A baptism of fire?

Hi everyone,

I'm new to dreamviews and looking for advice.

In a nutshell, a couple of years ago I bought Steven LaBerge's book "exploring the world of lucid dreaming" and instantly became fascinated by these wonderful stories of lucid dreaming before trying it out for myself. After a couple of weeks my dream recall was exceptional and I could recount each and every little detail of my night time adventures. My first and only lucid dream happened in the following way:

"I was having dinner at my ex girlfriends house and my friend walked in. After greeting him and talking for a while something didn't feel right. 'Ben', I said 'that's all great and everything but didn't you ski off a cliff and die last year?'. 'Oh yeah', he replied 'sorry mate, i'm dead'. 'I must be dreaming', I thought to myself. BANG, I woke up in the dream and the sensation of lucidity was surprisingly intense. I instantly thought back to the book 'what do I do now?' (but unfortunately I hadn't read that far so things went slightly wrong)

Whilst I carried on eating, I noticed that nobody else at the table wasn't saying a word. They were just staring at me. I looked my ex girlfriend in the eye and everything went terribly wrong. Her face went grey and shriveled up whilst her mouth opened so wide her jaw hit the table. The dream was fading but I couldn't escape. I jumped backwards through the wall and woke up in a sweat. My heart was beating quickly and it took me a couple of minutes to calm down. I have never felt fear like that in my life and after deciding I was tampering with something far more powerful than I had imagined I decided to never do it again.

2 years on my curiosity has led me back to LD. I now want more than everything to face my fears and learn how to have pleasant LD's. So here are my questions:

1. Since i've already had a LD, how hard is it to do again?

2. I already have a list of dreamsigns, can anyone suggest how to recognize them whilst dreaming? My signs are: Dead people, old school friends, being chased, tornadoes.

3. If anyone can relate to the above story and decided to return to lucid dreaming it would be great to hear your story/advice.

Thanks a lot for reading.

I look forward to hearing peoples point of view.

1) LDs are easy to have, they are only as hard as you make them. I however look at it like a video game, you need experience! So having your second will be easier than the first and so on.

2) just noting them is all I've done in the past. I would look for one dream sign that is always there, and concentrate on that day and night. Just my opinion though. :P

3) I have had some scary LDing experience, but not much. I think that the initial fear of LDing is what caused that. You need to vanquish all your fears about it. Reading ETWOLD is one of the best ways.

If you have any questions about techniques or anything feel free to ask here or PM me. :) good luck on lucidity. :)

HI there,

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate your comments. It's good to finally talk to others who've had similar experiences, I tend to keep the topic of lucid dreaming to myself as it understandably sounds quite absurd to most people.

I like the video game analogy, but the difficulty I'm finding is that I can't necessarily practice my dream sign's during the day since there usually associated with a lack of something or, that which doesn't ever occur day to day.

Take for example, Tornados and Old friends. The latter is by far my most frequent dream sign but since I don't see them during the day I can't make a mental note of the relevant experience. I'm sure dream signs such as seeing hamsters or fruit pastels could be noted during the days upon which they are met. But since i'm unlikely to see an old friend and even more unlikely to come across a tornado (not that i'm complaining, im sure this is a good thing) I can't frequently exercise the "is this a dream" thought during the day. Does this make sense?

Im not expecting yourself, or anyone else for that matter, to have an answer to this however it would be nice to hear other peoples opinions. Maybe i'm over-thinking the matter? Let me know what you think.

Well, I am a big fan of visualization. I would recommend that you visualize seeing dead people and then RC. Visualize the RC failing and the beginning of an LD.

Yeah, I talk to my wife and my brother in law about it, but for a while I was alone in LDing. I would recommend staying on this site, everyone here is pretty nice and normal people and it is nice to talk about people's dreams for their dreams.

I wish I could see a tornado, I have lived in Kansas for 16/21 years and never seen one. :(

Good luck. :) this might help too:
http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...e-skilled.html

It is pretty new, but resembles a technique that I have seen other places.

Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming is a great book and required reading for any LDer. That being said, it's over 20 years old. Since then, the LD community has grown and developed upon those initial ideas. What I'm trying to say is that, if dream signs aren't helping you, there's other ways to complement your existing practices. I recommend you explore this site and absorb as much info and ideas as you can. There's tutorials, guides, classes, and all that great stuff for beginners through advanced.

