My Introduction

[antoniastar]

Hi Everyone, My name is Toni. I'm excited to learn more about lucid dreaming and I'm glad that I found this website (it's the only one that focuses on LD that I've joined). Dreams are a fascinating subject and I wish to explore all dream-related phenomena. Lucid dreaming is an important aspect in my life because, when I LD, it feels natural and I do it often. I wish to learn how to induce LD in my dreams to gain a better idea of the role they play in my everyday life. I look forward to learning from you all and I hope there will be opportunities for me to help others on the journey to lucidity. Be well, Toni

[Matte87]

Welcome to DV! It's all about awareness in the end so start working on that. Improving your recall by writing your dreams down in a Dream Journal is a must aswell to make sure you have long, detailed and stable dreams. Also check out the various techniques out there, the main ones DV endorse are WILD, MILD, DILD and DEILD. Do you have any questions? Don't hesitate to ask if you do!

[antoniastar]

Thank you Matte87 for your advise and for your welcome! Yes I have questions. I did start a dream journal this morning. "Detailed and stable dreams" aren't a problem for me except that I'm having difficulties remembering everything to write it down, even when I write in my journal immediately upon awakening. I think I should sharpen my memory by doing exercises to improve memory and maybe learn short hand? I also have a micro-cassette player ... that might work better for me? I've read somewhere to not force the details of the LD, just let them come in naturally. What do you think about that? Okay I'll check out the different methods to induce LD and see what works = I'll do my homework. I'll let you know how I'm doing. Looking forward to becoming a pro at this! lol Thanks again for your help!

[gab]

Welcome! I think it's normal not ro remember every detail. The important part is to write down everything you rmember, because when you that, you are thinking about your dream and that is what helps with boosting your memory and recall. Casette player is fine, since you also thinking about your dream when recording it. But I personally prefer paper or word processor to record my dream, so I can flip through pages, notice patterns, make notes about what worked and what didn't, and basically have it in front of me at a glance.

[antoniastar]

Gab thank you for your help! I feel welcome, thank you. Oh okay! That makes sense, the more I write about my dreams, the more I train dream-recall. What I did this morning was write down the things that stuck out and the rest faded. But it's my first time. I'll practice. I agree about writing or typing instead of audio records, it's much easier to find patterns and connect dots. For example, awhile back I had decided to take all of my poems, take out the titles and then put them all together into a word processor, as one poem. That way I could use the "find" feature in the WP to look for certain words and that helped me to find patterns and make connections. I do what is called automatic writing on a regular basis. I look forward to reading your posts. Thanks again.

[CanisLucidus]

Welcome to DreamViews, Toni! Great to have you here. I did start a dream journal this morning. "Detailed and stable dreams" aren't a problem for me except that I'm having difficulties remembering everything to write it down, even when I write in my journal immediately upon awakening. I think I should sharpen my memory by doing exercises to improve memory and maybe learn short hand? I also have a micro-cassette player ... that might work better for me? As gab said, no worries on not having perfect recall right away. There's typically a bit of a wall that separates dream memories from waking memories. When we're awake, it can be hard to remember our dreams. And when we're dreaming, it can be hard to call up certain waking life memories. The best way to wear that wall down is simply to practice your dream recall via journaling. So by starting your dream journal, you are bang on course. What you'll find over time is that as you work to remember more and more details from your dreams, your skills will naturally grow. There will be ups and downs in dream recall (as there are for all of us) but our minds respond well to intent and effort. Keep grabbing every detail from your dreams that you can and after a while you'll find that there's more and more to grab. Looking forward to becoming a pro at this! lol You'll be there before you know it! Just keep learning, putting in the work, and believing in your abilities. You'll be amazed at what you're capable of. Happy dreaming!

