Salutations

[NavyBlueFlower]

Hi. I'm new. I'm a 47-year-old technical writer and aspiring entertainment-industry professional living in Toronto, Canada. I have frequent half-lucid dreams where I'm aware that I'm dreaming, but can't change anything without intense concentration. I'm on Cymbalta for depression at 60 mg/day, and Cymbalta is a medication that has the withdrawal side effect of inducing very vivid dreams if you've forgotten to take it that day. For obvious reasons given the industry in which I aspire to work, I've decided to remain nameless here. But I'm extremely interested in lucid dreaming because: a) all of my dreams are currently nightmares and I'd like to be able to create some pleasant dreams once in a while - isn't sleep supposed to be restful? b) I suspect that the ability to take control of one's dreams may tie into the "Law of Attraction" school of thought, which I've discovered sometimes works in my life in a delightfully spooky way; and c) I want to explore ways to use my dreams to inform and fuel my creative processes. Anyway, hi.

[JP]

Hello, welcome to the forums, if you wish to expand your knowledge of Lucid Dreaming I recommend reading some tutorials on how to do so. First off, make sure to record all of your dreams in a journal, not only will this increase dream occurrence but also dream remembrance. Here are some great tutorials that can aid you greatly. Good luck, if you have any questions feel free to ask! http://www.dreamviews.com/f12/how-wild-62282/ http://www.dreamviews.com/f79/mzzkcs...-guide-105484/

[Matte87]

Hi Navy and welcome to DV! Many people start lucid dreaming to help battling nightmares, and if you can't solve the things which are causing them, then having lucid dreams can be very nice indeed. Like juvenile said, there's alot of guides on this site, I always recommend reading the Wiki - Dreamviews Lucid Dreaming Community & Resource Try the different techniques, see which one fits you the best. Perhaps you are a natural at WILD? DILD is the most common one though, and it relies on Reality Checking during the day. Simple, and not too much work. The more thoughts you put into lucid dreaming though, the more often will you become lucid. If you have any questions after reading the different tutorials, just ask away in this thread, or send a PM to me or any of the other Dream Guides. Keep on dreaming!

[NavyBlueFlower]

Thanks, both of you! Looking forward to learning what WILD and DILD and things like that mean. I've been looking around for a group like this for a while, so I'm glad I'm here. Since you have kindly informed me that I may ask away, my first question will be one of etiquette: Is it okay to post names of celebrities about whom you've dreamt in your DJ? Because I just did that using a copy-&-paste from my private blog, and now I don't seem to be able to delete his name. It's a dream I had a few weeks ago that I don't seem to be able to shake out of my head. I hope he's flattered if he ever googles himself!

[JP]

Posting of celebrity names is acceptable, there are entire threads dedicated to such matter that is far more...'controversial'. Hope that helped

[Matte87]

No problem! That's what we're here for When writing in your DJ, you just have to use common sense. You can even write down a sexdream, but if it is too graphic, I suggest you use the "[ SPOILER="word"][/SPOILER ]" tag. Anything offensive is ofcourse not allowed, and the posts will be deleted. Good luck with everything, and keep up the spirit! It's a hobby which takes a long time to master, but the rewards are great. So don't give up

[Robot_Butler]

I think the law of attraction thing is very interesting in relation to dreams. Next time you are lucid, take note of how the dream is progressing, and the world created. Anything you give attention to will take a dominant role in the dream. The hard part is, the relationship is not always direct. Our dreams are based off schemata. Two objects can seem totally unrelated to a logical person, but our illogical minds will somehow maintain a strong connection between the two. As long as a schema is active, anything that is part of that schema can and will appear in the dream. I wonder how this applies to our waking lives? If we could decipher our schemata, it would be much easier to focus on our goals, and not become distracted by all the related (yet unrelated) crap.