Being killed in lucid dreams

I have just learned about LD this week and I'm going to put alot of effort into making it work. My only problem is that about 80% of my dreams I can remember I'm usually being chased by someone and eventually I always get shot or stabbed or somehow killed. It sucks. I can actually feel the pain in the dream and remember it for days and I can also vividly remember the feelings of fear from being chased down untill im killed. Has this happened to anyone else? If I acheive a proper LD should I be able to control these types of dreams and prevent this from happening?

Those are nightmares. Almost everyone gets them - I have one about once a month, sometimes sooner, but I think I'm lucky, because some people get them all the time.

I remember a dream I had last year or so - I was in a skyscraper, some sort of hospital, and I was very afraid that someone was coming to kill me. Eventually he did, but before he could kill me, I jumped out the window.
I vividly remember the feeling of dropping. The ground rushing up to meet me, falling, falling, falling... and then BAM! I woke up as I hit the ground.
That's just an example.

When you lucid dream, you can do what you want! You could kill your attacker, talk to him, or just walk away and forget he was ever there.
If that had been a lucid dream, I would have thrown the serial killer out the window, jumped out, and flown away. Simple.

You will be able to control those situations once you become lucid, and you can use it to your advantage. If being chased and killed is a common theme, then you can use it as a dream sign to help you get lucid. If you ever find yourself thinking about being chased or killed while you are awake, or see a movie in which this is happening to someone else, ask yourself if you are dreaming and become more aware of your surroundings, and your feelings.

If it bothers you enough that you don't want to wait for lucidity, a good way to cut down on those kinds of dreams is to stop thinking about it during the day. Usually the contents of our dreams are based on common themes in our daily thought patterns. What do you think about often that you could associate with the feeling of being chased and killed? You might be able to identify a problem in your life that you can fix. That way you can work on being more lucid and in control while you are awake as well as while you are asleep, and practicing one will help the other and vice versa.

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Originally Posted by Raptr2

I have just learned about LD this week and I'm going to put alot of effort into making it work. My only problem is that about 80% of my dreams I can remember I'm usually being chased by someone and eventually I always get shot or stabbed or somehow killed. It sucks. I can actually feel the pain in the dream and remember it for days and I can also vividly remember the feelings of fear from being chased down untill im killed. Has this happened to anyone else? If I acheive a proper LD should I be able to control these types of dreams and prevent this from happening?

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wow sounds like my dreams lmfao !! but nightmares are they way i first ever became lucid !

i do tend to dream about fights alot so naturally my mind makes up the worst situation

and yes i know what you mean you can feel the pain but when you get good at lucid dreaming it will no longer be a problem :P

One can stop nightmares without becoming fully lucid too. By reasoning with dream enemies... Telling them stuff like "Smile. Let's just be friends now."

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Originally Posted by MrDreamsX

One can stop nightmares without becoming lucid too. By reasoning with dream enemies... Telling them stuff like "Smile. Let's just be friends now."

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How's that?

If you're having a nightmare, what makes them scary is the fact that they don't seem like nightmares. Once you realize it is a nightmare, you are lucid. Once you are lucid, you can try reasoning with them.

My question is: If you're not lucid, how do you try reasoning with nightmare creatures? I mean, if I'm having a nightmare that I believe is reality, I'm not going to stop and ask the 50ft tall lizard monster, that's chasing me, if he wants to be friends - unless I already know it's a dream. That would be lucidity.

To the OP: Yes, you can stop these things from happening (to a point) if you're good at dream control. Nightmares are the #1 reason I got into lucid dreaming - and to this day, I still relish the chance to get back at my nightmare creatures, once I realize I'm dreaming.

Look at it this way: If you were in a bank and a bunch of armed robbers came in, held you all at gunpoint, and made you feel like they were going to kill you - how would you feel if you suddenly realized that none of it was real? How empowered would you feel if you knew you could just walk up to one of the robbers and spit in his face, and he could not kill you? That's what lucid dreaming is like, when it comes to nightmares. Sure, sometimes you get some pretty tough opponents that can still cause you some pain, but just knowing that it's all in your head makes the experience so much different. You know that, no matter what you experience, you're going to be alright.

If most of your dreams are nightmares, it will probably be easier to become lucid since there is continuity between all your dreams. It will be easier to spot dream signs and easier to realize your dreaming than if all your dreams were completely different themes.

On a side note, I know how you feel about nightmares. A week or two ago I had such a bad/vivid nightmare that when I woke up, I actually threw up into my mouth a little bit. It was weird... and gross.

While I have never been able to accomplish it personally, I have been told by others who have experienced it said that becoming lucid and confronting your nightmares is very empowering and revealing. Personally I believe that sometimes nightmares can be interpreted in a different way in that they represent new growth. Obviously fear is the most common association with being chased in dreams, but its hard to understand exactly what each dreams means since they are different and personal to each person. I have many dreams of being chased and personally believe mine represent a fear of the unknown or personal growth as it makes sense to my life at the time. In your situation, I recommend trying the various methods to attain lucidity as well as trying to associate a certain word to alert your being lucid at the time.

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If you're having a nightmare, what makes them scary is the fact that they don't seem like nightmares. Once you realize it is a nightmare, you are lucid. Once you are lucid, you can try reasoning with them.

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What I am describing is partial lucidity.

