Nightmares

[FatalForces]

This doesn't particularly have to do with lucid dreaming, but rather a lack of it during moments where I need it most. See, I have a lifelong history of horribly terrifying nightmares(horror movie quality stuff), and the only repeating theme is one that I can describe as pure and unfiltered terror. The odd ones(and most terrifying) is when I see nothing out of the ordinary, but feel a growing sense of wrongness and dread leading up to me fleeing and screaming in terror until I meet up with whatever is causing the emotion, and I get a feeling of being tickled extremely hard upon whatever it is coming into contact with me. The problem is, during these nightmares I am so filled with terror that I could not possibly think of anything else but being terrified. Does anyone have any tips on how I could possibly start a LD and change the scenario before the climax of the nightmare? I feel that if I could gain consciousness of the dream that I could destroy my inner demons and stop the nightmares.

[Wavefunction]

This doesn't particularly have to do with lucid dreaming, but rather a lack of it during moments where I need it most. See, I have a lifelong history of horribly terrifying nightmares(horror movie quality stuff), and the only repeating theme is one that I can describe as pure and unfiltered terror. The odd ones(and most terrifying) is when I see nothing out of the ordinary, but feel a growing sense of wrongness and dread leading up to me fleeing and screaming in terror until I meet up with whatever is causing the emotion, and I get a feeling of being tickled extremely hard upon whatever it is coming into contact with me. The problem is, during these nightmares I am so filled with terror that I could not possibly think of anything else but being terrified. Does anyone have any tips on how I could possibly start a LD and change the scenario before the climax of the nightmare? I feel that if I could gain consciousness of the dream that I could destroy my inner demons and stop the nightmares. Hello FatalForces, and welcome to Dreamviews! LDs supposedly work wonders for nightmares. Not only that one time, they're supposed to make it go away forever if you confront your fear. Whenever you feel scared (even just a little), or uncomfortable, in reality, then do a RC. Then when you are scared in the dream, you might think to RC. Once you're lucid... take it from there. Find your fear, then vaporize it. Or convince yourself its nothing to be afraid of. Another way is to VILD yourself into the nightmare. Visualize yourself in a crucial part of the dream, then visualize yourself doing an RC, becoming lucid, and vanquishing the nightmare from your mind.

[justme]

Hello FatalForces, and welcome to Dreamviews! LDs supposedly work wonders for nightmares. Not only that one time, they're supposed to make it go away forever if you confront your fear. Whenever you feel scared (even just a little), or uncomfortable, in reality, then do a RC. Then when you are scared in the dream, you might think to RC. Once you're lucid... take it from there. Find your fear, then vaporize it. Or convince yourself its nothing to be afraid of. Another way is to VILD yourself into the nightmare. Visualize yourself in a crucial part of the dream, then visualize yourself doing an RC, becoming lucid, and vanquishing the nightmare from your mind. That's good advice for the "growing sense of wrongness" dreams, but when I'm shoved into bad dreams the last thing on my mind is doing a reailty check. The problem is, during these nightmares I am so filled with terror that I could not possibly think of anything else but being terrified. This part right here is a bad deal. I find in most dreams where I'm about to die (even though you didn't mention the wrongness being like death?) if I am not distracted, something happens to save me. Here some examples, one dream this group of people where agianst a group of people I happened to be in and they decide to kill most of us off, they had this device that was like a portable gullitine only with sharp wires used as a blade. So if was my turn to die and I was tied down to the chair and had that thing on my head and yes I was panicing but I was also trying to find some way out, the person across from me was suppose to push the button and then off with my head, I look down at his feet and there was a playing card I became breifly lucid and the used telekniese (dream control) to make the playing card, well, slice off his neck instead, it was more like a cut really but then the device fell off for some reason and I lost lucidity agian and I ran away from them. I had other dream experiances like these where I was really close to dream death but then somehow got out of it. One dream experiances where I did die was some lady had knife and agian was going to cut my head off, but I asked as a last wish to play the crane game (I love those games) anyway I was focusing on playing the crane game instead of one her and then I died. But I'm sure if I wasn't playing the crane game (distraction) I would of found some way out of it. "See, I have a lifelong history of horribly terrifying nightmares(horror movie quality stuff), and the only repeating theme is one that I can describe as pure and unfiltered terror. " Can you just summerize one of those dreams? There are things happening in the dreams right, not only feelings? And do you wake up from those dreams or when u wake up you can just recall the bad dream? And is the thing causing your terror a person or a thing or just a feeling?

[FatalForces]

It depends really, I've had everything from a false awakening with the grim reaper standing over me to looking into a mirror and seeing something standing behind me. Since you asked, here's an example of one of my worst that I can remember watching over my little cousins in my house at night after our parents had gone out to dinner(I'm playing with them by a window against the wall), everything seems fine. As I stand up to get something(can't remember what) I think I see something outside in the darkness... As I push my face up against the window a dark figure with a mask comes sharply into focus just inches from my face on the other side of the glass, then I wake up. That one scared me so terribly that I stayed away from that window at night for months. So of course you're thinking, so what? it was just a dark figure with a strange mask. However, to me in that dream it caused a sensory overload of fear. I really can't think of any other way to describe what I felt upon seeing that "thing" staring back at me. Something else to consider, I rarely ever have nightmares that involve people. It's always something that feels evil and is dressed in a dark hooded robe so I can never quite see what it is. To answer your last question, yes, I do always wake up from the particularly bad ones.

