Thread: Hello, my name is "Mental".

Hello everyone, I'm looking forward to talking to other lucid dreamers for the first time. Here is my background:

While earning my Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, I found a fantastic used book for $1. It was "Creative Dreaming" by Patricia Garfield, Ph.D. From that book I learned of lucid dreaming and how to experience them. That was 1986. I've tried off and on ever since and have had 33 as of this writing. They have all been DILD's. That averages to less than 2 per year so obviously my ability to do induce them is weak. With that said, I have had some lucid dreams with excellent control.

Here are some of my best achievements exerting control while lucid:

Flying - In one LD I did a barrel role, loop-de-loop, and ground swoop. In another I flew thru a wall as if it wasn't there.

Performed "impossible" feats - landed on the ceiling like a fly, lifted a car etc...

Manipulation of the dream environment - I've made some walls/ceilings disappear.

Conscious prolonging of the LD - Rubbed my hands successfully to prolong a LD.

Recollection of physical state - I pondered the fact my body was sleeping in a horizontal position. Yelled to my wife knowing she wouldn't hear me.

As for educating myself about lucid dreaming, I have quite a good collection of books on the subject. Of them, I have read the following (some more than once):

Creative Dreaming - Patricia Garfield Ph.D
Pathway to Ecstasy - Patricia Garfield Ph.D
Lucid Dreaming - Stephen LaBerge Ph.D
Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming - Stephen LaBerge Ph.D/Howard Rheingold
Lucid Dreams - Celia Green
The Lucid Dreamer - Malcom Godwin
Lucid Dreaming, Dawning of the Clear Light - Gregory Scott Sparrow
The Bride of Dreams - Frederik Van Eeden
Dreams and How to Guide Them - Hervey de Saint-Denys (Yes I have a copy!)
Lucid Dreams in 30 Days - Keith Harary Ph.D/Pamela Weintraub
Advanced Lucid Dreaming, The Power of Supplements - Thomas Yuschak

I'm also well read regarding Buddhism, Meditation, Mysticism, Comparative Religion, Philosopy, Psychology, Biofeedback and Neurofeedback. I'm starting to read a little about quantum physics.

Some will be interested to know I own a NovaDreamer. I believe it helped me have 1 LD. Unfortunately I find it slightly uncomfortable and typically do not get a good night's sleep when wearing it. On a similar note, I successfully induced 1 LD around 15 years ago with a home-made contraption. I hooked up a tape recorder to a lamp timer and had it turn on at around 4:00 a.m. At that time it played a recording of my own voice saying "You're dreaming." I was pretty proud of that!

My goal of course is to be able to have a lucid dream any time I desire. I have been immersing myself in the subject since the first of the year. I've re-read the classics, read new books on the subject, performed reality checks multiple times every day, kept a dream journal, evaluated my dreams for dream signs and attempted both MILD and WILD techniques. My next step is to give the 'ole NovaDreamer another try. I'm also waiting on the rest of Thomas Yuschak's recommended supplements to arrive. I plan on trying his strategy to the letter. I am convinced that he and Scot Stride are correct - that the key can be found in neurochemistry. With that said, I would prefer to be able to induce them with will power alone. Unfortunately history has shown me personally that I am not one of the lucky few that possess the mental talent to do it regularly.

My other interests are skydiving (10 years and 420 jumps so far), unicycling and spending time with my family and friends.

If you've read all this, thanks for your interest. I look forward to talking to you all.