LONG POST...

Hi all, had my first lucid yesterday without any techniques (have had a lot on my mind past week, so haven't actively tried to lucid dream).

It might have been something resembling to a false awakening, but all I remember is sitting in my living room with my girlfriend. For some reason I looked down on my right hand, and had a very hard time focusing on it - it was all blurry. First I figured that it was due to me being tired, but I rubbed my eyes and checked both hands again, same thing. I asked my girlfriend "Am I dreaming?" and she just smiled. I showed her my hands, and I also noted that my right middle finger was just an inch long.

To double check, I did a nose pinch and could breathe! I think I started laughing and looked at my girlfriend (who I at that point knew was only a projection of my mind, very amusing thought!).

I then realized that a big problem for beginners is being able to stay in the dream, so I started rubbing my hands. I didn't really have a problem staying in the dream, and am quite surprised that I remember all the techniques.

I looked out the window and there were clouds passing by, like the house was hovering high up in the sky, I laughed at myself again and my own mind.

I started thinking about what to do, and I was a bit upset of the boring situation (me and the mrs in our living room), not much to explore there. But anyway, I decided to... hmm... "make a move" on her.

She first said no, and I told her to "come on, you're not even real!" and so on. During the act, during which I rubbed my hands all the time (must have looked very silly), I was a bit worried that I would notice differences in her physically from her IRL body, but I didn't, fortunately enough.

Next my recall wasn't perfect, but I remember questioning what else to do. And for some reason I decided to go shopping (!), after which I was suddenly in a central square in a big town. That's all I can remember, I either lost lucidity or dream recall.

The whole thing was clear, but my memory of it is a bit shady. A VERY cool experience nonetheless.

I know that I slept on and off the whole night (not exactly what you call a peaceful sleep, perhaps due to everything that's going on in my mind right now), so I remember asking myself if I actually was dreaming or if I was just imagining that I was lucid. Regardless, my take is that a lucid dream probably can be somewhere in between awake, thought and dream. Or perhaps that is just my interpretation of what REM is.

Had loads of other dreams too last night, but none were even close to lucid.