Hi everyone,
I discovered this site and forum today while at work searching the net for lucid dreaming. I'm really enjoying reading about other peoples' experiences and would like to share one I had in the mid to late 70's. I'm 51 now and have not had anything similar happen since those days but would very much like to learn how to do it again.
When I was in my 20's I would occasionally find myself unable to wake up from a nap and even more often would feel a sense of paralysis come over me. The only way I found to snap out of it was to turn my head. I could move no other part of my body. This would only happen if I fell asleep without a blanket over me.
One afternoon I was taking a nap in the basement of my parents' house on one of the two sofas. I could hear the radio blathering away as I dozed off. Suddenly I heard my father in the backyeard calling me to come help him do something. Well, I tried to get up off the sofa, thinking I had not really fallen asleep, but I could not move. My father called several times for me and I began to hear his "impatient" voice. Not wanting to make him agry with me I tried and tried in vain to wake up. Finally I figured if I could just roll off the sofa onto the floor, that would certainly wake me up.
I don't recall how it happened but I finally was able to get up and go see what he wanted. But I could not find him in the backyard and he was no longer calling me. I came back into the house and looked for him on the first floor. I walked out to the breakfast room and looked again to the backyard through the window but could not see him. I distinctly recall seeing the large pine tree and how wonderfully green it was.
At some point I realized I was not really awake! I don't know how that noton came to me. I thought "how will I wake up if I'm up here and my body is downstairs? I'd better go back down, lay down, and try again." So that's what I did, only once again I had trouble getting back up. I remember thinking I'd have to push myself off the sofa.
Somehow I managed to get up. Excited about this strange thing that just happened to me I walked upstairs looking for someone to tell. I distincly recall walking up the stairs, seeing my feet hit each stair. I found no one in the first floor but could hear the TV and laughter from the 2nd floor. I entered my parent's bedroom to find one of my brothers and an old neighbor, Betty, and her two boys, lying prostrate on the bed watching TV in the dark. She had no reason to be there. In fact, she should have been in another state altogether.
Anyway, I told them all about the strange dream I had and my difficulty waking up. Then Betty says "how do you know you're not sleeping right now?" We all laughed but as I made my way back downstairs I realized I was still asleep in the basement.
So once more I went back down to try to wake up. Eventually I did, for real. But I was on the other sofa, not the one I thought I'd been sleeping on. And, the radio was not on. It never was. The end.
I want that to happen again. These days I don't recall my dreams very well but after reading about them at sites like this one I have some things to try. Back then I didn't care too much for the paralysis experiences but from what I've read, it's a clue that a lucid dream is likely. I have many dreams about flying and I really love those dreams. I want more of those too. Wish me luck!
