Born with the ability to lucid dream?

Hello,

This is my very first post about lucid dreaming. All these years I've pretty much kept it to myself and my husband. Last night I had an amazing lucid dream:

I was flying through the air. It was dark and the moon was full. The sky was scattered with stars, like diamonds on black velvet. It was so sharp. I could smell the air and feel the morning dew. I flew across a river that was about the size of a football field. I realized I was dreaming and was surprise at how easily I could control my altitude. Usually when I realize I am dreaming I slowly float back towards the earth (or water). There is no fear in falling, I am usually trying very hard to will myself back up high again. But last night, I merely thought where I wanted to go. I flew/floated across an emerald green river. The trees were dipping into the water, leaving rings. The moon's reflection was mirrored in the river, the ripples distorting the image. I watched the dew drip off the leaves. It was all so breathtaking. It's hard to descibe. I followed along the snake-like river, taking the turns with ease, maybe 20 feet above the water. It felt like I was flying around 30-40 miles per hour. Then I willed myself to the ground and landed in a back yard with lush green lawn. There was a worn redwood fence surrounding the yard that I was in. I took a little run and leaped onto the fence horizontally and ran the length of one side. I jumped down and laughed at what I had just done, amazed at my newfound acrobatic capabilities... then woke up. :( I didn't want to wake up. It was so wonderful and peaceful.

I really love dreams like this. I've had them as long as I can remember. Is it possible to have this in my genes? I had a teacher recommend I look into lucid dreaming when I was a teen ager. Back then there wasn't an internet. When I became internet savvy, I realized that I was experiencing lucid dreams at least once every few months. Sometimes more often. This is all without trying though. When I was actively trying to recall dreams in my younger years, I recorded 3-5 dreams a night. It seemed almost effortless. I finally stopped doing it when I got married for fear of upsetting the husband with my nightly mini light, pen and paper. Now I am interested in starting it back up. Last night really rekindled my interest.

I look forward to reading your posts.

~ Extropian

From what I've gathered, there are people who just naturally have lucid dreams, like it's built into their subconscious or something. I consider people like that lucky...

It sounds like it was an awesome dream though... :D

You are VERY VERY lucky. Most people don't even pay attention or remember their dreams.

How long have you been reading about Lucid Dreams on the internet? If you just started you should try some of the techniques and have more lucid dreams more often.

I'm jealous! :oops:

I've always been interested in my dreams. When I was 12, I remember speaking with a teacher about my dreams and learning about lucid dreaming. My dreams have always been very vivid, with touch, smell, colors, sound. The sound is so rich, I wake up and swear I can recall the sound as if a melody was just blasting in the room.

I've been reading about lucid dreams on the internet since the internet came out. But I spent a good 10 years not looking for new sites. So, a lot of this information is new to me, like spinning to prolong the lucid dream. I think I read the entire site (and several others) in the last couple days.

I wasn't able to LD last night though. :( I do recall 2 dreams. But I never realized I was dreaming. I think I am going to write a dream journal web app in .NET so I can start keeping track of everything.

I have a lot of recurring dreams too. I think I may know what some of my dream signs are:

1. Water (usually in the form or a large body of water... river, lake, ocean) - This one is unusual because I actually have a fear of water. It was a phobia, but I have worked myself down to a fear. In my dreams, there is usually no fear of water.

2. Snowy mountain - Mountains are a recurring item in my dreams. Since I don't live there, it's a good dream sign.

3. Abandoned amusement parks - I tend to end up on a ride all by myself in a park that is abandoned and perhaps condemned.

4. Earth Changing Disasters - This one is also unusual. I have recurring dreams all the time about aliens taking over the earth while I flee with my children to the mountains. I also dream a lot about natural disasters and protecting my kids or rescuing them from them. I always have a very strong will to survive.

~Extropian

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Originally posted by HoppyPotty
You are VERY VERY lucky. Most people don't even pay attention or remember their dreams.

How long have you been reading about Lucid Dreams on the internet? If you just started you should try some of the techniques and have more lucid dreams more often.

I'm jealous! :oops:

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You've come to the right place. It sounds like you have a natural talent for it. You know, there are reliable ways of prolonging your lucid dreams and gaining more control over them, which you can find throughout this forum.

Nice to hear you've become interested in the concept again--it's really a great pass-time.

Keep at it and don't get frustrated if you don't have the success you desire. You have plenty of time to sleep!

