Hello!

[Arrakis]

Hi, I've just found this forum a few days ago and I am very glad I did. I think I've had LDs for the last 20 years( I am now 34) or longer. I thought that everyone dreams like that. 90% percent of them are DEILD and I always did one of following things : *repeat the part of the dream that i liked the most several times until there' s no juice in it. **jump back to a part of the dream and branch from there into another dream or develop it from there in another direction, like doing something else in the same setting or searching for another person to talk to. ***hold on to the dream and amplify it. example: instead of eating one icecream let everything be icecream, rivers of it! or instead of normal running I would start jumping or running so fast that everything becomes a blur. I've only had one dream when I used rewind, just like the function of the video player. The dream was going in the wrong direction, there was a lot of tension I started arguing with several people, they were really aggressive and I remember thinking "Why not change it?" so I rewound back to the start of the conversation. I remember I almost woke up because I was laughing so loud in the dream I could feel my real lips moving and I was for a moment conscious that I am smiling IWL and then I was again in sleep. I felt so powerful and free and filled with joy because I could see that "they" have no power over me and I can make them retrace their steps and everything just moved back to square one. And then I chose to talk to them differently and they also said something else and everything turned out alright. I was so happy after this particular dream that I have told almost all my friends about it and about the rewind and all my other dreams that I can change. Their reaction was totally negative, someone even suggested I was "special" as in insane. And nobody believed me. This bitter experience convinced me not to talk about it ever again. Fast forward almost two years (present) and I have found an e-book about lucid dreaming and I said to myself: so that's how it's called! Since last year I've started practicing meditation and now I can say it has really helped me get more vivid dreams and reduced the number of dreams when I find myself in a stressful/conflict situation. Even though many times I can change the situation it still feels like driving fast and having to take a lot of sharp turns. It's tiring. Recently my DEILDs are sometimes hard to shake off. The alarm wakes me and then I stay still and I can sometimes continue the dream I was just having or something else comes to mind but then my girlfriend who already knows this routine comes to me and tells me something like "Coffee's ready! or "You're going to be late for work" and then I get out of bed but I can't really be fully awake. I know -for example- that I have to get a clean pair of socks but I open the drawer and then I leave it open and sit on a chair and then I get up again and go to the bathroom and then I sit on the bed like a broken automaton because I still do things in my dream and I can't really concentrate on the morning tasks. My girlfriend finds all this really funny and she told me that if left alone, I can do this up to ten minutes. She usually helps me snap out of it by talking to me or sometimes the stark smell of coffee does it. Does this happen to you? P.S. English is not my native language so bear with me. P.P.S. I am really really glad I've found you!

[MrSlugInfinite]

Not everyone has lucid dreams like you said, it's awesome that you are a natural LD'er! I am definitely jealous of you right now. Dreams really are an amazing phenomena indeed. I always get a drastic mood lift whenever I awake from a successful LD. Sucks that you got looked down upon for your dreams, lucid dreams are a wonderful thing and I believe everybody should experience them at least once, just to have a more thorough human experience. They are definitely missing out. I got some family members of mine into LD'ing and it's a great feeling when you can share lucid dreams that you have had with them. I never had the same experience as you that you explain about after waking up. I'm sure its normal, especially if you are actively trying to go back into a dream. Just wondering, do you take multi-vitamins and stay healthy? Not sure if it would have an impact, but I find that I feel better and have better dreams when I'm doing as best as I can to stay healthy and active. I do have times where I'm foggy after I wake up, and it takes a couple minutes for me to gain full consciousness, could be the same experience. Glad you found this site too, I've been a lurker here for YEARS. I decided it was time to finally make an account and keep a DJ so I can track my progess and hopefully induce more lucid dreams by taking part in more dreaming discussions. There is one small thing I am going to critique you on, and don't take it the wrong way or anything. The reason that you haven't got many replies to this post is because not many people like to read walls of text. Try and space it out for better readability, and you will surely get more responses!

[Arrakis]

Thank you MrSlug. I cleaned my post up a little bit. I hope it's easier to read now. I take multivitamins and I jog regularly, sometimes up to 8 km on the hills near my house. I also eat less than I used to and my diet is almost lacto-vegetarian. What I do is very little compared to what others here seem to be able to effortlessly achieve. Without discipline and a coherent approach to it, it seems that I've trained myself only into doing the same "tricks" over and over again. Regarding these zombie-like states I believe it's related to my tiring work schedule. I work as a physician and lately I've been having up to 8 24-hour shifts in a month, and they are not evenly distributed. So it may have disrupted my circadian rhythm. I have noticed that when I sleep longer these problems tend not to be so severe. I wouldnt dare to tell you what to do in order to get more/better LDs, but what I can tell you from my experience is that I have the impression that we're always dreaming when we're awake and we're always awake when we dream. What I mean by it is sometimes you just have to recognize the dream part in your real life. I don't think that LDs are a goal in itself, I think it's something that's already happening to all of us. I guess I would dare to say that LDs are part of a continuum of awareness. We're just hypostatizing a part of this continuum and call it LDs. So, for the fun of it: "Why not change it?" Try to observe yourself dreaming while your eyes are open and your mind is focused on some task. If you're like me you'll notice that all kinds of thoughts move around in your head even if you are focused on something. It could be called reversed LD

[CanisLucidus]

Welcome, Arrakis! You have some very impressive natural LDing abilities... that's great! Your morning routine sounds hilarious. I'm sure that in practice this can be a little inconvenient, but the idea of not being able to stop LDing does sound kind of awesome, at least on the surface. I also love that rewind dream. That's really cool. The whole "rewinding life" concept has always had this certain magical appeal (as I'm sure it does to all human beings who regularly make mistakes!) This is one of those ideas that I've wanted to incorporate into my own lucid dreams but simply haven't gotten around to yet. My lucid dreaming "to do" list is enormous, so the ideas just sort of pile up. It's a shame that your friends couldn't understand how cool this was, but it can be a difficult thing to imagine. Most people barely even remember their dreams, so the idea of actually controlling dreams can seem completely foreign. Anyhow, you've come to the right place and I look forward to reading more of your experiences! With your natural abilities, I think you'll be able to do some truly amazing stuff. I'd recommend firing up a dream journal, and then just start having some fun! You know what you might like? We have a Task of the Month competition where you attempt a specific lucid dreaming goal. The tasks are great for expanding your concept of what's possible in a dream, gathering new experiences, and just having some fun. At your level, I'll bet you'll be able to do very well at this. Here it is, if you're interested: http://www.dreamviews.com/task-month...ay-2013-a.html