Thread: big question. why do you want to be lucid?

Hey there...welcome to the forum.

Well I never chose to lucid dream...nor did I even know what it was...I just began having lucid dreams about 5 years ago. I think the real question is, why would anyone NOT want to be lucid? There is so much we can learn about ourselves, others, and the world around us through our dreams it is such a gift that we are able to be lucid during these experiences and hopefully become better people through them...and of course have some fun along the way!

I don't really get what you meant about falling in love though. You lucid dream because you want to fall in love? Or so that you can be with someone you are in love with?

Fall in love!? A dream does not have to be Lucid to 'fall in love' as you put it. I don't recall ever having had many inhabitions about 'falling in love' in my non-lucid dreams when I had been a younger man. In fact, when I did begin to develop Lucidity, it helped me NOT to fall in love quite so readily with the fairer dream characters, as 'falling in love' would only tend to wake one up prematurely.

Also, being Lucid is not a guarantee that you can do anything you can imagine. Just today somebody posted of being able to fly away in a Lucid Dream. Control is never absolute. And if the Lucid Dream feels that you are overcontrolling things, the Dream will, with a mind of its own, try to throw you off with False Awakenings -- to shake off that "I am dreaming so I can control everything" mentality.

What Lucidity does offer is an array of choices and a certain knowledge that is not entirely available otherwise (though it becomes habitual over the years) and that is a Fearlessness which comes of knowing that one cannot die in a Dream, and also the sense that one has more freedom to move from one Dream Scene to another when dreaming... though I suppose that in real life one is also quite free to walk out of the room anytime one wants, though it may eventually lead to a quite shakey employment resume.

Originally posted by Aquanina


I don't really get what you meant about falling in love though. You lucid dream because you want to fall in love? Or so that you can be with someone you are in love with?

Aquanina, I've been spoiled by my dreams... and not just the lucid ones. I am an old man and so I behave quite decently, enough, but I am always meeting new ladies in my dreams with whom I become quite infatuated. It quite makes me wonder that anybody should speak about one particular soul mate when it seems that the Tree of Love has an almost infinite number of leaves -- not one entirely alike another, but none being really different either. All of them lovable.

Well, ive lucid dreamed my whoel life, and I came here to learn mroe about it. The reason I lucid dream is to learn about myslef on a deeper level. Also I cna do anythign I wnat! I am a God in my dreams, and who doesnt like that??

I want to be lucid because every morning that I wake from a non-lucid dream, I feel like I've been tricked.

Number 1 on my list is fight in a samurai battle ... honestly

All the love-making , no not really thats just a perk

What I really want to do in an LD is be characters in movies or books, pretty simple but cool at the same time, also id like to learn how to prolong the dreaming experience, Iv done this before but it was an accident.

woah, i dont even remember making this thread.... i was drunk last night

honestly...for fun. I dont have much talent at it yet, but when It happens, it makes my day. I cant find a single bad aspect to it, other than it takes practice.

I do it for adventure. Think of it, a whole new world awaits the lucid dreaming, a world in which the rules of this world do not apply.

Many people lucid dream in order to appease their appetites for sex or fighting, I just like to explore, and sometimes play god. (please note little 'g')

Originally posted by Gman
woah, i dont even remember making this thread.... i was drunk last night

You make posts when you're drunk? Even ones as feasible as this? Anyhow, a feasible post it is, and one I am willing to reply to.

I cannot quote my reasons for journeying into LDing the first time round (late 2003); it just grabbed my interest and 'was too cool a thing not to do'.

However, after a year-long break, my reasons for wanting to return to lucid dreaming are clear; my dreams are just so wonderful at the moment! My all-but-recent dreams were random, and any dream that came close to the emotions I was feeling in real life (users of chat would know about this ) were met with cold expressions, vindictive characters, and fruitless searches. Now, all my dreams follow a coherent, continuous theme (again, users of chat would be able to guess what ) and are warm, affectionate* and meaningful. To inject them with more meaning and more control would be heavenly.

* read affectionate, not sexual, you perverts you

Originally posted by Identity X


You make posts when you're drunk? Even ones as feasible as this? Anyhow, a feasible post it is, and one I am willing to reply to.

yeah, i guess i do

Because I want to go anywhere in the universe while still being in my bed. So much to explore and so much to learn.

amen to that

There are way too many reasons why I want to become lucid in dreams. But, in order to keep my post short, I'll try to sum it all up in a few sentences:

When we fail to become lucid in our dreams, it's as if we are being cheated out of a bonus life. We have our waking life where we interact and experience the world around us. But then, we sleep, and just lay there for the equivalent of about 120 days a year. Becoming lucid gives us the chance to keep experiencing and living while we sleep. It's as if we get to live two or more lives!

