Thread: non-Acceptance of LD's

I should have learned by now...I really should keep my mouth shut about my lucid dreaming. Last night i had my longest, best LD ever. I even got to walk on water...been going through various miracles of Jesus...a personal goal of mine. But whenever I share with family and friends they think I am retreating from real life, more interested in fantasy than real things, and "everyone" thinks I should quit. They are very worried about me. Sorry...I know we've threaded this topic before but I have to vent somewhere. There are none so blind as they that will not see.

Some people are just not ready.

And I feel for you. Sometimes I'm almost bursting, wanting to share with my mom, but I know she is scared for me and wishes I stoped.

Share with us, here on DV. In Lucid experiences, or in a DJ. It's not the same as telling them to your waking life friend, but... Life of a lucid dreamer.

I hate this. I can talk with my friends and family fairly normally about everyday dreams. But whenever I start to harp on things like the induction techniques or my dream guide or something, they start to give me funny looks like I am seven years old and making up stories. The reason this really sucks is if you had a friend that you could talk openly about lucid dreaming in real life, you might have a lot more lucids because you could swap techniques and get each other motivated.
I actually have two friends that are relatively open to this. My friend S keeps a dream journal and uses his dreams as inspiration for a comic strip that he writes. He also once eluded to being a member of some spiritual community. (Probably similar to Dreamviews.) So I can be fully open about what I am doing.
My friend C is a very spiritual person, (she's all into meditation and astral projecting) and she often shares her dreams with me. On the days we meet, often the first thing we do is swap stories all of our dreams. C likes to interpret my dreams and often provides an overly-detailed explanation of why I dreamed about x y and z.
The problem is neither of them actually practice lucid dreaming. My friend S has admitted to LDing here and there, and C actually goes the other way, she tries not to become lucid as she thinks it distorts the meaning of her dreams. But with both these people I can be open about my lucid dreams and not get weird looks.
Now if I found two people who I can be open about lucid dreaming with, they must be everywhere. And if not, like gab said, there is always the members of this community.

ya it's a shame you have no lucid dreaming friends or family. Some people just aren't lenient enough to accept another world-view. I also angers me when people assume that an experience is less worthy for having been experienced in a dream.

Anyways, congrats on the lucid. That is a wonderful achievement

Maybe don't tell them?

My family, they are starting to get tired to hear it.
But sorry man, that sucks.

They just don't know how awesome Lucid Dreaming is.

Thanks for the verbal support. Unless I find a friend who can LD i am just not going to share, except here. Kinda sad it's this way.

I am more interested in fantasy than real things, I see it as one of my better traits

I've told my dad about LDing, I knew he would find it interesting. I haven't mentioned it to my mom, I know she would have a reaction like your friends & family did.

Life is a long story of "normal" people trying to pidgeonhole you out of your unusual traits and pursuits, it's a very universal experience. Trying to get the "normal" people to be more open-minded tends to be a wasted effort. I've tried and long since given up. Just remember that only you know who you are and what's best for yourself, others can only take wild shots in the dark, which most are more than eager to do...

Look bro if you ever want to talk about something lucid dream related you can talk to me about it

I am the most superstitious person ever so I will believe in anything

Whenever I mention lucid dreaming to someone I feel like Morpheus from The Matrix when he speaks to Neo in the Construct.

Person - "No...! I don't believe in that...! It's impossible! "
Me - "I didn't say it would be easy to believe this, my friend - I am just telling you the truth about dreaming. "
Person - "Stop! "

...Yeah, pretty much like that actually. <_<

I'm unsure why you would feel the need to share such personal experiences with people who could so easily harm you with rejection of those experiences. They're only human, they can't accept all of you so wholly and utterly, especially something so deeply introspective of your self.

I'm fairly known amongst the few people I tell my dreams to that I have intense, vivid, movie-like dreams. It's often easier to chalk it up to something sciencey sounding like "there is a study going around involving a large amount of brain chemistry that makes sense of more vivid XXX YYY". Lucid Dreaming as far as I understand is a system that can't really be understood, really understood, without having both interest and investment enough to experience it for yourself. Then again, this is as with all things extremely introspective.

Originally Posted by Soulless

I'm unsure why you would feel the need to share such personal experiences with people who could so easily harm you with rejection of those experiences. They're only human, they can't accept all of you so wholly and utterly, especially something so deeply introspective of your self.

