Thread: Moomshine Says "Hello"

Hiya,

Just wanted to introduce myself with a potted Lucid Dreaming history:-

I often dreamed of flying as a kid. I taught myself to fly over many dreams. Initially I had to make myself trip whilst running, or jump off a high building, but eventully I could do it anyway.

When I started University (1997 ish) my lazy student sleep patterns and lie in's led me to discover what I now know were lucid dreams. This experience freaked me out. I borrowed a psychology text book, and luckily at the back there was a short section on laberge research and lucid dreaming. But exams etc got in the way and I just forgot all about it.

In around 2003 I bought Exploring the World of Lucid dreaming, kept a bit of a Dream Journal and had a couple of lucid dreams. I was able to fly in just about every dream, and this was often a way to get lucid. Again I forgot about it after a while.

Picked it up in 2006. At this point I was living with my partner (now wife). I used to freak her out sitting up in the night half asleep and just staring at my hand (a reality check). Again I had nominal success, gave up and forgot about it. Flying seemed to be more difficult, and I figured I was developing a mental block. Which is a shame, as it was my main way of becoming lucid.

Gave it another bash about 4 weeks ago. Randomly found a wikipedia guide to LD. Inspired to dig out and reread EWOLD cover to cover. Started keeping a dream journal. Started reality checking. But the best thing ever was finding this excellent Forum. So a big thanks to everyone who contributes to this community of like minded dreamers.

After a week I actually went on two weeks of summer vacation. Took ear plugs and an eye mask. A great time to experiment. Long story short, I'm in a position where I'm finding myself waking in the night and remembering dreams.
Probably averaging 2 a night. Sometimes 3. Haven't had much luck with WILDing and the like. Stick to the MILD technique mostly.

Had a few false awakenings, and filled in my DJ in my dream. Isn't it cool how this is a common feature of everyones lucid dreaming?

Reality checks don't seem to be much help as yet, mainly as I'm just not doing them. But reading through my DJ I've noted that all the times I've became lucid are when I've seen something which makes me think "nahhhhhh...this can't be real". Once was breathing underwater. Once was noticing how the road was made of coloured bricks.Things like that.
I'm back tracking through my journal and trying to draw out dreamsigns.

Anyway as part of this latest cycle I had the most amazing Lucid Dream.
I found myself on the TV show the Apprentice, and after a while was wondering WTF made me come on this show. I hate that kind of thing, it just wasn't me. When I tried to though back I drew a blank and suddenly realised I was conscious. I went for a stroll but a dream character kept bugging me and following me. I decided it was my sub-conscious (inspired by a thread on this site) and had a fascinating chat. My sub-conscious was hinting that creating a dream world was an amazing amount of work for him. I asked if my sub-conscious would come back in another dream. It said yes. I asked if I could call it "barney" and it would appear as my childhood pet, a black crossbreed. Amazingly for a minute the DC was a big black talking dog! I then decided just to have a look at the dream world (again inspired by threads on this site). I was looking at street signs and shop signs (a reality check).
Sure enough, all the writing was a bit messed up. Perfect font, perfectly imagined just all out of order, or wonky. I was very excited as, though I had read about it a lot, this was the first time every I had noticed it in a dream.
It was like the final twist in the Sixth Sense. I guess I got to excited, cos I woke up. But a great success no?
This was about two weeks ago, and I haven't bumped into barney again yet.
I will try visualisation to induce a lucid.

I'm inspired by this forum to keep on trucking, and hopefully stick it out.

I'll keep my sig updated. But only as part of this current cycle.

PS I realise the above is probably a bit boring same old same old for everyone, given the common ground we share, but thought it was good to record it. Thanks for bearing with me.