Hey, New, Very Interested!

[chron911]

[color=#FF6600]Hello all, My names Ryan, i'm 17, and i've been interested in Lucid dreaming for about a year now. I'm glad i've finally found a friendly unbiased communtity to discuss Lucid dreaming. I have never had a lucid dream(Well maybe i've had one, but I cant remember any ). I plan on working very hard to have some lucid dreams. I was just wondering, how long did it take you guys to have your first L.D? And is there such things as dream characters, what I mean by this is like someone in your dream that youve never met or seen in real life, but they keep reoccuring in your dreams. And also, say I have a dream that im in NYC, i've never been there before, would the city look like the actual city, or what my mind thinks it looks like. Thanks for all the help ~Ryan (thank you to whoever replies) P.S. ive also heard lots of mentions of "WILD" on the forums, can someone tell me what that is. And what are the best reality checks, and how would they help :S i just dont understand how they would help.

[FreeOne]

about a month after finding out what lucid dreams are i had one. and that is pretty amazing concidering i thought i forgot about it and figured i didnt want to do it (i was WAY wrong) it just sort of happened for me it was so amazing... dreams are just bland till u have had one. anyway thats about how long it took me. And to answer your second question i think it is possible, there have been people that have made up people that are just in their mind. And for ur last question i dont think that it would look exactly the same if u havent been there but from all the tv shows and pictures i think u could come way close. welcome to the forum!

[Leo Volont]

[color=#FF6600]Hello all, My names Ryan, i'm 17, and i've been interested in Lucid dreaming for about a year now. I'm glad i've finally found a friendly unbiased communtity to discuss Lucid dreaming. I have never had a lucid dream(Well maybe i've had one, but I cant remember any ). I plan on working very hard to have some lucid dreams. I was just wondering, how long did it take you guys to have your first L.D? And is there such things as dream characters, what I mean by this is like someone in your dream that youve never met or seen in real life, but they keep reoccuring in your dreams. And also, say I have a dream that im in NYC, i've never been there before, would the city look like the actual city, or what my mind thinks it looks like. Thanks for all the help ~Ryan (thank you to whoever replies) [/b] Dear Chronic, First, is there something wrong with the Dreams you are having. Sometimes it may help in inducing Lucid Dreams if there is any particular problem that can be solved if you become more highly aware while you are dreaming. Indeed, if there is a particular problem which you would like to address, such as wishing to make different choices than you usually make in your Dreams, then start a program of Auto-Suggestion or Auto Hypnosis in which you remind yourself 7 or 8 times everyday that the next time such a pivotal situation occurs in your dreams, you will go about it differently, the way you now suggest you will. Often times, when that target situation occurs in a Dream, it may generate some spontaneous Lucidity, or your dream behavior may be modified without having gone Lucid in the strictest sense. But in either case you will have learned how to work on yourself through your Dreams. New York does have its attractions, doesn't it. Now, I am an old man and so this makes the dream I am about to tell you about doubly odd -- I dreamt I brought home to my Family a young fiance, and when I introduced her to my mother I explained that my young lady was a singer and that she had just made a CD and would like us all to hear it. And so I found a CD Player and popped in the CD, and there was my finance singing "New York New York" -- that campy Lisa Minelli/Frank Sinatra song... yes, yes, arguably catchy, but why on earth would anybody record it nowadays. It even seemed odd within the dream. And while my fiance was not a bad singer, I wondered that she thought she was good enough to be a recording star. But, anyway, I did wonder of the Dream significance of New York New York. Now regarding recurrent dream characters. In my dreams I often socialize with some very congenial and helpful Dream Characters, but I am glad that they don't often repeat. If the same Dream Characters were to appear again and again and again, it would, so to speak, be as though they were developing a life of their own. One would have to begin wondering if they really existed somewhere. it would be puzzling. Now, in my dreams, the Characters may actually exist, but since they don't repeat their appearances, I don't have to obsess about them. There has been a young lady on this Page who has been dreaming of a future Marriage, husband and baby motif. She keeps seeing a future husband. Now THAT really would be something of a compelling nature. Fine if it is REAL and prophetic, but if the dream is simply a mental construction, or some alternate life of the Dream Persona on the Astral Plane (and are Dream Personas may have very significant lives in the Dream Realm apart from what influences our daily lives have on our dreams. Some of our Dream Personas may even have different bodies from our waking bodies, and so it is not beyond our dreams, that we may have parallel existences going on in our dreams). anyway, this young lady who often dreams of a husband may be sabotaged in her waking life as she can't help but to wait and wait and wait for this particular "Mr. Right" to show up. It would be something to ask a Spiritual Angel about. Now, there are Two Schools when conceptualizing about Dreams -- the Materialist School (dreams are isolated entirely within one's brain, people speak of the subconscious mind. and there are no psychic powers or actual Out of Body Travel or any of that stuff), and the Spiritual School (which supposes that Dreams are the Gateway to Spirituality and the Objective Collective Consciousness, that Astral Travel and Out of Body Travel are realities, and that Dreams can be shared between individuals). In the Spiritual View of Dreaming, one can access sources of Guidance by appealing to the Higher Angels -- by applying for Spiritual Sponsorship, so to speak. I suppose a Materialist could concede about the same thing, but by insisting that his "Angels" are benevolent and helpful aspects of the Subconscious Mind. Anyway, it would be such Angels with whom one should consult regarding the reality of one's repeating Dream Characters. Or perhaps remember to ask the Dream Character herself....

