Thread: How did everyone first start?

Well you gotta start somewhere. And the best lucid dreamers start from scratch.
So I got some questions for the lucid dreamers. I'm just interested in other people's stories ;D.

1) How did you first find about about Lucid Dreaming?
2) What were you first thinking when you read something about lucid dreaming.
3) Which Methods did you try and which one worked?
4) How long did it take to have your first Lucid Dream and what was it like?
5) Were you surpised how real the Lucid Dream felt?
6) Was it easier to have your second lucid dream then having your first?

-Crash

1.) I probably stumbled upon it on the internet, I am not really sure where but I found an article about it and it sparked my interest. That was years ago.
2.) I thought it was awesome and wanted to try it.
3.) I used a simple DILD at first, just doing RC's all the time and hoping I would do it in my dreams as well. I have tried WILD, but I haven't been able to do it. Although, I tried a strange method of WILD and it worked only once. DILD's caused me to have about 10 lucid dreams in 4 months of practise. I am finally starting to have more in shorter time (2 last 7 days).
4.) After exactly 19 days, it was a short dream because I quickly woke of excitement. I became lucid because I was standing naked in front of a big audience and I realised something was wrong.
5.) No, I have become lucid a few times. But they are not very vivid and I usually rush into my dream although I know I should take it easy and try to maintain lucidity first.
6.) With DILD's having a lucid dream isn't easy or hard, it just happens sometimes. But as I said, lucid dreams are slowly starting to happen more often.

1) DV

2) This thing is tough, probably out of my league, but maybe it's possible for me.

3) My methods were unintentional. The only 2 lucids I got so far was from DILD. I have heightened awareness after watching Inception as I kept questioning myself. I tried a WILD once but forgot the steps so I slipped into a non-lucid reading up about WILD.

4) I didn't exactly tried so I can't answer this.

5) No. It was unstable. I only have increased awareness and acute feelings, senses are still fuzzy. The worst part was I know all the people I see are projections and they are not real, can't help feeling a little lonely because of that.

6) No. Because the first was unintentional without trying. But I got my second lucid without reality checks.

1) I actually saw the movie Avatar and fell in love with it. I saw a post on a forum about signs that you loved avatar and one was "practicing lucid dreaming just to experience Pandora." I can't remember if I ever visited it or not XP

2) This sounds really cool. I want to try!

3) I first tried DILD which led to my first LD, then tried MILD which helped a little bit but my LDs really took off after I got good at DEILD.

4) I technically had many as a small child but my first intentional one was 3-4 weeks after I first started trying. I was in a room and I wanted to try flying so I levitated a couple feet off the ground and then when my feet touched the ground I woke up.

5) I actually didn't focus on how it felt, just how cool it was and how much I wanted to try cool things. It made the dream much shorter than it probably would've been.

6) Yes because by that time I had learned about MILD which made the LDs more frequent and easier.

1) My friend told me that he had read about it and found it interesting. However he didn't keep the interest, I did.

2) I was totally amazed. The webpage I learnt from didn't deal with different techniques, but it contained information about dream recall, RCs and stuff that motivated me.

3) I tried DILD actually. I just did RCs and kept DJ.

4) I had my first induced LD after two weeks. It was only about 2 seconds long.

5) The first one was extremely short and didn't feel real.

6) No.

1) I actually didn't know anything about lucid dreaming until after my first lucid dream. I did a lot of research about how it happens after the first one.
2) After I learned about it, things made a lot of sense, and I made it my goal to master lucid dreaming (success).
3) The very first method I ever tried (which was an accident) was what I call a temperature induced lucid dream, but is simply a variant of V-WILD.
4) After I discovered I could enter lucidity flawlessly with my V-WILD technique, it took me no time at all. The very next night I had another lucid dream.
5) Very. I accepted the reality, and had the time of my life with every dream since.
6) It was the exact same difficulty, which was very simple. V-WILD is ridiculously powerful, and should be utilized if comfortable.

1) How did you first find about about Lucid Dreaming?
- I had lucids early as of age 6-7 or so. I still remember the first two from that age. I had more during each year, but it was rare. So i knew the feeling well already and when i found out about lucid dreaming on a hungarian forum, i already had no doubts about it's possibility and that i want to learn it

2) What were you first thinking when you read something about lucid dreaming.
- That how is it possible that i didn't hear about it before, since i already experienced it.

