I just did a reality check so I'm reasonably sure I'm writing now from the real world

I'm glad to have found DreamViews and happy to meet you all! I stumbled across this site yesterday and I was delighted to see such an active community of lucid dreamers. Lucid dreaming is something I have wanted to explore for a long time, but the time hasn't been right until NOW.

I'm 42 years old, male, an American who has lived in Hungary for the last 20 years. I've spent most of my life in the business world, but I also worked for 2 years as an apprentice to a Shuar Ayahuasca shaman. That gave me some fairly deep experiences in the spiritual worlds, I guess similar in some ways to lucid dreaming in that an inner reality opens up.

I've also indulged in a variety of spiritual and personal development practices, but dreaming has always eluded me. The reason is that I have been very ill. The disease I have been fighting with for the past 20 years disrupted my sleep and entire nervous system function. I had zero dream recall during this time.

However just over the past several weeks the illness has begun to clear (due to a new dietary protocol) and my dreams have opened up!

Yesterday I had an extraordinarily vivid dream which taught me and guided me on many levels. It was a clear signal from my subconscious that my dream world is opening up, and now is the time for me to explore it.

This morning I attempted to induce a dream via the WILD method and had some success. I found myself in the dream I wanted, with limited consciousness and control. However the dream was very unfocused and unstable. Ah well - I've got lots to learn.

I've practiced yoga nidra once or twice daily for several years, and I think this is excellent training for lucid dreaming, since yoga nidra is essentially a practice where you allow your body to fall asleep, while keeping the mind awake and controlling the images the mind creates.

So, I'm very excited to be here and get to know you all better!