Hello there. I just recently found out that there is a name for something I've been experiencing pretty much my whole life. Most of my dreams are rather vivid and most of the time I remember quite a bit about them. I'm 43 and I can still remember some I had as a child. Anyway, there have been the occasional times where I will realize I'm dreaming, but I never try to exert a whole of control. I just kind of go with the flow. Even when I'm not aware I'm dreaming, most of the time I find myself doing impossible things like flying or manipulating objects. One common thing is that I'll be playing golf and I'll hit a ball onto the green and then guide it into the hole.

Anyway, there are certain places that keep coming up in dreams to the extent that they're like real places and I always recognize these places. Some are towns, some are cities, and some are rural places, but these places haven't changed in years and I will often find myself walking, driving, or flying through them and recognizing them as if they were real places.

I stumbled across this site because I was doing some reading on recurring dreams. I had the same one in various forms since I was a child right up until a few months ago. I would always be in a building and wanting to get out, but no matter how many corridors I would walk down, how many doors I would open, or how many rooms I would pass through, I would always just end up in a other corridor or room. I could go in the same direction for what would seem like forever and I would never reach an exit to the outside. Then I was having that dream a few months ago and feeling the same frustrations and walking down one of the corridors I noticed there was a window and outside that window there was a blue sky, grass, and a big shade tree. I also noticed a wooden chair against the wall. I threw the chair at the window, broke the glass, and jumped out the window. I can't explain the joyous relief. I'd been having this dream for over 30 years and this was the first time I managed to get outside. I haven't had that dream since and I don't think I ever will again.

So that's what brought me here. I think I've had several of these lucid dreams that you talk about, but it's never anything I've tried to do. Most of the time there is just a basic recognition that I'm dreaming, but I don't often take full advantage of that knowledge. I just thought this was normal but most of my friends and my wife don't have the detailed recollection of dreams that I do. Am I kind of an odd ball in that regard?

Anyway, this looks like an interesting site.