Did I just become lucid or did I dream that I became lucid?

I repeated what I did the night before and got up at 07.00 AM and stayed up for an hour, revising a list I'm doing for memory improvement. I went back to bed and did 5 minutes running through memory checks and dream signs, then my usual instruction re waking-up after each dream and recording it. I woke up once after a small dream and resolved to remember it and go back to sleep (that's been risky in the past, but I do remember it and I will add it to my dream journal - that's a step forward already) Then sometime after 9.00 AM (I think, because I woke at 9.20 am) I had another dream.

I was working at a desk in a company (DS) A woman brought me a package and told me to send it to (I don't remember the company name) I thought "That's not part of my job description." but I must have located the phone number of a contact and I rang him to confirm the address and recipient. He blathered on and seemed to be complaining about me ringing him Then I couldn't find the package on my desk and I thought something like "That's odd...I must be dreaming."

Then the scene seemed to change to open countryside and I could feel the heat of the sun. People talk about excitement...well I felt joy I thought I can tell the wife that I'm lucid! Then I thought don't lose the dream and it started to go and I think I felt a bit dizzy. I remembered about spinning and I did it for a very short while...I usually get very dizzy doing that but not this time. It seemed to stabilize but then I wake up. But I noticed the background music I was playing was absent...then it seemed to fade-up. I remembered to check that it wasn't a false-awakening then I tried to get back into the dream but I've never done that before and it didn't work.

Could I have dreamt that I'd become lucid? Would I have dreamt saying "I must be dreaming?"

If you were able to control it then you are in lucid. You should continue writing in your dream journal.

Thanks for that skiesAffinity. I'm close to tears...it means that much to me.

but it sucks so just deal with it

sorry skiesAffinity... I don't understand I tell you I'm nearly crying because you seem to be telling me I've made it Now you seem to be telling me I haven't made it so I must deal with that?

hahhahaha no actually i didnt notice that "If the world didnt suck wed all fall off." is your signature so i am replying to that statement.. Attachment 5541 im sorry .. but please continue to live your dream .. there is nothing more awesome than being contented and fulfilled in life

Oh Right...I see. I just cried in front of the wife as well. I've really worked at this and, because of my age I thought I may never make it. I'm now pretty convinced myself that it was lucid...of course, the proof of the pudding is in the next lucid dream

hahhahaha okay.. please don't cry .. and i love pudding by the way

You should use that as your signature

yeah sure... iguess ur referring to the pudding part

Yep "I love pudding" is a profound as anything Buddha ever said. Quite a good mantra in fact......"I love pudding....I love pudding...I love pudding." as you sink into sleep

yes i will do that ..tho i only lucid if i have incubus

Well, I've tried most lucid dream methods but count me out on that one.

hahahaha i havent tried any lucid methods but only that one.. its a shortcut for me.. and i have done incubus since i was a kid so i am quite immune to it

Control doesn't mean lucidity. I have had non lucid dream control many times. The fact that you said, "I must be dreaming" and the fact that you wanted to tell your wife about your lucid dream is a good indicator that you were lucid. It's all about knowing you are dreaming while you are dreaming. So you either know that you knew or you just said something in random. I think you know the answer to the question. Don't complicate it. I see too many people complicate lucid dreaming.

You realized that you were dreaming, you felt joy about it, and you wanted not to lose the dream. That's definitely a lucid.

A dream about being lucid would not have that kind of self-awareness. It would be for example more like watching a movie in which you were a star and the star does cool stuff because it is a dream, but you would not have real awareness of dream state, it would be happening to you. You would not perceive yourself as the dreamer but more as the dreamed if that makes sense, you would not be the active agent of lucidity awareness but rather have the memory of a dream about lucidity, but there was "nobody home" in your mind while it happened. When I have lucid dreams, I have the memory of realizing that it is a dream in the present moment, whereas nonlucid dreams (no matter what their content) are a past experience, something that happened to me before but in the moment when it happened I was not there fully enough to appreciate that this was happening in the present and that I was part of it and it was a dream. Not that a lucid dream has to have a lot of awareness, I had some very low awareness fairly pathetic lucid dreams, but even in those I remember being present.