[Caradon]

I have years of experience facing nightmares In Lucids. so much so, that I find it very fun. And I dare my subconcious to send me the worst it can dish out. I love the powerful feeling of diving head on, into extreme danger and knowing I am all powerful, and have nothing to fear at all. I'm not really sure, how to help you become Lucid during them. But for me, I have learned to become Lucid, when I get to a certain point of terror. It's Like I can't comprehend the situation I'm in is really happening to me. Then snap, the realization that I am dreaming washes over me. Then after that, it's all fun. It is true about facing nightmares In lucids, The recurring ones do stop after you start to become lucid during them every time. I guess once you lose your fear of them they stop happening. It's actualy kind of annoying. You find a great dreamsign that works every time, then you stop getting it. This has happened to me with a few differant nightmares. One was a recurring falling elevator Dream. I have one of the last times I became lucid in a falling elevator, written in my dream journal if your interested. I was really annoyed when this dream stopped happening.

[justme]

Oh, I haven't had much experiance with things I fear but can't see... but I think you waking up is making the dreams worse. I had dreams that were very very awful but if I didn't wake up directly from them they don't seem that scary. And then I had really stupid dreams that were only kind of scary but if I wake up straight from that dream then I'm scared. And also your nightmares are usally with people you know in places your familar with? I don't have much experiance with that ethier... but that would help with trying to become lucid in one of your dreams because you would have done reailty checks there in real life. Other advice is maybe try and stay asleep? You will probaly still have the nightmares but it won't seem as bad unless u wake up straight from the nightmare, but of course that's justme. I think I do have a few nightmares where there were things instead of people. I didn't wake up from it though. And there was always a person behind the things... Also keep a dream journal, there might be a dream sign that can help you with reailty checks, (like windows?). If I think of any more advice I'll let you know. Also I think your unknow dark hooded figures is your dream weakness. Well for example I had dreams were I keep my cool even when being threated with my combined fear of needles and parisitic bugs, but if theres this one certain dream dude there, for some reason I sometimes fall to pieces (in the dream). So hooded thingys might be your version of my dream dude. So maybe after this hooded dude pisses you off enough, when you have your next lucid dream make he be summoned then kick his ass. It might not make your dream dude go away, but it would make you feel better. ^_^

[juroara]

been there, done that! years ago I had horrible nightmares. in the nightmarish moment I couldnt become lucid becuase I was so overwhelmed with fear. and if I was lucid, I was so overwhelmed with the fear that I was dealing with something that was real - like a demon of some sort. Which made me feel, even if I was aware that I was just in a dream, powerless. Like your nightmares, most of mine just involved a presence of dark evil. Sometimes its formless, other times manifested as a hooded figure. I really couldnt do anything in the dream to help stop the cycle. Two things helped me. The first thing was dream reentry. I learned the hard way that after you have a nightmare and wake up you can easily re-enter it against your will if you fall right back asleep. Ofcourse, at first I hated this since I sure as hell didnt want to be in the nightmare again. But as I became more of a lucid dreamer, especially after joining this forum - I was pissed if any nightmare got the best of me and robbed me of my lucidity. That during those few minutes after I woke up, all I did was think of all the ways I could have beaten up that nightmare and showed it whos boss. That when I fell asleep again and re-entered the nightmare, thats exactly what I did - and conquering a nightmare is really really really fun! This helped me with the confidence I needed to help battle fear itself that immoblized me during a nightmare. So that later on, I could battle the nightmare right when it happened. You said your dream climaxes into a nightmare. Ive experienced that too. My dream can be happy and normal, and then something feels eerie. And that eerie feeling grows and grows and grows until it feels like the entire room is closing down on me - to where I just feel trapped in this emotion of impending doom. And when this happens in the dream things go very wrong one after the other; the lights go out, appliances stop working, im all alone. Sinister signs might appear randomnly, like spilled blood on the floor, or distant door slamming shut when no one should be around. And Im all alone except for this other prescence that slowly inches its way closer and closer to me, making the atmosphere feel thicker and thicker to where I could choke or go crazy. By the time the dream reaches that stage, its nearly impossible to get it back to normal even with lucidity becuase you are so terrified you cant even think rationally. And even if you are aware you are dreaming (lucidity), the dream will always manifest your thoughts. And if you think youre not in control becuase this evil thing invading your dream is in control, then youre not in control. Its nearly impossible to battle a nightmare at this stage, you cant conquer the nightmare if you are already terrified. So, if you know that feeling when it starts, when things first start to feel wrong, out of place, eerie. Stop it then. The last time that happened to me, I got down on my knees, closed my dream eyes so that seeing the lights go out didnt frighten me, and I pounded the ground with my fists and demanded the dream to stop, 'Enough is enough!'. I waited for the feeling of approaching darkness to disappear and then verbally demanded the dream some new happy scenario, like a sunny beach. And when I got back up and opened my eyes, my dream was stabalized and back to normal and met my demands So be mindful of your own emotions and stop the scenario before your emotions lose control. Fear will immobolize any lucid dreamer

[Wicked]

Feeling of tickling? Crap, I used to have such a nightmare problem myself! I wonder why it's tickling though...

[LucidMike14]

Try to imagine yourself in the dream and do RCs when you THINK about it. Remember, dreams are figments of your imagination, so if you become lucid, just know that it cant harm you. if you think it will go away during a dream, it probably will