[chron911]

about a month after finding out what lucid dreams are i had one. and that is pretty amazing concidering i thought i forgot about it and figured i didnt want to do it (i was WAY wrong) it just sort of happened for me it was so amazing... dreams are just bland till u have had one. anyway thats about how long it took me. And to answer your second question i think it is possible, there have been people that have made up people that are just in their mind. And for ur last question i dont think that it would look exactly the same if u havent been there but from all the tv shows and pictures i think u could come way close. welcome to the forum! [/b] Oh i forgot to take that into consideration. Dreams are pure memory so all the tv shows i've seen based in new york are stored in my head lol. Thanks for the anwsers guys!

[Daen]

Hey Chron, I think dreams are actually a great deal more than "pure memory". Mr Volont (sp?) mentioned the Astral Plane; I believe that with the right degree of awareness (and education, most likely) through ones dreams s/he could enter this universal plane of existence and see any place they have not seen before. I suppose this shows me to be from the "spiritual" school of dreamers. I think that what Mr Volont said about asking a "Dream Angel" or "Guide" or indeed the character itself about such things would bring the greatest rewards. His comments make me curious as to what school he scubcribes to and whether he has made contact with any of his Guides; I have done so once and have yet to meet someone interested in anything similar. When I first started getting lucid I would often become delightfully overwhelmed by the fact that I could only remember some of the characters (especially a young, Asian boy that I would adventure with) in my dreams when I became lucid, and I would tell them so! So it is indeed an interesting topic. I would like to explore the Astral reality some more before I claimed to be sure, but I am certainly excited about such things. Dae, Rob. P.S. Welcome!

[chron911]

Hey Chron, I think dreams are actually a great deal more than "pure memory". Mr Volont (sp?) mentioned the Astral Plane; I believe that with the right degree of awareness (and education, most likely) through ones dreams s/he could enter this universal plane of existence and see any place they have not seen before. I suppose this shows me to be from the "spiritual" school of dreamers. I think that what Mr Volont said about asking a "Dream Angel" or "Guide" or indeed the character itself about such things would bring the greatest rewards. His comments make me curious as to what school he scubcribes to and whether he has made contact with any of his Guides; I have done so once and have yet to meet someone interested in anything similar. When I first started getting lucid I would often become delightfully overwhelmed by the fact that I could only remember some of the characters (especially a young, Asian boy that I would adventure with) in my dreams when I became lucid, and I would tell them so! So it is indeed an interesting topic. I would like to explore the Astral reality some more before I claimed to be sure, but I am certainly excited about such things. Dae, Rob. P.S. Welcome! [/b] Would anyone care to ellaborate(sp?) on the astral plane and what it is exactly. Thanks a bunch

