First lucid dream - terrifying

Hi all,

This is my first post - nice to find a place like this after my experience. I thought I would try lucid dreaming before researching it. Kind of like the cart before the horse! But I thought I would share what happened on my first attempt to see what more experienced lucid dreamers think.

I woke up just after 4am and was starting to drift back to sleep and I decided to try keep lucid while drifting off to sleep. Seemed like a good idea at the time! I was aware that I was in front of the house I grew up in but a lady who lived next door got my attention and asked me in to her house. I don't recognise her as anyone I know from my life, but in my dream she was a neighbour that I know.

A lot of stuff goes on, like chatting to people who are passing by, looking at the weather and the other houses, etc. However, I decide to go into her house where I discover she is a "psychic" and she leads me to her attic where she holds her seances. This is where my curiosity got the better of me and I asked to have a seance with her, and she agreed. We sat at a small round table with a lace cloth over it and she placed her hands on the table. This is where it got weird for me though...

I sat opposite her and placed my hands in front of hers and we touched fingertips... and then bang. My head snapped back and something entered into me and took almost absolute control of me. I am still aware that I am dreaming but I am almost completely paralysed and unable to wake myself out of it. The strangest part though is that I can feel massive activity in the back of my brain near the base of my skull and I have never felt anything like that before in my life. Its like I have become invaded and possessed by a "spirit"... I don't know if its good or bad though as I can't relate the sensation to anything accept something taking away my control.

In my bed, I am pretty scared and completely tensed with my back arched and struggling to gain control by shaking my body, trying to wake my wife up. The sensation in my head is like mild electricity. At that point I wake up because I can feel my wife's hand on my arm, which "grounds" me back to where I really am, in bed. Funnily enough, she thought I was having a "fun" dream (if you know what I mean ; ))

So I woke up terrified by the experience. The whole time I knew I was dreaming and I made a lot of the choices and decisions in the dream. What I can't explain is that "possession". I'm not making any judgement about it now because I am both scared and curious about the experience. That lead me to the internet to check lucid dreaming out and found this forum.

I realise it sounds a little fantastic, but I am wondering if there is anything more to it. Has anybody else had anything like this in their dreams? I think I want to try again. I have no idea where the seance thing came from, as I am not really into that sort of thing, but I am very curious now! If I can try the seance again in my dream, what tips would you have to keep me "grounded".

Thanks.
Francis X.

Wow... Interesting dream...

First off, Welcome! Any other questions, feel free to send me a private message. And Good job getting lucid already!

Now I doubt that this will happen again... But if it does... Remember that you are in a dream, something so shocking as having someone/thing enter your body must have been terrifying. If you are lucid, you are in control. Don't let any bad ghosties get you!

If you still have problems with this, you might want to post in the General Dream Discussion or the Beyond Dreaming sections.

I've had similar feelings in my brain both while dreaming and while awake, although I've never felt as though I wasn't the one in control. I would suggest manipulating the energy. Try moving it to the front of your head, then split it in two and put it on both sides of your brain. It can be done (I do it regularly) and once you can move it the sense of it controlling you would diminish with time and experience.

:welcome:
It sounds like it was a fun dream up until the end.

I think what you are describing is Sleep Paralysis. Try doing some quick internet research on it, and see if the symptoms are similar to what you experienced. It can happen when first entering sleep, or when waking suddenly from a dream. Basically, your body is physically paralyzed when you are dreaming. This has physical sensations that commonly go along with it such as the electricity/ buzzing/ vibrations you described. It happens naturally every time you dream. Normally, you are unconscious when your body is locked in this state, so you don't notice it. When you start increasing your awareness with things such as lucid dreaming, or interrupting your dreams, you can become aware of it.

I get it all the time, and I know it can be terrifying. The good news is, it is totally safe and normal. If it happens again, try relaxing, reminding yourself there is nothing to fear, and focusing on wiggling your big toe.

