Thread: HEpennypacker's Quest for Lucidity : Looking for Help

Hey Pennypacker, welcome do DV!

You're off to a great start by jotting down these dreams. There appears to be a fair amount of recall in them too, specially for your first time at "trying".

Just basic FYI stuff about keeping the journal:
-- It's best to do it right after waking up (which it looks like you did - great!).
-- Don't be afraid to modify or re-write it should you remember something else after or later on in the day.
-- Also, should you wake up from a dream in the middle of the night, don't expect to remember that particular dream later in the morning - scribble it down right away! Even if it's just a sentence or two.

I've read that most people go through about 4 sleep cycles a night - 90 minutes each - and that we usually wake up during or after each, even if it's just for a few seconds. Just something to think about.

Once you have about a week or two's worth of dream recalling, you can start reading over them and trying to spot a dreamsign (something that appears in many of your dreams). Once you identify this sign (or theme - like Star Wars charaters), it can help you in becoming lucid next time you see it.

Well, that's about it for now, there's plenty of help here on the boards - good luck!

Originally posted by Tornado Joe
Hey Pennypacker, welcome do DV!

You're off to a great start by jotting down these dreams. There appears to be a fair amount of recall in them too, specially for your first time at \"trying\".

Just basic FYI stuff about keeping the journal:
-- It's best to do it right after waking up (which it looks like you did - great!).
-- Don't be afraid to modify or re-write it should you remember something else after or later on in the day.
-- Also, should you wake up from a dream in the middle of the night, don't expect to remember that particular dream later in the morning - scribble it down right away! Even if it's just a sentence or two.

I've read that most people go through about 4 sleep cycles a night - 90 minutes each - and that we usually wake up during or after each, even if it's just for a few seconds. Just something to think about.

Once you have about a week or two's worth of dream recalling, you can start reading over them and trying to spot a dreamsign (something that appears in many of your dreams). Once you identify this sign (or theme - like Star Wars charaters), it can help you in becoming lucid next time you see it.

Well, that's about it for now, there's plenty of help here on the boards - good luck!

Hey, thanks a lot for posting!

But the thing that confuses me is, I don't know how at all I'm going to become lucid. When I have my dreams, I remember them (although I usually don't), but it doesn't actually feel like I'm a part of them. It just doesn't feel like I could say "wait, there's a dreamsign", because I'm not really into the dream that much. I very rarely have vivid dreams where I feel like I'm a part of them. It just feels like that when I sleep, my dream is playing like a movie, but I can't hit the stop button and say "wait a minute", I can just watch the movie.

Also, something that I think is funny, during the day (reality), I keep looking at clocks and anticipating that they're going to be weird symbols, or look and see something really werid happen (dog flies for example). It just feels weird, because now I'm always looking to make sure I'm not in a dream, but I've never really had a dream that felt like reality.

But the thing that confuses me is, I don't know how at all I'm going to become lucid. When I have my dreams, I remember them (although I usually don't), but it doesn't actually feel like I'm a part of them[/b]

I know exactly what you mean. In our non-lucid dreams, it's as if we don't exist - we don't have a "self". We're like part of the scenery. We can see and observe, but it's as if we're in this bubble and everything happens "outside" of it.

I just got this book from the library called "Stop Dreaming Through Your Dreams". There's a very interesting section that helps define what conscious really is. Hard to explain, but I'll give you the quote from the book:

"Consciousness is a duality. It is the seemingly paradoxical ability of being able to experience sensation and , at the same time, experience oneself experiencing that sensation"

The book further explains that when we sleep, we are naturally stripped of the second half of the consciousness equation. So, in our regular dreams, we are able to experience sensations, but only upon becoming lucid can we experiences our "self" experiencing these sensations. Kind of like the difference between watching a movie on a screen, and being on the actual set of the filming.

But now, how can we become lucid if we don't have this other half of consciousness??! Ahh, that's the trick! No one said this would be easy - but it IS possible. If you are able to see something in a dream that arouses your "self" that's inactive during sleep - you'll become "completly conscious" and therefore lucid.

