Lucid dreamer losing talents

Hello.

I have been a lucid dreamer from a young age (6 or so). I am entirely self-taught and have had some very interesting experiences.

However, now I am 19 and I fear I am very rapidly losing the ability to dream lucidly. I have read a lot of the topics posted on how to get started, but I'd really appreciate some slightly more specific advice on how I might focus on getting back my abilities, or at the least, prevent them slipping any further.

I recognise that this might be an effect of my age and that there may be nothing I can do about it.

When dreaming lucidly, I often have to power to "shapeshift", or switch between various forms at will. My favourite and one of my most common incarnations is a grey dragon. Other forms I have adopted include foxes, wolves, dogs and cats (both domestic and sentient, bipedal types of cat). While in these forms I am still "myself", but I tend to be much more inclined towards evil, aggression and frustration.

I've also been "someone else" in my dreams, though more rarely. These tend to be kindred spirits, but I recognise them as not being "me". Quite often these people are male (I'm female).

I also frequently have a third-person like ability, which I can usually drop in and out of at will.

When human, I can almost always glide to variable effect. I very much love flying, but I am traditionally pretty inept at it. I can usually control the wind and weather if I so desire.

I'm usually being persecuted in my dreams. Alternatively, there is usually a paternal or headmaster figure (often a dragon) who is trying to curb my aggressiveness and evil tendencies. This may be because dreams and inspiration come easiest to me when I am in somewhat stressful and frustrating circumstances.

I've had a lot of pleasure from lucid dreaming and I will be left heartbroken if I lose the ability. So any help will be much appreciated.

If I make no other contribution, here's one of the messages a "moral guide" in a dream once gave me.
"Winking at crows in the dark won't scare them."

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Originally posted by Grey Dragon
Hello.

I have been a lucid dreamer from a young age (6 or so). I am entirely self-taught and have had some very interesting experiences.

However, now I am 19 and I fear I am very rapidly losing the ability to dream lucidly. I have read a lot of the topics posted on how to get started, but I'd really appreciate some slightly more specific advice on how I might focus on getting back my abilities, or at the least, prevent them slipping any further.

I recognise that this might be an effect of my age and that there may be nothing I can do about it.

When dreaming lucidly, I often have to power to \"shapeshift\", or switch between various forms at will. My favourite and one of my most common incarnations is a grey dragon. Other forms I have adopted include foxes, wolves, dogs and cats (both domestic and sentient, bipedal types of cat). While in these forms I am still \"myself\", but I tend to be much more inclined towards evil, aggression and frustration.

I've also been \"someone else\" in my dreams, though less rarely. These tend to be kindred spirits, but I recognise them as not being \"me\". Quite often these people are male.

I also frequently have a third-person like ability, which I can usually drop in and out of at will.

When human, I can almost always glide to variable effect. I very much love flying, but I am traditionally pretty inept at it. I can usually control the wind and weather if I so desire.

I'm usually being persecuted in my dreams. Alternatively, there is usually a paternal or headmaster figure (often a dragon) who is trying to curb my aggressiveness and evil tendencies. This may be because dreams and inspiration come easiest to me when I am in somewhat stressful and frustrating circumstances.

I've had a lot of pleasure from lucid dreaming and I will be left heartbroken if I lose the ability. So any help will be much appreciated.

If I make no other contribution, here's one of the messages my \"moral guide\" once gave me.
\"Winking at crows in the dark won't scare them.\"

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Hey, & welcome to the forum!
Once a natural, and losing abilities? Not to worry, though! If you keep a Dream Journal, & write in it every night, your Lucidity just might be restored. And keep trying, b/c it may take a while, but you will succeed if you never quit!!

Thanks for the welcome!

Keeping a dream diary is one of the techniques I've taken up. I also have a tendency to take my best dreams and write creatively about them, which often turns them into developing recurrent dreams.

My resolution at present is to try doing reality checks. I used to be quite good at this when younger, because I was always suspicious a nightmare would be around the next corner!
However, this used to be a very double-edged sword, for I found that if I focused on part of a dream that was "wrong", I would find myself attacked by an invisible force, as if my dream was somehow insulted I was picking it apart. This was always quite frightening.

