Thread: emberassed that I told my family

I brought it up with my sister and dad the other day when a dream I had came up and then my sister said something about nightmares she has. So I mention LDs as a way of overcoming them. She sounded interested. But what really knocked my socks off was when my Dad said he's experienced it before and those kind of dreams can be really fun. I didn't have a chance to say anything more as it was right as they were leaving the car.

So now I plan to give him my copy of "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" once it arrives and tell him to read it because I know I won't be able to express the intense awesomeness of the topic myself. But I think he'll be open enough to give the book a chance, and then who knows.

I was so surprised because my mum whom I've previously mentioned it too, while accepting my interest in it, was utterly perplexed as to why anyone would want to have a lucid dream.

I really don't think the idea of a LD is simple ... at all. Yes, it is obvious to those who have had them, but explaining that to someone who never has? It reminds me of a planet in "Life, the Universe, and Everything" where nobody ever looked up because they didn't know up existed. Imagine explaining "up" to someone who only looks down.

And for validity, check any psychology textbook. According to mine "Occasionally, we may be sufficiently aware during a dream to wonder whether we are, in fact, dreaming. When experiencing such lucid dreams, some people are able to test their state of consciousness." That should help argue your case if you can find it in a college text book.

I've told a few friends and family members about lucid dreaming. All of them said either "Oh, I've had one of those before, they're kinda cool" or "I don't think I get it... but it sounds fun".

I guess that reactions really just vary by person...

My dad doesn't believe in it either.

Some people think that lucid dreaming is for weird people. Yes, some weird people do LD, but a lot of regular people do too.

I did a presentation in class about lucid dreaming.. the teacher was really interested, but I think thats mainly because shes interested in me lol

Theres nothing to 'believe' about lucid dreaming, lucid dreaming is a scientifical fact. It has been proven through scientifical experiments that it does exist. Just like gravity does exist.

Besides, the greatest minds in history did lucid dreaming! Did you know how Albert Einstein found out about his relativity theory? He did a WILD and he jumped on a sun-ray and rode it to the sun. Go read about it.

Originally Posted by Albert Einstein

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Nikola Tesla, who brought electricity to our civilization, who invented the radio, tons of other stuff you use daily, and basicly everything that has to do with electricity is based on his inventions.. guess what, he did it all through Lucid Dreaming. He was the master of lucid dreaming. He was able to make all his machines etc in his dreams, test them out in his dreams, and finally build them irl. Without Nikola Tesla, we wouldn't have electricity! If you read his autobiography, you will see that he really stresses his lucid dreaming experiences as his key to success in inventing. He saw sleeping/dreaming as an art.

Anyway, after my presentation, some of my class were doing reality checks

Originally Posted by ChaybaChayba

Besides, the greatest minds in history did lucid dreaming! Did you know how Albert Einstein found out about his relativity theory? He did a WILD and he jumped on a sun-ray and rode it to the sun. Go read about it.

What? Where did you get that fact from? And Tesla ... I have a really hard time believing that. Speaking of people being close minded ... sometimes it serves a purpose. Science and logic are based on skepticism, and right now I'm pretty skeptical that those are real facts.

I have told my parents and my dad believes it and he actually asked me about dreamviews. My mom on the other hand acts like she believes it and its interesting but i don't think she truly believes its real and possible.

I have told many friends and family members about it but the majority of them didn't find any interest in it or thought it was BS...its their loss. I give people two chances while explaining lucid dreaming. If they say thats stupid or something the first time, i try again. If they still aren't interested, its their loss.

My dad believes me, but he thinks it's stupid. I think he thinks of it as some kind of fairy fantasy world and doesn't want to take part. My mom also believes me but doesn't want to either. She tells me,"sleeping is a time for relaxation. I'd rather be relaxing like I should be than flying all over the place." Oh well, that's family for ya.

The worst thing to do is to try and force the idea upon someone. i haven't introduced anybody to lucid dreaming, but i did discover it over hearing a friend (who decided to stop) and i thought the idea was completely plausible.
i have also chatted about it to another friend who was discussing astral projection - so my natural reaction was to bring up lucid dreaming. for some reason i can just imagine a lot of you preaching the idea to every body you know, which is sure to back fire. a lot of people go through life not wanting to know things like this, and there is nothing wrong with that. i am more shocked at people's lack of interest in space and whatever to be honest, and just to add - somebody mentioned about star signs, well personally, everything i have ever read about my star sign could not be more inaccurate - that is of course, apart from the magazine columns that are written so vaguely to fit anybody's current situation. so, if you are looking to see if everybody who is a particular star sign because they are all so open-minded, i think that you are going to fail.

Originally Posted by Bonsay

I think the main problem is getting someone to actually listen. It seems that your father didn't listen, or think about what you said. The concept of Lucidity is very very simple. Saying that it's just a vivid dream only shows that he formed his opinion the second you mentioned Dreaming, probably because he wasn't interested. If you really wanted, you could convince him, but it depends if he's willing to listen. In the end, LDing was proven by Laberge, and the "theory" has existed for hundreds or thousands of years in buddhism, and different tribes around the world.

