My first REAL Lucid Dream last night!! Finally!

[DeeryTheDeer]

Before I went to bed last night, I drank two glasses of apple juice (and frequently went to the bathroom, obviously), and listened to a five minute induction mp3 on my iPod I found somewhere in the 'Attaining Lucidity' section of this forum as I was lying in bed. Both of those things I did for the first time. The craziest thing about last night's experience was that I kept having a string of multiple dreams and false awakenings, and I looked at my hand at least several times and kept realizing I was dreaming, again and again. It felt like it was happening over days and I was always finding myself in dreamworld, but only when I woke up did I realize that it must have been a 90 minute cycle of losing and gaining lucidity. The problem I keep finding myself with, though, is that every time I get lucid, my dreamworld, which is as realistic as waking life, fades away into nearly daydreaming. At one point I almost wanted to lose lucidity just to get the vividness of my dream back, or think or try as little as possible once I was lucid. The more I thought about how it was just a dream, the more it slipped away from me. I also only had a tiny fraction of control over conjuring up new things, if any, even though I had control over my own actions, at least mostly. I wish I knew how to strengthen my ability to keep the dreamworld as vivid as possible AND control everything. Anyway, that's the short version of this post. Here's the long version, where I recount everything that happened in my dreams last night: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The earliest dream I can recall was that I was back in school (even though I graduated in the spring, and this is a pretty common dream sign). After I talked to my friends briefly, I brushed past them through a very narrow yellow hallway in order to get to the P.E. room to change into the P.E. clothes I was holding in my arms. As I entered the room, it was actually a big auditorium, with many girls sitting in the seats already in their P.E. clothes, waiting and staring at me impatiently. I felt embarrassed and hurried past the front row, when suddenly I heard a voice in my head that said, "It's reality time! Do a reality check!" (I'd practiced this statement in my mind once in a bookstore, in the form of that cheeky commercial guy who is the spokesperson for how to prevent reckless driving). Once I heard his voice, I looked at my hand and counted my fingers. There were about six or seven fingers, mostly extra ones near the pinky. Instead of making me lucid, though, this made me mad. It HAD to be five fingers, and I tried to count better, but there would always be more than five. It frustrated me. I then had a false awakening, where I woke up on the couch in the morning and saw that my sister and all her friends were on the floor with blankets as part of a slumber party they were having (my sister only has one or two physical friends around here since we moved, and she doesn't contact them anymore). I told them all about my experience with looking at my hand and finding more than five fingers, and how I wished I was smart enough to get that it was a dream instead of getting mad. I explained to them the concept of lucid dreaming and reality checks, and how that one failed but I'd do better next time. Then it became later that day, when no one else was around in the living room, and I was standing at the end of the living room behind the couch when I suddenly wondered if I was dreaming. I looked down at my hand and counted the fingers, which were about seven, so I confirmed that I was dreaming (even though I was always still a little pissed inside that they wouldn't count up right). I tried to use jedi powers to lift up the Christmas tree in the center of the living room, but no avail. My lucidity was making the ultra-realistic dream dwindle, so I tried spinning in a circle a few times, and the scene was still the same. After that I rubbed my hands together vigorously, so that I could gain more power over the tree. It still didn't really work. All I could do was imagine or daydream the Christmas tree moving, while nothing actually happened that caught my eye. I made a point to remind myself to stay calm and not freak out over what was happening. In the next dream, I was at a golf course where my grandpa was in a tournament (which I'm pretty sure he would never do in real life), but at the time I went with it anyway. It was pouring rain and looked like the place in the final scene of Babe, with the freshly white painted bleacher seats and green green grass as I stood under a white roof with a few of grandpa's "friends" that were watching him and cracking jokes at him. Some of the rain was drizzling off the edge of the roof. As he was about to swing at the ball, which was sitting near his taunting friends at the bleachers, I looked at my hands and there were more than ten fingers on them. Realizing this, I decided to step out in the open (when the rain apparently stopped), and attempt to jump up and fly high speed into the sky, however high I could soar. I tried to feel wind and gravity against me as I flew, but again, it was just a failed attempt at imagining dream control. Nothing really happened and it wasn't as much fun as I wished it could be. In the next dream, I was in a crowded store or big expo center where tons of people were milling about in this big grey building, when I looked at