Hello ladies and gentlemen of the Dream Views forum. First and foremost I'd like to give props to the webmaster and community that operates on this site. I found it to be a very enlightening and intriguing web site as well as an inspiration to expand my own mind.

That being said, I'd like to talk about my experience last night. Actually, despite what I have come to understand about initiating a lucid dream and the difficulty involved with newcomers, I was successful. I've had experiences with sleep paralysis before, so I knew that it was within my mental capacity to initiate another "episode". What I didn't know before coming here is that you could enter into a lucid dreaming state by remaining calm during the sleep paralysis. Easier said than done, my friends. I find the exhilaration (and the fear to some extent) that grips you while becoming fully wrapped into the hypnagogic hallucinations is too much for me to handle without willing myself back awake.

Anyway, the excitement of knowing my brain has entered a different state of mind while the "shadow man" rushes at me causes me to wake up. I tried for 6 hours, laying in my bed, feeling the onset of sleep paralysis multiple times and then abruptly opening my eyes, thus ending any hope of getting past it and into the dreaming state.

Now for the ironic part. When I finally gave up and just fell asleep instead, I went into a dream state instantly. It was extremely realistic and vivid; I can recall at least 75% of the events that occurred. At the final part of my dream, I found myself all of a sudden "portaled" to a totally different room and house that did not relate to anything that I had been doing before in my dream. At this point, I found myself instantly aware of my surroundings. And the first thing I did in my first lucid dream is turn to the left, realizing that I could willingly look in a different direction just to see what was there. All I saw was a wall with a red and black pirate flag on it. 3 seconds of awareness - that's it.

And then I woke up. Damn it. I could still see the faint colors and pattern of the pirate skull and swords logo on my wall as I transitioned into a waking state. 6 hours of work for 3 seconds of pleasure.

Better luck next time.