Hey everyone,

I haven't posted on these forums in a long time, because I'd basically given up trying to lucid dream. Lately, though, I've been working on my dream recall, and it has been improving quite a lot.

Currently, I'm on night shifts, so I've been sleeping during the day, but today I was in and out of sleep due to my wife getting ready for work. She was going in later than usual, so it interfered with my sleeping and kept waking me up.

After she left, I fell back asleep again, and started dreaming. I was in a broken down building, in the former stairwell. There were a few stairs at the bottom that I started walking up. As I reached the last usable stair, I noticed a piece of metal in the wall that used to be another step. I thought, "It would be nice if that slid out like a drawer to be another step." I reached down and pulled, and it slid out like a drawer. I stepped on it.

Then I started thinking, "My mind controls everything," and thought how cool that was, so I thought it again... and again... then it suddenly occurred to me ... "AND THIS IS A DREAM!"

What an amazing revelation! I laughed to myself, and looked at the wall where there were no more steps. I told myself that I could pull open a panel on the wall and create another step, and I did it ... and it worked! Realizing this, I thought, climbing steps that don't exist is boring, I want to try something else. I kept repeating, "My mind controls everything and this is a dream," like a mantra, so I wouldn't forget where I was or what I was doing. I wanted down off the stairs, and looked down at the floor about 8 feet below. I thought "I want down there," and I floated back to the ground.

Still repeating to myself, "My mind controls everything," over and over again, I walked out into a foyer of the building. I thought to myself, I want to shoot lightning from my hands. I tried it but it didn't work. I willed it harder and tried again, but it didn't work.

Then I heard some people talking, and turned to see some residents of this run down building. I realized I could interact with them, so I went to where they were living. It was a different floor, about six feet off the ground, but I had to climb up to it. In climbing up, I think I started to lose some lucidity, because I was no longer repeating my mantra, and was concentrating on climbing.

I then looked for a specific person, and a little girl helped me find the woman I was looking for, lying in bed. I suddenly wanted to have sex, and told her to do it with me. As I stripped off my clothes, she slid over to start. Again, I'm not sure I was entirely lucid. I was telling her to have sex with me, but it didn't have the same feel as the stairwell or trying to shoot lightning from my fingers.

At this point, I received a text message on my phone. I had forgotten to turn off the volume before going to bed, and it woke me. I do remember being in the dream and hearing it, and trying desperately not to wake up, while saying "Dammit! DAMMIT!"

Sadly, I did wake and this ended my lucid experience.

Now that I've had a lucid dream, are there any tips or tricks to this happening again? Should I be repeating "My mind controls everything," as I try to fall back asleep again?

I now see the possibilities of lucid dreaming, and what amazing experiences they could be. I know this one is pretty tame compared to some of you out there but, having done this now, I want to expand on it! Also, what are some tips you've done that help you maintain your lucidity? Mine disappeared (I think) after I forgot to repeat the mantra in the dream.

Thanks for reading this lengthy post, but I'm super excited about all this!