Hope to see you around,

D

I'm jealous too :oops:

Hey there, welcome to the forums. I jsut wanted to point out that there is a easy way to keep your dream journal updated thanks to this site. There is a dream journal for every member and you can post your dreams in it. You can make them public or meka them private for more personal dreams. Just check out the Dream Journal section at the main forum page. Sweet Dreams.

i did not know this was something that people worked at.
i have always been able to lucid dream
usually they occur when someone or something tries to wake me and i refuse to wake so I go back to sleep and my dreams are so obviously dreams that sometimes I have even tinkered with them changing who was there or going back to a previously dreamt dream and doing it differently.
i, however, sometimes feel guilty lucid dreaming. I have discussed this a little with people on the chat through this website. I feel guilt because I think dreams are my subconcious' way of communicating with me. And when I lucid dream I feel like I am muddying up the connection and the message. I have also noticed that if I am having a good dream and realize that I am dreaming, I will automatically start changing the dream, which drives me nuts - I would rather have the good dream randomly. I like surprises, you know? But if it is a bad dream and I relaize I am dreaming, anything I can do to stop it is greatly appreciated and necessary.
in my family, we all dream alot. i am curious as to whether they lucid dream as much as I do and under what circumstances.

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Originally posted by Extropian
Hello,

I had a teacher recommend I look into lucid dreaming when I was a teenager.

~ Extropian

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Funny how it happens, isn't it? Most people haven't the faintest idea about Lucid Dreaming, but every so often you'll find someone who knows about it. We're like a secret club. :-P

What was this teacher like, out of interest?

Anyway, you are, as you will have undoubtebly gathered, very lucky. I doubt people are actually born with the ability to Lucid Dream (do your relatives, for example?), but it's a skill which is gained by the events in your life. Nurtured, not natured, as the saying goes.

it DOES seem like a secret club. sometimes i try and tell some people about any awesome LDs i have, and most look at me like i'm weird, but when they can do it too, its awesome, just talking about all the ones we have. i also invite a lot of those people to dreamviews!

I don't think the ability to lucid dream has much to do with genetics. Anyone can learn to have lucid dreams. As long as you remember your dreams and think with enough logic in your dreams to know you're dreaming. I guess the memory and logic might have something to do with genetics. But the ability to lucid dream as a whole is learnable.

I think females are more natural lucid dreamers than males.

I am not sure.

Now I come to think about it... most people who say that they are naturals do seem to be women... :|

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Originally posted by Xei
Now I come to think about it... most people who say that they are naturals do seem to be women... :|

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Yes. It should be a topic for the research.

I do not think "born with the ability" exists. I believe everyone has equal potential, it just depends on their up-bringing. I suspect all these born-dreamers were introduced to the concept because of repeated nightmares that they had to deal with, or showed interest in their dreams at a younger age which got them practising, or someone probably even told them to take control of their dreams at a young age. Different personalities at young age will determine such outcomes.

Personally, I rarely had nightmares when I was young, so I never paid much attention to dreams at all. Most born-dreamers were triggered by multiple nightmares at young age which made dreams a major part of their life, which caused them to develop techniques to deal with it. And since they had their whole pre-teen life to experiment, it would appear that they're quite a natural dreamer later in life.

D

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Originally posted by dearly
I do not think \"born with the ability\" exists. *I believe everyone has equal potential, it just depends on their up-bringing.

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As an enthusiast of science, I dont think so.

Everyone have infinite potential. That I agree.

i'm not sure i was taught - experientially or otherwise to lucid dream.
In fact - I never really wanted to until i found this website.
I didn't have nightmares as a child, but did as a teenager. when I got them, though, they did scare the piss out of me - they were graphic and real and generally f'd up. The kind where a grown up version of myself is battling the governement and they keep killin gmy loved ones and i am in a perpetaul state of hiding in the underground.
But my way of dealing with these dreams was to look at the circumstances in my life that were causing such woes in my subconcious. The people I was associating with were not good ones and they were causing me a lot of strife. When I got away from them, my nightmares stopped. Lucid dreaming had nothing to do with it.
I lucid dream all the time, but only when I found this website did i start Lucid dreaming with purpose. Before that I would change things just because I could. This is part of the reason i was not a big fan of lucid dreaming - my changes to the dream made the dreams less powerful instead of more.
And i had never heard of people who changed their dreams untill this website.

I think, though, i lucid dream alot because I do alot of waking and then going back to sleep right away. alarm goes off - i turn it off - i roll back over - I keep dreaming but with conciousness. Or I'm sleeping - someone tries to wake me - I grunt - roll back over - go back to sleep - and lucid dream till they come wake me again. Music. Construction sounds. Even the dreams themselves will wake me when I discover I am dreaming and then it is just a matter of going back to sleep soon enough that I am still on that same frequency.
I figured this out.
No one taught me.
Save this website - which I found last week.