There's the obvious answer of doing the things you can't in real life, but recently I've gotten another one.

The reason why I got into the habit of forgetting my dreams was simply because I don't like my dreams. They're usually very confusing and they often don't leave me feeling very good about myself. Today I ahd a dream that many people I know and love were dead. This was partly because of two people in the dream which are dead. They were my friend's parents who died in the Asian Tsunami.

I hate it when dreams like these happen. It's not the first time and I know won't be the last. If I can control my dreams I can get rid of these unpleasent experiences.

Originally posted by Gman
well here's the question, why have all of you decided to practice this wonderfull skill of lucid dreaming? i mean i can see a few obvious reasons, (doing anything you want) but thats pretty general, im talking specifics, mine is falling in love.. lol call me a wierdo but whatever floats your boat i guess.......

Artistic reasons and the shear randomness of it. I love drawing my dreams and I am working at getting lucid so I can draw anything I see.

For the randomness part I want to be able to walk up to a file cabinet and pull something out of it.. who knows what it will be? Something completely random every time. Good question.

My book by Stephen La Berge on Lucid Dreaming calls LDing an extension to life. You're living and making decisions in real life, but once you go to sleep you're wasting around 1/4th of your day. If you were able to make decisions in your imaginary world it's a lot like living in the real world since you're aware.

I agree completely with Tornado Joe and Stephen La Berge and all the other researchers who say this.. How can it be wrong?

I was attracted by Lucid Dreaming from the start of hearing it. It sounded too good to be true, until I experienced it.

The infinite capabilities to do in a dream is awesome. It's no doubt that sex is one factor that influences my dream intent sometimes, but it's easier to not pursue just that. I like barbizzle's description, to be a god in the dreams. Which is the ultimate state of being, I can say...

Originally posted by AirRick101
I was attracted by Lucid Dreaming from the start of hearing it. *It sounded too good to be true, until I experienced it.

That sounds just like me when I had heard of the concept of lucid dreaming.

At first I got interested because of flying, sex etc. I also wanted to feel how it's like to be aware of the dream. Of course having fun is still a great reason for me to have lucid dreams, but I've also thought that I could actually use them for something useful like self exploring and getting new ideas for any projects that need creativity. Subconscious is said to be one of the best sources of inspiration, and lucid dreaming is a great opportunity to gain access both to your subconscious and your conscious minds.

Green152 wrote:

My book by Stephen La Berge on Lucid Dreaming calls LDing an extension to life. [/b]

Stephen said this too?! Cool, I definietly gotta get a copy of his book. I got a video of an interview with him once. But I'm sure the book is way more in depth.

For me it is a process of waking up spiritually. I want to be awake in all parts of my life and the dream world is a big challenge. Also for the self control. I have trying to have lucid dreams off and on for years with very little sucess, so it is an on going challenge in my face.

I come and go w/ LDs. Dreams have been a significant part of my life, offering memorable and meaningful experiences, since childhood. Also since childhood, I've been exploring various conscious states and the nature of consciousness. Eventually I got around to some dream experiments, w/ suggestibility and such, and ended up having a few LDs.

These days, I'll have an LD every couple months no matter what, and many of my dreams are semi-lucid (almost every night, lately). They offer the same things my dreams have always offered: another source of experience and adventure. As others have said, they allow me to make use of some of my downtime to add to my experience, essentially giving me bonus life.

I also return to LDs whenever I'm having anxiety dreams or waking problems w/ anxiety or moods, finding them a confidence-builder and a good therapy.

An LD tonight (see "Dream Guide?" in the Experiences forum) has roused my interest in Carlos Castenada's books, which I know Seeker recommends highly.

I like the fact that I can consciously mingle with my subconscious. And get a totally abstract vantage point from my own mind.
That along with all the obvious reasons--------> a scenario that seems to have know laws of pysics. Just barriers created by your own mind. Wich can be overcome. Not like something as gravity in the real world.

Think outside your dream life for a second n think of how much of your life you're spent sleeping?
I think it is waisting your life away, y not make a use out of it?? lucid dreaming is my answer...