Xanous You're right about complicating it...it's my natural ingrained doubts about most things coming to the fore. Thanks also for your response JoannaB It makes complete sense what you're saying. I realise now that this dream was different...I was there decidedly happy and wanting to tell the wife...I cried and she was shocked (and so was I)

I think there are various reasons apart from wanted to control my dreams. I'm old and I've probably achieved what generally seems to be younger persons "activity" if you can call it that (but then I'm pretty good at video games)...I'm always inclined to undersell myself. People of my age lose a few memory cells and we're apt to think it's all downhill from here on...but I think I'm proving myself wrong. Another reason for wanting to LD is a "feeling" that it may well be far more important than maybe most of us yet realise. Of course, the challenge is still there...I've got to have lucid dream 2 and 3 etc...and learn how to hold it...like I'm learning so many other things..Once again, thanks for responding, both of you

I can understand where you're coming from there. :chuckle:
And hey, you're only as old as you feel, right?
Good luck with the lucidity and congrats on the LD! It's one of the best things you can experience in life. :goodjob:

The Tibetans believe that lucid dreaming is essential to reaching enlightenment, and I think they are on to something. Yes, I also feel it is more important than most of us realize. I have the sense that lucid dreaming is to our personality and sense of self more like being the developer/programmer of a computer program than like being a user or player of a game, more like being the potter who creates the clay pot and shapes it than like the person who buys the pot and uses it. I think there is a reason why it does not come naturally to most people and may be hard to attain because lucid dreaming has the potential to change our selves and maybe even change our world, definitely at least our world view. We do not truly understand the nature of dreams yet, but I do believe they are more important than even those of us who take them seriously realize.

There are many levels of lucidity and there even was a thread about this somewhere. I don't feel like going into too much detail, but you could know that you are dreaming and still be overpowered by dream contents and go on with it. You can have dream powers and control and be lucid or just have a regular dream, like Xanous said. I think what's most important is some sort of knowledge that this is a dream and any actions or thoughts that you have following the realization of this knowledge.

One way to be able to answer the question of whether you were lucid or not is to try to be as detailed about the experiences as possible. Feelings of joy are a good (but not necessary) indicator for having an ld and also the dream staring to fade, which means you have noticed and were quite aware there.

Ok. I think that's enough explaining. From your description above, I can well conclude that you had an ld! Congratulations, LukeSid! :goodjob: I understand you crying and everything, this is a wonderful event! Enjoy your victory and remember that feeling and be sure to call it back randomly during the day or during a WBTB or pre bed to incubate more lds!

Have a great day! :banana:

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Originally Posted by Xanous

I can understand where you're coming from there. :chuckle:
And hey, you're only as old as you feel, right?
Good luck with the lucidity and congrats on the LD! It's one of the best things you can experience in life. :goodjob:

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Thanks Xanous. I've had a good feel round and one part of me feel pretty ancient.

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Originally Posted by JoannaB

I think there is a reason why it does not come naturally to most people and may be hard to attain because lucid dreaming has the potential to change our selves and maybe even change our world, definitely at least our world view. We do not truly understand the nature of dreams yet, but I do believe they are more important than even those of us who take them seriously realize.

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I agree 100% JoannaB The World at the moment is in a perilous state (and I lived through the ColdWar and this is worse) This is truly samsara as the Buddhists say... "an ocean of suffering" I hope I can regularly LD and get beyond just flying around etc. I can but try.

Thanks NYXcc...much appreciated. I've always said I'm in this for the long-haul but this has given me a big boost. Tonight I'll be like Liverpool before a Man U derby..track suit, big steps, short fast runs and one rousing chorus of "You'll never Walk Alone"...and if LD #2 doesn't show up tonight I'll be there for the replay tomorrow night...

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Wow, this thread has made my day.

