Thread: Fear

I'm not scared or put off, since I've experienced false awakenings, I've experienced SP, and I know how becoming lucid can turn around even a nightmare. However, your fear is of losing your rational thought on what reality real. Firstly, the concept of lucid dreaming is to be able to manipulate your dreams to your will. Doing so allows you to literally fly at will, change the setting of a dream, and even explore the depths of one's consciousness. This you cannot do in reality, thus reality checks are required, so to help your mind realise it isn't dreaming any more. If anything, I'm more excited in getting myself to have lucid dreams again, because whatever I experience along the way will be... just another experience. Besides, SP isn't real, its all within the mind, so why fear it? Same with false awakenings. If anything, they lead you into lucid dreams, and without them, it would be a lot harder to recognise when and when we are not dreaming. I've woken up from dreams by will (though through the majority of the dream, I didn't realise it was a dream, until the last moment when i heard my alarm clock), so if anything, you shouldn't be afraid of that. What you should be afraid of is losing your lucidity in a LD and waking up prematurely, because then you lose all the fun a LD has to offer.

I know how you feel LucidLisa, but I don't really know the answer to your problem because whatever anyone tells you to help, you still have to overcome it yourself when it comes to it.

Educate yourself even more on lucid dreams and how safe they really are because there really is nothing to be afraid of. You are always able to wake up from a dream, maybe not always immediately but it will come to an end. You will probably have more trouble staying asleep once you're lucid!

We always know when we're awake, we just don't know when we're dreaming. I know that's kind of contradictory. We don't always realise that we're dreaming because our critical thinking is reduced while dreaming. That's why we have to do reality checks while we're awake. You won't go crazy and confuse dreaming with real life. Unless maybe if you are schizophrenic.

You say you're afraid of losing control and that's the main issue I think. Try putting yourself in situations in real life where you have to release your control over the situation and get used to it, enjoy it. Something like a rollercoaster for example, it's pretty scary but once you're on it, you're on it, and you just have to ride it out. You might as well relax and enjoy the ride instead of fighting it. Practice letting go.

Meditation might help with that too. I like Sogyal Rinpoche's analogy in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying:

"Brind your mind home. And release. And relax. . . . What does this state feel like? Dudjom Rinpoche used to say, imagine a man who comes home after a long, hard day's work in the fields and sinks into his favorite arm chair in front of the fire. He has been working all day and he knows he has achieved what he wanted to achieve; there is nothing more to worry about, nothing left unaccomplished, and he can let go completely of all his cares and concerns, content, simply, to be."

Above all, remember the words inscribed in large, friendly letters on the front cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy:

DON'T PANIC

PS: Welcome to DV! and is that you in that photo?

I hate the feeling of drifing off into unconsiousness... you know, a lot of people don't even remember what falling asleep feels like. Their head hits the pillow and then boom, they're waking up the next morning. But I am completely aware of that feeling of drifting off...of losing control of my thoughts...you know, that moment when you're not exactly asleep yet you're not exactly awake... and I think it feels like how I imagine dying feels.

You hit the nail on the head when you said DONT PANIC. I find myself panicking and I literally Jump out of sleep...

LucidLisa

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"Are we sleep-walking through our waking life or wake-walking through our dreams" -- Unknown

Hey LucidLisa, welcome to DreamViews!

Sleep paralysis can be scary but it only happens for a few seconds. Believe me... I wish I could not wake up from lucid dreams so early, the hard thing is to stay asleep. Don't be afraid of not waking up, a lucid dream functions just like a regular dream. The false awakenings thing... It's confusing sometimes. Once I had one and I had to do a RC to confirm I was awake after that but it's all fun once you've been through it. The first step is the hard one.

I hate the feeling of drifing off into unconsiousness... you know, a lot of people don't even remember what falling asleep feels like. Their head hits the pillow and then boom, they're waking up the next morning. But I am completely aware of that feeling of drifting off...of losing control of my thoughts...you know, that moment when you're not exactly asleep yet you're not exactly awake... and I think it feels like how I imagine dying feels.[/b]

This happens to me on some nights. Going to sleep isn't like dying. It's a transition between your waking perception and your dream perception. Try to think of it this way. I know how hard it is to loose focus when your thoughts begin to drift off but you should just let yourself go, it's not like you're putting a rope on your neck!

Good luck overcoming your fear!

Fear is big business.

Talkin' to myself just the other day
I'm totally fuckin' paranoid and who is to blame?
Half the time I'm hiding, the other half I pray
I'm always fuckin' waiting for the judgment day



To paraphrase Franklin Delano Roosevelt: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself".