I don't think it has anything to do with the object at all. I don't think a pretend object is the point. I think it was the action, not the object. I think I somehow just put up some sort of barrier. I was having lucid dreams that I didn't instigate, and the dreams were not even remotely the same as the ones I'd be in control of. They were like two totally different sorts of experiences. In the ones that would just happen, it was always a bad experience. I'd always just be sort of floating there not being able to do anything about it...and there was always a presence. The ones I initiated through the above technique were always just normal lucid dreams where I'd go places, fly, etc...I had control. The dreams where I would literally be awake, close my eyes for just a regular nap (I was a college student at the time and slept during the day for a few hours pretty regularly), get the buzzing and static almost immediately, tense up completely, and then push through and just be sort of floating. The first time, when I couldn't move or do much of anything but float there...I heard footsteps and had the overwhelming fear that someone was there...and here I was totally stuck. The second time, this presence would just be there staring at me. That happened a lot. Then it started to escalate to where this presence would sit on my chest and stare at me...and I literally couldn't do anything about it. He would infer that he would "push me out" as if this person was trying to literally get me out of my body and take it. Yes. I am aware that it sounds crazy, but when I was in it, it was so incredibly real and terrifying. These dreams got to the point where they were completely overwhelming and I knew I'd be going into one (because they were always the same) but could not back out. I will not get into the details, but that last one escalated, and again I couldn't move so that's why I tried breaking the ball. It worked. I woke up. I know it was proverbial. I know there isn't actually a ball. It was a defense mechanism of sorts to cope with the experience. Now though, I can't get there anymore try as I might. At all. Nothing. For a long time after that happened, I didn't even bother to try. I was just happy to not be having this happen every time I'd lay down to nap. Then I started to miss the good dreams. I tried. Nothing worked. I let it go. I'd try every so often. Didn't work. I'm feeling like I have this barrier up, because what happened was so horrible and seemingly out of my control...the going to this state without wanting to or having the control to stop it. I've never actually heard of something like this happening in regards to lucid dreaming. I don't actually know what was going on there. When I started with the lucid dreaming I honestly didn't really know much about it. It just seemed to work and it was pretty amazing. I did it all the time. Literally, twice a day if I had the time. When this secondary experience started, in the beginning I'd still initiate lucid dreams and they were still great. When this secondary thing escalated, I stopped initiating lucid dreams hoping the whole thing would just stop. It didn't stop. This probably lasted at least a month. Then I feel like I just shut it all off in that last dream. Not literally, of course...but lucid dreaming isn't terribly literal in the first place. Am I just scared? I don't feel that way at all. What I do know is that it's, *poof*, gone. I can get to the point of pushing through to a lucid dream...and then it always just sort of backs out. I'm in a good place in my life. I'm fairly well adjusted. I have the feeling like if something like that happened again, I'd be more comfortable in handling it and learning from it. I literally know what I would have done differently now to handle it, looking back. I honestly have no idea what is keeping me from getting there again. Trying too hard? Not trying hard enough? I would even be more than happy to get back to the horrible dream, just to finish it off properly. I have absolutely no clue.