New here, my first lucid dream.

[Theotherguy]

Hello all. I first heard about lucid dreaming in an article in Reader's Digest, and I thought it would be kind of cool. I came to this site and read all of the material on the first page. I was excited about what would be possible with lucid dreaming, and I immediatley began reality checks several times an hour that day. Just reading about the lucid dreaming caused me to have a lucid dream that very night. As hoped, my reality checking habit carried over into the dream, and it triggered a lucid dream (albiet a very mild one with very little control.) Basically I dreamed that I was at a vending machine, and I pressed one of the buttons and it said "USE EXACT CHANGE". And then, randomly, a giant crab fell out of the ceilng on top of me and began attacking me. Screaming, and throwing the hideous beast off of me, I backed up and began to....float. "...float?" I asked myself. And then I realized, "I must be dreaming." At that moment I became very excited, and my heart began to race. The giant crab promptly exploded. And then I had a false awakening. Dissapointed and discouraged, I thought I had lost the lucid dream, and I got out of bed. I had lost lucidity, and it didn't even dawn on me that my legs were purple and that everything in my room was floating around as if it had no gravity. I decided to do a reality check, and I looked at the clock.. "7:42", it read. I flipped the lightswitch on and off and it worked perfectley. I looked at the clock again...7:42. But then, I thought, "wait a minute...are my legs supposed to be purple?" And the feeling of lucidity returned again. This time I didn't want to be too excited to remain in the dream, so I tried to remain calm. The words of this website repeated in my mind. "Indeed, the dream world seems very much like the real world." I kicked a cardboard box with my purple foot and sent it flying through the air in zero gravity. I realized that I lacked a sense of touch. Deciding to change the drab scenery of my bedroom into something more interesting. So, I imagined a completley white room of infinite size filled with random abstract 3d sculptures. I wasn't quite sure how to change the scenery, but my subconscious provided me with some way to do it. A computer screen appeared immediatley before my face, and a DOS prompt read on it: "ENTER DESTINATION====> " So, I tried to type a description of my ideal landscape into the DOS prompt, but I got confused. All of the letters began rearranging themselves, and the world began to fade. I tried spinning, and holding the image of the white plain with random abstract shapes, but when I had stopped spinning all that remained was blackness...and I lost lucidity and enetered a horrifying nightmare, (the details of which I care not to share). After I had had the dream I wrote it all down in a journal. I've been trying to have another lucid dream for the past week...but all of my reality checks are foiled somehow. I feel like my dreams are becoming more real to compensate for my new advances. For instance, in one of my dreams I did a reality check by looking in a mirror. My face looked normal, and undistorted, so I continued with the dream, thinking it was real. In another dream I was climbing a horrifying rusty ladder on a disgusting sewer tank. Thinking about how strange this was, I smelled the air, to see if I was in reality. As expected, the air had the smell of sewage, so I continued with my dream and didn't question if it was real. How do I continue on, when all of my attempts at reality checks are screwed? Should I pick up a new habit for my reality checks, like pinching myself? Also, how do I remain calm after ataining lucidity? Twice I found out that I was having a dream and then an instant later woke up out of excitement.

[nesgirl119]

Originally posted by Theotherguy Hello all. * I first heard about lucid dreaming in an article in Reader's Digest, and I thought it would be kind of cool. I came to this site and read all of the material on the first page. I was excited about what would be possible with lucid dreaming, and I immediatley began reality checks several times an hour that day. Just reading about the lucid dreaming caused me to have a lucid dream that very night. As hoped, my reality checking habit carried over into the dream, and it triggered a lucid dream (albiet a very mild one with very little control.) Basically I dreamed that I was at a vending machine, and I pressed one of the buttons and it said "USE EXACT CHANGE". And then, randomly, a giant crab fell out of the ceilng on top of me and began attacking me. Screaming, and throwing the hideous beast off of me, I backed up and began to....float. * "...float?" I asked myself. And then I realized, "I must be dreaming." At that moment I became very excited, and my heart began to race. The giant crab promptly exploded. And then I had a false awakening. Dissapointed and discouraged, I thought I had lost the lucid dream, and I got out of bed. I had lost lucidity, and it didn't even dawn on me that my legs were purple and that everything in my room was floating around as if it had no gravity. I decided to do a reality check, and I looked at the clock.. "7:42", it read. I flipped the lightswitch on and off and it worked perfectley. I looked at the clock again...7:42. But then, I thought, "wait a minute...are my legs supposed to be purple?" And the feeling of lucidity returned again. This time I didn't want to be too excited to remain in the dream, so I tried to remain calm. The words of this website repeated in my mind. "Indeed, the dream world seems very much like the real world." I kicked a cardboard box with my purple foot and sent it flying through the air in zero gravity. I realized that I lacked a sense of touch. Deciding to change the drab scenery of my bedroom into something more interesting. So, I imagined a completley white room of infinite size filled with random abstract 3d sculptures. I wasn't quite sure how to change the scenery, but my subconscious provided me with some way to do it. A computer screen appeared immediatley before my face, and a DOS prompt read on it: "ENTER DESTINATION====> " So, I tried to type a description of my ideal landscape into the DOS prompt, but I got confused. All of the letters began rearranging themselves, and the world began to fade. I tried spinning, and holding the image of the white plain with random abstract shapes, but when I had stopped spinning all that remained was blackness...and I lost lucidity and enetered a horrifying nightmare, (the details of which I care not to share). After I had had the dream I wrote it all down in a journal. I've been trying to have another lucid dream for the past week...but all of my reality checks are foiled somehow. I feel like my dreams are becoming more real to compensate for my new advances. * For instance, in one of my dreams I did a reality check by looking in a mirror. My face looked normal, and undistorted, so I continued with the dream, thinking it was real. In another dream I was climbing a horrifying rusty ladder on a disgusting sewer tank. Thinking about how strange this was, I smelled the air, to see if I was in reality. As expected, the air had the smell of sewage, so I continued with my dream and didn't question if it was real. How do I continue on, when all of my attempts at reality checks are screwed? Should I pick up a new habit for my reality checks, like pinching myself? Also, how do I remain calm after ataining lucidity? Twice I found out that I was having a dream and then an instant later woke up out of excitement. Hey there and welcome to the forum!! I actually made a post on that RD, and you can post in there if you'd like. Becoming Lucid is very exciting, isn't it? If I were you, I would write down these experiences in a Dream Journal. Oh, and BTW, the clocks weren't accurate to those of waking life, were they? There are some types of dreams where they do that..(as seen in my sig), and are 100% accurate, as well as anything else you might find. If that happens, perform a RC on.....yourself!!

[Theotherguy]

No, the clocks were not accurate at all to real time. When I woke up it was 5:39. but the clocks were accurate to the dream. In my dream I had woken up and had been awake for a few hours (according to my intuition), so it seemed natural to me that it was 7:42 AM.

[nesgirl119]

Originally posted by Theotherguy No, the clocks were not accurate at all to real time. When I woke up it was 5:39. but the clocks were accurate to the dream. In my dream I had woken up and had been awake for a few hours (according to my intuition), so it seemed natural to me that it was 7:42 AM. Oh, I see. That is an excellent way to Reality Check. If you know it was 5:39AM in real time, and it is later in a LD, it is a pretty obvious dream sign. If the time matches, it is harder to figure out!