Thread: Reasons for Lucid Dreaming

Complete freedom, and time away from human contact are definatly two big reasons. As a gamer I can also live out cool scenarios I see in games.

This is in answer to 'Why should I lucid dream? What good is it?' [/b]

WOW..this is huge. I was at an appointment because I stopped taking my meds for insomnia. They are sleep aids, anyhow, they induce nightmares. Whatever. So I suffer PTSS, and I was having a major, major, major nightmares, and having huge problems with my daily life. Sensory overload you could say. So I stopped which lead to days without sleep. Well, finally the doc was giving me this lecture on why I can’t do this and why I should do that…a Blah blah blah, yada yada this and that. Then something she said caught my attention. “you know your mind is a very powerful organ, you can control your dreams, don’t let them control you”. Then she went on. However, I was thinking wait a minute, there might be something to this. I was already experiencing strange things in my dreams. I have major dream recall. So I thought okay, damn-it, I am going to be the puppet master here, and I started taking control of my dreams. I had too. I would have gone insane if I hadn’t. So I had salvation on my side, this wasn’t just a lets have fun in my dreams and party all night in my new night world, but I needed to survive. I couldn’t taken anymore of the over stimuli I was receiving from my dreams. I had to sleep. When it started working, I was like this is so cool. I can do whatever I want! If I don’t want this person in my dream, I don’t have to have them there, or I can bring whomever I wanted into to fix my whatever problem I had.

If you anyone remembers those dreams where you had the feeling where you just couldn’t run fast enough, and if felt like your muscles bunch up so tight, but you can’t get the speed to run wherever it was you needed to go. Well not anymore, as soon as I get any kind of those dreams it is a trigger, I know that I am dreaming and I take over and I can run as fast as I want get wherever I need, and if I don’t like my dream I either slip in and out and redo it. Especially if it is a good dream, and girls and boys, you know what I mean.

If I get woke up for any reason, I just think to myself, I can go back a dream the same dream, change it up or rewind it. Does anyone else do this? Anyhow, this is why I started Controlling my Dreams and LD. However, I think I have been LD for a long time, just didn’t realize it until now. Thanks for stopping by!

Why should I lucid dream?

I should lucid dream to become more active in understanding the phenominon that is dreaming.
As a passive observer of myself and my actions in my dreams I often awaken feeling as though certain paths or characters within the dream should have been more thoughroughly explored or investigated.
If I am lucid dreaming with the intent of exploring whatever meanings, teachings, warnings etc my dream has for me, I feel I will get alot more out of my sleeping hours and maybe even understand my mind/self more, or be more open to learning from my dreams.
Obviously its not all about that self awareness stuff for me. I have goals that I want to achieve whilst lucid dreaming based around other themes but perhaps listing all of those would be better suited to another topic entirely.
I should lucid dream because it came naturally to me, I dont fully understand it and I feel drawn to it.
I should lucid dream because it inspires me in my waking hours and creates more possibilitys for my self in waking life.
I should lucid dream because its fun, and fun is good.


What good is it?

I think lucid dreaming is good because you become an active participant in your sleeping hours rather than a spectator.
I think lucid dreaming is good because it can be an outlet for certain desires, a training ground for your waking life, and a healthy way to experiment with alot of dangerous activitys that you wouldnt neccisarily want to put your waking body through.
Lucid dreaming could also be good for excersising parts of my brain that dont get used often enough in my waking life, the kind of areas of the mind modern science or technology and understanding cant quite explain.
Lucid dreaming is good because you can get some sexual relief at any time you want, which is in my opinion very healthy and not always available to me in my waking life due to being nervous about approaching beautifull women, or self critical about my apprearence or penis size, which i think comes down to my mood at the time. These sorts of problems tend to fade once I am drunk but that is not exactly a healthy practice or something I want to rely on to express myself sexually. Also around this topic i think lucid dreaming is good because you can have amazing sex and you dont have to rely on the other person to be in the mood, which is important for great sex in waking life.
Lucid dreaming is good because of the confidance you gain knowing you can do something like this, its almost like a hobby or skill that you can work on your entire life, but without any major monitary expense, without having to rely on a team and its very intimate and personal which of course is interesting.
And, in closing lucid dreaming is good because its FUN!!!!!!!!! and thats the most important.

Nice topic placebo.
Im glad that question was presented to me because I didnt really think about it untill then.
Also thankyou to the other posters some of those replys were very interesting.

Why should I lucid dream? To me the answer is to work out dilemmas I go through in life. I think I have gone through lucid dreaming, only to realize after the passage of time that the way I worked through some hurtful times was to confront situations in my dreams. I'm not sure they were all lucid (I'm still trying to figure that out), but some were so real I have to think twice sometimes whether I was awake when it happened.
I hope to have fun, too, as some of you have said. We'll see how it goes.

I don't understand why u are seeking for good reasons to practise LD, the explore of a whole "new world" isn't a good reason ??

I've always thought of it almost like having a whole new 2nd life. Like have one life in your waking life but then you can always come back to your life that you can create and make it go your way for the most part. It can even teach you about new things you will take into paly in "real" life. Experimenting with something you have always wanted to do or figure things out about your self you could never think about.