I'm fairly known amongst the few people I tell my dreams to that I have intense, vivid, movie-like dreams. It's often easier to chalk it up to something sciencey sounding like "there is a study going around involving a large amount of brain chemistry that makes sense of more vivid XXX YYY". Lucid Dreaming as far as I understand is a system that can't really be understood, really understood, without having both interest and investment enough to experience it for yourself. Then again, this is as with all things extremely introspective.

The thing about lucid dreaming is that it is such a fantastic skill to have that you eagerly want everyone to know about it, because it's something that is too precious to miss out on.
I sincerely believe that almost anyone would love lucid dreaming if they really got an opportunity to experience it, because I frankly cannot see any reason why anyone would not want to experience lucid dreams, other than that some people might feel that they never "shut down" properly, but personally I think vivid lucid dreams make me feel more invigorated than normal in the mornings, and I have on several occasions woken up laughing like a freak to myself for hours just because the lucid dream I had was so incredibly cool.
Flying among dream clouds is incredibly beautiful and relaxing, and the fact that lucid dreams give you the potential to experience your wildest desires in stunning realism is an excellent reason to practice lucid dreaming and even make it a part of your lifestyle.

Originally Posted by Laurelindo

The thing about lucid dreaming is that it is such a fantastic skill to have that you eagerly want everyone to know about it, because it's something that is too precious to miss out on.
I sincerely believe that almost anyone would love lucid dreaming if they really got an opportunity to experience it, because I frankly cannot see any reason why anyone would not want to experience lucid dreams, other than that some people might feel that they never "shut down" properly, but personally I think vivid lucid dreams make me feel more invigorated than normal in the mornings, and I have on several occasions woken up laughing like a freak to myself for hours just because the lucid dream I had was so incredibly cool.
Flying among dream clouds is incredibly beautiful and relaxing, and the fact that lucid dreams give you the potential to experience your wildest desires in stunning realism is an excellent reason to practice lucid dreaming and even make it a part of your lifestyle.

This is the part where I feel that we make our disagreements. Whatever you think is wonderful, doesn't mean that it should apply for anyone else. Do you not have the kind of understanding that other's lives may in fact be drastically different from yours? Even if I have no faith in God, I can understand that a Christian may feel the most intense comfort from their prayer, and as such I won't try to shove my personal beliefs onto them in some insistence that I believe absolutely everyone would be happier if they experience what I experience. The kind of pushing "I'm sure you will be better off if you follow my way" is the same trap that obnoxious religious recruiters and street preachers use. Just because you don't have a reason not to love lucid dreams doesn't mean that there isn't one that exists for other people.

Personally for example, I would never try to fly or act out my desires in dreams, as I feel it is disrespectful to the dreams and the people I meet in them. I feel it is like taking a wild animal and ripping out its teeth to have it heel at your feet. However, I am sure you feel that such dream control is relaxing and wonderful and you are wholly justified in your usage of dream control and what you wish to do with your dreams. I would recommend, at the very least, to maybe allow some understanding for vastly different experiences than yours. I'm sure there are plenty of experiences that justify having no interest in lucid dreams, such as straight up never remembering dreams, or having such an epic and great waking life that they may feel no real need to peruse dreams.

Originally Posted by Soulless

This is the part where I feel that we make our disagreements. Whatever you think is wonderful, doesn't mean that it should apply for anyone else. Do you not have the kind of understanding that other's lives may in fact be drastically different from yours? Even if I have no faith in God, I can understand that a Christian may feel the most intense comfort from their prayer, and as such I won't try to shove my personal beliefs onto them in some insistence that I believe absolutely everyone would be happier if they experience what I experience. The kind of pushing "I'm sure you will be better off if you follow my way" is the same trap that obnoxious religious recruiters and street preachers use. Just because you don't have a reason not to love lucid dreams doesn't mean that there isn't one that exists for other people.

Personally for example, I would never try to fly or act out my desires in dreams, as I feel it is disrespectful to the dreams and the people I meet in them. I feel it is like taking a wild animal and ripping out its teeth to have it heel at your feet. However, I am sure you feel that such dream control is relaxing and wonderful and you are wholly justified in your usage of dream control and what you wish to do with your dreams. I would recommend, at the very least, to maybe allow some understanding for vastly different experiences than yours. I'm sure there are plenty of experiences that justify having no interest in lucid dreams, such as straight up never remembering dreams, or having such an epic and great waking life that they may feel no real need to peruse dreams.