[antoniastar]

Welcome to DreamViews, Toni! Great to have you here. Thank you very much CanisLucidus! As gab said, no worries on not having perfect recall right away. There's typically a bit of a wall that separates dream memories from waking memories. When we're awake, it can be hard to remember our dreams. And when we're dreaming, it can be hard to call up certain waking life memories. The best way to wear that wall down is simply to practice your dream recall via journaling. So by starting your dream journal, you are bang on course. Oh wow it hadn't crossed my mind that there could be a wall between dream memory and waking memory. Hmmmm interesting. Well I'm just gonna have to tear that wall down with dreamwork. What you'll find over time is that as you work to remember more and more details from your dreams, your skills will naturally grow. There will be ups and downs in dream recall (as there are for all of us) but our minds respond well to intent and effort. Keep grabbing every detail from your dreams that you can and after a while you'll find that there's more and more to grab. "Intent and effort" is definitely highly influential to the mind and, yes, I can imagine, when they are applied to the dreamworld, how my dreamskills will grow. Okay! I'll grab details from my dreams every chance I get so I can grab more and more detail. Great thinkin! You'll be there before you know it! Just keep learning, putting in the work, and believing in your abilities. You'll be amazed at what you're capable of. Happy dreaming! Yep okay I will give it my best shot. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and experience with me. Hopefully I can return the favor. Sweet dreams to you!

[CanisLucidus]

You are very welcome, Toni! Oh wow it hadn't crossed my mind that there could be a wall between dream memory and waking memory. Hmmmm interesting. Well I'm just gonna have to tear that wall down with dreamwork. There you go! Incidentally, it gets interesting approaching things from the other direction as well and learning to bring waking life memories into lucid dreams. It's interesting that you can chip away at the wall in either direction. Recalling waking life memories from a dream feels surprisingly similar to trying to remember a dream when we've first woken up. What that means I'll leave as a question for the philosophers! By the way, recall of waking life memories is a frequent theme of the DreamViews "Task of the Month", which are in-dream challenges that dreamers on the forum try to complete for extra motivation and fun. Once you start feeling pretty comfortable with lucid dreaming, I highly recommend this as a great way to sharpen your skills: http://www.dreamviews.com/task-month...ch-2013-a.html I started these Tasks of the Month well before I was much good at lucid dreaming, and it didn't do me any permanent damage. Yep okay I will give it my best shot. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and experience with me. Hopefully I can return the favor. I have no doubt that you will! I learn a ton from discussing techniques, experiences and ideas with all of the dreamers on this site. You are actually coming to the DreamViews a good bit more experienced than I was when I joined, so I'll be shamelessly stealing all of your LDing tricks in no time.

[PennyRoyal]

Hi Toni, Welcome to Dreamviews I hope you enjoy it here as much as I have. One thing that helps me with Dream Recall is reading other people's Dream Journals here on DV. I'll be reading someone's entry and something in it will remind me a detail in one of my own dreams and Bam! Next thing you know I've got a dream for my Dream Journal that I might not have otherwise recalled. I wouldn't worry about not having impeccable Dream Recall at first, when I started all this a few weeks ago I would remember maybe a few Dreams a year at best. I started keeping a Dream Journal and set my best intentions towards remembering my dreams and have noticed steady improvement since then. At first I only remembered single scenes or quick snapshots and recently I've been managing to remember longer pieces and even some dialogue which never happened before. If you're looking for advice, you're better off asking one of the members above me here - they have all helped me greatly since I joined. However feel free to PM me anytime if you want to discuss dreaming or anything

[Scionox]

Yo. I am surprised this didn't got mentioned there but staying still in the bed for short while after waking up while recalling the dreams helps with dream recall in the most cases, you could try that if you haven't already. Also you could try recalling what happened during the day at the end of the day, it helped me boost my dream recall somewhat when i was starting. As for boosting recall of waking life in lucid dream, it will improve with time the more you think about dreaming, but in addition to that you could try writing your dream goals before going to bed and/or repeating them as mantra while falling asleep. Good luck!

[Matte87]

I'll add some final things, just like Checker said you should stay in bed and keep your eyes closed when waking up. This will trick your brain into thinking you're going back to sleep and all of a sudden your dream memory will be much easier to access. I'd also like to remind you that whenever you're writing down your dreams make sure you do it by writing down keywords only and not the entire dream. You can fill in the blanks later. Good luck!

