Hi, I won't reveal my real name as I don't like the idea of people being able to google me. But I'm 18 and I live in New Zealand.
If you're interested in how I got here, read on (I always liked reading things like this when I was an elder member on another forum) but if not, skip this paragraph.
I was watching the film 'waking life' for the second time and thought "i wonder if i can do that... except without the whole dead thing". after googling around, I got some tutorial reading done. After trying the various tutorials for a few days I googled the same thing again for no particular reason and came across this board, which seems awesome! Looking forward to spending plenty of time on this site, getting helped and eventually giving help. I intend to research lots into the topic so I may give more help than I get (Yes, I know it's a buddhist philosophy. I stole it.)

My dream recall is pretty good. I remember >=2 dreams per night in fairly good detail and if I nap during the day I tend to remember everything (not to mention the day ones are far far more interesting and logical, but not lucid). However, my problem is realism. I can't see myself ever gaining useful lucidity(*) as almost all of my dreams are VERY surreal. My night dreams especially. They never make any sense whatsoever (the dreams I read about around here at least seem to have something binding like a plot or at least a decent amount of consciousness) and I'm only barely conscious. This isn't improving despite the dream journal and the relatively good recall. It's possible that I just need spend some more time on it, but wondered if there were some techniques I should be employing to improve realism (rather than waiting which might just be a waste of my time). I'd rather not take pills but if that works for some of you with the same problem, please detail.

*: I have gained lucidity many times. I am often aware that I am dreaming. However, even with lucidity the dream never gets any more real. I havn't tried the spinning thing yet as I havn't had gained lucidity in the 1.5 weeks I've been doing this. This is on my to-do list and have been doing it every now and again in private to try and influence my actions within the dream.

Second, from warpmymind.com i got a file called dreamlucidity.mp3 which supposedly gives you lucid dreams if you listen to it. I'm wary of it as the site seems a little dodgy but I stayed well clear of the one marked 'curse' which is supposedly irreversible whereas if the effects of this are undesireable I can supposedly reverse the effect with degprogramall.mp3 which I also have. Bad idea?