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Originally posted by Grey Dragon

My resolution at present is to try doing reality checks. I used to be quite good at this when younger, because I was always suspicious a nightmare would be around the next corner!
However, this used to be a very double-edged sword, for I found that if I focused on part of a dream that was \"wrong\", I would find myself attacked by an invisible force, as if my dream was somehow insulted I was picking it apart. This was always quite frightening.

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Never cease to RC, no matter what, is the solution!
And make sure you know that a dream cannot hurt you in real time, so you'll be less frightened. Try to face your fears in your dream!!

Ah! Yes, I did that once with one of my recurrent nightmares a long time ago. I got so fed up I just turned around and told off the creature chasing me. In fact, we formed a truce and for the next two nightmares I summoned the beast to come and help me!

Unfortunately, after a while a more frightening nightmare took its place. I still often stand my ground and I can usually force myself to wake up if things get ugly (my worst nightmare was the one where I suddenly found I couldn't, and kept waking up into another, different nightmare!)

But now I'm older, nightmares seem to be less frightening.

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Originally posted by Grey Dragon

But now I'm older, nightmares seem to be less frightening.

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That is all that counts, then.
As for LDing, RC all the time, no matter what anyone might say to you. Do it, & you'll LD very soon!

Hmm... I've been looking around the site and I'm wondering what actually consitutes a "lucid dream". A lot of the dreams I recall clearly (so lucid in that clear-sighted sense) I don't really control. I just let them take their course. I only change them if I don't approve of them somehow.

I do make conscious decisions while dreaming, as far as I can tell. Is that what determines a lucid dream?

The reason I'm not toally clear is probably that I'm always aware when I'm dreaming, reality checks or not. The dreams where I experience any doubt tend to be very unpleasant, real-life-gone wrong types, which leave me shaken up and paranoid.

By the way, as it's sort of my "specialist subject", I'm very interested to hear from any other "shapeshifters" out there.

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Originally posted by Grey Dragon
Hmm... I've been looking around the site and I'm wondering what actually consitutes a \"lucid dream\". A lot of the dreams I recall clearly (so lucid in that clear-sighted sense) I don't really control. I just let them take their course. I only change them if I don't approve of them somehow.

I do make conscious decisions while dreaming, as far as I can tell. Is that what determines a lucid dream?

The reason I'm not toally clear is probably that I'm always aware when I'm dreaming, reality checks or not. The dreams where I experience any doubt tend to be very unpleasant, real-life-gone wrong types, which leave me shaken up and paranoid.

By the way, as it's sort of my \"specialist subject\", I'm very interested to hear from any other \"shapeshifters\" out there.

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Yes, LDing is determined by knowing that you are dreaming inside the dream. Even if it is low-leveled LDing, it is still LDing reguardless!

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Originally posted by Grey Dragon
I fear I am very rapidly losing the ability to dream lucidly.

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the shore never fears missing a tide nor the horizon sunrise, not even on a new moon nor cloudy day.

Very nice!

Tygr Hawk also said not to let my age worry me.

I've had a good think, and it seems that my problem might be that I'm just not dreaming very well. That may be stemming from a general lack of inspiration or because I've had a particularly depressed rather than stressful year (I actually find stress to be inspiring). I seem to be on a downwards slope mood-wise, which might be giving me trouble, but for the past few days, which have been exam-days, and so rather stressful, I have actually been dreaming better.

Well, thanks for the help everyone. It looks like I might be working this out now. Seems the solution is to keep myself busy and slightly stressed, whilst somehow combating this depression.

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Originally posted by Grey Dragon
Very nice!
Well, thanks for the help everyone. It looks like I might be working this out now. Seems the solution is to keep myself busy and slightly stressed, whilst somehow combating this depression.

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Excellent work!!
Just try not to be so stressed, & you'll succeed a lot more!!

Welcome to DV, Grey Dragon! We're glad that you joined us.

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Originally posted by Grey Dragon
I'm usually being persecuted in my dreams. Alternatively, there is usually a paternal or headmaster figure (often a dragon) who is trying to curb my aggressiveness and evil tendencies. This may be because dreams and inspiration come easiest to me when I am in somewhat stressful and frustrating circumstances.

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Out of curiosity, do you enjoy the agressiveness you exhibit in your dreams? I'm just curious, because if your conscious mind doesn't enjoy it, you may be experiencing a manifestation of that. Have you asked them why?

I would suggest really not worrying about losing any of your abilities. Just relax because the more you stress about losing them, the more likely you may, just as what you believe might happen in a dream often does. There's also a flying tutorial that you may check out with a lot of different suggestions on how different people have achieved flight.