[chron911]

Thanks to whoever anwsered, the rest of you are very rude

[tai]

Hey chron. Thought I would share some points of view on a few of your questions. Some people would say that your dream characters (in particular recurring characters) are purely different aspects of your personality who take on a form in your dream - this includes the monster chasing you through the woods! From this angle, everything and everyone in your dream is constructed by your mind. If you visit New York in your dream, but have never been there in waking reality, your brain is using the bits of New York its seen on TV and then making up the rest. The other point of view on this is a bit more "spiritual" - this is your question about the astral plane. You may have heard about "Out-of-body experiences" or OBE's. This is when your soul leaves your body behind and goes off on its own. It visits a different "dimension", beyond our physical reality - people call this the astral plane. There are many, many theories and beliefs around this one, and would take more than this paragraph to go into it! But, related to dreaming, some people argue that when you dream (especially Lucid dream), your soul is visiting the astral plane. Arguably, you can visit New York on the astral plane while dreaming - then you are actually "there" and your brain is not making it up. As I said, it gets pretty involved! When you look at dreaming this way, characters in your dream could also be separate entities from outside, who are "visiting" you in your dream. This can be quite a scary idea for some people, but your "visitors" could also be guides, who are there to help you, (possibly like Daen's Asian boy). The great thing about dreaming is that its quite difficult to prove anything, so your beliefs have to be drawn from your own dream experience. The adventure is to figure it out. Good luck and welcome!

[TygrHawk]

Hello all, My names Ryan, i'm 17, and i've been interested in Lucid dreaming for about a year now. I'm glad i've finally found a friendly unbiased communtity to discuss Lucid dreaming. I have never had a lucid dream(Well maybe i've had one, but I cant remember any ). I plan on working very hard to have some lucid dreams. I was just wondering, how long did it take you guys to have your first L.D? [/b] Hiya Ryan, and welcome! We are glad to have you here. Speaking personally, I had a few lucid dreams naturally starting when I was 8 or 9 years old. However, I didn't "discover" lucid dreaming (and DreamViews) until a couple of years ago (I'm 45 now). When I did, and started practicing the techniques to induce LDs, it took me about 2 weeks or so before getting any results. And is there such things as dream characters, what I mean by this is like someone in your dream that youve never met or seen in real life, but they keep reoccuring in your dreams. And also, say I have a dream that im in NYC, i've never been there before, would the city look like the actual city, or what my mind thinks it looks like. Thanks for all the help [/b] Any person you see in a dream is referred to as a dream character, or DC. If you have certain people (or places, or things) that appear often in your dreams, you can consider those "dream signs", and learn to use them to trigger lucidity, or at least to question reality. As far as the NYC question, I'm sure that what you see would be your mind's best interpretation of the facts you already have about the place -- even just reading about something would be enough to draw some sort of mental picture. But there's no way that you could "see" things exactly as they are in real life, if you don't have any way of knowing exactly what they look like. P.S. ive also heard lots of mentions of "WILD" on the forums, can someone tell me what that is. And what are the best reality checks, and how would they help :S i just dont understand how they would help. [/b] WILD stands for Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream. Follow the link for a tutorial about it. It's a difficult method to learn, and I've never been able to make it work. I'd suggest starting off with something a little simpler, like MILD and WBTB. As for reality checks, my favorites are attempting to float off the ground, and trying to breath through my nose while pinching it. But no matter how much I practice RCs in real life, it never carries over into my dreams to just do them automatically. However, once I suspect I am dreaming, then I will consciously do a RC just to confirm that I am indeed dreaming. Thanks to whoever anwsered, the rest of you are very rude [/b] Now now. Not everyone logs on every day, and it's easy to miss a thread. I didn't see this one until this morning. And also, not everyone who reads your thread will feel that they have anything useful to contribute -- I'm pretty sure they're not being rude.