Thread: Newbie blues

Kate, I know how you feel. I've been here for 6 years and so I've not only experienced it, I've listened to lots of others who have said the same thing. I've had, perhaps, a dozen LDs, though the fault is entirely my own for just not putting forth the effort I will say that it took me about two weeks before I had my first LD, so you're not alone there.

Don't worry about not posting the most spectacular lucid dreams ever. At this point I'd say just look at the dreams you've had so far and look at any and all progress that you've made. Are you recalling more dreams? Do you think you're getting closer? Progress can be something as small as noticing more opportunities that could have made you question whether or not you're dreaming. Writing in your DJ will definitely help there. Do you find yourself thinking at all differently at times in your dreams? Do you ever exert some control over the dream (even if you're not lucid)? Look at what you've done so far and know that you're headed in the right direction.

Lastly, don't plan for failure. Always plan for success! Plan to become lucid tonight, and so decide what you want to do right now. Making a plan will help you avoid wasting valuable dream time figuring out what you're going to do. I look forward to hearing about your LDs, so keep me posted!

See you around and if you think of anything we can help you with, let us know.
-Amé

I have some control over things and I've even gotten a level of lucidity before on my own, just not the crystal clear amazing detail other people describe. In some ways knowing that I'm lucky to be starting off so far ahead of the average makes it a little more frustrating, because it seems like it should be a quick jump from "unintentional DILD" to "intentional DILD," but it's really not.

One thing I am noticing with the DJ is just how much more variety I have in my dreams now than I did when I was younger. When all your dreams are being chased, stairways, and bathrooms, it's pretty easy to know when to question the reality of your situation. Hopefully once I've got a couple weeks under my belt I'll begin to make out some new patterns.

I'm new around here too, and I know what you mean. I haven't even been responding to forum posts because I feel like a total newb with nothing to add =P

don't let yourself get discouraged though! I was convinced that it was going to take me months to get lucid, since I didn't seem to see any changes, but I was pleasantly surprised with my first LD just last week. you'll get to where you wanna be, just be positive

Originally Posted by katemorrigan

Every time I put up a DJ I feel guilty I'm not posting any good lucid stuff.

to me dreams are just as fascinating as lucid dreams
dont feel guilty!
and the more you remember your dreams the easier it will be to become lucid, because you become used to them and they start to be familiar to you so you can recognize you are dreaming.

^^

The cool thing about this forum is that everyone's experiences are completely different. Even when your dreams seem boring to you, other people may be amazed. Dreams are a reflection of your individuality. Anytime you share something about your own experiences with dreaming, you are adding something totally new to the discussion. Plus, you don't have to be an experienced dreamer to have awesome dreams. We just do it naturally as human beings. It is not like an art forum, where your paintings are guaranteed to suck for the first 10-15 YEARS.

It's weird, I find I have a lot of trouble understanding dreams that are too far outside my idiom. I'm a very plot/story focused thinker, so I tend to experience dreams in the form of a narrative. Sometimes they're very simple, like "You are attempting to drive a car and you don't know how to drive a car so you suck, good luck keeping yourself from dying in this one!" and sometimes they're more convoluted than a Dan Brown plot ("You are here to help save a colony of ants that's dying of a rare auto-immune disorder, unfortunately once you've shrunk yourself down to live among them and heal the sick, you wind up contracting their illness. You now have been unshrunk and need to run towards that lake with these two white kickball-sized orbs attached to a yolk around your neck. No, this isn't going to cure you, it's just what you do.")

It's so hard for me to really understand the people who have character centered dreams, or abstract visuals, or dreams that are nearly identical to real life. Even the flying ones are weird to me. I only ever had one flying dream (non-lucid) and it was terrible! Why does everyone want to do that?

You're not alone in the convoluted dream plots. Last night mine went from being at a coffee shop and the person working there forgetting my peanut butter banana milkshake to him being some bad guy who developed this... hollow part in his left cheek that looks like something ate away at it, and then talking to his wife and then I hear four shots from a gun and "Scarecrow" (ala Batman Begins) has shot the three of us and one other person and then I'm looking at everyone and then I wake up.

Mine are very plot-centered as well with a bunch of different DCs thrown in for good measure. Out of curiosity, how old are you? I've found that as I've grown a bit older I've had more dreams that are some reflection of real life (dreaming of being asked to work on a day off, finding myself at places where I work... other work-related stuff), but I have plenty of strange and/or interesting dreams as well.

As far as flying dreams, I find such a feeling of freedom when I successfully lift off of the ground and am able to propel myself in the direction of my choosing, wooshing past everything and soaring over the heads of those who are still earth-bound. I do feel a sense of power, of having control (even when I'm not lucid, which is usually the case), and the pseudo-physical sensations I find delightful It's somewhat euphoric. Then again, the worst thing that's happened to me is just not being able to fly or do more than glide for a short time.

I'm 25. I have the occasional workplace or school dream, but it's rare that it's realistic for longer than a couple minutes.

It's funny, I had a dream with a city landscape I thought I recognized from a previous one, and in writing out my description of the place I realized that I must have been flying for part of it given the images I remember. The flying dream I always think about when people bring it up is one where I tried to get going, managed to get off the ground but had so little control that I got scared and grabbed on to a treetop that swung me around like a cartoon character.