Dreaming of a Lucid Dream

Hi, all! :)

I just found out about LDing some 4 days ago, while doing research on dreams for something I'm writing.
I was blown away!
Before I even started to read what people used it for, my mind was racing through the possibilities. If I could learn how to do this, it would be, quite literally, a dream come true! :D

Anyway, since then I've been through the foruns learning all I can, and started right away to tell my brain to "pay attention" and doing RCs and stuff.
I never had LDs, but after all the reading I started to wonder if I don't already have some level of awareness in my dreams. I can sometimes replay a bit of a dream because it didn't turn out the way I wanted or because I didn't get to see something clearly. I have some amount of control when I fly - I've learned in time how to resist heaviness or bad winds that usually come at the end of the dream. And just the night before finding out about LDing, I had this dream where I was by the sea and found myself thinking how incredibly realistic the sunlight looked bouncing off the water like that. Then I went down to take a closer look, wich caused the water to change somewhat and lead me to think "OK, maybe not real life realistic, but it'd still be great in CG"!

I suppose ordinarily that would be a good sign, but I've been a little concerned that my brain won't take a hint, though. Apparently, most people usually dream of pretty ordinary, everyday stuff - making it easier for weirdness to stand out - but for someone whose dreams (both real and waking) are such a part of "normal", everday activities, it probably won't make much of a difference. I've always dreamed of monsters, flying, fight scenes of all kinds, spellcasting, superpowers, meeting story character's or even being one. I don't think I ever dreamed of such a thing as a light switch!
In my dreams, light comes from the sun and moon, light spells and, on one ocasion, Gambit's glowing cards! :cheeky:

And then, tonight, I got to see the first effects of all the sugestion work.
I was dreaming I was lying in bed and saw my spectral arms raising out of my body. They were skin colored, although slightly orange, but were a bit transparent and looked as if someone at taken a rubber and erased the inner side of my forearms and my thumbs.
And I was like "Oh, cool, I'm dreaming! I didn't think it would be this easy!"
I got up of my body and made it whole again. That's when I realised something was off. "Tsk! This ain't a lucid dream, I can feel my eyes gummed shut!" LOL!
I could feel my sleeping body - the drowsiness, heaviness, and my eyelids trying to open, apparently! I guess I was struggling between my sleepiness and my will to get a hand on my dreams, and that prevented me from going completely under.
I kept on dreaming for a while, trying stuff I had thought about doing in a LD (which worked, btw).
Still, it was a normal dream and I knew I was dreaming. So, it seems that even if the brain spots the signs (and they can't come any clearer then this) it won't care! :shock:

I know I still have a lot of training ahead of me, but I was wondering - does this happen often? Knowing you're dreaming and not knowing. Or caring?

Oh, yeah, sorry for the rambling. I'm just excited about all this, had to share. ;)

Hi Yumeria, and welcome to the forum

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yumeria

Before I even started to read what people used it for, my mind was racing through the possibilities. If I could learn how to do this, it would be, quite literally, a dream come true! :D

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I love the pun, and yes lucid dreaming is brilliant and the possibilities vast.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yumeria

I know I still have a lot of training ahead of me, but I was wondering - does this happen often? Knowing you're dreaming and not knowing. Or caring?

Oh, yeah, sorry for the rambling. I'm just excited about all this, had to share. ;)

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There are certainly different levels to lucidity. If you look through a few threads in the forum you are sure to see a mention of the phrase "partial lucidity".Also, there is such a thing as pseudo-lucidity: where the dream content concerns lucidity, while the dreamer remains completely unaware that they are dreaming. For example you could write in your dream journal inside a dream.

The only LDs i ever have are when i say, i'm dreaming, but i really don't do anything. I usually just fly around or freak.
Normal dreams? Never heard of em. I mean, who could consider battling an alive, inflatable, yellow dragon a normal dream, regardless of how many light switches or mirrors there are!

psychology student - Thanks for the info. I did run a search but I was lacking the right words, it seems. I'll check again, see if I can find something interesting.

WILDinitall - It's a shame your dreams freak you out. Maybe you're just to anxious about the whole experience and it gets in the way...
I happen to love crazy dreams, not only for their sheer creativity but also for the fun of it. I've waken up laughing more than once. :)
Btw, I think I once met a cousin of your dragon. It was a gigantic yellow slug-thing with black stripes on its (her) belly. She was a psychic and a bitch who wanted to take over a world called The Eye. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by psychology student

pseudo-lucidity: where the dream content concerns lucidity, while the dreamer remains completely unaware that they are dreaming.

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maybe this is what happened to me last night. i stood in a hallway with some friends of mine talking to them when I suddenly said: "...but since you all are a dream, it doesn't matter." i tried to jump down the stairs and fly, but it didn't work, so i went outside an tried to grow wings, which also didn't work (there was just a strange feeling in my back). either ways this was a real lucid dream, because I can't remember anything before this part or after, or it was just pseudo-lucidity. :?

I've thought about this aswell and I think one dream I had was pseudo-lucid. However this dream you had appears to be fully lucid, but you never know.

It may not seem like it, but I would wager you will have a certain amount of 'regular' dreams from time to time.

I suppose it's easier to LD in a normal dream (although I'm not expert) since you can put real world triggers into your subconscious which you might see regularly. For me, it's hard to keep focus on anything for a long time. At work, I'm not really concentrating on anything for the majority of the time.

That said, I found my only lucid dream came when I had been reading about it on the night, reality checking a lot and was really relaxed and free from stress when I went to sleep. I even managed to get bored in my dream, which was what allowed me to take control.

I don't know if that helps at all, but I hope it does. I wish you success and I hope for it myself. I must admit, for me, the possibility of this 'dream guide' who represents my subconscious in some way is very interesting. I need to ask it things about myself. Crazy eh.

You are like me, in my dreams there are talking elephants, bats with glowing wings, but my brain still considers it normal. Regular reality checks are essential to overcome this.

Before I found out about lucidity, I would have these "awareness" episodes like the one about the sea. Now, a month past, I often find myself walking down a dream street and stopping to pay attention to a particular building so I will remember it when I wake up. I dream of stuff I meant to do in lucids and more recently I got into thinking or telling myself in the dream that I am dreaming - and actually knowing that I am. Not that it helps much...
Just last week I took off flying and then found myself saying "I'm dreaming. I am SO dreaming". I said it with all the conviction I could muster, trying to get the rest of my brain to take the hint, but no deal. I started doing RCs. Nothing. By the time I got to the fourth RC I dozed off! LOL
Some time later I landed in what I instantly recognised as a recurrent situation in my dreams. I was annoyed, fully aware I had failed lucidity earlier, looked at the place and thought "Dreaming...". And dozed off again... :roll:

Still, I did get my second flash of lucidy today (Yay!). I was flying again and I reached out for the twisted branch of an old tree to see how it would feel like. I laid my hand on it and thought "If I were lucid now..." and BAM - the image blured all over and then came into sharp focus, landing me at the foot of the tree. The green of the moss just jumped at me, the dry leaves on the ground were as detailed and sharp as the real thing.
I didn't know what to do so I decided to keep on following the current dream, see what happened. I woke up soon after. *sigh*

I notice my lucidity is still visual only. The haziness of dream disapears but I'm not yet getting other kinds of sensorial input.

I probably should term myself a "natural near-lucid", hehehe! :D

I've had something close to that.