My Primary Questions for the Dreamviews Community

[ZenOutlook]

Good night, Dreamviews. As some of you may have seen, I posted an extremely lengthy introduction here. I feel obliged to make a second thread, not introducing a great deal of content, but clarifying it, and posing actual questions without a page's worth of fluff. I feel I will get more proper and more thoroughly discussed answers here, in a forum dedicated to Lucidity instead of Introductions and basic questions. To start off, I'll say that although I've known about LDs for a while, I have not been very devoted to the subject, but I've returned, and this time, I mean to stay. This account I've created should solidify that. Now, to the questions. 1) Whenever I achieve Lucidity, always through a mysterious and very spontaneous epiphany, the dream is extremely weak, unstable, blurry, and drowsy. The best I've ever gotten it was about three seconds of life-like detail - but that was a long time ago. I know that part is possible, though, so I pose this question - Is it possible to have a dream in which you feel completely awake, with no drowsiness and no blanketing over your thought processes? Do you ever feel fully "there" in a dream? The dreams I have always turn out to feel like I was there, but I never acknowledge that I am there. This is because I'm very, very drowsy in dreams, and I never acknowledge or even think about myself and my consciousness at that moment. Do you ever feel as if you're really in the dream? 2) I've tried WILDing as a hopeful remedy for this. I've found several roadblocks, however. The first is willpower, but I can cope with that. The second is H.I. - I simply can't identify it. The best example I have occured during an attempt at a WILD. I was nearly in a trance, and suddenly, I saw and heard a military-class helicopter's (Apache, perhaps) silhouette pass by overhead. It was a simple vision - Two colors, brown and black. It lasted about three seconds, then I realized it was happening and it stopped. Was that H.I., or something similair? 3) I also had a similar incident at about one thirty in the morning. After beating Half-Life 2 for the first time, playing it for almost the entire night, whenever I closed my eyes, I would see myself (in my mind's eye) playing HL2 some more(first person perspective, of course). I couldn't easily stop this vision. What was this? 4) My primary concern with H.I. is where it is. Where do you see the Imagery? Is it in the mind's eye, where you imagine things, or does it actually display in your vision? I've had instances of both - the HL2 vision was in my mind's eye, but in very recent WILD attempts, I got a flash of fuzzyness and dots that were really concrete - like the bit when you press your palms against your eyelids. This is the closest I believe I'm come to the true imagery - am I right, or have I stated a better example? Note that I consider the bit I recently stated, the dots, to be the most concrete I've had to date. 5) Last, sleep paralysis. This is extremely evasive - while WILDing, I've had major disorientation and displacement of limbs, but never SP. I've felt as if my entire body, or at least everything above my waist, was spinning rapidly through space. But the closest I've ever come to the SP was when I was going to sleep, and I was experimenting with my subconscious. I asked, "where am I going", and waiting for a response in a meditative-like state. This seemed to do the trick - I kind of had a vision, but not a very concrete one, of me soaring along a road. Passing a lighthouse, a cliff, and then desert, I suddenly had a pulse of a tingling sensation. I also had difficulty drawing breath. Was this sleep paralysis? I reflexively tried to regain control of my breathing (moving in the wrong direction, I'm afraid), and the state dissipated. My limbs were difficult to move, requiring a true act of will to shift, but they were movable. This is the closest I feel I've come, and it sparked my return to Dreamviews (this time, with an acccout!). There you have it. This has grown to an immense length. I really have too much time on my hands. Thanks for reading this. I know it was quite the wall of text... I apologize, but most of my real posts may turn out like this. Wow, I can't think of a closing statement. Happy end!

