When I first began lucid dreaming a couple years ago, they were vibrant, beautiful, and generally positive.

What's been happening the last 6 months or so is...the dreams have changed character. 75% of the dreams I become aware in, within minutes turn dark and ugly. Satanic in nature.

I'm a very positive, loving person. I'm aware there are many deep fears my body/mind has, and I think I may be finally tapping into the deep areas of the subconscious and creating a lot of this dream imagery from these fears.

Let me give you an example. Last night I became lucid. It was pretty ordinary, just walking around a comfortable house. Slowly, the lights all begin to turn off and I'm left in near darkness. I'm still able to see my hands. I meditate some, just being quiet and non fearful.

Ominous characters begin appearing in the house. It is like a party is beginning, and I am the torture guest. People poke at me, literally, with their hands and sharp objects. one person comes behind me and sticks a knife in my upper back and drags it down to my lower back. I feel the intense pain from this and tell them to stop doing it. I'm fully lucid, I realize it is a dream, but these dream characters are absolutely relentless.

Even when I've showed love in the dream, trying to hug them or talk gently with them, they do not retreat whatsoever. The entire dream was me being beat around by dream characters. I have never been good at creating a completely new dream scene at will. My best bet would to be simply walking out of the house. But outside, when I open the doors, it is a wasteland. Broken trees, dark skies, nothing for miles...

At another point in the dream, I'm pushed to the ground by bloodied, butchered looking corpses. They lay on top of me and press me into the floorboards. I'm calm about this, I understand it is a dream, but I have little control of them. I push them off of me, calmly and get back up to my feet.

Has anyone here heard of such dark lucid dreams before? I really do think I'm getting deep into my subconscious, and it is manifesting these bizarre things.

I'm looking for some pointers, maybe some advice, tips, some new techniques I could try to get a little more control in the dream, or to help further resolve this darkness. I'm involved in spirituality and have broken a lot of belief in the psyche away recently...this further makes me believe it is very deep fears surfacing and showing themselves in ugly ways in dreaming.

Thank you for any pointers, advice, techniques I could try.
I'm not looking to run away from the things in these dreams, I'm looking to understand their nature and confront in positive ways.