Natural Lucid Dreamers

[WhiteUnit]

I have always been very open about my explorations into the dreamworld with everyone in my life. Often I will bring it up with someone who says that they have been having LDs their entire life. It's interesting how they have developed many of the techniques for LDing on their own. For example, a co-worker told me that she has frequent lucid dreams. I asked if she could fly in her dreams or does she float back down. She said thats she floats back down, so what she does is put on a ring that can make her fly which is a very popular technique that's been brought up numerous times on this site. Anyway, I've been noticing something in common between the people who say that they are natural LDers. She mentioned that when she was young she had really bad nightmares and so her parents taught her to recognize the common factor in their nightmares, or dreamsigns, and that is how she learned to tell she was dreaming. And then I thought about it. My little brother is a natural LDer, and he also had severe nightmares when he was young, and my parents taught him to do the same thing. While this is probably not the case for all natural LDers, I think it is a large contributing factor to the difference between me and them.

[changed]

Are you saying that if at a young age you learn to look for dreamsigns you will become a natural LDer?

[Loaf]

Yet another topic about natural LDing. There is no "I was born a natural". Its just people who have an easier time at LDs, or pick it up a little faster than others. Sure, being younger does help, because it means you have more time to learn and perfect the skill.

[Hukif]

Actually, I do believe there are natural Lucid Dreamers... you know, those who never had to do anything to become lucid since early age, though I don't know if using DS and RC at early age can be considered natural, they are working for the lucids after all.

[WhiteUnit]

Yet another topic about natural LDing. There is no "I was born a natural". Its just people who have an easier time at LDs, or pick it up a little faster than others. Sure, being younger does help, because it means you have more time to learn and perfect the skill. That's kind of.. exactly what I'm getting at here. That no one is born with a natural ability to LD, they just learned the skill without knowing it, or they have learned a supplemental skill at some point. Same thing with my artwork. Many people will say that I have this natural ability to draw when they first see my work, but I know that it's been pure effort that led me to where I am. So, the point to me made is that if you are a person that feels like you have a hard time having LDs (IE: Me), then it's not because you don't have some inherited ability, it's simply because you have not mastered the skills.

[craig]

Yet another topic about natural LDing. There is no "I was born a natural". Its just people who have an easier time at LDs, or pick it up a little faster than others. Sure, being younger does help, because it means you have more time to learn and perfect the skill. The only natural ability we are born with to have lucid dreams, is the will and determination to control what goes on in our heads. With the complete realization that without us there would be no dream. Without the psyhcological being that absorbs information, we would have no memory files to play with. Your right, your not born with the ability.

[IndigoGhost]

I had one super nightmare when i was younger about an evil scarecrow at the top of my staircase and that he threw me down the stairs, when i woke up i was at the bottom of the stairs with no pain, pretty much after this point i stopped remembering my dreams for 8 years and that means i completely stopped 0% dream recall for 8 years, and now i have a huge problem with dream recall but when i can remember 2+ dreams a night "This take loads of effort" i am able to get lucid about 60% of the time, so you could say i am a sami-natural at lucid dreaming. Not sure if this helps your question or not.

[Bobblehat]

I would imagine that a person makes a decision very early on that makes them think differently about dreams. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe babies can dream in the womb? Maybe a decision is made at that point or in the very early days of their life that sets out the stall to make them a "natural".

[waving on oceans]

Anyway, I've been noticing something in common between the people who say that they are natural LDers. She mentioned that when she was young she had really bad nightmares and so her parents taught her to recognize the common factor in their nightmares, or dreamsigns, and that is how she learned to tell she was dreaming. I have always considered myself a natural dreamer...and a sometimes natural lucid dreamer...similarly I used to get bad nightmares as a kid too...starting 7 or so. Before that I would have lots of lucid dreams and flying dreams as a kid...when the nightmare element started tho I felt I became slightly disconnected from my dreams, only to reconnect with them in my teens. Hmm, interesting topic.

[changed]

Maybe nightmares trigure the skill to lucid dream because when i was little I had nightmares all the time and i would be able to wake myself up from them. But now that i try to lucid dream i never have any more nightmares. That would be such an obvious dream sign though that I would become Lucid every night... Oh well i guess i will have to get over it.

[WhiteUnit]

I beleive that the idea that anyone being "natural" at anything today is blown way out of proportion. I think that how we are raised has a huge impact on our abilities whereas our heritary traits only adds a slight advantage/disadvantage. In fact it appears to me that people are generally the same all over. Imagine a program that lets you design how are person looks, with little sliders to adjust all of the physical features. The hue, saturation, and value of our hair varies very little and our hair is one of our more destinquishing features. The height of a human generally ranges from 5'1 to 6'2 feet. All of the skin colors of the world actually fit into a tiny spectrum. When it comes right down to it, none of us are that "special". But, I find that to be extremely encouraging. Many people, when talking about fitness, will complain about their metabolism as a reason for why they look the way they do. Is metabolism a factor? Sure. But, it's only a tiny factor. So many people blow up a small disadvantage into a huge, looming wall blocking their goals. The same goes for lucid dreaming. Simply the fact that some people can learn to lucid dream means that anyone can. So, if your a person that says, "I'm not a natural LDer, so I'm at a disadvantage," then consider that even while that may be true, the disadvantage is likely not that great.