Newbie questions - Suggestions?

I have been able to recognize when I am dreaming for years, so from what I have read here that is the definition of Lucid, just knowing; and once I know I know I am until I wake up, I don't seem to get distracted and forget what I know. I have fair dream recall, but if I don't write them down they are gone by the end of breakfast usually. One thing I have not been able to do is have any form of control.

Some examples of dreams that I have had over the years (one goes back about 12 years and I can remember it like it actually happened) where I have been fully aware the entire time that it was a dream but couldn't do anything to change any of it and sometime couldn't even move. It was like all these events were a derailed train and I was helpless to stop if kind of feeling.

One example of a dream I had:
I was in my bathroom in my home that I lived in at the time, everything seemed very normal, nothing out of place or screaming THIS IS A DREAM... that is until someone walked into the bathroom (they were wearing a mask) and stabbed me in the stomach with a knife. I fell backwards into the clothes hamper folded in half at the waist and just stayed there. I wasn't dead, I wasn't in pain, and I knew what happened but couldn't move and didn't wake up.

Another one I was walking to a friends house, rang the doorbell (it did work) so all was normal and I didn't realize that I was dreaming. No one answered though so I started to walk away, I got about 50 feet from the door, and the doorbell started ringing again. At that point I realized what was going on, my mind wanted to go back and investigate; but the dream kept going and while I was focused on the door and the bell and wanted to go back my body kept moving away from the door on to something else.

Now I have never really kept a dream journal, but am starting to now so I can progress my "ability's" so I can remember more then just these extreme cases.

My question is I guess, can anyone offer up any things they try to take control, just a little I'm not trying to poof to mars or anything when I have these revelations, just to be able to change my direction or take that one step against where the dream is flowing to.
I have read through the main pages, the tutorials and have some good info I am starting to try and over the past week or so I have had results being able to recognize when I am dreaming more and remembering more dreams (even if the details aren't quite vivid yet, I am remembering more of the gist’s and more often). I have been doing the internal dialog telling myself I will recognize more dreams, I will remember more dreams, etc and have been having good results. But I cannot for the life of me exact any form of control, or if I am, I am not remembering those instances. My wife and I started Yoga a few months ago, and that has done wonders for relaxing and clearing my mind before I go to sleep (so this doesn't appear to be the issue); I would recommend reading up on this if you are having concentration/relaxation problems. The breathing techniques are quite effective even if you don’t practice the physical side of Yoga.

So if anyone managed to read through all my random thought's of weirdness and has any suggestions, I would greatly appriciate it.

Oh, and great site here; lot's of very good information and all of you "vetrans" seem very well informed and very willing to share your knowledge. :bowdown:

Hi there. Welcome to the site.

Probably not what you want to hear but I think you should just go with the flow of the lucid dreams for a while.

If you have been and are bored with that start experimenting with reality checks in dream just to see if they work or not. Then, say if you can still breathe with your nose plugged in dream try sticking your head underwater and seeing if you can still breath. Just try progressively harder things to see how far you can go.

Or say you find you can levitate off the ground a bit, take that a step further and try jumping up to see how high you can get, attempting to leap higher each time, eventually leading to flight. Start small and build up from there.

Or, what works for me is if I get stuck on something I try to think of some completely nutty way to get around it and guess what, that usually work.

Don't know if that's what you're looking for but at least I tried. ;)

Any advice that points me in the right direction is EXACTLY what I want to hear.

Like I said, I have been able to reconize dreams but not exact any control, not trying to jump to the last page of the learning curve, but quite litterally take that "first step" even if it's quite litterally just a step in the direction I want to go before either I wake up or the dream pulls me back where it wants me to be.

Thanks for your reply, I am in no hurry; rather pace myself and reach my goal then push my self and loose interest because of frustration and failed attempts. Quite the forum of good information, I am looking forward to giving some of this a shot and sharing my results!