LD Dangers?

[Who I Am]

Has anyone ever had bad experiences with lucid dreaming? I never have, but I wonder about it. Can it be taken too far, to an unhealthy extreme? Can we have to much of a good thing? I believe that dreams and dream content serve natural biological and psychological functions designed to help keep us healthy, happy and solve problems. If we force lucid dreams unnaturally or make too much effort to control or sustain them, could we be interfering with the natural purposes? Is our subconscious always in control for a reason? Doesn’t it already know how many lucid dreams, the intensity, duration, type of content, amount of control, when we are ready, how much we can handle and what we need,… when and why? Do lucid dreams start AND end for a reason? Are lucid dreams essentially unnatural? ... Is anything all good or all bad? What are the dangers if any?

[Sugarglider11]

Don't worry, many members here have been lucid dreaming a long time and are still healthy. If anything became too extreme you would just wake up. So just don't worry about it, it lucid dreaming were bad this forum probably wouldn't be here.

[Abra]

First off, there are some people that have lucid dreams constantly, naturally, and show no ill effects. Secondly, even if you were to become lucid every night, your non-lucid REM periods would make up for whatever natural memory function normal dreaming produces. Thirdly, lucid dreams can have very similar content to the dream you were meant to have. Settings and characters can represent the settings and characters you would've dreampt about while non-lucid.

[Who I Am]

I have LDs quite frequently, but I have to go on the assumption that everyone is different. I also am a natural, and keep it that way for my own reasons... What's good for some people may not be so good for others. Can LDs create problems for some people during their waking lives,… or would the subconscious naturally intervene at that point? I have heard that some people have problems with spouses, parents and such as a result of their lucid dreaming on this board. Are their any other possible dangers we need to be aware of? As a general rule, I think moderation is healthy in most everything.

[Moonbeam]

I get in trouble for spending too much time on DreamViews, does that count?

[Barns]

I think there are a few dangers: 1. If you confuse yourself over a reality check then you may do something stupid in real life. (Has happened to some people before) 2. You may find you want to spend all of your time in your dreams and not in real life. (although this can only cause problems in very extreme cases)

[Who I Am]

There most likely wouldn’t be any way of proving them, but I think I could come up with a list of "possible" dangers, or possible "dark side"... we probably all could. Isn't this something we need to address? I think a good safe guard with all of it is to keep it in a "healthy perspective".

[sourcejedi]

If you want a list, the lucid dreaming wikibook would be a good place to start. I don't think you can harm yourself by "forcing" yourself to have too many lucid dreams, not in the way you suggest. I'd say the main risks aren't specific to lucid dreaming - obsession or spending too much time / effort on methods to get lucid. Perhaps in extreme cases there's a risk in questioning reality, but I still don't think that's a function of having too many lucid dreams.

[Who I Am]

I hold this theory,… each dream we have, lucid or not, recalled or not, controlled or not, … permanently alters our consciousness. It’s powerful medicine…

[Überschall]

There are no known cases where lucid dreaming caused psychological illness. Your brain is well capable of sorting out what's true and what not.

[jereb]

I hold this theory,… each dream we have, lucid or not, recalled or not, controlled or not, … permanently alters our consciousness. It’s powerful medicine… First off, I mean seriously, are you trying to find something wrong with LDing? Just saying is all. Anyways, I see absolutely nothing wrong with the psychological exertion of ones mind. Why was man blessed with so much brain power, if not to use it, and find our own secrets and limitations? The mind and body are easily hurt physically, but less though mentally. I believe Lucid Dreaming has no other effects on a human other than a desire to do it, which I am enlightened to say, I have fulfilled.

[Sgeo]

I'm personally worried that I might start taking real life less seriously. I don't mean I'm going to jump off a bridge expecting to be able to fly, but I'm worried about getting generally "lazier" and not using my intellect as much as I normally do..

[Luminous]

I have 2-6 lucid dreams a night, and I have no problems caused by lucid dreams. Rather the opposite. I have anxiety, and I'm using my lucid dreams to understand and deal with my anxiety. Not to mention all the other things lucid dreams can be used for, like doing and experiencing stuff that I can't do in real life.

[King K]

Dreaming is very dangerous, it makes you think you can do things that you can't really do in real life, you can end up as a psycho who can't differentiate between reality and dreams, this is why the society tries to convince everyone that dreaming is bad and dangerous. Oh wait...

[Who I Am]

There are no known cases where lucid dreaming caused psychological illness. Your brain is well capable of sorting out what's true and what not. Here's a shot of me (on the right and my brother on the left) before LDing. I was a cute normal healthy kid: Here's me after 25 years of LDing,... and that was 10 years and hundreds of LDs ago! Imagine what I look like now! Ha Ha Ha LOL I have more proof if you need it. LDing is glamorous! LOL

[WolfTsunade]

Once I had a dream in which a relative of mine died in a strange way(but I don't remember now). I felt scared and depressed for about three days afterward, but that wouldn't make me want to stop dreaming.... My mom says that reality checking will make me schizophranic(I don't think I spelled it right), but I say that its fine and I will be fine. She worries too much for no reason....

[Torcher]

but seriously...unless you LD only to murder DCs (in which case you might want to get your meter checked anyway), I doubt any harm can arise from the practice.

[Überschall]

but seriously...unless you LD only to murder DCs (in which case you might want to get your meter checked anyway), I doubt any harm can arise from the practice. I don't see why it would be wrong to kill DCs. I've taken onto masses of soldiers in my second LD, I already can't count how many guys I have dispatched right there. It's nothing too unusual to kill DCs, and it's better than killing people IRL.

[Sgeo]

Well, if that's the ONLY thing you do in LDs, you don't fly around or explore or things like that, is what I think Torcher meant.

[Who I Am]

Well, if that's the ONLY thing you do in LDs, you don't fly around or explore or things like that, is what I think Torcher meant. I have no idea what they meant,... but don't say I didn't warn you! LOL

[Who I Am]

Because of sleep paralysis, the body/brain doesn't recognize the difference between doing something IRL (in real life) or not. Psychologically it's the same.

[innerspacecadet]

I think trying too hard to have lucid dreams can screw up your sleep cycles, but other than that, there's no harm. Your brain is still firing away and doing all the other things it does in REM. Features of your dream over which you don't exert conscious control - that is, almost all of the dream except for your choice of which actions to pursue - are still controlled by random and subconscious processes, allowing your mind to appropriately "dump" its contents. You're still immobilized and letting your blanket control your body temperature as your body temperature regulation systems are maintained. Most (but possibly not all) of the brain chemistry involved is the same in lucid and non-lucid dreams.

[Cathode_Ray]

I hold this theory,… each dream we have, lucid or not, recalled or not, controlled or not, … permanently alters our consciousness. It’s powerful medicine… Ye i agree. Lets not forget that dreams are created by our mind perceived by our mind and processed by our mind, so if LD was harmfully for our mind, it just simply wouldn't allow it, and if it was harmful, then we found the only mistake that nature made.

[Who I Am]

DON’T DO ANYTHING IN A LUCID DREAM THAT YOU “WOULD’NT” (((not couldn‘t))), IN REAL LIFE! ... for your own good! Psychologically it's all the same! If you fantasize about killing people, or animals or causing pain,... you need to seek professional help! I don't think this is what this forum is about,... I hope not!

[Who I Am]

If you are joking then I apologize.