A hello and a question

[Afterdreams]

Hey all, I'm glad to be finally posting on the Dreamviews forums. I've lurked the website and forum for a couple of years now, reading experiences and tutorials. I'm pretty dream-obsessed, but it sounds like I'm in good company here. I've been dream-journaling since 2005, off and on; in fact, I want to say it was Dreamviews that inspired me in the first place, because I started with the intention of having a lucid dream. Unfortunately, I've never had a lucid dream, but I've had some absolutely incredible experiences, including an episode of sleep paralysis (very frightening!), epic and recurring dreams, vivid control, and just the other day I had a great false awakening. Anyway, this brings me to my question. When I started journaling in 2005, almost right from the start I was able to exert control over my dreams. *I should mention this was random control... Sometimes I was able to decide when to control and when not to, but it was more along the lines of, "here's an opportunity to control the dream". All I needed was a good foundation of recall and I could have multiple instances of such control in a week. Before the New Year, I decided to start journaling seriously again, because I miss having vivid dreams, control, etc... I've been keeping it every day, even when I don't have dreams. My recall is okay, not the best because of college... But as I mentioned before, I had the false awakening, so I thought things were fine. But I can't help feeling like "nothing is happening." My unconscious doesn't seem to want to cooperate with me. I guess I'm wondering is, what can I do to move myself towards dream-control, and then onwards to a lucid dream? I can't seem to figure out the next step... I've got journaling down, I know about recall and such... just need to take it further. Thanks for the feedback, and sorry for the long post. -Afterdreams

[Wavefunction]

You've been lurking for a few years? It's about time you joined! I think you're going about this in the wrong order. Usually, you exert control over a lucid dream. Control in non-lucid dreams is much less common, as you don't know that you're dreaming and expect to be bound by the laws of physics. So you wouldn't go "onwards to a lucid dream", you'd go onwards to control, after acheiving a lucid dream. You've been dream journaling, which is good. If you can remember a couple dreams per night, it's enough to try lucidity. How you do this is up to you. Since you've been around for a while, I'll assume that you've read most of the tutorials. Pick one of those techniques, and stick with it for a while. You should begin to see results. If you don't, try another technique. Remember that lucidity can be hard for some people (myself included) so don't be discouraged if you only get one or two per month when you first start. Don't worry about the long posts. Welcome to Dreamviews!

[ninja9578]

[Afterdreams]

You've been lurking for a few years? It's about time you joined! I think you're going about this in the wrong order. Usually, you exert control over a lucid dream. Control in non-lucid dreams is much less common, as you don't know that you're dreaming and expect to be bound by the laws of physics. So you wouldn't go "onwards to a lucid dream", you'd go onwards to control, after acheiving a lucid dream. You've been dream journaling, which is good. If you can remember a couple dreams per night, it's enough to try lucidity. How you do this is up to you. Since you've been around for a while, I'll assume that you've read most of the tutorials. Pick one of those techniques, and stick with it for a while. You should begin to see results. If you don't, try another technique. Remember that lucidity can be hard for some people (myself included) so don't be discouraged if you only get one or two per month when you first start. Don't worry about the long posts. Welcome to Dreamviews! Oh, I had no idea I was approaching it in the wrong order! Control used to come easy for me, but I see what you mean-- it was random and didn't cause lucidity. Thanks for the advice, I'll go look up the tutorials again and try it tonight. And thanks ninja9578 for the welcome.

[Clairity]

Afterdreams, I'm glad you finally decided to join us! Along with the Tutorials forum, you might also want to review the Newbie Zone Guide for helpful information about this site: http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=36723 If you should have any questions, please ask and we'll do our best to get you answers. Welcome to Dream Views!

[vivedream]

Glad you decided to join