Nothing but frightening experiences

I recently had a renewed curiousity about the mystery that is LUCID DREAMING and had been reading some of the stuff on here among other places. I admit it kind of scared me reading up about the stages of this so-called WILD: hearing various noises; SCREAMS, THE SOUNDS OF DEATH ETC, and feeling paralysed, so after some deliberation I decided it wasn't for me, and I would no longer pursue the idea. But just this morning, as I was doing my usual drifting off after hearing the alarm, I started to hear a voice, speaking rather excitedly about a new jumper, at first this voice was just seemingly playing in my mind unobtrusively, in an almost dream-like way. I wasn't overly conscious of it but I recognised it as there....Then it got louder. Like A WHOLE LOT louder, as in, creepy-lady-chatting-in-the-corner-of-my-room louder. So suddenly I was aware of this, like VERY AWARE and was actively listening to what she was saying(can't remember it word for word, I have roughly the same recall of the voice as I would a memorable dream) , my vision went from what I believe was total darnkess to a sort of cloudy blueish white light that spiralled itself into focus, getting brighter all the time. Also, my body was tingling all over, almost in a 'damn, Ive slept on my arm again' kind of way, but with complete coverage. I tried to move but couldn't! I was like, NO-NOT-ME-I-DONT-WANT-TO-BE-LUCID. So I concentrated on moving my fingers. At first I was unable to, but after what was roughly about 5 seconds I mustered up some slight movement, and from there I was able to slightly move my hand, then arm...etc. And then I was AWAKE, and somewhat DISTURBED. So I just thought I'd share my rather unpleasant, and UNINTENIONAL WILD experience.


This was by no means my first lucid experience. I have had two other notable unpleasant experiences with lucid dreaming, both happening roughly a couple of years ago. The first occured to two weeks after I had done what was only probably a couple of days of half-hearted watch-checking reality checks, after hearing about this from a friend. So, one morning, like any other sunny morning, I had awoken up and decided to check my led screened watch, upon doing so I was utterly HORRIFIED to find that the time changed after the second check. So I jumped out of bed and peered wearily out my bedroom door. The house was quiet. Completely silent, but oddly VERY BRIGHT. Deciding it was just too much and I just could not go on, I swiftly threw my self onto my wardrobe doors. Again. Again. And then again. After what seemed like an eternity of violent self-infliction I finally awoke, glad for the experience to be over.

My lucid experience a few months later actually turned what was a fairly normal dream into a DREADED INESCAPABLE NIGHTMARE. I was just on my merry way, walking towards a cake when suddenly I realised what I was experiencing was not reality. I don't remember the trigger. This time I strangely did not panic, so tried to eat the cake instead. I also beleive there was some skipping and prancing involved. But then I was transported to my house, it was dark, naturally the lights didn't work....nobody was there. Nobody that is, but ALIENS. They were flashing what was like torch beams all around darkened walls, as I ran terrified towards the telephone. Naturally, there was no dial tone, and the led display was all jumbled (like running your finger over a calculator) The whole time this was happening, I was constantly saying to myself 'but this is a just a dream though, this is just a dream...' I had lost some of my awareness since leaving the "cake room" but I was still very aware that it wasn't real and remember repeating that over and over. I basically had to ride the whole thing out in bewilderment, it lasted for what seemed like THREE HOURS, but was probably only twenty minutes, during which I was drifting between awareness and complete oblivion. So I just had to stare out of the window and watch as a massive building was dragged across the grass by hundreds of people, towards my house. I watched as cleaners -seen inside the distant office windows- scrubbed the floors...I used this as an anxiety control mechanism, detaching myself from the scary aliens, knowing that I would wake up eventually. As I said, I wasn't always aware in this nightmare, but for a large proprtion I was, but lacked the same kind of clarity that made the first experience so uniquelly bizarre. And it was seemingly all triggered from becoming lucid in that goddamn cake room!!

So, beware, not all lucid experiences are pleasant! I should have just stayed away the first time. I'm stupid and bring it upon myself. Curiousity certainly killed this cat.

Okay, long post, but i just thought I'd share because people react differently to things, and lucid dreaming might not be as interesting and relaxing an experience as they thought it might.

I've never done the WILD technique, and it is certainly not a necessity for having lucid dreams. I believe that if you really want to have lucid dreams, you will be able to recognize the fact that you are dreaming on occasion without any significant effort. Dream Induced Lucid Dreaming has no "bizarre" hallucinations or paralysis to endure with it.

A couple of times, though, I've managed to unintentionally get myself into a state of paralysis while hearing screeching noises and such. The first time this happened, I allowed for my imagination to run wild, and I did experience a bit of a frightening hallucination. By the time this happened to me a second time, I had developed a mind-set of confidence in the fact that what I was experiencing was natural and I was not in any danger.

