FAO Lucid dreamers - writing a book, could use your help!

Hi everyone,

First off, apologies if this is in the wrong area of the site but I was keen to get responses from the entire community here, so I thought this would be the best place for it.

Around 5 or 6 years ago I started writing a children's novel (for ages 10-15 or thereabouts) which was set in a dream world. I got so far on it and then I sort of lost interest for a while until a year or so ago when I watched Inception, and then I realised that I was kind of on the right track with what I was doing. Now, coming back to it, I'm obviously a little annoyed I didn't carry it on as thanks to Christopher Nolan it now looks like a stolen idea!

Anyway, I'm going to rewrite it and this time I'd like to get some views and inspiration from those who actually experience lucid dreams themselves. It's a fiction novel, so a lot of it is fantasy, but I want to get as many realistic aspects of lucid dreaming in to it as I can, and therefore I need your help. I myself have only experienced a lucid dream once and that was some time ago, and since then I've really struggled to achieve it again. Hopefully I'll get some great advice and tips here also.

I have some general questions and would appreciate it if you could take the time to answer some of them for me? I have an absolute load, but thought I'd start off with some general questions first. Here goes...

1) How do other people in your dream react to your presence when you're aware you're in a lucid dream?

2) How long are your lucid dreams, and how long do you think it's possible to stay in one?

3) Can you change the surroundings in your dream, and how much control over the dream do you have?

4) Are you able to sleep or dream while IN your lucid dream?

5) If your lucid dreams are a place you feel happier or more confident how does this make you feel when you awake? Happy or sad?

6) Is it possible to go back to the same lucid dream, or recreate the dream when you obtain lucidity?

7) Is it possible to relive a past memory in a lucid dream?


Like I said, I have so many questions to ask, but thought it best to see if people are willing to help first off. And again, I apologise if this is in the wrong place.

Thanks!

1) How do other people in your dream react to your presence when you're aware you're in a lucid dream?
They act just as they do when I'm non-lucid.
2) How long are your lucid dreams, and how long do you think it's possible to stay in one?
Some are 1 hour long, most are 15mins though. And that depends, through time dilation (Altering perception of time) that would be nearly a day, real time just the hour or so, maybe more with REM-Rebound, but rarely get sleep deprived.
3) Can you change the surroundings in your dream, and how much control over the dream do you have?
Can't change the surroundings, but can teleport easily. Over the dream? Barely any, however I can easily control my dream body and use that to change other aspects of the dream.
4) Are you able to sleep or dream while IN your lucid dream?
Of course!
5) If your lucid dreams are a place you feel happier or more confident how does this make you feel when you awake? Happy or sad?
Not really happier or more confident, for me they are two realities each, the one within and the one without, so both are as important. Not really sad or happy.
6) Is it possible to go back to the same lucid dream, or recreate the dream when you obtain lucidity?
Yes.
7) Is it possible to relive a past memory in a lucid dream?
Yes, but I have never tried with a "forgotten" memory, so don't really know about that.

Also, what technique are you using to get lucid?

That sounds pretty cool. Ill throw in my 2 cents and some background info that may be nice


1) How do other people in your dream react to your presence when you're aware you're in a lucid dream?
yeah they usually react in normal ways. Often when I try to explain to the dream characters that they are not real, they act confused.
2) How long are your lucid dreams, and how long do you think it's possible to stay in one?
Usually like 15 min. There are conflicting pieces of evidence about time perception in dreams. A study was done where someone who could lucid dream was told to make a certain eye movement at 1 second intervals for 10 seconds once they had started dreaming (during REM sleep, eye movements have been shown to correspond to eye movements in the dream). And they were pretty accurate to real time so that part of inception is a little off. But people can have altered perceptions of time where you can be asleep for 20 min but it feels like hours. So...I dont really know how long a dream can feel.
3) Can you change the surroundings in your dream, and how much control over the dream do you have?
Direct changing of the environment is usually pretty difficult while people are looking at it. People can close their eyes or spin in a circle while imagining the new surrounding and it appears. However, most people (including myself) will open a door into a new place. Like if I want to get into a forest I can just open a door in my house and expect it to be there. Because we know that doors go to new places, it makes it feel more "realistic" (even when that door could never open to a forest). This is called passive control and makes it easier to manipulate the dream world.

In terms of ability, I can fly, use telekinesis, and summon objects or people. But the list of possibilities is limitless.
4) Are you able to sleep or dream while IN your lucid dream?
Yeah. It happens pretty frequently to me during false awakenings when I try to DEILD. That takes awhile to explain so I'll let you use the wiki to find out.
5) If your lucid dreams are a place you feel happier or more confident how does this make you feel when you awake? Happy or sad?
I usually just wake up excited that I was able to succeed and do something cool. I would say I start the day happier.
6) Is it possible to go back to the same lucid dream, or recreate the dream when you obtain lucidity?
Yes. I have never done it though.
7) Is it possible to relive a past memory in a lucid dream?
Yeah. Some people are really good at creating environments. I've never tried to recreate an exact memory episode, but I have used lucid dreams to see people who have passed away. A few days after my dog died I had an LD and went to go play with my dog. So I have relived aspects of the past.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Thankyou for the answers so far, some helpful insight there.

Anyone else?

