How about inducing NIGHTMARES?

[Idolfan]

There is a fine line between genius and madness, or something like that. I may be walking here, but I would like opinions. I have some pretty fucking intense fears, mainly gore and suffering. They can sometimes plague me if I feel depressed, because when I get hung up on things I get very extreme. It's never "Oh crap, I'm gonna fail these tests", it's always, "Oh crap... sadism, brutality, etc.". That's just the way I am. We are all subjectively different and I just think in that extreme way. It has its pros and cons. I want to find a way to overcome these fears in life so that they do not bother me every other day. I am not a manic depressive or anything, but whenever I do get depressed like I was this Christmas my mind completely short-circuits and I have nightmarish moods and paranoias because of these fears. Now... is it possible that inducing nightmares would have a theraputic effect in helping me to accept these things and face my fears... or would it do exactly the opposite? Nightmares do leave me in a sweat but can't this god-given phenomenon have a different purpose?

[pp111]

The way I see it, you can't be worse off for having encountered these fears in a real life situation without consequences to your physical being. It also seems like everyone has a little daredevil in them, and if you can become lucid while doing it, then why not?

[Shift]

It is possible, this sounds like a very strong fear or even phobia, though honestly who can tell over the internet. I am a huge proponent of using lucid dreaming as a form of therapy for fears and phobias. Do you know how much is spent a year on virtual reality technology for the same purpose? And here, you can do it for free and in your head and it'll probably be fun! But yea, I think a prerequisite would be plenty of LDing experience, a desire to get over the fear, and good dream control- which I think by default means that you have confidence and a good understanding that everything in your dream IS A DREAM. Once you've got this confidence, I think it would let a person explore and get comfortable around their phobias while still being 100% safe and in control. If you introduce these things gradually and slowly, I think there's huge opportunity here. Say Jill is afraid of flying- mainly, planes crashing and falling. So much that she experiences panic attacks at the mere thought of flight or a video of a plane taking off on tv. So she goes into her dreams, and starts out by by walking around a dream airport, remaining relaxed. Over time, she begins walking up onto the plane. Then, she explores the cockpit. Then, she causes the plane to take off. Then, she causes the plane to crash, all the while knowing it is a dream and harmless. I dunno. I mean sure it would need to be fine-tuned. But I think there is so much potential.... A nightmare, though, is inherently terrifying. I think that that would not help at all. A nightmare would probably make fears worse. A successive approximation to dream exposure in a controlled and calm manner would probably do wonders.

[MindDaguerreotype]

There are two distinct things: Confronting to the object of your phobia in a LD Inducing a lucid nightmare The first one can certainly be constructive, if you're in a well controlled LD, where you can maintain the awareness that everything is an illusion. Maybe you already had WILDs or SP with a strange and evil "presence"; the secret is to stay calm and not letting the fear overcome you; instead you should want this presence to come closer, and be friendly toward it (control your state of mind in a positive way) so that the presence finally loses its evil side and simply disappears. I found it quite easy to do, once the initial suprise controlled. It would probably be the same method with the cause of your fear. Now , the second point: lucid nightmare; I've done this once... "OK, I'm in a lucid; unleash the fear". Well... it was frightening. Pure fear and panic. With no objective cause ! In fact, the same way that in dream you can have visual or tactile hallucinations that are, ultimately, only generated by the corresponding brain region with no need for a real, physical object, you can have emotional hallucination (fear, joy, laughter) without any cause (perceived danger, loved one, good joke). Maybe a monster will appear and chase you, but it's post-rationalization by the subconscious. SO in conclusion, lucid nightmare is not something constructive (or maybe when you have reached a good level and need to train to control "fear" itself), because it's already too late; you should instead set up a LD where you can explore the beginning of the process, rather than jumping directly to the conclusion Finally, maybe it will be easier than you think; I have remarked that during dreams (and LDs) I'm quite detached and have less negative emotions than one would expect regarding the gross/disgusting things that happen. The same way that absurd dream situations are just accepted without surprise, a walking cadaver with blood is just seen as it is, without fear or repulsion. After this long post I realized that I said the same thing as Shift... Well, "submit reply" anyway !

[A Name]

Try eating some cheese before bed. I ate some before bed 3 nights in a row (different types). I got nightmares 2 out of 3 nights, one of them was really realistic (I think it was lucid dreaming, because I could control what I doing. 'Cept I couldn't move) I kind of enjoyed it but after the third I got a bit scared...

[オースチン]

I've thought about inducing a lucid nightmare myself, I'm interested to see if one can conquer fears by using flooding during a lucid dream. O-Suchin

[Lusense]

Random ass post but yo Shift that talking to DCs isn't working consistently only once in a while during nightmare LDs. I did it tonight instead of trying to switch up the dreamscape or trying to turn it to my favor another way against like 100 zombies. Don't get me wrong it works alot but alot of the time they are just too stubborn. I was like "Why are you attacking me?" "I don't feel like fighting." "It's just a dream leave me alone." etc. and they just ignored me or said something stupid and kept attacking lol. Had to just stand there and take it then I forced myself to wake up and start a different dream.

[mattmuffler]

you can learn and practice things in your dreams right? so i supppose you could face your fears a?