn't it?

Haha, stephl, it was all in your head.

If what you believe doesn't change how you act, then you don't really believe it. This is a Christian idea yes, but it applies to all life. For instance, if I believe that I can fly, then I should have no problem jumping out of a flying car. I have been skydiving in waking life and in dreams. The jumping out of a car was to prove that I believed that I could fly. Since I feel pain in dreams, falling from that height takes a little more nerve Haha.

A DC came up and showed me. No prompting from me. The way he did it was like walking, so I use walking control a lot. Think of it like this:
Go to your door and back. When you sit back down, then think about your walking, did you pay any attention to it when walking? Probably not, you just knew you could do it because you do it all the time. There was no "ok, I am going to walk now" it didn't cross your mind. This is how I started flying, I just think about it as little as i think of walking. Now I have a bunch of different ways to fly, imagination speed is one of the most fun, and it was also taught by the same DC in a later dream.

Yeah, I wasnt talking about Christians, I was talking about... Oreo, scionox, and thorn. They all have wings like that.

I don't put dual meanings into what I say, I say what I mean and I try to make it clear and concise what i am saying. I grew up with sisters and no brothers, so I try to make sure that what.I say can only be taken in one way, because teenage girls can be crazy!

Thank you for your answer!
smile.gif

Originally Posted by StephL

Thank you for your answer!
smile.gif

I feel like there is a hidden meaning there. I shall take you at what you said though. You are welcome.

No double meanings - I actually wanted to explicitly and only be friendly here!
I respect you especially for your proficiency in LDing and dream-control.
Just thinking, you are a victim of mass-delusion.
But that is completely off topic here.

I have something on topic!
Typing flies pretty fast from my fingers - and I sort of flew the TOTM thread on a steph rambles on about this picture course:



So I thought, I might as well put it on over, slightly differently, where it belongs.
My sweet husband stumbled over it on here: http://xkcd.com/
And he mailed it to me - very nice - him finding LDing comics without even searching - one of his favourite nerd-food providers.
What better could one do to let nerdy people stumple - no jump into lucid dreaming than this?

Often in only normal dreams do I realize a loss in gravity - especially when jumping or running, and it is that, which makes me lucid.
Sometimes.
But I know the opposite is also true - I do not have it anymore - but sometimes I had dreams as if in syrup or worse - and of course all which was important in that moment was speed. Can make you lucid.
I wonder, where bouancy comes into the picture - but it's also in the back of my mind.

This picture is perfect - the figure starts by lifting off the back half of the body backwards - and takes a leap of faith. The belief is, that it doesn't and it won't fall on it's nose. Headfirst is a good vector.

"Halfgravity" Frank DiMeglio's infamous insight: There is something friendly about gravity and buoyancy in lucid dreams. There really is.
One needs to go search that feeling.
You know, you can jump on the ground for longer and longer patches.
You can go gradually, but trusting that the air supports you is what it is all about.
How do you come to trust it?
Repeated experience.

If you want to fly - try run-jumping - you will feel buoyancy - and the softness the figure talks about is gravity getting less rather on it's own.
I hear somebody, in the back of my mind - screaming Halfgravity. It's bullshit - dream-gravity is gradual and it's definitively not always exactly half the gravity of what we have.
Bullshit - but to be honest - I know how he gets to his "theory", which he can't formulate, and which is flawed throughout.
Because there is something to gain insight in - dream-gravity is special and fascinating to play with.

Check where it air-jumps over that little fence, too, how it takes some momentum, by pushing off a supposed level in the air - and afterwards, it has to catch itself and thus bows forward. Then it's in progress, and you level off. Maybe with an urge to lift the legs a bit.
All is so calm and nice and normal - omg - will I drown!!? o_o
No - you will not! Sploosh - it was only the fish.

Anyway - what is also good, is something I did thanks to dutchraptor:
Stand somewhere and let yourself fall backwards, stiffly. So - and I was pretty much afraid of that. I expected to hit the ground in my unconscious level - my animal brain. But I knew, that absolutely nothing can happen. At the same time, though, did I not desire to feel the pain of an eventual realistic rendering of the level of suffering!
But my guts did not expect the realistic suffering, they sort of knew, it would be okay. It was only my mind having intellectual fear. Or so.
I hope, you know what I mean.
What did happen? I fell on the ground, if somebody would have looked on - it would have looked completely realistic.
Buuut: It felt, as if somebody would tap a wooden board on exactly one of my thoracic vertebrae, probably number eight. Mildly.
Well - I could be academic, and call it pain - but guys and gals - nope - that was nothing.

Do not fear anything, when lucid! Let alone something superstitious!!

Originally Posted by Sensei

If what you believe doesn't change how you act, then you don't really believe it. This is a Christian idea yes, but it applies to all life. For instance, if I believe that I can fly, then I should have no problem jumping out of a flying car. I have been skydiving in waking life and in dreams. The jumping out of a car was to prove that I believed that I could fly. Since I feel pain in dreams, falling from that height takes a little more nerve Haha.

I now see, what you meant crystal clearly. And you are a daredevil, I have to say - respect!
You got passion, that much is for sure.

A DC came up and showed me. No prompting from me. The way he did it was like walking, so I use walking control a lot. Think of it like this:
Go to your door and back. When you sit back down, then think about your walking, did you pay any attention to it when walking? Probably not, you just knew you could do it because you do it all the time. There was no "ok, I am going to walk now" it didn't cross your mind. This is how I started flying, I just think about it as little as i think of walking. Now I have a bunch of different ways to fly, imagination speed is one of the most fun, and it was also taught by the same DC in a later dream.

Ah - I believe I understand this now as well - and much better!

One day in my experimental phase, I zoomed - that is the best I can do with words. I just fixated completely on a feature on a barn-wall. It was a huge neon sign "A". So - and I wanted to be there, stared fiercely - and was there.
Suddenly scared to crash headlong, in minimal vector and massive velocity - into the barn wall and splinter through.
Did not happen, though - I stopped like in a cartoon.

I was talking about... Oreo, scionox, and thorn. They all have wings like that.

Scionox is great with throwing the competitions!
May dragonity be with him!
And huge wings!



Did the other two disappear?
Sounds as if it would be sad, if it were so?