3) Which Methods did you try and which one worked?
- Reality Checks first, since i started practicing first based ONLY on the hungarian lucid dreaming wiki page. I had a success on the third day, but it only lasted 10 seconds or so, because i fixated my eyes. RCs weren't really useful to me other than that, since i only did reality checks in dreams like 3 times over 2 years.
The technique that helped me the most is WBTB though, and also just making my awareness higher with different techniques like ADA.

4) How long did it take to have your first Lucid Dream and what was it like?
- Well as i said above, i had them in young age... back then they didn't last long, but i could do what i wanted to do: fight off nightmares.
The first lucid after practising came after 3 days as mentioned above. It was short and not that extraordinary, but it felt good to be lucid anyway.

5) Were you surpised how real the Lucid Dream felt?
- Indeed, but mostly just later on when i got better at lucid dreaming. My first lucids weren't that clear as they are these days.

6) Was it easier to have your second lucid dream then having your first?
I don't really remember which one was my second one, so i can't say much about that. I had too many LDs to keep count of them.

1) How did you first find about about Lucid Dreaming?
2) What were you first thinking when you read something about lucid dreaming.
3) Which Methods did you try and which one worked?
4) How long did it take to have your first Lucid Dream and what was it like?
5) Were you surpised how real the Lucid Dream felt?
6) Was it easier to have your second lucid dream then having your first?

1 - I found out about lucid dreaming when I had my first lucid dream...that was probably 25 years ago. I had never even heard the term lucid dream until the late nineties perhaps. I think I heard it in a movie but I don't recall that.

2 - When I first read about it I thought, "Oh, cool! I have those!"

3 - I never tried any method until I came here. I never even knew there were methods until I came to DreamViews. To this day I've never seen any of the movies people talk about on the forum like Inception. My LDs came naturally (DILDs) until I began trying to have them on purpose. Even still I achieve most LDs without really making much effort.

4 - I had my first lucid dream years ago, totally by coincidence. I used to have a lot of dreams about being in water, and in one I was walking below the surface of the water and I began to get worried but a thought came to me that everything was alright "because I could breathe in this dream." I totally relaxed and explored my underwater world, which was a local spring-fed pool that I grew up swimming in.

5 - I've always been surprised how real my lucid dreams feel. Mainly I find myself impressed that my mind can come up with such rich detail.

6 - My second lucid dream came as easy as the first one. I was in a Target store in my dream and I suddenly became lucid and started examining the intricate detail in the carpet fiber, as it would be seen through a microscope. The detail was impressive. Sinking into the floor made it easier to explore, and peering up at the store with my face half-through the floor was kind-of cool (but very weird).

1) How did you first find about about Lucid Dreaming?
Googled it after experiencing a lucid dream

2) What were you first thinking when you read something about lucid dreaming.
This sounds like a load of rubbish!

3) Which Methods did you try and which one worked?
Keeping a DJ, practicing RCs, worked within 3 nights!

4) How long did it take to have your first Lucid Dream and what was it like?
3 nights, it was an AMAZING experience, but not as stable and clear as most people describe - must try again!

5) Were you surpised how real the Lucid Dream felt?
Yes, very! I was shocked.

6) Was it easier to have your second lucid dream then having your first?
Not sure, haven't achieved it yet

1) Sex
2) Sex
3) Sex
4) Sex
5) Sex
6) Well all it takes is sex.

Too easy. But in all seriousness these are factual answers.

Originally Posted by dreamerJon23

1) Sex
2) Sex
3) Sex
4) Sex
5) Sex
6) Well all it takes is sex.

Too easy. But in all seriousness these are factual answers.

Somehow I think you missed the first part of question four.

1) Lurking the Newgrounds forums I found a link to DV and clicked it.
2) Da'fuk is this new-age bullshit?
3) DILD, WILD--- DILD has given me about 5 LDs, still waiting for a WILD to work out
4) about 5 months of on and off trying to LD, my first LD lasted all of ten seconds because I got so excited
5) Nope. It still felt a little murky like my normal dreams. My second one felt much more real, but it still had that murky quality to it. The quality of my LDs is still improving
6) Nope, DILDs are still pretty random luck for me, with a significantly increased chance before I started LDing however. Still waiting on that WILD.

1) Dreaming is just one of my interests, and i usually research my interests.. which is how i found out about LD.
2) I thought it was very interesting and worth trying.
3) I tried large amounts of sleep, which led to more dreaming but no LD The method that worked isn't really a method but something that i happened to stumble upon or discover. I looked at myself in a mirror in my dream and i gained control of it.
4) It felt very realistic, but at the same time very aware it was a dream... it was random, i just happened to gain control .
5) I was very surprised, it was epic.. everything felt real.
6) I've only had one lucid dream but I'm going to try my little method once more and try to remember every detail the second time around.