my hands and once again found that I was dreaming. It amazed me how I kept realizing I was dreaming, to the point where I thought, "What! Again?! Jesus! Wow, this is a lot." As soon as I realized that this was happening, though, the lights in the store suddenly began to flicker violently, dimming out a bit, and what used to sound like waking life noises of people all around me, in the strangest way, drained into my left ear like a buzzing, muffled headphone, and the echoes were tightly together. I tried to stop making any kind of big deal out of the lucidity at that point, just to make sure that I didn't damage the dream any worse. Then a funny thought occured to me, and I smiled because I realized that I could talk to anyone in this building and they might say something outrageous that I could post in the 'DCs Say the Darndest Things' thread. Normally I'm very shy and have trouble talking to any strangers, but in this dream situation I obviously had nothing to worry about, so I was somehow sitting on top of the shelf of one of the aisles, overlooking people milling by, and I asked a bald man in a red sweater and tan khakis (who I think looked like Will Sasso), "What do you think of being my dream character, and that this is all just a dream?" Somehow I had a microphone at this moment and was now pushing it in his face. I expected him to react surprised or incredulous and give me a funny answer, but he didn't look me in the eye and all he did was shrug, his face expressionless. Then he walked on, slowly though because of how crowded it was. Something tells me he didn't enjoy being there. After giving up on that lucid endeavor, I got off the shelf and decided I wanted to have sex with someone. I looked around for someone in the crowd that I wanted to bang, but the only semi-good looking guy I found was a stoner-looking kid in his 20s with a red jacket, white T-shirt and long denim pants, with curly dark hair and pale, buggy eyes surrounded by sharp, dark eyelashes. He also looked like he was wearing a bit of eyeliner, which didn't suit him well at all. I really didn't want to bang that guy, so I remembered that I really wanted to bang Tom Hulce, circa 1984. I had to go where Tom would most likely be, so I saw a small open door at the South end of the building where it looked like only employees went, and ran over to that dark door, imagining that through that door was the inside of a Broadway theater, and that I'd run right into Tom backstage. Sure enough, I was in the backstage of a theater, but Tom wasn't there. In fact, no one was there, except for my old friend Cheyenne, who was in front of the stage playing on a grand piano for a small child she was with. I waved and said hi to her. She stopped playing and did the same, and we had a very brief conversation until Cheyenne had to leave and get somewhere else with the child, who she took by the hand out the warehouse-like opening on the left side of the theater. We both waved goodbye before she disappeared from my sight. After she was gone, I returned to my mission to have wild sex with Tom Hulce. I made sure that the whole theater was vacant and that no one would find us doing it. As if my dream was responding to this fear, EVERYONE popped out of the woodwork, including animals, like chickens, pigs, etc. I found a small table against the wall backstage in which I could hide under. It didn't offer much privacy, if any, but I figured it wasn't worth it to worry about it anymore if I was going to get any in this dream. I went ahead and crawled under the short table, laying on my back, and in front of me I tried to conjure up Tom. This didn't work, in fact all I could really visualize of him was a head of curly hair. However, someone else was conjured up in his place, and I won't say who it is because it's incredibly embarrassing, and most people on this forum don't seem like the understanding type, oddly enough. I will just say that it was a male human cartoon character. Not a very attractive one, but just enough to get SOME kind of sex (being that I'm a virgin). When we started doing it, his body became a live action version of himself, for obvious reasons, and he was surprisingly well-endowed. We took both our pants off and he inserted himself in me. I tried to get into it, but it just felt like something was crammed up there, nothing very arousing. Then it ended after a minute or two of this. I went home after that, and apparently this act was all over TV, because my family knew all about it and I somehow became famous for this. My mom told me in a joking way, something to the effect of, "I hope you didn't make any jokes about me and dad", referring to their sex. It made absolutely no sense, but I was embarrassed all the same. Not nearly as embarrassed as I should have been if it were in real life, though. At this point I think I lost all lucidity. In one of my last dreams, though, I was back in the living room, and I looked at my hands and found that I was dreaming. I decided to stop doing just that and also plug my nose and inhale. It was BY FAR the coolest thing to happen in my dream. I was plugging my nose, yet breathing in all this fresh air, and it felt so soothing and fun to do. I got some strangers around me to do it, who were inexplicably hanging around me in my house. They did the same, but they didn't really care about the result. I was the only one who was having a ball with it, doing it all the time. It was AWESOME. Then I woke up.

