Lucid Dreams & Psychedelic Drugs

I have been trying for a little over a week to have a lucid dream. I have never done this (that I remember) in my entire life. Both of my room mates say that they have had them without even trying.

I have known of lucid dreaming for at least 12 or 14 years, after flipping through a book on the subject in my school library in 6th grade. The idea fascinated me, but I did not have the patience or diligence to follow the instructions. As I recall I did not check to book out, just looked it over in the library.

Anyway, I was in a bookstore killing time one day and saw a book called "Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge. I had not thought of lucid dreaming in years, and was immediately intrigued again. I bought the book on a whim, and have read nearly the entire book.

I have been keeping a dream journal since 6/28, and have recorded seven dreams. I usually go to bed between 10pm and 12am, and wake up around 7:30am. Almost all of the dreams I remember are between 5:45 and 8:00am, so I guess I am mostly remembering dreams from just before I wake up. I remembered two dreams the first night, and two dreams last night, and one dream most of the other nights. I have not yet come even close to being lucid.

I have been doing my state tests (do you prefer RC's?) every day as it occurs to me, and also deliberately each time I see certain things. Last night one of the exact things I have been RC'ing on was in my dream for several minutes in a row, and it never crossed my mind to do an RC in the dream.

I saw that the most popular RC most people listed in another forum was 'Questioning your surroundings", but for some reason I never do when dreaming.

Since I have started writing down my dreams, it is becoming obvious that my dreams are pretty weird more or less all the time. The sorts of things that the book tells me to watch for as clues I am dreaming are happening constantly, but it really never disturbs me at all.

I am starting to wonder if my drug use may be part of the problem. I have been using psychedelics (psilocybin, mescaline, and LSD - not all at once, though. :)) at least 6 times a year for about the last 15 years. I am starting to wonder if dealing with hallucinations for so long has made my attitude towards reality too flexible. To steal a line from Hunter S. Thompson, "A drug person can learn to cope with seeing things like their dead grandmother climbing up their leg with a knife in her teeth...." When dealing with hallucinations that you cannot control the best advice is not to fight against them, but to calmly accept whatever is happening. Now it seems that my mind just calmly accepts my dreams as well.

Does anyone else have a similar experience, or advice on how to train my mind to be more questioning of my surroundings? Or do you think its enough to just keep forming the habit of doing RC's through-out the day?

--J

why dont you question reality like this:

if things look as they should (grass green, sky blue etc..) then you are straight or awake

if they are a bit strange or different then your either on drugs or dreaming.

if you dont remember taking any drugs, its probably a dream..(or your so fucked you cant remember taking them)

6 times a year isnt much...

:muffin: Welcome to the forum Jesus_Smurf! :aphiusiscrazy:

Your use of hallucinogens might have had some impact, but you said you use them only about 6 times a year so I don't think they would contribute massively. :|

I think you should probably try just try and make a habit of doing RC's more often. :) Hopefully until it becomes like a conditioned response to seeing anythng wierd. :P

I logged two dreams in the journal this morning... one at 5:15 and one at 8:20. Amazingly enough I actually noticed oddities in both dreams and attempted to RC in both cases.

I have been RC'ing by reading something. I have been very diligent about making sure that when I have the thought to RC I do not let anything keep me from it. For example, I was at an outdoor concert over the 4th of july weekend. I normally read whatever is handy, but I wear a bracelet all the time which has four markings on it, which I will read if nothing else is around. I got the idea to RC, so checked my bracelet. It was too dark outside to see. I had a friend with me who recognized what I was doing, and i almost stopped b/c I felt self concious about it, but I thought, if you give up because of dim light now, then the light will always be dim when you are dreaming. I went to my wallet and found a business card with bold print that I could read clearly in the dark, and finished the RC.