Fun, sex, self-realization, consciousness enhancer, new skills, enhanced creativity, shared dreaming, flying, Fun, Sex, SEX, SEX

Originally Posted by BohmaN

Fun, sex, self-realization, consciousness enhancer, new skills, enhanced creativity, shared dreaming, flying, Fun, Sex, SEX, SEX
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*backs away*

I love video games, I am an addict. Sure you can call me that. But I found out about Lucid Dreaming thanks to the movie Waking Life and then found this site and thought to myself, wow...it's like the ultimate video game. Oh yeah, and I'm a horny teenager, so that, you know, speaks for itself... =D

my dreams are usually bizzarre
i am going to use lucid dreaming to control dreams so i dont have to watch people getting chopped up
or killing themselves andimals me me killed by animals ect ect etc
a really crappy dream sets a bad mood over my whole day
i want improved dream quality from lucid
thats all

Other than the fact that you can pretty much do anything you can imagine, it's a part of human life that goes overlooked by many people. Your brain is a powerful piece of work and can do more than anyone could imagine. There are so many things left to understand about the human brain, but lucid dreaming is one of the things that ,IMO, gets overlooked by a lot of people. Sleep is just another state of conciousness, and if we can control our brain activity in our sleep youre pretty much doubling your lifespan, even though your asleep life isn't in fact a reality.

Oh............and sex

If I told you I wouldn't have sex in lucid dreams every now and then, I'd be lying through my teeth. In fact, it's an ambition of mine to score with just about every Final Fantasy girl. That would be interesting.

(Yes, ladies, just about ALL men are this perverted whether or not they admit it. Get used to it! And be glad that there are some of us who are man enough to admit it...)

But other than that, I'd kind of like to do whatever I can that would be impossible in the waking reality. It'd typically be videogame related.

-I'd put myself in a FF-like world and fight beasts. With a sword.
-I'd fly an Arwing or Wolfen fighter (from Star Fox) and blast junk outta the sky.
-I'd probably see if I could make my friends appear and converse with them the same way we would in the waking reality.
-I think I'd like to kick Hitler in the balls just once... to see what it's like.
-I'd see if I could contact my dead grandpa and speak with him in German.
-And probably much, much more...

And I'd ultimately like to see if I'd remember much of any of what I do when I awaken. If one can do this, then I'll have lots and lots of material with which to write stories.

That's why I should lucid dream. To have the fun I normally wouldn't have in the waking reality, and to get as many interesting ideas as possible.

Battles... I just love the idea of going into a huge battle, and running around, chopping things up with swords. Thats probally why I remembered my dream the other night, as I got to run around with a lightsaber in it

I'm trying to stay away from just wanting to LD so I can have sex..... but I think I may end up doing it, especially as how the people here seem to love it so much!

And shapechanging, flying, running off buildings.... Just anything and everything!

I want to LD mostly to re-experience some of my earlier dreams, in higher clarity and control of course! Once I "attain" those older dreams, I figure I'd LD for many of the same reasons others here do: UBER SECKS!!!

I want to LD because for many reasons but one of them would be that I spend at least one third of the day sleeping, I might as well make the most of it

I think there's lots of reasons to gain skillz in Lucid Dreaming.
It's almost total freedom, only limited by your own mind. You can make what you want, do what you want, and be what you want. you can fly, you can travel, and be amazed.
Another reason is because I'd like to have some Shared Dreams...

i would like to say that im one of those nightmare ones... my siblings were so "generous" when it came to scaring me when i was younger and i was so gullible, so i always got really freaky nightmares.... doesnt help that i live in the woods... but what would be the response if i were to say that ive been a lucid dreamer since i was... nine? ten? accouple years at least... and without writing anything down, like it just started happening?

Originally Posted by Placebo

This is in answer to 'Why should I lucid dream? What good is it?'
So together with some others (eg AcidBasick), we've compiled a list for you
Remember that virtually anything is possible in a lucid dream - so there are no limits
1 ) Its damn fun, and brings enjoyment ... hell if you dont think dream sex is good, something is wrong !
2 ) You can overcome your fears and nightmares - which falls through to waking life (fears = nightmares = fears)
3 ) You can learn a lot about how your mind works, your subconscious, and a bit about 'awareness'
4 ) You can investigate stuff like OOBE and AP for yourself, if you try hard enough
5 ) You can investigate stuff like 'unlocking memories'... although this can be dangerous too
6 ) You are more likely to experience anomalies like shared dreaming. In fact, my wife managed to cause one...
7 ) You end up with interesting hobbies to impress others with
8 ) You can learn about yourself and your reaction to situations that would never occur in real life. Eg - change your gender, be president or welcome aliens...
9 ) You can learn and practice for physical and mental activities. Such as playing a sport or figuring out a problem. LaBerge's research suggests that signals from the brain to the muscles involved in these activities are identical to waking life.
10 ) You can experience things that you otherwise would not be able to in waking life - even your greatest fantasies. Travel to the distant reaches of the galaxy, go on that dream vacation you've always wanted, or swim deep under the ocean. Similar to ( 8 )
11 ) Waking up from a successful lucid dream can change your entire day. It can put you in a fantastic mood.
12 ) You become more 'sensory aware'. Your whole life, including lucid dreaming, can become an intense experience.
13 ) It can inspire creativity. One can get many ideas for art in dreams.
14 ) You can use it to get a different perspective on a challenge or obstacle in your life. You can converse with yourself in a very real environment.
15 ) You can grow spiritually, by expanding your mind to understand those perspectives that your normally would not (by experiencing them in 'interactive' dreams)
Each of these points has its own research and growth potential
Take ( 13 ) for example, you could create poems and essays straight from the subconscious! (Take a blank paper, think of a topic and have the topic get written to the paper - and read it)
Hope that inspires
PS: Check out the Lucid Experience Checklist for some ideas (some silly, some not)
Also check out the research team section for some experiments you could try
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Mainly to feel what life is like without boundaries.