[spockman]

I just read the first part of your post and I'd like to say welcome to the sight as I haven't seen you yet. I'd also like to say 'grats on your first LD! And don't let the lack of vividness or fading into daydreaming discourage you. I had that for who knows how many tiems for my first LDs. But you've got it one up on my first LDS, (as well as many peoples first lucids.) Because you where able to stay in your dream. My early lucids faded at the beginning to nothingness. But once I got to stay in the dream I had that daydreamy feel too. I know exactly what it's like. I can't think of anyone else who's first LD was '90' minutes. That's awsome! Clarity will come with tiem and technique. Experience will help to dictate the rest. Anyway, good job and I'll read the dream part when I've the time. Maybe I'll be able to give you some specific pointers on dream control? At any rate, good dreaming and keep it up! See you around the forums, ~Spock ----- First I'd like to mention how well your crossover memory was working. That is, being able to remember specific stuff from RL that translate into dream thoughts. Example: Being able to remember things as precise as a random thread. That's especially helpful for remembering techniques and goals, which I'm sure you know since you applied your crossover memory to do both of those things. Concerning the clarity, there are many ways to help with this. (Not the least of which is simple experience on stabalization.) Some people take certain vitamins for this. Some people try suggestion to the enviroment, (saying 'increase clarity.') I like to awaken my senses by running my hand along a pole or table and just try and feel it. That makes my brain remember what it's like to feel things and can activate sharper vision and hearing. (Both of which you expressed having trouble with.) Another thing that may be hurting your clarity is your method of control. Whenever you use 'forced' control you stand to hurt the vividness of your enviroment. Forced control is any time that you try and just will something to happen or appear in your dream. This type of control should be used sparingly. Example, it probably didn't help when you tried to summon a partner to sleep with. A better method would be to try calling the desired partner up on a phone. This is called 'passive control' and it is where you suggest to the enviroment that something is going to happen based on your actions. So, calling someone telling them to arrive could passivley cause them to arrive. ((While on the sex topic, it is worth mentioning that sex will probably be fairly ungratifying. Since your a virgin, it will be so since you've never felt sex before so your sub-conciouss has nothing to relate it to. If a non-virgin has dream sex it will still probably be unrewarding since it won't be nearly as good as the real item.)) Another thing about control. Let's take you trying to lift the tree. That's telekinesis. (I think the dream guide team just wrote a tutorial on that, btw. I've not read it yet, so I can't say anything about it. I'll probably read it tonight. Anyway, back to the topic.) Your method of telekinesis was to imagine the tree to rise hoping that it will rise. This sort of imagining technique has failed for me very consistently, including things as simple as drawing a gun from my hip. Instead of imagining something to happen, (which is going to give you that feel of a daydream within an LD,) just DO IT. You don't think about walking. You just walk. If you ask how you can 'just move something,' consider this. The tree is just a manifestation of your sub-consiouss. As is your dream body. That tree is every bit as much of yourself as your dream body is. Your conciousness may reside in your brain during RL, but your conciousness does not reside in your dream body during a lucid. Instead, your dream body resides in your mind. So does the tree. (Does that make sense?) Anyway, once you realize that 'there is no spoon,' (Matrix analogy. If you've not seen it you probably should,) you may find yourself excercizing better control. Well, there's my two cents. Hope it helped! EDIT: Glad I could be of help.

