A few questions from a new member

[SpiceRack]

Hi all, My name is SpiceRack...at least that's my trail name when I am hiking. (My friends and family call me JJ). I am casually interested in my dreams, mostly as a conduit to greater insight into my psyche and consciousness, which is my primary interest in life. I am into Eastern philosophical approaches to living and generally curious about spirituality and philosophy (ontology, metaphysics, relativism). I have had two lucid dreams in my life. These two dreams occurred in two consecutive nights in which I had just moved to a foreign country where I knew I would be living for at least a year. In each I was lucid for only a few moments before I became terrified about this prospect and forced myself awake (by yelling loudly). In the second dream, I had a false awakening after a moment of lucidity achieved by looking in a mirror in the dream and not recognizing my face. I then woke up in my dream, believed I was awake in reality, realized this was not where I went to sleep and then did the yelling force-awake thing again. This experience was exhilarating and scary. I have a few questions about lucid dreaming upon which some of you more experienced dreamers may be able to shed some light: Because I have lucid dreamed 'naturally', does this increase my prospects for hoping to induce lucid dreams? A friend of mine has a friend who claims to have learned a method for recording dreams on paper throughout the night without waking fully which gave him access to read about some of his deeply disturbing dreams of a sexual and violent nature once he awoke fully in the morning. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this? Is this plausible? Had anyone ever had any patterns or impulses revealed through dream recording of which they were previously unaware. (The friend of my friend was so disturbed he discontinued the practice and destroyed his journal). Has the experience of lucid dreaming had an impact on your waking life? Have you felt changed in your awareness, consciousness, mood, etc? I have more questions about methods and what to read but I imagine there are existing threads on this subject to read. Thanks for reading my questions. I am glad to join your community. Cheers, SR

[Xanous]

First all Glad you chose to join us. There are so many diversified ideas and techniques on dream views that you may find your answer. However, this way of recording dreams is new to me but I'd be willing to bet someone around here knows something about it. I kind of have my doubts about this friend of yours. I may be wrong but it sounds like a he might be pulling your leg. Because I have lucid dreamed 'naturally', does this increase my prospects for hoping to induce lucid dreams? My guess would be yes. I had to work really hard in the beginning but I didn't really believe in it either. I later realized that maybe I was doing this naturally as I was waking randomly in REM atona before I understood it. The fact that you have had a couple of lucids under your belt can be a big boost. Has the experience of lucid dreaming had an impact on your waking life? Have you felt changed in your awareness, consciousness, mood, etc? I have gotten an emotional high from lucid dreams that seem to last a day or two. You will also notice that the practice of lucid dreaming will open your mind to a larger world and you will find that larger world more enjoyable. So the answer is yes and in the most positive ways.

[TwoCrystalCups]

I have had two lucid dreams in my life. These two dreams occurred in two consecutive nights in which I had just moved to a foreign country where I knew I would be living for at least a year. In each I was lucid for only a few moments before I became terrified about this prospect and forced myself awake (by yelling loudly). In the second dream, I had a false awakening after a moment of lucidity achieved by looking in a mirror in the dream and not recognizing my face. I then woke up in my dream, believed I was awake in reality, realized this was not where I went to sleep and then did the yelling force-awake thing again. This experience was exhilarating and scary. This sounds like false awakening and a bit of DEILD, for first timers in lucid dreaming DEILDs aren't expected and you think you can only dream one dream, but the truth is we can dream 3-4 dreams a night. I recommend you to learn while in dreams to be aware and do reality checks, make sure you are not dreaming, another plus in becoming an expert in dreams is to be able to know that it's a dream without the need for RCs. A friend of mine has a friend who claims to have learned a method for recording dreams on paper throughout the night without waking fully I don't know about this, how can someone write on paper and not be awake fully? You said it was a practice? Then i don't recommend it, because of this..... (The friend of my friend was so disturbed he discontinued the practice and destroyed his journal). Has the experience of lucid dreaming had an impact on your waking life? Have you felt changed in your awareness, consciousness, mood, etc? There are dreams that affect my mood after i wake from a dream right away and it was a positive/negative influence in mood. Like i was crying in my dream and i wake up doing the same...etc.

[SpiceRack]

Thanks Xanous and hathor for replying. Yeah, I should ask my buddy more about his friend's experience. If I can get any concrete info on it I will post it on the forum. Thanks for the advice. I dream journaled for the first time last night and that experience alone was really awesome. I wish I had done this sooner in life. Amazingly, I had a soaring flying dream last night (which I have never had). Coincidence? I think not!

[sisyphus]

For your friend, what he might mean is that he wakes briefly, records his dream on paper, and then returns to sleep. He is "awake" in the literal sense of the word. But he is not "fully awake" in the more casual sense of "awake, leaving the bed, and getting on with the day." If that's the case, this is common. We all wake briefly several times per night at the end of each sleep cycle. It's usually for barely a few seconds and we don't remember it. With practice, you can remain awake and become aware enough to remember and write in a journal. As for being disturbed, this isn't too surprising. Dreams are weird and some people are uncomfortable with them. Studies show that something like 75% of feelings in dreams are negative. That's just the average though. Perhaps your friend is exaggerating a bit? He found his dreams to be weird, decided to stop with the journal, and threw it in the trash. The words "disturbed" and "destroyed" might just be colorful.

[Daredevilpwn]

Wow 75%? Anyway I wish you good luck on your nightly adventures. When you have a good lucid dream I guarantee you for the rest of the day you will be feeling pretty awesome about yourself. Perhaps the foreign country triggered lucidity? It makes sense because usually when you are in a place unfamiliar to you, one tends to be more aware than usual of their surroundings and this must've triggered your lucidity. The trick is staying aware of if your surroundings. Awareness is what triggers lucidity. You will find quite a few tuts on the forum about awareness. Here is one. Click here.

[SpiceRack]

Sisyphus, That would make sense. I am going to ask some more questions and try to get to the bottom of those claims. Daredevilpwn, Thanks for the tutorial link. I am really into developing awareness in everyday life as a part of my interest in Eastern philosophy. The fact that this method leads to LD'ing is an awesome plus!