Scared of nothing

I recently had a lucid dream in which I had a ton of awareness. I was looking at the ocean, and I began to get scared. I knew that it was fake, but it looked and felt SO real. I know it can't hurt me, I know it can't kill me. Yet, I still have a tiny bit of fear over it. The way I look at it is, if I get scared in the dream... all hell breaks loose. The ocean will devour me, sharks and giant monsters will attack me, etc. It'll basically turn into a nightmare.

So, how do you get over this? KNOWING it can't hurt or do anything to you, yet still being afraid of things. It's like jumping off a building in real life, except that you won't get hurt at the bottom. It looks and feels so real it confuses your brain.

Well, I'd say practice will be the best remedy.

Has this happened before or is this the first time? Emotions can be unpredictable in dreams, especially when you're not lucid, but even when you are and are capable of thinking rationally. I've had bad dreams and woken up, only to go back to sleep and have an okay/good dream. It's wierd how, at least for me, things don't travel from one dream to the next for the most part.

So basically what I'm saying is that you shouldn't expect to be scared in your next LD. If you're worried about it, you'll be more likely to get stressed out and it will probably hurt your recall and/or cause you to get stressed out in the dream. Just relax and if it happens again, work from there. :) If you want, come up with a plan for what you will do when you find yourself getting emotional again. Remind yourself that you're dreaming and try to take your mind off of your emotions by doing something that involves some thought, whatever that may be for you.

If you start thinking 'An ocean... I really hope it's not going to turn into one huge tidal wave and kill me...' *panic* *panic* It probably will. (Turn into a huge tidal wave, not kill you for real)

It is not easy to dispell fear.

Some people have chants or phrases which help them keep strong and get rid of fear.

To be rid of this fear, you must rid yourself of negative perception. To do this, you should face your fear head on. You know it can't hurt you, so don't spend time thinking about it and enjoy. Think positive about your fear. Let's say you fear bears. Next time you see a bear in your dream, talk to it calmly, and I doubt it will even growl at you. If you act like you aren't afraid, your dream will not respond by producing something to be afraid of. The inverse is also true. If you don't want to fear the ocean, select a positive aspect of the ocean. Swim in it and find a pod of telepathic dolphins. Morph into a great white, and enjoy a superpowered sense of smell. Go find Atlantis. With any fear, there's an advantage to be taken.

While I am never scared for no reason in LDs, I know what you mean. I have had a few nightmares-turned-LDs where I was only semi lucid (I knew I was dreaming, but had no control) and those were still pretty scary, mainly because I couldn't wake up/get away.

Even if you know something isn't real doesn't mean you can't be afraid of it. Sorta like watching a horror movie. You know that nothing is going to really hurt you but you can still feel a fear response when you first see the big groobly monster on the screen.

I have to admit, I still feel very afraid when I get the hallucinations with SP, even knowing what they are.

Fear doesn't have to be logical :)

I do think fear in LDs is a self-fulfilling prophecy though, since your mind creates the world around you. If you keep being afraid that something bad will happen, something bad will most likely happen. You just have to keep reminding yourself that YOU control the dream so scary things will only happen if you make them :)