New here (as if you couldn't guess!)

[Rainah]

Hi, I'm Rainah, I'm 24, and there's a whole lotta things I could put in this intro that have nothing to do with dreams, so I'll just skip all that I'm married and have a 4 year old. My friends J, C, and L sometimes feature in my dreams along with my hubby and son. I've had lucid dreams since I was a child, only I didn't know that's what they were. It started oddly ... I was very little, 3 or 4, and used to have dreams that I was using the bathroom, only to wake up and find that I HAD, right in my bed. Well, clearly, not good. I trained myself to do reality checks EVERY time I used the toilet, even though I didn't know that's what I was doing ... I wouldn't 'let go' till I was SURE I was awake, and if I became aware that I was in fact dreaming, I would say, "Wake up!" ... and I would, and run to the bathroom. Via this method I was able to get myself to stop childhood bedwetting. I let the ability go once I didn't need it for that anymore, though it would happen spontaneously every so often, until I was an adult and suffering a recurring nightmare ... unfortunately, the old habit of waking myself was too hard to break and I never did manage to stay lucid enough to confront the attackers (not a chase dream, a 'gang' type, with 3 men accosting me in the dark). Ever since then, I've had lucid dreams once or twice a month, but the same thing always happens ... I wake up, or my attention gets caught and I lose lucidity. The other night though, I had only had 2 short naps all day after staying up all night (Saturday) with friends and being unable to really sleep all Sunday. So Sunday night I went to bed, ready to really sleep, and I instead became lucid while dreaming. It forced me into another dream, where I also became lucid. That time, I had a false awakening, and after a few minutes, became lucid AGAIN and had ANOTHER false awakening. At this point, I was angry and wanted OUT, it felt like a horror-movie cycle. I was lucid and WANTED to wake up but I couldn't make myself until a minute or so had passed. And of course when I did, I was thoroughly distressed, and set out to learn everything I could about this phenomenon, and am now annoyed at myself for passing up a great opportunity, because for once I didn't wake up automatically! I could have had some real fun with it, if I had only known. So here I am, seeking answers and very excited about learning to control this ability that I've had off and on for most of my life, but never really tried to control. I already have very good recall (I can, without any effort, recall 5 dreams a week, though I tend to only write the ones that really strike me, though I am of course going to start a dream journal because, well it can't hurt), and I know I can do it, because I have. Anyway, that's what brought me here, and I'm just really hoping this is a place where encouragement etc is easy to find, because dreams are so private that I think this might be lonely without understanding equals to share experiences/questions etc with Rainah P.S. Golly, I want one of those pretty BANNERS you all have ... and a picture icon, how do I DO that?

[Seeker]

Welcome to Dreamviews! You need to edit your profile if you want an avitar and a banner in your signature. If you will notice at the bottom of your profile, there is an option to specify an avitar. You can either upload a picture from your computer or point to somewhere on the internet to load it. An avitar needs to be no larger than 120 x 120 and less than 20K file size. For the banner at the bottom. You will notice a box near the bottom of your profile called signature. To display a picture here, you will need to point to a picture somewhere on the internet. Do you subscribe to a photo service anywhere, like flickr? I will be happy to assist you, please drop me a PM with a link to the photos you want and I'll drop them into place for you.

[Rainah]

Seeker -- Thank you I mentioned it to my sister, who just happens to do this sort of thing and as we speak she is making a banner. We have a website, so I can host it there and she'll explain to me (the code-challenged) how to make it show up. I should have asked her BEFORE mentioning that hehe. Thanks for the avatar limit size too, that's good to know. And thanks too for the offer of help Rainah

[nesgirl119]

Originally posted by Rainah Seeker -- Thank you I mentioned it to my sister, who just happens to do this sort of thing and as we speak she is making a banner. We have a website, so I can host it there and she'll explain to me (the code-challenged) how to make it show up. I should have asked her BEFORE mentioning that hehe. Thanks for the avatar limit size too, that's good to know. And thanks too for the offer of help Rainah Is there any specific avatar you want? I have a whole library of them.. BTW, Welcome to the Forum!