Discouraged by family

Let me share my experience with this kind of situation:

- My mother calls me crazy, my father wants to be nice so he just says "you're gonna hurt your brain".
- My friends reaction:
"Hey guys I found a way to become lucid in your dreams, there's loads of articles about it"
My friend who is in 1st year of psychology (and thinks shes already a professional but knows less than me): "You're lying, that all is crap"
My other friends "we only believe in what we can see and proove." None of them actually let me talk more about the subject.
Other friends I had said it seemed a "funny thing", which makes me believe wether they don't understand the unlimited possibilities of lucid dreaming, or they thought I was making this up. My other friend said she had nightmares, so she would get in more troubles for trying this.
Only had 2 positive responses: a girl that even before I talked she said "hey you wouldn't believe me, I had sleep paralysis the other day, I'll explain you but I tell you its real!" And the other guy who I am still convincing it's possible to taste popcorns in your lucid dreams.

Oh well, I met some people in a portuguese forum about lucid dreaming (the only one in Portugal) so it's all good. But would love to meet more irl oneironauts :)

If you conceal this interest from your parents, the worst thing about it is that you are afraid of doing reality tests in front of them, because you are afraid of their suspicion. I cannot tell lies IRL, so I am afraid that I wouldn't be able to pretend a different meaning of the reality checks if they asked me. And because of it, I sometimes avoid doing reality check in my dreams as I did last night.

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Originally Posted by madvorak

If you conceal this interest from your parents, the worst thing about it is that you are afraid of doing reality tests in front of them, because you are afraid of their suspicion. I cannot tell lies IRL, so I am afraid that I wouldn't be able to pretend a different meaning of the reality checks if they asked me. And because of it, I sometimes avoid doing reality check in my dreams as I did last night.

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Looking at your hands won't make them suspicious. Also the nose plug, just make it look like your scratching your nose. Another is reading text and looking at clocks which won't get them suspicious. Another one is poking your finger through your hand, just make it look like your fumbling with your hands.

Thx.
In order not to make a wrong habit, I do reality tests whenever I think of them and I always include the nose-plug test. So if I do the nose-plug test too often, they may find that out, even if I mask it.
I don't know if they know anything about lucid dreaming and reality checks.

whenever you get in the situation where you are afraid of getting caught higher your awareness and be aware of your surroundings and ask to yourself : is this a dream ? . then look at the clock two times or read a text two times etc .

I haven't really discuss it with anyone in my family. My boyfriend doesn't really believe it either, until I had a wonderful lucid dreaming conversation with his mother. He was then curious. However he really doesn't like me doing it because every LD I've had recently has been nightmares and all I try to do is wake up because I can't change anything :/

With my experiences people treat it like politics or religion.

1 friend I talked to got ahold of my 3 weeks later and told me about the 3 amazing lucid dreams he had, we still share stories. Atleast 1 person believed me i thought.

The reason people I wanted to share it was simple. I just unlocked this new superpower that everyone has access too, they just gotta know hot to unlock it. I just wanted people to feel the gift I felt.

Yea I know its not nothing supernatural, but it is a great gift. I no longer talk to people about it besides here. Tired of trying to show people the way only to be told im a liar. I just keep it to myself and im now content with it

I didn't have any trouble convincing my friends and family that lucid dreams are possible. It's not exactly rocket science or voodoo, just awareness of dreaming. Maybe you're just taking it a little too seriously, pushing it in their faces?

Yeah i guess im quite lucky, my friends always ask me about it, they even read my online DJ on here and talk about it. They all wanna give it a go, they're just typical stoners and saying your gonna do something and actually doing it - completely different things :P

My parents and family think im nuts though

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Originally Posted by Ironbullet

Well, I've just started this journey to lucidity. But I've been getting some weird comments from my family. My mom scoffs at it mostly, and my girlfriend doesn't really believe it. Has anyone else gone through some discussion with family?

I just need to make sure I'm doing this for me, but it's nice to tell someone close about this cool thing I'm trying to do.

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My Mother was the same way when I started in April and I decided to let it go. When I picked this back up a few weeks ago, I just kept it a secret from her. Remember, no one can tell you what to do inside your own head!

It is fascinating to see how our friends all view dreaming. I can never predict what kind of response I will get from people when I bring it up. We are all human, we all dream, but we never talk about dreaming. I think this is a huge reason why people can have such wildly different views about dreaming. It is a powerful and emotional topic that is never discussed. Parents do not teach their children. Teachers do not teach their students. People just form their own strong opinions in their private, secluded vacuum.

my parents denied it, my brother got interested in first and as it turned out that he was a natural LDer -_-
later I asked my brother how's the lucid dreaming going, and he said 'oh I just become aware in dream whenever I want' -__-
but he doesnt know how to control dream and stuff.
I told my friends about lucid dreaming, and they got interested at first but nonchalant later.
oh well, lucid dreaming is just my private 'treasure', I thought, so I decided to keep it myself secretly.
I think it's important to use LD in an efficient way.

why do most people around us are nonchalant about lucid dreaming??? I dont understand..

