What is lucid dreaming like?

Okay my question is What is lucid dreaming like. Now before you bash me for having a stupid question i tell you this. I haven't remembered a single dream in probably a year. I have been trying to work on my dream recalling but can't. I am wondering if i need to set my alarm clock to wake up? I tried tellling my self to wake up but that didn't work. I would have thought that when i wake up though i could remember something about my last rem cycle. Why wouldn't I at least remember my last dream. I wake up and ask try to remember a dream but nope, I can't remember anything. So what is lucid dreaming, or even dreaming, like? Is it just like being in the waking world? When your lucid can you control your dream body? I don't even remember what it is like to dream. Do you just wake up and remember what happened or do you actually experience the dream? Thanks for the help.

Lucid dreaming is amazing. I dont know how to describe it. Im not that experienced myself, but any dreams I have had, have been so real and so graphic, like playing out a video with you as the star. I have had scarey experiences and wonderful experiences like when I stroked my cat - who died last year - and I actually called her name and she came to me and I could feel her fur long after I woke up. I hope you have one soon. I hope I have one tonight.

So is it like almost reality? Thats awesome. I'm only asking cause i have no idea what lucid dreaming is like and no idea what dreamin is like anymore? Any ideas on how to remember dreams? I always wake up, ask my self what my dream was, and say "i have no clue". Thats cool, im becoming a vegan.

You go boy! The vegans will inherit the earth.....so will the lucid vegans

Well this is a very hard question to answer. Just like reality, it is different from person to person. Not even every lucid dream feels the same, if you ask me.

If you haven't remembered a regular dream in a while, it will be hard for me to describe the difference, but I'll do my best. Many regular dreams are just fragments. You meander through them, unconsciously, having no control over yourself of your surroundings, not knowing your dreaming, and usually don't have any real-time recognition of your dream until after you've waken up. Then, you have the vivid non-lucid dreams, in which, sometimes, you'll be somewhat conscious in real time, witnessing the events of the dream, but sort of like watching a movie of what is going on, completely oblivious to the fact that what is going on is a dream.
Then, you have a low level lucid dream. A low level lucid would be as if I were to tell you "Hey man..did you know you're dreaming right now?" You'd be like "huh?!" Looking around, you'd realize that everything was a dream, but you're stll full of doubt. You're full of wonder. You're pondering what you can and can't do, sometimes to the point that many of the things that you try to do, you can't do, because your doubt is holding you back. Then, you have full-blown lucidity, in which you are aware that there is nothing surrounding you that is beyond your control (Whether you Decide to control your surroundings is up to you, but Taking Control is not required to be lucid, only knowing you have the ability to, because you know you're dreaming.)

As far as the experience itself, and how real it feels, consider it as an exact counter to waking life. You have the passive, groggy stage, where you're just kind of zombie-ing your way through it. You don't really notice how realistic things feel, because you're not focused on it, and things often seem distorted, or hazy. Then, you have the unparalled sense of being Completely Aware. You're aware of Everything. You can see every blade of grass, and if you want, zoom in to where you can see the atomic structure of those blades of grass. You can be oblivious to the sounds around you, or completely aware of them, hearing them with a sensitivity that waking life can never replicate. Think of the difference between being drugged with a seditive, and being high on adrenaline. They are as different as night and day, but completely outline the full range of awareness while dreaming.

Hope this helps, and that I made any sense at all. Lol.

Good luck, man, and welcome to DV. Hope you stick around a while. :cooler:

[Edit: Oh, and as far as remembering your dreams: start up a dream journal, it will prove invaluable. Keep it by your bed and write down Whatever You Remember. No Matter How Insignificant. Make it a point to make this part of your daily routine, and don't just give up when you can't remember things within a few seconds of waking up. I do that a lot. Lol. But, the more you stress to yourself the importance of remembering your dream material, the easier it will be over time.

But..most importantly...Be Patient..]

Thanks for all the helpful information. I really want to be able to remember dreams and have a lucid dream someday. I can't wait. Any tips on going to bed tonight? I'm going to try telling myself to remember my dreams. Oh yeah, any explanation to why i woulndt be able to rember my final dream of the night? Is it just that i'm not awaking during rem sleep?

Hmm...Really, the only thing I can say is, get lots of sleep, affirm to yourself that you Will remember your dreams, as you're going to sleep. You can try to wake up early, get on DV for a while, and then go back to bed while trying to remember to realize when you're dreaming. But when you wake up, make sure not to move, and just lie there and think about what you were dremaing of.

Great news, I remembered my first dream in a while now. I actually had either two or three dreams i remember. I don't know which because the first and maybe second were similair.
1. At the first one i was at a baseball game with my brother and then we left after a long dream (I'll spare the long details) We left after he fell down a few rows. Nothing out of ordinary except for that.

2. Then i went down to the lobby but it looked like movie lobby (the one on the seinfeld episode with loyd brawn) I bought some weird things like a toy gun and barbecue sauce.
Then i wanted to buy something to hurt people with cause i was mad.

I don't know if those two dreams were the same or two seperate dreams.

3. I was sitting in my english class, I had my CD case on the right side. The girl that sits on my right took it, looked at the initials ( I have iniitals on it) then looked at the CDs.
I'm so excited!

See? Progress, already. :cooler:

Did you start up a journal, so you can log all this stuff? The more you write; the more you start to recognize; the easier lucid dreaming gets.

Yeah i started a Dream Journal. Like I woke up. I was thinking about what i dreamed, My mom came in and asked me what i dreamt. I just blanked. Then a few minutes later it hit me "I remember!" The thing was it didn't seem like a dream when i woke up. Just like something i did in the past. But i knew i dreamt it. This is awesome.

Yeah, a lot of dreams are indistinguishable from memories. That's what makes many of them so powerful.

Just wait until you get lucid and you're able to experience them in real time. ;)