Dream Control for a first timer?

[carlhungis]

I am about 99% sure that I just had my first Lucid Dream. It was a very involved dream that only became lucid at the very end. When I became lucid, I was laying down in a field looking at a house and I decided to look at the detail of the trees. Then I realized that I must be dreaming and all of the sudden the dream became very vivid. This is where I ran into trouble. I was very excited about it and I knew that I should do a reality check. But I was afraid to look at my hands because I thought that they would move in the real world. I also could no longer speak because again, I thought I would do it in the real world. This fear pulled me out of the dream and back awake. So I was only Lucid for a few seconds but it definately felt good to finally do it. Has anyone else had these problems before? If so, how did you overcome them?

[Dust Mote]

First of all, let’s make that 100% sure you had your first LD. Congratulations. It is common for the first ones to be short. I think it’s mostly the excitement that wakes people up. Looking at your hands isn’t really a Reality Check; it’s a technique to help stabilize a Lucid Dream. And remember that if you know you are dreaming you don’t have to do an RC. You’re already there. With experience all of this will get easier for you. Welcome to the club.! :bravo:

[wombing]

I am about 99% sure that I just had my first Lucid Dream. *It was a very involved dream that only became lucid at the very end. *When I became lucid, I was laying down in a field looking at a house and I decided to look at the detail of the trees. *Then I realized that I must be dreaming and all of the sudden the dream became very vivid.[/b] don't be 99% sure, be 100% sure. even if it was short, this was definitely a lucid. congrats! you are now a certified lucid dreamer I was very excited about it and I knew that I should do a reality check. *But I was afraid to look at my hands because I thought that they would move in the real world. *I also could no longer speak because again, I thought I would do it in the real world. * This fear pulled me out of the dream and back awake. *So *I was only Lucid for a few seconds but it definately felt good to finally do it. Has anyone else had these problems before? *If so, how did you overcome them?[/b] i know the feeling you're describing. i don't get it with moving too often (only if i am already lucid and the visual aspect starts to fade, and i am unsure whether to frantically spin or not). but, i definitely have been wary of speaking in my lucid dreams, because it seems so certain i'll be yelling in my bed or something and probably wake up myself and my housemates. how does one get past this? the next time you are lucid, swing your arms at your side, and say "I"M LUCID" fairly loudly. it may sound odd, but this will save you alot of headache. the only way to move past is it to move and talk, and realize that you won't wake up. i am assuming you were wary of moving or speaking when you became lucid because you were afraid your lucid would end if you did. that 'you would move your hands in bed' , or speak for real, and wake up. this is the worst thing you can do when you become lucid. if you think too much about how you might move or speak for real you are only shifting your awareness from your full immersion in a dream to worrying about waking up. lucid dreams are very suggestible. from personal experience i have learnt that if you treat them like fragile, delicate things that you'll wake up from with the slightest dramatic movement or sound, they will often oblige you. in order to stay in a lucid dream, you must fully accept that you are IN a lucid dream. that the hands you feel are dream hands. that the mouth and tongue are a dream mouth, and dream tongue. that any movements are purely and solely dream movements, and any sounds are purely and solely dream movements. and believing, knowing, and reminding yourself of this fact while in a lucid dream is completely true. the fact you are dreaming means your physical body is full of healthy, natural chemicals which inhibit ANY movement besides eye movement (and your vital organs like heart, lungs, etc). i know it feels wierd. i was too scared to even speak in an LD for the first dozen or so, because i couldn't accept that EVERYTHING was a dream. i was positive i would start talking in bed and wake up. but you won't. i promise just the other night in a lucid i began to realize i was lucid. my friend was on the couch. i kept repeating 'i'm lucid chance (his name)" over and over again to stabilize the dream. a few times i thought "i wonder if i'm making noise in bed...i wonder if i will wake up if i speak too loudly", but i kept saying it, getting louder and louder. finally, i was SHOUTING at the top of my lungs "I"M LUCID CHANCE! I"M LUCID CHANCE!" and i certainly was i didn't wake up. far from it. it increased my lucidity. and i certainly didn't make any noises in bed, because the walls are paper thin, and nobody in the next room awoke. the more decisively you accept that you are fully in the dream while lucid, the more you will be. if you are too unsure to make an decisive movements because you are unsure if you will make them in bed instead of the dream, the dream will likely fade fairly quickly. i don't want to start babbling, but i just want to make sure you get my main point. it is good to remember from time to time in a lucid that your actual body is in bed, especially at the beginning of a lucid. this is the surest sign that you are truly lucid- thinking "i am here in a dream, and my body is in bed somewhere else". this helps you realize that nothing can harm you, and nothing you do while dreaming will affect the actual waking world in the slightest. however, don't make any connection between your bodily commands in your dream body, and your actual body in bed. there is NO connection between the two. if you decide to move your hands, you will move your dream hands. it is that simple. there is no special trick. it is not more difficult to look at your hands or say 'i am in a lucid dream' when you are dreaming. it feels exactly like waking life, except you are in a dreamworld. i know its really hard to fully accept this at first. a funny story is in order perhaps. the same dream i mentioned above where i started yelling, i went to walk out my front door. there is a kitchen door, a small shoe room, and then the main door. as i opened the first of the two doors to go outside the doorknob felt incredibly real. so real it was almost unbelievable. i knew i was dreaming, but it was one of the more realistic tactile sensations i've felt in a lucid. exactly the right shape, density, slightly cold, it squeaked a little like it normally does...i walked through the shoe room and i opened the second door, and looked outside. it was fairly dark out (right before dawn), and everything was exactly as it is in real life. so real i was now only 90% sure i was lucid dreaming. the day before our neighbor got broken into, and the police warned everyone in the neighborhood to lock their doors all the time. so, with this in mind i figured "well, i am almost positive i am dreaming, but everything seems so real, i might as well play it safe and lock the door behind me. " so turned the lock knob and tried to shut the door, but it wouldn't close properly. i got caught up in trying to close it and woke up after about thirty seconds. it only reinforced in my mind that if one is lucid dreaming, they can't allow doubt to enter their mind. they can't imagine that anything they do or say can affect the waking world AT ALL. i should have left the door wide open. i could have kicked it off its hinges, and it wouldn't have mattered in the slightest. i would have waken up and it would be completely untouched. i know this probably sounds 'obvious" when talking about LDing, but one must truly absorb it. so, i've started to reinforce the implications of what lucidity means while i am awake. i remind myself over and over that when i am lucid in a dream i am ONLY in a dream. nothing i do will cause my physical body to do anything. i thought i knew this completely, but it seems i need a little reinforcement too 8) so, now i have it firmly in my mind. if you know you are dreaming, do a reality check. decide on one or two beforehand that will let you know 100% that you are dreaming. firmly plug your nose and breathe deeply through it three or four times, push your finger through your palm (these are my two to use an example). or any others you come up with that will mean you are dreaming 100%. when you become lucid and do one or both of them successfully, don't doubt at all anymore. remind yourself that your body is safe and motionless in bed if you start forgetting you are lucid, but don't worry that you will cause it to move. that is impossible unless you are awake. damn, that's a long post oh well, hope it helps you, and congratulations again on your lucid! i had a feeling it was close... positive thinking is the key. in your next lucid, don't worry about waking up. fully accept the fact you are in a dream and act decisively. i know its strange to think this way, but that's the main thing that's awesome about lucid dreaming..its a completely separate world from reality. your awareness is the only link. your mind creates every thing, in every sense of the word. i've had about a few dozen lucids and i am still getting used to it. in fact, in my next one i think i'll randomly and senselessly destroy some dream property to cement the implications of LDing in my mind. happy lucid dreaming