Many people use it as a tool to help them learn to lucid dream at will.

wow great responses everyone. I was a little hesitant to try again, but you have reassured me. The dream was great, but so much new experience that I don't know how to process it. I'm going to go in again hopefully this weekend. Usually I'm so tired after work that I'm gone as soon as I hit the pillow, but I have been reading and learning more about.... so watch this space!
Thanks again for the guidance folks.
Francis

Ive had numerous experiences of this in past dreams over the years. Infact my dream this morning, involved me acting as a medium for a girls parents who i met on holiday years ago, I remember feeling a cold electricity around my gut and hip area, and getting thrown about the room like a rag doll by some invisible force. Then I asked questions wether it was who I was trying to contact and wether it was friendly. 2 taps yes and one for no. This one was friendly, but in the past Ive been in this "medium" role and it has been both good and quite evil. I dont know what it is that makes me do this in dreams or what the force is but I have been thrown about in a fair few dreams coming to think of it :S.

As for grounding, maybe crystals by your bed side or under your pillow may help. I remember shouting confidently at the "Spirits" to leave me alone or to Be gone, ascert control and you cant go wrong, or ask you spirit guide to protect you. Also for good recall a piece of jade helps wonders :D

Did your lucidity level remain constant? A lot of that sounds like low level lucidity. IMO, if you were fully lucid at the time of the seance, you would have stopped the possession because it was an uncomfortable experience. If you are fully lucid, you don't feel like a victim of what is happening in your dreams. You don't even feel like things are "happening" to you exactly, because you realize your subconscious is creating this experience. I'm not explaining this well. It's like the difference between playing a song on your guitar and listening to a guitar recorded on CD. Does anyone get what I'm trying to say?

To me full lucidity is when I feel exactly like I do awake, with all my memory and reasoning intact and I know that everything I experience is being constructed. Low lucidity would be like I know I'm in a dream, but I'm going along with everything. In lowest lucidity, I am a total reactionary. I'm basically powerless.

That's it! It's the difference between having a dream and being in a dream.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ryann

To me full lucidity is when I feel exactly like I do awake, with all my memory and reasoning intact and I know that everything I experience is being constructed.

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I know what you mean, but I try to maintain a lower level of lucidity in most of my dreams. I find it to be more satisfying to let the dream play out and interact with it. It allows for a more creative and surprising experience. Like a balance between conscious and subconscious influence.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

I know what you mean, but I try to maintain a lower level of lucidity in most of my dreams. I find it to be more satisfying to let the dream play out and interact with it. It allows for a more creative and surprising experience. Like a balance between conscious and subconscious influence.

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Same with me, it's always fun to just find out what your subconcious mind is thinking up while you dream.

Dear Francis, besides the fact that dreams are interesting and sometimes fun and can give us insight into who we are and what is important to us, there is also the elements of good and evil, thats why we have saints like Mother Teresa and devils like Charles Manson. I have seen both up close and personal, awake and asleep. Don't be fooled into thinking life is all good and sunshine and happy places! There is true darkness and true light and it is not the energy of "the force". They are beings! More real than the life we live in! My advice is seek the light which is in the person of Jesus Christ, he will be your spirit guide, dream guide and keeper of your soul!

^
l


But I think it was just sleep paralysis, as his wife would of woken up with that struggle so it was all in his head imo. Am I missing something ?

Hello and again welcome. I had somewhat of a scary experience my first lucid. It was actually by accident I had just started reading about LDs and I found myself in the dream. I realized I was dreaming because I seen a friend of mine in an old chilhood place that I knew this particular person would never be. So I entered the room where all the activity was and just sat on a couch kind getting comfortable with the dream, telling my self OK Im dreaming lets see whats up. I was just talking amongst somepeople I knew and my friend sitting next to me put his hand on my knee to boost hiself off the couch and I looked up and he turned into a demon type character and started holding my down kind of cackling and then said "theyre coming for you" I immediately woke up but was still unable to move for about 30 sec....pretty scary stuff it was. I havent had anything scary since then and only one other LD

Welcome!
Congrats on your first LD
Its just a dream. I used to be afraid of my dreams thinking they were real but you just got to remember that there not.
Message me any time if you want.

hmm, It seems alot of people who have there first LD(not all) but when i seen on these fourms that its a scary one, you being possied and some people being chased by demons lol. :banana:

I used to wake up right away when I know I was dreaming before coming to this sight, So those don't really count. My first FULL lucid as in total control on the dream scene, people, etc, Was two days after joining. It was awesome and lasted a long time. It's pretty fun to explore your dream world neighborhood!

Whenever I have a scary dream, I take time the next day to read back through my dream journal at all the beautiful experiences I've had. Even reading other people's dreams can help. It helps reestablish that positive connection to dreaming, and get me motivated to have more of those positive dreams.