[slimslowslider]

Welcome 1. yes - a good LD is hyper-real. 2. I don't know what HI is - whenever I close my eyes I see images. 3. I think its the visual equivalent of a stuck record. 4. Again - not sure about HI. When WILDing or chaining/re-entering a dream, there's the image in my mind's eye, which becomes more and more real, until I'm asleep and dreaming, with luck, lucidly. 5. Not sure about SP either - I don't notice it because I think I'm focussing on the visualisations/ visuals - i.e. i'm not in my body, but in my mind. It's not an essential signpost in WILDing, (same with vibrations), and may be a red herring. sweet dreams

[FreeOne]

hows it going? that was quite a lengthy post lol anyway here is my best shot at your questions. 1.[QUOTE]Is it possible to have a dream in which you feel completely awake, with no drowsiness and no blanketing over your thought processes? Do you ever feel fully "there" in a dream?[/QUOTEthe two questions you have here are very closely related, but they are not exactly the same. In your first part of your question my answer would be yes, because i have had a completely awake thought process dream. The mind is an amazing thing. Even things that are impossible can feel completely real ,Ex. ( falling 200 ft , shooting fire from fingers and im sure you can think of more ) You have to be careful though cause if you start trying to do things right after you become lucid you will most likely end the dream, or have a blurry unrealistic one. So take it slow. ][QUOTE]Do you ever feel as if you're really in the dream? [/QUOTE] the answer to the second part of your question would be yes. I have felt as if i really have been there. In my opinion that is one of the highest reasons to have lucid dreams. If all you can do is remember you having an expeirence then what is the point? I mean its still fun, but its much more fun when you really feel like you are there, when you wake up and feel like you had an expeirence, instead of a dream. There are a few ways that I help myself achieve this. 1) dont go back to sleep right after a lucid dream. Take time to write it down with as much detail as you can remember. 2) Dont lose lucidity! Losing lucidity is even worse that going back to bed right after a lucid dream. You completely forget you are even in a dream, so its definatly not going to feel like that when you just wake up. 3) Choose the right methods. Some methods have different main levels of lucidity by nature. The more lucidity you have the more clear and real it will feel. WILD is the best in my opinion. In DILD or others you can have that little doubt in the back of your mind that keeps you from doing stuff...sometimes. With WILD you come straight from wakefulness, to dreaming. There is no unconsious period before you become lucid. 2. what you saw was HI. 3. that was HI also. 4. HI is shown right in front of you eyes. Its not required to see before you can WILD, but it can be very helpful if you can identify it to see how far you have come. I dont get very much HI. My HI is usually just swirls of green in front of my eyes. If you by to much attention though, and become to aware, the HI will go away. So HI in my opinion can be a good thing and a bad thing. This is the closest I believe I'm come to the true imagery - am I right, or have I stated a better example? what you saw is about as detailed as HI gets for me. Its not the greatest HI can get but HI is not required to WILD so dont worry to much about it. 5. yeah i think it was sleep paralisis. Sleep Paralisis, like HI isnt required to WILD either. Ive only had one expeirence with SP. I woke up in it. I couldnt move, and it was just my luck that my dog came in right at that moment and started licking my face. It took me awhile to move my arms to push him away lol. But even that expeirence wasnt during a WILD. hope that helps ya! good luck with your WILDs

[ZenOutlook]

Thank you for your answers. I'll give another attempt tonight and tomorrow morning - I tried at about 9:00 this morning, but it must have been too late - I realize now that I had gone to bed at one, so it was about eight hours. I will adjust my alarms to awake me at a more proper six hours next time... I also could not grow comfortable enough this morning. My mind was also a little too active... I'll look for ways to quite it. It was also quite irritating that the seemingly pointless dental work that has been done on me has caused me to drool in my sleep - I'll have to work out a cure for that, too.

[Abra]

Remember, never try and 'test' to see if you're in SP. It sounds to me like you were. WILDing is a very difficult method to master, but once perfected it can be the most frequent and lucid of all techniques. Don't lose hope. If you begin feeling discouraged, try another method for a while (such as DILD).

[FreeOne]

WILDing is a very difficult method to master, but once perfected it can be the most frequent and lucid of all techniques. amen to that its freaken tough to master them though... i've been trying on and off for ages. When summer comes around it will be easier though.