When I was a kid, I used to have nightmares too. I think I was about 5, and a boy at school told me, "Next time someone points a gun at you, change it to a banana! Come on, it's *your* dream!"

I tried it, and it worked! There was no worry about attaining lucidity, Wild, Dild, Lild, as;dfjadlf, or any other method. It was as simple as that, and ever since, I've been having lucid dreams.

Born with the ability? I don't know. I just know that my child mind already knew how to do it, just like eating or drinking or going to the bathroom. It's not really an ability, it's already there. If we can just believe that, I think we'd all have it.

I certainly wouldn't say I'm a master lucid dreamer. I can generally hold onto lucidity when I get it, and I've had spells where I've had multiple lucid dreams per night, but recently I'm more of a once a week and a half kind of guy. The exercises are to trick my adult mind into recognizing the state, that's all. Just remember, the more you think about it during the day, the more frequently it'll work.

I just joined this, after my boyfriend (Bjandon) was talking to me about lucid dreaming, and I realized that most people... have difficulty lucid dreaming.

I ahve ALWAYS been able to lucid dream, and I actually find it really hard to just dream dream. I've had, maybe, three that I can remember. The most recent one was a week or so ago when I thought that my dad found out that the iron man tounament at zap zone started at 10:30, not 10 like I told him.

Anyway. I really think that some people ARE born with an ability to lucid dream. We've been trying to get Bjandon to lucid dream. Now that I'm in Michigan for a week, I've been trying to lucid into HIS dreams... with interesting results, but here isn't the place to go into it.

If I was still in contact with my mom, I could ask her is SHE lucid dreams, as I know my dad doesn't, but I am not.

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Originally posted by dearly
I do not think \"born with the ability\" exists. *I believe everyone has equal potential, it just depends on their up-bringing. *I suspect all these born-dreamers were introduced to the concept because of repeated nightmares that they had to deal with, or showed interest in their dreams at a younger age which got them practising, or someone probably even told them to take control of their dreams at a young age. *Different personalities at young age will determine such outcomes.

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I think I disagree: although I doubt that it is fair to use the term \"born with the ability\", i believe that aspects of the construction and organisation of the brain (not the best way of putting it, but I'm sure you understand what I mean), perhaps things whihc are also evident in their personality, make a certain person more naturally able to LD. I have tried to apply the scenarios suggested by dearly to myself, and find none fit. I never paid any special attention to my dreams when I was younger, indeed, before now I have never even spoken on the topic. I do not believe that I had an unusual number of nightmares... it couldn't have been more than an average of once a month, I'm sure. Having never spoken about my dreams, no-one has ever told me to take control of them. The only whing which may mark me out as unusual is an extremely good memory.

I was not even aware that this type of dreaming was anything out of the ordinary until I stumbled across a link to this site in another forum. (After quietly hanging around for a while, I decided to join. )

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Originally posted by carrathanatos+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(carrathanatos)</div>

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I just joined this, after my boyfriend (Bjandon) was talking to me about lucid dreaming, and I realized that most people... have difficulty lucid dreaming. *

I ahve ALWAYS been able to lucid dream, and I actually find it really hard to just dream dream. I've had, maybe, three that I can remember. The most recent one was a week or so ago when I thought that my dad found out that the iron man tounament at zap zone started at 10:30, not 10 like I told him. [/b]

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Same: I have had lucid dreams for as long as I am able to remember, and seem to very rarely have (or, at the very least, recall) non-lucid dreams.

((It rather irritates me, actually.))

<!--QuoteBegin-Xel
Now I come to think about it... most people who say that they are naturals do seem to be women...

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I also wonder whether balance of creative/analytical thinking has any impact?

imperfect-illusions wrote:

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((It rather irritates me, actually.)) [/b]

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((Yeah, I know.... know of any good ways to LOSE lucidity?? -_-;))

In all seriousness, though. If people can be born with the ability TO lucid dream, then why aren't there forums for those who are born (seemingly) WITHOUT the ability to ... dream dream?

I'm sure people can be born with the ability. It's not really unnatural. You just happen to be a lot more aware of yourself when dreaming than most people. I had a lucid dream (only one :() once before I had the faintest idea what they were. So have my brother and cousin, but not often. I have an online friend who has them almost every night (I'm jealous). She also happens to be female... so yeah, I think females ARE more likely to have LDs than males :(

I think lucid dreaming is like any human ability - it varies across the population. It may be true that anyone can learn to lucid dream, just like anyone can learn to play a musical instrument, but the ability comes more naturally for some than for others. Some people can just pick up a flute or a violin or a guitar and play it. Something clicks. They just get it. Someone without that level of natural ability can still learn to play and enjoy music, but they'll have to put in more effort to achieve the same result. It's the same with mathematical, language, and writing ability. Environment and how you are raised plays an important part in the development of natural ability, but not in the initial level present.