For example, the advise I offered has worked for people who were not lucid trained. They recognized the reoccurring dream signs of the nightmare, and found it fairly easy to remember to ask to be friends. Without becoming aware they were dreaming exactly, and here is the point, without having any interest in that obtainment.

When I was younger, I could relize I was in nightmares every single time. I wouldn't do anything in the dream besides just imagine my real life body thrashing around and I'd exit my dream. I guess I'm just lucky :P

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Originally Posted by username695

When I was younger, I could relize I was in nightmares every single time. I wouldn't do anything in the dream besides just imagine my real life body thrashing around and I'd exit my dream. I guess I'm just lucky :P

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I didn't give you the nightmares did I?

And about your nightmares OP my other little brother started lucid dreaming to get out of nightmares.

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Originally Posted by username695

When I was younger, I could relize I was in nightmares every single time. I wouldn't do anything in the dream besides just imagine my real life body thrashing around and I'd exit my dream. I guess I'm just lucky :P

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Which is a good point. In nightmares becoming fully lucid enough to control the dream seems more difficult. Waking up is often the best we can do. Or else, those are the only ones we remember very well...

Having said all that, I have yet to be killed in a LD.

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Originally Posted by MrDreamsX

What I am describing is partial lucidity.

For example, the advise I offered has worked for people who were not lucid trained. They recognized the reoccurring dream signs of the nightmare, and found it fairly easy to remember to ask to be friends. Without becoming aware they were dreaming exactly, and here is the point, without having any interest in that obtainment.

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Ah, but areas of "partial lucidity" and lucid "levels" are so arbitrary, it was hard to tell what you meant. I get what you're saying, though.

Hm... at some point, I learned to enjoy the chase. I actually like those kinds of dreams, where I just keep running until I forget that something is chasing me. When you get better at LDing, even your non-lucid dreams tend to lose some of the danger, because at some level, part of you is aware that you're dreaming. Even violent dreams can be fun.

I've reached a point where things that should kill me, even in non-lucids, don't. I got shot in the head by a shotgun at point-blank range, and I just got up and started grumbling about stupid DCs and the fact that dreamers are immune to zombie bites. Well, actually, it was more about stupid humans and the fact that the devil is immune to zombie bites, but I was kind of caught up in the plot at the time...

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Originally Posted by Raptr2

I can actually feel the pain in the dream and remember it for days

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Is it kind of like an intense, tingly burning sensation that radiates outward from wherever you were injured, and you get so caught up in the horrible feeling that the whole dream blacks out around you?

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Originally Posted by Oneironaut

How's that?
#1 reason I got into lucid dreaming - and to this day, I still relish the chance to get back at my nightmare creatures, once I realize I'm dreaming.

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I'm learning about LD just for fun, but your reply interested me, I've had nightmares in the past but they are never things I can confront or fight back at, they are usually painful memories like remembering my dead pet cat, something I know consciously and subconsciously I can't change, so I wonder if lucidity is the only way to fight nightmares like that.

Edit: also kind of off topic but when I try to imagine something (while awake) I can usually picture what I'm thinking about perfectly, but sometimes my mind fights me and I can't imagine properly, I haven't had an official LD yet but I'm learning about it, and it interests me, will my mind try to fight me on what I'm thinking about during a dream and change the outcome?

You can start to imagine your late cat as a ghost. Say, a kind of spirit animal that will help you in dreams, rather than harming you on some level. A cat could, say, turn into a giant tiger and pounce on any other nightmares that are trying to kill you.

You can affect your dreams on a waking level. I occasionally plan mine out my writing a story that hooks in my current dream themes, and thinking about the story and rereading it, letting it marinate in my head for a few days.

Good advice, although to me since I have so many bad memories, things like remembering a painful thought freaks me out, even while I'm awake http://planetoid3.tastyhamgames.com/.../undecided.gif

Well, if you're dreaming about such things, you might have to face them at some point (conscious or dreaming). However - I'm not you, and only you can decide whether that's true.

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I haven't had an official LD yet but I'm learning about it, and it interests me, will my mind try to fight me on what I'm thinking about during a dream and change the outcome?

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Only if you let it. :P You tend to dream about the things that you're thinking about in daily life. Those include the things that are stressing you out. I, personally, dream about the things that I daydream about, so I deliberately program my non-lucids with thoughts of me as a powerful, immortal being, so I can breeze through nightmares without being concerned.

I think WakingNomad gave a piece of advice that really resonated with me once. He said that you can bring up the memory of the nightmare, while awake, and replay it, every detail. And then, once you get to the end, you change it. You daydream about your dream-monster, and you imagine defeating it. Over and over. And then, when you're asleep, you defeat it for real.

But if you can't face those memories, you'll have a harder time facing your nightmares.

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Originally Posted by Oneironaut

Ah, but areas of "partial lucidity" and lucid "levels" are so arbitrary, it was hard to tell what you meant. I get what you're saying, though.

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I happened upon a few examples of "low level" nightmare lucidity yesterday, here is one: I Love You

I used to have lots of nightmares as well as scarey imagery when going into LD's. In the end I decided to try to reenter the nightmare in the morning when I found it easier to become lucid and managed to, after a few failures, change the nightmare's outcome. Facing it like this pretty much stopped the weird imagery and nightmares and I very rarely have them now.