Was this my first lucid dream?

**Darko22** · 01-23-2015 02:22 PM

Sooo, a couple of days ago while i was at the end of my dream, it was getting dark (the feeling when you know that you'll wake up in a few seconds) so i pressed my hand against each other and it was getting lighter again. But i wasnt really thinking about what i'm doing, it was just a reflex. I also didnt questioned if this was a dream. Sadly i have no idea what happend after that. Maybe i woke up.

Now to the lucid dream i got tonight:
I set my alarm clock 6~ hours after going to bed to try wild. I failed and felt asleep. I still remember what i dreamed but then suddenly i was in the kitchen at my house. There was sitting a girl and i suddenly started to press my hand against each other without thinking anything.( i didnt asked myself if this was a dream or anything, again just a reflex) It was getting light, then dark then light etc. Then i did a RC and succeeded. So i wanted to go out, i've put my shoes on, opened the door and was going down the streets. It felt really vivid except for a few little things at my neighbor's house which doesnt looked the real house. After every couple of meters i saw a yellow/orange light at the end of the road. It felt like the "map" around me is still loading, just like in video games. Maybe my mind was still building everything or something.

Now to the weird part. While doing this all, i wasnt sure if i was really lucid. I said to myself: I doubt that i'm lucid, i'm just dreaming about how it would be like if i really would be lucid.(kinda hard to explain)

I've started to practice going lucid about 2-3 weeks ago, so i have no experience with lucid dreams yet. I practiced a few methods but stayed with dild (from time to time a wild). I'm doing RC / SAT during the day and have a dream yournal.

So what you think? Was that a lucid dream?

**JustASimpleGuy** · 01-23-2015 02:35 PM

I'm fairly new to this and have never had a LD, but my impression is if you have to ask the question it probably wasn't a lucid. My understanding is your waking awareness becomes present and you know for a fact you are dreaming and not awake.

EDIT: In any case it does sound like you're close. Your waking work is starting to manifest in your dreams. Keep up the waking work and I'm betting it's only a matter of a little more time and consistent effort and you'll get that 'Oh Shoot!' moment in Dream Land.

**Darko22** · 01-23-2015 04:40 PM

Yeah thats also what i though but when i think about it a bit more... i was in a dream, i could say that this is a dream where i dreamed about beeing lucid. So i knew that i was dreaming. Thats means i was lucid. It also was different from my usual dreams. My mind was pretty clear and i could do what i want. That sure is a bit complicated hahah. I guess my mind just couldnt accept it that i was lucid. Since that is a big step and i still doubted it a little. More or less, this gave a lot of motivation and i will keep trying.

**FryingMan** · 01-23-2015 04:47 PM

People tend to get hung up on the labels of the experience rather than focusing on the experience itself. Don't worry about the labels so much. However, generally, if you're really lucid, you'll know it.

The definition is pretty simple: if you know you're dreaming in the dream, it's a lucid dream. Confounding situations like "But I was only dreaming that I was lucid dreaming!" are illusory. Again:

You're aware that you're dreaming <=> It's a lucid dream

Lucidity however comes in a wide spectrum of experiences, from barely being aware for a moment, to full waking awareness, so the experience of lucid dreams varies widely.

**JustASimpleGuy** · 01-23-2015 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by Darko22

I guess my mind just couldnt accept it that i was lucid. Since that is a big step and i still doubted it a little. More or less, this gave a lot of motivation and i will keep trying.

Absolutely! I've been at it for about the same amount of time you have (3 weeks) and I've been noticing changes in my dreams. Stuff from my LD work and reading during the day beginning to appear in my dreams and also the level of detail becoming more fine-grain. So yeah, right now my motivation is quite high!

**Djaxup** · 01-23-2015 05:41 PM

Hi there!

I know that feeling, I've had a lot of dreams where I think I only dreamed about lucid dreaming. But I've also had a fair share of dreams where I don't question if they were LD or not. The dream world was still a whacky place with its oddities, but I know for certain that they were true LD. It is just a whole different feeling, especially when waking up. If I wake up from a regular dream or one of the "regular dream about the topic of LD", I am drowsy, and slowly wake up. If I wake up from a lucid dream I experience the whole process of waking up. That might be a short few moments, but I can feel the transition, feel the sleep atonia leaving my hands and feet etc. I wake up wide awake. This is for me a clear sign that I already had waking consciousness in the dream.
Like a WILD in reverse

Keep at it. Think about LDs all day, talk to people about it (just be picky to whom you talk, you might get more than one suspicious look

) and write your dreams down. Set you intentions to become lucid - i particularly like the repetetive writing method... it involves writing a mantra like sentence down, something like "I know I am dreaming, and I can fully control my dream", use present tense for it. Write that down 50 times, 100 times... and read the sentence after writing it down and really try to wrap your mind around the mantra. Then use that mantra either in a WILD attempt or when going to sleep regularly. It worked really well for me.
Make sure you don't just jot down the sentence 50 times without thinking about it though, that will not help.