Thread: Reasons for Lucid Dreaming

The first time I tried to WILD, I got through the numbing stage without "wigging" out. But afterwards, when the visualizations started, I began to tense up. The last thing I saw before I opened my eyes was a butterfly made of other tiny butterflies, neon blue in color. I haven't gotten as far as that since(almost 2 months now), but I came out with a Dream Sign that I can identify with now. My reason for lucid dreaming would be to be able to see things such as this again, but fully in a lucid state.

Some weird and/or funny reasons I thought of, for those who might need them:
1)It's a skill that you might think 'puts you above' the 'common mortals'
2)Since you sleep about a 1/3 of your day(well, you should actually, if you're lucky)being lucid for at least part of this 8 hours is actually like actively living a bit more :-)
3)Some people might simply NOT like/be scared of the thought of not having control or their actions, as it is in non-lucid dream
4)If you sleep too little because you consider sleeping as 'lost time'(I used too, some years ago), and you know this is hurting you, Lucid Dreaming - and even not-so-lucid dreaming - can be somewhat of a motivation for sleeping a bit more(just don't spend more than half your day in bed unless your sick or something, though)
5)Learning LD might have side-effects on your Waking Life other than simply general happiness and learned skills - being more conscious and in control, for example.
6)Probably the same as reason 2, but...You actually get to 'work'mentally/have fun/adventure while sleeping, which is something that is free, easy and doesn't directly hurt you by doing it too much. Also, sleeping is synonimous with resting - so you actually rest while doing an intense activity.

I hated sleeping, it always seemed like such a waste of time. I always tried to get by on as little sleep as possible, not sleeping for 48 hours at a time, and then collapsing for half a day.

Now I can finally feel like I'm actually doing something with my sleep. I get pretty irritated with myself if I end up not dreaming or failing WILD... and then failing WILD again ... and failing AGAIN...

In any case, my two other reasons I think are that I like the idea of exploring the idea of consciousness and reality. It makes me feel more than the ordinary, in that I don't just have 'awake' and 'sleep' modes.

Also, dreams are fun too...

The thing that first got me really excited about lucid dreaming was actually quite pathetic, looking back at it now. I'm gay, and I developed strong feelings for a friend of mine who's straight, and I wanted to create a scenario where he somehow could be with me. I've since thought of many other reasons to want to lucid dream.

I desperately want to write a song in a dream. I've had dreams where I've heard completely new music that I'm certain I've not heard before (unless i heard it but didn't ake notice of it, but my brain subconciously took it in) but I think my brain has been creating this music.

In one dream in particular, I was watching this synchornized sword fight, and while they were dancing, they were singing in the most stunningly beautiful harmonies I have ever heard. If I were lucid, I could find a piano, and make a note to myself of what notes they are singing, and I'm sure I could just play something to a much higher standard than I can in real life.

Sex.


Pure, uncensored sex.

That music stuff sound interesting... I must try that... Don't you think that you could just magic up the sheet music for the music you hear, since you theoretically composed it yourself, your brain should be able to figure out the notes immediately? Then all you'd have to do would be to memorise that. You should be able to remember that, at least the melody or the chord progressions.

As for sex, we all like sex, but don't you find that instead of just sex its much better to just live out a little romantic novel with sex only playing a role. That I find is so satisfying. Did one this morning actually, with a girl I've not really known for a long time, but only really got to know well last night. Turns out she's awesome... I didn't even have to control that dream, it just happen by itself! And no, it wasn't uncensored sex! It was really nice though. That is one perk about lucid dreaming. Tough break, 90sjesus, tough break...

Hey everybeing,

I will try not to be too repetitive with this answer as there has been a comprehensive response to this question. I will divide my answer into two parts; the first will be reasons I have experienced and the second will be reasons I would like to experience.

(Very) Worthwhile experiences: Flying, Astral Projection, meeting my Spirit Guide/Higher Self and passed (not past) Enlightened Spiritual Teachers/Beings (Christ- although I am not Christian), and for the general integration of my Whole Self.

Desires: Singing, playing, creating and composing Music and Art, attending Esoteric Schools and exploring the levels of energy implicate in our Universe, meeting ‘God’ and more extensive channeling with Beings of Light, and generally pushing the evolutionary envelope (with things like attaining spiritual knowledge and exchanging Life as with Dream Sharing- which I feel may be a form of Astral Projection).

Dae,

Rob.

Wow! 15 very good reasons to LD! You could probably think of many, many more!

Hello,

I had a LD by accident a few weeks ago. It was very short - faded as soon as I was lucid. Then I read up on it, and had one on purpose a few nights ago - I would spin if I felt it fading, and it went on and on. I was completely lucid. In the dream my dad tried to give me advice on buying a bra. I laughed and said, "Dad, I'm not worried about that right now - I'm dreaming!" .

