Official "How Old Are You?" Thread

[Naiya]

Leo, please do not double post, especially if they're one-liners or off-topic. Let's keep to the topic of the thread.

[dream yogi]

I had to walk 5 miles through the snow in my dreams to get to school... One of the three eldest here according to the poll, even LaBerge has only 10 years on me. Lucid dreaming since I was a little kid (born that way) and as we didn't have the internet, or laptops, or color tv for that matter, I sort of had to figure out on my own what I was experiencing. Charles T. Tart didn't even write his Altered States until I was 12. Certainly this was nothing discussed by my parents, friends or teachers. Lucid dreamers born into western society were pretty much left to our own devices. As I became aware of the difference between my experiences and others only in my teens, it was then that I started seeking out as much information as I could gather, mostly from eastern texts and esoteric works. I always tried to find good translations of original texts and to avoid new age interpretations. I did not even discover Castaneda until my 40s at the suggestion of my then very best friend in the world, a Roscicrusian fellow who as since passed. It is wonderful to read about all of you experimenting and experiencing lucid dreaming. Your enthusiasm is heartening. The playing with it entertaining, the striving to be better dreamers encouraging. And that the internet now makes possible a forum for association and dissemination, while I would caution care to discern difference between the actual experience which comes from self exploration and the potential for delusions of imagined expectation, I applaud such media which renders obsolete reinventing the wheel.

[Maria92]

Kinda interesting that exactly 75% of DV is comprised of people between the ages of 15 and 23 at the time of this post.

[Max ツ]

Does that prove that LD are more common in youngsters?

[dream yogi]

Good question. I suspect less of a proof and more of an indication. As I referenced above, dream exploration has been studied in a methodical way for likely 1000s of years in the east but it is only since the late 19th century, early 20th century with the likes of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and their less famous contemporaries that dreaming was taken as serious study in the west. Without even much mention of lucid dreaming in popular western literature, there probably is still today a lot of younger and older people who still don't even know it is possible or even exists as an experience. So prior to the popularization of it and especially before such readily accessible forums made available on the internet (though subtract from that those swayed by the superstitious nature of most western reilgions which strive to inhibit natural experiences), unless someone was born as a lucid dreamer, how would they even have known about it to work on their dreaming abilities? It also could indicate that the older one gets the less interested one is in sharing every part of the experience. For instance, I can only read so much of what is written here as much of dreaming is, by now, rather rote for me; and so while I find it exciting for some of you, it can be a bit of a tedious read. Generally, I'd guess that while polls now might indicate more participation in lucid dreaming by younger people (assuming it actually measures participation in lucid dreaming and not just the participation in a forum about lucid dreaming), polls in future years, given incoming generations, might shift that age upward. So I think that the number of westerners who lucid dream might be less a function of age and more one of era.

[Max ツ]

Yeah, it's probably good that through the internet, more and more people are becoming interested in lucid dreaming and are trying to achieve it. I too am a natural lucid dreamer, and until recently, I didn't have the slightest idea that anyone except me could lucid dream. I cherished my skill, and honed and perfected it over the years. Neither my parents nor my teachers could explain to me what I was experiencing, because, as far as I am aware, no one I know had lucid dreamed or heard of it. Now, this forum is like a tool for beginners to use the experience of others and thus improve themselves, and the don't need to teach themselves as some of us did. Back to the original question, I believe that youngsters are particularly more interesting in stuff like this than adults, because they have much more influence from movies and the like than adults, who disregard anything supernatural as fiction. Consider an average viewer looking at these forums who does not know a single thing about lucid dreaming. If he is an adult, he will probably bunch us up with those forums of kids who say they have supernatural powers or something, while a youngster will probably be inspired to read more, and eventually, try LDing for himself. Maybe it's due to that fact that there are more youngsters on this forum. Who know what number of people are still there that lucid dream and don't even know what it's called?

[Max ツ]

I am 14!!!! I already said that before, though.

[dream yogi]

Preteen, I didn't realize I was lucid dreaming as I had no idea what lucid dreaming was and I didn't figure out what was happening to me until later in life. Very early on, I used to have lucid dreams which incorporated people I know as dream characters. In my teens-mid 40s, people I know would show up as dream characters in non lucid dreams mainly (with rare exception), but as a child it all meshed so integrally that I did not always know the difference between my waking and sleeping life. I would have arguments in my waking life with people who I thought had said or done something that they would now, of course, adamantly deny, because, it turns out, that part of my memory had been formed in a dream. My dreaming was so integrated that it took me years to figure out which memory was from my waking life and which memory was but a dream. So certainly I could have used a forum like this in my youth. Though I would not presume that every adult looks upon lucid dreaming as scyberfiction, certainly there is a natural curiosity of youths still exploring themselves which fades as over time as we become comfortable with ourselves. In that sense it is understandable that more younger than older people might be interested in exploring their dreaming. My point that this poll is more a matter of era than age, however, is --because while there might seem to be more youth intestested in their dreaming now--that lucid dreaming is for the first time in western society becoming understood by the masses and because the internet makes information so readily available for the first time in human history. Generally, what is true tomorrow is true today as this is just a slice in time. So unless you plan to forget how to ride your bicycle, then when your contemporaries grow up and age, having this lucid dreaming experience now and continuing throughout your lives (especially, as it seems there are more people who learn how to do than are born into it), then you will increase the median age of a similar poll taken of such a group at that time, as ever more people learn to awaken and grow older with their eyes open too. And so on and so on and so on in the evolution of waking consciousness.

[Maria92]

Preteen I thought the minimum age was 13?

[Max ツ]

I thought the minimum age was 13? Read the whole sentence. He is referring to when he was in his preteens, but he is not saying that he is preteen NOW. I doubt that DV was there when he was in his preteens.

[Armistice]

I'd like to update mine to 24, now, lol. Birthday was last month

[Folqueraine]

Three months ago, I could have said I was "19-23". Now suddenly, I'm associated wit 28 year-old people. D*mn procrastination.

[StrangeDreamsGuy]

15. Joined at 14 when you had to be 15 to join

[Kayso_Dias]

15. Joined at 14 when you had to be 15 to join Me too. but that was 4 years ago and I'm well... 18 now. haha

[horsey101]

Does that prove that LD are more common in youngsters? I think it's more that HS and college kids are on the internet more, and are also more interested in the idea of lucid dreams. BTW, this demographic could be pretty appealing to advertisers. DV should figure out a way to capitalize on this.

[flascrub94]

16 and my full name is shared with wolverine's real full name

[kookyinc]

Interesting curve on the poll's graph. Though I sort of expected it to be that way. 17, by the way.

[Folqueraine]

Honestly, I expected there to be more older people. I remember, in the old days, the general tone of the forum was way more mature.

[Phion]

I will be twenty three in October.

[catzisconfus]

i'm still pretty young in my head

[Xei]

19! Quite recently. :V Kinda the most unremarkable age I've ever been. 20... now that'll be weird.

[Knight]

17

[smurfman]

i prefer to stay anonymous on the internet due to somany creepers on the internet but i will say im in my teens

[oniman7]

i prefer to stay anonymous on the internet due to somany creepers on the internet but i will say im in my teens My money's on 13. lol

[JackALope2323]

Good news, everyone! I'm seventeen. Been interested in lucid dreaming since I was about 14, me thinks.