An Introduction

[futureghost]

Hello, I'm new here and just wanted to introduce myself rather then launch directly into posting. I am a fine-artist originally from Seattle now living in the Netherlands. I've been Lucid dreaming since about age 12 and began spontaneously having OBE's at age 17. I'm 37 now so I have a massive amount of experience at this point and would be happy to share all the tricks and methods I have developed over the years. I also have a great many theories on the two states and would be happy to elaborate on that for anyone who is serious about exploring these cognitive situations in an attempt to understand what they are and so what they might mean. nice to meet you all . -Futureghost

[futureghost]

I should also add that I have a few serious questions for an expert level practitioner and if anyone here reads this and knows someone I would very much appreciate a PM as my questions concern the continued progress of my personal research into LD, the OBE, astral projection and method. thanks again, Futureghost.

[Matte87]

Hi and welcome to DV! Wow that's quite alot of experience You can start threads about your different ideas and theories, but make sure someone hasn't already made one similar to yours. Then just bump it. The person I know with alot of experience who is also into astral projection is PercyLucid. I'm sure he will answer your questions the best he can. Welcome once again!

[futureghost]

Matte87, Thanks for the greeting and the recommendation. I think I'll check the IRC channel out also. thank's again for the welcome.

[Mirror]

Wow just the lucid count is per se an impressive curriculum. I think you could really share some consistent knowledge about the whole subject. See you around

[futureghost]

I remember how scary it was when I started. There was no peer group to offer support, nobody had any idea what to call it ...other than perhaps "Demon possession" or, "time to get you to the mental asylum" . For all I knew I was the only person in the world who could do it.

[Mirror]

Hehe, your story makes me think about Jack Sawyer in The talisman by Stpehen King. If I can ask it would be interesting to know if you developed any kind of mental attitude or ritual or technique that helped you increasing the frequency of lucid dreams. Being a newbie my first goal is to have more dreams to get familiar with myself and later on to develop abilities, even if I was surprised by the things I managed to do in my first LD.

[futureghost]

Hehe, your story makes me think about Jack Sawyer in The talisman by Stpehen King. If I can ask it would be interesting to know if you developed any kind of mental attitude or ritual or technique that helped you increasing the frequency of lucid dreams. Being a newbie my first goal is to have more dreams to get familiar with myself and later on to develop abilities, even if I was surprised by the things I managed to do in my first LD. Mirror, I'm aggressively determined. I don't view it as a entertainment ever. I really just want answers and if I had to cut off one of my own limbs to get them that's what I'd do. It's always seemed really odd to me that these other states exist and aren't talked about or are seen as either mystical or as some malfunction of the brain with virtually no rational middle-ground. where are the real answers? I mean it's not just LD & OBE/AP there is another state after that, and probably another one after THAT. it looks like a chain to me. Nobody talks about that seriously, and it's an elephant in the room so to speak. How could you not wonder where it leads or why it's there? IDK, I can't relate to not NEEDING those answers, so at the end of the day the attitude I have developed I guess is kind of "kamikaze". I guess I ranted a little there but it probably answers your question too .

[Neolapria]

Not to interrupt, but I would love some information as to your methods and theorys.

[Robot_Butler]

You will find a lot of people here who would love some advice. There are also quite a few more seasoned lucid dreamers hiding out. It frustrates me to no end that people have dismissed these altered states of consciousness. They are such a huge part of the human experience. Even with no effort, most people have at least a few spontaneous OBEs sometime in their life. Once you get people talking, they will almost always remember a sleep paralysis experience, a lucid dream, or a spontaneous OBE. I guess it frightens people, so they try to sweep it under the rug and out of their memory.

[futureghost]

Neolapria, I have a really cold, empirical take on it all. I'm not anti-mystical I AM open minded but I am also not really what you would call mystical. I do think spirituality is vital to a sense of internal navigation throughout anyone's person time within the human condition, but then yet-again I also think that spirituality has more to do with making sacrifices on the part of one's personal preferences to interpret the universe than it does with mythology. that said, I mentioned a couple of my thoughts and hypotheses above . I do think these are simply states the brain can occupy but that doesn't lessen the magnitude of their existence to me. For me it makes it a much bigger deal than it would be if it were the playing out of some tribal quest method or something. Also as I mentioned above I've had suspicions for along time now that it leads...somewhere. A friend of mine recently suggested that maybe we're deluded on some grand scale and that it might be a path to some real state of wakefulness that we are not well adapted to cope with, perhaps a terrible one. I found that thought pretty frightening but that still would not stop me. I don't know and I don't want to guess until I have at least some sort of indication of what it might be(if it's anything at all). It could be dangerous too, this is another thing that's been suggested. Personally I don't care if it's dangerous that just makes me want to do it more. As for methods, I really have just a single Method and it more or less amounts to systematically trying each thing with zero regard for personal safety and carefully keeping track of what works so that I can stack everything that did into as high a tower as possible and use it all at once. I could probably write a tutorial if you wanted but there are a bunch here already (and online all over the place) and it seems like it would make more sense to try and synthesize the techniques which have already documented into a kind of hybrid and then replace little pieces as better ones slowly appear. that's pretty much it for my method. As for my hypotheses...I have too many to ever cover all of them and they can't all be right and they are slowly driving me a little nuts. The only real relief is going to be finding out what's there. Did you ever see the movie Brainstorm?...it's that kind of obsession. EDIT: Apologies to any Admins who will inevitably realize this reply belongs in another forum. Feel free to move it....sorry about that.

