Hi - I am new to lucid dreaming . . . have been on this forum about one month. I have so far had 2 WBTB/DILDs. I have not truly tried a WILD yet because it seems to be a more advanced technique and I wanted to work on these first and beginning a dream journal. Two things have happened to me that I'm curious about and would love for more advanced dreamers to shed some light on these if possible . . .

1. When I meditate, deeply relax sometime I suddenly hear someone call my name. Does anyone else have this and does anyone know what this is actually coming from? I also sometimes feel I'm in an altered state of consciousness . . . I don't feel awake, don't believe I'm asleep and it doesn't feel like a normal dream. (sometimes this just happens if I am deeply relaxing, but it actually happens to me also during acupuncture treatments when my energy is being balanced . . . its very relaxing, almost hypnotic)

2. I have awoken during the night a couple of times to get up and go to the bathroom . . . I am not sure if I might be awakening during a REM period because I have gone back to bed and gotten back into the same dream I was already having (not lucid dream) as soon as I closed my eyes. Once I was also just seeing a dream as soon as I closed my eyes, but felt like I was still sort of awake . . . I could still open my eyes physically and the image would go away, but I could close them and it would be there! I'm not sure exactly what was going on and thought maybe someone could shed some light on this

I also just posted about my second experience in the Beyond Dreaming section . . . I am definitely very much enjoying learning about lucid dreaming and am very interested in the topic of dreamsharing. Thank you in advance for any help you can give!