What if I encounter my deepest fears in a lucid dream?

Hello. I really want to lucid dream, but there's something I have to deal with first: what if I find my deepest fear in a lucid nightmare, or if I accidentally bring it into my dream world?

Both of my biggest fears are so horrible that even just thinking about it in my waking life makes me have images flash in front of my mental eye that make me feel really uncomfortable for an hour or so. A blurry non-lucid dream with the worst of the two make me feel horrible for 1-2 days. How would I deal with that if I'd be consciously experiencing these things? Those were big reasons why I haven't been consistent with lucid dreaming. I'd be motivated for a month or so, then notice how horrible it'd be if I'd have such a lucid dream. The problem is that whenever I try not thinking about it I vividly see it, which I suspect would make it appear in a lucid dream, and I doubt I would be able to do anything to make it disappear again, I'd be too scared.

What do I do? I really don't want to have to see the fears I talked about.

You'll have to face it eventually if you are really keen on the lucid dreaming experience, having consistent lucid dreams is going to show you a lot of stuff you already notice in waking life as well as things you may have hidden in your subconsious

This question to me is almost like asking
"Yes, i would love to keep swimming but, how do i not get wet?"
Well not really that extreme, but i don't have a better example...

And besides the day you face it, it will help you come to terms with yourself and help you lucid dream more, it's all a mental game anyways

Just remember that nothing is going to hurt you in your dreams. You have all the power you need, because you have the power to choose love. Fear should be a signal to you in your dreams. When you feel it, train yourself to turn toward it, rather than run away, and then practice flowing love (just imagine love coming out of your chest toward whatever is frightening to you). This will produce positive results, every time. Usually a transformation will happen to the frightening image. Also, you can help yourself feel less afraid by imagining yourself protected by divine light all over.

I remember asking in a lucid dream years ago to face my biggest fear. The dream gave me the girl from The Ring movie.. Oh my god, that girl is scary. When I flowed love into her, it turned into me. Anyways, best of luck.

In my mind, if you are this deeply concerned about the issue then it most likely will manifest at some point in your lucid dreaming or otherwise, since expectations (fear and other things included in there) are quite important within the dreaming context. Our minds often seem to act in the opposite direction of what we want; the more we repress something, the more it seems to be able to come through. This is pretty significant in how some people end up treating others in real life but that's for a different topic.

Anyway, I have posted about it elsewhere on the forum, but I overcame my biggest phobia both through dreaming and also by confronting it within waking life and if I ever get to having lucid dreams regularly I would like to even explore it a bit further, because I cannot say that I have completely mastered my fear or anything as "zen" as that. :cheeky: I can find my previous posts about it to link them here if you think they would be helpful/relevant?

And I agree with the posts above. Though I think our approaches on this subject will all vary greatly because we have different life experiences and different ways of coming into stages of acceptance and so on.

Thank you for your replies. But I don't know how to confront it. I'm afraid it will affect my waking life if I have to see it again. I imagine it is harder to tell yourself that it is just a dream if you were very conscious of it as if it was real.

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Originally Posted by Draeger

Thank you for your replies. But I don't know how to confront it. I'm afraid it will affect my waking life if I have to see it again. I imagine it is harder to tell yourself that it is just a dream if you were very conscious of it as if it was real.

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Respect your feelings. Respect the fact that, at this time, you may not be ready to face that fear. That is okay; there's nothing wrong with that. And in any case, if it does come up, you can use lucidity to banish it or just fly away.

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Originally Posted by MoonageDaydream

Respect your feelings. Respect the fact that, at this time, you may not be ready to face that fear. That is okay; there's nothing wrong with that. And in any case, if it does come up, you can use lucidity to banish it or just fly away.

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Okay. Thank you. You lifted my worries enough that I feel comfortable enough to have an LD, even with the risk of encountering my fears. I suspect I might be able to control my dreams enough to just leave the scene, or at least I hope that expectation and confidence will allow me to control my dreams like that.

I think it's harder for me to try and help without knowing more specifics, otherwise all I have is more general commentary than anything else; and to be honest if this fear can be so crippling for your waking life, I would honestly suggest you see a professional health therapist and openly discuss it with them. People may not always understand where you're coming from with some things and this can feel frustrating, but likewise, discussing a contentious topic openly with someone gets you thinking about it more in-depth too.

And yeah, it's totally fine if you're not ready to confront your fear(s) too. I suppose I feel motivated to try and get people to overcome their fears because I already know from my experience that it is possible, but to hear someone say it and to feel it for yourself are entirely different things. :) I do hope you find yourself reaching lucidity and that you are able to enjoy it anyway!

When I was new to lucid dreaming, I know I felt the exact same way about my own fears. As you get more comfortable with the lucid dream state, you may find yourself getting braver. Starting small is a great idea. Find smaller fears and try the love approach. See what happens. When you discover how it all works, you may find it easier to face other fears. And, you may like the after effects, too!

I might have gotten a lot closer to lucid dreaming as I was falling asleep last night, but I got scared. I realized I'd be completely alone, and that made me afraid. I guess I have weirder worries when I'm very tired. Not sure how to get myself to feel comfortable in the presence of personified fragments of myself.

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Originally Posted by Draeger

I might have gotten a lot closer to lucid dreaming as I was falling asleep last night, but I got scared. I realized I'd be completely alone, and that made me afraid. I guess I have weirder worries when I'm very tired. Not sure how to get myself to feel comfortable in the presence of personified fragments of myself.

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I get scared at night, too. Too scared to attempt a WBTB with WILD. One thing that helps me is to try in the morning, when there's light shining in through the window.

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Originally Posted by MoonageDaydream

I get scared at night, too. Too scared to attempt a WBTB with WILD. One thing that helps me is to try in the morning, when there's light shining in through the window.

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I can't do it in the morning, sadly. Using an alarm would wake my parents since our home is small. It also means I can't do WBTBs, but I'm hoping trying things as I go to sleep will produce some sort of result. I should just see what it's like in a lucid dream and try to get used to it, once it happens. I can just wake myself up if something happens, as long as it doesn't turn into a lucid nightmare.

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Originally Posted by Draeger

I can't do it in the morning, sadly. Using an alarm would wake my parents since our home is small. It also means I can't do WBTBs, but I'm hoping trying things as I go to sleep will produce some sort of result. I should just see what it's like in a lucid dream and try to get used to it, once it happens. I can just wake myself up if something happens, as long as it doesn't turn into a lucid nightmare.

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You can try a vibrating alarm. You can also try drinking a lot of water throughout the night, it will cause you to wake you up after each cycle to use the restroom. I never use an alarm (except on work days).