[DeeryTheDeer]

Thanks a lot for the reply and the great advice! I'd also like to say 'grats on your first LD! Well, technically it wasn't my first LD, period. I had several natural lucid dreams that occurred occasionally throughout my childhood and pre-teen years before I even knew what it was (nothing epic btw). I stopped getting any natural lucid dreams after that. Then a few months ago, when I got into it again and re-learned the basic concept of lucid dreaming, I downloaded a few binaural beats and listened to them, causing me to have brief lucid dreams on two separate nights. The first 'willed' LD only lasted at the most 60 seconds before I slipped back into thinking the dream was real, because I tried to summon something with a daydream result, and the second lucid dream lasted maybe shorter than that before I woke up. This marks the first lucid dream(s) that lasted longer than a minute or two and that I actually had a relative abundance of knowledge on what to do once I was lucid, thanks to this forum. So I call that my first "real" lucid dream. I don't blame you for being confused though, I should've been clearer on that. First I'd like to mention how well your crossover memory was working. That is, being able to remember specific stuff from RL that translate into dream thoughts. Example: Being able to remember things as precise as a random thread. That's especially helpful for remembering techniques and goals, which I'm sure you know since you applied your crossover memory to do both of those things. Thanks! I also forgot to mention in that post that in one of my last dreams (non-lucid), I told my sister how exciting this lucid dreaming was and brought her to my computer where I tried to bring up the Dream Views forum website from my favorites, but somehow it wasn't there, so I had to type into google 'dreamviews forum', search it and click on the top link and there was the familiar blue home page. Then again, this forum has a very significant daily importance to me. Concerning the clarity, there are many ways to help with this. (Not the least of which is simple experience on stabalization.) Some people take certain vitamins for this. Some people try suggestion to the enviroment, (saying 'increase clarity.') I like to awaken my senses by running my hand along a pole or table and just try and feel it. That makes my brain remember what it's like to feel things and can activate sharper vision and hearing. (Both of which you expressed having trouble with.) That last suggestion sounds awesome! I'll definitely try it out next time I go lucid (which is tonight hopefully). Another thing that may be hurting your clarity is your method of control. Whenever you use 'forced' control you stand to hurt the vividness of your enviroment. Forced control is any time that you try and just will something to happen or appear in your dream. This type of control should be used sparingly. Example, it probably didn't help when you tried to summon a partner to sleep with. A better method would be to try calling the desired partner up on a phone. This is called 'passive control' and it is where you suggest to the enviroment that something is going to happen based on your actions. So, calling someone telling them to arrive could passivley cause them to arrive. I'll try to remember this as well. ((While on the sex topic, it is worth mentioning that sex will probably be fairly ungratifying. Since your a virgin, it will be so since you've never felt sex before so your sub-conciouss has nothing to relate it to. If a non-virgin has dream sex it will still probably be unrewarding since it won't be nearly as good as the real item.)) Well, I would have thought the same thing myself, but I've had a couple random non-lucids before where I was sleeping with someone and the sensations were surprisingly realistic and gratifying, if only for a brief amount of time. I actually woke up still feeling some sensations. Instead of imagining something to happen, (which is going to give you that feel of a daydream within an LD,) just DO IT. You don't think about walking. You just walk. If you ask how you can 'just move something,' consider this. The tree is just a manifestation of your sub-consiouss. As is your dream body. That tree is every bit as much of yourself as your dream body is. Your conciousness may reside in your brain during RL, but your conciousness does not reside in your dream body during a lucid. Instead, your dream body resides in your mind. So does the tree. (Does that make sense?) Anyway, once you realize that 'there is no spoon,' (Matrix analogy. If you've not seen it you probably should,) you may find yourself excercizing better control. Yeah, I've seen The Matrix before, and that particular scene always stuck out for me. I'm glad someone around here has the sig and quote that best summarizes the scene, because it reminded me of how useful that scene is. Anyway, your post really does help, so I'll be sure to keep trying.