Well when I was a kid I would have nightmares, and alot of ties I would realize I was dreaming, so I would make myself wakeup(with some very scary FAs)

I had heard of lucid dreaming a couple times and thoguh it would be cool, but i never put the 2 together, that what i was doign was actually becoming lucid, so therefore I never took advantage of it.

So I guess I could lucid, just never though of it in a positive way before now

I don't think it is passed through genes, but I think the mode of thinking of different individuals will have some bearing on a person's success.

I never had lucid dreams before I found this site, but as soon as I read this site, it was like something in my brain just hit a switch. I had my first lucid dream after five days and immediately went to averaging one lucid dream every five days thereafter, without any reality checks and without trying anything like MILD or WILD.

The frequency seems to change now depending on what's going on in my life, with university time being much lower, but holidays being very high. I've had 8 lucid dreams in the last 10 days without even trying (I occasionally seem to WILD without even intending to). The only techniques I've used were hypnosis and eating cheese or cashew nuts and drinking water before sleeping.

But I have friends and family who want to lucid dream and have been trying all sorts of techniques like reality checks, MILD, WILD, etc. to do it and find it very difficult to have even one per month. Most of them have only had 1 or 2 since trying. But I somehow managed to make my mother have a lucid dream without her even trying, lol.

I really want to know how I get so many so I could perhaps help other people become lucid, but I don't really understand it myself. :?

All I know is that I've always dreamed lucid , always dreamed in
Super-Vision Techni-Color and always remembered my dreams
like waking memories. I consider myself lucky.

Ive always remembered my dreams. Never been hard. They always have interested me since the day I was born. I actually started a dream journal at 8. I came across a journal and had no idea what to do with it so I wrote down a dream. Then another, and another, etc..I slowed down a bit realising it would fill up. So I only wrote down the most important dreams. I almost always have reocurring dreams and they usually are not very clear. My two biggest recurring dreams are a huge war where everyone is dieing and there are nukes, think of War of the Worlds.

Anyway, I have always had quite vivid dreams, I have always (during nightmares or thing i didnt like) told myself its a dream and then forced my body to sit up. I never realised this was going lucid. The nightmares stopped and so did my "natural lucidity" I suppose. Now that I have heard other people talk about this I realise it was a lucid. Now whenever I get into a nightmare (Rare) I shall try it.

I consider myself lucky but at the same time I hate not having a strong lucid yet...

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Originally posted by Extropian
I've had them as long as I can remember. Is it possible to have this in my genes?

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lucid dreaming is our heritage. some simply awaken sooner than others.

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Originally posted by sand_worm
When I was a kid, I used to have nightmares too. I think I was about 5, and a boy at school told me, \"Next time someone points a gun at you, change it to a banana! Come on, it's *your* dream!\"

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That is because he was a child with child-like attitude towards dreams. The barrier between the living world and dream world is much easier to cross than it is in adulthood. Children believe in things more readily without question than most adults with mundane minds. He may well have said changing a gun to a banana without question as there is no doubt at that age that such a thing would be impossible. Therefore, you do it and it works. Because of that you perhaps are more able to LD than the boy who suggested it. He will have grown up probably with a 'mundane' mind and wouldn't even recollect saying it to you if you met him again and asked him, but because of your circumstances of being scared at nightmares, and the suggestion put to you, and the fact it has worked has probably had a bigger impact on your life than it did on his.

I bet if it were possible for everyone on this forum who LDs to meet up at a given time, we'd all be surprised at how interesting and lively our personalities are, because we have not allowed our minds to become dull with age, and have a doorway to a playground limited only by our imagination.

It would be interesting to see what ages we all are and where the highest proportion of LDers are. I'm in my early 30s, and this is new to me, though I have always had vivid dreams but they have recently found a new dimension which I am thrilled at discovering. But I do wonder if I will still be able to at 60 or 70 years of age :?

I dont know where you got all that stuff about the kid that told him about the banana, but I am definantly going to tell my kids to do something like that if they ever have nightmares, hopefully if I teach them early, they wont have many nightmares, and they will be good lucid dreamers

What is "adulthood" anyway? And who says what qualities must be left at the door and which get to make the journey to grown up?
it is interesting which experiences stay with you and help to shape you and which just crumble away with a steady stream of time.