Although I have had more than a few lucid dreams in my life, I still consider myself a student. Some were totally sporadic, and those I have induced were more through mental focus than use of any vitamin or herbal therapies. In my opinion relaxation techniques prior to sleep have positive results for lucid dreams, OBE, or extraordinary dream states. What has stupefied me the most is having a lucid dream that you cannot escape, at least initially. In most cases it’s hard to maintain focus to remain in the LD, yet there is that occasional occurrence, in my experience, where I couldn’t get out at will. This has happened only three times in my life and the third time was last week. It has reignited my interest in dream study again, so here I am, and here it is:

I am currently doing genealogy research, as a hobby on my family tree and was intensely doing so before I went to sleep that night. I was frustrated at the wall I have hit regarding key great grandfathers. The dream started almost immediately when I lay down to sleep, because I woke up only 20 minutes later in a panic. I found myself on the front porch of a modest southern home in Louisiana (where my family is originally from). A very old man sat in a rocking chair speaking to a captive audience on unknown relations. The sun was shining as in a typical southern afternoon. He held a cane in his left hand and was telling a story about Telesphore (an unknown great uncle on my family tree). He mentioned a city where my father is from, and I immediately burst out a statement, “that is where my dad’s family is from!” (most of my research is on my maternal side for now). He said “oh, no, you can’t trust those fellas from that place!” I was shocked and disappointed that he would say that, because my father is a good and decent man (btw my dad has passed on). Immediately the dream transitioned. I felt I was on a moving train. One of those sleeper cars, but the surrounding was much like the room I was in for real. The motion of moving and the background noise felt much like a train. I looked around and noted the dim light of the room and picture window on the wall, where my bed is positioned and the midnight sky outside. I felt I was awake in reality, but the train motion reminded me I must be dreaming. I noticed immediately a contraption on my right hand that was either taking energy from me or infusing energy into my body and this terrified me. It glistened like plastic and was a lilac color; dome shaped and had sequential flashing lilac lights on it, much like a mini UFO. I also felt that I was being pulled or tugged at internally from other areas of my body and thought “am I being eaten?” Such a silly thought, but at that point I convinced myself that I should just lay back down (because I was sitting upright in the bed), close my eyes and this will all go away. It’s just a dream. Well to my surprise, after focusing on waking up for a few moments, when I opened my eyes, I was still there and the contraption was still on my hand. I had an “oh sh*t” moment. The strange vibrations within my body were still happening. If this was a pleasant experience, or one I understood, I would have chosen to go with it, but it was totally bizarre. Again, I lay back down and focused with a desperate will to awake and this time it worked. Strange enough I could feel the tingling in my right hand and slight pains in my right arm. I was sleeping on my back so I was not constricting my arm or hand in any fashion. This was mild compared to the two I had in 1999 and 2000. There were basic similarities with them both and all seem to involve some sort of high tech contraptions being attached to my body and energy transference, but I am very aware that I am in an altered state and want to stop the experience and cannot—at least initially. The others went on much longer and took much more effort on my part to disengage myself from the LD.