How do I control my dreams?

[Skilgannon]

Sorry if this post is kind of long, this is my first time posting and I'm hoping to go far with this community. Anyways... I've recently started to actively try lucid dreaming. I read guides online on how to become lucid. I started writing down my dreams when I wake up and I did start to remember more dreams, more often. In fact, now I tend to remember dreams throughout the entire day even if I don't write them down(no writing utensil or soemthing..). I also have picked up lucid dreaming quite easily. It happened accidentally to me when I was younger, and it wasn't until now (I'm 23) that I decided to lucid dream as much as possible. I lucid dream almost every time I dream now. I don't even reality check, I just go to sleep and wake up directly in my dream. I don't know why or how, but I just always "know". However, I can't really do anything in my dreams. I'd like to be able to create a fireball, shoot beams of energy from mind hand. Fly, leap buildings, change my clothes at will. For some reason I can't. My first few attempts at creating fire with my hands were pretty comical. The very first time, I threw small flames. Two flares shot about, about the size of mini Ritz crackers. The second time, all I got were sparks, like a failed attempt at lighting a lighter. When I was younger I remembered flying in my dream. It was my first lucid dream and I wanted to see if I could fly, and so I did. Now when I try to fly, it's very hard for me. On my most recent attempt, all I could really do was rise and fall. I've even tried changing my clothes. The very first time, nothing happened and I ended up waking up. In last night's dream for some reason I took my shirt off, and when it hit the floor, the shirt changed colors. I repeated this action hoping to get a black shirt, but it just switch from red, green, blue and orange. The shirt eventually became a wash clothe and I was pretty much forced to continue my dream shirt less. So in waking life, I decided I wanted to meet someone. Someone who could train me in dreaming. The Morpheus to my Neo. Last night I met him. Or rather a dream character who at least pretended to be him. He told me that I cannot control my dreams. That dreams I don't have that power. I figured this was simply a manifestation of my own doubts that I have. As far as I know, I should simply have to BELIEVE what I want to happen, and it will. The thing is, my "dream guide" told me that I should not be trying to lucid dream like I have been, he told me that dreams are not a good place, and that dreams are actually hell. I left him in my dream and went to a new dreamscape, I don't know how it wasn't something I consciously did. So, what I want to know is, how can I control my dreams? How can I fly, change clothes? How can I actively control my scenery?

[dutchraptor]

I figured this was simply a manifestation of my own doubts that I have This^^ explains it all. It's all about your expectations and you are expecting to fail, be it consciously or subconsciously. I great way to get over bottlenecks like this in a dream is by revising what it means to be dreaming. When the dream starts ask your what does it mean for you to be dreaming, tell yourself that you are in power, that it is all a construct of your own mind and that normal rules don't apply. A great trick also is to distance yourself from the object or action you are doing in the dream, for example when you tried to create fire you focused on actually shooting fire from your hands. Well a more effective way of doing this is by thinking more in terms of how much energy does it require to create the thought of yourself shooting fire, it is merely a few electrons, focus deeply on the actually process going on and you might be able to distance your self from your normal expectations once you show yourself that you are creating the flames. There are two more methods which really help but should be only resorted to once you have tried the first for convenience, the first is where you try to put all your force into what you are trying, try breathing in deeply and tensing your muscles and releasing all your power into an action. Usually if you can trick yourself into thinking you have power you mind will think you are capable of it which lead me to the second technique which I developed myself and it works really well for confidence. This little trick is based on fooling your brain that you are in control almost like a god like entity in the dream. Next time you have trouble in a dream, take a wide stance and imagine sucking all the energy from the dream around you until the landscape turns grey in colour, try to feel energized and powerful and most likely when you try something you will do it with no bother. I always like to get things done without these two techniques and learn how to use logic to convince myself but it's never any harm if you use a wand or portal to give yourself more powers. Like I said earlier, it's all about manipulating your expectations, you really have to try and focus on succeeding. Good luck