My point was that I cannot see any concrete reason for anyone to have anything against lucid dreaming if they were to start experiencing it themselves;
even people who are not interested in lucid dreaming in general have told me about their spontaneous lucid dreams and found them very fascinating.
The only possible negative aspect I can find about lucid dreaming is that some people might feel that they are "too awake" in the lucid dreams and feel like they don't sleep enough, but except for that I can only see great advantages to lucid dreaming.
You don't even need to control the lucid dreams, if you want to be surprised and explore the unknown then you are free to do that as well, and let the dream go its own ways.

I also don't understand what you mean by "disrespectful to the dreams".
That's like saying it is disrespectful to daydream, because daydreaming is technically a form of lucid dreaming, although not nearly as immersive as real lucid dreams.

You have my sympathy and understanding. I get the distinct feeling that lucid dreaming - or dreaming in general - is not to be discussed in civilized conversation. I do tell my dad - specifically to mess with his head because he doesn't believe in lucid dreams but is a DC in a lot of my dreams - but I have given up telling anyone else IRL. Except for my new LD partner, my eldest daughter who has taken up the same hobby and knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Moral of the story: go forth and procreate! That seems to be easier than converting the non-believers.

Best to keep the enthusiasm on the forums, someone who's never had a LD, or has typical bad/nonexistent dream recall just can't comprehend the joy of an LD or a high vividness / long fun/awesome non-lucid dream.

I sometimes try to kindle other people's interest for lucid dreaming in a more discrete way, by going over to the library at my university and sitting down somewhere so that people can notice me, and then reading "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" (I love reading that book anyway, so what the hell) and making sure to hold it so that people can see the cover.
I guess I'm hoping that someone will eventually come and tell me that they also practice lucid dreaming and were happy to see someone reading a book about it, but in my country people rarely come up and speak to strangers unless they are at a party or something, so I'm not expecting anyone to come up to me and mention their interest in lucid dreaming anytime soon - but maybe someday.

I try to give off lucid dreaming signs all the time, and I've only ever once been approached.

Though people are extremely open to the concept of lucid dreaming, they won't try it for themselves. Either out of shear laziness or a feeling of shame. It's usually like 1/5 of the people I meet would be very interested in lucid dreaming (and perhaps 1/100 would go on to try).

No one can grasp the immense potential they hold until they experience one. Most of us here were invigorated by reading accounts or hearing of stories. Other people need more to go on, but there really is nothing else you can show them.

It seems like there has to be a big interest in dreams before learning about it in order to spark enough interest. Someone like me that has always had long vivid dreams, or people that have always loved dreams. If you don't have dreams often, then LDing would sound as crazy (not trying to be judgemental) as AP. If you are someone that is always in the dreamworld, the fact that one could realize that he was dreaming doesn't seem far fetched.

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

It seems like there has to be a big interest in dreams before learning about it in order to spark enough interest. Someone like me that has always had long vivid dreams, or people that have always loved dreams. If you don't have dreams often, then LDing would sound as crazy (not trying to be judgemental) as AP. If you are someone that is always in the dreamworld, the fact that one could realize that he was dreaming doesn't seem far fetched.

Could you please explain what AP is?

Acronym List - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

It is first on the list.

You see, when i have talked to friends about LD'ing they were curious to know more.
Dont think they were interested as such but still.

I see absolutely no problem here. It's certainly not something you can compare to shoving your ideology down someone else throat.

We share the experience because we want other to feel the rush of a lucid dream, to witness the potential of the brain. Lucid dreaming is an entirely natural phenomenon not some story from a book.
We're fond of it because we know it has the ultimate power to change people without conflicting with their views. We've had every sort of lucid dreamer here, Astral Projectors, Muslims, Catholics, spiritual people, atheists, anti-theists, black people, white people, Irish, Americans, scientists, common folk, teenagers and the elderly. Lucid dreaming is merely a state of consciousness, no bells or whistles attached. We are not forcing a cult on anyone, we merely try to show people the possibilities of the brain, it is up to them how they use that knowledge.

Boy, that escalated quickly.