Introduction

[Penatus]

Hi everyone, I'm new here, and there was a recommendation that I introduce myself on this forum so... I found out about Lucid Dreaming from, strangely enough, an episode of Star Trek: Voyager where one of the characters induced a Lucid Dream to communicate with non-corporeal aliens who were terrorizing the crew with nightmares and not letting them wake up. I didn't think much of it at first but after watching it again later I thought, why not, and googled the term. Sure enough, I wound up here. I've been reading the forums for a while and discovered some of the basics in the tutorials. I have also acquired a copy of Exploring the world of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, and I'm finding it very interesting. I think I had an experience of Lucid Dreaming when I was very young, just after someone told me that old story about pinching yourself to see if you are dreaming. So in a dream I pinched myself, and my fingers went through my arm. Unfortunately I had no idea what lucidity was, so instead of taking advantage of this I immediately woke myself. My main aim at the moment is to get my shocking recall up, and as I do this I think I am starting to have some very low level lucid experiences. The difficulty is, they are so low I'm not sure if I am really Lucid Dreaming or just dreaming about Lucid Dreaming. Because my recall is so low, in the first lucid dream i think I had, I cant even remember what triggered it. In that one, all I managed to do was make some match sticks appear and disappear by waving my hand in front of them. Then I lost what little control I had and the dream went on of its own accord. The other time I was on my balcony looking at the city skyline when I thought, "That's funny, that doesn't look like Brisbane (I'm from Brisbane Australia by the way), I must be dreaming!" Now this is very odd for me to notice, as I usually can't tell Brisbane from a ditch: in fact once I had a dream that the Brisbane skyline was being struck by huge bolts of lightning, with buildings exploding everywhere, and THAT didn't trigger Lucidity. Anyway, after realising I was dreaming I tried spinning around to stabilise it but too late: everything dissolved into a swirl of colours and I woke up. I think that's what happend, as I said my recall isn't great... Well, I've probably said WAY more in introducing myself that I was supposed to, sorry. I'm wondering, does anyone know if it is possible to dream about Lucid dreaming? I mean if you follow that train of thought, how does anyone ever know if they are truly in control of a dream? Any comments would be appreciated. Oh also, I have a friend (who I will try to get to join this forum) who has the strange ability to have dreams that continue on in sequence night after night. His longest standing dream has lasted for several months and has tracked the developement of an Island civilization. He's never in control of the dream, but sometimes by deciding before sleeping what he wants to happen, he can slightly influence the dream. Has anyone ever heard of something like this? Is there a way to have sequencing dreams if it doesn't come to you naturally? Thank you for having me on your forum, I'm very excited to be here. Penatus.

[Tornado Joe]

G'day Pen, and I'm wondering, does anyone know if it is possible to dream about Lucid dreaming? I mean if you follow that train of thought, how does anyone ever know if they are truly in control of a dream?[/b] You can dream about anything. If you've ever seen the movie Waking Life the whole movie is pretty much a dream about lucid dreaming. In one particular scene the main character is having a discussion about lucid dreaming itself. One thing to remember, though, is that lucid dreaming doesn't necessarily include dream control. It is very common to be lucid in a dream but still not have control of the envirnonment (at least not to the degree you'd expect). Lucidity is simply knowing you're dreaming. Controling the dream is alltogether different. Regarding your friend that can "sequence" his dreams: it sounds to me like he's practicing dream incubation - which is being able to control the content or subject matter of what you will dream of when you go to sleep. This is actually how I ended up finding out about lucid dreaming (before then I assumed knowing you were dreaming would only wake you up). I was merely looking to see if it was possible to control what I dreamed about. Your friend seems to have developed quite a skill in this and should be able to induce a lucid dream with little effort via the MILD technique.

[Penatus]

One thing to remember, though, is that lucid dreaming doesn't necessarily include dream control. [/b] Mmm, good point, thanks Tornado Joe. So how does one get better at controlling a LD? Just practice? Regarding your friend that can "sequence" his dreams: it sounds to me like he's practicing dream incubation - which is being able to control the content or subject matter of what you will dream of when you go to sleep. This is actually how I ended up finding out about lucid dreaming (before then I assumed knowing you were dreaming would only wake you up). I was merely looking to see if it was possible to control what I dreamed about. Your friend seems to have developed quite a skill in this and should be able to induce a lucid dream with little effort via the MILD technique. [/b] Lucky. So is this something that people can learn to do, and how is it done? Also, another general question (last one, I promise!) Is it worth keeping a dream journal on the site? I mean I will write them down in my paper journal regardless, but is there any advantage to transcribing them onto the internet for others to read? I don't feel a particular desire to regale others with my dreams unless it will benefit me or them in some way... Thanks to everyone for the replies, its great to feel so welcome!

[taihen]

Welcome Penatus Sounds like you had a lucid dream, no matter how low your lucidity is. In any case, it is not natural for one to acheive perfect reality checks when you're a beginner. I mean, you're dreaming! You're not supposed to question anything. Noticing at least that little bit puts you more on the way to become fully lucid. Don't worry about your recall, I know they say that recall is the most important thing, but my recall is pretty much non-existant if I don't try hard and wake myself up and MILD and WBTB etc. Don't worry, things will keep getting better if you keep practicing!

[Smegal]

i've sequenced 3 dreams togetehr once, i cant remember how, but i remember all of them very specifically and it was like an anime movie 3 parter lol, i looked forward to number 4 but it never came out, like every other good film XD

[irishcream]

Hi welcome to DV. The other's have all made great posts to your questions. As for lucidity, yes, it's just practise...control takes practise too. As for the dreamjournal, you don't have to use the site feature of the dreamjournal to write down your dreams, putting them down on paper alone is just fine... The dream journal feature on here is good for people that want to read each other's DJ's and leave comments on them, it can help some people to lucidity. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[Tornado Joe]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE("Penatus")</div> So how does one get better at controlling a LD? Just practice?[/b] Well, while I&#39;ve had a number of lucid dreams, I have not yet really had the ability to have full control of them. I&#39;ve never been able to simply summon someone nor change my environment. But, I have hear that the key to control in dreams is the confidence and belief that you are really have the power to change anything. You essentially are the creator of everything you come across in the dream.

[mountain]

I found out about Lucid Dreaming from, strangely enough, an episode of Star Trek: Voyager where one of the characters induced a Lucid Dream to communicate with non-corporeal aliens who were terrorizing the crew with nightmares and not letting them wake up. [/b] first of all welcome, and second of all, thats not strange... the waking life episode is how a lot of people first learn about lucid dreaming... good stuff, good stuff. they even have a wikipedia page just for that episode... but then, what dont they have a wikipedia page for?