This is what I've experienced

1) How do other people in your dream react to your presence when you're aware you're in a lucid dream?
Normal except when I try to tell them they aren't real. For whatever reason they try to ignore me and seem to get pretty pissed off.
2) How long are your lucid dreams, and how long do you think it's possible to stay in one?
Mine usually are about 5-10 minutes, still working on making them longer. I've heard of people going for several hours, though.
3) Can you change the surroundings in your dream, and how much control over the dream do you have?
I usually accept the setting I'm in, mostly because its unique and fun as it is. I'd like to be able to control the setting one day.
4) Are you able to sleep or dream while IN your lucid dream?
I've only had one false awakening, but yes it is definitely possible.
5) If your lucid dreams are a place you feel happier or more confident how does this make you feel when you awake? Happy or sad?
Seems that no matter where the dream is I awake feeling awesome. LD's don't come too frequently for me, so I couldn't care less where the dream takes place.
6) Is it possible to go back to the same lucid dream, or recreate the dream when you obtain lucidity?
There is a technique called dream incubation, where you surround yourself with objects in real life that remind you of your intended dream and you focus your thoughts on all the details of what you want to dream about. So I'd say yes, if you wanted to go back to a previous LD you could practice that technique and visualize yourself back in the dream before you drift off to sleep
7) Is it possible to relive a past memory in a lucid dream?
Anything is possible.

Good luck with the book!

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1) How do other people in your dream react to your presence when you're aware you're in a lucid dream?

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Hmm, well it depends. Sometimes they act weird. Other times they act normal. They all have different personalities as well.

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2) How long are your lucid dreams, and how long do you think it's possible to stay in one?

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It's possible to stay in a lucid for over an hour. And maybe a little bit more since rem rebound. Mine are normally 10 minutes.

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3) Can you change the surroundings in your dream, and how much control over the dream do you have?

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I always use passive control. But yes I can go pretty much anywhere that I want to.

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4) Are you able to sleep or dream while IN your lucid dream?

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Yes but I don't see why you would want to. I never have.

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5) If your lucid dreams are a place you feel happier or more confident how does this make you feel when you awake? Happy or sad?

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It depends. When I am flying in a dream and I wake up I feel happy all day. Although I have never woken up sad.

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6) Is it possible to go back to the same lucid dream, or recreate the dream when you obtain lucidity?

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Yes, it might not always be perfect but yes you can recreate a dream.

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7) Is it possible to relive a past memory in a lucid dream?

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Yes you can do anything in a dream. But you can't relive a forgotten memory. Because that would require you to remember it.

1) How do other people in your dream react to your presence when you're aware you're in a lucid dream?

By “people” I presume that you mean dream characters who look like “people”?

They usually don’t like it when I get lucid, and generally (but not exclusively) react in a negative manner, the extremes of which may manifest in violence and/or sexual assault. This doesn't always happen, but often enough.

2) How long are your lucid dreams, and how long do you think it's possible to stay in one?

How long is a piece of string? How does one define “lucid dream”? IMO the average LD lasts just seconds before a loss of lucidity, which may then lead on to waking up, or a bog standard “normal” dream scenario. This forum is full of posters who aver that they have ages-long LDs, but their written evidence doesn’t hold water. It appears to me that many are having a few seconds of lucidity which then quickly lapses into normal dreaming, and yet they count the whole episode as a “lucid dream”. Not so, IMO. I found this confusing: why do people say stuff like that? Then I found this quote from a “moderator” in a “sticky” and I began to realise how people could learn to manipulate their “reality”, and turn one “truth” into another:

Quote Naiya: “You do not have to be lucid throughout the entire dream for it to be a lucid dream.”

So maybe that explains it? You get lucid for a few seconds, get dragged straight off into normal dreaming for “hours”, and then you can wake up and say that you had an “hours-long lucid dream”? I don’t buy that and I think that “Naiya’s” statement is complete misinformation. Full-on lucidity is not easy to attain and hold on to, IMO. It takes practice, a LOT of practice.

Most people give up on it when they realise that it’s actually hard work to attain and retain.

3) Can you change the surroundings in your dream..?

Sometimes..

4) ..and how much control over the dream do you have?

IMO “Dream Control” is a misnomer: you never really “control the dream”. What you can learn through sheer hard work and practice is how to control yourself in the LD, how to control your own perception and demeanour, which in turn will lead to scenarios where it may appear that you are “controlling the dream” when in fact you are just more in control of your (conscious) self.

5) Are you able to sleep or dream while IN your lucid dream?

Go to sleep in an LD? Yes, I’ve tried it several times.. there’s a Castaneda LD technique for doing just that, which results in a fantastic increase in what he calls “dreaming attention” (lucidity by any other name).

Dream in an LD? I don’t understand what you’re getting at here. Everyone who LDs dreams in their LDs… this question sounds like one that a non-LDer might ask? Can you explain more clearly what you mean?

6) If your lucid dreams are a place you feel happier or more confident how does this make you feel when you awake? Happy or sad?

N/A

7) Is it possible to go back to the same lucid dream..?

Yes.


8) ..or recreate the dream when you obtain lucidity?

I don’t know empirically. Never tried it, so, maybe.

7) Is it possible to relive a past memory in a lucid dream?

I don’t know empirically, so, maybe..

Good luck with your book. A few words of observation from my own experience: writing and publishing a book is the easy part. Selling it to the public is another matter, but don’t get disheartened.

All the best.