Thread: I feel like such a coward

I've had lots of lucid nightmares. They're a somewhat regular occurrence for me, maybe 1/week. They're often less scary, though, because if you know you're only dreaming and that you're completely safe, it puts your mind at ease. You could even turn them into a positive experience by taking the opportunity to explore the meaning or other aspects of the dream.

Hey there,

I'm not sure what people consider lucid nightmares. It seems like a strange contradiction to me. In my experience, the nightmare ends where lucidity begins.

As a matter of fact, lucid dreaming has gotten rid of my nightmares altogether. I used to have a lot of them when I was younger. In my last, really intense one, I dreamt I was being pursued by some undefined, shadowy black shaped man-sized creature. It was not human, but rather felt like it was fear personified. Fortunately, something in that dream caused my dream awareness to kick in. A moment later I was lucid. Now my usual response in this kind of dream (I've had it quite a few times by then) was to wake myself up. This time though, I decided not to wake myself up, but rather to turn around and confront the thing directly. After all, I knew I was dreaming. I knew I had the ability to alter and change dream elements. I knew I could face it and deal with anything that would happen.

I faced the thing, and in doing so the fear simply evaporated. Before my eyes it turned into a friendly black panther, which came to me to be petted. I had a great time playing with this beautiful animal, and the lucid dream ended a little later. I haven't had a nightmare since. After that, anytime something scary or threatening begins to happen in a dream, it will immediately turn me lucid, becoming a great dream sign that started a lot of awesome lucid dreams.

Hopefully my experience can easy your worries somewhat,

-Redrivertears-

For me a nightmare is a dream that brings out the things I fear and scares me. Since a lucid dream is still a dream in a sense I call it a lucid nightmare. I don't like some of the things my dreaming mind shows me but its good for overcoming your fears. I know its not real but certain things I've seen just make me uncomfortable. But what makes it better is if you dont give your attention to the creepy details/feelings and use your control to change it no matter if you are caught off guard by something. Just recognize that you are the dreamer and that you can be brave and turn it into a good experience instead of a bad one.

Here is a thread I made about things I think a beginner should know about lding in order to get a good idea if they want to or not.

http://www.dreamviews.com/dreamviews...e-told-me.html

I can not imagine lucid nightmares. I tend to fight in lucid dreams sometimes or they are very peaceful and/or weird. I guess it helps to just hold ur ground when ur in one

Lucid nightmares don't happen any more often then regular non-lucid nightmares. Practicing lucid dreaming doesn't increase your chances of having a nightmare, but it does increase your chances of turning a nightmare into a more pleasant experience.

Here's one of my own personal experiences with overcoming a nightmare with lucidity: Lucid Nightmare - The Inner Workings of Home Depot - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

After 3 years of actively pursuing lucidity, this still remains one of my favorite dreams, and just the feeling of relief and freedom after such intense fear was something I'll never forget.

Wow, thanks everybody for the responses. I will be attempting to lucid dream because I'm sick of letting fear get the better of me. Sensei's link to things he wishes he knew when he started lucid dreaming, that's what actually sparked my fear more. In it, he says he's had three lucid nightmares that were just awful. Because of this, I really started to wonder if I should even try to have my first lucid. I definitely regretted listening to Sensei's video since the idea of lucid nightmares just freaked me out.

But whatever, I will probably keep striving for my first lucid dream. I was hesitant to even make a thread because I feel like it's a thing only I can decide. I don't like to be a bother, but maybe someone else will find the information useful. Pretty sure the payoff of lucid dreaming vastly outweighs the negatives.

This always seems to be a friendly forum so I thank everybody for their input.

Do you have non-lucid nightmares on a regular basis? Becoming lucid does not increase your chance of getting more nightmares and if you are having a nightmare and you become lucid, you can always wake yourself up or turn it into something positive. There really is nothing to be afraid of, trust me. After you get your first couple of lucid dreams, you will see that it is not bad at all

Lucid dreaming is amazing and don't miss this opportunity in your life! Sensai's video may have mentioned he had three awful lucid nightmares but it's not the same for everyone. Some experienced dreamers say they only get a nightmare like once a year and even then they just face it and it's not scary anymore

In my opinion, lucid nightmares could be the best of the best experience you can get. These would give you a training ground to fight your fears, if you have any.
I can give you two personnal examples, as i had lots of nightmares when i was younger, and guess what, a half-lucid dream helped me ending one of my recurring nightmares :

I was around 6-7 y.o. when i vanquished my fear of zombies. I had recurring nightmares about zombies because my older brothers scared me with the Resident Evil game. Like, i asked "is the zombie scene over ?", they said "yes yes, you can look !", and you had this zoom on the first zombie you meet in the game... got dammit, i cried like a baby haha (i was 4 and already scared of the dark).
The last nightmare i had on this theme, i was in the Resident Evil 1 mansion, in some stairs, and i was half-lucid. I knew that if i closed my eyes, i would just wake up. So i just grabbed the side of the stairs, and closed my eyes, and then i heard a devil laugh that, i think, was intended to scare me. It made me laugh. Because i was lucid, i thought "gosh, did the dream try to scare me with THAT ?!". I woke up with a big smile, and couldn't wait to tell the story to my brother haha.

