New here, plus why I'm into lucid dreaming now.

**Gwrhyr** · 08-11-2009 02:24 PM

Hey everyone, my name is Gwrhyr (pronounced somewhat like 'grr-here', it's a Welsh name).

I just wanted to introduce myself and also talk about why I've become interested in lucid dreaming recently.

I've always occasionally 'woken up' within my dreams, usually once every few months, but I would always wake up shortly after becoming lucid. Whenever I would attain lucidity I got extremely excited, which I'm reading now is probably why I always woke up so quickly.

Recently I've been attaining lucidity more often, which prompted me to do some research about it online, and I read about how digital clocks don't function properly in dreams. After reading that, everytime I see a clock in a dream, I become lucid. I also had a dream recently where I was in a forest, following a path, and there were wooden direction signs, but the signs just had squiggles that would change if you look away and look back, and that prompted me to realize I was dreaming.

In another recent dream in which I had attained lucidity, I felt like I was waking up, but I started to use some techniques I recently read about, like rubbing your hands together, feeling the textures of the dream environment, and shouting "increase lucidity". I wasn't able to prevent myself waking up, but low and behold I didn't wake up into reality, I had a false awakening on the couch within the very same room that I had been dreaming in, a room that was very strange to me, furnished Victorian-era-style.

I've also really enjoyed dreaming, because I can often fly in my dreams, and the fact that I've always occasionally attained a little bit of lucidity has prompted me to want to explore the dreamworld more, and hopefully I will be able to build upon what already comes naturally and have full lucid dreams.

One of the things that has always sparked my interest in dreams is that when I fly in dreams, my dreamself often says out loud in the dream "Flying is so normal, there is nothing weird about being able to fly, this is a normal, everyday thing". I always found that really strange, because obviously flying is not normal, but what really got me to start wondering about the nature of dreams and dreaming was why I always stated the normality of flying in a dream, which is even more than just passively accepting flying as a reality... somehow my dreamself feels the need OVER-accept the reality of flying when I'm dreaming...

I do have some worries about lucid dreaming though. So far I always wake up shortly after attaining lucidity, and one of my worries is that now that I've started doing reality checks, I will attain lucidity when I'm flying and then my flying dreams will end too soon, because my flying dreams are my favorite dreams, and really enjoyable, and I usually fly a lot when I have a flying dream. I don't really want to always attain lucidity when I start flying and then have the dream end. But I suppose the only solution is to develop my ability to stay calm while lucid in order to stay within the dream. But it could also be that my over-acceptance of the normality of flying is needed in order to be able to fly, since I have read that a lot of people find it very difficult to fly lucidly... maybe the feeling is just too exciting, so it leads to waking up too quickly.

Anyway, that was just a little introduction into why Ive become interested in lucid dreaming... I feel like my dreamself has been pushing me toward it since I already am familiar with the phenomenon of 'waking up' within a dream.

- Gwrhyr

**Abra** · 08-11-2009 04:13 PM

Welcome to Dreamviews! It's refreshing to see such a thought-out post as yours. It seems you are already quite knowledgeable about lucid dreaming, and should have no trouble with it in the future!

Regarding your concern about premature awakening caused by lucidity: the brain during lucid dreaming thinks and behaves more like the brain of waking life than the normal dreaming brain does. This change in thought pattern might trigger a false awakening, or a real awakening, as your mind believes, "Since you're thinking as you do in waking life, I suppose it's time to wake up!" This will diminish as you have more lucid dreams. Continue trying stabilization techniques.

Again shooting off of that hypothesis, people often become lucid toward the end of their REM cycle, because their mind is close to waking mode. With practice (referring to reality checks), you will become lucid earlier in REM, and have more time to enjoy the dream world.

Good luck!

**XeL** · 08-11-2009 04:58 PM

Hej och välkommen till DV!

**Jeff777** · 08-11-2009 08:06 PM

to Dreamviews Gwrhyr!

**Robot_Butler** · 08-11-2009 09:52 PM

You may be sabotaging yourself by expecting to wake up shortly after becoming lucid. Don't be afraid to wake up. Don't focus on it. Just go with the flow and enjoy the time you do have in the dream.

I like to keep a goal I want to achieve while lucid. Even if that goal is a simple one, such as exploring my environment. As soon as I become lucid, I can start working towards this goal, focusing on it to keep my attention away from waking up.

**Gwrhyr** · 08-13-2009 03:35 PM

Thank you (tack XeL!) for the welcome.

I think I definitely am sabotaging myself with the flying/waking up thing because it actually happened last night. I was in what felt like a really long dream, when suddenly I started flying around, and after a few minutes of flying around I thought "Wait... this must be a dream because I'm flying" and then I fell to the ground and woke up almost immediately. It probably happened because I was so worried that it would happen, and while worrying, I pictured it happening. By thinking about it so much, it ended up happening... So I guess I will definitely need to work on relaxing and not worrying so much about this type of thing happening. It seems like the dreamworld is a place that embodies to the fullest the idea that you can do anything as long as you believe you can... and if you doubt yourself even a little, you'll sabotage whatever it is you're trying to do.

**oniman7** · 08-15-2009 04:52 AM

Well, it seems you've already caught on a bit. Because you've accepted the normality, you won't get over excited when it happens. This could have other complications though. Anyways, welcome to the site. I'd suggest maybe re-posting everything but the introduction paragraph in the General Lucid Discussion part of the forum. This may be slightly frowned upon, but you should get better answers there.

By the way, your name. Is it pronounced somewhere in between Gah-reer and qah-reer? Like a guttural sound on the G? Just out of curiosity.

**Gwrhyr** · 08-15-2009 07:54 PM

Thanks for the reply, Oniman,
The G in Gwrhyr is pronounced a little bit like you were suggesting, compared to the English g, but it's really just a devoiced g, if you're into linguistics. For those that don't know, devoiced just means your vocal chords don't vibrate when you say the sound.

I think I will post in the other section when I have more to talk about. I was just glad to introduce myself here and talk a bit about my experiences so far. But now that I'm introduced, I feel a little more comfortable showing up in the other sections.

Thread: New here, plus why I'm into lucid dreaming now.

LinkBack

Thread Tools

Display

New here, plus why I'm into lucid dreaming now.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions