Intro

[casemarten]

Hello everyone. I've read most of the info on the website and have looked at the msg board a bit, and you all seem to be very kind, open-minded people. I'm glad to have found this forum where I can discuss my dreams! As far as lucid dreaming goes, I have been having lucid dreams for as long as I can remember. Around the age of 15-16 I became very interested in parapsychology and the paranormal, and first read about lucid dreams. I have read many books on dream psychology and am a college student majoring in psychology as well. My main goals when studying my dreams during the past few years have been to uncover patterns, my personal dreamsigns, and attempt to figure out what my brain is actually doing. Almost all (at least 90%) of my dreams are very much like real life or are realistic in most respects. (Like I will dream of real people in real situations but something absurd will be going on in the background) My most typical dream sign is that I become aware that the place I am dreaming of being is incorrect. For instance, I will be at my mothers house but all of a sudden will realize, "this is not my mother's house." Although I do become lucid at this point and experience incredible dreams, I never change my location. I always accept that this is what my mind has substituted for my mother's house, or whatever the situation may be. I want to say up front, that I know I am completely lucid 4-5 nights a week during dreams. However, I do not assert myself and do things like fly, travel, etc. I always complete the dream from the present dream situation. For instance, if I am at my mother's house attending a birthday party, the dream will unfold just as it would have (i assume) if I was not lucid - though I am lucid and acknowledge that it is a dream and experience it with full lucidity. I just wanted to make that clear for anyone who might want to talk to me, so they understand how I interact in my lucid dreams. I mentioned that my dreams are almost always of everyday/real life situations. When I was about 17, I befriended a very interesting woman who opened me up to astrology, telepathy, and other paranormal experiences. About this time, I began having a number of deja vu experiences that were very enlightening. I would experience something very mundane, say a waiter bringing me my food at a restaurant, and suddenly know i had been there, experienced this, and could recount some details of what would happen next. I mention this because this was a very spiritual time in my life when I was just learning about new-ageish techniques and parapsychology. After 2 or 3 years of experiencing these deja vu instances, I came to the conclusion that I had already experienced these events in my dreams. I have accepted that I dream of things that have yet to happen, and when I experience the "deja vu" - it means that I am following the correct path in life. WHen I fail to have these experiences for a length of time (month or so), I need to change my life to get back on track. I have always been able to find these experiences again. I dont know if this has anything in particular to do with lucid dreaming, but i do believe very strongly in the power of my dreams. I am particularily interested in gaining control and asserting myself in my dreams, but i must admit, I enjoy playing out my dreams in a lucid state without changing them. I am mostly here to talk with others, hear their opinions on my experiences, and take my dreams to a new level. I also want to add that I am a very intuitive person. I experience ESP with my mother several times a week and have had some positive results with experiments in telepathy. I think that I might be capable of much greater things, such as astral projection, clairvoyance, etc if i had some guidance and could learn these skills. I would definately be interested in being "adopted" by someone here who could guide me to new levels. Sorry this has been so long! I could go on forever with the particulars, but I'll leave that for later. Thanks for listening, and I look forward to talking with everyone here. cayce

[casemarten]

I forgot to add something, which I think is probably going to be of some significance when dealing with my dreams. From the age of 11-16 I had a recurring dream which I later studied and deciphered to be a memory of a past life. I participated in a study at John's Hopkins and my story was used in a paper about adolescents recalling past lives. Occasionally I still experience snippets of this dream, but it might have some significance when trying to understand my dream patterns/psychology. Thanks!

[Gwendolyn]

Welcome to the forum, casemarten. I am glad you made it here! If you are looking for a place to share your dreams. I also assume that you will be posting a lot in the Beyond Dreaming section of our forum. We are an open minded people and I am glad you chose to join us.