I agree with a lot of what others are mentioning, I believe you were lucid, and you would know deep down if you were (it's easy to complicate it, when you have your first lucid dream)

Your happiness of achieving your first lucid dream is fantastic. It brings back similar feelings of when I had my first lucid dream. I doubted myself, like you did too (you mentioning your age). My doubt was due to the fact I have an arachnoid cyst on my brain, which makes it hard to concentrate etc. Now knowing I can have lucid dreams with my condition made it a whole lot more appreciative. It's life changing.

Funny you mention about lucid dreaming as maybe being a younger person's thing. I'm 26, and my father is in his 50's. I'm thinking of opening up to him about lucid dreaming, because he lives as a hermit basically (not the social type). Himself learning to lucid dream could really make a dramatic change in his life, he's going through hard times in his life, and this could really help. Reason I mention this, is because I too think in a way, that the older generation wouldn't really be open to such a thing. Makes me think how many older people, decide to give lucid dreaming ago in the later stages in there life.

What made you become interested in lucid dreaming?

I think once I become a bit more educational on lucid dreaming, I'll try and teach him.

CHiLLEN_AU I so agree with what you say about your father...also you saying "open up" to him highlights that Lucid Dreaming is a bit like "coming out" is to gays...we sometimes shock or attract ridicule by confessing that we're lucid or attempting to be. Of course the older generation is missing out on LD (except for Buddhists of course) because it's a relatively new phenomenon in the West. Am I wrong in thinking that the majority of Western people (particularly older ones) have never heard of LD?

I wrote a Sci-Fi/Fantasy e-novel "The Caverns of Larne" (so far disappeared without trace) It's not bad, although I really need to improve the punctuation (in case anyone ever buys a copy) I read somewhere about Lucid Dreams but I didn't really have a clue what was involved. I worked it into the novel but I merely created psychic people who could also communicate by lucid dreaming underground...where radio communication was impossible. They used the dreams to try to contact other psychics and transmit visual clues and the other psychics could (hopefully) interpret the message. As you see, I envisaged a dreamer sending a psychic message by controlling a dream. That led me to read-up more on LD and got me interested

One intriguing thing in the book The psychics discovered that a group of about five could collectively greatly increase the transmitted distance and another group of specially-trained ones could vastly increase the distance again...almost inter-planetary. They communicated by creating a "meeting of minds" where they emerged from a mist and actually spoke. When I joined Dream Views I read a post by someone (I can't remember who it was) and she basically said that she dismantled her dream until she was just surrounded by a mist...one of many co-incidences I think I've found in LD. Perhaps, in a former existence, I was a Buddhist monk.

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Originally Posted by LukeSid

CHiLLEN_AU I so agree with what you say about your father...also you saying "open up" to him highlights that Lucid Dreaming is a bit like "coming out" is to gays...we sometimes shock or attract ridicule by confessing that we're lucid or attempting to be. Of course the older generation is missing out on LD (except for Buddhists of course) because it's a relatively new phenomenon in the West. Am I wrong in thinking that the majority of Western people (particularly older ones) have never heard of LD?

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Definitely.

I'm very surprised that it doesn't get much publicity. To be honest, the world would be a much better place if everyone could Lucid Dream. It's so uplifting, as you know.

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I wrote a Sci-Fi/Fantasy e-novel "The Caverns of Larne" (so far disappeared without trace) It's not bad, although I really need to improve the punctuation (in case anyone ever buys a copy) I read somewhere about Lucid Dreams but I didn't really have a clue what was involved. I worked it into the novel but I merely created psychic people who could also communicate by lucid dreaming underground...where radio communication was impossible. They used the dreams to try to contact other psychics and transmit visual clues and the other psychics could (hopefully) interpret the message. As you see, I envisaged a dreamer sending a psychic message by controlling a dream. That led me to read-up more on LD and got me interested

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That's so cool that you write Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels, good on you!. I don't read many books. I've read a few non fiction books, that were about Mafia Hitman, and South American Prison.. Love that kind of stuff!

