I knew there had to be others that experience this...

Hi All,

Over the past few years, I've learned to recognize when I'm dreaming (normally by detecting a nightmare) and forcing myself awake from within my dream (I do this by telling myself "force your eyes open" over and over again until I can pry myself awake.

A few years ago... I decided to take a chance and rather than wake myself, I wanted to see if I could have fun with the dream. It was a rather mild nightmare (someone had died or something like that) so I decided to start commanding (for lack of a better word) things to happen in the dream. I remember wishing myself to another spot... then I wished someone to be with me and then I remember thinking... hey! Wonder if I can fly... so I flapped my arms and slowly I started flying. In the first dream, for some reason I couldn't keep flying and I think I ended up slowly sinking to the ground. I remember waking up and thinking "this is COOL".

Since then... I've been able to focus on forcing a dream I could control only once... when I was getting ready to fall asleep, I'd focus on a pattern that I was looking at... usually the form of black and white pebbles... dim at first and then growing sharper as I continued to focus. Once the pebbles were sharply focused; I found I was floating above them and then I just started flying. I've only been able to do this once.

More times than not, I simply become aware that something is out of place (and again, more times than not it is a nightmare) and then I can kick off a dream I could control.

Well... last night I had the whopper of all controlled dreams. It started with someone telling me my cat was dead and I started to force myself awake using the pry my eyes open technique but for some reason, I decided to "test" if it was a dream (for lack of a better word) so... ummm... let's just say I commanded something I like :) After that... I found myself in a long dark hallway and I felt that my controlled dream was slipping back into a nightmare (sometimes they do that on me... more often that not I can force them back to something fun but sometimes, if I let the nightmare get to far along I need wo wake myself up)... anyway... I'm in the hall and it is long and dark with no doors and windows so I turn and face the wall and command a door and then instantly, just as it appears I walk through it into a blue sky sunny day. I remember thinking... wow... making that door appear was easy. So... since I like to fly and it was a nice clear day... I just started flapping. Honestly, this dream seemed to last forever and when I woke up... I knew that I could not possibly be alone in this odd little world of controlling my dreams... so as soon as I got up this morning, I googled "control my dreams" (or something like that) and found my way here.

I was really surprised to find that there was a website dedicated to this... I'll be surfing around here to try and figure out how to make these controlled dreams more frequent. I don't believe I've had more than a small handful (6-10 or so) in the past few years. If I had my way; I'd do this every night!

Anyway... just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I'm very happy to have found this website and people who like doing this as much as I do.

Joe

Congrats Joe!

amazing how you found out about lucid dreaming on your own. hope to hear more from you, and post more of your experiences up :)

this site really helped me along, i would be nowhere near as good as i am now without it.

what you did with the 'pattern' is known as a WILD (wake induced lucid dream). where you slip into a dream while never losing consciousness. there are some that have tried this for years and never accomplished this. i bet soon you'll be able to fly without having to flap. anyway, good luck, and good dreams!

Hi! I'd like to welcome you to DV. And yep, Forgotten beat me to it to recognizing your pattern as a WILD. There are all kinds of techniques to make this work.

What you did, to test if it was a dream, is called a reality check or RC. Though trying to excercise control as a way to test if it's a dream is usually not used to check if it's a dream. But I commend your expirimenting without direction.

If you want to know more, these two tutorials by the late Billybob are probably the best ways to let you know the methods and the techniques.

http://dreamviews.com/community/showthread.php?t=51214
http://dreamviews.com/community/showthread.php?t=55740

Anyway, 'grats on your successes and welcome!

Thanks Spockman and Forgotten...

I started a journal for dreams yesterday after this latest controlled dream. Normally, my controlled dreams are so much fun that I remember them for a long time however, the regular dreams are gone in a flash and I'm hoping to increase my chances of success at making these LDs more frequent (and somehow figure out another way to recognize I'm dreaming OTHER than being in a nightmare). I'll read through the tutorials before I ask any questions to keep people from having to repeat themselves over and over and over and... :)

It looks like this forum has a great search engine as well so I doubt I'll post many questions however, I will post up any LDs I have.

I'll tell you; to me, having an LD has got to be the most fun thing possible on the face of this planet... I can't imagine what it would be like to be able to create them at will; I'd be hooked like a crack addict... Is it time for bed yet? Is it time for bed yet? ... how about now? Is it time for bed yet?
:D

Thanks again for listening... I'm very pleased I found this forum where I can learn the tricks of the trade.


Joe

Wow, it is amazing you were able to discover so much on your own. I guess that goes to show, this is something natural that we can discover on our own given the right circumstances. It sounds like you've already read through the tutorials. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Sometimes I do feel like a crack addict. Especially when I have an especially trippy or physical WILD. It is a similar experience to he most intense drugs around, only totally natural and free :D It is nice to be able to look forward to sleeping, isn't it? Imagine all the little kids who would be begging to go to bed with no supper if they could do this. "Please ground me to my bedroom, Mom, please?"