Why do you practice lucid dreaming?

[Candlelight]

Basically, why do YOU lucid dream? I think it'd be cool to see what everyone's different reasons are. Try not to post anything too philosophical or mindblowing. Personally, I practice it in order to fulfill various fantasies and just do cool stuff in general you wouldn't be able to do in waking life.

[USA]

Make use of sleeping time, have tons of fun without having to leave your bed!!

[WinRic]

I want to fly, control water, and do a lil bit of magic And dreaming has way more potential than any video game

[sandman95]

Push my mind to the limits. And do some cool stuff.

[Spyguy]

My waking life is very boring. So i try to find awesome stuff to do to make it as good as possible. Doing anything possible, anywhere possible with anything/anyone possible with time which is usually wasted sounded too awesome to resist

[rynkrt3]

Same as spyguy.

[WarBenifit156]

I practice lucid dreaming because its something that most people don't practice and to have awesome/epic adventures. Check out my dream journal, I had an awesome lucid dream called "Lucid Dream #33 & 34" my most vivid, lucid, and longest lucid dream I ever had!

[Puffin]

Doing kickass stuff, living out scenes from movies, having superpowers, and totally blowing my own mind so that when I wake up, I'm high as a kite until I fall asleep that night.

[insideout]

Adventure!

[rynkrt3]

Doing kickass stuff, living out scenes from movies, having superpowers, and totally blowing my own mind so that when I wake up, I'm high as a kite until I fall asleep that night. I like the way puffin put it. When I've had a kick ass lucid I'm ALWAYS in a good mood the next day... it's literally like a high

[Shinice]

Try out impossible things like magic and flying.

[kevojy]

It's fun, why would you not spend your night doing amazing things that you could never do in real life? Plus I can see it being useful with more skill. For example, I know there have been medical students that have practiced and mastered medical procedures entirely in lucid dreams.

[Binsk]

I find it interesting how so far the majority is just to have an adventure with possibilities inaccessible in the real world. Though, really, I suppose that is one of the bigger attractive qualities of lucid dreaming. I actually love to lucid dream for creativity's sake. For example, playing an instrument in a lucid dream is 100% more satisfying, not to mention you can come up with some crazy tunes that you can use in the real world (and I have, in fact). Also, I like the idea of having my own personal "sandbox" so to speak. This, I have yet to accomplish as I have been on an extremely long dry-spell (broken recently with one lucid, but it was not very vivid). I have designed an entire world. It has a history, a different civilization, landmarks, different rules of nature, and various other things. A large goal is to finally get to this created world and experience it first hand. I have the means, the plan on how to do so, and everything has been set up for a long time. I just need the darned lucid dream to give it a shot which has been avoiding me for close to a year.

[LUC1D]

I had my first LD by accident. I've been hooked ever since.

[Supernova]

I guess for the same reason that I do any of the strange things that I do, which is to experience something I otherwise could not.

[Philosopher8659]

Basically, why do YOU lucid dream? I think it'd be cool to see what everyone's different reasons are. Try not to post anything too philosophical or mindblowing. Personally, I practice it in order to fulfill various fantasies and just do cool stuff in general you wouldn't be able to do in waking life. The mind has a job to do, we explore all of our options towards that self-realization.

[cmmgibson]

I don't LD to fulfill fantasies primarily. I want to become in touch with my dream symbols and spirituality. I believe becoming more conscious in my dreams I can get in touch with my higher self, which is all I want out of life. I hope to become a more aware person after I master the art of lucid dreaming. I take lucid dreaming very seriously and do not see it as a game, but as a way of living, part of my spiritual quest.

[DeeryTheDeer]

I find it interesting how so far the majority is just to have an adventure with possibilities inaccessible in the real world. Though, really, I suppose that is one of the bigger attractive qualities of lucid dreaming. I actually love to lucid dream for creativity's sake. For example, playing an instrument in a lucid dream is 100% more satisfying, not to mention you can come up with some crazy tunes that you can use in the real world (and I have, in fact). Also, I like the idea of having my own personal "sandbox" so to speak. This, I have yet to accomplish as I have been on an extremely long dry-spell (broken recently with one lucid, but it was not very vivid). I have designed an entire world. It has a history, a different civilization, landmarks, different rules of nature, and various other things. A large goal is to finally get to this created world and experience it first hand. I have the means, the plan on how to do so, and everything has been set up for a long time. I just need the darned lucid dream to give it a shot which has been avoiding me for close to a year. God yes, pretty much this. I've also been having a horrible dry spell, except for this afternoon when I had a regular dream in which I could easily shift and create my surroundings as if I was inside a 3d program... I even looked at the partly cloudy sunset peaking out as I was walking around town, which was yellowish orange, and willed it to be magenta. Sure enough, it did exactly what I wanted, changing the colors back and forth, and I was so excited that I could successfully control this that I realized I was probably dreaming, which encouraged me even more considering my dry spell. I decided to fly up and up in the air around buildings, as if swimming slowly upwards and upwards as the people down below watched me in wonder. I tried to get higher and higher, past the tops of the buildings, up to the sky, but eventually my overly conscious efforts and hints of self doubt hindered me and I slowly sunk back down, despite fighting efforts to stay up. It was a great experience though. I want to master lucid dreaming mainly so that I can expand my mind as far as possible as an artist, and then generally as a human being.