Wish the Sci-Fi/Fantasy books would appeal to me more.. It would really make your dreams/lucid dreams amazing.

I'm glad you stumbled across Lucid Dreaming. It really is a big chunk missing out of life, if you were not to know what it's about and experience it.

Do you happen to dream/lucid dream about Sci-Fi/Fantasy events?

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One intriguing thing in the book The psychics discovered that a group of about five could collectively greatly increase the transmitted distance and another group of specially-trained ones could vastly increase the distance again...almost inter-planetary. They communicated by creating a "meeting of minds" where they emerged from a mist and actually spoke. When I joined Dream Views I read a post by someone (I can't remember who it was) and she basically said that she dismantled her dream until she was just surrounded by a mist...one of many co-incidences I think I've found in LD. Perhaps, in a former existence, I was a Buddhist monk.

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That's some real deep stuff, I could never of thought of something on the lines of that lol. You have a cool imagination.

So true, you never know, all us lucid dreaming enthusiasts could have been Buddhist monks in previous lives lol :O

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Originally Posted by CHiLLEN_AU

That's so cool that you write Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels, good on you!. I don't read many books.

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It's no big deal. With self-publishing on Kindle I reckon you could fill a book with "Mary had a little lamb" repeated over and over...as long as you formatted it correctly, for upload to Amazon. The problem is getting it noticed in the thousands of other books uploaded each day. Strangely, I don't read that much either, but I can write.(not too good on punctuation though...too many brackets and ...........) I also honed my skills on Twitter (I can say quite a lot in 140 characters) There's those brackets again

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Originally Posted by CHiLLEN_AU

Do you happen to dream/lucid dream about Sci-Fi/Fantasy events?

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Surprisingly no..mundane thing mainly...as befits an oldie...lots of "work-related" dreams (I think Ed my brain knows I hated most of my jobs)

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Originally Posted by CHiLLEN_AU

you never know, all us lucid dreaming enthusiasts could have been Buddhist monks in previous lives lol :O

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You could be right. I would think that most people who are interested in LD (even the kids who just want to shag) are probably spiritually-inclined. My wife's a down-to-earth type of person and would never deep-think about the Universe etc (just about the grand-children)

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As others said, I think you were lucid. A good way of knowing it, is that when you wake up, you feel it was YOU the one on the dream, and you can also feel how you transitioned from the dream-world to the real world (not to confuse with transitioning from a dream to the real world).

I once dreamt I was lucid, and I realized I wasn't when I woke up because I did stupid things around like jumping, trying to fly, show-off at people around.. etc.. Even if I "knew" I was dreaming, or that I though (while inside), when I woke up I realized it wasn't myself the one in that dream. It was just a dream. I didn't though anything about stabilyze, try some thing on my to-do list, etc... nothing.

There's a very basic definition to what really "lucid dreaming" is. It is simply that you "wake up" inside a dream, being YOU the one inside, meaning you have complete awareness of yourself, you can remember what you wanted to do when becoming lucid, or even remember hints about how to stabylize a dream, etc. all while inside the dream. You can also "remember" things in normal dreams, but the thing is that once you wake up, you recognize pretty fast if you was dreaming, or if it was really you, your conciousness, the one in the dream.

I'm sorry if I sound confusing but as english is not my mother language maybe I write too much to say just a small thing.

In any case congratulations. I'm also trying to have my first decent LD yet, because for now all I had are fake awakenings (that I catched), and short non-vivid LDs... so I understand your joy.


EDIT: I just read you like sci-fi and fantasy (sorry I replied after reading the first page pretty fast). It's my case also, and in case it gives you some ideas, one of the things in my to-do list is take a walk on a lonely beach, at night, with a sky filled with stars, 2 or 3 moons, and some big planet... something similar to the one in Contact... what was the name... Pensacola? Well whatever. If I ever manage to do that, I think I'll start crying right there while standing in the sand looking at the sky :D