Thread: Nice to meet you

Nice to meet you too!

Nightmares were the trigger for me also. Eventually, I got so frustrated of being chased by some scary monster that I turned to confront it. After defeating it, it didn't chase me in my dreams anymore. Of course, in the next dream it was replaced by a scarier monster...

Your barrier sounds cool. I'll have to try that.

I don't know anyone in real life who regularly has lucid dreams. This is a good place to discuss them. Welcome.

Originally Posted by Kar

I'm Kar.

I found this site completely by accident when I wondered, out of the blue, if the dream control thingy I can do actually has a name. Lo and behold: it does. Not only that; there's a site full of people that can do it too.

At first I wasn't really sure if I wanted to join for a few reasons: 1) I can "lucid dream" already (though half the time it's in the third person or I character jump and I'm not sure if it's really a "lucid dream" because the term's new to me), 2) I'm too busy with school to be able to get on here regularly, and 3) it's almost four o'clock in the dratted morning and I've gotten a cumulative fourteen hours of sleep this week due to midterms and the noisy people that live above me. I did end up joining anyway, though, because I've never known anyone else who could do this. Whenever I talk to my friends about it they think I'm lying or ignore me so I was starting to think that I was some kind of freak.

I guess I should say how I first learned to "lucid dream"? Well, it's in my bio but I'll repeat:

I learned how to alter/control my dreams when I was about five years old as a kind of defense mechanism. I was having a lot of really bad nightmares at the time and learning how to protect myself in my dreams was kind of my last ditch effort at getting through them. I never really expected it to work but it did and now I've been doing it for about fourteen years. I haven't really used it much aside from avoiding nightmares or protecting myself and those around me in my dreams, but I'm kind of curious about trying other things now.

Some defenses I've come up with over the years: a barrier, something kind of like saying without saying "you will do this" or "this is really that" to alter the people around me and my surroundings just enough to avoid an undesirable situation, character jumping, and other stuff that I'm too tired to list.

Thing that took the longest to learn: the barrier. It was a pain in the butt (mostly because I was determined to make a spherical one) but I really like it. I'm a bit out of practice with it now since I haven't had to use it all year and I haven't been practicing in real life like I did when I used it often.

Things that came naturally: the ordering/determination thing and the character jumping (among the ones I listed anyway).

Funniest thing I've caught myself doing: trying out writing a rune-type-thing in the air to force someone backwards and then realizing that the reason that it wasn't working well was that I was unconsciously trying to draw it in real life too but my arm was stuck in the covers so I couldn't move my fingers.

What I want to accomplish here: figure out what some of the stuff I've done really is and why some of it happened, learn new things to do in my dreams (maybe something that isn't defensive), and learn to have better control so the dream doesn't shift from itself to me as often (can't explain this very well right now -- I might elaborate later).

Out of stuff to add -- too tired to think of other stuff to say.

I'm gonna go collapse now. Good nigh-...erm...good morning.

Hey Kar.

Sounds like your dreams are usually dream sign initiated. That is, you can recognize recurring themes in your dreams and become lucid off of them. I would hazard a guess that if you can use dream signs than your dream recall is pretty good if not very good. I'd start keeping a dream journal and looking for more recurring themes.

As far as you wondering what's a lucid and what isn't, there are a few levels of lucidity.

I believe there is a dream mind-set and a conciouss mind-set. So, when you are asleep you kind of go with the flow following the script of the dream. The conciouss, (or lucid mind-set,) is the one where we are aware and make choices.

A semi-lucid, (or half lucid,) would be where you know you are dreaming but don't understand all of what that implies OR you are still following the dream script. Almost as if you are having a dream about a lucid dream, not having a lucid in itself.

A full lucid is where you are aware and sharp. Making choices, sometimes remembering goals from waking life, etc.

Don't leave DV just because you can already do the whole LD thing! There are plenty of naturals on the boards who either improve in theier weaker areas, share their knowledge, or chat in the off-topic.

Good to have you around and don't be shy to ask questions!

I think this has to be one of the most lengthy newbie posts I've seen in a while.

Welcome to the forum Kar.

@mentalenforcer: Are nightmares a common trigger for people to start having lucid dreams?
I could explain the barrier in depth if you want me to.

@spockman: Only about one in a hundred of my dreams take place in the same...field (I don't know if that's the right word for it). I tend to have a lot of very different dreams that are usually adventure based. I don't know if I use signs or not, usually I just sort of know that I'm dreaming from a feeling or maybe from experience(?).
I've kept dream journals before but I never seem to have time to do entries and usually stop after a week or two. I'm pretty good at remembering them, though, and can recall interesting parts of dreams if not entire dreams for extended periods of time (I still remember a few in entirety from my first year of lucid dreaming).
Wow, the different lucidities sound really cool! I was really surprised to find that I understood what you were talking about and could remember examples for all of them. Going by that I would have to say that I'm usually lucid.

@ExoByte: Sorry if it's too long! I wasn't sure what to say so I just sort of rambled...


Thank you all for the welcome!

Some dreamers are triggered into lucidity initially by nightmares. So far it seems to be a minority.

I'd love to hear more about the barrier.