Hi, I'm new, and I'd like to share my lucid experiences.

Hello, I'm new here and, well, I'd like to tell a bit about my experiences with lucid dreaming... consider this an introduction (telling about myself doesn't violate any board rules, now does it?)

Anyway, I discovered lucid dreaming entirely by myself. I found out that this phenomena is actually documented and shared by many only relatively recently. Today, I randomly surfed to your site, and you got my interest.

I regularly experience dreams that can be considered "partially lucid" (if there even is such a thing). It occurs spontaneously and intuitively, I don't actually have to do anything about it (at least not that I remember from my dreams...). But for me, it is not like what you describe on your site. My own lucid dreams are only "partial". I often have a certain degree of control in my dreams, but I do not neccessarily understand that I'm dreaming. I feel, intuitively, that I'm "special", and that I can shape reality with my imagination. Or, sometimes, I even realize I'm dreaming, but I don't really... grasp it. The words "I'm in a dream" pop up, but I don't neccessarily relate it to lying down in my bed and experiencing false visions... I hope I got my thought across.

Anyway, my imagination (or subconsciousness?) often holds me back. I once remember trying to catch an armed terrorist by teleporting next to him, but it didn't work. I flicked next to him, only to return to my previous spot after a second, several times over. I tried to imagine myself actually staying there, but couldn't. In a lot more recent dream, I was running very fast on a road - faster than humanely possible. But there was a group of people with me, most of which were running even faster. I tried to run even faster, to catch up, but found that I couldn't.

Another thing. Often when I "take control", my dream actually becomes more blurred and less coherent than before, not the other way around. I often felt on the verge of waking up in those cases. Once or twice, when the dream was unpleasant, I actually pulled it off too - by concentrating on my sensations, I've managed to sense my eyelids through the "noise" of the dream, and forced them open. I then "woke up" inside my own dream several times before managing to REALLY open my eyes and fully wake up (this was followed by a short sleep paralysis if you know what it is. At least, I think it was... but that's besides the point).

My "powers" inside my dreams often have reccuring themes. The most common (for most people too, I bet) is super strength. It's so common that I think I have it almost every night. It often menifests itself by bending bars of steel, partially lifting cars, denting walls... or beating someone up (sometimes by slamming him to the floor)... Invulnerability (most often to bullets) is a close second. Other common powers: teleportation, walking through walls, limited flight / high jumping... I used to sometimes dream of climbing on walls like Spiderman, although I no longer dream that. Once or twice I slowed down time... and I occasionaly try to run at super-speed in my dreams, but that usually doesn't really work.

Like I've said, many of the above abilities are limited. For example, I was once being chased by a group of people, and I tried to lose them by punching through a wall. Only the wall wasn't damaged, no matter how hard I punched. Finally, I closed my eyes and imagined a hole in that wall. When I opened them, it was there, and I quickly went through.

Anyway, I really hope you guys and this site might help me to achieve better control of my dreams, let me actually choose when to make it lucid (instead of it randomly occuring in a dream), and actually improve the coherence of my dreams - I'd like to feel it close to how I feel the real world, and I'd like to remember them better.

Sorry if I bore you to death, and sorry if my lengthy description of my dreams was a bit out of place.... 8)

And a last question which I think wasn't covered in your FAQ - does having lucid dreams is... healthy? Can it affect your psyche in a negative way? Doesn't it interfere with your rest? Like I've said, I'm somewhat in control of my dreams pretty often, but as a result I'm usually still tired when I wake up, and generally not sleep well.

That's it. I hope to fit in well on your forum. :)