[kai2424]

Originally posted by Dust Mote First of all, let’s make that 100% sure you had your first LD. Congratulations. It is common for the first ones to be short. I think it’s mostly the excitement that wakes people up. Looking at your hands isn’t really a Reality Check; it’s a technique to help stabilize a Lucid Dream. And remember that if you know you are dreaming you don’t have to do an RC. You’re already there. With experience all of this will get easier for you. Welcome to the club.! *:bravo: I think that looking at your hands can absolutely be a reality check. I recently had my longest "string" of lucid dreams caused by a reoccuring dream sign that my hands were pulsating. I think a reality check can be based on any dream sign that re-occurs in ones dream, depends on the dreamer.

[carlhungis]

Thanks for the replies guys. Hey Asher, any luck with that Calea yet? I found that B6 seems to have a larger affect on my dreams than Calea does. Without the bad taste too

[wombing]

Originally posted by carlhungis Thanks for the replies guys. *Hey Asher, any luck with that Calea yet? *I found that B6 seems to have a larger affect on my dreams than Calea does. *Without the bad taste too it still hasn't arrived i was really excited all week, checking my mailbox like a little kid, but alas..nothing...hopefully this coming week. i am very confident that it will be a valuable tool for me. mostly because i think many plants have a 'consciousness' of sorts which can be used if one is open to it. the fact calea has been used for hundreds/thousands of years by shamans and whatnot should mean that it does wonders for me, even if only a active as a placebo....