And become a god in my own world too.

Well I think it would be really fun, and it's cool having something to do with all your extra time.

I want to become more enlightened. I would love to meet who I really am, to see what passes as death. I would like to know for sure that I am living in a dream world right now and would love to learn what it is like in other very different worlds. I have met beings from other worlds in meditation, but have lost all contact and would love to get that back. When I say other worlds, I am talking about other focuses. I would love to meet some very loving, enlightened beings very different than what I have found so much of in this world.
I realize this may be verging on OBE's, but I would also like to learn what exactly the difference is between Lucid Dreaming and OBE's if any.

Well, I can see why some of us have not responded to you quickly! You come right out and ask the heavy-duty questions, no playing around with lightweight chit-chat.

As I mentioned in another post, I am no expert. Since I chose to respond to this post, I will further qualify that I am no expert in other entities, other focuses (foci? focii?), OBE's. I do have some experience (but claim no deep expertise) in meditation and lucid dreams. In fact, I joined this forum because I was on lucid-dream-hiatus for a while. I am on the road to relearning it.

I know this much about OBE's: according to the technical descriptions of them available, I have had one or maybe two, but I do not view them as spiritual occurances. For my experiences, where it seemed very real and seemed fairly verifiable, I accept that it was just semi-lucid, very realistic dreams. I do not think my consciousness left my body. I know, booooriiiing. Prolly not the answer you wanted.

As far as meeting others or going other places, long ago I gave up searching for such things. Now, I am perfectly content to travel to my inner, dreamy, silly-land and meet the amazing portions of myself that I do not usually interact with in the waking world. That is not to say that I claim with any knowledge whether other stuff exists. It's just that I have my hands full taking stock of my personal inventory before I go fiddling with others.

Yes, all the world is a dream. I can dig that. It's just that the waking world is a remarkably stable dream, and it seems to be shared with others. I could go on for an entire thread on this discussion, I am sure. Meditation, enlightenment (and what the hell is enlightenment, anyway?) are huge topics by themselves, as well. Perhaps we will discuss those another time.

Welcome.

Hi folded. Thank you for repying to my post. I am sorry if I sounded too heavy, I didn't mean to. This is my first time on a Lucid Dreaming site and I have read some of it, but do not really know where people are on this. I don't consider myself an expert at all. I have had hundreds of Lucid Dreams, but not recently. The past several years, I have lost this ability for some odd reason. Once in a blue moon, I will have one by accident. But anyway, most of all, I appreciate your kindness in replying to my post.

Well td, at the very least, on this site you will find help and advice as to how to strengthen a lucid dreaming practice. It is a good spirtual method, in my book, and worth learning how to do well, just for the deep look inward.

I know I have seen some threads on OBE's in the forum. I think there is some contention. Those who think they are really "out of body experiences", and those who think they are "in the body but still pretty damn neat experiences." You'll find your way to one of them and weigh in when you're ready.

Dont worry about sounding heavy. Just be aware that heavy sounders like you and me can sometime be thread killers. It just happens, don't take it personally. I don't know how many threads I was the last one to reply to. I just keep on going.

Once in a blue moon, I will have one by accident.[/b]

There's a pun in there. Good one. I'm cheering for you to turn your "accidents" into purposeful Lucid Dreams. Good luck!

Thanks for the info. I will keep this in mind. Will be seeing you on the General Lucid Dreaming section.

Danae

hey Lou, there are a lot of good tutorials in that section. they are even rated by stars.

this is what I recommend:

• read the tutorials on dream recall FIRST. you need to do that before doing anything else. basic exercise. indispensible.
• then, get yourself a copy of steve laberge's book, "Exploring the world of lucid dreaming" http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-World-Drea...8166&sr=8-2. Or his other "Lucid Dreaming" if you can find it. you only need one or the other. a very good foundation reference from one of the first serious researchers in the field of lucid dreaming.
• while you're at it, read a couple of the highly rated tutorials to get a feel for what's out there. get psyched up.

The skill takes a little work to develop. But, it's worth it! It's fun!