My mom said it's probably possible, but the only reason she doesn't like it is becuase it's probably not the kind of dream you need, so you could die sooner from it. My dad just smiled the whole time I told him about it.

I think we should tie this with astrology maybe. Maybe we should do a poll on the forums and see how many people have the same astrological sign. Mine is Capricorn.

All the different Astrology signs have different traits and are relatively accurate. Maybe this would also... I dunno have an effect on whether people are open-minded or not?

Originally Posted by TheSixthSide

I think we should tie this with astrology maybe. Maybe we should do a poll on the forums and see how many people have the same astrological sign. Mine is Capricorn.

All the different Astrology signs have different traits and are relatively accurate. Maybe this would also... I dunno have an effect on whether people are open-minded or not?

well it could possibly have something to do with it, but I doubt that it would have that much of an effect on LDing, just because sometimes it's not a matter of personality whether you believe in LDing, but a matter of experience.

My dad thinks the same thing or along those lines but I kind of convinced him.

Forgot to add: While I did do that speech in front of my class, I have never talked to my parents about it. They knew I had a speech, but I never really said what it was going to be about. They know nothing of LD'ing. I will probably tell them sometime, but not right now. My brother wouldn't take it serious either.

Yea I can imagine people ignorance.

yeah, my mom believes me, but i don't think she's interested in it enough to actually try it....but when i told my dad, he said it sounded farfetch'd ...
i haven't had one yet, but i read about everyday, so hopefully im close ....

yep, nothing wrong with being weird. If we were all normal the world would be a very boring place

Originally Posted by pervysage

i haven't had one yet, but i read about everyday, so hopefully im close ....

Just keep at it man, but don't lose touch with reality. Don't use LDing as escapism.
But, I remember the first time I had an LD, I was so excited...it was a very short dream because of that...
Just don't get discouraged if you don't have a decent LD for awhile, it took me about 2 1/2 months.

I really unterstand you!! Just had a huge discussion with my parents. I tried to tell dem about LD and they were just so ignorant. First they thought it was some esoteric bullshit. Then I told them about the scientific background and that LD is proven and they believed me but they just couldn't imagine what would be the use of it. My mother even thought it was dangerous.
It really hurts if people you care for are so uninterested in things that are so important for you life...

In germany there is a proverb which says: "Was der Bauer nicht kennt, schmeckt ihm nicht" which means something like: "Foods the farmer doesn't know, doesn't taste good to him"

Not such a long time ago people thought that masturbating dried you up and ventriloquists were burnt because people thought they had demons living inside of them. Someday hopefully people will learn...

At least I have really good luck with my friends. All of them are really open-minded and interested in everything I tell them about LD.

My dad not only believes in it, he has been having lucid dreams for years. I remember a conversation about it when I was a kid. Haven't brought it up since. I told my mom a couple months ago when we were talking on the phone that I was keeping a dream journal, she thought it was a brillant idea and really liked the idea. One of my sisters thought it was stupid when I brought it up to her, but what in the hell do little sisters know? LOL. Not much
I feel bad for those with such closed minds, they are missing out on A LOT of fun!

Mom and Dad always seem interested, but they've never pursued it.

bottom line: don't tell.

my dad and step mom were pretty interested in it because they used to study their dreams. they kept a DJ and everything then would analyze it for meaning. lucky me. when i tell friends, though, it goes differently.

*somehow dreaming comes up*

me: " i lucid dream sometimes. you know it is where you are dreaming and you realize you are dreaming. i had one last night."

some male friend: "wait...so you can have sex with whoever you want?"

me: "...ya i guess."

then topic changes to hot celebraties

i guess that means they are fans of LDing though...

when siblings or friends ask why i LD i say it is the same reason people play video games. it gives them a chance to play in an alternate reality with different rules and no consiquences. LDing is like the perfect video game where you can do whatever you want, the graphics are perfect (most of the time), and it is VERY realistic.

I told my mom about it and she said I was doing acid.
Then called the school counselor to tell me about drug abuse.

I never bothered to tell my parents about LDing. Whenever I try to tell them about something that really interests me, they only half listen. I'm not even going to begin a conversation about sleeping with them. They'd probably be like, "Why are you wasting your time awake researching about your time alseep?" That's probably the only sort of bizzare thing about researching lucidity and stuff. My mom would probably get all saracastic on me like, "Suree, so once you realize your dreaming, what do you do there?" By the time I get to flying, doing awesome matrix moves , and practically anything you want, she'll probably have already started a conversation with my dad or be deep in a book.
I called my best friend up today. I agree that the words you choose make the difference. Some people can make things dramatic and interesting. Others don't start out the right way and lose their audience. So I casually started telling her how I remembered a lot of dreams the other night. Being the nice person she is, she asked me to tell her about them. I gladly explained them and started talking about dream recall. I said I'd like to be able to remember more dreams so I can interpret my dreams and stuff. But I sort of just jumped into the subject and said, "Have you ever thought about having a lucid dream?" "No, what's that?" "Knowing your dreaming when you're in a dream." "Oh." "And you can do, like, anything you..." "Hang on, I'm getting a call on my other phone." ...if not my best friend or my family, WHO? Well, I got the people here.