Couple of questions!

**asimmons** · 09-25-2010 09:52 PM

I stumbled across this site after watching Inception, which got me interested in the possibility of controlling my dreams etc. Ever since I was a kid I've had pretty good dream recall and one or two random lucid dreams.

Since I stumbled across this site around four days ago, I have had lucid dreams every night generally waking up almost as soon as I realised I was dreaming, however last night was different.

I was able to stay lucid and I thought the first thing I wanted to try was flying, I did the whole superman thing and put my hand up in the air and took off, I got quite high then felt that I ran out of fuel or something similar and came crashing back to earth, when I hit the ground it hurt.

A little later in the dream, I asked a person, how come I can get hurt in my dreams. She answered but I can't remember the answer.

Now I pose the question to you, how come I was hurt? I was sure I saw an article on here about it but can't find it, also any idea why I couldn't flight for more than a few seconds ?

Thanks a bunch,

Alex.

**McGinnis** · 09-25-2010 10:00 PM

The answer is both easy and complicated.

Generally, what you expect to happen in a lucid dream will happen. Therefore, if you have doubts about your ability to fly, that will manifest itself in some form or another. Similarly, if you believe that you can get hurt, you will get hurt. You may have realized that you were dreaming, but I don't think you fully grasped that the rules of physics in the dream world only apply insofar as you expect them to. If you expect there to be gravity, it will be there. If you expect to get hurt when you fall, it will be so.

In time you will learn how to gain more control over your lucid dreams. The key to everything is awareness. In this case, awareness that you can mostly create your own rules, and that your expectations (conscious or not) will shape your reality.

**Brunor2** · 09-25-2010 11:08 PM

It's all about dream control. You probably tought that if you went too high you could fall, you were being limited, probably, by reality bounds and laws.

You can feel pain. Your brain associate falling from a high altitude to being hurt / breaking bones / etc and creates pain. For your mind, dreams are reality.

**RookieDreamer** · 09-25-2010 11:10 PM

Thats kinda like the matrix

**Hukif** · 09-25-2010 11:15 PM

Hm, its simply because you expected to be hurt. I mean, what happened when you started falling? I would guess freaking out and imagining things like dying or the like passed your mind, and thus, your brain interpreted it on "Pain" or something alike.

**asimmons** · 09-25-2010 11:25 PM

Thanks for all of your replies, actually as I was falling I didn't think much I just accepted the fact that I must of ran out flying fuel or something as that's what it felt like. I wasn't really expecting it hurt but at the same time I wasn't expecting it not too.
I'm new to all of this so have lots to learn, my main concern now is to stay lucid for longer periods of time...any tips ?

**PXUmais** · 09-25-2010 11:42 PM

You feel pain through receptors registering outside stimuli and transforming this in to electrical signals so your mind can understand it.

Why wouldn't your mind be able to recreate this.. all inside your head..

There's something called Psychogenic pain, which is a type of pain that removes the aspect of outside stimuli (other than social factors). And so the mind creates this pain by itself... The feelings you experience in dreams are created by recalling similar experiences you've felt in real life. So yeah, it's kinda like the matrix.

I once tried to do a "Neo" type flight in a Lucid Dream, I got the weird rings around but when I jumped I felt back down and it hurt REALLY bad... =D

**asimmons** · 09-25-2010 11:47 PM

The madness of lucid dreams aye.

**PXUmais** · 09-26-2010 12:07 AM

Originally Posted by asimmons

Thanks for all of your replies, actually as I was falling I didn't think much I just accepted the fact that I must of ran out flying fuel or something as that's what it felt like. I wasn't really expecting it hurt but at the same time I wasn't expecting it not too.
I'm new to all of this so have lots to learn, my main concern now is to stay lucid for longer periods of time...any tips ?

Yh, that's the annoying part.. You weren't thinking about how it wouldn't hurt because it's a dream; so your brain just recreated what "you" thought would/should of happened..

Increasing the length: stay calm, repeatedly do RCs (Stops you from losing Lucidity), be aware of your dream surroundings, experience feelings (touch, smell, sounds etc.), keep a DJ (No use having a LD if you're not going to remember it) and most importantly just DON'T forget your dreaming.

Reality Check Tutorial
Dream Stabilization and Clarity Tutorial
Dream Recall Tutorial
Dream Signs Tutorial
Dream Control Tutorial

Just some tuts, if you need them...