Finally, months of practice come to fruition.
Hey everyone. Let me first start by giving a bit of background on my situation. I joined dreamviews around 2 years ago after hearing a friend talk about lucid dreaming. I always prided myself in how vivid and seemingly real my dreams were. I had excellent recall. Dreaming was somewhat controllable to me, I never fully attained lucidity, but I was always able to get myself out of uncomfortable situations just by thinking about it, and was somewhat aware. However, ever since hearing about lucid dreaming I have been lurking around these forums in hopes of having a full on Lucid experience.
I must admit that my regiment has been pretty relaxed, some months I will be really into lucid dreaming and try every night with no result. I had never achieved even an inkling of SP, no matter how hard I tried. I've been a big fan of the WILD technique, setting my alarm anywhere from 3 - 5 hours after going to sleep in hopes of catching that pivotal REM cycle. I have been smoking marijuana for a few years, pretty consistently, and am certain that this has been the main cause of my lack of lucidity. I've realized this many times, but lately I've matured a bit, and have a bit more self control than I used to. It's not so much a habit anymore, as something fun to do with friends once in a while. Needless to say, my dream recall is back where it used to be: vivid, real, and breathtaking. I've been keeping up on a dream journal as best I can, and this has helped as well.
Lately, I have become interested in Astral Projection, whether or not you believe in the possibility or not, there is a wonderful book titled "Adventures Beyond the Body" by William Buhlman, that I read within the last month. Read it for the first 2 sections, the subject matter can easily be transposed to lucidity, rather than actual out of body experiences. His chronicles of sleep paralysis are spot on, coupled with his transition into out of body experiences(read: lucidity). This alone was enough to convince me to read it. It was very informative and helpful, and I attribute some of my recent success to it.
Anyways. Last night, I went to bed at around 2:20 AM, and set my alarm for 7:00 AM. I woke up, got a drink of water, drank some, brought the glass back to my bed, and stayed up for around 5 minutes before settling into my ready position for sleep paralysis. After I woke up, unlike myself, I was pretty awake, I wasn't really groggy, and I felt like I had had a pretty good night's sleep, having only had about 4.5 hours, I was definitely aware of this "energy" if you will. Here is the entry into my dream journal that I immediately scrawled out after waking. I was so impressed and excited.
Not sure what to make of this one, achieved full on sleep paralysis this time. Unmistakable. I'm glad I was ready and had read about it, because what they say is true: It is quite scary. Was incredibly intense. Felt like someone was sitting on me, scary sound of breathing, my roommate was talking nonsense in the corner of my room (note that I was too scared to open my eyes) and the vibrations were out of control, I felt like I was dissolving I tried to move my arms, but I couldn't, they felt like rubber appendages (not mine). I remember thinking to myself, "okay, all I need to do is roll out now" and the next thing I remember is standing up in my room. I thought I had woken up,and was fully conscious. Suddenly my roommate (same one who was talking the scary gibberish) dances into my room with my other roommate's pajamas on, I was going to tell him about how I achieved sleep paralysis finally. I thought this was incredibly strange, and proceeded to do a reality check: I looked at my digital alarm clock, looked away, looked back, and sure enough the digits had change. The excitement I felt was overwhelming, but completely controllable. I took a long look at a body in my bed, it was me. I was on my side in my normal sleeping position and my eyes were fluttering. I thought this was pretty strange, and proceeded to walk out of my room. There was an elderly man standing outside my door, he had a gray/white layer of whiskers from a week without shaving. He made me uncomfortable, and kept saying things about my family. I then turned around, and walked back into my room, and realizing I could fly, I took off through my window (It was shut, I just passed through). At first, flying was somewhat difficult, but out loud I kept shouting "clarity now", and was able to maintain altitude just fine. I was blown away that this worked.
I kept flying over my town, and was drawn to a building that I recognized, but didn't quite. As I arrived inside, I thought to myself that it was some sort of complex for lucid dreamers, or out of body travelers, whatever you like. It was strange, because many of the people seemed completely indifferent to me, like I was passing them in a crowd. Usually the few people in my dreams interact with me.
