horrible dream control

[sk8r4life7]

I have had four lucid dreams now, all with little or no control. My first one was where I realized I was dreaming but couldnt move, my second was decent I could do anything normal i wanted; walk, run, draw. But could not make anything or anyone come into the dream. My third I couldnt walk I had to crawl everywhere. And my fourth from last night I was in the passenger seat of a car speeding down the highway with no driver I first tried to grab something and my hand went through it like a ghost, then I hopped in the drivers seat and none of the breaks worked. Why am I haveing such a difficult time?

[Naiya]

Dream control is just like everything else in life--it takes practice. It helps to have confidence in yourself and expect success. When it comes to traveling, you don't have to think about getting there fast or how you will get there--just keep your focus on BEING where you want to go. The dream will follow. It is extremely hard to poof something into existence in front of you in a dream. You might want to try imagining that thing in the next room, or behind you, and expect to see it when you look. Even for an experienced dreamer, things we might not expect can still happen. One of my favorite authors wrote "No sailor can control the sea" about lucid dreaming. I believe he is right on about that--you can become an experienced dreamer who is proficient at dream control but it is still the dream itself which is creating and adapting the environment around you as you go, so you are never consciously controlling every element of the dream. Even though I fly in almost all of my lucids--and certainly fly whenever I need to, recently I had a lucid where I jumped up, fully expecting to fly, and landed right back down. I tried a few more times, and nothing. In this case my confidence/expectation was obviously not the problem, as it wouldn't even occur to me that flying might not work after I've been able to literally hundreds of times before. The lucid was short and I never did figure out why I couldn't fly. Sometimes things like this can happen, and there's nothing you are doing wrong. The best thing you can do to get better at dream control is practice visualization, have confidence in yourself, and practice. There may be trial and error with some things and you may have to try a few techniques (there are several ways of flying for example).

[louie54]

Have you read the dream control tutorial? If not, I highly recommend it as well as the dream content section. Maybe you should also practice stabilizing as well. Focus on a dream object like a tree. Notice every little detail and become more tuned into the dream. I hope this helps.

[Darkmatters]

Hey, sounds almost exactly like my 1st 4 lucids since joining! I still haven't managed any actual control, but finally last night I was able to do some RCs and to stick my head and arms through window - things I've always wanted to do. Unfortunately I couldn't see though, so decided against flying around...

[changed]

Hew... I thought i was alone with having little control. I am currently trying to get really good at passive control because the other type would be near impossible for me. What sucks for me is that i only get like 1-2 lucids a month and it pisses me off that i have little control in these LDs.