How did you start lucid dreaming?

[Ernesto]

Hi there, I´m new here and it´s been on my mind. The concept of lucid dreaming is new to me as I never knew everyone could do this, I´ve been reading around and noticed that its something I´ve been doing since a kid, and in my life I have only met one other person who actually confirmed to me she could do it too, until, ofcourse, I browse the net and found it by mistake. Now I started lucid dreaming when I was a little kid(prob. 4 or 5 years), where I would have this really repeated nightmares that would just not let me sleep paralised in my bed afraid, until it started getting bored and old that I eventually got to control my dreams into something else, like the first one where I would enter this horrible house, but instead of doing it I thougth, what would happen If I run the other way and not enter, as said done, had my first lucid dream, and it actually ended that nightmare and as I did it on the other ones, I have never else since have had nightmares(wich is great). so I was just wondering, how did you all star lucid dreaming?

[Seeker]

Hi Ernesto! I first heard about lucid dreaming in 1983 I think, from a Carlos Castaneda book. However, I just thought of it as a curiosiy until I had my first LD about 14 years ago. It was the most amazing thing. I really don't understand why everyone in the world is not excited about it.

[Ernesto]

Lol, true allot of people don´t seem exited about it. I mean , I was never able to talk about this with friends or family, they just seem to think I´m making it up. So I find it really cool there are places like this where you can share this strain of thoughts(and prob. learn more)

[AlternateReality]

Yeah none of my friends seem to care when i talk to them about it.

[nesgirl119]

Well, I kind of started naturally when I was 3. I was going through this terrible insomnia spell, & would stay up until 1AM in the morning. I would just stay wide awake on the couch watching TV until I was able to WILD my way to sleep at all! In fact, b4 I had it mastered, I wasn't able to control my LDs (I did know I was dreaming, 100% sure, b/c I would remember that I was having insomnia b4 & that I was trying to fall asleep), & I would often wake up every hour either sick to the stomach or in SP (I wasn't frightened at all) until I was 4, but I still enjoyed them despite that, though I knew nothing about LDing exactly until my sister told me a year ago!! So I was clueless about my LDs, even when I did start, b/c I was so young.

[Seeker]

I had a friend come up to me at work one day. It was while DV was down, I was messing around with the forum stuff a little trying to find out what happened. He asked me about it and I told him. He was like, yeah, I've been doing that forever. Was really cool. I usually get "The look"

[Ernesto]

Well, I kind of started naturally when I was 3. I was going through this terrible insomnia spell, & would stay up until 1AM in the morning. I would just stay wide awake on the couch watching TV until I was able to WILD my way to sleep at all![/b] Amazing, samething here, althought I was older(10), but it happend to me through insomnia too, I would just lie in my bed trying to sleep, thinking and thinking, and it eventually started to happened, although, I was kind of freaked out, I kept it going until It eventually took me somewhere(wich was dreaming!!!!), took me allot of time to do it though, when I eventually got the use of it I started as a kid with his new toy to do it allot, strange though I don´t do it much now. I usually get \"The look\"[/b] LOL, yeah so true!!!. Its a fenomenon between strangers

[TheKnife]

You forgot to add natural...

[MarthaM]

Hi, Ernesto. I am a natural and started when I was 8 or 9-ish. I first heard the term in the '90's and read two books by Dr. LaBerge.

[dreamtamer007]

March of this year had my first. Just realized I'm Dreaming! A friend read books on it about 20 years ago but at that time I did not pay any attention or just did not understand.

[Ernesto]

I tried changing it but couldn´t. But I find it that own your own is the same as naturally, I mean you did it without knowing anything about it . Cool to see there is allot of people who started this way!. keep on dreaming!!! and thanks for the replies. Now I find myself trying to teach some open minded friends, hope it works cause people just don´t have patience

[Wayward Oneironaut]

Haha, yeah I love when you try to talk to someone else about your lucid dreaming hobby and they give you that look that says "why? they're only dreams. etc, etc.." I was lucky enough to read Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Laberge and got totally excited about it, having a lucid dream a week or two later. And then I was lucky again that my roommate at college got equally excited about it, so at least we had each other to talk to about different dreams, etc. Actually, unfortunately, I stopped bringing the subject up because most people just don't understand - I will let my friend bring it up and back him up when the brows start furrowing and the eyes start rolling.

[Clairity]

Back in 1998 I received a catalog in the mail called "Things You Never Knew Existed" and in it was an ad for the NovaDreamer by the Lucidity Institute. I ordered it and I had a lucid dream the first time I wore it. I've been hooked ever since!

[inflamez]

I had many lucid dreams as a kid, but I wasn't able to identify them as such. Most of them were very strange and many times very scary, so I tried to avoid dreaming and my natural ability to have lucid dreams slowly faded away ... I talked with my parents about my dreams, but they always said I should forget about them and that they will go away once I grow older. Sadly, they were right ... My first intentional lucid dream was about a year ago and it lasted not more than a few seconds. Just enough time to think "omg wtf i am drea..... d'oh!" To answer your question: I voted for "On my own".

[Eonnn]

Hey Ernesto, I had my first LD the same way you did! Through repeating nightmares at the age of 4 although I did not realise there was a name for it until I got older. Haha Seeker, I always get "The Look" as if I'm crazy.

[irishcream]

On my own last year, because i started having some seriously weird dreams. I don't have so many lucid dreams, probably because i find it difficult to remember to do reality checks! But i've learnt a lot on here, and made a few friends...

[Kastro187420]

I've always had an interest in dreaming, and my mom mentioned Lucid Dreaming to me, and what it was, but I never gave it much thought until about 6 or 7 months ago... I started looking up about it, trying to find a good site that explained what it was, and how to do it, and came across DreamViews.From there I started reading the main page and then found the forums.I started reading about all this cool stuff about Lucid Dreaming, and hearing all these peoples experiances, and I wanted to have some of these as well, so from then on i've been tryin to Lucid Dream, and have had some.

[eXistenZ]

Hi Ernesto and everyone, I always had interest on dreams, but my first encounter with the topic of lucid dreaming was with the book by Castaneda "The Art of Dreaming". More precisely, I did not realized that the book dealt also with LD. Searching for Castaneda-related info on the Internet, I found that someone referred to the Castaneda's book as an experience of lucid dreaming. So, I bought the LaBerge's "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" and this year I started to try. I am not a "natural", definitely... My score in LD is a well rounded zero... But I keep trying eXistenZ