New member here. I decided to join after my first LD!

Hi, I've been around the site for a few weeks and have been researching how to become lucid while dreaming, but wanted to wait for my first LD before registering. On Nov. 9th I delivered my thesis, so now I can finally focus on something else, such as lucid dreaming, and what do you know...less than one week after I'm finished I have a lucid dream (or something close to it).

I was trying reality checks throughout the day and telling myself to remember my dreams. This worked to an extent, I was able to remember my dreams much better, but no lucid dreams that I can recall.

Then I found the lucidology website and watched all the videos from Nick Newport. The timer technique worked the very first time I used it last night! Basically, I had quite a few false awakenings. I only realized that they were false awakenings because I was in MY bed when they happened, but my physical body was in my girlfriend's bed. Funny how I only realized it when I actually woke up. Also, they were dark, short-lived, and I had trouble seeing in general.

Nonetheless, while I was in the trance, I allowed myself to sink into the bed and then spin 180 degrees at the navel (recommended by the lucidology.com videos). It sounds stupid, but it worked and I almost could not believe that I was actually in a dream...the false awakening was so convincing. The dream, like the others I experienced during the same session, were very short, only a minute or so. I also experienced the sleep paralysis as well as the rushing noises at some point during the session, but not before every false awakening. The SP was cool, but the rusing noises actually startled me quite a bit. I was not expecting the noise to be THAT loud. At any rate, I believe I am on my way to many more lucid dreams, and I am very excited about that!

I just want to throw it out there that my "big" goal for the moment is to be able to fly away from the earth, and look back upon it as a large marble so that I may ponder the wonders of our existence. I think this will be as close as I will ever get to experiencing the feeling that astronauts feel when gazing upon earth in its entirety.

Nice job catching that false awakening! :D That's one of the hardest things to do, I still get fooled by them sometimes. I'm sure that you'll have more and more lucid dreams as you go along :D Feel free to ask questions and check out the tutorials that I've linked to in my signature.