[Solarflare]

i've always wanted to fulfill my daydreams i used to have (look at maladaptive daydreaming thread) in waking life. With lucid dreaming, i can do that. The ability to fly and fight demons made of fire and slime. to ride dragons across a grassland filled with dinosaurs eating donkeys controled by an evil wizard named Galork . This is why I dream to lucid dream!

[GoingBzerk]

I lucid dream so that I can make use of my sleeping time, and fulfill fantasies such as using magic and flying.

[cmmgibson]

Philosopher: What do you mean? I am asking because I'm genuinely interested in your ideas. How does dreaming lead to self realization? By your other comment it would seem as if there is not 'realizing' to be done, but rather, self creating. Maybe I misunderstood though.

[DreamerStatus]

Well, I would say to just have the feeling and the adrenaline pumping through your veins. Greatest feeling I have ever experienced!

[mooseantlers]

Philosopher: What do you mean? I am asking because I'm genuinely interested in your ideas. How does dreaming lead to self realization? By your other comment it would seem as if there is not 'realizing' to be done, but rather, self creating. Maybe I misunderstood though. Because when you are dreaming, and say you talk to a DC, that is apart of your subconscious.

[Philosopher8659]

Philosopher: What do you mean? I am asking because I'm genuinely interested in your ideas. How does dreaming lead to self realization? By your other comment it would seem as if there is not 'realizing' to be done, but rather, self creating. Maybe I misunderstood though. Most people believe that dreams only involve their own mind. I believed this myself for many, many years. I have learned this is not true. There is what men call "God" which only means ability not comprehensible to man, and that the human mind is evolving towards a specific function in regard to the life of the body. i.e. "The Plan of God." human psychological evolution. Men think and understand like children, it is just where we are on the evolutionary scale. But history is being guided, I believe. We are in what may be called a garden of God. Try this, Wild, but in entering the Lucid Dreamstate, ask a very specific question--something simple enough so that you may understand the answer. You will recieve a visual and sometimes partly auditory response. How to understand it, I give examples of in my L & E essay. You can learn to converse with this thing men call God, Numbers 12:6. These images are a langauge, examples are even given in Scripture on how to understand them. This God can speak in plain English, or what ever language you desire, but that is not the purpose, the purpose is to exercise your mind. In the simple, the foundation of langauge is learning to say what you see--to abstract the concepts present--or as Plato put it, the similie in Multis. You will start to understand langauge differently because in order to comprehend it, you must exercise basic principles of judgment. In this respect, the dialogs of Plato and even the Elements of Euclid are important lessons to study. We are mind, and self realization is no more than attaining to a correct function in regard to life itself. This is the focus of all my personal hobbies since I was in diapers. There is a right way to be. I had a girl do this once, told her to ask who I am, she got a response that scared her so bad she never tried it again. Learning the truth about reality is not an easy thing for many people. Theory: Here is a little theory I cooked up. We learn by experience, i.e. perception determines conception conception determines will. Now, the more evolved you are, the more you can manipulate your environment to get more out of that process. Reality is common to all. Yet we have very specific abilities. So, During our waking hours we learn from the same source--reality. We can extend this to dreams however, they are aimed at our specific requirements. Thus, we learn, our behavior becomes modified even during sleep. And, just like in the waking state, one will generally be unaware that learning is taking place. This educational function is actually written of in scripture, so one might say, welcome to a school by the gods.

[Enjyu]

For the same reasons most of you do: To be able to do things that are impossible to do, and things you normally can't get away with. I also heard that lucid dreaming can be used to get rid of phobias, since you're basically wandering around in your subconsciousness. I will try this out once I am able to get lucid dreams more or less whenever I want.