I know some of this sounds deep - heck, I'm still having trouble with it myself. But don't get discouraged!

Day 2 - 6/22

Ok, last night was a really weird night of dreaming. I actually got scared before I went to sleep because I just kept thinking that I was going to end up having a nightmare for some reason, so I didn't want to fall asleep and remember the nightmare. So I ended up staying up late, and eventually I fell asleep. I remembered waking up several times in the night, and I kept trying really hard to remember the dream I just had (I assume I woke up after each REM period), but I could remember absolutely nothing. So I wake up for the last time at about 6:30am (wanted to wake up an hour later because I needed sleep for physics exam and road test, but oh well), and I lay in bed for about 20 minutes. After that 20 minutes, 3 dreams come back to me. It was really weird, because you're supposed to remember your dreams best right after you have them. I wasn't even close to becoming lucid though, it still doesn't feel like I'm part of the dream, and I don't notice any common dreamsigns, I never recall turning on any lights or looking at clocks in my dreams. Anyways, here's the dreams :
[list][*] I'm at a girls slumber party with girls from my school. This girl and I go in a seperate room and get in a sleeping bag together and start getting ready to have sex. Something interrupts us and we stop .

[*] I'm at school after the school day is over, and I get a ride home with one of my friends (can't remember who), and another friend of mine is in the car with us, and I notice that she speeds a lot. We end up going to an artcade somewhere and there is this racing game. We all play it (the three of us), and I win. For some reason, I get $6 for winning. I say that I'm going to come back another time and play again.

[*] My two friends (guys) start a game of chess (this dream was very short, about 30 seconds, but it was my last one for some reason).
[list]


My problem is that my dreams are always in the third person, I'm always looking at myself doing these things, it's not like I'm actually doing them. I don't know how I'm ever going to become lucid like this.

6/23

-I took an English exam


Last night sucked. I woke up at like 5am and had about 4 bullets about the English exam sleep, but I accidentally fell back asleep before I wrote anything down. When I woke up, I rememberd nothing but that I took an exam. I'm going to try taking some magnesium to make the dreams more vivid.

6/23
[list][*] My brother couldn't find Cinnamin Toast Crunch for breakfast, and I found it in the fridge behind a 1/2 gallon of milk.

[*] I'm at school and it's the next year, and I'm at lunch. There's absolutely nobody good in my lunch except for this pretty good looking girl. I go up and meet her, and we start talking. Two of my other friends (identical twin girls) walk by in front of the lunch room and I say hi. It is very vague as to what I do from here, but I remember doing something crazy and funny on top of the table when my friend Tim walks in the lunch room. (there's more to this dream, but I can't remember it).

[*] I'm the pilot of a space ship (I don't remember how I got there). It's like a virtual reality ship though because when I look outside the front window, it's like a video game screen, everything is in 3D video game form. I'm trying to fly away from this one alien (I think), so I keep getting real close to the ground, and then jetting the thrusters back up. Eventually I run out of fuel, so I do a couple circles around the mountains and plains (I'm like in a pixel desert), and I spot a little patch of buildings. I head for the buildings, and crash into them. (I don't remember any more of it, but I don't think that I die).
[list]


Last night was decent, but one thing made me really mad. Before the first dream, I had a really long and vivid dream, but I simply cannot remember a single thing about it (except that a tree house comes to mind), I am so mad.

The only thing that I remembered in the middle of the night, and then when I woke up, was that first little end of a dream. As I started typing this journal, I recalled the other two that I had after. Pretty cool, I'm happy about that.

Help me out guys, I\'m lost!!!

gee your even more successful than me with girls in your dreams.

I think there are a lot of dream signs in there u have to look harder. The may not be regular stuff though.

6/24


Can't remember any dreams from last night. It's probably because I was just worried about trying HILD, which didn't work for me. But I think it was because I slept through the whole night without waking up once because I was really tired.