New to here but not to dreams
Hey, I'm new. I've been having LD's for about 9 years (since 6th grade) when my teacher at school told me about keeping dream journals. I only kept one for a few months, but since then I've rarely gone a night without remembering my dreams.
I got interested in it because my dad back in college used to have what appeared to be OBE's. The highlight of these was when he dreamed he was walking around on the riverboat his brother was working on. In the dream it was night, and my dad went into the sleeping quarters and saw his brother there. When my dad woke up the next morning, his brother called him, saying that he wasn't really sure why but he really felt like calling my dad.
I'm not telling this story to convince anyone that OBE's are real because I'm pretty skeptical myself. The point is that it got me wondering about dreams, so I started the journal to find out for myself. Once or twice in the last 9 years I looked online for dream stuff but it was all pretty unhelpful and didn't hold my interest. I've mostly just taken dreams as they come and learned stuff on my own.
I think about a lot of random stuff when I'm bored, and a few weeks ago I was thinking about the nature of dreams. Back when I started the dream journal in 6th grade I thought it was possible (POSSIBLE) that dreams are just a disposition of some non-physical part of us, and that they can either go to some sort of "dream world" or stick around in the real world (OBE's). Since then as I've learned more about the brain I've more or less come to the conclusion that the brain can be tricked into just about anything, and that dreams are most likely just illusions of the brain.
With that conclusion I decided that there must be some process by which the brain "decides" what happens in dreams, and if that process could be figured out then the dreams could be controlled. I made some connections between my dreams and realized that things might happen in dreams because I believe they can happen; if I'm on a ledge and think I might fall off, I usually fall off. If I believe that the creepy little town I'm in has ghosts, they usually appear soon after.
So last night I had an LD (I usually have one or two a week, which apparently is pretty lucky now that I see these forums). I wasn't particularly aware, but aware enough to remember my theory about believing things would happen. It worked amazingly.. I was in a city and there were some people walking around. By believing in a certain way that one of them would turn directions, they would. I don't mean actually being predisposed to believing they would turn; I mean conciously making myself believe it. By believing like this that one would dance, they would dance. The highlight was when I successfully turned one guy into a girl and watched as his face completely changed. While they weren't the most amazing things ever done in an LD, I also didn't FAIL to change anything that I wanted to change; I just didn't think of anything else at the time.
The only thing I had read prior to last night about controlling dreams and going OBE was something probably 5 years ago. It talked about a method where you picture something like an orange and hold it in your mind VERY specifically, down to the taste and the sound and the feel. That had never worked for me, neither in terms of OBE's nor dream control. It was really amazing to come to this site and read the part about how you "really have to believe" that what you're doing is possible, because it fit exactly with what I've been figuring out.
That all being said, I think that tricks like opening a door you BELIEVE will go to Japan are useful, but not necessary. The only reason you think they're necessary is because you've read that they work; that puts in your mind the BELIEF that they will work, and that makes them work. I firmly believe that all you have to do is believe that you will suddenly be in Japan and you will be there.
Sorry for the crazy long intro post. I'm Carl, and it's pretty cool to hear that I'm not just making all this up.