[Suck4Luck]

Welcome!

[antoniastar]

you can chip away at the wall in either direction Nice PennyRoyal. I've recently read that waking memories and dream memories are stored in different regions of the brain (where?hmm). Intriguing. Now the wall gets a little more complex. I don't know enough about it to properly analyze the mechanics of it all but striving to recall waking dreams while lucid dreaming could be an exceptionally challenging objective, though, hopefully, rewarding and worthwhile. Thanks! I'll check out "Task of the Month". Keep an eye out for the damage report.

[antoniastar]

Yo Checker666! Staying as still as possible until I've written my dream down is the way to go. It's something I'll be focusing on cuz I'm goin' with WILD and I'll be waking up twice, once early in the morning and the 2nd time later in the morning. Also would apply to daytime LDing. try writing your dream goals before going to bed and/or repeating them as mantra while falling asleep Excellent idea! I'll start doing this one tonight. Thank you!

[PennyRoyal]

Nice PennyRoyal. I've recently read that waking memories and dream memories are stored in different regions of the brain (where?hmm). Intriguing. Now the wall gets a little more complex. I don't know enough about it to properly analyze the mechanics of it all but striving to recall waking dreams while lucid dreaming could be an exceptionally challenging objective, though, hopefully, rewarding and worthwhile. Thanks! I'll check out "Task of the Month". Keep an eye out for the damage report. That was CL

[antoniastar]

Matte87 . . . wow! I hadn't thought about keeping my eyes closed. Makes sense to me, I'll do that, thanks. And using keywords to record my dreams works especially if I'm trying to keep my eyes closed. I'm lucky cuz I sleep alone. You can fill in the blanks in later. No guarantees here but I'll give it my best. Welcome! Thank you Suck4Luck! You know what? When I first read your post it hadn't occurred to me that "REALITY CHECK" was your signature. I was like what? That was CL CL?

[CanisLucidus]

CL? "CanisLucidus" is a bit of a handful to type. PennyRoyal was pointing out that all of the jibber-jabber about connecting the waking world and dream world came from yours truly. Glad you liked it! Thanks! I'll check out "Task of the Month". Keep an eye out for the damage report. Ha ha! That's the "Task of the Month" spirit! Let's all go break stuff!

[PennyRoyal]

"CanisLucidus" is a bit of a handful to type. PennyRoyal was pointing out that all of the jibber-jabber about connecting the waking world and dream world came from yours truly. Glad you liked it! What he said! Sorry I should have been more specific lol.

[melanieb]

Welcome to the forum! Looks like you've already received some great advice. Don't be shy here to ask questions. We like helping new members! Pleasant dreams!

[antoniastar]

CanisLucidus ... Of course! CL stands for "CanisLucidus"! .. I was in a hurry . . . if your name were a snake I would have bit it. What a sec... I did bite it. CL I adore your name!!! It's very creative, sounds Latin. It is a long one but I don't mind. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed your lesson on memory. Looking forward to more of your authorship. Pennyroyal ... that's okay, it wasn't you, it was me. No worries. Welcome to the forum! Looks like you've already received some great advice. Don't be shy here to ask questions. We like helping new members! Pleasant dreams! Hi melanieb . . . thank you very much! I have a question. The one time that I recall being paralyzed during a LD, I could move my eyeballs but nothing else. Does anyone know if that's normal or not? Pleasant dreams tooooo!!!