[BillyBob]

Originally posted by kai2424 I think that looking at your hands can absolutely be a reality check. I recently had my longest "string" of lucid dreams caused by a reoccuring dream sign that my hands were pulsating. I think a reality check can be based on any dream sign that re-occurs in ones dream, depends on the dreamer. * I second that, looking at the back of my hands is one of the 2 most useful reality checks Iv found (your looking for extra fingers) this freaked me out the first ltime I did it seeing that I had 7 fingers on one hand

[wombing]

Originally posted by BillyBob_001 I second that, looking at the back of my hands is one of the 2 most useful reality checks Iv found (your looking for extra fingers) this freaked me out the first ltime I did it seeing that I had 7 fingers on one hand third-ed. i became lucid by doing it yet another time last night. it induces lucidity and stabilizes it for me.

[carlhungis]

Weather it was a RC or a method of stabilizing the dream wasn't the issue. The issue was that I couldn't bring myself to move my hands into view. In that case looking at my hands would have served as both a reality check and a method of stabilizing the dream. That was what I was hoping for at least. Hopefully I will get a chance to explore this some more soon....

[ModestMouse]

Same exact same thing happened to me last night when i had my first LD. I accidently washed the entire scene around me into whiteness. And I kind of freaked because I had no body so I wanted to rub my hands together to stabalize, but I told myself wait I dont have any arms how will I bring my hands up. That freaked me out even more until I finally felt my REAL hands and arms which I couldn't move because of SP. Well that was enough to finally wake me up. But I'm still pumped that I was able to RC and realize I was in a dream. Originally posted by carlhungis Weather it was a RC or a method of stabilizing the dream wasn't the issue. The issue was that I couldn't bring myself to move my hands into view. In that case looking at my hands would have served as both a reality check and a method of stabilizing the dream. That was what I was hoping for at least. Hopefully I will get a chance to explore this some more soon....

[carlhungis]

Congratz on your first LD. Here's to working on our 2nd

[kai2424]

Originally posted by BillyBob_001 I second that, looking at the back of my hands is one of the 2 most useful reality checks Iv found (your looking for extra fingers) this freaked me out the first ltime I did it seeing that I had 7 fingers on one hand Wow...Freaky! My hands also tend to be very unstable until I do the zoom in on the pores trick to stabalize them (and the dreamscape).

[Jawon]

LaBerge writes about prolonging lucid dreams in Night Light http://www.lucidity.com/NL7.34.RU.SpinFlowRub.html the three main ways to prolong ld's are according to Laberge 1. Spinning around in Circles 2. Flow ; that is going with the flow 3. Rubbing your hands Spinning doesn't work for me for some reason or another but the reason that it should work is because by spinning your brain shifts somewhat. Remember spinning around as a kid in your living room? What happens after you stop the room suddenly seems to move right - well spinning in a dream is based on the same idea after you spin in a LD your surroundings shift and then come into focus. Flow is a great way of putting it. Basically you have to pay no attention to the fact that your in a lucid dream - that is don't get all trigger happy with the idea that your dreaming. Rather do what you were doing without paying much attention to the fact and you should be able to remain in your LD for a longer period of time compared to becoming too excited which effects your brain and results in your awakening from your dream. Rubbing your hands - again it's all about focus. Seeing your hands in a dream is the first step in knowing that you are indeed in a LD then rubbing them confirms it in a way. Hope this helps.

[Sortilegio]

Originally posted by Jawon 2. Flow ; that is going with the flow Flow is a great way of putting it. *Basically you have to pay no attention to the fact that your in a lucid dream - that is don't get all trigger happy with the idea that your dreaming. *Rather do what you were doing without paying much attention to the fact and you should be able to remain in your LD for a longer period of time compared to becoming too excited which effects your brain and results in your awakening from your dream. I personally wouldn't recomend this, I'm a natural LDer, and I do this when I want to not lucid dream, your mind controls gets lost in the dream itself this way. The best way for me to prolong dreams is concetrating, viewing something down into every detail, not necesarily my hand, anything, it works perfect. Congrats on your first LDs

[skuruza]

yknow, two nites ago i am not sure whether what i yad was regular or lucid... i mean i knew deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep inside that i was dreaming, but i didnt know how to make myself do an RC... what was that?