Thread: Introduction And First Questions On The Journey...

Originally Posted by dreamMeUp

Hi dreamers,
hello to everone out there and thank you for the wealth of information that you and others put online so far and which helped me to get as far as I am now in my pursuit fro lucidity.

:yumdumdoodledum:

INTRODUCTION:
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I am 31, male, from Germany - a musician, writer, painter and programmer (last item the learned and still necessary dayjob, in case it isn't painfully obvious... )

I have come across the topic of Lucid Dreaming in another forum a few weeks ago (not dealing with LDs) and was really fascinated.

I started reading up on everything on the web only and began writing dreams down. I must say that I had no problems recalling most of my dreams before, but it was indeed interesting to look for recurring dreamthemes, e.g.
LUCIDITY CHRONOLOGY
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I did reality checks (checking watches and counting fingers), but I actually had some days in between where I only did it once and I never did it more than ten to fifteen times a day.

MILD I tried, but it did not seem to work on me, as well as some halfhearted WILD attempts.

What did happen, though, was that I had false awakenings where I reflected what I had dreamed and when I fully woke up I took this as one of the signs of approaching lucidity.

Now, yesterday night, when my wife pulled away the blanket, I woke up and when I felt I would drop off to sleep again in no time I (though being only half awake in the first place) decided to try a round of WILD. I was pretty relaxed already, so no need to relax. As I could not remember the appropriate affirmation to induce a lucid dream, I just told myself that I am going to enter my dream and to take myself with me...

I had a strong falling sensation as if I would sink through the bed backwards. I remembered that I read somewhere that this also was a sign of approaching lucidity and just went with it and well...

I opened my eyes and were fully conscious in my dream.

I was totally shocked at the reality of it all. I don't know what I was expecting, but I would have never thought that it really feels so real.

I had my arm stretched out in front of me and was holding a photo which I did not clearly see, but it was there like a bait from my subconsciousness to start my dream by exploring what's on the photo.

But I was conscious and I did not want to watch that photo. I was lying in bed (both in the dream and in real life) and to be honest: I was completely terrified. I wanted to wake up.
But I could not.
I closed my eyes shortly, but it did not work.
Before I panicked I tried to remember that I was lying in bed. And when I had a clear remembrance of the real life I woke up, made my dream diary entry and stayed awake for some time.
PROBLEMS & QUESTIONS:
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- I need solid tips and techniques for waking up reliably, but could not find any. Searching did not work, because the search terms needed to be longer than 3 letters and I could not paraphrase it appropriately

- Were you afraid in your first Lucid? I was, and I wonder if I am sort of chicken shit or if it is normal...

- Is the adoption program in this forum only for those who have not yet achieved a lucid dream? I am really interested to pursue this seriously and would like to say more about my goals over there when the two week period has passed. After all, I am very much a newb to the whole thing and would definitely benefit from some guidance. Or at least I think so...
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Dreammeup
Welcome to the world of Lucid dreams .....my first experience was a little scary too....it was like so vivid!! everything was so clear and colorful and I could even feel the texture of objects that I touched....i was like I cant believe im in this weird dreamworld and im fully awake....it was an experience...all I can say is just keep reading the tutorials here and keep a journal of your dreams and lay back and enjoy this special gift that is easily learned and mastered.

Hello, dreammeup Welcome to DV!

So, was it the photo that caused you to become afraid or was it something else? Emotions are often stronger in dreams than in real life, as you may have experienced, but it's very important to just try and relax. Close your eyes and take some deep breaths, though many say that closing your eyes can cause you to wake up when you open them again.

I've had a limited number of lucid dreams, but I've found that one thing that can help a lot is to form a plan before you go to bed. Decide what you want to do when you become lucid and stick to it. If you can predict that you will start to feel anxious, force yourself to relax and take some deep breaths. Find something in the dream that could cause you to feel more at ease and focus on it until you can get situated.

If you want to wake up... try moving your physical body. I had one LD where I was able to move my dream body, but still feel my physical body. I'm not entirely sure exactly how you would go about accomplishing that, but feel free to use your imagination. If it helps, you can close your eyes and tell yourself firmly to wake up.

I hope this was helpful. As far as adoptions, you can request to be adopted when you've been here for two weeks, and it's not necessarily for those who haven't LDed. A lot of people just want some additional one-on-one help.

-Amé

Hi and wow you WILDed... thats soo cool ima about to try that afta i post this.... the problem is now im even more unsure about it.... im scard of the expirance.... but know it should get used to it.... its just the first deam im afraid of and what it will be like o and the crazy stuff before you get inot the dream lol

Welcome to Dreamviews.

I had a problem with a recurring nightmare a few years ago. I had told my mother about it, and she gave me, as of right now, a foolproof method to wake myself up when you realize you're in a dream or if you're worried you could possibly be dreaming. In your dream state, concentrate on blinking your eyes repeatedly--it'll carry through into your physical body and has always worked to wake me up.

biggen, amethyst Star and Neil: thanks very much for the warm welcome...

all I can say is just keep reading the tutorials here and keep a journal of your dreams and lay back and enjoy this special gift that is easily learned and mastered.[/b]

Yea, I have discovered so many new tutorials or simply ideas in this forum since I posted this introduction to myself it is really inspiring...

So, was it the photo that caused you to become afraid or was it something else?[/b]

No, it was how real it all felt that scared me.. that experience was so much more vivid than anything I had filed under dream in my memory!
and for trying to calm down, I read some ideas by BillyBob001, IIRC, for calming down adn focusing on your perceptions which I will try in my next lucid dream...

Hi and wow you WILDed.[/b]

LOL, i wasn't aware of the fact it's something special?
But it felt truly amazing, to have one continous flow of consciousness from waking life to dream world. I would love to do it that way again, but if my RCs and the MILDs I am trying would lead me to remember that I am dreaming that would be nice, too...


thanks again everyone...

thanks Arienne23 - that sounds simple and feasible!

Originally Posted by dreamMeUp

LOL, i wasn't aware of the fact it's something special?
But it felt truly amazing, to have one continous flow of consciousness from waking life to dream world. I would love to do it that way again, but if my RCs and the MILDs I am trying would lead me to remember that I am dreaming that would be nice, too...
thanks again everyone...
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Yep, many people can't do a WILD, it usually takes many attempts to get it down, congratulations

I had my first lucid dream last night, so I want to ask you a quick question. In the dream you said it felt extremely realistic, but when you woke up did the memory fade a bit and seem like a dream recall, instead of a past waking memory? Because that's how I felt.

Also, I would love to WILD, it sounds amazing, I've got to try it sometime soon!

hmmm, no it was still very impressive when I woke up. I stayed awake and wrote it down and then I thought about it all so the whole experience was thoroughly saved to brainHD which is also an important part of keeping the reality of the dream alive (someone mentioned it somewhere here on DV forums).

Maybe it has to do with the lucidty levels of how aware you are in your dream. I have a good friend which I envied a lot because she had LDs just after I told her what I was trying to do (and I only had false awakenings ), but when I described my epxerience to her she was clearly freaked out. It seems that while she was aware of her dreams and even had some control, it was all still a half-dizzy reality like she hadn't slept enough in real life.

Now, I entered the dream being fully conscious so I think that even though I had no control of what happened, the experience as such was stronger than just a half-conscious thought of "this is probably a dream, innit?"

And that's why I would love to do it again...