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Originally Posted by Windhover@

why do most people around us are nonchalant about lucid dreaming??? I dont understand..

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Because people fear what they can't understand. You have to admit, acting like god without sensory input, while feeling sensations, pretty much...epic. Dam I feel the luckiest person to found out about lucid dreams poor 90% of population that won't ever have the feeling of flying :banana:

I've told my girlfriend before. She seemed interested but not enough to actually try it (though she did end up having a couple).

As for my parents, I just told them about my interests with dreaming in general. But once that shooting happened in Arizona by Jared Lougner (who was apparently obsessed with lucid dreaming), something clicked in my dads head and he was like "you have lucid dreams don't you"? But they don't mind. They actually seem interested in the idea and my mom once in a while will tell me about a dream she had.

Haha, I remember this one time telling my friend about lucid dreaming this august. She just said she had one once and it was like "OMG I'm DREAMING! NOW I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT!:banana: And then she decided to make random candy appear and eat them. My brothers are LDers like me, and they usually try WILD (I keep telling them it won't work if you don't try it in the REM period.)

It intrigues the crap out of my friends, who I also got on to the LD bandwagon, but my family? No. I've never really been close with my family. And then of course, the day I told my girlfriend.. wow. We're really in love, and so she decided to learn how to do it so we could have shared dreams. I d'awwwd so hard, and she's almost there, too.

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Originally Posted by Neoquestmoo

It intrigues the crap out of my friends, who I also got on to the LD bandwagon, but my family? No. I've never really been close with my family. And then of course, the day I told my girlfriend.. wow. We're really in love, and so she decided to learn how to do it so we could have shared dreams. I d'awwwd so hard, and she's almost there, too.

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That's gotta really make your bond that much stronger. That's cool :)

You might find that in particular, some families and friends can be pretty disapproving of the long ( and sometimes much shorter) journey to becoming lucid. My parents were pretty accepting, and my brother kind of laughed at me but after he realized how serious I was, he didn't laugh anymore. I don't think they really believe me, but that's not really related to my success.

Regardless, if you find that no one around you will appreciate your attempts and dedication, then go make some more friends. Hopefully ones that are a little more open-minded to your effort. If that's not something you're willing to do, then take consolation in the fact that the folks here at Dreamviews will always be around to listen to even the craziest of your stories.

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Originally Posted by lifeinsteps

If that's not something you're willing to do, then take consolation in the fact that the folks here at Dreamviews will always be around to listen to even the craziest of your stories.

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Ikr. When I first found this site, it felt so nice knowing that I found a group of people who are so interested in this subject.

My friends believe me but they don't really care. One of my friends can LD naturally but she doesn't -.- . My mum knows because I had to tell her when I needed to be left alone in the lounge room so I could try and LD. She doesn't know if she believes it but she doesn't care for it and none of my other family members do. They just think I'm weird.

My mom caught me doing a nose-plug but she is so easily distracted that I just said "what?" and she said "you were holding your nose closed. why?" me:"... what?" and then silence... success! There are a few people at my school that I don't know well but I know they do it. My friend from El Salvador and I share our dreams with friends a lot because they're so entertaining sometimes, I mentioned LD'ing to him and he accepted it. At first he said he does it sometimes but I think he misunderstood me because he went on the describe something that was close, but not quite lucidity. He can visualize himself back into dreams that just ended but not know they're dreams when he's back in.

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Originally Posted by tehmuffinman

she said "you were holding your nose closed. why?"

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I developed a technique to allay suspicions. There's no need to sit there and hold your nose shut for like 30 seconds or anything, right - just an instant is enough really. So what you do is inhale sharply through your nose and just pinch it shut for a second or so. Get people used to seeing you do it, and tell them it's just the way you clear your sinuses. It'll become a mannerism you're known for. In fact you can do it several times right in a row - that actually seems valid if you're trying to clear a nostril or something.

Downside - your friends and family might stage a coke intervention one day... :panic:

If anyone in my family is on coke its my mom so I don't think I have much to worry about there, lolz :wino:

I know most people say the nose plug should take just an instant but for some reason I always do it for like 6 seconds.

I always try to be discreet with my reality checks, unless I am around somebody who knows about lucid dreaming, such as my fiancee. I was caught the other day at the gym. I was looking at my hand, counting my fingers. The lady next to me asked, "Are you alright?" thinking I may have hurt my hand. Nothing too strange.