1) How did you first find about about Lucid Dreaming?
Stuff You Should Know Podcast : Can you control your dreams?

2) What were you first thinking when you read something about lucid dreaming.
"I could do anything I wanted in my dreams... its like Inception!"

3) Which Methods did you try and which one worked?
Autosuggestion the first night. It worked but my dream was very, very short.

4) How long did it take to have your first (real) Lucid Dream and what was it like?
I remember reality checking, and when it failed I jumped out my window. I could feel everything, the wind, the wet grass, everything. It was so cool.

5) Were you surpised how real the Lucid Dream felt?
Yes. I had never had a dream as realistic as that.

6) Was it easier to have your second lucid dream then having your first?
My second was also by chance, so no.

1) How did you first find about about Lucid Dreaming?

I remember I wanted to learn about dream incubation (which at the time I didn't know it was called that way, so basically I was searching how to make myself dream what I wanted), so I started googling stuff, learnt about LDing, found DV, made an account, started reading non-stop about it.

2) What were you first thinking when you read something about lucid dreaming.

"FUCKING AWESOME, MUST ACHIEVE."

3) Which Methods did you try and which one worked?

DILD, MILD, DEILD, FILD... mostly.
And all of them worked at some point, my first couple LDs were DILDs, and had a few FILD successes after that.

4) How long did it take to have your first Lucid Dream and what was it like?

Hmm, don't remember exactly, but no more than a week. It was short, 2 seconds short, I remember feeling this intense feeling of "WOW" as I pinched my nose and was able to breath, and woke up.

5) Were you surpised how real the Lucid Dream felt?

Since my first lucid maybe doesn't even count, I'll say that my second one did feel quite real, was I surprised? I don't remember feeling surprised, the first time I felt surprised by vividness was on my first WILD success, a few weeks after.

6) Was it easier to have your second lucid dream then having your first?

Yes, I think I had it only a couple days after my first one, and was able to sustain it for a little longer.

Back in the 1980s as a kid. My mom was into the New Age Movement that was going on at the time back then esp the mid 1980s. Trust me...if you were a child of the 1980s you know what a mean...it was like a metaphysical version of the hippie 60s lol. You couldnt go by without seeing something on TV or radio or book being sold about parapsychology, afterlife, spirtiulism, reincarnation, or a Shirley MacLaine book, and that stuff. I saw some newpaper magazine articles about Astral Projection and having OBE's my mom had or I came across. I was around six or seven and waned to OBE so I could visit relatives back east lol. I never did of course. Then my mom in 1988 bought the Time Life book series entitled "Time Life: Mysteries of the Unknown" series. These large hardcover 60 page books that dealt with spiritual or occult/metaphysical topics in each volume (like one being if you were late getting to the airport, you missed your plane, and the plane crashed...it might of been a psychic instinct you had breaking through, but not in use) type of stuff. I think it a 30 volume book series. Anyhow two of them I recall were on these topics. One called "Dreams and Dreaming" dealt with Lucid Dreams and another one called "Psychic Voyages" which dealt with OBE's and Remote Viewing got my interest. Than in the 1990s in high school I got more into the topic of metaphysics and occultism and really did heavy research into these topis. That's how I found out about it....didn't have Internet back then either...we were about 5-10 years off hehe. Also as a kid in the early 1980s I saw the carton "Thru/Through the Mirror" a Mickey Mouse cartoon from the 1930s that was about Mickey Mouse having a Lucid (or Astral) dream and leaving his body going into an alternative reality through his mirror which was his bedroom in life form. Most dont know this but whole series of Alice books (Alice in Wonderland) was based on the author having a Lucid Dream experience and a belief is that if you go through a window while out of body you head into an odd reverse world of the real world.

I had spinning sensations as kid in bed at night like I was spinning out of tune of my body...and always had a total recall of most of my nights dreams (luckly I have a photographic memory). So as a kid I experienced vivid realistic dreams or at times lucid ones. I cant honestly recall my first lucid dream since I didnt have a diary.

1) I was intrested in the science behind dreaming, and in the end, i saw some information about lucid dreaming. And was hooked ever since!

2)

3) Just doing a random reality check in a dream, is where most of mine come from. And i practice wild at the moment.

4) Probably a few days later, But it ended in 10 seconds. Got one again almost straight afther though, this one lasted a minute. And the quality was amasing of the second one.

