Thread: 1st time lucid dreaming help

Hello everyone,

I first learned of lucid dreaming a few days ago, and thought that alot of hog wash, but last night I had 2 lucid dreams. The first was very brief and solely consisted of my flying through space and lasted a few seconds after which I woke up (I think). In my second lucid dream I realized I was dreaming after my sister who lives 5 hours away from me, appeared unannounced in my apartment and offered no explanation how she had gotten past my locked door. I suspected I was dreaming and grabbed a book and found that the title made no sense and changed each time I looked at it. I was sure I was dreaming and got very excited. I thought of what wild adventures and impossible feats I might want to do, but then I thought I could be wrong and my mind was playing a trick on me, so I should focus on doing something mundane. Indeed, throughout my dream I would control myself out of fear I might be wrong about dreaming. So I decided to make my girlfriend appear, but I was unable to do so (I have since read I should have looked around the corner, or called her on the phone), so I decided I would drive to her apartment. It usually takes me an hour to get to her apartment, and I realized that my dream would not last that long, but I thought that driving to her apartment in my dream would only take 5 minutes as I thought my mind wouldn't be able to recreate that long drive (Is this a correct assumption?) As I walked out to my car I realized how realistic everything seemed, and I was really amazed as I had never had a dream that seemed this real (is this normal?). However, I soon ran into a number of barricades of which the the first three I was able to drive through or around, but I finally came to a gaping hole leading to Hell (I think...could have been purgatory). I thought of driving over the hole, but beacme conerned that I would ruin the car (I have had a lot of car trouble lately!), so instead I decided I would fly over the hole and reach my girlfriend's apartment more quickly. I thought about what if I was wrong bout dreaming...I would die...and in a really dumb way, but I quickly decided that the evidence was overwelming that I was dreaming. So I jumped into the the hole and brought my right arm up and pointed to the sky...and fell into the abyss! And so I found myself in Hell, which turns out to be a long Queue Area deigned in Baroke architecture (like a line for an amusment park ride) that takes an eternity to go through. In Hell I was unable to fly out, and got stuck there even though I contined to realize I was dreaming.

So I guess my questions are:

1. Are the barriers that I encountered that prevented me from leaving my neighborhood normal? How do I get past them (can I?) and what do I do if I get trapped in an area of no escape?

2. Is trying to drive to locations in a dream a mistake? Should I just spin around and wish to be in a new location (note: I dont want to lose lucidity).

3. I have found it really easy to remember this dream as it was so vivid. Will all lucid dreams be so easy to remember?

4. Is my fear that I might not actually be dreaming when lucid dreaming preventing me from doing fantastic feats like flying, or is it helping me stay lucid as it reminds me that I'm dreaming?