[CanisLucidus]

I have a question. The one time that I recall being paralyzed during a LD, I could move my eyeballs but nothing else. Does anyone know if that's normal or not? Were you experiencing a sensation of being paralyzed while still dreaming or had you woken up fully and still felt paralyzed, even while awake? It's only happened to me when I was still dreaming. I experienced the feeling of being paralyzed in a dream in one of my early lucids. It was like you described -- I could look around the dream scene a bit, but I couldn't move any part of my body. It's happened to me one more time since then, but I woke up very quickly from it. I don't know whether that makes it "normal" or not, but it's one of those interesting little things that's popped up for me. I tried to address this odd situation by sort of peeling a new dream body out of the old, frozen one. I got as far as creating a new head, arms, and most of a torso, but the dream ended after that. On the other hand, if you experienced this feeling of paralysis after you woke up, that would be a different deal. That I've not experienced myself. It's only been a dream thing for me.

[melanieb]

Hi melanieb . . . thank you very much! I have a question. The one time that I recall being paralyzed during a LD, I could move my eyeballs but nothing else. Does anyone know if that's normal or not? Pleasant dreams tooooo!!! It can happen in a lucid dream. Not being able to move happens to some. We usually tell people to work on learning to exert control by blinking, and then imagining movement. The Dream Control Tutorial in the WIKI might offer some help. I'm basing this advice believing that you are telling me you can not move in the dream and not while falling asleep or waking up. Best of luck!

[antoniastar]

Were you experiencing a sensation of being paralyzed while still dreaming or had you woken up fully and still felt paralyzed, even while awake? It's only happened to me when I was still dreaming. I experienced the feeling of being paralyzed in a dream in one of my early lucids. It was like you described -- I could look around the dream scene a bit, but I couldn't move any part of my body. It's happened to me one more time since then, but I woke up very quickly from it. I don't know whether that makes it "normal" or not, but it's one of those interesting little things that's popped up for me. I tried to address this odd situation by sort of peeling a new dream body out of the old, frozen one. I got as far as creating a new head, arms, and most of a torso, but the dream ended after that. On the other hand, if you experienced this feeling of paralysis after you woke up, that would be a different deal. That I've not experienced myself. It's only been a dream thing for me. Hi CL, Thank you for your prompt reply. Been experiencing browser problems and other issues, please accept my apology for being tardy. As far as I know I was sound asleep and laying on my back when I couldn't move anything but my eyeballs. Startled by my own thoughts saying "Get up! Get up! There someone coming!" ... I attempted to get out of bed. I opened my eyes when I couldn't move and hovering above me and to the right of my bed was a ball of light that appeared exactly as the one in my profile pic. I just stared at it. And then, next thing I knew, I was sleeping normal again. The vivid memory of the LD was something I've never had to write down, I remember it as if it happened seconds ago. I wonder if others eyeballs are frozen during LDs? Wow!!! I've never heard of making a new dream body from a frozen one!! Awesome. :bravo: I'm gonna try that! Thanks. Let me know if you grow anymore new dream body parts.

[antoniastar]

It can happen in a lucid dream. Not being able to move happens to some. We usually tell people to work on learning to exert control by blinking, and then imagining movement. The Dream Control Tutorial in the WIKI might offer some help. I'm basing this advice believing that you are telling me you can not move in the dream and not while falling asleep or waking up. Best of luck! Thank you melanieb! Please accept my sincere apology for being so late in replying to this post. I've gathered that paralization during deep sleep is normal. For me, I wouldn't have realized this unless I had woken up while sleeping (lucid dream?). Oh wow good ideas!!! I hadn't thought of blinking. 'Course I hadn't even heard of the term 'lucid dreaming' when I woke up in a dream immobile and wanting to sprint at the same time. lol If it happens to again, I'll be sure to try blinking and/or imagining movement. The Dream Control Tutorial? I'll check it out

[CanisLucidus]

Hey Antonia! And no apologies necessary -- I hold you to no timetable. That's a cool story. While it's always hard to say exactly what's going on, it sounds like an especially cool false awakening. I encountered a bizarre green energy vortex on about my 3rd false awakening or so and the experience was bizarre enough that it led to my 3rd lucid dream. Anyhow, you may never encounter the whole situation again. It has been exceedingly rare for me (twice in all of my remembered dreams) but if it ever does pop up again you've got lots of options! Always good to be prepared! Happy dreaming!