So last night I found myself in an odd situation. I can't say that I doubted reality, or thought I was dreaming, or even that I intended to RC, and yet after things got really odd, I found myself opening a book in my dream and trying to read. Unfortunately the book that I opened was a coffee table book with nothing but pictures! I was distracted by the pictures for a while, even flipping through the book idly. Next I went to a desk and got a pen, feeling that there was something I needed to write down. The pen turned out to be an old fountain pen, and I didnt know how to get it to write. The owner of the pen went into a long discussion of the pen and its history and usage etc etc, which I found fascinating, and by the end i forgot all about writing down something to read.

I woke up from that one thinking that maybe I had been trying to rc and maybe not. After logging the dream in my journal I went back to sleep. Next time I woke up it took me a second to remember / realize the dream I had just had. Things had become a little strange in my dream and I had a sudden urgent need to get something from my car. I raced to the car, fumbled with my keys, and got a peice of paper off my clipboard from work. It is a hand-written schedule sheet telling me where to be and what time. I recognize it by the shape of the paragraph of writing, I see it and know what it is but dont read it. I am confused. Its night time, I cant understand why I need to read my schedule when I dont have to work until tommorow. Suddenly I am really sleepy, and my body feels heavy. I am actually so tired I am having trouble moving. I lay down in the car. Some friends come by outside and tell me to hurry up, so I sit up again, remember the paper in my hand and I think, what in the hell is so important on this paper! Why am I here? Looking down the paper is completely changed, although I dont notice it at the time, it is now typewritten in very crisp black and white big bold print on shiny paper. It looks like a magazine ad. The words are very clear and easy to read, but they are laid out in block paragraphs with no punctuation, just one word after another filling the whole page border to border. I have to really focus on it because of the lack of puncuation, and the words are put together in a way that makes very little sense. It says something like "A convertible GE to GM Prime Rate Mortgage with Adjustable Timing Belt and Padded Seat Cup Holders" Thats the first line, but the whole page is filled with this nonsense, its a mix of car information and finance information all jumbled together. I am confused, then it hits me: its some kind of advertisment and they are making a joke about how confusing it is to buy a car with all the lingo etc etc. I notice that the car radio is on, and a voice is reading this gibberish out, as the announcer is doing a pitch about how his company will help cut through the maze of terminology and make car shopping easy, blah blah blah. And thats the end of my RC -- I put the page down, get out of the car and go to meet my friends.

ARG! : ) I am getting close now. Maybe reading stuff is not working for me as an RC? But i am afraid to switch now that my RC is starting to show up in dreams. Should I change to a different RC or maybe add a second step to the process when I am awake? Thanks for help so far. Still looking for more info on my original post as well.

--J

I used psilocybin a few times in my life, and one of the more interesting times, I seriously thought I was dreaming while on them. I sat down and said, "this is strange, I feel like I could do anything, like I have amazing paranormal powers... I must be dreaming." I think I though this for closer to an hour it felt like, when I calmed down to the point where I remembered what I had taken.

It was JUST like a dream, and I thought I could become lucid. It was great!!! But, then it turned out I was just acting like a moron who had eaten a bunch of illicit drugs ;-)

I never thought I was dreaming while tripping, but I have often been tripping in my dreams. The feeling is exactly the same as if I had actually taken something; not just the visuals, but also the special enjoyment of music, weird thought trains, giggles & euphoria.

I have started to wonder if these dreams result from me mis-interpreting dreamsigns and deciding that I am on something, which then naturally produces the complete illusion of tripping. I always just enjoyed these dreams as a perk. Huh.

Drug use may have a effect on your dreaming, but as of yet, it hasn't changed mine for the worse.

Well, jesus_smurf, you have to consider what is happening when you use psycedelic drugs... Its not the drug that produces all the euphoria, visuals and sound changes, its your creative and subconsious mind that becomes more noticeable. The visuals are creations of your mind, very similar to hypnogogic imagery. (IMO, of course)

Basically, you put your mind to sleep while still awake and consious. Not a whole lot different than being IN a dream. So why not be able to re-create those feelings while you are sleeping?

Once I dreampt that I had taken LSD... I've never actually taken it before, and would never take it, so I was scared shitless, and strange and horrible things were happening to me. But I really thought I had taken it.