fear and loathing in lucid dreams.

Well, not quite, but I did have a most bizarre LD experience. It was (like 99.999% of my dreams) so incredibly realistic. However, unlike most of my dreams, it was so boring and realistic. I was just driving down the highway. But I was controlling the car. It was kind of cool, kind of like cruising through town... I decided to go to the mall, so I drove out that way, but on a stretch of highway I lost control of the car and it went careening into a wall, and I woke up feeling as though I'd actually hit; my heart was racing and I felt so shocked and jarred by it. It was kind of scary, losing control of the car in a dream where until that point, I'd had complete control of it all. I mean.. it was just like losing control of a car in real life. And so, so weird.
Anyone else experience something like this?

I often experience something similar. Instead of driving my car into a wall, I usually end up driving off a bridge into water. It's so scary and I wake up, like you said, with those feelings of shock and fear. I've never been able to figure out what these dreams mean. Maybe it's some kind of inherent fear we have, stuffed away in the back of our subconscious or something? What do you think?

I'm not sure. I did get into a pretty bad car accident almost a year ago (Dec. 20, to be exact), so I'm thinking maybe that has something to do with it, although in the dream I drive into a wall and in reality, I lost control in the rain and rolled over. (Crazy story, too - neither of us in the car were even injured! But man, was that scary).
It might also have to do with control issues. I can't stand not having control, and I guess I've always had an innate fear of not controlling every aspect of my life.
Hm. Despite the whole scary thing, looking back, it was sort of interesting and almost cool. o_o

Wow. I'm glad you and the passenger are ok. That's some scary shit when a two ton pile of metal goes out of control.

As far as control issues... that actually makes a lot of sense. What better way for our mind to illustrate our fear of losing control? It's imagery we can identify with--cars are part of our everyday lives. In your case, losing control of your car and slamming into a wall could signify your fear of losing control of something in your life and having that something come to an abrubt, and perhaps violent, end. Did that make sense? In my case, I am extremely afraid of small places involving water (I can't even go down those tubeslides at the water park because of this strange phobia). Losing control of my car and going into the water could signify my fear of losing control of my life again, and falling into what I fear. Or drowning? I don't know. It's an interesting concept and I think maybe we should take a closer look at it. We might be surprised at what we find. Dreams have a way of bringing to light some issues we aren't even consciously aware of.

Heh.. this is crazy. I can interpret my friends' dreams and not even my own. XD Oh well. I guess the control thing has a lot to do with it.. it's not that something's abruptly ended, but now that you mention that, maybe it's that I've abruptly lost control of a certain situation... I can think of a couple, so that's not such a far-fetched concept.
Hm, this asking people for insight thing is pretty helpful! I like this forum. :D
And yes, a two-ton lump of metal going out of control is REALLY freaky. The fact that we were both okay made us almost want to do it again, except for the wrecked car, though, but those are my weirdo freak friends for you. :wink: