Problems doing anything while lucid

[Dangeruss]

First off, I'm new! Hello! My name is Russell, and I'm a Mass-hole and high school student. That's pretty much it. I learned about lucid dreaming through the movie Waking Life, and since watching it two of my friends and I have been trying to lucid dream regularly. One of my friends does it very well and pretty regularly, and the other one has made hardly any progress at all. I'm in the middle. I've gained lucidity a few times, but it isn't always so great. Let me explain: when I realize I'm dreaming, nothing seems to set me off at all, I just realize I'm dreaming without a dreamsign. Twice I was walking up some stairs and I realized I was dreaming, and once I was driving and I realized all at once I was dreaming. I think the stairs might have something to do with it, so I'll spend more time on stairs while I'm awake, but other than that I'm stumped as to how to increase the frequency of becoming lucid. The real problem, however, isn't so much becoming lucid as taking control once I become lucid. Often when I realize I'm dreaming I just don't do anything about it. For instance, when driving all I could do was stare at the trees that I drove by and marvel at how vivid and beautiful they were. Another time I was hopping down stairs two at a time and realized I was dreaming, then proceeded to walk down the street looking at the scenery. I've read about hyperreality and I think it's something like that. Everything is so real, so bright, so vivid that I'm almost overwhelmed by the amount of visual input and I never remember to do anything to control the dream, I pretty much just sit back and enjoy the dream, knowing that I'm dreaming as I do it. I have some dream goals, things I want to do while dreaming, but my dreamself is too lazy or forgetful to do them. What can I do to motivate my dream self to take control?

[Seeker]

Hey, I don't think I've welcomed you yet, so Welcome on board Don't worry so much about control, enjoy the beauty and realness of your dreams. There are a number of exercises you can try though. First off, start out small and work your way up as you gain confidence. A few things to try are: Pick up a pebble, marvel at its reality, now drop it. Will it to fall to the ground VERY slowly. Imagine that you are very light and begin to run. Take longer and longer strides, enjoy the wind on your face as you run. Find a nice sparkling lake and dive in. Swim underwater and marvel at all the plant life and fishes. Don't worry about breakthing, you don't need to

[Dangeruss]

thanks for the advice. I suppose I'm a bit too ambitious, it's just hard because one of my friends has already gone to space, and can fly pretty well, so i get to thinking i can do more than i really can.

[Seeker]

Originally posted by Dangeruss so i get to thinking i can do more than i really can. YOU CAN!!! It is all about confidence in your abilities. Start small, as you ge moe confident in yourself, then you will do more. It took me forever to learn how to fly, now I do it as easily as walking. However, I often walk in my LDs, mainly because the experience is so much richer.

[Dagaz]

Hey dude welcome! I used to have some dream control problems, nothing serious thought. But when I was having these problems I came up with a confidence method to wake me up in realizing something I think you also need to realize and feel. As I go to sleep (sometimes, when i feel im having trouble with dream control) I think that there is no way I can fall in the middle of flight, because this all depends on myself and realizing that this is my world and i control everything, most of rules in this world are mine, and i control alot of them, so some of them can be broken. The more you realize this, the more you can have control on this, I have discovered this through time.

[Dangeruss]

hmm, on that topic, I learned to teleport on my second lucid dream, but I've been staying away from it except in emergencies because it had a diminishing effect on the dream itself... i.e, i went nuts teleporting and each new place was less vivid than the last until the dream faded and I woke up.. is there any way to avoid that?

[Dagaz]

Originally posted by Dangeruss hmm, on that topic, I learned to teleport on my second lucid dream, but I've been staying away from it except in emergencies because it had a diminishing effect on the dream itself... i.e, i went nuts teleporting and each new place was less vivid than the last until the dream faded and I woke up.. is there any way to avoid that? Yes, there are techniques to increas dream vividness like dream spining, rubbing your hands, and others. Any sensation of rapid movement! Some people scream CLARITY NOW! and stuff like that...

[Dangeruss]

that explains why riding my bike makes for such long and vivid dreams! thanks!