Thread: Lucid Dream - how do you know?

Hey there,

My name's Joe. I'm new to this forum (brand new) and joined after researching lucid dreaming due to a very well, lucid dream I had this morning.

Few details: I'm male, 21, and live in Australia. Forgive me if I sound new to this, I am, and don't know the lingo yet. This seemed like the best place to get some feedback.

Okay, here's the experience (I wrote it down as best as I could remember minutes after waking up):

Dream happened on 11/02/09, sometime in the morning. I was awake last night until 4am after getting in from shift at the airport around 22:15. I slept through until about 13:00, waking up once in the morning because the gardener was mowing the lawn.

The dream: I was in the airport walking to put a tin of fuel in car, after meeting a girl I ran with to get her to the gate on time a week earlier. She was pretty, and we had to run through the airport. I worked at this airport, like I do in real life, but it wasn’t the same airport. On the way through the airport I was wondering where my car was parked, so I could put the fuel in there, and I looked at the signs on the walls for one that pointed to the car park.

As simple as that, as I was walking, holding a shortbread biscuit tin full of petrol (that was leaking), I realised I was dreaming. I simply realised I was dreaming – this is a few weeks after I read a short article online about lucid dreaming, and it struck me as astounding. I feared that I was actually half awake, and just thinking this was happening, but I wasn’t.

When I got to the doors of the airport, big glass sliding doors, they were locked with some absurd padlock/key combination with a chain. I thought that, if I was dreaming, then I could just pull that lock clean-off. So I did, breaking the chain links and walking right past a security guard.

Out in the carpark, things changed, I no longer had the tin of petrol, and I was astounded at the world around me. I was still aware I was dreaming, but I still thought it couldn’t be true. I walked past people, one I tried to kick simply because I could, but I missed. Through the car park I walked, and I saw what appeared to be a policewoman strip-searching a group of people. Very strange.

I leapt over a wall and found myself on a street I’ve driven up and down, walked up and down, at least once a day for the last two years. A street on a hill. The day was bright and sunny, I still knew this was a dream, and I thought I could fly. Why not? I couldn’t fly, however. I could only jump really high, up above the suburb, getting a commanding view of the surrounding area and the glittering ocean and coast a few kilometres away.

On the third jump, and I remember this well, I landed on the road and collided with a girl in a cream-grey shirt, a blouse. She had dark brunette hair and when we collided it hurt – I remember it hurting. I don’t know if it really hurt or if I was just supposed to think it did. We picked ourselves up in the middle of the road and I had the strangest thought – that she was dreaming, as well. That this dream, this lucid dream, was not only my dream – but hers.

I remember her smiling and we kissed, softly on the lips while smiling, walking back off the road. I wanted things to get more heated but she pushed me away, and gave me a note.

I can’t remember what the note said, but it seemed important. Just one word. I think it was the name of a place – somewhere that began with a ‘B…’ – and I think she said the anme, said something else as well, but then she was gone, faded away. She seemed so real, the whole dream seemed so real.

What if lucid dreaming is actually entering some world of dreams, becoming aware of the world for the first time was incredible. Has it always been there? Are we there when we normally dream, just watching and not interacting, like I did this morning?

After the mysterious girl faded, I felt myself waking up from the world. I think I was back in the airport, but I don’t recall that well. I remember thinking I could open my eyes now and I’ll be awake, and irresistibly I did. I was in my room, I felt awake, but how could I be sure? Right now, having typed this out, I’m confident I’m awake, 100% certain, but how could I know? I’m not ripping padlocks apart or jumping hundreds of feet into the air, but how could I know?

I even remember thinking, I think as I was waking up, that I would research lucid dreaming, hear a few stories from people who have experienced what they think lucid dreaming is and, most importantly, if anyone has ever met someone in the dream they think may have been dreaming also.

Okay, this went on for a bit, but I'm hoping not just for some clarification here, but any shared experiences. This has me confused, not afraid, and I'm left with a strong desire to return to that dream world, where the rules of reality didn't apply and anything could happen.

From what I've read here and elsewhere on the web, it seems I was experiencing something more than your average dream. It was a wonderful experience, over too quickly, and I still recall all the details (except what was on that note and what she said) clearly.

Okay, thanks for reading, let me know what you think.

In anticipation,

Joe