Incredibly Frustrating First Long Ld

[sammyba]

Hello, this is my first post, so I'll try and make it relatively painless for everyone. I've been trying to Ld for the better part of a year now, ever since I first heard about the phenomenon on Coast to Coast AM. I've had limited success so far with controlling my dreams, but I have managed to have several lucid dreams, but they have generally been short and fleeting. However, the longest, most vivid LD I've had to date also has to be the single most frustrating thing I've had happen to me while I was sleeping! Any feedback would be apreciated, thanks in advance. Here goes: I was walking to school, but instead of heading to law school, where I'm currently at, I was walking to my old High School. However, once I got there and went inside, it was the interior of my old elementary school! As I was walking around, I became puzzled at my location, and began to question if I was dreaming or not. Almost as soon as I began to think that way, I woke up in my bed (still in the dreamstate). I walked to the bathroom and turned on the light-switch, but of course the light didn't come on. At that moment I felt a looseness in my mouth, and felt a few of my teeth fall out. Immediately, I thought "this is one of the most common dreams, I must be dreaming!" I was excited because I had recently met a young lady who I was very interested in, and wanted to approach in my dreams as kind of a practice. I decided, just to be safe, to perform a few reality checks. Here's the frustrating part: I did three different RC: checked my digital watch, counted my fingers, and read text. I passed all three! At this point, I couldn't understand, I was sure I was in a dream, so I tried the light switch again. This time, the lights came on. As you can imagine I was pretty frustrated by now, and decided "to heck with it, I MUST be in a dream, so I'm going to float in the air to prove it!" Needless to say, I was unable to make myself leviate. After trying my RC's once more, I gave up, decided that I was indeed in "reality", and got in the shower. I woke up a moment later, frustrated and annoyed at such a wasted oppurtunity! Again, any comments or insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Bonsay]

Hi, welcome! Interesting LD. Might I suggest another RC, that usually works for me. It's the "nose plug" RC, all you do is plug your nose and try breathing through it, if you can then you're dreaming. Then there is also the finger through hand and pinch yourself RC. Looks like you had quite a realistic dream, so I don't know how they would work. Maby you weren't too sure that it was a LD? I haven't had such an experience before, I usualy get a dreamy feel and a quick rush of energy, when I become lucid so I'm always 100% sure. When I usually do a RC it's because something strange happens, I always do it with an open mind (not thinking that I'm awake or asleep). It seems to me that you weren't sure that you were dreaming, it seems to me that you doubted your LD so much that your RC did the oposite, that you used it to proove that this dream is reality, if I'm making any sense... Try approaching it with an open mind, don't say "This is a dream and I'm checking if it's reality just in case.", say that you don't know what's happening and wait for a result, don't expect anything (so what happened to you might not happen again). Those were just my thoughts on your experience, hope I helped and that I'm not giving you any "false" info . See you around!

[stranger]

welcome!! I've had a few failed (or unfailed?) RCs in dreams. I remember a dream where the the situation looked a bit weird to me, so I decided to do a RC. I looked at my hand but it was normal. I wasn't sure yet, so I tried to plug my nose, but did it very quickly because I was in public I could breath but suposed that I had done it wrong (it was a fast movement). I even wanted to read a text to be completely sure, but there was nothing around to read. So I gave up and continued with the dream story. What a wasted lucid dream! On the other hand, plugging my nose and trying to breath has never failed to me when done properly, if it helps

[sammyba]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've actually never heard of the plugging the nose trick, but it makes perfect sense, and I'm going to try it next chance I get. I guess what makes this experience soo frustrating for me is the fact that I was on the edge of really, truly being lucid. I was ready to try to control things...and then I managed to talk myself out of it. Like you said, stranger, the predominant feeling is "what a waste!" Oh well, finding this forum has me excited at the possiblities, and I'm looking forward to sharing other, hopefully more succesful LD with you all!