i joined this forum because I'm somewhat desperate and i will waffle a little in this post because i'm hoping to overcome some of the issues i am having. I apologies to anyone if i'm crosssing any lines or breaking any rules.

I have not slept properly for a few weeks of late because of immense, amplified nightmares. I have to explain as clearly as i can. To do this i will try to be as concise as possible but it's hard so please stay with me on this a little while if u will

I'll try to explain; I was first intro'd to lucid dreaming by accident about a year ago, simply while googling about nightmares, as i was having many of them. I read about 3 different websites in 1 evening and found myself having a lucid dream without a great deal of exersise or training within 2-3 days. I was really proud and felt very fortunate to be able to experience it. This excited me and i went on to buy 2 books (both laberge's). I only read about a quarter into the first book and was happily lucid dreaming for a few weeks and no nightmares. Cured..? I thought so and didnt bother to read anymore.

i didnt continue with any form of exersises or disciplines required to help invoke a lucid dream. Didnt feel the need since my nightmares had gone away. That is until the last couple of months.

Anyway......i have begun to have nightmares again. A whole new bunch of them. Only this time with the awful feeling like i'm being conned. No longer allowed to be in any sort of control or recognition that it's a dream. The nightmares are not bizzare or fantasy worlds but normal surroundings with NO signs. I'm being conned by new additional entities in my dreams that i feel should not be there. Purposely making it as real as my normal surroundings rendering any signs that you would normally look for impossible to find. These entities are ruining and bruising the linings of my dreamworld with great skills themselves. Bullying me maybe. I don't know.

"Something" in my dream frightens me to the extent of real paranoia. At night and in the day. About every 3 weeks. It's awful. I don't belive in devils or anything..I'm pretty much a non believer, agnostic or whatever. But i'm really starting to feel that somethings not right and for the life of me my mind is now open a little. To what? I don't know yet. But i'm desperate. Am i manifesting these entities and conning myself? I need some answers.

This "something" come's in what i percieve as 2 forms.
1) The same female character in various dreams. Disguised but familiar everytime
2) A terrifying black outline, about the size of a rugby ball and shaped like a hood. Hard to make out exactly what but it's nasty

OK, number 1 is in my dreams frequently but i sometimes don't realise this until i'm awake. Almost as if she's an actor playing a different part in each nightmare, however i can't distinguish it's her until i wake up or if i'm lucky SHE TELLS ME which totally terrorises me, paralysed, cant wake up, even though i have become aware it's a dream. This is really frightening as sometimes i recognise her before she informs me im in a dream, then i become aware and manage to stay in with a little more of an advantage, track her movements and even question her. The line of questioning i use is more a physical and agressive approach towards her, hard to define how i do this. When i did this she appeared frightened (they say u should confront the things that u fear so i did this and felt like i was in control). Big mistake. At the last second before i make physical contact she moves or lays the trap. I ended up behind her outside of the dream and in a blackness that was clearly a domain unfamiliar. I can't wake from it, nor can i escape or move back from it. I end up looking back into the dream through this hole with her looking in at me. She became real in my dream and in my mind, mocking me and mentioning lucid dreamers as a hinderence. Spoken clearly to me in english but in a male's voice.
This particular situation happens alot.

OK for number 2, much simpler but more horrifying than anything i've ever experienced. This appears to me during my early stage of waking up after the dream with either number 1 or another dream unrelated. The dark entity.... or whatever it is.. seems real enough which is normal i guess in any dream state. But it's disturbing and comes with a message. This message isnt spoken to me but seems automatically clear anyway. The figure approaches, holds me down very tightly and without speaking or anything. I Just get a sort of feeling it's saying "I can do this if u continue to play in my backyard".

OK..... That's about it up until the last week.

Lately while dropping off to sleep, i have the feeling of my head enlarging, and my eyes getting smaller and smaller until i get complete blackness beyond the normal blackness u get in the dark behind your eyelids. The same blackness as the domain i was in at one point in the earlier nightmares sometime back. I can immediately wake from this. However i then switch the lights on, accept i have had a nightmare and then have halucinations for anything upto 20 minutes. I can feel something watching me from the top corners of the room, moving from corner to corner. It's not a clear halucination but it's there. The number 2 thing. Never near me but in the corners moving around, corner to corner. After a while this stops. I try to convince myself of a few things like "hey pal, your half asleep, snap out of it". I then have a smoke and try to shut it out. The next things then happen. These things are confusing. After the corner dancing stuff comes the visions. I'm percieving that this entity is purposely trying to tell me "it's real, i'm here, here's a little proof". THEN...i get images projected to me in my head of places in the house with specific details, for example, the kitchen downstairs in the dark, and a guided tour of what the house looks like in the dark through the eyes of this entity...and YES....from the top corners of each room.

I know this is long winded and not perhaps as concise as i thought it might be, but i'm really at a stage in my life where i feel like i'm on the brink of infringing an area of my mind that may be a danger to me mentally. I'm 35 yrs old and i'm married. I sometimes end up making my wife accompany me around the house like a scared kid as i'm so terrified by it. I'm worried about reading more about lucidity and concerned i may make matters worse. I would welcome back the original nightmares in a flash and swap for these new one's. I can't get to the bottom of it and it's terrifying me. Any suggestions or anything of help in any way would be appreciated. If anyone else has had anything even remotely like this please reply.