Hey, what's up? A newbie's intro...

[SuperSonicFan]

Hey everyone. This is really long but I was really excited! Well, a few months ago I became interested in lucid dreaming. Conviently I got a Barnes and Noble gift card for my B-Day and picked up a copy of "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming". I began reading it and one of the most important things it said was to keep a dream journal and develop good recall. I actually was able to remember about 4 - 6 dreams almost every morning and tried to record them as often as possible in my dream journal. Then I finally made it to the chapter about the MILD technique. Darn homework though usually had me up until about midnight and I really just wanted to go to bed instead of lucid dreaming. So, pretty much for 6 months I just recorded dreams in my dream journal and waited for summer so I could focus on lucid dreaming. Well, now that it is summer I started to focus on lucid dreaming and finally had one two nights ago. First though, I will explain what I did to finally achieve this AWESOME experience. So I had heard about binaural beats and made a playlist of theta, delta, and alpha waves in 90 minute loops (since that is a tyical REM cycle I hear) to lsiten to while I slept. I also had some relaxing music at the beginning of the list to help me fall asleep because I have the HARDEST time ever falling asleep. Well, for the last 3 weeks of summer I got nowhere. The beats helped me have really vivid dreams that were not so chaotic but in terms of awareness I only had two that were above normal. (Maybe a 1/2 lucid dream??) *Fast foward to two nights before my first lucid dream* I was reading about the counting yourself to sleep method in my book as well as on DreamViews. I figured I would try this in combination with the MILD phrase of "Next time I am dreaming I will remember that I'm dreaming." I tried this but never really felt that I could focus on what I needed to (telling myself that I would 'awake' in the dream). I also fell asleep really quickly and made it to maybe 20 with the counting. Dream wise everything was pretty normal. No extra awarness or anything. I wondered if I turned off the relaxing music and focused soley on the counting and my intent to wake up in a dream if that would help. So I set my MP3 player to come on in 15 minutes and just start at the first binaural beats loop. This helped a lot. I actually remember making it clear into sleep paralysis and feeling very close to having a WILD. Unfortunately though whan the sleep paralysis came on I woke up gasping for air. *night of the lucid dream* I decided to try the same method again because it felt really cose to working. I also just took the music off the playlist and had it start after 15 minutes and go right to the beats. I think I made it to about 60 before falling asleep. Now here was the wierd part. It was actually a false awakening. In reality I had fallen asleep but in the dream I it felt like I was still counting to try and have WILD. Then in the dream I remember my dad randomly coming upstairs and ruining my efforts by saying he was going to go pick up donuts and coffee for breakfast. *lucid dreaming cue # 1* My dad wakes me up at 11:00PM to go get donuts and coffee???? Well, feeling frustrated that now I had to recount myself to sleep I decided I would just get up for a while and read some out of the book because I was pretty frustrated at having been woken up so close to success. As I went to get back into bed though I looked down for a second and when I looked up my bed had moved clear across the room to where it was before I rearranged and cleaned my room the week before. I began to think that I was possibly in a false awakening and began to question whether I was dreaming and had actually fallen asleep. Before I came to a conclusion though I decided I needed to brush my teeth. (You know how dreams are. It feels perfectly logical to do some completely random thing.) Anyways, when I had finished brushing I got a drink out of the sink to rinse. When I brought my head back up though all the stuff that had been on the counter (razor, toothbrush, etc...) had vanished. I began thinking, "OK, this HAS to be a dream". Still not completely in control though I decided to go back to my room and go to sleep and try to have a lucid dream. (wierd huh? i knew it was a dream but wanted to go try and enter another one). Anyways I climbed back into bed and went to set my MP3 player for 15 minutes. When I looked at it though it was playing movie soundtracks. (That particular player though only has the binaural beats on it.) This is what finally made me fully aware and in control. I realized what was wrong and was like "screw going back to bed... IM DREAMING!!!!" I instantly thought "hmmm.... what should do now that I FINALLY am having a lucid dream?" I came to the conclusion that I would go visit my favorite movies and video games. I ran downstairs and out the door. As soon as I got outside though the dream started to fade. It was probably due to the fact that I was SO excited and that I just went from