All I can say is that if you think there is a possibility that bad things can happen to you as a result of lucid dreaming, then your mind may just fulfill that expectation. I know that it can seem impossible to overcome a fear once it has been nurtured, but I honestly think that you would have had no fearful experiences if you had not read about other people's bad experiences beforehand.

This has been only my opinion, of coarse.

I never intended to attain lucidity at all those last two times. The only time I tried was before my very first lucid dream, a couple of years ago. Which, I'm not sure, but I believe was a Dream Induced Lucid Dream(?) as it was achived through a reality check. And it was really unpleasant. Since then I did not continue to read about lucid dreaming or techniques.

Only within the last couple of weeks or so, was I reminded of Lucid Dreaming and started to occasionally read up about LD'ing, with my interest inspired by my past experiences and possible future interest. God knows why I was interested when my past experiences were far from pleasant. So I decided against it, and would not be making any attempts at reaching lucidty. I then -on my own- unintentionally had a WILD experience, that I have no doubt would have developed into a full-on dream if I had not fought it with difficulty. I don't want to lucid dream again!! The only reason it happened again is becuase of my curiosity & because in essence, it is an interesting subject, so much so that I was considering overlooking my past negative experiences with it to give it another shot. Then I remebered that I am a complete wimp and decided against it, but yet still somehow had a WILD anyway!!! I thought that couldn't happen! I thought WILD was achieved through practice, technique and perseverance!!! :eek:

Different strokes for different folks I guess... Lucid Dreaming is certainly another thing to add to my list of fears, above airplanes but below spiders... :P

I sympathise with your fearfulness, but you may have more LD's in the future whether you intend to or not. I think a person's ability to lucid dream shows a certain level of intelligence in that you are able to discern dreams from reality.

Lucid dreams offer you an advantage over normal dreams as well. LD's give you the opportunity to walk up to some scary alien (or whatever) and tell it that it is not real, and that you know it cannot harm you. You can even tell the alien to try it's damnedest to harm you, and you will only expose it as a creation of your mind.

A while ago I had a dream that started out non-lucid where people were chasing after me with guns. I was genuinely afraid of these people with guns, until I became lucid. Once I had become lucid, I dared one of them to shoot me, and one of them did. I took the shot in stride, and effectively put an end to their hijinks.

I'm not trying to persuade you to change your mind about wanting to LD. Like I said, I think there is a chance that you may have more of them in the future. Sometimes you can't help but become aware. I am only suggesting to you that if you do find yourself lucid again, remember that, with confidence, you can elimate scary things by simply applying logic to them.

Good luck! :wink:

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Originally posted by Rune
So, beware, not all lucid experiences are pleasant! *I should have just stayed away the first time. *I'm stupid and bring it upon myself. *Curiousity certainly killed this cat.

Okay, long post, but *i just thought I'd share because people react differently to things, and *lucid dreaming might not be as interesting and relaxing an experience as they thought it might.

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Most of us know that not all lucid experiences are pleasant, but it isn't always like that. The times you seem to have bad ones all ended in you panicking and trying to escape when something creepy happened. The whole point, I feel, is to try and change the settings and face the things that try and scare you. When you face them and they've lost their power, you can ask them for a gift or something good.

You should try and face these things that keep making the dreams a nightmare, like where you almost went lucid with the chattering woman, you don't know that what you found when lucid would have been a bad thing, you just assumed that it would have been a bad experience because of your past encounters with lucid dreams.

None of the experiences you described seem overly frightening, I think that you may be overreacting really. :|

But like you said people react differently to things.

I don't mean the course of the dreams themselves were particularly frightening. More like the actual environment, nature and absurd reality of these dreams are what makes them disurbing for me. I could have a lucid dream involving fluffy bunnies, daisies and rainbows and still be scared senseless. Some people may find enjoyment from LD'ing, but I personally just feel completely disorientated. I don't like the feeling of consciousness within an environment that seems completely foreign and unprediactable to me. That is what makes lucid experiences unsettling for me, and I would imagine there would be others who could react in a similar way. It was more of a caution to those trying to attain lucidty who have not yet managed. It may SEEM like a good idea....but could turn out to be a distincly unpleasant experience with the potential for repeat episodes.

I have found the environment and feeling of dream to be very dependent upon my attitude towards them. If I'm scared of the dream, it is much more likely to have a dark and forboding atmosphere. If I look forward to it, and see it as a good thing, it probably will be a nice atmosphere.

If you've ever seen any of the Freddy movies, here's an example. You know how, if nobody knows about Freddy, he can't hurt them? Well, that idea isn't so far out. If you don't fear nightmares, they won't give you anything to be scared of. You may not have complete control of your dreams, but indirectly, you have a vast amound of controll over the way your dreams feel.

My number one reason for lucid dreaming is the feeling I get when I have them. It's characterized mostly by security and happiness; when I'm dreaming, I know I can do anything without worrying about the consequences - there is nothing that could possibly cause me harm. It's the best feeling in the world.