I remember entering what seemed to be a strange arcade. A kid was telling me that his machine wouldn't work, because the receptacle where you wold deposit quarters was broken. I took a look and instantly saw what he meant, and told him that he had to push the quarters through with more force and it would work. Someone then came up behind me and put his arm around my shoulder, and told me something which I can't remember. He had been given something from the old man who I'd met in my house, I put it in my let pants pocket, opening it with my right hand. It was roughly the size of a harmonica, but I can't remember what it was. I then remember walking with him and a kid I went to junior high with, who I had one class with, who I couldn't have remembered had I not been dreaming. I was talking with them about whether or not I was really out of my body, or if I was just having a crazy lucid dream.
At one point, while in this "complex" I caught a reflection of myself in a window. I was just a human form with an outline of what I can only describe as electricity. I brought my hand up in front of my face and was able to see through it, it was somewhat transparent. This was strangely affirming in the experience.
I remember walking around, and seeing a woman crying at the base of some stairs. She was looking for something she'd lost, I believed it to be her children, but I never ventured to ask. Beside her, there was a pool of water, and what I can only describe (and remember) as a mattress, slowly rose out of it while water slid of the sides.
Later I found myself in a large group of people at an elevator (still in this complex), and what I felt at the time where my dream guides, 2 people, I can't remember what they look like, where conferring amongst themselves whether or not they wanted to take me to the "3rd level". It was apparent that the elevator was a means to do this. I asked them what they meant, and they wouldn't tell me. A girl in front of my wearing a strangely revealing gown (not sexual at all) who was also waiting told me that I shouldn't go there yet, and that I wasn't quite ready, that I'd know when I was. She didn't say it in those exact terms. I agreed, and thanked here, letting her be. She seemed very convincing, as if she knew.
Not remembering having gone to the 2nd level, I proceeded to get into the elevator to go to the 1st or top floor. I remember asking those in the elevator about something seemingly ridiculous that I'd read about on dreamviews. I asked them whether there were demons who haunted the "planes" such as "dreamwalkers" and "nightstalkers". I received scared looks, and no response from anyone. This did scare me at the time, but I realized I was in a safe environment. On the top floor, I remember walking around, and there was a door leading somewhere, more of a walkway, that was guarded. The guards pushed me away and wouldn't let me enter.
Throughout this entire experience, I was readily amazed at how lucid I was, this never shot me back into a dream, or back to my body. I did think of my body sometimes, with a disconnected sort of mind; detachment. As if... as if it didn't matter? It's a difficult thought process to explain. I never lost lucidity.
What did bring me back was quite unfortunate. I remember flying around (during the beginning of my dream) thinking that maybe I should have sex with a pretty girl. However, I quickly discounted this at first, my thirst for exploration overriding my sexual desire. However, after having been dreaming for quite a while, I decided I'd give it a go (after everything that I already said had happened). I went into a room, and grabbed a redheaded girl, and then I remember being sucked back into my bed. I woke up, and proceeded into the living room to tell my roommate about what had happened. How it was the most real and incredible experience I'd ever had. However, after telling him (he was sitting on our couch). I woke up again ( I was convinced I was already awake and conscious), this time for real. My whole experience had lasted till 8:03 AM! A full hour of lucidity.
During the experience, I was aware of how long it was. I kept thinking to myself, wow, this is longer and more real than any dream I've ever had. I thought about this a few times.
As a side note, I do remember at a few points during the dream that I felt more dream-like at points, but was able to shrug this off merely by thinking about it. I was strangely in complete control.
Thanks to those who made it through, I was very excited to share. I have found more inspiration to continue in my lucid adventures in this night alone than any other thing I have heard, read, or dreamed about. I can honestly say, that this experience was by far one of the coolest things I have experienced yet, awake or asleep, and can barely wait to get to bed tonight to try it again!
