hope for newbies

[apathy4reality]

Even though I have had lucid dreams in the past I've only recently started practicing the techniques again in hopes of having one. After over three weeks of daily reality checks, altered sleep schedules, trying different herbs, and recording my dreams I finally had a lucid dream last night! I wanted to share this because the last couple days I really getting frustrated and started wondering if I had some mental block and would not be able to lucid dream again. I'm sure I'm not alone in this frustration so I hope this gives someone else the resolve to keep going - it WILL happen if you don't give up. Last night I altered my routine in a number of ways and I'm not sure what exactly it was that worked this time so I will relate what I can of yesterday that might be relevant... reality checks were done throughout the day about 7 to 10 times... 3pm - ate grilled cheese sandwich while browsing this site (cheese is supposedly a potentator of lucid dreams.) 7pm - went to sleep for 6 hours and set alarm for 1am. (had 2 regular dreams at the end stages) 1am - woke up and did computer work until 4am, during which time I recorded the 2 dreams in my online dream journal. About an hour before going back to sleep I also drank a cup of Damiana tea and ate some fresh watermelon. (the herb Damiana is reported to aid lucid dreaming). About 10 minutes before returning to bed I ate 1/2 banana. (I was actually just hungry but banana is apparently a dream potentator also.) 4am - return to bed and set alarm for 7am (for work). As I drifted off I did the 51 point (or whatever it is) relaxation and also the white dot technique (imagining white dot to retain consciousness) I got to 1/2 sleep paralysis and blacked out (happens to me all the time). 6am - lucid dream - I'm standing in a hallway in a house or apartment I don't recognize. The walls are painted blue and down the hallway is a living room with a Christmas tree set up in the corner. The hallway has a mirror hanging on the wall. As I turn and look at my reflection I am shocked to see that my face has no features - no nose eyes or mouth - just smooth skin where a face should be. I hold my hands up to my head and think "omg, what happened to my face" at that point I think "holy crap, I did it, I'm dreaming!" I keep repeating that to myself "I did it! I'm dreaming" and walk down the hallway. All of a sudden I remember that people say you should spin so you don't wake up so I started spinning in place like a little kid until I was SUPER dizzy but the room was solid and I wasn't waking up. I looked down the hall in the opposite direction and saw a smaller room with also contained a mirror like surface hanging on the wall. The 'mirror' was covered in symbols which looked like alphabetic type hieroglyphics. The symbols were large (probably 3" x 3" each and arranged logically as if they would form sentences if someone could read them. I have seen these exact same type of hieroglyphics in a number of my dreams. I ran toward the Christmas tree and decided I wanted to fly (even though indoors) so I ran and jumped at the tree and wrapped my hands around the top of the tree as if I was trying to strangle it. As I did this my feet floated straight up as if someone just switched gravity off and I found myself floating on top of the ceiling looking straight down at the Christmas tree below. My cat scurried under the tree as I did this. I difference was he was a black cat instead of his actual orange-tan color but I knew it was still him. He sat way below me on the floor and looked up at me like "what are you doing?". All of a sudden I heard a beep reminder of my PDA next to my bed (I use it as my alarm clock too) but the beep in the dream just came out of the air and I knew exactly what it was. The dream started to fade and my vision started to go dark and fuzzy and I tried to spin but couldn't in time and woke up. After I woke up I did a reality check to make sure it wasn't a false awakening and I indeed was awake. I was STILL dizzy though even sitting up in my bed and probably for the next hour getting ready for work. I also noticed a kind of "openness" feeling between my eyes where I imagine the white dot during the meditation technique and that also persisted for a few hours before it went away. It almost felt like some switch in my brain had been flipped on and left on my accident. Very weird. I hope this account helps someone Keep dreaming! -apathy