After months and months of trying(and failing)... a LD!!
I went to sleep at nearly 5am because I had taken a long nap earlier in the day, so maybe that's what did it. Either way it was remarkable because I have been going through the longest dry spell of not recalling dreams, not being lucid, nothing.
I was in a full-blown dream scene and then suddenly awake, looking at what appeared to be hypnagogic imagery--black and white smoke shapes, like clouds, that would condense into objects. I didn't move, and at first thought I was cracking open my eyelids and looking at my pillow, but I then remembered it was pitch black in my room. I relaxed intentionally to keep from waking up, and the smoke would become real objects, in vivid colour, and full scenes, but then after a while change back into the smoke and I would have to wait to watch new objects and scenes be formed. It was kind of like "changing the channel" on my mental TV--wait a few seconds and the smoke would condense into some totally new, unpredictable objects & scene, and the longer I looked at it without "willing" it to become something else, the more vivid and immersing it became.
I couldn't move or feel my body, but I could hear myself breathing, and it was really loud, and I could hear my computer running on the other side of my bedroom. I mentally stated to myself "I am dreaming" just to be sure, and I could clearly remember being in the previous dream up until the point I woke up and saw the smoke shapes. I tried to imagine a body for myself so that I could stop being a passive observer and go off and do fun stuff, but I lost awareness and fell asleep after watching the smoke shaped for a few minutes.
It was really weird! It resembled hallucinating on a certain drug I took long, long ago. I'm going to be so totally stoked tonight. I really hope this is like riding a bicycle and that I can learn to do it automatically!! Thanks everyone for posting experiences, I read them all the time for inspiration!