[futureghost]

You will find a lot of people here who would love some advice. There are also quite a few more seasoned lucid dreamers hiding out. It frustrates me to no end that people have dismissed these altered states of consciousness. They are such a huge part of the human experience. Even with no effort, most people have at least a few spontaneous OBEs sometime in their life. Once you get people talking, they will almost always remember a sleep paralysis experience, a lucid dream, or a spontaneous OBE. I guess it frightens people, so they try to sweep it under the rug and out of their memory. Hi Rb! Yeah...it happens. And I can understand it to a small degree, I mean eventually you will need to think about something else but that so quickly becomes the prime excuse for thinking about a LOT of something elses as to become conspicuously evasive. But whatever, it's not the end of the world. I only really get Irked when when it's suggested that I'm insane or imagining it. i think anybody would really but even THEN...you really just have to keep being cool because .........they don't get it. :\

[Shinice]

Sorry, just some questions maybe I could ask for your opinion..since you're familiar with LD. Whats actually causing LD? Do you LD every night now? Why isn't LD tiring since much of it needed mental control? Why can others LD without methods (Naturals)?

[futureghost]

Sorry, just some questions maybe I could ask for your opinion..since you're familiar with LD. Whats actually causing LD? Do you LD every night now? Why isn't LD tiring since much of it needed mental control? Why can others LD without methods (Naturals)? What causes it? The Brain. I mean I see that you are probably implying that it's not normal, i don't really believe that. As far as i can tell anybody can do it if they know what to do. Also It doesn't really shock me that it isn't tiring, that's really all about whether your brain is able to release the chemicals it needs to feel rested. It's very much like the way farmers alternate crops in order to keep the soil full of nutrients . Also the receptors in the brain do actually develop a resistance to various chemicals if there are to many of the same kind for too long if you have ever known anybody who drank a LOT and didn't seem to get drunk at all, then you have seen this first hand. Alternating between different states of consciousness almost certainly keeps the brain fresh. I also think some need help and some don't just because they happened to think in those ways. Some people need singing lessons some don't, some people are born in Norway others are born in Korea it's just causality.

[Mirror]

Mirror, I'm aggressively determined. I don't view it as a entertainment ever. I really just want answers and if I had to cut off one of my own limbs to get them that's what I'd do. It's always seemed really odd to me that these other states exist and aren't talked about or are seen as either mystical or as some malfunction of the brain with virtually no rational middle-ground. where are the real answers? I mean it's not just LD & OBE/AP there is another state after that, and probably another one after THAT. it looks like a chain to me. Nobody talks about that seriously, and it's an elephant in the room so to speak. How could you not wonder where it leads or why it's there? IDK, I can't relate to not NEEDING those answers, so at the end of the day the attitude I have developed I guess is kind of "kamikaze". I guess I ranted a little there but it probably answers your question too . I know what you're talking about. It's the attitude I had from the beginning. Like you I think it could be a way of finding answers rather than pure fun. Nothing wrong if these experience can be entertaining but what really got me interested was that you can really get answers you wouldn't expect from yourself and you can only have them as they are in a dimension that will never belong to the waking world. Sure we can think about answers but the mind is a limited instrument and in my opinion an obstacle to consciousness that is ultimately what these experiences and even reality are about.

[futureghost]

I know what you're talking about. It's the attitude I had from the beginning. Like you I think it could be a way of finding answers rather than pure fun. Nothing wrong if these experience can be entertaining but what really got me interested was that you can really get answers you wouldn't expect from yourself and you can only have them as they are in a dimension that will never belong to the waking world. Sure we can think about answers but the mind is a limited instrument and in my opinion an obstacle to consciousness that is ultimately what these experiences and even reality are about. I think I kind of agree with what you said here Mirror. And I do think there are answers to be had and not subjective ones either , real truth. For example I've noticed there is a definite correlation between the inconsistencies apparent in one's dream environment and one's perception and I often take note of thing that "aren't quite right" so that when i wake i can more closely examine how well i really comprehend those things. there are a lot of real applications for this discipline.

[Shinice]

Thanks. Then what's happening if I say: When I first awoke, I can't get up immediately (my legs won't move).