Thread: Is Lucid Dreaming taking over your life?

I noticed when trying to lucid dream in the past it would take over my life. Rather than paying attention to my surroundings, I'm doing reality checks every 5 minutes. Also, with my dream recall recording 5 dreams a night into my journal, it's hard to separate dreams from reality when you remember everything happening around the clock.

Just curious if anyone else has experienced this, as I believe this is my main problem for not having lucid dreams (my body doesn't want me to).

NC

Good Thread in my opinion...in the past i was able to lucid dream...now (yes, after inception...) i wanted to learn it again, and till now i have not had any success. I dont know why, but maybe its really because im kinda "addicted" to it. 2 of my friends already told me im focussing to hard on that topic...I dont know what to think or to do...
But hey, whats wrong writing a creative story with lucid dreaming in it for the german lessons task? Whats wrong asking urself all the time if your in a dream? Whats wrong reading hours and hours on lucid dreaming? Whats wrong talking about it with friends(who also had LD´s in the past)?
Maybe im really "addicted"...and depressed because i cant make it at the moment.

Rather than paying attention to my surroundings, I'm doing reality checks every 5 minutes.

Followed By:

I believe this is my main problem for not having lucid dreams (my body doesn't want me to).

Not aware in waking life? You won't be aware in dreaming life.

I have reached a point before where I recalled 4-5 dreams a night, with usually 1 being lucid. I never experienced any sort of 'reality lapse' as you have described. As well, the total time a day I needed to devote to lucid dreaming to achieve this is less than an hour.

You only let lucid dreaming take over your life if you let it, just like everything else (drugs, alcohol, [insert vice here]).

It's not taking up my life. But, it sure is taking up alot of notebooks/journals.

Awareness of surroundings can take over your life. When you are working in business and your life revolves around how you are going to meet your next quota, does counting the steps in your house, or seeing what shade of green the tree leaves are in your backyard, or even holding your nose to see if this reality is real.... does this mean you are more aware or less aware?

People seem to think it's healthy to constantly be aware of everything in your surroundings, when in fact it (like anything else you think about) takes up brainpower than might be used elsewhere.

I have a buddy of mine that works for NASA. He is always in a head-spin with logic, problems to solve, theories to express. Is he "unaware" if he doesn't have the time to sit and notice what temperature it is outside and how that effects the scent of the air?

Awareness doesn't get you anywhere except awareness in dreams, or perhaps some spiritual encounter if you are ever so likely.

Using my brainpower to determine if I am dreaming or not, every 10 minutes, doesn't seem to be proactive when I have a business to run. Some may even go so far as to think those who are consciously aware of their surroundings are actually less aware of how life actually is around them.

NC

Do you drive a car? Do you eat at all? Do you walk anywhere? Do you ever look out the window?

Stop being so ignorant. All you're doing is introducing cognitive barriers and reinforcing them; this alone will never make you lucid dream.

No, practicing awareness doesn't mean ignore your work and go count stairs. No, practicing awarness doesn't mean hang up early in your business call to go stare at a tree to determine its green. Where the hell are you getting your information?

Using my brainpower to determine if I am dreaming or not, even 10 minutes, doesn't seem to be proactive when I have a business to run.

Too bad.

Ignorant? All the zen books I've read talk about being one with the world. Appreciate the little things in life. "Wake up" to your surroundings. It's no wonder our brain symbolizes objects; it doesn't have the time or patience to sit and take everything in for what it's worth. A tree is a tree... time to let you focus on other important things.

I understand the determination it takes to lucid dream. But going around all day and questioning your reality is ridiculous.

Lucid dreaming is like experiencing life "beyond the veil." Once you see beyond the veil, it's a lifelong journey to get back there. So yes, it can take over your life. Oddly enough, I find that when I take a break from it all, I have a spontaneous lucid dream and the journey starts all over again.

Originally Posted by nobodycares

Ignorant? All the zen books I've read talk about being one with the world. Appreciate the little things in life. "Wake up" to your surroundings. It's no wonder our brain symbolizes objects; it doesn't have the time or patience to sit and take everything in for what it's worth. A tree is a tree... time to let you focus on other important things.

I understand the determination it takes to lucid dream. But going around all day and questioning your reality is ridiculous.

No, you don't understand it. Not one bit. I'm not some philosophical freak that sits in the grass all "What if, like, were not real man, were just somebody's dream". I'm a university student with a job and a social life. I'm probably the last person you'd expect to be doing this kind of stuff, and there's no way you can tell me there isn't enough time. Between class, projects, studying, work and seeing friends, I myself have very little spare time to 'be one with the world' or whatever you've been reading.

I'd be more then happy to help, but stop with the ignorance. All you're doing is presenting yourself with a problem and concluding that there is no solution. That's not really too bright; you said you were a business owner. When your budget doesn't line up, do you bitch and moan that its impossible because you couldn't do it, or do you re-evaluate your decisions and think 'well if we did it this way..'

Anyways, it'd be rude of me (if I haven't been already) to not provide any alternatives. People who work hard like you go through their daily routine in a tunnel vision. Same routine everyday, same drive to work, staring at the car's bumper ahead of you spacing out. Try simple things like studying the interior of your car at red lights, study your BEDROOM right when you wake up (false awakenings?).

Also, SpaceShipOne, which I believe is one of the first passenger / tourist space ships, had a problem with reentry; more specifically, lining up the ship so it just doesn't fall to the ground. The engineer / designer had a dream where he realized that a shuttlecock would always fall in the same way, which is now the basis for the design, solving their reentry problem. Einstein's theory of relativity was also inspired by a dream where his bed was moving extremely fast down hill. A world free of any rules and laws does wonders for the creative mind.

I jot down my dreams for a few moments in the middle of the night, and spend around 30 minutes in the morning recording them here on DV. To get lucid, I really just increase my awareness and do reality checks four or five times randomly during the day. I do spend a few hours a day on this site, though...

In total, I probably spend 25 hours or so a week thinking about/writing down LDs.

Thanks

I consider it an alt reality, except it is subjective (like thoughts) rather than objective (like waking life). But no, I reserve time for both, and I rather like my life...

Originally Posted by nobodycares

Rather than paying attention to my surroundings, I'm doing reality checks every 5 minutes.

Shouldn't those two be the same thing? You are supposed to pay attention to your surroundings, that's how you know if you're dreaming. In that way lucid dreaming has improved my life. I'm more aware of what's happening around me and it's also improved my memory.