Heyy, Benni here :)

[benni]

Well, hey everyone. I'm Benni I'm from Germany and my hobbies are drawing and reading (especially about astronomy - I just love science <3) and just doing stuff outside I've been a little bit into Lucid Dreaming when i went on an Exhange Year to New Zealand, but after not getting that far and being way too busy to bring forward any kind of motivation, I stopped trying to achieve lucidity (sadly). But now that I'm back in Germany I decided to get back into Lucid Dreaming, so I ordered Stephen LaBerge's book and .... WOW! I've had 4 lucid dreams so far and I simply can't get enough It's sooo different and revealing and so I decided to find out more on the Internet and that's how I landed here So yaa... It's Summer holidays at the moment which is why I've got quite a bit of time to practice So that's it I'm sure I'll enjoy my time here -Benni

[JoannaB]

Welcome to dreamviews, Benni. Willkommen! Really glad to hear all your enthusiasm, sounds like you already are well on your way. What do you enjoy about lucid dreaming the most thus far? And what are your goals?

[benni]

Hey and thanks So far I've simply enjoyed the feeling of it the most. I've had my first lucid dream (quite a while ago) because i pinched my nose and I really liked how I was able to feel my sleeping body just carrying on breathing as usual. It was just fantastic And since then I've been able to stabilise my second lucid dream a bit more which gave me the opportunity to fly (and levitate in my classroom which i turned upside down hahaha. That was funny). My goals are achieving more lucid dreams and just trying out some more stuff (I want to do some space travel and meet some of my favourite celebrities like singers, etc.) and for the long term I would like to explore my dream world more and find out reasons why I'm having those particular dreams and what they are supposed to tell me Any advice on how to go on? Basically I'm praciting WBTB combined with MILD and recently I've discovered ADA which is my favourite technique by far (It already helped me to have one lucid dream and all my other dreams are much more detailed and clear since I've started trying out ADA which is great for my DJ and hence analysing my dreams). Oh and I've got a question concerning Dreamsigns; maybe you can help me: What are they exactly? I've read some definitions, but I didn't really get if Dreamsigns refer to things that ONLY occur in your dreams or to things that occur in your dreams in general, but can also occur in waking life (like real people or places like school for instance)?

[JoannaB]

Sounds like you already got a great start. In answer to your question about dream signs: dream signs are things or events or patterns or anything that you observe as being so common in your dreams that you can think "hey, isn't it interesting that I so often dream about x? I better watch out for x, and every time I see x or something that reminds me of x, I will ask myself 'Is this a dream?'" Now if the dream sign only occurs in dreams then you can look for things or people or whatnot that remind you of it in waking life or you can walk around life expecting to see pink unicorns or dead relatives, right? Because if you expect something and it is a dream, that something is more likely to happen. Of course, in waking life you will then be disappointed if it is not something you do encounter. If your dream sign is something you do encounter in real life, like let's say you notice that most of your dreams feature your mother, then you should try to do a reality check every time you see her (although once she finds out, she might be annoyed or amused).

[dutchraptor]

Welcome benni It's really awesome to see how motivated you are, even reading your intro wants to me to have a lucid dream right now If you have any question feel free to ask here or PM me.

[benni]

Thanks for your replies I've just been on a bike tour for the last two days which didn't give me that many opportunities to practice, but of course I took my DJ with me and I've indeed had some intereseting dreams haha So did I understand that correctly: If there is something in my dream that is very common (let's say a paticular friend) then I can just criticially ask wheter I'm dreaming or not and do a RC whenever I see this friend, but if there is something common in dreams (let's say my grandma) whom I will highly unlikely ever see again then I can just ask wheter I'm dreaming when I see a photo of her or talk about her or think about her or see something in general that reminds me of her, right? Thanks a lot for your help! Thanks dutchraptor! I'm really glad to hear that even others notice my motivation hahaha Oh yes I'm certain that we will have a lovely lucid dream very soon! I've sent you a friend request (I hope I did that right haha). I'll try my best then to figure out how to PM you ;D - Benni

[GrannyPigms]

Well, I think the fact that you don't see that rare thing (using your example for your grandma) its better. For me, I think my dream sign is a brown haired girl, that's in her senior year of high school, or beginning College. Well, there are a lot of brown haired women in their senior year of highschool. So I do reality checks a lot, so much that I dismiss most of them, and sometimes in my dreams. Then I wake up and say "God damn! Stupid, stupid, I was so close!". I guess what I'm getting at, is that it would be strange to see that thing (your grandma) in waking life. So you know for sure that every time you see her you should do a reality check. All you have to do is remember that, any of your other dream signs, work on awareness, and dream recall, then your set! Sweet dreams. (and good luck!)

[benni]

Thanks Oh yes haha I can imagine how many RC's you have to do considering that your Dreamsign is something so common. Yes, I'll try my best. I think I'm getting pretty good with my dream recall (that should be the smallest problem. I really like writing in my dream journal and it always amuses me to remember what my brain has been up to while I was sleeping ). This whole 'awareness thing' can be quite overwhelming and hard at the beginning (ADA).... But anyway.... I'm trying my best and I'm certain that I will get used to paying more attention to the subtle (and sometimes maybe even dreamlike) details in my waking life. All set indeed! Sweet dreams to you as well!