Hi everyone,

I found out about what lucid dreaming actually was about a week ago, and have become quite intrigued! I have had a few lucid dreams before, without knowing what they were, that they had a name, or how to induce them. Now, I'm really looking forward to going to sleep every night!

Since discovering this forum, I started Reality Checking during the day. I already keep a dream journal (since 2003) and my dream recall is quite good if I say so myself, so I figured I was already halfway there. Well, I had my very first lucid dream a few nights ago. It only lasted about 3 seconds before I got excited and I started to wake up, but it was extremely cool! Here are the details of my dream, but first here are a few things to put into context.

This year I am living away from home for the first time, in France no less. So when I say that I was at home in my dream, it means I'm back at my real home in Canada On to the dream:

In my dream, I was at home, and things were really stressful. There were all kinds of things going wrong and things that had to be dealt with, and my mum was stressing out too. Then I thought to myself, "Why am I here, anyway? I sure am coming home a lot, for being in France. It's really expensive to take all these plane rides." (this is because I have dreamt of being at home quite a bit the past few weeks). And then it hit me that I was dreaming! Everything immediately became crystal clear and it was kind of a shock. It was an amazing feeling, like being in a completely new world. I'm sure you people on this forum know what it feels like, but to me this is new, so bear with me Well, as I said, I got excited and things started to fade into white. I was sitting inside the car, and first the outside started to fade. I put my hand on the car door and I could really feel it! Of course, that got me more excited, and I pretty much lost all hope of staying asleep

And that was my first lucid experience!

I had another one the night after (or possibly the night after that). It wasn't quite as exciting, but still. I was in this big cafeteria with lots of people around, and I don't remember what reminded me that I was dreaming. This time, things weren't as crystal clear, but I could hear. It sounded like I was under water. Since there were people around, I decided to talk to somebody. There was an interesting-looking man with a leather jacket on, so I walked up and I don't remember what I said. He was English. Then, the dream kind of took off without me and he started wreaking havoc all around the place. After what seemed like a long time I finally caught up with him and politely asked him to stop making a mess of things, because I was trying to lucid dream He said he understood and that he'd go. After that, even though I thought of him more than once, he never came back! I thought that was interesting because normally when I think of something I don't want to come back, it basically always does.

Well, there you have it. I hope somebody reads this Do you have any tips on how I can stay lucid once I realize it? I'm going to look at the tutorials too, but any input is welcome

Looking forward to dreaming some more!

-Janos