Experienced lucid dreamer, but new here. Seeking knowledge.

[Universal Mind]

Hello folks. I am so glad I discovered this site. I had my first lucid dream when I was about seven, and it blew my mind. I went a long time without having another one, even though I really wanted to get into them. When I was 25, I discovered The Lucid Dreamer by Malcolm Godwin, and I learned a lot about how to have them at will. Between those two events, I think the only lucid dreams I had happened because I was having a nightmare that was so bad I realized it couldn't be real, in which case I deliberately woke up. I started having good lucid dreams once in a while, but they always happened when I was about to wake up, so the dream state wasn't as unreal and wild as usual. I have incredibly vivid, bizarre, surreal dreams ordinarily, but I have had a hard time being lucid during those. I have had such an experience a few times, but I usually lose track of the fact that I am dreaming after about ten seconds when that happens. Accomplishing mastery of those dreams is one of my goals in life. I have had two lucid dreams this week. One was when I was on the edge of waking up, and one (last night) was incredible, but very shortly maintained. I came to this web site to confirm that long lasting, vivid, deep and very surreal lucid dreams are actually possible. According to many of you here, it is. That is great news! One theory I have about lucid dreaming is that it can take the place of psychedelic drugs and keep people away from them. I have been trying to permanently bury marijuana for years now. I quit again last weekend. I have "quit" about 75 times now. One idea I hold onto is that the fun of marijuana is that it creates a conscious state that goes about 10 to 20% of the direction toward a lucid dream. A marijuana experience for me makes reality seem a little like a dream, and it is interesting. I keep telling myself, "Why not give this crap up and get into the real thing?" I want to master lucid dreaming and get past the need to do any weak imitation substances. Other hallucinogens are much stronger than marijuana, but the be all end all of any of them is going into another world of imagery that works according to a different system of reality. The be all end all of such things is ultimate lucid dreaming. I am determined to become an expert at it. I think it is the greatest experience there is, right up there with sky diving and making love. I also read Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge. Until today, I hadn't come across direct testimony that ultimate lucid dreaming is possible except from people who stood to make a profit. I was hoping some of you here would tell me just how much ultimate lucid dreaming can be mastered and what bizarre circumstances or experiences can happen that might not be otherwise assumed. If anyone can tell me about this from first hand accounts, I will greatly appreciate it. Thank you. I also wanted to see what you people think about whether lucid dreaming actually takes people to other parts of actual reality. I know that that is a common philosophy. Have any of you been to what you think was a place other than merely your own consciousness? Has anybody met a friend in a lucid dream and found out later you both had the dream? I am very skeptical about such an idea, but I have an open mind. My name on this site is just for fun. I am much more skeptical than my name implies. However, I love exploring wild ideas.

[Demerzel]

Welcome, Universal Mind! :aphiusisonecrazySOB: Hope we can help you become better at lucid dreaming! Originally posted by Universal Mind I also wanted to see what you people think about whether lucid dreaming actually takes people to other parts of actual reality. I know that that is a common philosophy. Have any of you been to what you think was a place other than merely your own consciousness? Has anybody met a friend in a lucid dream and found out later you both had the dream? I am very skeptical about such an idea, but I have an open mind. My name on this site is just for fun. I am much more skeptical than my name implies. However, I love exploring wild ideas. Have a look for some of that, it sounds like you're talking about OBEs and Dream Sharing...

[CT]

To me, its all in my mind. I think the brain has huge capabilities and the psyche requires it to conjur up fantasies and images to process certain things, and when you realise that you can manipulate them, while everythign is perfectly simulating it all, from the input from your senses to your perception on the world, etc.

[Ev]

Great post! Very good point about drugs and LD. Totally agree on this one. I dropped all "shit" and started LDing 4 months ago. Feel great since then. I guess LDing can help people with other addictions (like computer gaming). Yes, supreme LDing can be mastered. So far i've just glimpsed on *true* power I can have. It's very encouraging. I belive LD's take place in other reality. There is simply *NO* way my mind can create things I see (aka Epic dreams). They feel absolutely supernatural. Another thing that makes me certain that dreams are not simply your mind = dream memories. I've found on numerous occasions that I *absolutely know* what's happening in a dream, where I was in a dream world before. I feel that LD's are just a basic tool, which you can use to go deeper into spiritual/occult things.

