Lucid Dreaming Malfunctions :(

Last night everything I tried while being lucid failed miserably. A little help?

The problems:

-I tried to summon my dream guide and s/he never came
-I tried to throw fire but it was all pixelated and went out quickly
-I summoned my favorite book character, but he for some reason was really old ... he was like all wrinkly and had a beard and stuff :(
- a DC told me I wasn't dreaming in a beleivable situation (sitting in our school at a lunch table talking) and I beleived him and went unlucid

And I am sure I went lucid, it felt awesome! It would have been better though if my book char. had been better :(

So how should I work these things next time, and how long/hard was it for you to master these things?

Don't set your 'standards' so high. Do something simple. And don't let anyone change your mind - in a dream or while awake;)

lol I wasn't setting them high- I just thought it came natural. I guess I still have alot to learn, at least it was a good start and I at least managed to summon a person though they were defected xD

you failed because you werent confident. Simple. to quote yoda "do or do not. There is no try". lol. Control is all about believing you already have control.

but try this...

-find ANY Dream Character and simply ask them where your Dream Guide is...

-ask someone where this book character is in the form that you imagine them...and follow their directions...

as about fire...I dont know sorry

If you claim that you failed miserably, you DID set your standards high. I know some people who would love to achieve just what you've told.

You achieved lucidity! If you keep practicing, you'll gain experience. Even if you didn't count with the great advice you can find everywhere in this forum.

At your firsts LDs you should focus on making the lucidity last longer. Not fireballs.

Of course, there's the possibility that you succeed, but being kicked out of the dream for trying something violent is more likely. At least such is my experience.

As Naturally Lucid points out, start with something simple. Like walking to another scenario. It's basic, but it's control nevertheless.

And focus. As in real life, things within your focus grow, and things out of it wither. Your focus determines your reality.

I've had LDs all of my life, and i've never been able to summon a single person. But well, i haven't tried that hard... Flying is still so damn fun...

As for throwing fire... Hum... Will try that.

Sometimes stuff works and sometimes it doesn't and I don't know how to change that currently. If you find you don't have a lot of control do something down to Earth, like standing in awe. The most productive thing is to interact with your dream characters, you'll be surprised how fun it can be! Remember since this is less stimulating, if you can keep your lucidity the dream will be much longer so you should have chance to try again. But failing that long LDs are always good... a longer time away from reality!

even if they're not what you wanted at least you can summon characters - i'm stuck running through forests screaming amanda :P

Congrats on lucidity. However, wisp is right; you need to focus on stabilizing the dream and your lucidity. Look at your hands. Rub them together, feel them rubbing together. Look at the nearest surface. Examine every single detail on the surface, and feel it's texture with your hand.

As for control...

I think you tried too much. Far too much. Next time you are in a LD, focus on one main thing. Hell, make a checklist of things to do and follow them sequentially if you want.

Powers such as, say tossing fireballs are rather difficult to do just by going "FIREBALL" and having it happen. Your brain is used to certain things (fireballs appearing from thin air is hardly one of them), and even though concentrating correctly will produce the desired effect, it is far easier to use a method you've seen in real life. So, emulate the actions of your favorite videogame character or movie hero; be creative. As a real example, I attribute my natural predilection for telekinesis to me playing Bioshock far, far too much. Make sure you have a plan before tonight though, or else your indecision will probably make things fall apart.

I suggest Telekinesis as a dream control exercise. I got it on the first try, and it helps your mind to get in the rather surreal mindset of LDing.

As for summoning, I have never been all that good at it. Then again, I've had little time to focus on LDing recently, what with school and all. If you don't mind though, I'd rather like to hear how you tried to do it, I'm sure someone can help.

Pixelated fire? What, like 8-Bit? That sounds freaking awesome. I need to try that next time, it sounds really cool.

Anyhow, hope I helped.

yeah but the catch with Bioshock is you have to stab a huge syringe into your arm before you can use (pixellated) fire.

still i guess it'd be worth it in the end...

Heh, I guess you could. I didn't really mean you need to jam a syringe in your arm (I didn't for the telekinesis), just that by following the general motions and actions required to incinerate something in Bioshock, your brain will have a much easier time realizing that you are trying to fry something.

Remember, this is a dream. There is no catch.

I had similar success on my first lucid - being able to teleport for instance, but NOT being able to fly - probably because in my dreams, I don't think I've ever actually flown before (and I'm afraid of heights). But I do read a bunch of sci-fi/fantasy novels, so the whole "teleporting" thing isn't so far-fetched in my mind.

Besides, to teleport, I closed my eyes (in the dream) and imagined the place I wanted to be. If I believed in teleporting in real life (by magic or something), the first thing I would do would be to try to imagine it.

If I wanted a book character to materialize in a dream, I would probably prepare myself by reading parts of the book before bed and then in the dream find a bookshelf. I'd open the book and attempt to "pull" the character out. To me that seems the most logical way to do it. I suppose that would seem sort of symbolic, so it would work better with the mind.

Anyway, I have read on this forum that some people think that in dreams they have better reasoning skills than in real life... But I think they're mistaking reasoning skills for rationalization, which is almost opposite to reason. If we rationalized everything in this world, science would go nowhere, and we'd remain ignorant forever.

So my theory is that if you're in a low-level lucid (i.e. one that you can be convinced by a DC that you're not dreaming) You're really more in the realm of rationalization than reason or logic... in which case, if your foundation for believing that you can do something is that you're dreaming.. you're likely not to get what you want!

Hope this helps!

eerrr you can do anything in a lucid dream you want it is all your creation! You just have to believe!