Beginning LDer - my experiences

I have recently begun to take LDing seriously, and I have been able to become lucid 4 times in the last three days, which is awesome, of course. But I am having some problems which I expect are typical beginner's problems. I hope you can help me.

My latest LD was a false awakening which I spotted with a RC. I tried to do as little as possible, just sense my surroundings, and as long as I did that, it seemed like the dream was nice and stable. I then attempted something "impossible", i.e. taking the wooden supporting vertical beam in my bedroom, removing it and spinning it around. I was able to do this, but the moment I did so, the dream seemed to get "unclear around the edges", a bit like that crap visual effect they use in movies to signal confusion or losing consciousness. Soon thereafter, the dream faded.

Now, what did I do wrong? Was it my confidence, or was it because I was too ambitious too soon, thus challenging my brain too much? I'd like to avoid losing a dream that quickly again. Yesterday, I was lucid for about 5 minutes in a full dreamscape and even summoned a DC succesfully.

I think part of it was your confidence. I think you were aware of this within the dream, which could have affected it. (This may have triggered an appearance of a related schema... Such as the "crappy dream effects" you see in movies, which you noted.).

You weren't challenging your brain too much. No such thing.

If this explanation wasn't enough to boost your confidence (if you are afraid some "subconscious" thing is going to block it), just try doing some "normal" things in a dream. Summon people/animals/things, talk to dream characters, walk around, do stabilization techniques.

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Originally Posted by Abra

I think you were aware of this within the dream, which could have affected it. (This may have triggered an appearance of a related schema... Such as the "crappy dream effects" you see in movies, which you noted.).

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I was going to say the exact same thing :D

It could have also just been the end of the dream. It is hard to keep a dream going for longer than your natural REM cycle. If you became lucid at the end of the dream, it may have just been time to wake up. In other words, there is a chance you couldn't do much about it. How did you feel after you woke? Were you super groggy? Did you wake up for the morning, or return to sleep?

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Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

How did you feel after you woke? Were you super groggy? Did you wake up for the morning, or return to sleep?

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I felt fine and rested, and I got up rather exhilirated. Possibly the dream ended not because of stabilization issues but of a combination of lack of confidence and running out of REM.

It is rather bolstering to hear someone say "it's impossible to challenge your brain too much". Makes me want to keep trying to do cool things :-P

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Originally Posted by vonklammo

It is rather bolstering to hear someone say "it's impossible to challenge your brain too much". Makes me want to keep trying to do cool things :-P

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Be the first of us to perfect 360 vision. ;D

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Originally Posted by Abra

Be the first of us to perfect 360 vision. ;D

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what do u mean 360 version?

Basically, 360 degree vision means having eyes in the back of your head. Well, in fact, eyes all the way around your head. A person with such a vision would see everything in a sort of panorama where the extreme right and left of the panorama represent essentially the same direction of vision (directly backwards).

Since I am trying to imagine this, I originally figured that the panorama would abstractly "wrap around" so the person didn't really see the world as a panoramic strip but as a 360 degree continuum. However, this would make it harder to tell which way you were moving, so having a center of vision (and therefore edges) is probably preferable.

Now, how about 360 vision in two dimensions? Equating to an entity basically just a ball covered all over with eyes. This would be a large square field of vision which works like the "worm game" playing area - where if something moves off the top of the screen, it reappears on the bottom, and going off the right edge leads it to the left edge. Whatever is in front of this strange sphere entity would be rendered at the center of the field of vision, so that would be dependent on the direction it was moving.

Well, I can sort of imagine it... would be an interesting ultra-advanced LD challenge to actually realize this. Anyone up for it? :-P