Hi everyone!

[Hypnagorama]

I more or less ended up here after Googling on lucid dreaming (again), the reason being that I had my second involuntary lucid dream and awoke to a loud pop in my ear. Some say it's part of an OBE, others attribute it to an LD. Either explanation suits me fine, because I want to work on both abilites. Looking back on my childhood (not that I'm that old already — just turned 24 last week), dreams have always played an important role. It all started when I was about 8 or 9 and decided that it would be fun to write down what I had dreamt that night; at that time I had never heard about dream diaries or lucid dreaming; it felt more like a natural instinct. I managed to keep it up for nearly a six months and eventually, after not being able to recall some dreams, decided to quit. About 8 years later I became interested in religions and spiritual disciplines, including yoga, meditation and buddhism — all of which play a pretty big part in my life. Among other things I also stumbled upon lucid dreaming and that was the first time I realized what I had done back then; the dream diary and all the effort I put into remembering every possible detail (I even woke up several times throughout the night and wrote down whatever I could remember). I started on my second dream diary, filled with new insights and clear goal, I managed to stick to it for about 6 to 8 months, before losing my motivation once again. The fact is, I'm a perfectionist. In some ways it's a blessing, but I consider it to be my dark side and over the past few weeks I've spent a lot of time trying to pinpoint situations that don't need instant perfection, but perseverance. You see, I can be extremely patient when I need to explain something to someone else, but when I decide to teach myself something new, it can only go wrong two or three times before I give up. I've made myself understand the simple fact that everything takes time and that the end result of all my efforts will be well worth it. My biggest passion is, without a doubt, art. In every possible way; I love to take pictures, make music, write, draw and, like many others create websites, which also happens to be a part of my job — I'm an interaction designer and developer for a small company based in western Europe. But, to get back on the subject of lucid dreaming: my first LD happened when I was 17. In my dream I was flying, when all of a sudden I realized a simple fact... “I can't fly! But that means... I'm dreaming!” At that very moment I managed to take control of my dream and noticed a big pile of wood below me, which I wanted to set on fire simply by looking at it. The very moment I stared at the pile, everything turned black and I woke up, but everything felt different, since I realized I had just experienced an LD for the first time. Some years passed and I gained an interest in astral projection, which didn't work out (impatience again), so I went back to meditation. Three years ago I was at the hight of my 'spiritual madness' (for lack of a better way to put it) and spent 10 days at a Vipassana meditation center. I had been a vegetarian for a year at that point and continued it for more two years. I was an avid yoga practioner and under the impression that every other way of attaining 'enlightenment' was inferiour. In short, I panicked during the meditation course, followed through and gained some valuable insights which helped me break down the walls I had put up over that past year. The meditation and strenuous yoga practice did benefit me, so I'm glad it all happened. I just wasn't prepared for the fact that I would turn into a yogic fundamentalist. But, I consider myself cured now and I still need to pick up my hatha and raja yoga practice one of these days. Meditation has become a weekly thing — used to be something I did daily, which in time, it will become once again. And now we're back in the 'now'. Last night I had a lot of dreams and I've been writing things down for the past three weeks, with no intention of quitting before I fully master lucid dreaming. So, I woke up, but I always set my alarm clock 30 minutes early so I get to hit the snooze button and doze off a couple of times before actually getting up. Well, during the last few minutes before my alarm would go off again, I fell asleep and was walking past a large garbage container... smoke started to pour out (not in the regular way, but more like it was some sort of liquid) and the sun was shining; I had my camera with me so I decided to take a few pictures. As I walked away I felt a strange urge to look back and I noticed how beautiful the sun lit the smoke up, but just as I was getting my camera ready, the smoke started to go back into the container... as if I was looking at a movie that was being played back in reverse! At that very moment I realized that I was dreaming and looked intently at the smoke. And then it happened... I awoke and upon doing so, I heard a loud "pop", like a lightbulb breaking. I managed to hold on to the lucid feeling for a couple of hours; made me feel like I was still in my dream, somewhat sleepy, but awake. And so here I am, ready and willing to become a lot more active in the wonderful world of lucid dreams. I'm also working on my latest website at the moment, where I will end up showcasing drawings based upon scenes from my dreams, which works in two ways: I get to practice on my drawing skills, which currently suck and it makes me remember the more visual aspects of my dreams.

[JeX]

welcome to dream views.

[ArchSeraph]

Hello Hypnagorama and welcome to Dreamviews. I became interested in lucid dreaming after trying to find a way to control dreams. Mainly because when I was a child (actually I'm not that old either. I am 15 but I consider myself rather adult for my age) I could have lucid dreams whenever I want but when I was ten years old I lost the ability to have lucid dreams and recall dreams and whenever I did remember dreams they were nightmares where I got killed. I started meditation about two years ago then when I heard of lucid dreaming I used it to improve dream recall (which worked wonders and now I have normal dreams). I am a religious person and my passion as well is art. Just like you I am a perfectionist. Whenever I do my assignments for school I do not stop until it is completed to a good extent. However to achieve an ability you cannot be a perfectionist. Especially with lucid dreaming because you will quickly lose interest if you do not receive results right away. Remember, the great river does not attain its size through brute force, but through perseverance. If you have any questions feel free to ask me I will be glad to help in anyway I can. (Oh and by the way when inform me when your site is up I would like to see your art. )

[wombing]

namaste anyone who can use the phrase " yogic fundamentalist" is alright in my books..hehe i'm interested in buddhism, yoga, and meditation as well. hope you have an enjoyable stay, and welcome.