Hey, I'm new around, and I have some questions.

[flamerwiz]

Hey everybody, I accidentally stumbled upon this site yesterday while web surfing, and I was interested immediately, mainly because of the one lucid dream that I have had was interesting, and I wanted to experience it all over again. That said, I should introduce myself. I am a boy of 15 years and I hail from South East Asia. Fun place to be, except the hot and humid nights can kill, figuratively. Anyway, I'm kind of new to the idea of lucid dreaming, and I hope that some of my doubts and questions can be clarified. Firstly, just this morning, when I woke up, I found myself trying to recall any of my dreams. And it suddenly occurred to me. How do you differentiate between your mind actually trying to imagine things and actual dreams themselves. That is, this morning I woke up thinking that in my dream, I had hit somebody.(And no, I am not a violent kid. ) How do I know that in my desire to actually have a dream recall, my mind did not imagine this dream up, and that I DID actually have this dream? Secondly, I realized that one slight problem of my imagination is this: I am unable to add color to anything I try to imagine. That is to say, everything that I imagine is without color, or rather, like I am looking at them in darkness. This has caused some problems when I tried to use HILD. I did everything successfully all the way to the point where I was trying to imagine a chalkboard with the alphabets and numbers. At this point, I had much difficulty trying to keep the chalkboard in place, and HILD kind of lost its effect after that. And so the question is, are there any similar ways that don't require myself trying to imagine things and are relatively easy to achieve that will allow me to hypnotize myself? Also, on a random side note, I want to know if my mind is damaged, because it doesn't seem normal to not be able to imagine things with color. I hope that I can have some of my questions answered, and thanks in advance. On a really random sidenote, I've noticed that in most of the dreams that I have recalled when I was young, it mostly happened from a 3rd person point of view. I hope I'll be able to dream recall again, mainly because I seem to have lost the knack for it over the years, and I kept thinking that I had stopped having dreams.

[Adrenaline Junkie]

Hey flamerwiz, welcome Ok, to start off answering your questions i think with your recall problems, i believe that if you find these thoughts being significant and you remember parts that seem from the dream they are most likely to be from a dream, just keep doing it, it will get alot clearer as you continue, don't worry. As for your second question, i do not believe your mind is damaged, you just find it difficult to perceive things in colour in your imagination, work on it, imagine colour being added to the picture one by one, it'll work eventually I have had many dreams in a third person perspective, i think its random but i have found that as my recall has improved i have interacted more and been in first person more. Good Luck to you, hope your recall improves and you have many lucid dreams to come!

[Ranger85]

I'm also very new to this forum, though I have looked into LDing on and off for a while. But just my thoughts on the "Did I actually dream that or not?" I find that whenever I am remembering a dream, I just know. Its hard to really explain, its just like my brain implants a thought that "yup, that was my dream." Maybe not ver helpful but thats how it is for me.

[Pirate]

hey, a while back i had the whole REM cycle explained to me, and i learned that you never stop dreaming. you dream all the time, about thousands per-night! the only thing is, only the stronger ones get through. training you dream recall is so you can remember all of your dreams (or at least some) and i think that raises the chances of lucidity.

[Vex Kitten]

Welcome to Dreamviews flamerwiz. Regarding the made up dreams vs real dreams, I think dreams have a different feel to them than daydreams or any other kind of conjuring the mind might do. That's the only way I can describe it, and even if you're not sure if it's a real dream or not, jot it down in a dream journal if you have one. It all goes toward solidifying and sorting your dream recall. That, in turn, ups your chances of remembering a lucid dream. About the colour and holding images, it will get better over time. Like everything else in life all it takes is practice and determination. There's nothing wrong with your mind. Instead of trying to visualize things just let the images drift into your vision and form on their own. That's how I approach WILDing. I don't try to force anything, just relax and let random whips of faint light come together on their own to eventually form a dream 'around' me. I'm not sure if that will help any, as I do tend to ramble and veer off course. If it helps I guess my job here is done. If not... at least I tried.