Why can't we be friends?

[ImmatOfKafir]

So, I had a dream this morning. It wasn't lucid, but it made me regret waking up. I've had similar dreams all my teenage years and they have continued now that I'm 22. I am here in hopes of being able to master my dreams so that I may return to the worlds my mind creates, at will. I'm always saddened when I meet someone in my dreams, fall for them, then wake up. It's like someone you love has died. Unless you're very lucky, you'll never again see that person. Well, today I made a promise to myself that I'll do all that is within my power to change that for myself. I'm making it my goal to get back to that world, to see those people, to feel that joy. I'm not sure if I sound crazy or not, but, I'm sick of the waking world destroying the paradise that is my dreams. I've only ever had two lucid dreams. At least, I only remember two. The first dream was simple. I was looking at the back of a package of candy, Gobstoppers to be exact. The text made no sense, it was all gibberish. In that moment, I realized it was a dream. I tried to fight it, and woke up almost immediately. The second dream was much more vivid and I had much more control. I was with a party of invading Roman soldiers. We were invading a city. We got to a locked door, and, in that moment I realized it was a dream. The waking world tried to claim me, so, I spun around in a circle in the dream and fought it back, thinking to myself "I have to know what's behind that door!" I managed to stay and maintain lucidity. We opened the door and proceeded across a strange pier-like network of platforms across a small body of water with marble buildings around us floating on the water. I lost lucidity a bit at this point, just riding the waves of the dream. Then, suddenly it was nightfall and there were fires. Women and children were in the water. Lucidity returned and I knew I had to help them. So, we dove into the water and started carrying them to safety. That is all I remember. I've done some research on lucid dreaming. I've tried Isochronic tones to induce them. I've practiced reality checks. During that time is when I experienced the lucid dreams. I stopped practicing reality checks. I stop using the tones. The lucidity stopped. I've yet to start again. My dream recall is fairly good. You can call me Immat. I'm a friendly person, regardless of how this post makes me seem. I like to write, and am a member of a small, friendly, internet role playing community. (Creative writing in groups essentially. Each person plays a character in an ever evolving story.) Thanks. Hope to meet some new friends and achieve my goal of dream mastery.

[dutchraptor]

Hey immat. I defintely understand what you are saying about dreams, I kinda used to feel like that too. Not anymore though. Over the past year as I've become more proficient at lucid dreaming, I've learned a few things. With lucidity comes an entire new way of living, you can become a master in your dreams and can do whatever you like. However instead of yearning to always be in that world you actually start to enjoy the times you're not there just as much, because you know you can always go back. It's almost like there is a refreshing quality to the probability that you will never have the same dream. Personally I love when I have those non-lucids, I know that feeling sorry for myself will do nothing, but remember the great character that my mind made will. Cherish the thought of how great it was but don't feel bad that it is no more because you will only tire yourself. Spending your lucids trying to rebuild those scenes would be a hopeless act. Start afresh and build a new empire in your mind, create all the things the way you want without the memories from before and you will get a very interesting world. I've started almost three times over now, and each time it is refreshing. Just like starting a new book or finishing a great movie, you always feeling like you could never watch another, but it's surprisingly easy. It's the same for dreams, once you create enough new fond memories the old ones with any bad thoughts associated with them will be stacked away, not to wither but to remain as inspiration for new stories. Hope this can help you a bit, maybe you just have to try and experiment for yourself a bit. Best of luck

[ImmatOfKafir]

Thanks. I never thought of it that way. I guess I did focus too much on the negative aspect of never being able to go back. Is it possible to consistently craft worlds/dreams that give feelings like that though? Or, I guess a better way to ask is, when you create a fresh world or dreamscape, can you return to that one, or does it have to be new each time? I've always wanted to create a dream world like a fantasy land and be able to visit it. I'm a creative person, and I like to write so the goal was to be able to construct a world in my dreams that I could visit and use as inspiration for my writing.

[dutchraptor]

Sure no problem Offcourse you can return to the world, if you have the ability. It will be different though because it's lucid. You will probably understand the feeling more when you've become lucid a bit more frequently sicne its quite distinctive. Returning to a place of comfort in your dreams is always fun and interesting, just don't place too much thought on the negative aspects as you have said. There is always an adventure or a DC to meet, it's important to just not rely completely on trying to live another life, since you will never reach the level of realism you truly desire since in the end it is only a dream, and it will only make you more sad.