being inside a dark house to dawn outside. Thankfully though I had just read how to counter this in the book. I just looked at the ground and and told myself that I was dreaming over and over and that THIS was where I wanted to be, not awake. It worked and the landscape stabalized. I began running down the street not entirely sure how to get to Green Hill Zone. (ya I started with the video games) I figured if I kept running I would make it there. I wanted to see how fast I could run in a dream. It was probably about double my actual running speed. I just remember when I was running how vivid everything was. I wear glasses and in the dream I remember looking through them and everything was clear. Then I looked to the side and it was blurry, just like in real life! Anyways, as I was running one of my friends passed me on a bicycle and asked me where I was going. I said "What are YOU doing here? This is MY dream and I dont' remember asking you to show up! (I sure can be rude in my dreams can't I? But you know, kind of wanted to explore on my own) But ya, I'm headed to Green Hill Zone. Wanna come?" I started running again and then my friend stopped me and reminded me to fill out the necessary paperwork. I asked him what the heck he was talking about and he said I needed special passports to get there. I told him he was crazy because in real life such a place wouldn't even exist and since this was MY dream I could go wherever I wanted. Then he asked me to help him fill out his paperwork. I told him I was going to leave and so I did, continuing my quest. As I came to an intersection where there is a big hill and you can see the county road go for miles, the dream started to fade again. I ran back a little ways to try and stabalize things. I tried spinning and layed down on the ground. It worked! The dream returned in all its glory and I started running again. Then my friend passed me on his bike and insisted I help him fill out his papers. I tried to make him just disappear so I could get going again but I wasn't able to. Frustrated, I told him to go away and let me enjoy my dream in solitude. Then a big gust of wind came and blew all his papers away. Soon after the dream started to fade again. I went to collect his papers and hoped that reading all the scrambled letters would help. I found one of the papers and the dream was nearly gone. They were legible at first but as I spun to regain lucidity they scrambled. In the dream I remember conciously thinking that my brain was being a real jerk and playing tricks on my attempts to retain lucidity. With one final spin I tried to stay lucid but fell to the ground. I accepted the fact that I was going to wake up and passed seamlessly to laying in my bed. I woke up and recorded the dream in my dream journal, still SUPER EXCITED at what had just happened. I was so excited in fact, despite it being 4:15 in the morning, I got up and went for my morning jog. I ran the exact same route as in my dream and was surprised that my brain could make a dream resemble something so closely, considering a random path down the county road is something I never really took the time to study in depth. Then I came in and my family was surprised that the heaviest sleeper in the house was up at 6:00 and making breakfast with a big smile on his face. They asked what I was doing and I just said I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. (IDK why but my dreams seem personal to me and I don't really like sharing them except w/ people that 'understand' you might say. Hence why I became a member.) Anyways, I was so excited I finally became a member of this amazing web site so I could learn more about lucid dreaming, have some more, and have someone that will appreciate what an amzing experience it is to share it with. So ya, sorry that was so long but WOW... that was such a cool experience! I am going to start my dream journal with the lucid dream and go from there. Next goal... accomplish my first goal that was so 'kindly' interrupted by my friend complaining about red tape. Lol! Good luck in your dreams. See ya!

[paigeyemps]

Holy-- that WAS a very long read. But awesome nonetheless! Congrats on your lucid!! It sounded really great and detailed.. very very nice for a first LD I see you've been really committed, that's really amazing to hear. Keep up the good work Oh, and.. Welcome to DV!!

[SuperSonicFan]

Thanks. I couldn't stop checking to see when someone had replied.

[Robot_Butler]

Congratulations Summer break is a great time for lucid dreaming. Any time I'm able to sleep in, I'm guaranteed to have some cool dreams. It sounds like you are on the right track. It is common for lucid dreams to be interwoven with false awakenings, like you had. Be sure to always reality check when you wake up. It is easy to get fooled. I'm sure you will be having tons more lucid dreams. See you around.

[SuperSonicFan]

Thanks for the tip. I forgot to mention it but I had read that in the book. My usual ones are to try and push my fingers through the opposite hand and then plug my nose and try to breathe. See ya.