My first post here - What lucid dreaming means to me

[Devoney]

Hi there, Introduction This is my first post here on the forum. I am hoping for a warm welcome. I am looking for a place to share my experiences, and get in touch with others about lucid dreaming and stuff related to it. I would like to start off with sharing my most recent lucid dreaming experience, and what lucid dreaming means to me. Maybe you find yourself in a similar position to mine, or my story may stimulate your motivation for lucid dreaming, and motivation is a BIG factor in success. Anyway, I hope you like reading it. So here my story goes I would like to help people, friends, family, people I do not even know. And I do, online, when people approach me, free of charge. It just makes me feel good to help some one out, giving them a new perspective. In this process, most of the time, ego plays a part. The problem, seeking for solution I was wondering about the phenomena why people are offended when you pose a solution to their problems that involves diminishing their ego. (Ego as in what defines them, NOT in the terms of the slang "look at me, i'm so good" ego). A few months later, the reason suddenly came to me. If you do NOT realize that all originates within, you think the origin of the feelings of conflict are external, namely, the one posing the ego diminishing solution is causing the conflict. And people turn away from it. So one has to accept and understand, as part of their wisdom, that any feelings of conflict originates within. Now that sounds simple enough. But how do you teach such thing, how do you make someone accept that all originates within, and all is interpreted as a reflection of their reality. I have to get more familiar with the dynamics/paradigm of ego in order to be able to define a rock-solid strategy. Of course, I have an ego myself (too bad, but its true), and I must work on diminishing my own ego as well. So its vital to me as well, that I learn the best strategy. As the ego has mastered the skill of creating belief traps to cover up the whirl pools of fear with illusions that seemingly make up your reality, it can be a tricky business. To counter these traps, absolute honesty to your self is of utmost importance. The method: lucid dreaming Now what is more honest to you, than your dream world, filled with projections of your subconsciousness?! Your ego is circumvented (unaware) of you gathering information. Its guard is down, and you are standing face-to-face with your own created reality where everything is possible. Now of course, one important factor, you have to be consciously gathering this information (detached from your own created drama): it must be a lucid dream. The motivation: Proof of Concept All in life requires motivation. Doing a non-physical task as lucid dreaming even more than physical tasks. So I made myself an attractive plan: Next time I am dreaming lucid, I will walk up to one of my dream characters and ask them about me, and try to obtain important information about me. Hoping for information that directs me on the path of enlightment. The induction of a lucid dream So as I went to bed, I performed my favorite concentration exercise: Focusing on the moment of now, becoming aware of roaming thoughts, marking them as 'not the moment of now', appreciate the moment of recognition of the roaming thought, and continue on repeating the previous steps. As it became harder and harder, I fell asleep, not being able to maintain this concentration. Now where is that magic? My was mind entrained with this exercise, and sooner or later, it would become conscious of thoughts that aren't the moment of now (those just feel different, loaded with drama and all): dream thoughts. And I got lucid. Let the reflection begin!! First I was just playing around, doing funny stuff, manipulating physical dream objects, having (respectful) fun with people. And then, I remembered my mission: Find some one and ask them about me, trying to get useful information. So I did. I was in a library (typical, as thats a place that contains loads of information), and I walked up to a guy. I asked him, do you now [Devoney]? He said, yes I do, but not really. (As I was 'talking' to the guy, it felt more like telepathy, he presented me feelings and images. He transferred more information to me in other ways than with words.) I asked him if he could further explain. He said: He used to be together (as in two persons), but that isn't anymore. Its not that big of a deal but I mis that other guy from time to time. It happened to be the end of the conversation as my lucidness fade away, I woke up, and I immediately wrote down the whole story with every detail. The conclusion It took me a moment to figure out what that guy was actually telling me. But here it is: As a child I had those moments, that I was just feeling happy, I didn't felt the need to analyze stuff and search for a method to extend the moments of happiness or to increase its magnitude. No, I was just feeling happy, lots of times. Whenever I felt sad, the logical reasoning side in me solved the issue by putting things in perspective (that was the metaphorically two persons the guy was talking about, one for emotion, one for logical reasoning). But now a days, with the illusion of feeling very busy (I am married now, and have two kids < 2 years old), I don't experience those moments of true joy any more, and when I come to think about it, i miss that!! Since that particular dream, I feel this moments of true joy again. Those moments of pure happiness, where all is well. What the dream character guy told me, woke me up in 'real' (physical) life. And I could not ever have come to the conclusion 'my self' without 'him'. So it works, to ask your subconsciousness for useful information while dreaming lucid. I will put this into use for finding a strategy that is best at diminishing ego, for me, and for others keen to learn, to give direction on the path of enlightment. Thanks for reading. Questions, comments, remarks, criticism, motivating thoughts, other lucid induction methods, what ever, are all welcome! Or do you happen to have the solution to the major question of this post? Then PLEASE enlighten me!! I hope you are doing more than fine. Devoney