The second example that could help if you have a recurring theme in your nightmares : i was plagued with spider populated nightmares when younger because of arachnophobia. Until i was like 14-15 y.o., i would wake up every time i had such a nightmare. Once, i was so terrified to go back to sleep that i just went to see Shrek at 4 a.m. in the morning. But, at one point, i just tested the fear. I started approaching harmless spiders (thin legs thin body), then killing them with a tissue and finally just grabbing them by the leg. It took several months to achieve these steps, but since then, i don't wake up anymore in spider dreams. I still get some stress when brushing big sets of webs in dreams, or being in a messy room with fist sized spiders crawling beneath the sofas, but i don't wake up anymore.
The thing is, my nightmares prepared me to fight my fears in waking life, and tackling the fear head on in waking life stopped my nightmares.

Recent theories support that nightmares are a tool for the brain to fight your fears : if you wake up, the test has failed. If you don't, that means the fear is crossed out.
And, i'm sure being lucid can help you achieve this end.

Just if anybody cares, I have been doing frequent reality checks for the last couple days. I'm trying to be mindful about them, too, and not do them automatically. Also, last night I had a dream where my dad asked how to get through a gate in a lucid dream and I told him to expect it to happen. Kind of weird, but the point is that the thought of lucid dreaming came up in a dream, so I may be heading in the right direction.

I definitely realize that there is nothing to fear and that I'll be safe while lucid dreaming. I'm hoping that now it's just a matter of time before my RC's carry over into a dream. As long as I stick with it, results will come I'm sure. I'm recalling 1-2 dreams a night as well so I should be on the right track.

I hope other people can learn from this thread as well. Once again, thank you everyone.

Originally Posted by Mgc88

Just if anybody cares, I have been doing frequent reality checks for the last couple days. I'm trying to be mindful about them, too, and not do them automatically. Also, last night I had a dream where my dad asked how to get through a gate in a lucid dream and I told him to expect it to happen. Kind of weird, but the point is that the thought of lucid dreaming came up in a dream, so I may be heading in the right direction.

I definitely realize that there is nothing to fear and that I'll be safe while lucid dreaming. I'm hoping that now it's just a matter of time before my RC's carry over into a dream. As long as I stick with it, results will come I'm sure. I'm recalling 1-2 dreams a night as well so I should be on the right track.

I hope other people can learn from this thread as well. Once again, thank you everyone.

I guess i think of unconscious as having a vested interest in our progress. It seems that ur unconscious wants you to lucid dream! More power braaaaa!!!!

Originally Posted by Mgc88

Just if anybody cares, I have been doing frequent reality checks for the last couple days. I'm trying to be mindful about them, too, and not do them automatically. Also, last night I had a dream where my dad asked how to get through a gate in a lucid dream and I told him to expect it to happen. Kind of weird, but the point is that the thought of lucid dreaming came up in a dream, so I may be heading in the right direction.

I definitely realize that there is nothing to fear and that I'll be safe while lucid dreaming. I'm hoping that now it's just a matter of time before my RC's carry over into a dream. As long as I stick with it, results will come I'm sure. I'm recalling 1-2 dreams a night as well so I should be on the right track.



I hope other people can learn from this thread as well. Once again, thank you everyone.

Ha well not only did the subject come up, but it came up as a wonderful metaphor. Lucid dreaming (and life) is so expectation based. I love the metaphor of the gateway...as it is a gateway... and if there is one thing anyone needs to know about lucid dreaming...is you want to feel excited..ignited...expect it...feel positive...enjoy the journey...don't follow the goal of the lucid dream like a carrot on a stick. This is when it becomes hard (like life). Lucid dreaming may be the goal, but the whole game is so exciting. I would love to call it the lucid journey ... as tracking your dreams ... reality checking in the daytime...reading great books...enjoying discussion...this is all fabulous...and if you are committed through passion...yes you will lucid dream. BE a lucid dreamer. If you want to. Lucid dreaming for me is integrated into a whole life full of lucidity. Im not getting all hippy or anything, but the process never stops. How can it? I am quite advanced now I suppose...but I am excited about new ideas, new revelations, new experiences...that is the drive...It's hard to explain but I have a feeling when we feel driven by the process and not by the goal the unconscious helps us on our way (just like your brilliant non-lucid dream did!) Of course it gets frustrating when we don't achieve what we intend to. But remember this process stems from something deeply innate in all of us. To activate it takes some learning. And learning comes with ups and downs! Im blabbering on like this but I think you already get it somehow. In your own way.


Oh and lucid nightmares. Been covered...but yes...you are no more likely to have a lucid nightmare then you are a nightmare...and being lucid in a nightmare is a chance to become a warrior of your own dreams...lucid dreaming is being advocated by some health professionals to help overcome nightmares. Fear is common. Don't fear fear. You'd never get up in the morning. And remember what you said to your dad in the gateway dream...

Dream well man.