Hey, I'm NoPizza

So, I just joined this forum because someone from Reddit recommended it. I'm completely new to lucid dreaming because I used to smoke a lot of pot. I just recently quit completely and now I have dreams again! It's awesome. But when I'm dreaming, I know I'm dreaming. I can't control anything, but I know it's a dream, I kinda just sit back and watch. Is that lucid dreaming? Or do you have to be able to control it for it to be considered lucid dreaming? I'm here to learn more and hopefully become very good at it. Any suggestions or recommendations on things for me to do or read to get better at lucid dreaming is encouraged. Thanks!

Welcome NoPizza! :)

It is most definitely a lucid dream, however it is a lucid dream with less control than what you might imagine when you hear the term lucid dream.
The reason is simple but quite often overlooked. And that is that you don't have a physical body to feel, see and smell with in a dream!
You just have your awareness and everything around you is just like a videogame (and perhaps reality) just information that you interpret.

Although when we dream unaware we sort of just ride the body like it was a carousel and are not really in control of the actual movement of it, so the dream becomes very movie like. And well in order to make the dream feel more realistic you need to ground yourself with the non-physical (dream) body.

You do that by for example trying to rub your hands, in other words using your senses.

When you are more connected so to speak with the imagined dream body, it will feel like it is your real body and it will work as your vessle sort of that you can use to interact with the dream world, and this will help the experience to be more realistic.

What I usually do is that I start by rubbing my hands and scream "I am dreaming!" and then I walk around and so acrobatics like back flips and side flips. ^-^

Have fun :) And enjoy your stay!

Yeah I have some suggestions, try to stay visually aware all day, focusing on what is in front of you, it has helped me become lucid in dreams.

Thanks for that in depth explanation Mastermind, that was awesome. I appreciate it. I feel a lot more ready to lucid dream, haha. I want to be able to control myself during my dreams though, you know... Like, actual lucid dreaming. But then again I just started. And also, some nights I don't dream... Or atleast I don't remember them. Is that normal?

And elucid, do you take scenery or items in general from real life and use them in your dreams? Is that why it helps to stay visually aware all day?

I am glad that you liked it! :D

It's perfectly normal to not remember your dreams from time to time. And the usual response from people is like you said that you didn't dream.

However..

You always dream! The only difference is how aware you are of it and how vivid it thereby is.

A dream is atleast in my current interpretation, an conscious experience of the subconscious mind, your memories and your emotions.

So in a sense an literal experience of yourself and what defines you, but not just what you think is you, but all of your life's experiences! Kind of mindblowing I know .. :content:

So if you aren't as aware of yourself and wake up without remembering anything, don't worry it's perfectly normal and it will turn around the moment you start to recall your dreams, because you are by then focusing on yourself, which in turn will make you more aware of your dreams, because your dreams is yourself.

Blahwa I am going in circles x _ o Anyway I hope that made sense. ^-^