Hello,

I was glad to find out there is more on this subject than my personal
experiences. As this is my first post on this site, I would like to point out a
few things. I am not excedingly passionate about this specific subject [lucid
dreaming], however, I can see its advantages and I have quite a fascination about
this. I do not know exactly if I am a master/newbie/guru at this, but I think
that my own experience might be of use to others. My biggest brain-killing
hobbies are astrophysics, space-time, psycology and mathematics. I am mentioning
this as I hope to get some replyes to this post, and I am very interested to know
if others experiencing this have similar iterests, to check out a theory.

Anyways.. During the near past I had several lucid dreams. I did not noticed
to be any triggers that gave me the hint that I was dreaming, however most of the
times I would JUST become aware of the fact that it was a dream. I was never very
thrilled/excited by this, but mostly curious. At certain times, I was aware that
I could move certain parts of my body, such as arms, they feel lighter than
normal, which made me conclude that I have no sense of the real gravity. This
conclusion was backed up by several other experiences.

The best experience I had occured a few months back. I cannot recall the
beginning of the dream. I suddenly become aware of the fact that I was dreaming.
Was unable to move using my feet. Apparently I was outside a commercial complex
near me, at night, positioned somewhere in the back yard of the complex. I have
noticed no stars above me, however I was trying not to think stuff up, for it not
to appear and distort the current setup. It was quiet, no one around me. Portions
of the scenery (I felt this, did not recorded visually) were missing, mostly
located behind me, or at the limits of my field of view. and I wanned to move,
but my speed was very low. I thought I should use an alternate mean of
transportation. I wanted to get inside the complex. I made an effort and imagined
myself on a bike. I used it to go in front of the complex, but somehow I did not
get very near to the entrance.
The ride was weird. I was not looking forwards, but right (in the dirrection of
the complex), the bicycle speed was slow, and I was not exactly riding it.. I was
more like floating a bit above it with my hands on the handles (hope this is the
correct term for it).
The complex was lit up inside, just like I knew it was at night, and filled
with people, but not too many.
I cannot recollect how I entered the complex, but my next record is when I was
sitting between the shelves (by that I mean the big things you find in
supermarkets with shelves on them to expose the merchandise, sorry missing some
english terms). I was near the sugar compartment apparently as I noticed some
sugar packs on the shelves near me. Suddenly I remembered I once read something
about dreaming and reading. It had something to do with the fact that the left
part of the brain is responsable with the reading, while you dream with the right
one mostly (or the other way around), and thus you cannot read comprehensible
text while dreaming. I tried to read the text on the label. Curious enough I was
able to tell apart the letters, however the word was missing one or two letters.
The correct translation for sugar in Romanian is "zahar", however I was reading
something like zaar, or zahr. As I moved my eyes to the rest of the identical
packs, the word was misspelled differently on each one I looked, even if I came
back to an old pack.
I was a bit affraid that this might be real, and I might make a fool of myself
inside the complex, and I tried to think.. I remembered somehow that I was
sleeping on my belly, and at this point I tried to feel the bed without moving. I
managed to do so. My head was over the mattrice a bit, and I was feeling the
rough texture with the area above my neck. At the same time I was standing
upwards in my dream, and thus I concluded I was still dreaming. [reality] i
opened my mouth a bit to feel the texture abit more clearly while [dream] I was
aproaching an individual in the complex. The experiment was succesfull.
I looked at this person, cannot remember his features, I was concentrating to
change him into my girlfriend. It was hard to do this directly, and I managed to
do so by moving around him. I grabbed her hand and pulled her with me around the
complex between the shelves. She was inert, but following me. I was not looking
at her directly, but felt several times that her identity was slipping away, she
was turning into someone else. Made hard efforts to keep her with me, with
success.
I realised it was not going to be her at all, and concluded I am slipping from
controll of my dream. Regained it, and tried to concentrate on my body. [reality]
I was on the mattrice, however, I was unable to tell apart what direction I was
alligned to. I might as well have been standing up with the mattrice in front of
me. I concluded again that I had no equilibrium check-up activity from the brain,
perhaps this is turned off during sleep.
I tried to tell how time was passing. I knew I needed reper points. I knew
there was a watch in the next room of the bedroom I was in, and usually I could
hear it from the bed. I knew it was working, but had no success in determining
it's sound. I concluded my hearing would be disabled or lowered. Tried to hear
anything from the bedroom, but with no success. At this point I had this weird
immage of the same surroundings of the complex I was in, allong with a fading
image of my bedroom as I knew it. I concentrated somehow and I left the complex
by jumping like in a pool. I remembered some previous experiences with some
nightmares, and tried to induce one. I managed to do so by being apparently
affraid by a presence behind me. I was moving slower, and I think my heart
started to beat faster. I was definitely "hearing" someone behind me and I
concentrated on moving behind "it" by moving the scenery several feet in front of
me. Somehow this got easyer than walking.. .
I wanned to talk to "it", but "it" faded away. In my brain, the following
sentence was formed by my reasoning I think: ".. faded with no identity". I got a
weird sense of logic of that statement, I felt this sentence needed more
analysis, a conclusion was forming very slow, and slower, and at a certain moment
it shocked me. I think then I lost the controll of my dream, I am sure I had
dreamt something after that, but have no recollection of anything more.
I should make a note. I do not know how important that sentence is/was to
anything, but the way I felt it was like in "dissapeared with no trace", where
identity would represent an attribute, rather than a belonging. However, it did
NOT ment "dissapeared with no trace"
The overall lucidity had varyed all the dream, however I felt that I had a
"beacon" letting me know I am self-aware and that helped me.

I am interested for any feedback with anything to add to this to help me
understand better the phenomenon. I hope I did not missed too much, but I will add
later on if I remember anything else.