Hi, new and unsure of what to do.

[lith]

Hi. This is kind of a long post but I didn't want to miss any detail, sorry. I'm kind of new to this whole asking people for help/advice on the internet thing and find it amazing that people are willing to freely give their time to others over an entirely anonymous and un-rewarding medium. Thanks so much for your efforts, for myself and the others who havn't thanked you. Also please grant me the benefit of the doubt and tell me if I say something that isn't kosher around here. Ok so about two weeks ago a friend told me about lucid dreaming. I found it intriguing but once she told me how much effort it was I decided it wasn't really worth it. All I remembered from her was that when you realise you're dreaming you should rub your hands together to increase consciousness and realness of the dream. Then yesterday I was studying and felt really exhausted, hadn't really had enough sleep the night before. So I went to sleep and I think I must've immediately started dreaming. About 10 minutes in it suddenly occurred to me that my surroundings looked it was from a dream I had a while back. Then it just clicked that this was a dream. I remembered the hand rubbing thing and quickly started doing it, as the dream at this point was very hazy and my mind was wandering a lot, then I was suddenly jolted into what I think you guys call a 'false awakening'. I was in my room except there were two girls there I didn't recognise and after about 20 seconds I worked out I must still be dreaming. The exact second this revelation occurred to me, the scene changed again. I was in the countryside somewhere and it all looked INCREDIBLY real. Gravity was very sligtly softer than usual but other than that it was flawless, and I was 100% lucid. It was unbelievable. I seriously questioned whether I was actually awake after sleepwalking or something. Immediately I decided I should fly. I cannot describe how amazing it was. After about 40 seconds of incredibly fast flight over a huge amount of landscape with not a spot less detail than real life, I came to a huge mountain and tried to increase my speed and control my direction a bit more to get over it. From then the dream quickly lost realness and I woke up. There were two weird things though... although I was extremely impressed with the extreme realism and accuracy when I was flying, my feelings didn't accurately reflect the way I would feel if that happened in real life (I imagine my reaction would be something more along the lines of "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"). For some reason I was quite matter of fact about it. Is this normal? Also, I was unable to exert much control when flying. I tried to stop a couple of times and was unable to. And also sometimes had to concentrate very hard to control my altitude, but managed to deal with my lack of control by deciding consciously that when I'm flying, clipping is disabled. Like you can do with the console in half life 2, so I would just fly through any object I hit due to lack of control. It only occurred to me afterwards that this was an odd train of thought. I think I gradually lost lucidity as the dream went on. At the beginning I remember being completely myself, with all ordinary reasoning intact, and by the end seeing some giant 3 story high pidgeons on the mountain and thinking it normal. So after a google, I found this site and read through all your guides and read a few forum messages and discovered that my experience is somewhat unusual and that I seemed to have skipped a few steps. So my main question for you guys is what should I do next? Should I start from the beginning with dream signs and reality checks etc or should I just move ahead and work on dream control and stuff? Have I missed out on some important fundamentals by skipping steps?

[rockinred]

Congratualtions ad welcome to the forum! You seem like a born natural. Many people on the forum go months trying before their first LD (Lucid Dream). It sounds like you can go ahead and start working on your dream control. There's so much advice on here that should help you out. I was just like you when I first found out about lucid dreaming. I just *poof* realized I was dreaming one night and was also amazed at the reality of the dream. Once again congratualtions! If I were you I would head on over to the Dream Control section and get started on your reading. Lucid dreaming is one of THE most amazing things I have experienced and I am always thrilled when others discover how truly amazing the experience can be. It really is hard to explain it to people though, they always wonder why anyone would want to control their dream....

[Shift]

Really, it depends. For starters, sounds like you had a bunch of DILDs (I'm assuming you know what that means since you said you read around, if not here's the DV dictionary). If you want to start with that, decide what kind of DILD you're interested in attempting. Are you willing to put in a lot of effort during the day? Or do you want to stick to keeping a steady dream journal and finding dreamsigns? Is your memory good, do you want to use the MILD technique? It's really about what you find more interesting and suited to your own talents. If you want to WILD, it's basically the same process. Wild? Vild? SP? HIT? It sounds like those were your first lucids, and you'll want to definitely have the knowledge of just BECOMING lucid before worrying about dream control. At the same time, you want to be prepared for when you do have your lucids, so focus on both. Decide what type of LD you want to induce, and begin practicing that, and also read about dream control. They aren't mutually exclusive, and focusing on one helps the other. For example "My goal is to fly, but when I WILD/become lucid from a FA, I end up in my room. In order to get into the sky, I have to get out of the room. Do I want to imagine that it is missing a wall? Climb out the window? Into a poster? Through a mirror? A TV? Blast through the ceiling like the powerpuff girls? How can I keep the dream stable if I do something like that?"

[lith]

Thanks for the replies. It really is hard to explain it to people though, they always wonder why anyone would want to control their dream.... Yeah I really couldn't relate to how people could find events taking place in their minds so interesting until I experienced it. It sounds like those were your first lucids, and you'll want to definitely have the knowledge of just BECOMING lucid before worrying about dream control. Yeah, good advice. I thought that might be the case. They aren't mutually exclusive, and focusing on one helps the other. Cool. I didn't think that would be the case. Time for more reading. Certainly WILD seems very appealing and it sounds like the basic procedure for inducing one is basically what I did two days ago, except I wasn't lucid right away. Thanks heaps for the help (both of you) and for sitting through my huge post. Also, does anyone else feel slightly awkward whenever they read the word "DILD", due to it being one letter away from "Dildo"?

[CorpseGroom]

It's a good thing your friend mentioned it to you. It seems a lot of people have their first lucid dream soon after hearing about it from someone else. Sounds like your DILD experience is the way to go for now, which will involve you getting to know your dreams and dream signs so you can recognize you're dreaming more often. Control will probably come after you're more capable of having more lucid dreams and mainting lucidity for longer periods of time. Only relatively recently have I been actually experimenting with manipulating and controlling things in my LD's. Before, I was happy to let the dream take its course and hang on to lucidity for as long as I could, but now I'm making a conscious effort to exert control, with mixed results. Sounds like you're off to a good start. There are lots of ways of doing a dream journal, just find a form that works for you. And I'd strongly suggest you read "Exploring the Word of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LeBerge and Howard Rheingold. There are a LOT of suggestions and fasinating concepts in it, and I doubt anyone can practice ALL those exercises without devoting their entire lives to it, but it's a great place to start.

[lith]

And I'd strongly suggest you read "Exploring the Word of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LeBerge and Howard Rheingold. There are a LOT of suggestions and fasinating concepts in it, and I doubt anyone can practice ALL those exercises without devoting their entire lives to it, but it's a great place to start. Thanks I've been sick today so found it and spent quite a bit of time reading it. I feel slightly put off by his respect for the 'mystic' point of view on the subject. But other than that, it's proving an excellent read.