Thread: I have a question

Hi,

I'm new to this site but I am so glad that I found it because just reading it over the past couple of days, I now feel like there are not only other people out there like me, but I am NOT crazy. I have always had really vivid dreams and always been able to recall them pretty well. I usually can remember three dreams a night (and I know a lot of people say we actually just dream one long continuous dream but I can generally remember at least three different scenes) about 3-4 nights a week. I have also in the past three years started having sleep paralysis, although when the first couple of times it happened I had no idea what it was and thought I must be goin crazy. When I told people what was happening, including my husband, he didn't understand and just looked hella confused. So I started doin research on the symptoms of what was happening to me and found stuff on google but nothing like what I've found here. In the last few days since finding this site, I'm seein that the buzzing sound I hear or what sounds like wind in my ear when I slip into this state (usually fighting it the whole way) is something a lot of you have experienced too and something you use to work for you.

Hopefully one day I can work past the initial fear of what feels like my soul is bein taken over so that maybe I can turn it into a positive situation instead of such a scary one.

But now after all that, here is my question: like i said before i've always had very vivid dreams but none where i felt i was doing anything more than just watching; in lucid dreams do you feel like you do when you're awake? I've been reading a lot of people's experiences on here and I was just wondering how it feels. I hope that makes sense. Thanks to anyone who reads this rambling and responds.

Hello! Welcome to Dreamviews!

I hope you've enjoyed your stay so far, and its interesting to read your first post. Don't worry, theres nothing to fear about dreams, and your soul will be safe within you I guarentee.

As an answer to your question, this is how it feels when you lucid dream.

Like you mentioned, most times, you aren't aware, and you are mostly watching yourself dream. When you become lucid, if its not through a method, you usually come to realize you are dreaming. It's a sudden realization, and you feel just as aware as you would right now. Certain people have different levels of control over their dreams. It's a really cool experience.

Welcome to dreamviews! woohoo I love when we have new members.

Hi you guys! Thanks for responding. So...when you lucid dream you suddenly feel aware that this is not real but that you are in a dream and do the people (if there are any) in your dream also realize that this is a dream or you continue to move through the dream as you normally would. Like you can talk to the characters in your dream the same as you would if you were just "watching" the dream? I don't know why I am having trouble sayin asking the questions that will get me the answers that I'm tryin to get. I'm usually a pretty articulate person.

As for the sleep paralysis, I see that a lot of people in here induce it. Not sure I'm ready for that. It generally comes on on its own whenever I fall asleep on my back or on my side (I usually sleep on my stomach but every once in a while fall asleep in different positions). But even before I found this site, I figured out if I could calm myself down and just let "it" happen, "it" would pass and I would come out of it...so it doesn't scare me so much anymore EXCEPT when "it" is accompanied by a feeling of evil somewhere near. SO the next time this happens to me (and it will) I should do what? Can I go into a lucid dream from there?

Hey DreamLove, welcome to the forums!

I guarantee you, you are not crazy. Lucid dreaming is pretty normal on the spectrum of the weird and wacky. For some it's a talent (my brother, for one) while others need to develop lucidity as a skill (like us). It's still a relatively unexplored field, even though considerable research has been done.

It's great that you have natural recall, it means you've basically leapfrogged over the first and most tedious hurdle to lucidity. As to how lucidity differs from normal dreaming...

It really depends on the person. For example, I have excellent control of my dreams even when I have no idea things aren't real. I never feel like an observer, but rather like I'm actually participating. Other people have an "on rails" sort of experience. Where, even if they are fully aware of the dream, they can't control anything. Naturally, the goal is to develop both.

The level of lucidity may also determine how things feel. Low-level lucidity may lead to a fuzzy or washed out dreamscape, with little detail and no vividness. On the other hand, a lucid may feel almost exactly as it does in reality, or, optimally, it may seem even better. To be certain, you have full tactile and sensory response when in a lucid state. Depending upon the amount of control you have (mind over matter, really) the dream may easily carry out just like reality, or you can bend the rules to do whatever comes to mind.

Sleep paralysis (SP for short) is a very real phenomena. Basically, it's what your body does every night; locking your muscles into place. That way whatever you do in a dream doesn't carry over into the waking world (unless you sleep walk). Usually it only happens after the person has fallen asleep. However, it is possible to experience SP consciously.

SP is most often experienced as someone wakes up, where the body hasn't caught up with your brain yet. It can also come upon you at night, if you can stand to remain in the same position (typically supine) for a long period of time. It is also typically accompanied by states of hypnagogia, which would be what you see, hear, and feel when slipping into the gap between waking and sleeping. The important thing to remember is that none of it is real.

If the situation ever escalates into something you think is unbearable, you can break SP via movement, though your body might feel a little heavy at first.

