Greetings

LazerBlade here. I started getting interested in dreams between the ages of six and ten, when I used to experience chronic nightmares. Like many other children apparently did, I learned to wake myself up if I started to have one. I also learned how to tell when I was dreaming, developing some of my own DILD techniques. Most of them were based on my ability to fly in all my dreams. I even tried to start dreams via visualization(although I knew nothing about it at the time,) and experienced something that I now know to be sleep paralysis. I lost these abilities sometime close to when I became a teenager.

Recently, I've gotten back into dreaming. My own research has filled in some holes, while I continue to scan the internet for more data. I have had three DILD's in the four or five months I've been practicing, and one successful WILD. I did this without WBTB. I have a tight schedule ATM.

I decided to join a LD community to get in touch with other dreamers who share a common goal.

Welcome to the forums!

You sound a lot like me. When I was little I trained myself to wake up from a recurring nightmare that I had for a couple years. One time I decided to just face it and turned around at this person who was chasing and yelled, "What!? What do you want!?" Since then, they've been gone. I never thought much of it until I found out about lucid dreaming a couple years ago.

To get started I would suggest starting a dream journal, if you haven't already, to improve your recall. What good is a lucid dream if you can't remember it? Just remember that this does take quite a bit of time and determination and will take years to completely master. If you're anything like me than you will probably have a slightly easier time picking it up, but after 2 years I currently have 2-3 a week. Some people on here have several each night which is what most people strive for.

Just remember to never give up because it is 100% worth it. If you have any question feel free to ask. People here are extremely kind and would love to help anyone out. Good luck! :)

Don't worry, you haven't lost a thing. It sounds like you are already on a good path to rediscovering your dreaming. I look forward to hearing about your journey.