Three reasons for me to try this:

1. It was FUN! Amazing! So very cool - there are so many things I would love to try.

2. I have been disturbed by very vivid dreams all my life. No problem with dream recall - I've had periods of my life when I've tried conciously NOT to remember my dreams, because all day disturbing, weird images pop into my head from my dreams. In my dreams I'm often asking, "Is this a real or a dream? Hmm, I'm married to 4 people I don't know, and there goes a purple elephant - no, that seems reasonable, this must be real." It would be great to have some control over this. My LD sleep was so much more restful than usual - I wake up tired wrestling helplessly with weird situations all night.

3. I read a book called "Holographic Universe" that suggests that the realm accessed by Near death experiences, OBE's, Austrailian Aboriginal dreamtime, Indian shamans, hypnotism, deep meditation, dreams, etc. might actually be real. Physics suggests that there is energy unaccounted for in the universe, and since many reports of these experiences are consistent with each other, maybe it isn't just hallicinations, but there really is something there, a spiritual or energy realm. I'm fascinated to explore that realm, and LD seems the most accessible way for me.

I'm excited to find this forum!

Mary Lynne
Cincinnati

Hello all.
I became interested in recording my dreams when I had an awesome one on 16 April 2005. Ever since 18th Dec 2005 I have used a tape recorder to record my dreams, about 2-3 per night typically.

I probably became interested in lucid dreams because last summer in a dream I was jumping on pillows and, becoming afraid of suffocation, deliberately woke up.

That reminded me of the countless times, well before my records began, when a dream has turned scary and I have woken up deliberately. If only I could realise it was just a dream and nothing to be scared of!

On 5th May this year I finally had a lucid dream that lasted a few minutes and not just one second. In my most recent LD I was in the same room as I was on 5th May and someone suggested that all I could do now was wake up. I said I wanted to stay in the dream but woke up anyway. On reflection I should have yelled at them 'I AM STAYING in this dream!' or maybe tried spinning.

LD will be my second world of my life where i can do something that I can't do in real life, I want to have a one week life in real world and 1-2 day life in dream world, that what i call a great life.

I have a few reasons:

1. It's my own personal place where I can do whatever I want, No one can bother me or tell me what to do...I will have full control...soon. lol. In life, I have 3 brothers and a sister...all older than me so I don't get to have much control.

2. I want to fly

3. I actually don't want this but I guess my mind does. lol, I say this because I never want this when I am awake and I always plan on doing something really fun or cool when I finally have another lucid dream... but whenever I have one, my dream wanders over to sex...

Originally Posted by Placebo

...
13 ) It can inspire creativity. One can get many ideas for art in dreams.
...
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
[/b]

(didn't want to post the whole thing)

I actually have been inspired to write a short story recently (haven't written it yet) because of a story my grandparents told me in a dream.

To experience events that I cannot do in real life, such as flying or fight like one of those Character in Jinyong's novel.

To simulate situation so I get better at them, for example, praticing for a test I have in the future.

I think the ability to do this is because,For the most part we all heard about it in real life.there is nothing evil or wrong about it,it has nothing to do with your Religeous or no religious beliefs.it is good for the brain and helps the expansion of conciousness.

Sex is the last thing I think about when dreaming.I get enough of that in reality.

I think that Lucid Dreaming is more safer than misuse of dangerous drugs such as LSD or any other hallucinogens. Many young people want to try some drug, because of curiosity. But I think if they should try Lucid Dreaming to realize that there are more greater and creative methods of achieving impossible things without any great risks of permanent damage to body or mind. It's simply legal way of achieving anything - the absolute freedom for everyone.

Originally Posted by bendstringz

Sex is the last thing I think about when dreaming.I get enough of that in reality.
[/b]

Ahh yes, we could tell that by your avatar.

Me? I pretty much started out of shear curiosity. I had a lucid dream several years back, yet thought nothing else of it. It was only when i got bored 2 nights ago that I stumbled across Lucid Dreaming. Not understanding the term, I then did a google search for information and thus found this site. I was rapt, so BRING ON THE IMAGINATION!

There are so many reasons for anyone to want to LD, and I'm no where near having one, still working on dream recall, but ulitmately I'd like to...

1. Ride a dragon, as Eragon does. (The book is great, the movie is terrible)
2. Sex
3. I'm a gamer at heart, and well, being that I mostly play World of Warcraft, I want to be there as one of my charachters.
4. When you think about it, life is short, so why not spend the time we do sleeping, creating and awakening what the mind is truely capable of.

And that's my ultimate goals, I will not rest, err... I will continue to rest that is, untill I do.

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 ??