SP is linked to several techniques used to achieve lucidity, most notably the wake-induced-lucid-dream (WILD). It's typically considered the hardest out of the myriad available just because of the SP hurdle. It's definitely not the only method though, so don't worry about inducing it purposely. If you want to try stepping into a dream, though, just visualize a setting in as much detail as possible when you feel it coming on, shortly; after you should find yourself within that dreamscape fully lucid and raring to go. :p

I assume that the "it" you refer to is SP, or more specifically a variant of SP commonly called "old hag." It's named for the feeling that some experience when it hits; almost as if they had an old hag sitting on their chest. Such is it's classical description used in literary and artistic works (Henry Fuseli's Nightmare for one). That would be the "evil presence" you mentioned. It can take on a variety of forms, yours is actually one of the tamer types.

I've got no real idea what causes "old hag" particularly, but it just plain sucks when it happens. Again, if it becomes unbearable, move. I wouldn't really advise trying to step into a dream if old hag hits, doing so may result in unpleasant experiences. Just roll onto your stomach and hope for sweet dreams.

I've listed a bunch of links to more information if you want to pursue some of the things I've mentioned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dreaming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_LaBerge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_d...opular_culture

http://www.dreamviews.com/tutorials.php
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ghlight=hag%2A (don't let it put you off)

Happy dreaming!

As to your question about dream characters, whether they accept that they're part of your dream or not when you become lucid varies from person to person. They tend to continue behaving as they did before lucidity in most cases, but how they react to hearing you say that you're dreaming can range from complete acceptance, to denying it and trying to convince you that you're awake.

Hi Serith,

Thanks! I want to do this so bad ever since I found this site. Hmmm to "wake up" in a dream and be able to talk to people knowing this isn't really happening. I think I would probably start laughing and wouldn't be able to stop and wake myself up.

Hi Silvanus! Thank you. I just described what happens to me during sp in another forum so I'm just gonna paste what I wrote:

When this happens to me and I don't fight it but just let it happen (meaning I allow myself to just lay there and listen to the buzzing, sometimes roaring in my ears) I will suddenly feel like I am awake except like my body is dead weight and I can barely move. I can see my room the way it looked before I turned off the lights and I will try to pull myself up by pullin up on the headboard or sometimes I will crawl across the floor to the dresser. At least that's what it FEELS like I am doing. It always feels like I have to fight with everything in me to move and I can never open my eyes. Oh wait...once when I pulled myself up onto the dresser I got my eyes to open a little and my face looked distorted and then I felt myself snap back to the bed. This will happen 2 or 3 times and each time I feel like I AM awake until my body snaps back to the original position and then it will start all over again from the buzzing and everything until finally I am awake and then I'm questioning, Am I REALLY awake this time? Sucks! (by the way, the presence I feel is more from the fact that I feel like their is a wave of heat that keeps moving over my body making me feel like one of hell's demons is near me...I've never felt the pressing down on my body and I pray to God I don't cause what I do feel is bad enough).



But one time...one time...this happened to me except I made it to the bathroom and I started to float and it freaked me out cuz I was tryin to go to the bathroom and I couldn't stay "down" on the toilet. So then I tried to walk out of the bathroom and I couldn't keep my feet on the ground so I decided to just go for it and I made myself fly and I went through the ceiling and up into the sky and over my house and then back through the window....HEY! Is that a lucid dream? Or an OBE?

What you've described is called a false awakening (FA). It's basically a dream, only you dream that you've "awakened" from sleep. They're fairly common with WILDs. The best thing to do as soon as you feel that you've awakened is to try a reality check (RC). If it fails, you should become lucid and that heavy feeling should dissipate.

The experience you had with floating around your room was a lucid dream, or at least what one might be like. Technically, if you didn't actually know that you were dreaming at the time (which is what it sounds like) then it's not a LD. Some might call it an OBE, but I'm really partial to that line of thought. The best thing to do if that ever happens again is a RC, then you should be lucid and can bend the rules ad infinitum.

Here's a link to some good LD threads.

http://dreamviews.com/community/showthread.php?t=23857
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=38954

I hope I can remember to do a reality check next time...I downloaded one of those programs last night that scrolls messages across your screen like "did you do a reality check?" "is this a dream?" to put them in your subconscious but even though I know I dreamed a lot last night I can't remember any of it.

Im new too.but i read the whole site almost but How do im start Like whut do i do first

Ive had in real life like a heavy blanket on me.And im thinking of flying and it feels im flying but im awake.But if i move the flying stops.

...but even though I know I dreamed a lot last night I can't remember any of it.

Subliminal messaging helps, so does coming to this site right before sleeping (DreamViews is always most active at night). You might also repeat to yourself (mentally) as you fall asleep "I will remember my dreams completely" or something similar.

Good luck.

well then I should be good cuz I've become addicted to this site over the last week and spend the last few hours before bed readin everyone's entries.