[Burns]

Originally posted by casemarten I have accepted that I dream of things that have yet to happen, and when I experience the "deja vu" - it means that I am following the correct path in life. WHen I fail to have these experiences for a length of time (month or so), I need to change my life to get back on track. That is a very interesting way to look at life. Kind of like a marker that you're still on the right path. So you dream about something, and it ends up happening in real life? Does this happen often? I sometimes have deja vu experiences but am usually unsure where I had the initial thought - in real life or dreams. Originally posted by casemarten From the age of 11-16 I had a recurring dream which I later studied and deciphered to be a memory of a past life. I participated in a study at John's Hopkins and my story was used in a paper about adolescents recalling past lives. Occasionally I still experience snippets of this dream, but it might have some significance when trying to understand my dream patterns/psychology. Wow, that's really interesting! Can I ask what the past life experience was like? Where were you and what were you doing? I also wonder how researchers doing this study could absolutely conclude you were dreaming about a past life? How did the study work to prove that? Anyway, thanks for the intro, and welcome to DV! Hope you enjoy yourself!

[dudesuperior]

Originally posted by casemarten Although I do become lucid at this point and experience incredible dreams, I never change my location. I always accept that this is what my mind has substituted for my mother's house, or whatever the situation may be. I want to say up front, that I know I am completely lucid 4-5 nights a week during dreams. However, I do not assert myself and do things like fly, travel, etc. I guess you could learn alot from that. With all the perks of LDing (like flying) I almost forgot about the dreams themselves and am geared towards asserting myself on every thing in the dream the moment I become lucid, but 'normalily' in a dream can be just as fun. Welcome to DV anyways!

[casemarten]

Originally posted by Burns Wow, that's really interesting! Can I ask what the past life experience was like? Where were you and what were you doing? I also wonder how researchers doing this study could absolutely conclude you were dreaming about a past life? How did the study work to prove that? Anyway, thanks for the intro, and welcome to DV! Hope you enjoy yourself! * I'm new at this and I dont think I've got all I wanted to quote, but anyway...The original study was involving young children 2-6 (because evidentally that is the most common age for someone to remember/recall the most about a past life). I submitted my experiences via email and was later contacted by the University to prepare a full report for a side study done by the same group on adolescents. I don't think the study was concerned with concluding whether or not the dream was valid - honestly I think they were looking for people to include in reports, statistics, etc. In the case of younger children, there is usually no question about whether or not the child is telling the truth. From what little reading I have done about young children and past lives, they tend to recall and know things that are impossible for them to know. (e.g. names, foreign places, tiny details about a person's life) I did read one case where a three year old girl kept talking about a village in India and sparked the parents' interest. They did some research and evidentally the child's recollection developed further - they ended up going to the village and speaking with the family of the deceased the child claimed to be, and the child could answer in the family's native tongue questions about the individual's past that only he/she would know. I found this very interesting! My "past life" dreams started out as extremely vivid and violent. Over time I learned more pieces of the puzzle, and it is hard to dismiss a recurring dream that grows both in the expanse and detail that I remembered. I initially knew only a vague time period (1850-1910), that i was a dark haired woman working in a restaurant, and that there was a fire. The details grew and grew, and eventually I could draw a map of the relation of my home, the store where I worked, and the visage of the building I was in front of when my memories end. Due to the geography and other details I remember, I believe it might have been the Great Chicago fire of 1871.

[DazedAndAmuseD]

Hi Casemarten. I'm new here too and I agree that everyone here seems so nice and very open minded. I am also a college student studying psychology. Your experiences with dreams sound really interesting. I hope one day I can have the same type of understanding about my dreams that you do about yours. It's nice to meet you and welcome to the fourm.

[Burns]

Originally posted by casemarten In the case of younger children, there is usually no question about whether or not the child is telling the truth. *From what little reading I have done about young children and past lives, they tend to recall and know things that are impossible for them to know. (e.g. names, foreign places, tiny details about a person's life) I did read one case where a three year old girl kept talking about a village in India and sparked the parents' interest. *They did some research and evidentally the child's recollection developed further - they ended up going to the village and speaking with the family of the deceased the child claimed to be, and the child could answer in the family's native tongue questions about the individual's past that only he/she would know. *I found this very interesting! That is very interesting. And it's true that very young children tend not to lie (but you have to get them before they start acting up )