[Seeker]

Welcome on board! I hope you are right about LDing keeping people away from psychoactive substances!

[Danger Dog]

im new here also, welcome! if u find out anything useful share with us, im sure u have some knowledge as well

[Universal Mind]

Thanks for your replies, everybody. I had another lucid dream last night. That makes three in one week, which is my record! In that one, it was as if I was having a lucid dream while being aware of my real world surroundings. It was like I was dreaming with my eyes open. I think I was actually dreaming that I was dreaming with my eyes open. I experienced dream paralysis and a rush of energy that seemed like a kundalini stimulation. I also heard something whisper my name from my bedroom (I was on the couch in my living room.), so I am pretty sure I was 100% dreaming. If not, the half dreaming made me have an outside world hallucination. Although I am extremely skeptical about the supernatural, I have had many seemingly psychic experiences in regard to my dreams. If that is what they are, I think there is a legitimate scientific explanation for them. We can see large parts of the third dimension, so why not faintly the fourth? I am still skeptical. One of the best examples is when I dreamed that my friend Casey moved with her husband Jonathan to Ridgeland, a suburb of Jackson. They had never spoken of wanting to move to Ridgeland, but I dreamed I went to their house there and nobody was home. The dream seemed so insignificant for a while that I never told anybody about it. However, Casey and Jonathan came out of the blue and moved to Ridgeland right after that. A few months later, my friend Christian and I were hanging out late at night in Pensacola, Florida. Christian was friends with Casey and Jonathan also. He was telling me about how he has lucid dreams all the time. He said that the most intense one he creates for himself is one of being attacked by a great white shark. He told me about a dream he recurrently has about a future house of his (in his dreams) in New York's Hamptons, where there are mansions owned by the very rich. A lot of celebrities have homes there. When he described the home to me, it sounded just like a house I had dreamed about. He said something about a red carpet and a small fountain in the living room. That was in my dream, for example. I remembered that Casey and her best friend were there, among many others. I didn't mention Casey because she was just one more person there. Also present was a small, stray chololate lab. (About a week after that, I went to the Animal Rescue League to get a dog, and a dog exactly like it was there. I almost got it, but I didn't.) Christian and I decided to meet each other at that house in our dreams that night. We were just playing around with a wild idea. I was by no means convinced that it was possible. In a dream that night, I went to Chrisitain's house to meet Christian, but it was not in the Hamptons. It was Casey and Jonathan's house in Ridgeland, and nobody was home. Casey and Christian were friends, but not good friends. She was just Jonathan's wife, and Jonathan was just a good friend of somebody we know much better. Nobody noticed anything significant between Casey and Christian, not even Christian. Christian went to West Virginia a few months later, and he stayed there for more than six months. While he was gone, Casey and Jonathan decided to get divorced. When Christian came back, Jonathan was long moved out of the house. Christian and Casey, much to everybody's shock, including theirs, started going out. Christian ended up moving into the house. They are now engaged. Basically, I went to Christian's "future house" in my dream, and it was what turned out to be Christian's future house. It wasn't the house I was trying to go to. Casey had been at one of Christian's houses exactly like the one I was trying to go to, in one of my dreams. I will just say that this type stuff makes me raise one eyebrow. I will tell other stories later. I am on somebody ele's computer right now, so I have to run, but I will tell more about my lucid dreaming experiences later.

[jacobo]

welcome. i look forward to reading your experiences. if it's not to bold i'd like to take a stab at explaining an aspect about the house and your friends... you said that you went to the house and no one was home... maybe you could subconsciously sense something wrong with their relationship? and when no one was home that just illustrated what your subconscious had been sensing. ??? just a thought. anyway, welcome to our little corner of the internet. -jake