Scaredy cat

Hi! I just want to quickly introduce myself and ask you something.

I've only had one lucid dream so far but I've been interested in dreams since as long as I can remember. As a child I'd heard about lucid dreaming and I made an attempt at it, lying in my bed, giggling, hoping to fall asleep and "awake" in a magical dream wonderland (of course I was too excited and it never worked out)
I'm an illustrator and I draw a lot about my dreams, last year I made a comic based on them (so I'm pretty good at dream recall by now) I would really like to have more lucid experiences, to inspire me and just because it fascinates me so.

there is one problem though, I'm easily frightened. I don't like to watch horror movies and it someone sneaks up behind me for a joke I'll most likely kick them because I'm so easily startled. I'm terribly scared of losing my mind and having nightmares - I know LD is good for treating nightmares but what if you can't control your dreams yet, and because your brain knows your fears it sends you a collection of frightening images?
Also I just read about sleep paralysis (as a sleep disorder) and the hallucinations that go with it and it doesn't help.

I find all this off-putting but I don't want to give up trying! Is anyone else here such a scaredy cat? Or are you all brave dream explorers?

Hmm i used to have the same problem. You should just keep trying and improve with baby steps, atleast thats what worked for me.

Also remember this golden rule.
Everything isnt real nothing can harm you.

I hope this helps
good luck with you LDing :)

I'm a baby, too, when it comes to frightening things, and I'm very easily scared. The best thing I find that helps me when trying to do WILD and go into sleep paralysis is listening to calming music. There's some music around this website that you can download, and it's the river and the forest. It's really relaxing if you have your headphones in. Hopefully that will help clear your mind. (:

Thank you! I will give the music a try and try to progress slowly, I think it's all worth it in the end.

i'm a scaredy cat too! i even put off my attempts for a week or so because of something unsettling i saw once >_< anyway, what really helped me is realizing that my goals are too important to let a little bit of fear get in the way =) the only scary hallucination i've gotten during SP was an auditory hallucination and what got me through that was distracting myself with a song, i also keep my eyes shut to avoid visual hallucinations.

about nightmares, i think if you're going to have them, you're going to have them and you can't do much about that but learn to control your dreams enough that you don't have to be afraid of them anymore, but that'll only come with practice. so don't worry too much about your brain coming up with nightmares for you so that you can start learning to lucid dream and be able to handle them better when you actually get them.

also try to remember what Kahiko said, nothing can harm you =).

it's true, nothing can physically harm you, I guess I'm just scared because I know how terrifying nightmares can be - I had a couple of horrible ones in my childhood and I still find them scary, not necessarily the things that happen in those nightmares but the shock and the intense feeling of fear that they can bring. I imagine that's what could happen with SP...
Does keeping your eyes shut work against hallucinations? I'll certainly remember that :)
Fear is kind of a vicious circle, I think the more you worry the more likely you are to experience scary things... I need to break it :p

The world is a frightening place. One might ask the questions, can dreams make one mad, or simply reveal that one is mad? And if one is mad, what is madness to begin with? Now there are physical problems that no amount of education can fix, and there are problems due to lack of proper education and exercise. But what is proper and why? Some believed that the mind, like every other human body acquisition system has its own proper virtue, is that true?

It might work out that because the mind has a certain virtue, that fear is the healthy state of mind.

yeah i know what you mean ^^ i've had a few nightmares myself, some very recently o_O and it is a little hard to shake the feeling, but it does go away ^^ try directing your attention away from your nightmares and think of all the things you want to accomplish when you lucid dream, why it's attracted you to begin with. if you focus on that you might just forget about why you were ever afraid to begin with ^^.

and i did read somewhere that you should have your eyes shut because it's very easy for your mind to make mountains out of molehills in the dark :cheeky: but i've started opening them a little after the SP, i think i'm starting to believe that i'll only hallucinate if i think about it too much because i haven't once seen anything scary myself :? i hope i don't jinx it :eek: :cheeky: have you ever attempted inducing SP?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Philosopher8659

One might ask the questions, can dreams make one mad, or simply reveal that one is mad?

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i really like that :)

just like with drugs I fear it can trigger something in "sensitive" (or mad, as you wish) individuals that would otherwise have remained dormant... In answer to your question, AstralFae18, I have tried but not much happened, I felt my heart racing and I had the feeling my brain was moving, at some point I even felt like it was difficult not to open my eyes... but I didn't hear, see or experience anything that was very clear. I also completely lost track of time (like I thought it lasted half an hour but two hours had passed) and felt a bit shaky afterwards.
Thanks for your good advice!