Thinking more specifically of your experience, you could choose some more mundane cues. One example is to reality check every time you enter a door. (Am I dreaming? How did I get here?) You mention old friends. How about reality check whenever you see any friend, new or old? (When was the last time I saw this person?) In the end, it's more about intention and awareness than specific signs. It stimulates the logical and reflective parts of the mind. The habits you establish in waking life will carry over into dreams. When you are more aware, you're more likely to recognize the absurdity of a dream.

1) I would say it's easier because you know it can be done. That was kind of a hurdle for me before I joined here, my only LD was years and years ago and I wondered if it was possible to influence how often it happens. But yeah, it can be done :)

2) Like you, my dreamsigns aren't easy or possible to RC with IWL. For example, I dream about kicking ass all the time. Unless I wanted to go down the street beating people up for the sole purpose of RCing, it doesn't really work. Similarly I'm not about to RC when I'm getting chased by some crazy guy who is trying to kill me. But what I have done is up the number of RCs I do in general (which has really helped, I started doing it consistently about a month ago, and I've had 4 LDs since then, and almost a fifth), and recently I've started doing them whenever I have an aggressive impulse. Just doing it when you go from one place to another, whenever anything seems a little weird, and just thinking about it helps a ton.

3) I can't say I've had an experience like that, but expectation plays a huge role in dreaming. In a non-lucid I was shooting a guy who was trying to kill me, and I realized the gun had been fired way more times than the actual magazine capacity (17 to 6.) As soon as I realized that the gun stopped working and I was almost choked to death (saved by the alarm). On a more positive note in a LD I needed to go somewhere for the TotM, and I just expected that if I ran in a certain direction I'd end up there. Sure enough, I did.

Brandon: You've never seen a tornado? Isn't Kansas in Tornado Alley? I find that kind of amusing. I've never seen a tornado either, but I've seen plenty of funnel clouds and have always taken cover before they turn into actual tornadoes. Does that count? :P

I'm getting so close but yet so far away!

Last night I dreamt I flew a plane into a bridge. Once I died the dream restarted and I thought "that god that was just a dream". SO WHY DIDN'T THIS BECOME A LUCID DREAM? Similarly, The night before I was being chased and I thought "aah no worries he won't get me if it's only a dream". BUT STILL NO LD! Feel like i'm teetering on the edge but can't quite get there. So frustrating.

Brendon: I'm not exactly sure what you mean by visualization. Does this mean to visualize yourself noticing yourself dreaming whilst in the dream scenario? I also read about MILD techniques in my book, I'll give this a go an see what happens.

Sisyphus: Thanks for such a great introduction to the site, I had no idea so much information was available. I like your idea regarding the mundane cues, I feel very confident this might be the key to all of this. I get the feeling LDing needs to be on your mind 24/7.

New Artimis: Think you hit the nail on the head at the end of paragraph 2. It seems as though LD needs to become an obsession throughout your waking life.

Something that's related to all your posts, whats the general feeling towards Iphone apps or technology in general? I recently purchased an app called reality check that reminds you to RC at customized set intervals. There's also one called dream on that somehow detects when your dreaming and begins to play jungle sounds to help induce lucidity. Has anyone had any luck down this route? I'm not convinced.

http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...htmlThroughout the day go through the dreams you had the previous night and imagine you are in them. Imagine yourself checking reality and becoming lucid. Also throughout the day imagine becoming lucid right where you are at, do a RC and think of what you would do in your current scenario.

Visualizing is great for this. Imagine what it would look like, feel like, smell like.

Some people seem to have success with the apps. I would recommend ADA though, instead of being spontaneously aware of your current state, always be aware of it.

http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...kingyoshi.html

I feel ya'! I remember my very first lucid dream. I did not even know the term 'lucid dream' back then. I completely freaked out. The secret to lucid dreaming is something only you can discover. Dream signs, induction methods and relaxation techniques are all user specific. Personally I use visualization and progressive muscle relaxation. I also have a sense of positiveness about having a lucid dream. One thing I try to do is remain calm when they do occur as the adrenaline rush alone has a tendency to wake me up. Read, practice, and read some more. This forum is a great resource! Good luck to you.