5) Most of my lucid dreams felt amasing, almost as close as real life. But some where really short, or really bad quality. Those 2 go hand in hand with me though.

6) Yes, i had my second lucid dream 5 minutes afther my first one!

1) How did you first find about about Lucid Dreaming?
After my first lucid dreams and sleep paralysis episodes, I became curious as to what was going on.

2) What were you first thinking when you read something about lucid dreaming.
I was interested in this natural phenomena. At the time, I was really into telekinesis and pyrokinesis, so lucid dreaming was more on a realistic plane and I was happy to achieve it.

3) Which Methods did you try and which one worked?
None. I don't think I've ever willfully induced a lucid dream. All my LD have come from stress/meds/etc. I'm a passive person and don't often like being in control of my dreams, because dreams tell you a lot about what's going on inside without you needing to intervene. I think this is a case of reverse psychology. Don't want it, get it anyway. That's why I never try to achieve anything when I'm lucid. Instead, I look to get answers.

4) How long did it take to have your first Lucid Dream and what was it like?
I had my first breakthrough as a kid. I don't remember how young. I just remember being chased by an evil man and willing myself to turn around and ask why he was chasing me. The rest is history.

5) Were you surpised how real the Lucid Dream felt?
It's such a natural thing, I don't think I was ever really surprised. Just enjoyed the process, like my own private world.

6) Was it easier to have your second lucid dream then having your first?
Yes, but it all came coupled with sleep paralysis and hallucinations, so my first experiences were uncomfortable.

For those of you that find it difficult to maintain the lucid dreamstate for more lengthy period of time, there's a quick tip: once you realize you're in a lucid dream, try spinning around or something that involves whole bodily motion. This is because dream actions have corresponding physical effects.

1) How did you first find about about Lucid Dreaming?

I have quite a natural affinity for lucid dreaming. I began having them when I was a 4 year old kid. (I'm almost 18 now). Ever since I've been fascinated by the inner workings of dreams and the brain in general so I've done a lot of research on it. I wrote a biology paper on lucid dreaming last summer.

2) What were you first thinking when you read something about lucid dreaming.

"Ah, so this is what that is..."

3) Which Methods did you try and which one worked?

I haven't actually practiced any induction methods at all. Having said that, I do sometimes look for dreamsigns from my collection of recalled dreams and perform reality checks frequently.

4) How long did it take to have your first Lucid Dream and what was it like?

Since I never actively tried to lucid dream, it took no time.

5) Were you surprised how real the Lucid Dream felt?

The euphoria of the vivid experience lasted for days. The feeling of absolute freedom made me feel like a god (only in dreams though; don't worry I'm not a megalomaniac)

6) Was it easier to have your second lucid dream then having your first?

No. Each consecutive dream became easier and easier because I just used my first experience as a template for the next one, and the next and the next...

1) Inception. I don't usually let films affect my life but there was a feature on disc two about lding and I had to try.
2)Awesome.
3)I tried DILD,WILD and WBTB. When I WILD i can't get back to sleep so I quit it.
4)I had an LD before I knew it was called lucid dreaming. It was cool me and my friend fought 4 other guys and some of the moves we did were awesome. One of my friends threw a guy into a window.
5)Sort of. Since then I've had more vivid LDs.
6)Yes. I just felt it that time, I wasn't gonna be denied.

Originally Posted by superchaz

1) Inception. I don't usually let films affect my life but there was a feature on disc two about lding and I had to try.

Oh wow! You're the second person I've seen letting Inception influences you in LDing.

Originally Posted by Carrot

Oh wow! You're the second person I've seen letting Inception influences you in LDing.

The huge Inception wave is over, that's why.

But there are a lot of people that started because of it...

Hey, it was cool.

1) How did you first find about about Lucid Dreaming?
A friend of mine mentioned it and sent me a post about it that was posted on 9gag.com

2) What were you first thinking when you read something about lucid dreaming.
I thought that it is a good way to spend time you are not using usually ,since you are unaware of your dreams or that you are dreaming.

3) Which Methods did you try and which one worked?
I have tried DILD and it worked for me ^^ .

4) How long did it take to have your first Lucid Dream and what was it like?
About a month and it wasn't a really controllable one or even a very vivid one ,but hey it was my first LD ^^.

5) Were you surpised how real the Lucid Dream felt?
On some lucid dreams I was , on others I haven't even gave it a thought.

6) Was it easier to have your second lucid dream then having your first?
Absolutely yes!