[splash]

Originally posted by casemarten Hello everyone. I've read most of the info on the website and have looked at the msg board a bit, and you all seem to be very kind, open-minded people. *I'm glad to have found this forum where I can discuss my dreams! As far as lucid dreaming goes, I have been having lucid dreams for as long as I can remember. *Around the age of 15-16 I became very interested in parapsychology and the paranormal, and first read about lucid dreams. *I have read many books on dream psychology and am a college student majoring in psychology as well. * My main goals when studying my dreams during the past few years have been to uncover patterns, my personal dreamsigns, and attempt to figure out what my brain is actually doing. *Almost all (at least 90%) of my dreams are very much like real life or are realistic in most respects. (Like I will dream of real people in real situations but something absurd will be going on in the background) My most typical dream sign is that I become aware that the place I am dreaming of being is incorrect. For instance, I will be at my mothers house but all of a sudden will realize, "this is not my mother's house." Although I do become lucid at this point and experience incredible dreams, I never change my location. *I always accept that this is what my mind has substituted for my mother's house, or whatever the situation may be. *I want to say up front, that I know I am completely lucid 4-5 nights a week during dreams. *However, I do not assert myself and do things like fly, travel, etc. *I always complete the dream from the present dream situation. For instance, if I am at my mother's house attending a birthday party, the dream will unfold just as it would have (i assume) if I was not lucid - though I am lucid and acknowledge that it is a dream and experience it with full lucidity. *I just wanted to make that clear for anyone who might want to talk to me, so they understand how I interact in my lucid dreams. * I mentioned that my dreams are almost always of everyday/real life situations. *When I was about 17, I befriended a very interesting woman who opened me up to astrology, telepathy, and other paranormal experiences. *About this time, I began having a number of deja vu experiences that were very enlightening. *I would experience something very mundane, say a waiter bringing me my food at a restaurant, and suddenly know i had been there, experienced this, and could recount some details of what would happen next. *I mention this because this was a very spiritual time in my life when I was just learning about new-ageish techniques and parapsychology. *After 2 or 3 years of experiencing these deja vu instances, I came to the conclusion that I had already experienced these events in my dreams. *I have accepted that I dream of things that have yet to happen, and when I experience the "deja vu" - it means that I am following the correct path in life. *WHen I fail to have these experiences for a length of time (month or so), I need to change my life to get back on track. *I have always been able to find these experiences again. * I dont know if this has anything in particular to do with lucid dreaming, but i do believe very strongly in the power of my dreams. *I am particularily interested in gaining control and asserting myself in my dreams, but i must admit, I enjoy playing out my dreams in a lucid state without changing them. *I am mostly here to talk with others, hear their opinions on my experiences, and take my dreams to a new level. * I also want to add that I am a very intuitive person. *I experience ESP with my mother several times a week and have had some positive results with experiments in telepathy. *I think that I might be capable of much greater things, such as astral projection, clairvoyance, etc if i had some guidance and could learn these skills. *I would definately be interested in being "adopted" by someone here who could guide me to new levels. Sorry this has been so long! I could go on forever with the particulars, but I'll leave that for later. *Thanks for listening, and I look forward to talking with everyone here. * cayce welcome to dv.

[cybereality]

Hey, welcome to the forum. I'm happy to see we have another believer. I found many parallels between your experience and mine. I have actually had many dreams of the future myself. When I was younger it was mainly a strong sense of deja vu. I would frequently tell my friends: "I had a dream about this before," but it wasn't until I got older that I realized that most people don't believe this type of stuff. One thing that especially rings a bell is using deja vu as an indication of following the "right path." Whenever I have a dream come true (so to speak) I know that everything must be right. Such that every single decision I have made up until this point had to have happened just the way it did, or else how could I have seen it before? I came to this forum with the same hopes as you, and I can tell you that there are some very experienced people here. But even so, we are all learning and there is just so much we don't know. I too am trying to hone in on my skills. Maybe we can work together to try to make some sense of all this. If you're interested, just PM me and we can share some of our experiences. // cybereality