Thread: New to LD, just a few concerns.

I heard about LD about a week ago and decided to look into it. I read a few posts about experiences and tutorials, and I have a few questions I would like answered before I get into LD.

1. I did not know consciousness sleep paralysis was involved. I know what sleep paralysis is, and it's scary as shit, and I'm afraid of having a nightmare during SP and not being lucid. Any information?
2. Will I always be able to wake myself up? What's the likeliness of not being able to wake up?
3. What are any other negative/scary things that may occur?

I'm mainly worried about scaring myself while attempting LDing, and I don't want to get into it if I'm just going to be scared all the time when I try it. Any information on these or other possible concerns is appreciated. Thank you.

*Takes off monocle* I say, welcome to Dreamviews punch145! *Drinks tea*

Sleep paralysis while conscious is only required for the WILD method, and some people report not experiencing the sensations of it at all. If you are still scared, you could just stay away from WILD, or face the fear. I'm not sure why you would wanna wake yourself up from an ld. You just have to get it in your head that nothing in the dream can hurt you. I can't think on any other potentially scary things that could happen. Check these tutorial for some methods besides WILD:

http://dreamviews.com/community/showthread.php?t=51214

http://dreamviews.com/community/showthread.php?t=55740

Good luck! *Puts monocle back on*

Thanks for the info. I dunno, I know that there are times where you don't have control over everything. Ad I read a thread where someone was strapped to a chair and they were unable to come up with anything to get out, so I might want to wake up at a point like that, where things get out of control, just like an emergency shut-off type-thing.

Originally Posted by punch145

Thanks for the info. I dunno, I know that there are times where you don't have control over everything. Ad I read a thread where someone was strapped to a chair and they were unable to come up with anything to get out, so I might want to wake up at a point like that, where things get out of control, just like an emergency shut-off type-thing.

That's extremely rare. There are a lot of regular lucid dreamers gathered on this site, but I bet that if you asked them all if that's ever happened to them, over 99% will say no. And you can't not wake up. That's physically impossible. REM cycles only last like an hour at most, so you're never gonna have to wait longer than that. But this whole question is a little absurd because if you actually try lucid dreaming, you will very quickly realize that being able to wake up isn't the problem; the problem is being able to stay in the dream.

Lucid dreaming isn't like the Matrix either, if that's the impression you've gotten. You can be injured or even die in dreams and absolutely no harm will ever come to your real body or mind. I've died a few times in dreams, and I'm still here.

Now, if you do try lucid dreaming and you find yourself in a 'strapped to chair' scenario, take the advice I gave the other guy. Just ask or demand that you be released, and it will work. But again I must stress that that situation is so rare that it isn't even worth considering, especially when you consider that your first few lucid dreams will probably last a few seconds.

Originally Posted by drewmandan

Lucid dreaming isn't like the Matrix either, if that's the impression you've gotten.

Tell that to Dizko. Though you are right in that sense. I had one funny lucid dream where if I died I respawned like a video game character.

I undestand that I can't get hurt, I'm just talking about being freaked out and scared. I know that SP is one of the scariest things a person can experience. I've woken up in it before, but luckily I realized what was going on and woke before anything scary happened. I have been unintentionally lucid quite a few times before, but I had no idea what LDing was. I was just wondering if any wierd things might happen that are actually normal, so I don't freak out when they happen.

Really, if you think it's going to be scary, it will be. If you keep telling yourself that you'll get scared, you will become scared. It's kind of like a "Mind over matter" scenario. I know it's easier said than done, but if you tell yourself that it's nothing to be afraid of, and that it's happens to you every night, then nothing's going to happen.

You aren't dreaming during sleep paralysis so you will have no nightmares then. Conscious sleep paralysis is not required for lucid dreaming, only a special induction technique called WILD. Most of us use another way to get lucid called DILD.

The easiest way to wake up is to close your eyes. You loose focus on everything in your dream so it all disappears. With nothing to dream about, you mind wakes you up.

No negatives other than that SP can be scary sometimes (but not always.)

Sleep Paralysis Tutorial released