Anyway, if there's anything that we can do for you, just let us know. :) I've also always wanted to turn into a dragon, an amethyst dragon. The only other thing I can remember turning into in a non-LD was a fish. But it was still pretty enjoyable.

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\"Winking at crows in the dark won't scare them.\"[/b]

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My mind never comes up with that.... *jealous*

-Amé

In my dreams, I'm usually quite murderous. Something usually happens to aggravate me, often being bullied in a school setting, and I just snap and do something really horrible. Like taking a girl by the hair and bang her head off the table repeatedly. Though I've done much worse. I suppose I do rather enjoy it.

I usually run away afterwards, more out of frustration and contempt for those I leave behind than out of guilt. A lot of the time I get caught and frankly, treated with more sympathy than I deserve by the headmaster/father character. He usually appears as a middle-aged man, but he's really a dragon hiding in human form, like me. He's an old black and powerful dragon by the name of Thunder. I've fought him dragon to dragon before, but I am always defeated, because he has the same powers I do and he's wiser in how he uses them. He often suceeds in tempering me, but there's always an element of resistance in me and I'm always likely to run away, whatever's happening.

I'm aggressive as a human, too, but morphing into another form is something I tend to do when I suddenly take control of a dream. Sort of a "stuff this - I'm being a dragon!" reaction. That's when I've already "snapped" for some reason or other, so I do tend to be in a more evil mood in an alternate form.

In real life, I've had a history of being bullied. Most of time, I keep myself under a fairly tight leash. But very rarely I just lash out. I get away with it though (I once fought someone right in front of my real headmaster!) because from day to day I'm an utter teacher's pet and my reputation means my teachers either don't believe what they hear or they decide there must be some exceptional cirumstances. I often think about being violent, but I'm usually dissatisfied after those rare times I actually do hurt someone.

Incidentally, I consider transforming into a fish to be quite an acomplishment. I've never achieved anything marine because I think it's too "alien" for me to really visualise. Cats and dogs are a doddle, dragons maybe a bit harder, but fish impressive.

The "winking at crows" thing is just odd, even by my own admission. Although it does actually make sense, I suppose. The crux to it is that winking at crows in broad daylight won't scare them, either.

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Originally posted by Grey Dragon
Hmm... I've been looking around the site and I'm wondering what actually consitutes a \"lucid dream\". A lot of the dreams I recall clearly (so lucid in that clear-sighted sense) I don't really control. I just let them take their course. I only change them if I don't approve of them somehow.

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I think there is a whole spectrum of lucidity. At one end you are vaguely aware its a dream at the other end you know fully its a dream and you can change every aspect of it.

When I was a teenager I could sleep a lot - every weekend more than 12 hours a night. During the later stages of sleep, I would feel in my dream I was starting to wake up, and I would make minor changes to the action of the dream to keep it going.

Patricia Garfield writes of the term "Dream Composing" which kind of fits with that experience.

In my twenties I started to have spontaneous lucid dreams 4 or 5 times a year, where I wasn't controlling the plot or background of the dream, but my dream self was more aware and I could fly around and do fun stuff.

Now I'm using specific techniques to induce lucid dreams (WBTB and MILD). These dreams are much shorter, but the degree of sensory awareness and realization that I'm dreaming is the highest. These experiences are very enjoyable. So I don't feel I've lost ability through aging.

I can recall from last night five distinct dreams. It seems these days I'm getting quantity rather than quality.

I'm almost always aware to some extent that I'm dreaming. There were various aspects to the dreams, mostly time-shifts, that made me think dimly "dream", but I took no further action on it. There was nothing about the dreams that really took my interest or made me want to intervene, which is how I usually achieve lucidity.

I'm finding it slightly hard to sleep at the moment. I seem to be extremely tense all over.

"Trying" to have a lucid dream has never worked very well for me in the past, probably as it tended to leave me rather frustrated. I think I have managed WILDs before (although I wouldn't have thought of them as WILDs) but rarely. Manipulating dreams in the dawn hours was one of the ways I regularly practiced and had some success with, but dreams at those hours tend to become irksome little nightmares very easily.

I need to find a way of properly waking myself up when it think "yes, this is a dream" rather than ignoring it. But maybe I should be addressing the difficulty of just getting properly relaxed and ready for sleep first?