Thread: Had my first lucid dream + sleep paralysis this morning

I made this as short as possible I promise, I have read about lucid dreams and sleep paralysis in brief and half tried to make myself have one before but this morning completely out of the blue and without trying at all is the first time that I had one ..

I woke up at about 10 am this morning and was checking my Facebook on my phone but was still feeling really tired, not tired enough that I had to go back to sleep, but I thought it would just be better if I lay down a bit longer so I feel fresher during the day. (I'm not sure if this is relevant, it's just I don't normally go back to sleep once I wake up unless I'm overbearingly tired and absolutely have to and this is also my first lucid dream) Ok to the dream ..

The first thing I realize is I'm coming down the stairs in my house and into the kitchen and to my surprise and slight panic I notice my younger cousin is here, I say to him "How did you get in?" and he is quite monotonous in his tone sometimes so I think he said something like "The back door opens if you barge it" in a really dull voice and I'm thinking to myself 'Well that's slightly worrying seeing I know it's always locked'.

Next thing I know something is out of place (I can't remember what exactly, but it was like another inaccuracy, like something to my normal logic wouldn't make sense) which makes me a little more startled. And finally i notice the cupboard my family keeps the cereal in is completely removed like taken off the wall, I look on the counter and there is all ruble there.

(Just as I was writing that last sentance, I realize that may be very significant as this is the point where I realise it's a dream, but that I haven't woke up and that I am lucid dreaming. The reason I believe it may be especially significant is because this time last year around the same time part of my ceiling right around the same place caved in through leakage from the bath so maybe once I saw the cupboard missing and the ruble I associated it with the ceiling caving in and this is what made me question if I am dreaming thus starting my lucid dream.)

So anyway yeah, at the point I notice the cupboard missing and the ruble, I ask myself "Wait a minute, is this a dream?". Suddenly at this point I realize it is (and at this point I'd usually wake up feeling silly/relieved/scared if it was a nightmare) but as I wrote in the previous paragraph I also realize I'm not awake and that I'm still in the dream, I believe at this point if I had wanted to I could have controlled myself in the dream and explored possibilities but as it was the first time this has happened I was just really concentrating on trying to wake up. It's at this point i realise I am in sleep paralysis and I can't move my body or remove my mind from this dream state even though I'm fully aware that I'm laying down and still in this dream or at least some sort of other realm or mental state that I cant awake from.

Eventually after a few minutes it seems, but more likely moments I come to and wake up feeling completely like I dont know what just happened and wondering if I am about to wake up from this new 'reality' I have supposedly found myself in.

This has got me asking loads of questions, like I always dismiss dreams as soon as I wake up as being a nonsense part of the brain, (much like the part which decides we need a purpose to feel secure) and dismiss whatever happened or however real it seemed and get on with my day. But after having the lucid dream and sleep paralysis I almost feel like the other senses are almost irrelevant compared to the power of this 'extra' sensory one, which at the end of the day is the one having the power to tell me whatever is going on in the 'real world' right now is in fact reality when IN reality it is just what my brain sensors are telling me.

It has made me think a lot of the things we assume as being real or true (history, science, that we will die, that we will age and have grey hair, that there are sharks in the ocean) are in fact just because we believe someone else has done it or because of what we have been told or led to believe (for an extreme example: how do we know that once we reach 60 we won't stop aging and that people with aging features are actually aliens of some sort? We know that because we are TOLD that is what happens once we reach a certain age and to have any other believe would be completely far-fetched). But if you were to wake up from this reality into a new one, suddenly all of the old rules of the last reality or realm would be invariably nonessential. It also made me feel that by controlling what this extra sensory sense perceives and feels, I can control my own happiness regardless of the outside factors going on in this 'reality'. I would really like to have another one and see if I could fly or punch down walls or anything, as the laws of nature appeared to be exactly the same as in the real world but I don't know perhaps they weren't and perhaps I would have another in depth insight should I have another lucid dream.

And that's it. Wow 9 paragraphs, so much happened in it which changed my perspective that I just had to document it. Any opinions or questions?