How lucidity is life changing - your views

[riverboy]

I've had a search around and I'm surprised that there hasn't been a thread similar to this already - if there is I apologise profusely! I'd like to ask you all to think back to when you first discovered lucid dreaming, or more precisely the day before. So many people say their life is so much different from then, but is it for you? I'm assuming that many of you have devoted hours of your life to Lucid Dreaming much like a hobby, but how has it helped you develop as a person? If at all? Personally I've found it's made me realise just how subjective life really is - the vividness of lucid dreams still leaves me in awe. Also (this may sound crazy) it's made me feel a lot more comfortable with the concept of death, I feel that if there is anything after life, it'd be a lot like a lucid dream. This is quite something for me as I've always shunned ideas of an afterlife etc. But what do you all think? I'm sure many of you have had some sort of personal revelation due to lucid dreaming - please share if you're comfortable with it!

[Bizarre Jester]

I was going to say just that, about how it made me realize how subjective life is. It opened me up to a new level of consciousness and perception. I also feel more comfortable with death. Not that I'm looking to die, but I know that there is more to this universe than the physical waking realm. Being able to recall a vivid dream, whether lucid or not, makes me feel happier and more enthusiastic during the day. Finally, being able to achieve lucidity at will is a skill that I have been developing for some time, and am continuing to develop. This makes me realize that when I put my mind to something, I can accomplish it, thus creating my own reality.

[Katsuno]

Well when I think back to the time before I knew about ld I realize, how stupid I was. I was always thinking that there is nothing special about this world and that the only interesting thing was, to accomplish something (even when I thought that it wouldn't matter anyways when I die). I was always sad that you can't be like a hero from any game/movie/anime and that life has no meaning at all. Also, I was just living in the day, and just thought about the things I have to do, what I wanted to eat and such stuff. When I found out about ld a new world opened for me. Suddenly, life had a meaning again and I realized that there is more to this world than I thought. I perceive the world much better now and ld helped me alot with ignoring all the stress of the daily life. I agree with you that the fear of death is greatly reduced and that life is somehow subjective. I just wish that everyone who thinks like I did before will sometime open their eyes.

[kaeraz]

I love the power that lucid dreaming gives me. Lucidity always plays a role, but dream control is something I'm very interested in and work very hard at achieving night after night. I love the idea that I'm unlocking this whole new world that would have easily gone unnoticed. Just think: some people will never experience lucid dreaming. That's 1/3 of their life - gone. We get to reclaim that. It's like we're living a whole other life effortlessly.

[Erii]

I 3rd the realizing how subjective life it, it really opened me up to new ideas. But I use LDing as escapism, its like, I always have that time when all of my problems are gone....I always have something to look forward to no matter how crappy my days are. Just the fact I might have an LD gives me a little joy.

[riverboy]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this way! I think the rigorous, scientific approach to modern day life takes a lot of the mysticism out of life, it's nice to know that there's at least one fantasy that actually exists. The fear of death thing is pretty interesting too, it's probably linked to that last point in a way. I read a chapter in a Parapsychology textbook a while back about OBE's and it mentioned that the biggest theme in almost every person who experienced an OBE was reduced fear of death.

[Raspberry]

Interesting thread. Katsuno pretty much said it all for me. Like him, I was drifting through life wondering what the point was and doing nothing but going to school, eating, stressing etc. Life was just plain bland, even if I was having a blast with my friends. In the end I just thought everything was a waste of time. I also looked at characters from movies etc and thought "Why can't I be like them sd;jkghds;fijhgduhf???!!!!! " Something I love, is being able to see something in waking life e.g a movie, and instead of thinking something like "Well, that was good. Now what?" It gives me more ideas of what I want to do. Life doesn't seem so bad when you know you can sleep and have as much fun as you want and without anyone even knowing. How many people go to bed, go back to medievil times, battles a giant dragon, then wakes up and goes to school or work? When people ask what I done that night I just kinda chuckle and they get confused. They don't understand how much fun I have As for death, i've never been that bothered by it. The way I think of it is, if there's something there and it's good, all the more banter for me. If it's bad, I'll cope cause I'm resilliant. If there's nothing, then I won't even know it because I won't be there. I have almost died several times, or been in situations that could have gone very very wrong. I had a dream once (before I knew about lucid dreaming) that was incredibly vivid. During this dream, I was captured by a gang and one of them knocked me to my knees and pressed a gun to my head. The fear was extreme. Throughout the dream I was given to a household to be a slave, and threatened several times. Each time was very very scary.

[Dre4m3r]

My whole life I've always loved the concept of dreaming and I've always had cool dreams. When I learned I could be awake in my dreams and actual control them I had to learn how. To be honest I don't understand why everyone doesn't learn how. Everyone has to sleep and everyone dreams so why not have fun with it and do some really cool things you may never be able to do in real life? As for being life changing it has just opened my eyes to what the human brain is capable of. I truly think that there is a way for people to share dreams with eachother but I won't get much into it since some people have a lot of different opinions on that subject. But dreaming is great and as long as I'm alive I will always try to understand more about dreams and how to become lucid faster and different techniques.

[LucidDreamGod]

Well it gave me hope for a better life. Throughout your life there is so much experience that your capable of but you never get to experience it because you don't have the opportunity. You get out of school and then you work your whole life until the day that you die and life is practically never lived to its fullest. I feel like lucid dreaming gives that opportunity, though it is not easy to become a lucid dreamer it is rewarding if you can find a way. For me like most of you said, yeah I realize life is subjective and that the real world is just another dream trying to interpret signals the brain picks up from an outside world that we will never be able to see in actuality. I don't fear death because I am just ready to sleep again after waking up into this life from birth, it is just another stable dream.